By Bhakta Rob
Srila Prabhupada was a very respected author and spiritual personality in India, but when he came to the USA in 1965, he hardly had a penny to his name. Many had come before him, bringing watered down versions of physical yoga practices and “feel-good” philosophies, but no-one had seriously undertaken before to attempt to transplant pure Vaisnava culture from east to west. None of his Godbrothers believed he could do it, indeed, pretty much everyone thought him to be just a crazy old man when he suggested it to others. But on the strength of the order of his spiritual master, first received 43 years previously, he came, almost dying of heart attacks on the cargo ship that carried him.
He spent his first winter in New York living in and working out of a small rented office with no facilities. At 70 years old, he’d never seen snow before. He had his minimal belongings stolen by the janitor in his block. Sometimes hardly anyone would come to his talks, sometimes he would sit there alone. But still, he persevered, remaining fixed in the service of his spiritual master, and in his faith in the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna.
Then a few regulars at the Paradox cafe, an alternative minded uptown hangout, started visiting the Swami. They liked what they heard, but they advised Prabhupada that he was really in the wrong part of town. They persuaded him to move downtown, to the East Village, the heart of the new alternative scene in the USA in the mid 60s. There he quickly built up a regular audience of curious young seekers, entranced by his musical presentations and blown away by his philosophical discourses. He was sharing his Bowery loft with a young man who one night “freaked out” on him on LSD. He had to leave in a hurry with nowhere else to go. His new friends clubbed together and rented out a storefront on 2nd Avenue. The group began to expand. A 2 hour Hare Krishna chanting session in Tompkins Square Park, the first of it’s kind in the west, made front page news with the New York Times. Famous people started turning up at the storefront. People started to recognise the words “Hare Krishna!”
A few months later, in 1967, Prabhupada was invited to San Francisco. He appeared at a concert in front of thousands, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, supported by the likes of Allen Ginsberg and Jefferson Airplane. His young disciple who had organised the concert had the idea to go to London to try and meet the Beatles. Prabhupada gave him his blessings. Sure enough, Syamasundara eventually bumped into George Harrison at the offices of Apple records, and George went on to become a lifelong devotee. He had already heard a rare LP of Srila Prabhupada’s chanting and discourse recorded in New York. “I wondered when you were going to turn up,” he said to Syamasundara. He offered the devotees studio time, and together they recorded a 7” single of the Hare Krishna mantra that became a number one hit in 15 countries around the world. That was 1969.
Of course, lots of people think that we were just a 1960’s thing. But actually, this tradition stretches back thousands of years, and continues to this day. We still have famous people turn up at our temples - no doubt you can think of a few - but we’re maybe not as visible as we were back in Prabhupada’s time. Most of us nowadays don’t wear funny costumes and dance around in town (although a bit more of that wouldn’t go amiss!) but we’re out there, perhaps even in your workplace or down your street, hiding away in disguise and practicing our faith in private.
Still, someone’s got to be loud and proud about Krishna consciousness, and round these parts, that’s me and my mates Oli and Marcus. We don’t know much, but we know what we like, and we’re very happy to pin our Krishna colours to the mast just to let you all know we’re still in business. We don’t amount to much of a revolution, you might think, but we’re here to prove you wrong. The times may have changed, but the message has never been so important, and the potency to deliver it remains in the instructions of Srila Prabhupada. Krishna still rocks in 2008, believe it...
