06/11/2025
I was at an event and i got into a conversation with a dude with dreadlocks on, they were at a table drinking liquor and eating some "pulutan". I asked him if he was a rastafarian, he replied "ya mon" lol, i said nice, but when i saw him take a bite of that pulutan i said, he was cappin, a lot of people hate accountability so much, they call it "judgement", you can’t claim to be Rastafarian while eating pork! then get mad when someone points out the contradiction. That’s not judgment! that’s just facts.
If you’re gonna represent a belief, then live by the code. Also being rastafarian is not about looking or acting like a caveman, we are not hunters or gatherers lol, talking about canine teeth lmao, that’s weak logic. Having teeth that can doesn’t mean you should. Evolution gave us intelligence, not excuses. Rastafari is about conscious living, not primal survival. It’s about elevating the mind, not glorifying the flesh. It’s about livity, living in harmony with nature, truth, and self-awareness.
The locks are symbols of spiritual discipline, so if i asked you if you were rastafarian, I wasn’t talking about reggae music, i was talking about faith, In Hare Krishna consciousness, even chanting the Maha Mantra can become a form of sense gratification if the heart isn’t pure. Like the Bhagavad Gita 4:33 says,
“Sacrifice performed in knowledge is better than mere material sacrifice. All work without understanding is useless.” This means, conscious action done with awareness and faith holds more value than blind imitation or ritual. You can sing reggae, or grow locks, but if it’s done without awareness or truth, it’s just performance. Rastafari is not imitation, it’s realization.
And look, I’m a Hare Krishna believer. But even then, I can’t call myself a devotee, because I still eat fish. That would be disrespectful to those who fully live by that discipline. I believe but I also know my boundaries. In Rastafari thought, the very “ism” can trap you in identity, it turns faith into a label. True Rastafari goes beyond “ism.” It’s not something you call yourself, it’s something you become. So when I asked if you were a Rastafarian, it was actually a trick question, The right answer isn’t “ya mon”, it’s “Rasta is in how I live, not what I call myself.” Because just like Krishna consciousness, it’s never about the title, it’s about the transformation.
