"gouranga"??

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explain, please:

From : NitaiGouranga <nitaigouranga@aol.com>
Sent : Tuesday, June 1, 2004 12:27 AM
To : <misterhungry@hotmail.com>
Subject : Gouranga

Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ....
That which brings the highest happiness!!



g--ff (gcannon), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:54 (twenty years ago) link

Idiots, ignore them

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:57 (twenty years ago) link

Cult. Well, sort of.

I haven't seen anything from them since I moved down south, but there used to be stickers all over Sheffield saying "call out Gouranga! Be happy!"

Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:59 (twenty years ago) link

ah ok. i'm farther away from sheffield than you are, so i won't worry.

do they do anything else?

g--ff (gcannon), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:00 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.gouranga.com/images/gta/gouranga.jpg

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:01 (twenty years ago) link

What, other than annoy people? Don't think so. Oops xpost

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:01 (twenty years ago) link

they are like supposedly monks and they sometimes go on the street to make you listen to them talk to you, then pay them money, then say "GOURANGA" out loud even when you refuse to.

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:03 (twenty years ago) link

that pic btw was in GTA1.. after you've successfully run over a chain of 10 (?) presumably such gouranga monks

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:08 (twenty years ago) link

someone followed me around trying to get me to say it, which i did and she was like "i bet you feel happy now" and it took all my self control not to go "i actually just wish you'd fuck off" - why didn't i do that tho, maybe it was the GOURANGA

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:13 (twenty years ago) link

Friend of mine was in a record shop in Glasgow once (Lost In Music to be precise) when one of these clowns came in, he went up to the guy behind the counter and said, "Can you say gouranga for me?" and the guy said, "Yes. G-g-g-g-g-g-get the fuck out of my shop".

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:16 (twenty years ago) link

witty

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago) link

Only seen them in Glasgow, thank fuck.

don (don), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:19 (twenty years ago) link

that's where "mine" was

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:25 (twenty years ago) link

They swarm and raid. I almost stole one of their cds once, but felt bad.

Ally C (Ally C), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:41 (twenty years ago) link

Ally did you see Claire T at the clubnite a couple of nights ago?

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:43 (twenty years ago) link

"hey, you look like a punk rocker, i bet you will like this... it is Monk Rock!"

except it was probably just chanting or something, so i didn't buy it.

Slump Man (Slump Man), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:53 (twenty years ago) link

maybe it'd be them reciting pi for 45 minutes

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:54 (twenty years ago) link

They swarm all over Edinburgh - it's hard to walk through the city centre without having to avoid two or three of them.

caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 17:10 (twenty years ago) link

is there some secret? i mean, this seems like a lot of dedication to a thing, just to be fuckfaces.

g--ff (gcannon), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 17:25 (twenty years ago) link

the "kofi" shop in glasgow used to (and might still) sell this tshirt that says "no i won't say gouranga" on it.

it's potentially fairly useful/witty

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 17:26 (twenty years ago) link

it's like a kind of wacky religion g--ff. it's like jehovah's witnesses, but without the witnessing of jehovah, but instead the saying of gouranga.

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 17:27 (twenty years ago) link

The corner of Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street can be hell if you have to run the combined chugger and gouranga gauntlets.

Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 18:02 (twenty years ago) link

It's gotta be a Hindu offshoot/cult - "Gauranga" & variants are worshipped in Gaudiya Vaisnavism, the matha that spawned the Hare Krishnas - from the sound of it, they think that the name whose pronunciation brings benefit desired or otherwise is Gauranga. This is similar to what the Hare Krishnas believe, i.e. that chanting Hare Krishna burns off karma whether you believe in it or not. It's easy to see why they're doing this, if I'm right about their beliefs: they think they can help you even if they're annoying the fuck out of you - just so long as you say the Word With the Power, you will be helped, whether or not you believe it.

I am always very interested in this stuff because it cuts out all the "how I feel abou the proposition" stuff that makes western religions so dull & hippie

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 18:03 (twenty years ago) link

Actually, they seem to have disappeared from Princes St. in Edinburgh of late; I walk up and down there every to and from work and now that you mention it haven't seen them for a while.

I've always had them down as Hare Krishnas. The place is chock-a-block with charidee guys on commission now; you know, the guys with the overalls on with a big smile on their faces who sway backwards with their arms outstretched as you walk past.

Keith Watson (kmw), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 18:41 (twenty years ago) link

See their signs on M1 overbridges from north of Luton on. Theyhave a big base on the edge of sheffield

Ed (dali), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 20:14 (twenty years ago) link

In a hollowed out volcano?

Keith Watson (kmw), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 20:17 (twenty years ago) link

I like them. You tell them to fuck off and they still say "Gouranga". My favourite way of dealing with them is speaking to a friend and then casually stopping the conversation to tell one of them to fuck off, before continuing conversation with said friend nonplussed. It's hilarious.

They are hard to avoid in Glasgow, but I like telling them to fuck off, so they have their pluses.

C-Man (C-Man), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago) link

You have friends?

deanomgwtf!!!p%3Fmsgid%3D4581997 (deangulberry), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago) link

to be fair he only said that is his favourite way to deal with gouranga, rather than it being what he actually does or is able to do. so he's technically not lying, i guess.

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 21:17 (twenty years ago) link

although, i think this is really just c-man's way of trying to tell us that his presence on ilx does indeed have its plusses.

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 21:20 (twenty years ago) link

dude Ally why are you shunning

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 21:47 (twenty years ago) link

It's Krishna isn't it? I see them all over our motorway bridges up north. I actually admired the krishnas at Glastonbury, but I'll mow them down in GTA. such is life.

Ste (Fuzzy), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago) link

yes, it's definitely Krishna.

Or, at least, the book they gave me was written by "His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of the international society for Krishna consciousness"

it's a good read.

Slump Man (Slump Man), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 03:31 (twenty years ago) link

Really! That's really interesting to me - HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is indeed the founder-acarya of ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness), but I don't know of anywhere where he'd indicated that just saying "Gauranga" is of especial value. His whole thing was the chanting of the Hare Krsna mahamantra.

It's nice to me to hear of a city that's got so many of them in full evangelical flush, but I am admittedly biased.

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 12:19 (twenty years ago) link

Or, at least, the book they gave me was written by "His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of the international society for Krishna consciousness"

ooh i wonder if it's the same book they gave me while i was in glasgow, it was like an interview that this guru dude gave to some dude. haha it was like "Q: so why do you think other religions are wrong?" "A: because they're foolish swines!!!"

haha, it was beautiful

ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 12:25 (twenty years ago) link

Witty!

Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 12:26 (twenty years ago) link

"foolish swines" rings a bell actually,
but this guy calls most people "silly rascals"

Slump Man (Slump Man), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 15:35 (twenty years ago) link


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