Tears and Rose Petals - Chanters Welcome Swami
This article, "Tears and Rose Petals - Chanters Welcome Swami" was published in The San Francisco Examiner, September 9, 1968, in San Francisco, California.
By GEORGE WILLIAMSON
The devoted chanters who have found Krishna Consciousness are at their blissful peak here today, for their spiritual advisor - Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta - is in town to grace their temple at 518 Frederick St. They were awfully happy - and emotional - yesterday, when the holy man from India flew in from New York.
They were awfully happy - and emotional - yesterday, when the holy man from India flew in from New York.
Wearing a beatific smile, an orange gown, hush-puppy shoes and white socks, the Swami silently, but clearly, expressed his pleasure at the greeting offered by the 45 active members of the local temple.
CHANT GOES ON
They fell to their gown covered knees as he arrived through Gate 24 at San Francisco International Airport, but never let up on the "Hare Krishna" chant.
This chant is said to be the key to Krishna Conciousness. Constant repetition, members of the International Society for Krishna Conciousness believe, allows the chanter to transcend the material world and achieve the love of God.
Krishna, who is also a Hindu church Deity, is considered the Supreme Personality of God. Devotees at the front of the receiving line kissed the Swami's shoes and place sizable garlands of roses around his neck.
All the young women, and most of the men, shed ecstatic tears.
PROCESSION
The 73 year old Swami stood smiling hugely for a few minutes. Onlookers stood wide-eyed and open mouthed, and wondered what they were missing.
Then the Swami, still silent, led his still chanting followers down the airport halls and outside, where a car was waiting.
Young women gracefully floated rose petals a step ahead of his paths. When they were out of petals, the sprinkled water from the roses' containers.
The Swami founded the first Krishna temple in the U.S. two years ago. Today there are 10 temples with 450 active members in this country and one in Montreal. Disciples spoke yesterday of plans for more temples in Australia, Germany, and London.
SERMON TONIGHT
The Swami will deliver a sermon here at 7 o'clock tonight and plans to remain for three weeks before departing for Seattle, where a temple has recently been established.
The oldest member of the local temple is 36. Most are between 16 and 25; about two thirds are male.
Most of the local male devoteees have shaved their heads - for cleanliness - leaving only a "sika" to protrude from the rear of their heads in pigtail fashion.
The Swami's teachings restrict his students from partaking of many insidious goodies of contemporary society - such as all narcotics, including tobacco and coffee, meat and premarital sex.
TESTIMONIALS
Students attend three prayer meetings a day, but said the non-sectarian temple meetings do not demand a participant sever his ties with, say, the Catholic Church.
Several of the devotees said they had been retrieved from lives of crime, drug dependence, or general degeneration by the discovery of Krishna Conciousness.
How does one make this discovery?
Simple, they said. Keep chanting:
"Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare."