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Hare Krishna Sect Thriving in U.S.

This article, "Hare Krishna Sect Thriving in U.S." was published in Galesburg Register-Mail, August 27, 1973, in Galesburg, Illinois.

NEW YORK (UPI) - The Brooklyn temple of the Hare Krishna is alive with the odor of incense and the murmur of trance-like meditation to the Hindu god, Krishna. 

Krishna worshipers, mostly under 30, are becoming a familiar part of the American urban street scene. They dance, chant, clap and ring bells to the throbbing rhythm of drums, their robes flowing, Shaved heads shining in the sun and makeup streaked across their foreheads. 

The sect spread quickly across the country after it was introduced into the country from India in 1966. It has outgrown its temple and living quarters in Brooklyn, one of 45 in the United States, and is seeking a new building in midtown Manhattan. 

Members - they call themselves devotees - and visitors remove their shoes in the temple to keep the floors clean. They often bow with forehetads touching the floor. 

Artwork adorns the temple walls. "It's amazing the talent that Krishna gives these artists," a female devotee said during a recent tour. 

She pointed to a painting of five wild horses, each a different color, pulling a carriage with two passengers. The horses represent the five senses with the mind at the reins and the soul in the back seat "being taken for a ride.

On Sundays, visitors to the temple are treated to vegetarian cooking, and introduced to the religion. Tosan Krishna, who changed his name from Thomas Allin when he be lame a member, said the desire to expand the Sunday program is one reason the sect wants a new building in Manhattan. 

The Hare Krishna have another reason for wanting to move - an unhappy relationship with their neighbors, mostly Italian, in Brooklyn's working class Cobble Hill neighborhood. 

"They're just not cosmopolitan," Tosan Krishna said of the neighbors. 

The sect seems to be well off. It runs a profitable incense factory in California. Its centers sell incense, suntan lotion (organic tangerine or strawberry), religious books and a vegetarian cookbook. It operates a printing plant in Brooklyn. 

"We focus everything on service to God," said Tosan Krishna. 
 



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