U.S. Krishna Chanters Tell It to the Hindus
This article, "STAGE NEW DELHI REVIVAL - U.S. Krishna Chanters Tell It to the Hindus" was published in The Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1971, in Los Angeles, California.
BY WILLIAM J. DRUMMOND - Times Staff Writer
NEW DELHI - The Hare Krishnas have put on an old-fashioned, gita-thumping revival here in bustling Connaught Circus in an attempt to sink some roots in their spiritual motherland.
During six years of existence, the Hare Krishnas, whose holy book is the Hindu Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Lord), have spread like brushfire through the United States, California in particular, but are virtually absent from India.
Of the 34 centers of the Boston-based International Society for Krishna Consciousness, not a single one is in India. Seven are in California.
Indians in general are skeptical of the Hare Krishnas. Many Indians think of them as American hippies in Hindu clothing.
Know Scriptures
However, the Indians learned during the 10-day festival that the American gurus know their Vedic scriptures.
Inside the vast multicolored tent a few days ago, a thin, elfish-looking young American in a saffron robe sat crosslegged on a stage and answered questions from about 400 Indian listeners.
"When did Krishna Consciousness begin?" a listener asked.
Answer: "Because Krishna Consciousness is eternal, it is impossible to trace an origin. This means that there never was a time when Krishna Consciousness did not exist. So it can be said there is no point at which Krishna Consciousness has come into being from not being."
New York Accent
And so it went for more than an hour. The Hare Krishna guru spoke with a New York City accent right off the East River, but he knew his Sanskrit and the Indians were no doubt impressed.
Like most converts, the Hare Krishnas tend to have greater zeal than people who were born into the religion. Also, they tend to read the original holy book - the Bhagavad Gita - rather than someone else's interpretation of it, and therefore they exude a confidence that comes from their conviction that they are the depository of truth.
However, right now what India wants is not a purer form of Hindu religious thought.
It is a country that is trying to export more machinery in terms of value than cashew kernels. It wants technology, not theology.
Reject Materialism
On the other hand, if one listens to the Hare Krishna guru, one hears the urging to reject materialism, competition and technology.
A guru was asked what he thought of the American moon landing. He replied that it was simply a waste of time.
"If you want to transfer yourself from this planet to another planet, then you must follow the principles of the Bhagavad Gita," he answered.
"Krishna says that, if one goes back to my supreme planet, which is called Goloka Vrindaban, he will never have to come back to this miserable condition of life."
Many Adherents
This religion of all-embracing spiritualism has found many adherents among Americans of the lost Berkeley-Woodstock-antiwar generation.
On street corners of most major American cities one sees them in their robes chanting the Hare Krishna mantra:
"Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare."
According to their doctrine, "Hare" is the supreme pleasure potency of the Lord. Krishna is the original name of the Lord. "Rama" is another name of the Lord meaning the enjoyer, because Krishna is the supreme enjoyer.
The society was formed in New York in 1966 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is now 76 and is addressed as "his divine grace" by his followers.
According to the swami's authorized biography, he was born in Calcutta, educated at the university there and was a manager of a large chemical concern for a time before turning to the spiritual life.
He is called Prabhupada by his disciples. He claims a direct line of disciplic succession back 500 years to the time when Lord Chaitanya appeared in India, and from there back 5,000 years to the time when Krishna first spoke the Bhagavad Gita to his disciple Arjuna.
Some of Prabhupada's most memorable moments have come in San Francisco. It was there that he lectured at the Family Dog Auditorium.
Ride to the Sea
And, of course, it was there on July 27, 1969, that his followers staged Lord Jagannath's triumphal ride to the sea.
Prabhupada, accompanied by about 10,000 persons, rode in a 35-foot-high. brilliantly decorated cart from the Haight-Ashbury district through Golden Gate Park and finally to the ocean.
No comparable spectacle has occurred during the festival here in Delhi, which is to end Thursday. The tent in Connaught Circus holds perhaps 8,000 persons, and has occasionally been filled. As much as religious interest, curiosity is a main reason for the crowds because just as in Los Angeles, Boston or Honolulu, white men who shave their heads and wear skirt-like dhotis are thought of here as a bit odd.