Moving beyond the Christian Myth: The beginnings of Hare Krishna’s in the Western World

Book Reviewed: Miracle on Second Avenue: Hare Krishna Arrives in New York, San Francisco, and London 1966-1969
by Mukunda Goswami

This is an excellent chronicle of the spiritual movement of Krishna consciousness in the Western World during the period of 1966-69. The author is one of the very first few disciples who were initiated into the organization. This is an intimate, lively, and highly engrossing story, and recalls the beginnings of the movement. It covers the life of his guru and the disciples on Lower East Side of New York (in the first section of the book), and later in Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco with flourishing hippie culture that believed in rebellion, LSD, love, music and sex (described in the second section of the book.) This is my favorite part of the book where the author recalls his personal experience in the opening of the temple at 518 Frederick Street. The story has a personal touch that turned into a major bhakti movement in North America. In one of his private conversation with an Indian friend, Srila Prabhupada states that hippies are the main “customers” of his movement. At that time very few thought this will turn into a major force in introducing Krishna Consciousness through devotional chanting and Shastric/Puranic practices that were totally alien to Christian America. The hard work and sacrifices of hundreds of early disciples of Prabhupada turned this into a main-stream religion. The biggest force in all this is the Founding Acharya himself who firmly believed that Lord Krishna will help and show him the way. The Mantra-Rock Dance event at San Francisco is a historic event that raised money for the SF temple. The movement started to grow rapidly after San Francisco became the second city to build the Krishna temple. Prabhupada proudly called this temple the New Jagannathapuri. The local government began to appreciate the new movement because of Prabhupada’s efforts to divert hippies away from LSD to lead disciplined lives. The office of the mayor of New York greatly appreciated his efforts in this regard. The main goal of ISKCON was to spread the spiritual knowledge of Bhagavad-Gita around the world through sankirtan movement of Lord Chaitanya, to bring mankind consciousness of Krishna and thereby attain peace, and to erect a holy place of transcendental pastimes dedicated to the personality of Krishna. He also introduced eight rules for the devotees that included strict vegetarianism, no illicit sex, do not mix extensively with non-devotees, do not eat food prepared by non-devotees, no sports, and devotees must chant Krishna maha-mantra. He also ruled that all devotees must read Bhagavadgita, Srimad Bhagavatam and Chaitanya Charitamrita.

The third section of the book describes the involvement of Beatles, especially Georg Harrison in the opening of the London temple. His influence in bringing numerous devotees into the organization is huge and significant. The book also has many rare photographs which I have not seen anywhere else. In one picture, Prabhupada is presiding over a fire-sacrifice in the San Francisco temple; in fact there are several pictures of this temple in this book.

For those who are interested in the work of Srila Prabhupada in New York, I recommend Hyagriva Dasa’s “The Hare Krishna explosion: The birth of Krishna Consciousness in America, 1966-1969.” The style of writing of these two disciples, Swami Mukunda Goswami and Hyagriva Dasa are different. But from their personal experiences, reading Mukunda Goswami’s memoir of his work in SF and Hyagriva Dasa’s work in NY makes their books especially interesting.