My Spiritual Name

There's quite a few reason why I love my spiritual name. I've been thinking about it a lot lately so I decided to post about it here. Most of you already know the story behind it but for those of you who don't here is why.

At the time of initiation our spiritual lives begin another words we are 'first born' because we have come to the realization that we must surrender to God in this life otherwise if we don't we have to come back to this planet in another life. So if one finds a bona fide spiritual master and takes initiation from him to surrender more to God, the spiritual master give one a spiritual name thus your life will feel renewed. Almost like you're starting over on a clean slate. That's what it felt like to me when I took initiation from my guru Maharaj. So he has very kindly took me under his wing to guide me back home back to God.

I loved how my guru Maharaj came up with my name, Hari Lila Devi Dasi. Hari is a name of Krishna(who is God Himself) and it means 'servant of Krishna's pasttimes'. So that is one of the top main reasons why I love my name and secondly the reason why I love my spiritual name is because he also named me after George Harrison too. George wanted to be initiated by Srila Prabhupada and Prabhupada told him "You already are initiated your name is "Haris Son" (his name means son of Hari (God)). So that is how my guru Maharaj came up with my name. He matched it up to George's 'initiated' name. This is why I love my spiritual name.

So I've thought alot about my spiritual name and the more devotees call me by my spiritual  name the more attached i get to it. Now my legal name "Rebecca" I still have to use outside the temple even though I absolutely hate it. I prefer to be called by my spiritual name now. I don't even want hear the name "rebecca" or even "becky" for that matter anymore but I know I have to when Im around family members. When I was in California I missed being called "Hari Lila" becuase I wasn't in a temple. I got to visit a couple temples out there but only for a few hours. There are other people out in the world who are not Krishna Conciousness but do change their names legally, that can be done i heard but it's  a tough process. I wouldn't go that far however with that, as long as I stay in a temple or near devotees I will be able to hear my spiritual name being said to me. Devotees here in New Vrndavan are still trying to get used to my name as i haven't been here long enough but they are starting to remember it now. So its very rare that they call me becky here anymore. They call me Hari Lila by my spiritual name which is what I prefer.