Columnist Has Chat With Krishna Monks
This article, "Columnist Has Chat With Krishna Monks," was published in The Petaluma Argus-Courier, January 5, 1970, in Petaluma, California.
By BILL SOBERANES
Staff Columnist
Today many Christian religions are standing at the cross-roads.
The young people are demanding changes, and some of these changes are taking place. Despite these changes many are turning to new religions or ones that have not been in the Western world.
On my never-ending search for something different to write about, I recently ran into a group of Krishna monks. These monks belong to the International Society of Krishna Consciousness that was formed in July of 1966. The founder of this religion is Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta, and he brought the movement to this country.
My get-together with these monks took place in San Francisco's famed Union Square, and I sat down and joined them.
While I sat the monks chanted, and at the end of the chant I chatted with Madhudvisa-Das, commander of the San Francisco Krishna temple.
Das, whose real name is Michael Morrissey, gave me a magazine that has the following scrawled across the top - "Come Back to Godhead - The Magazine of the Hare Krishna Movement."
Madhudvista-Das talked at length about Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta. Das said the Swami came here from India on orders from his Spiritual Master to preach love of God to the people of the West. He said the Swami is in a line of disciplic succession going back directly 500 years, to the time when Lord Chaitanya appeared in India. Das added the succession from there went back 5000 years to the time Krishna first spoke The Bhagavad Gita to his desciple Arjuna, and before that to Lord Brahma, the first living entity within the universe, who appeared at the time of creation.
About Krishna Consciousness, Madhudvisa-Das said it is experienced as a process of self-purification. Its means and end are an open secret, and there is no financial charge for learning Krishna Consciousness or receiving initiation into the chanting of Hare Krishna.
Das went on to say that Krishna Consciouness is the Science of God Realization. By this science, we can understand that all living entities are parts and parcels of God, he said. At this point Das pointed to an article in the magazine he had given me.
This article called Goloka Vrindaban the original spiritual planet. The article also stated that this planet is the abode of Lord Krishna, the Original Personality of Godhead. This article talked about an unlimited number of spiritual planets.
The article also stated that the spiritual planets are dominated by plenary expansions of Lord Krishna, and that all the inhabitants there are ever-liberated living beings, and they are all four-handed.
During my chat with Das, a cameraman carrying a moving picture camera approached and focused on us. Then several plainclothes policemen arrived on the scene, and one of them asked me what my business was. When I told him, I also asked, "Why are you checking on these people?" He replied, "To see if they are disturbing the peace and blocking foot traffic." The policemen then left and the Krishna Monks resumed clanging their cymbals and chanting their mantra - "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Rama."
When I asked Madhudvisa-Das what one had to do to become a monk, he replied - "Have a sincere heart, be willing to serve God." Other qualifications he added - "A willingness to drink no intoxicants, take no drugs, eat no eggs, fish or meat." Das concluded -"If unmarried, embrace celibacy." Krishna Monks shave off their hair, and they wear long robes. Those I sat and chatted with were in their 20s, and Das said he was 22.
"We have two temples in Northern California," Das said, "one in San Francisco, the other in Berkeley. At the present time there are 35 monks living in these two temples. The monks arise between 4 and 5 a.m. They then bathe and apply telok, a sacred clay, to their bodies. After that it's chanting, reading scriptures and a breakfast of fruit and milk."
"The food we eat is first offered to God and is called prasadam," Das said, and he added - "we hold services at the temples on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, These services run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and everyone is welcome to attend."
Das described his fellow monks as the most pure people in the country and added, "We don't want expensive clothes, we don't want cars - we just want to share with people what we have been given by our spiritual leader."
When I arose and started to leave, Madhudvisa-Das said - "Come eat with us, come chant with us, and you will find your way to God."
Photo: GETTING DOWN THE FACTS - Argus-Courier columnist Bill Soberanes conducts an unusual interview, sitting and taking notes while talking with Madhudvisa-Das, head monk of the San Francisco Krishna Temple, during an outing in Union Square.