Seite - 68 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Band 4/2018

68 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 4 2o18 Debora Baldelli | Parading in the city’s public space diasporic groups often emphasise cultural practices and styles of their country of origin as tools for activities that unite and maintain the group in the new location. Activities from the country of origin like musical practices, dance and the organisation/participation in festivals are particularly powerful belonging tools (2003: 59). Bauman (2006) suggests the public space is the essence of cosmopolitanism and openness to the other, which suggests the public space as a new intercultural imaginary. It is this intercultural imaginary that the Hare Krishna Movement sought to participate in. Hare Krishna devotees in the city streets of Lisbon “The Society [for Krishna Consciousness] is famous for its festivals and Sunday Festivals, as well as for singing in the streets. (2003:194). Sankirtana, or the chant of the Hare Krishna mantra, on the streets of the city for the benefit of all citizens is one of the most important activities of ISKCON. Sankirtanas are often seen celebrating the holy name of Krishna with dance and melodious singing, accompanied by mridanga drums and pairs of karata- las (hand cymbals). Through Joyful singing of the names of God, devotees experience an immediate sense of ecstasy. The effect is to cleanse the dirt absorbed by the mind from the darkness of material existence (2003:194). Festivities are organised around holidays celebrat- ing the pastimes of Sri Krishna during his appearance on earth 5,000 years ago. Games, puppet shows and regular singing invite people to participate in the transcendental glorifi- cation of the Personality of God (...)” (The Krishna Consciousness Handbook, ISKCON, 1970). Among the activities that take place in the city streets, Harinama is the most recurrent. Also known as Harinama Sankirtana, the activity consists of the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra through the streets of the city on a weekly basis, to disseminate their spiritual practice. During Harinama, one group of devotees plays and sings while another distributes books on the spiritual practice in return for a donation. They also give flyers regarding their vegetarian restaurant and free Sunday Festival. The Harinama route takes place in the centre of Lisbon, generally from Rua Augusta to Rossio, ending at Camões Square or following to Comércio Square. The entire route is close to large concentrations of people. During my fieldwork, I regularly went to Harinamas to observe the interaction and reaction of devotees to the people they meet in the street, and the opposite, to see how people react to Hare Krishnas. In Harinama, it is the devotees who go to meet the other, anyone who comes into their path. It is during Harinama that devotees reaffirm their devotion, facing the most varied reactions from people outside the “protected” temple environ- ment. As Magnani points out, “the expression of a cult is subject to negotiations that are not always free from conflicts and in becoming part of the growing complexity of urban life, it can be seen as strange, as foreign, and like it should not fit into the network of reliable and secure alliances of the family model” (2009: 21). A study on the Hare Krishna Movement in São Paulo characterises Harinama as a public exercise of religion added into the plural space of the city (Almeida 2015). Almeida points out that when performing Sankirtana, the devotees feel they are a part of the city creating a dia-