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Worship Service In Krishna Temple: Perpetual 'High' Love-In

This article, "Worship Service In Krishna Temple: Perpetual 'High' Love-In Without LSD" was published in The Gazette, September 2, 1967, in Montreal, Canada.

A small group of Montrealer!, some of them one-time drug-users, now are getting their "high" from an Indian chant to the Indian god Krishna.

Operating from the Radha-Krishna Temple, a former bowling alley near McGill University, their day-long service is a sort of perpetual love-in-without LSD. 

While LSD "leaves you clouded," says Banamali Das Brahmacnary, 20, who has used LSD "chanting puts you into a natural state where you associate love with love and not love with color.

Banamali - his real name is Chaim Propitiator - quit Sir George Williams University in the third year to join the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which has several members in Montreal. 

"Chanting brings an overpowering feeling of love you might feel for someone which makes you want to scream or cry," he says. "But it's all directed toward Krishna, and through Krishna towards everyone.

Like the other devotees, Banamali goes through the simple chant at least 1,728 times a day - 16 rounds for each of the 108 cult beads he carries with him. This is the ancient chant: 

"Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Not everyone in the cult is a former drug-taker. But of those who inhabit temples in New York, San Francisco and Montreal, devotees here can name only two they think have never taken drugs. 

Banamali stumbled into the cult after becoming "socially disoriented" by LSD. 

Two of the cult's devotees, Banamali and Janaddan Das Adikary, 23, a McGill graduate student in French literature, are Canadians. 

Hansaduta Das Adirkari, 26, is one of three Americans who opened the Montreal temple last March. He was introduced by a friend in New York to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, spiritual head of the cult, became interested and joined. 

Swami, 72, is the guru, holy man - from India who founded the first Krishna-Consciousness Temple in New York's Lower East Side in July, 1966. The second was established in San Francisco's Haight-Asbury district last January and the third in Montreal. 

Devotees are taught by Swami to shave their heads each month, leaving only a top-knot on the crown which they paint white and call a "flag" or "lightning rod.

They streak white paint trom the bridge of the nose to the hairline.

They wear yellow dhotis, which look like an Indian sari, and cook vegetarian Indian food. Even their names come from Swami. Janardan, still called Janis Dambergs outside the temple, is the only Montreal devotee who has kept his hair and Western dress. He says he made "concessions" for the university and for his wife, who is not a devotee. 

Women are considered equal to men in the cult, Hansaduta says. His wife, Himavatie Dasi, is a devotee. 

A dozen or so observers attend chanting services each evening, sitting cross-legged around the chanting devotees who perform an uncomplicated, solitary dance in time to tambourines and hand-cymbals, mumble incantations and discuss the words of Krishna. 

The chanting ritual, called samkirtan, was started in India 480 years age by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a disciple of Krishna. 

Most visitors to the Montreal temple come on Sunday when devotees hold the "prasadam live feast," Sometimes as many as 50 attend to chant and to eat Indian food. Most are of Indian background.

Only the feast is money solicited. Revenue for the temple also comes from boarders who pay $10 a week. 

Up to 20 a night, usually transients, have slept behind the curtains. 

Photo: KRISHNA WORSHIPPERS: With rhythm supplied by Janis Dambergs, Pradyumna Das Brahmachary chants and dances in praise of the Indian god Krishna in the Radha-Krishna Temple in Montreal. Over Pradyumna's right shoulder, a painting of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, spiritual head of the cult, is partly visible. 



Reference: The Gazette, Montreal, Canada, 1967-09-02