Shadyside Neighbors Complain Hare Krishnas' Drums Stir Ire
This article, "Shadyside Neighbors Complain Hare Krishnas' Drums Stir Ire" was published in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 30, 1972, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
By VINCE GAGETTA - Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The quiet, calm and serene atmosphere of a Shadyside neighborhood is being shattered, some residents complain, by a group of people who are supposed to be more quiet, calm and serene than almost anyone else in town - the Hare Krishnas.
According to complaints filed with the city's Bureau of Building Inspection, the young, barefoot, yellow-robed disciples of Hare Krishna are holding early morning worship services at their residence, 5135 Ellsworth Ave., and the "chanting, ringing of bells and drumming of drums" are causing neighbors to lose both their sleep and their tempers.
Others have complained that the many buses, cars and other vehicles bringing visitors to the house - once the home of long-ago Pittsburgh Mayor Edward V. Babcock - block Colonial Place near the house and generally disrupt easy traffic flow.
STILL OTHER NEIGHBORS are openly hostile to the group, which has leased the home for less than a year and has an option to buy it. They use adjectives such as "weird-looking," "odd," and "extremely different" when discussing the group.
The object of all the attention and complaint are members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Most Pittsburghers would best remember them for their chanting, dancing and magazine-selling on Downtown street corners.
The Hare Krishnas, as most laymen refer to them, are followers of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Their teachings are Eastern and their aim, simply put, seems to be to bring peace and happiness to the world.
They appear never to be ruffled or upset and it was in this tranquil manner that some of the members discussed their neighbors' complaints yesterday.
MAHENDRA DAS, a spokesman for the group, just smiled when asked about the complaints and said, "Some of our neighbors are against us but many more are for us. Some people simply do not understand why we are here or what we are doing."
The neighbors are more than welcome to visit the house, partake of the vegetarian feasts held regularly and participate in the Sunday afternoon services "which are not really services but more like a joyful celebration," Mahendra Das said.
Another member, Rupanuga Das, said complaints about the crowds should diminish as soon as the scheduled visit of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is over. He will arrive here for his first visit today.
There are only eight full-time residents of the house, the members said, but many believers from all over the country stop by when they are in town. Yesterday a car with Texas license plates and a truck from the Hare Krishna group in Denver were parked nearby.
"Our missionary work causes us to travel a lot," Rupanuga Das said. "We rely on our wheels very much."
The area where the house is situated is zoned for single family occupancy and, according to Edward J. Miller, code enforcement administrator for the Bureau of Building Inspection, only one family lives in the house and the rest are house guests.
"There's no law in the United States that says you can't have house guests," Miller said. "In order to prove anything else we'd have to have surveillance on the house 24 hours a day and we don't do that sort of thing."
The neighbors' complaints will be heard Sept. 6 in Housing Court.
Photo on the left: The "Hare Krishna" house, seen here from Colonial Place, is center of neighborhood dispute in Shadyside.
Photo up right: MAHENDRA DAS - "Some people don't understand."
Photo down right: RUPANUGA DAS - "The crowds will diminish soon."