When I think of my time in Wellington, both as a Hare Krishna, and before hand, I think of two things: solitude and reading. When I first moved to Wellington in 2003, I spent so much of my time reading. The library was like my second home. Along with the religious books I was reading, and the quantum physics/pop science books, I would read various novels, and when I was bored I would spend time looking through the magazine sections at the Wellington library, picking out science magazines and AdBusters. And I spent so much of my time alone, exploring the city on my bicycle. I managed to completely memorize the Te Papa museum, like to the extent that I could actually be a tour guide. I went to the museum a few weeks ago, it hasn't changed. My favourite exhibit is still the feather cape that is hiding behind the Te Triti o Waitangi display. No one really knows about the feather cape, but it's my favourite.

When I moved back to Wellington this time, to live in the mens' ashrama there, again my time was spent reading, and primarily in solitude. I would actually spend up to 8 hours a day reading books on Krishna philosophy, often alone, or in silence with one other person in the room. I shared a large room in the basement of the house with another Krishna devotee. My schedule was structured pretty much all the time to allow me to just read as much as I wanted. Most of the other men had more busy schedules, or services rostered for them, which meant cooking at the yoga centre, or cleaning etc. My main jobs were to cook lunch at the ashrama most days of the week, and sometimes go to the yoga centre to clean or to welcome yoga students. The rest of the time I would read. And that was a LOT of the time. I would wake up usually around 3:45, shower, and start chanting Hare Krishna usually sometime just after 4. I would finish before 6 am, at which point I would usually return to my room and read until breakfast was ready at 7. 7:30 was morning prayers and a class, usually finishing sometime after 9, when I would return to my room and read until lunch, unless it was my turn to read. Either way, after lunch I would return to reading until around 8 pm when I would go to sleep.

There were, of course, changes to this plan. Most people consider me a very social person by nature, and I think this is true. As a result, every now and then, usually once I week, I would start to get stir crazy, so my desire for social interaction lead me out into the city streets of Wellington to try and sell Krishna books to people there. My motivations when selling books was never really pure at all. I pretty much just liked talking to people. Even though I tried, I never really sold many books, but mostly just talked to a whole bunch of people. And then I would come back home and read and study.

During most of my time with the Krishnas I felt like I was being treated special, like I was given extra benefits and perks. The fact that I had such a light service schedule so that I could just read was one such example of this. I also got the chance to give public presentations regularly even though I was such a newbie to the community. I always loved public speaking and teaching ANYTHING so I relished these opportunities. Plus, all my reading and study time gave me a very solid grasp on the ins and outs of the Krishna philosophy. In fact, since leaving the community I have had a number of people mention that they were most surprised that I left the community because they considered I had such a firm grasp on the philosophy.

But if I were to sum up anything about my six months at the mens' ashrama in Wellington it would be reading and reading and solitude. I definitely think this was a mechanism I used to hide from myself, and from the parts of myself that I didn't want to deal with. I could create a new persona, the studious one, the philosophy, the professor, just by reading and studying and being alone. It's amazing looking back on it now, because my final years in Krishna consciousness were probably polar opposites to that time. My social needs seemed to grow more and more, and my aptitude to read and study decreased day by day. Even though I always read constantly, even as a kid, at the moment I struggle to read anything that isn't in web format. I blame Facebook.

At the end of my time in Wellington, I received an e-mail from the senior monk, my future Guru, telling me to prepare to move to Auckland to sell books on the street full time. The day after a small operation to remove a lump from my leg, on October 6th, I made my way up to Hamilton from Wellington, to meet up with a Hare Krishna friend, my brother, and another friend. I spent a night with the three of them, and then the next day, October 7th, I made my way up to start my 5 years of living as a monk in a Hare Krishna monastery.