‘Good morning, sir,’ beamed the taxi driver, ‘and isn’t it beautiful in New York City?’ Where, I wondered, had all the misanthropic Russians who used to run this trade gone? This guy was from Benin, and so full of joie de vivre, he was surely high on drugs or Jesus? ‘Who,’ he said. Jesus, I said. ‘No, no, sir,’ he replied. ‘Aitch you. Hu.’ What, I asked? And he answered by passing me a card.
‘Hu,’ it read. ‘A love song to God,’ and went on to explain how singing ‘Hu’ can expand your awareness, help you experience divine love, heal a broken heart, offer solace in times of grief and bring peace and calm. Just take a few relaxing breaths, then sing it in a long, drawn-out sound. Take another breath and do it again. Repeat for up to 20 minutes ‘with a feeling of love, and it will gradually open your heart to God’.
I gave it a go, and I have to admit – if for all the wrong reasons – that a smile spread across my miserable features. Indeed, I was laughing out loud. Whoo, I said to my new brother in spirit; so who’s behind Hu? ‘He is a prophet, sir, who has written 120 books, and given all the profits to our church in Minnesota – not like all those other preachers who keep the money for themselves. And here is his picture.’ He handed me a crumpled photograph of a bespectacled man who resembled my old accountant and is called Harold Klemp -or Sri Harold Klemp to be precise; or actually, Wah Z, to give him his astral title.
I discovered these facts and many similar from visiting the Hu website, www.eckankar.org. So now I know that the Holy Ghost is called Eck, God’s real name is Sagmud, and if Harold weren’t so busy here on earth, he’d be a blue light in the heavens. And who – or rather, Hu – knows? Maybe it’s all true. On a cold November New York morning, it certainly put a song in my heart.
