Krsna movement comes to town

This article, "Krsna movement comes to town" was published in The Morning Herald, January 27, 1973, in Hagerstown, Maryland.

By DAN ELLIOTT

It could have been the Salvation Army, but the words were different and the clothes were all wrong.

Five young men with their heads shaved nearly bald and wearing ankle-length robes stood at Public Square Friday afternoon, chanting, beating drums and spreading the word of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, "Spiritual Master" of the International Society for Krsna (pronounced Krishna) Consciousness. 

The society promotes a non-violent religion founded in India 5,000 years ago.

Krsna consciousness, they say, is an "ecstatic" slate of awareness of God, achieved through chanting and meditation. 

The five devotees, all from Toronto, were distributing books and pamphlets by the spiritual master, as well as a book called Bhagavad-gita, the holy book of the faith. Hagerstown was one stop on a two-month tour the devotees were taking. 

The reception they got at the square wasn't exactly a warm one. 

One of the young men, Kripa Sindhu (Servant of the Ocean of Mercy), began chanting on the corner, and a group of young boys giggled. 

"Hey, sweetie, why don't you get a haircut?" somebody yelled in jest. 

Some people ignored the missionaries while others just snickered. 

But the hecklers didn't seem to bother Kripa. "We try to remember they've lost their spiritual consciousness," he said. 

"Our main duty is to distribute books," Kripa said. "You can't convert people in two minutes." 

But the devotees believe that the books themselves are enough. "It's the highest science of God-consciousness," Kripa said, "If people would read the literature, they would accept it. It's the perfect science." 

Kripa joined the society two years ago. He discovered the faith at a peace rally. Everyone else was fighting, he said, but the Krsna people were sitting in a group, chanting peacefully. 

"I visited the temple every Sunday for about two months, and every time I talked to a different person." 

"Then they asked me if I wanted to move into the center, which was what I wanted to do." 

All the devotees live communally in about 60 centers across the nation. They derive their income from the manufacture of incense. 

Children live with their parents at the centers until they are five years old, when they are sent to school in Dallas, Tex. 

"It's to everyone's benefit," Kripa said. "It's better to teach the love of God than to build family attachments, which end at death anyway." 

The devotees dress the way they do "to renounce the physical world," they said. 

"We don't give up physical things," Kripa said. "There is nothing wrong with the material world. It's how it's used that's wrong." 

"Take atomic energy. There's nothing wrong with atomic energy, but it shouldn't be used for bombs. It's how it's used that makes it wrong."

Kripa looked down the street where the other devotees were stopping shoppers and explaining their faith. 

One asked a young woman if she'd like to have a pamphlet. She gave an embarrassed smile and said, "I've already got one, thanks," and hurried by.

Photo: Kripa Sindhu with his literature