In2-MeC

ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama, Govardhana, Sri Vrndavana Dhama
21 April 2003

First Day at IBSA

Yesterday (Sunday) Martanda dasa and I entrained on the Sankranti Rajdhani Express that left Mumbai at about 18:00. We arrived at Mathura at 9:00 the next morning. At Mathura station we hired a small van for ourselves and our luggage and drove to the ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama (IBSA) which is situated across the parikrama road from Sri Govardhana Hill. A January entry of In2-MeC gives you photos of this most holy and most unique place; you'll recall from that entry that I stayed here for a month, between November and December in 2002.

I've only been here a few hours and already two extraordinary things have transpired. But first, before getting into these, let me just say that I plan to be here at IBSA until the 25th. Then I will leave for Delhi to prepare for flying out of India early on the morning of the 28th. Internet access is possible here at Govardhana but sometimes it is problematic. So what I will do while I am at IBSA is just keep adding to this journal entry as I feel like it, for the next 4 days. When I reach Delhi I will upload the whole thing to In2-MeC. So this entry that you have begun reading will cover all the days that I was here in Govardhana.

Back to the extraordinary things that happened in this fews hours since I arrived. One thing was that--after settling in the room that the IBSA temple commander, Asita Krsna Prabhu, had reserved for me, then taking shower, setting up the altar, doing a quick puja and bhoga offering, then going to get my head and face shaved, then going to offer obeisances to Manasi Ganga and sprinkle her sacred water on my head--I found out that Keshava Bharati Maharaja is here. He walked into my room after I got back from Manasi Ganga!

That was extraordinary because nobody told me he was at IBSA. I thought he was in America or somewhere else. Here at IBSA my Godbrother and old, old friend, Keshava Bharati Maharaja (until recently KB dasa brahmacari because he stepped down from sannyasa in the 1980s), holds no official position. But it is his humble but powerful service to the IBSA project over the last decade that has made this ashrama what it is today.

Now KB (as his close friends call him) is sannyasa again. When we were together last November and December he and I talked about his renewing his sannyasa. He told me he would do it without putting it through the GBC system of sannyasa approval. As I revealed here in In2-MeC a few days ago, I am no longer a "company man. " So I told him, "Great! Just do it. You should have never have let those paper-pushers talk you into stepping down from sannyasa in the first place. " So not long ago, in a quiet ceremony, he re-accepted the danda from an ISKCON sannyasi Godbrother whose name I will not mention here.

How about that, sports fans?

Predictably, a few days after he took sannyasa two representatives of the (ahem) GBC Sannyasa Ministry sped up in a taxi to the front door of the IBSA with Samsonite attache cases in their hands. "We're here to investigate. " Kesava Bharati Maharaja preached gently but firmly to them for hours. He mentioned my name as one who supported his return to sannyasa (I'm not the only one; he had a list of 25 devotees backing him up, not only sannyasis but even two Godsisters). One of the two GBC Sannyasa Ministers sent me an email about it. This was last March, while I was in Sridhama Mayapur. I replied, "I stayed a month in Govardhana with Keshava Bharati Prabhu. He should have never stepped down from sannyasa. His case is just one symptom of many things I find sad about the ISKCON institution; but I'll not go into that here. It's depressing and that is why I resigned from the GBC. Anyway, I go on record supporting Keshava Bharati Prabhu's taking up the danda again. "

It seems the two minsters went away satisfied. The question remains, of course, what the GBC Body will have to say about Keshava Bharati Swami. Whatever. I wish him all the best. He is a most personal kind of preacher, extremely humble, understanding and kind-hearted, and he knows there is a huge preaching opportunity in the world today--particularly in America-- that the ISKCON institution is not addressing. So go and preach, Maharaja. That's what sannyasa is all about, not getting votes and stamps of approval from bureaucrats.

Now, the second extraordinary thing that happened today is that after 32 years I met P R A B H U P A D A D A S A again!!!!!!!

Readers of In2-MeC will find reference to him in a January entry, the same one in which I told you about my meeting David Allen in Boston in late '70 or early '71. Prabhupada dasa was the one to whom in 1966 Srila Prabhupada offered a sannyasi lungi when he came complaining to His Divine Grace about his material sufferings.

After talking with him today I can fill out the whole story. Prabhupada dasa was then Lon Solomon. In 1966 he lived in the East Village, in an apartment on East 9th Street between Avenues B and C. He was together with a black woman who was very attached to him.

At one point he had a drug experience that cost him his hold on reality. He ran away from the girl and started living on the street. Sometimes he slept in the Paradox and the Forum, two bohemian hangouts. Sometimes he slept in a city park. And sometimes, by the kindness of the devotees, he slept at 26 2nd Avenue (Matchless Gifts), the first ISKCON center.

In that drug-crazed condition he thought of himself as a preacher. He had attended some of Prabhupada's lectures and knew the basic teachings of Krishna Consciousness. And he tried to spread those teaching among his own associates. His hippie friends used to complain, "Lon, don't preach. " But they'd hand him a guitar and say, "Just chant. " He could play guitar nicely, so he'd lead them in a kirtana. At least they were enthusiastic about that.

Srila Prabhupada knew Lon. Once, while under the influence of lysergic acid diethylemide (LSD), he came Matchless Gifts to hear His Divine Grace lecture. Srila Prabhupada looked right at him and said, "Lon, did you take LSD?"

In those days it was very easy to meet and talk with Prabhupada in his apartment behind Matchless Gifts. So once Lon came up to explain the state of his mind to His Divine Grace. Actually, Prabhupada dasa admits, he was in a psychotic condition, so he was not able to speak in any sensible manner. But Srila Prabhupada listened patiently as he babbled, "I'm just like you, Swamiji. I am a mendicant preacher. But I can't maintain! I have no place to stay! I have a message but no way to give it to the world!"

Srila Prabhupada responded, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. " He reached behind him and picked up a lungi, holding it out to Lon. "Simply join us, we will solve all your problems. " Prabhupada dasa told me at that instant his mind began churning out one insane thought after another. In exaggerated panic he wondered, "Now what am I supposed to do? Just take my pants off and put this thing on?" He got to his feet and backed away from Srila Prabhupada in the direction of the door behind him. Prabhupada stood up too and followed him, still holding out the lungi. At the door, as Lon was leaving, a crystal tear glided down from the corner of one of Srila Prabhupada's eyes. "Please come back," he said.

Prabhupada dasa remembers a class from October 1966 in which Srila Prabhupada said to his listeners, who were mostly still in karmi dress and hardly able to follow the four regulative principles, "Some of you will go to England. Some of you will go to Europe. You will spread Krishna consciousness all over the world. " At that time Lon was very much into Beatles music, particularly their album Revolver (I believe the mystical song Tomorrow Never Knows is on this LP). When Lon heard Prabhupada talk about his followers going to London, he thought, "Wow! If I hang around the Swami, I'll meet the Beatles. " He foresaw himself preaching to the Fab Four about Krishna.

I commented, "You know, Prabhu, that could have actually happened, had you really hung around Srila Prabhupada. Syamasundara Prabhu and his wife Malati, Gurudasa and the others who went to London were themselves hardly more than hippies at the time. But by hanging around Prabhupada they got the mission to go to England and preach to the Beatles. " He nodded and smiled. "Oh yes. I know that very well. But I was too crazy in those days. "

Through the years, Lon Solomon gradually overcame his craziness. By the time I met him in Boston, he was the manager of what he calls a "junk shop. " He considers that he was still half out of his mind even at that time, but at least he was doing so mething productive. Later, after I left Boston to travel with Vishnujana Maharaja, he got a bigger shop that became quite successful, and he began donating regularly to the temple. He met Srila Prabhupada again during the early '70's and tried to explain to His Divine Grace that his mind was finally getting in order. But perhaps it wasn't in order enough. He once wrote a letter to Prabhupada complaining about something the Boston temple president had done that Lon thought was unfair, but got no reply.

Finally he joined the Boston temple. On Rama-navami, April 1975, he was initiated by Srila Prabhupada, through the mail, as Prabhupada dasa. This name was especially arranged for him by the Boston temple president in light of all the early association Lon had with Prabhupada. The initiation ceremony was performed by HH Tamal Krishna Maharaja.

At his initiation ceremony Lon had an experience that reminded me of my own when I was initiated, when I thought my name was not on the list. Generally when a bhakta or bhaktin got a spiritual name from Srila Prabhupada, it would start with the same letter as the first karmi name. Hence, for example, Bruce Sharf was initiated as Brahmananda, Greg Sharf as Gargamuni, Steve Guarino as Satsvarupa, Howard Wheeler as Hayagriva, and so on. So in Lon's initiation ceremony the names were being announced in alphabetical order, and as usual every spiritual name started with the same letter as the devotee's karmi name. The names progressed past the letter "l" and still Lon was not called up to take his beads. So he started thinking tha t because he had done so poorly on sankirtana the day before, he had been passed over. He would not get initiated!

Actually, he had even said the day before to a devotee named Srinatha (a very saintly Godbrother who years ago passed away from th is world) that "I collected so little today, I should not take initiation tomorrow. " Srinatha replied sweetly, "You just take the mercy. " Now that the "l" names were finished up, Lon's heart sank into deep depression. Suddenly the Boston president said, "Now it is time for a very special devotee to receive his name and beads. Since he had so much merciful association with Srila Prabhupada in the very beginning of ISKCON's history in New York, Bhakta Lon is now Prabhupada dasa!" You can imagine the loud shouts of "Jaya!" and the heavy beating of the mrdangas.

Ten days before Srila Prabhupada left this planet, Prabhupada dasa received his second initiation. It wasn't until the 1980's, long after I had left the States to preach in Europe, that I received word from others that "that guy in Boston who owned the junk shop, you know, who knew Srila Prabhupada in 1966, is initiated as Prabhupada dasa. " I was under the impression that he was initiated by a disciple of Srila Prabhupada. But no, he is my Godbrother. How wonderful.

My meeting him again after all these years was a beautiful experience for both of us. He is just now reading my book, Substance and Shadow and likes it very much. He wants to talk again with me about it after he's had a day to put some questions down on paper. He is a real old-style intellectual who majored in philosophy at Brooklyn College. Just wonderful to talk to!

This is how we met here at IBSA. During prasadam time, he was sitting some distance from me. I was talking with Keshava Bharati Maharaja, but I noticed this older devotee in brahmacari dress glancing at me again and again and smiling. After we finished prasadam he shyly came over to introduce himself. He said, "Suhotra Maharaja, you probably don't remember me. . . ," then he started recounting some things from the old days in Boston. I couldn't tell who he was because the last time I saw him he had long hair and a full beard. Then finally he said, "My name is Prabhupada dasa. "

I got all excited and almost shouted, "Don't remember you? Prabhu, I have never forgotten you! It's just that I never saw your face without hair and beard. You were a major influence on me when I was a new devotee!" Very humbly he said, "But I was crazy then. " I said, "But you got Prabhupada's mercy in 1966. I always considered you a very special person. " Then we offered each other obeisances.

Prabhupada dasa is full of stories of the old days. He told me for example that he started an underground newspaper in New York called Nova Vanguard. It only lasted four issues. But he dedicated a full page of one issue to an article on Srila Prabhupada written by a devotee.

He used to visit Allen Ginsberg, sit down in his kitchen and chant Hare Krishna while strumming his guitar. Ginsberg would come and join him playing finger cymbals. Lon's sister was married to N. S. (name abbreviated for legal reasons), who was a close friend of Richard Alpert (Baba Rama Das, who wrote the hippie classic Be Here Now. Alpert was Timothy Leary's partner in launching LSD as a fad among American youth. ) N. S. and Lon's sister used to manufacture huge quantities of LSD and another powerful hallucinogen called DMT in the basement of N. S. 's mother's house. N. S. often walked around the house with no clothes on, just being "natural," I suppose. N. S. 's mother loved it. She thought it was great that her son and all his bearded weirdo friends were buzzing around her place day and night. Lon used to wash the test tubes in which the drugs were cooked up.

I brought up the question of beatniks versus hippies that I had discussed with Brahmananda. Prabhupada dasa said, "Brahmananda was old enough to be a beatnik, but I was younger. I became aware of the Beat scene at age 13 or 14, and I wanted to becom e a poet. The Beats were creative. They were into poetry, art, jazz, and they could intellectualize. They were also totally into drugs and illicit sex, but they studied too; Allen Ginsberg took the trouble to learn some Tibetan, for example. But by the time I was old enough to myself take up the bohemian life, the hippies had taken over. And yes, like Brahmananda told you, it was because Allen Ginsberg, one of the top Beats, himself turned into a hippie. So I guess I was a hippie who started out wanting to be a Beat. When I got into LSD, all my intellectual pretensions just went to hell. My poetry consisted of line after line of dirty words. Even Allen Ginsberg didn't like it.

"I know what Brahmananda meant about them (beatniks and hippies) being two different tribes," Prabhupada dasa continued. "I remember a talk in a coffeeship by David Lacombe, who was a name among the Beat Generation. He was speaking to a whole roomfu l of people, just condemning the hippies. 'These hippies don't create,' he was complaining. 'They don't even think. Hippies are just passive drug zombies. They've ruined the whole underground scene. I'm leaving New York to live in the forest. '"

Sriman Prabhupada dasa Brahmacari is truly my long-lost brother. I didn't know until he told me today, but he met HH Bhaktividya Purna Maharaja in Mayapur for the first time this year. As you may know, Maharaja is my best friend. Prabhupada dasa was so happy to meet Maharaja! He said, "Like you, he's a philosopher. He can talk about any subject and bring it into the light of Vedic knowledge. And this is what I want to learn to do. I've been in South America doing business to keep ISKCON going down there, but now that's finished. I can't hustle for money any more. I'm wearing saffron now and I just want to study Srila Prabhupada's books, preach, and help devotees come to a deeper understanding of the philosophy. " I hugged him. "We talk the same language," I said.

Prabhupada dasa and I exchanged emails. We'll be talking again tomorrow, so readers, stay tuned, because more of his lore which is not a bore will be its way to your computer dispay in just one day. That's only here at www.in2-mec.com. Remember, friends and neighbors out there in Internet land, at In2-MeC you read by far the most unconventional, free-associative and outright bizarre presentations of Krishna Consciousness to be found on the World-Wide Web. We're proud that In2-MeC is a private site, totally unconnected and unaccountable to iskcon. net, pamho. net or any other "bona fide" ISKCON communications system.

The reason I write, as I declared in the very first entry of this journal, is that in 1978 Srila Prabhupada asked me in a dream, "Why don't you write?" So I write. And the oldtimers know that Srila Prabhupada did appreciate off-beat creative writing. In an early BTG article Hayagriva dasa analyzed a long-winded poem written in 1930 by Hart Crane called The Bridge. Somehow or other he connected that poem to Krsna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada was very pleased, even proud, of his "Professor Wheeler's" pioneer literary efforts. We try to keep that pioneer spirit alive here at In2-MeC. So don't flip, even if you think centipedes are hip, In2-MeC's gonna catch you in its grip. Your responses have been hugely supportive. Keep those cards and letters coming, folks.

So completely wonderful, this meeting with Sriman Prabhupada dasa Prabhu! So completely meaningful. I pray, pray, pray to Sri Sri Jagannatha-Sudarshana that what I am experiencing here in my talks with Godbrothers like Sridhara Maharaja, Keshava Bharati Maharaja, Bhaktividya Purna Maharaja, and Prabhupada Prabhu, is the start of a spiritual revolution. I feel incredible spiritual nourishment whenever I get the mercy of their association.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Another thing that happened today is that I met with Bhakta Gennadi, originally from Moldova. I've known him for years. He wants to stay here and be a permanent part of IBSA. I told him, "I'm not giving you a green light for that. I'm giving you 108 green lights. " He's an aspiring disciple, but of the new generation. I told him, "You read all of Srila Prabhupada's books first, then we will talk about initiation. "

IBSA is a perfect place for such an education. Keshava Bharati Maharaja is very enthusiastic about Bhakta Gennadi's wish to remain here for the rest of his life, if possible. Maharaja is an excellent guide in Gennadi's learning of sastra, since he is a BBT editor. He worked on the recently-published edition of Brhad-Bhagavatmrta.

Bhakta Gennadi is getting new silver facial fixtures (smile, tilaka, eyebrows) for Sri-Sri Jagannatha-Sudarshan, Sri-Sri Laksmi-Sesasayi and Sri Giriraja shilas. These are being made in a shop in Vrndavana. Premavanya Prabhu is paying for them. They will be delivered here at IBSA on the 24th.

 

Second Day at IBSA

ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama, Govardhana, Sri Vrndavana Dhama
22 April 2003

Prabhupada dasa--I'll be calling him Lon a lot, by his pre-initiation name--first heard the Hare Krishna maha-mantra in 1965 from Allen Ginsberg, who sang kirtana in two live performances accompanied by an East Village rock group called the Fugs. At this time I lived in Mount Clemens, Michigan (the greater Detroit area). In 1966 or '67 I bought a Fugs album that featured Hare Krishna sung by Ginsberg; this was my own first aural introduction to kirtana. (Not a pure source for receivi ng the real name, I am afraid; but I did start to chant in imitiation as a result. )

The first time Lon ever saw Srila Prabhupada and heard him speak was when he appeared as a guest on The Alan Burke Show, a New York television program. Now, this TV show has been described by others-Satsvarupa Maharaja in the Lilamrta and Nanda Kishore Prabhu on the SPM video series--but for the first time I learned from Prabhupada dasa that by the end of the show Burke had become so moved by Prabhupada's saintly demeanor that in a emotion-choked voice he told His Divine Grace, "Swamiji, you are a very charming gentleman. "

"That was not Alan Burke," remembers Prabhupada dasa. "Burke's program was aired from inside his opulent skyscraper penthouse. He used to bring 'weird' guests on, like a guy from the Flat Earth Society, and poke sarcastic fun at them; he was fond of lighting up big cigars during his interviews and blowing smoke into his guests' faces. But with Prabhupada, Burke could not act like Burke. Prabhupada was too aristocratic, too calm, too gentle, too scholarly, too much in control to be mocked by a man like Alan Burke. "

Lon used to walk past Matchless Gifts, on 26 Second Avenue, when it was still a gift shop. "No wonder it went out of business. The only thing on sale was a collection of wooden match boxes. Artsy-craftsy sorts of things, these boxes. They were highly glossed with a thick coat of varnish painted over color pictures of movie stars and other popular faces. But the boxes had no matches in them! And that was it. That's all that was on sale. Therefore the shop was called 'match-less. ' Not a profitable line of business. "

Tomkin's Square Park was right in the middle of Lon's neighborhood. After Srila Prabhupada moved to Matchless Gifts from the Bowery, Lon would see the harer-nama sankirtana performed by Swamiji and his earliest disciples. "They sat, sang, played their instruments and danced on a big rug. This had been donated by a fellow named Robert Nelson. He once asked Srila Prabhupada for the recipe for chapatis. Prabhupada replied, 'Oh, this will cost you $100. ' Somehow Robert got the money for Prabhupada and learned from him how to make chapatis. "

Lon was the type of guy who put his nose into everything. "I knew all the 'spiritual scenes' in the East Village. I knew Buddhists, I knew meditators, I knew mystics. Like for example, there was this local mystic poet named Benjamin Schwarzberg. He used to write for an underground newspaper called the East Village Other. Ben would only speak in poetry. Somehow, without effort, he could make everything he said rhyme. He'd throw in words like Shiva and Bodhisattva, connect them in funny ways, toss together a spontaneous mystical word-salad. Just having a conversation with him meant your mind went for a ride on a roller-coaster of metaphysical ideas. And on top of it Benjamin was completely celibate, which was very unusual for those times. So in the midst of this explosion of wacky spiritualism that was going on at that time in the East Village, I also used to visit the 26 Second Avenue temple. That's how I became known to Srila Prabhupada. He even called me by my first name, Lon. But I never intended to get serious about Krishna Consciousness. The temple was just one of many scenes for me.

"I knew this psychedelic artist called Ron Lawson who used to help me with my underground newspaper, Nova Vanguard. He lived downstairs from Alan Ginsberg. One night at his place Ron gave a friend and I a dose of very potent LSD. I couldn't believe what was happening. The hallucinations were so extreme that this Ron just turned into a grinning skeleton before my eyes. There he was, a skeleton sitting at his kitchen table, chanting 'Om' again and again. Then he got up and stood over my friend and I. He just stared at us with a skull face and popped-out eyes. Then he intoned 'Tat tvam asi, 'I am He,' 'I am God,' with this ferocious intensity.

"This was the acid trip that pushed me over the edge. I stayed at Ron's place for ten hours, until dawn. Normally after ten hours on LSD you come down off the high. When I left Ron's place and walked out in the new light of the day, I realized, 'My God, this trip is just starting!' The sunshine, the color, the waking up of the city, it all built up into a madhouse circus in my head. I didn't come down for two weeks, and by that time I had gone clinically insane. I even jumped from the roof of a subway entrance station, thinking I could fly. Fortunately the station was not very high, so I didn't hurt myself. Eventually I ended up in the Bellvue psychiatric hospital where I was diagnosed as an ambulatory schizophrenic.

"In the meantime my personal life went to pieces. That's when I left my apartment and my girlfriend. I couldn't handle normal life anymore. On top of that, this Ron Lawson had put this crazy idea into my head that he was God, I was God, everything was God.

"So anyway, at some point I came to the temple and attended one of Swamiji's Srimad-Bhagavatam classes. That's when Prabhupada asked me, 'Lon, did you take LSD?' I answered, 'No, Swamji. ' Which in a way was true because this was at least several days after I had taken Ron's acid. So normally I would not be high. But in fact I was out of my head and Prabhupada knew it immediately. After the lecture everyone bowed down except me. I stood up before Srila Prabhupada and held my hands up over my head. In my mind I was showing him my universal form. I was wearing this long muskrat fur coat that I had bought cheap from a second-hand shop. The thing was so thick and fuzzy it weighed five kilos. I had a day-glo third eye pasted on my forehead. Swamiji took a look at me in this crazed state and then he did something totally unpredictable. He offered his pranams. Seated in the vyasasana, he pressed his palms together before his face and bowed his head. What I think he was doing was, he was offering his respects to Maya-devi who had me firmly in her grip. 'All glories to the powerful illusory energy. '

"But of course I couldn't fathom that. Prabhupada's pranams, oh, that convinced me. 'Swamiji knows who I really am,' I thought. 'He knows I'm different from all these others here who bow down, who are merely servants. He knows I am an incarnation!'

"Srila Prabhupada left the vyasasana and went out the back door of the temple into his apartment building. Now, the way things were in the temple of that time, the devotees were hardly more than hippies themselves. There was no discrimination as to who is fit or unfit, who is sane, who is crazy. So they were urging me, in my totally insane frame of mind, 'You gotta talk to Swamiji. Go on up, talk to him. ' So I went up. In those days Prabhupada's door was open to everyone. There was even a sign on it that said something like 'Door open, come in. ' But when I turned the doorknob to enter, the door was locked. I should have understood what that meant. But I was insane, completely insane. 'OK, Swamiji's door is locked. Never mind. He has already given me my leave to become a guru. There's nothing more to talk about anyway. I'll just do it. '

"So I went to Tomkins Square Park. There is a big round fountain in the middle, and because it was autumn season and chilly, the park authorities had shut the water off. So this fountain became my mandala. I sat in the middle of it, upon the metal nozzles that in the summer shot the water into the air. And in my fur coat and third eye I preached. I preached in a screaming voice hour after hour, sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish, sometimes in Hebrew, throwing in a few Sanskrit words I knew. The whole rest of the morning went by like that. It's New York, so mostly the people walking by didn't look at me twice. But finally a crowd gathered, I guess because I just wasn't going away. And at last a really beautiful looking couple, this young boy and girl, very sattvik in their features, they stepped up and laid a vegetarian meal before me.

"I thought, 'Yeah! Here they are! My disciples!' I ate the meal and after that I don't know what I did; the day had ended so I slept somewhere, maybe in the park. Who knows? I mean, in that state I used to sometimes just walk into people's homes, strangers. I'd just walk in, they might be painting their living room so that's why the door was open. I'd just walk in, start helping them to paint.

"So the next day I returned to the fountain to continue my mission. This time a policeman came up and ordered me out of the fountain. One thing led to another and I was arrested. The cops understood I was nuts. So I was sent to Bellvue. My parents came to see me; they were almost crying, 'Our poor son, locked in the madhouse. ' 'No, it's great here,' I told them with a big smile. 'I'd like to stay here for the rest of my life. ' Then they really started to cry. After a week or two in the nuthouse I managed to talk my way out.

"I went back to the temple. While I was in Bellvue they cut off all my hair and beard. So when Srila Prabhupada saw me, he said, 'Ah, Lon. Now you look very nice. ' Now, during the time I was locked up, the devotees had newly printed this booklet Prabhupada wrote. It was called Who is Crazy? I saw these booklets all over the place; it was one of the very first pieces of distribution literature. And I felt sort of proud. 'Ah, this is all in my honor. I've just come from the madhouse, and here I am greeted by all these newly published booklets called Who is Crazy?'"

Soon after that a documentary movie crew came to the temple to film Happiness on Second Avenue, a very interesting piece of ISKCON history that has been transferred to video by the ITV (ISKCON Television Network). The film is seven minutes long and appeared on New York TV as part of a longer program called Eye on New York. Lon Solomon can be seen in Happiness in Second Avenue wearing glasses, his hair neatly cut. In two sequences he bows down before Srila Prabhupada with the rest of the devotees and guests.

"I'm really glad that my paying obeisances to Srila Prabhupada was captured on film. Because that was definitely not my style in those days. I was the guy who would stand up to show his universal form while everyone else was down on the floor. But on that day, because of the film crew, I behaved properly. "

Srila Prabhupada was always kind to Lon. But several times he was dismissed from Prabhupada's presence, in a firm but gentle way, because of his crazy behavior. Once he came into Prabhupada's apartment while some early disciples were present. Again, these devotees were hardly above the hippie stage themselves. Lon was in a restless state; he paced back and forth in Srila Prabhupada's room and then started re-arranging Prabhupada's things, moving the writing materials on his desk from one place to another and so on. Not one of the disciples thought to do anything about Lon's strange behavior. In fact they were saying to one another, "Hey, dig this cat, man. He's flipped out. Look what he's doing. Man, that's weird, really weird. Is he high or what? Wow!"

Finally Srila Prabhupada stood up and smiled. He started shaking Lon's hand, clapping him on the shoulder, moving him very gently but quickly to the door. In this way he got him out of the room. Prabhupada dasa commented, "You see, that's how a host will deal with a drunk at a party. You've got guests, it's your own home, so don't want an ugly scene to break out. So you just smile, keep shaking the guy's hand like he's a good friend, and edge him through the door and out of your place. Srila Prabhupada, as pure and saintly and innocent as he was, even knew how to do this, a tactic used by the kind of people who hold parties where alcohol is served. "

In 1967 Srila Prabhupada left New York to start his ISKCON in San Francisco. Not really intending to follow Swamiji, more to check out what's happening on the West Coast, Lon also took off for Frisco. This was the height of the Haight-Ashbury scene . "I remember seeing the posters for the famous Mantra Rock Dance at the Avalon Ballroom. That event is elaborately described in the Lilamrta. I was in San Francisco at the time. I could have gone to see Prabhupada at the Avalon and at the temple on Frederick Street. I mean, I was really glad for the Swami to see his Krishna Consciousness catching on in Frisco like wildfire. But unfortunately I took LSD again. This was the last time I ever touched that drug. Once more I went totally bonkers and had to return to New York. "

After that, Lon managed to pull himself together a bit. He kept chanting Hare Krishna but he got more involved in his own affairs. He got married, moved up north to Vermont for a while, then moved a bit south to the city of Boston, which is still north of New York City.

It was 1969 and by now Lon was out of touch with ISKCON. He needed a job. His wife found an advertisement in a hippie newspaper called The Phoenix. It offered an "antique and junk shop" for sale. So Lon and his wife went to the place, located at 95 Glenville Avenue. He found a group of hippies sitting around on the old furniture that was stocked in the shop. He saw amidst the junk a big sign that said Hare Krishna Temple. There was a good number of ISKCON books scattered around too.

"What's this?" he asked the hippies, pointing at the sign and the books.

"Hey, man," one replied languidly, "this joint used to be the Boston Hare Krishna temple. They moved over to North Beacon Street. " Lon had saved some money so he bought 95 Glenville Avenue for a cheap price and went into the second-hand business. The hippies had a big wooly monkey in a cage in the cellar. He was named Zeke. When he bought the shop, he got Zeke as part of the deal, so Lon named the place Zeke's Old-Time Furniture Store. Eventually Lon had to sell Zeke the Monkey because as a pet he was too expensive to maintain.

It was during 1970-72 when, as a new devotee at 40 North Beacon Street, I got to know Lon. Glenville Avenue is not far from North Beacon Street. So I'd sometimes run into him, either when he visited the temple, or just on the street in the neighborhood.

He told me something very interesting from this period. You'll recall my description of the first time I met Srila Prabhupada in July of 1971. Everyone went to the airport except me, who had to stay and clean the kitchen. I heard some kirtana music coming from somewhere in the ether, so at one point I searched the building top to bottom to see if someone else was there. I found no one. But Prabhupada dasa told me that on that same day, he was alone in the temple room after everyone went the airport. He thought he was the only person in the whole building. Meanwhile, I too was in the building thinking the same thing about myself: "I'm all alone here. " Somehow during the search I missed finding him. By the way, he was not playing a tape of kirtana. So that mystery remains unexplained.

His business improved, so he moved to a better location at 1357 Commonwealth Avenue. He kept the name Zeke's and continued to sell second- hand furniture, appliances, antiques, junk. There was a rock band that used to often shop at Zeke's on Commonwealth Avenue. These guys had long wild-looking hair and regularly needed handheld electric hair dryers. This band, at that time struggling in Boston to make a name for themselves, was named Aerosmith. In the late '70's and '80's they became one of the most successful American rock bands. The lead singer is Steve Tyler; Liz, his daughter, is a famous Hollywood actress. She plays an elven princess in the Lord of the Rings series.

Later Zeke's moved to its next location on Harvard Square, a busy commercial center in the city of Boston. This shop was a large space that Lon managed to buy at a sweet price. But Lon and his two co-workers had no separate living facilities, so they used to just bunk in the store at night. One night they couldn't get to sleep because of the loud rock music of a jukebox in a nearby pizza restaurant. So they all got up and went into the pizza place. They learned that the manager of the pizza joint had left the night business to some freaky character with hair down to his waist. He was playing the jukebox super loud and just giving pizzas outfor free. So Lon got a guitar from somewhere and started chanting Hare Krishna.

The long-haired Pizza Freak broke into a big smile and said, "Hey, man! I really dig that! You guys gotta live with me! I got this big place over on Chester street. C'mon, let's go!" So he closed down the pizza place and they went to his house. Pizza Freak had a room free for each of the three Zeke's workers. He put Lon in a room that had the Hare Krishna maha-mantra painted all over the walls and the ceiling. There were BBT posters of Sri Krishna on the wall too.

It turned out that just previous to Lon's moving into that room, it had been occupied by a young woman who joined the Boston Hare Krishna temple. (All this transpired after I had joined Visnujana Maharaja, so I do not know this mataji. ) This lady went on to be one of the big book distributors in America during the 1970s. An interesting fact is that her boyfriend, who did not go with her to join ISKCON, was named Harry Kershner.

Another interesting fact is that when the Boston temple was located at 95 Glenville Avenue, before Lon had even come to Boston, there was no place at that address to house Srila Prabhupada when he visited. According to Satsvarupa Maharaja's diaries, the Boston devotees found Srila Prabhupada an apartment in a building on Hester Street. But there is no Hester Street in Boston; there is only a Hester Street in Chinatown in New York. In Boston there is a Chester Street. After she became a devotee, this mataji did research and learned that Srila Prabhupada had been put up by the devotees in an apartment in the very same building on Chester Street that she, and then Lon, later lived in.

 

Third Day at IBSA

ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama, Govardhana, Sri Vrndavana Dhama
23 April 2003

Today I had planned to do Govardhana-parikrama. But yesterday I developed a cold that worsened as the day when on. I began drinking fruit juice (orange and pineapple) and taking medicines. Last night my conditioned reached its worst point: I couldn't sleep until some mad hour like 4:00 AM, and when I woke up at about 8:00 AM I felt dazed and feverish. So I arranged for Martanda das to do a simple puja for Sri Sri Jagannatha-Sudarshan. I chanted my rounds, rested and continued to take only juice. Gradually I find I'm feeling better. It's strange because this hot and dry season is not the weather for catching cold. I am vowing to do Govardhana-parikrama tomorrow, starting at 4:00 AM, no matter what. I'll have to get up very early to the puja first. But that's OK; today I will have gotten lots of rest.

This morning Prabhupada dasa went with Martanda to visit Sri Radhakunda. Before leaving they asked my advice about bathing there. I told them that my practice was to sit on the step nearest the water surface and to use a lota to pour Radha-kunda water over my head. Later Prabhupada dasa came by just before 14:00 to take darsan of Jagannatha-Sudarshana, Laksmi-Sesasayi, Ananta Nrsimha and Giriraja. I told him a bit about my usual puja program. We had a short discussion about the importance of taking extra effort to remember Krishna and to develop a relationship with Him.

I also had him point out exactly where he appears in the Happiness on Second Avenue video, which I have stored on an external hard drive. Unfortunately the image in the film is not very clear. He sat more to the back of the crowd so the camera did not focus on him.

Later in the afternoon Prabhupada dasa and I had another long talk, lasting for four hours. Much of it was about Substance and Shadow. He knows philosophy himself, so it went quite deep. Then we turned to more personal, Godbrotherly matters. It is said that one who has many friends has none. There are a few persons with whom I can speak freely with, to get advice as well as to give advice. Prabhupada dasa is one of these persons. As I grow older, such association as his becomes more and more important. Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.

 

Fourth Day at IBSA

ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama, Govardhana, Sri Vrndavana Dhama
24 April 2003

Awoke at 2:15. Did full puja and yajna, then left for Govardhana- parikrama as 5:00 with Martanda and Bhakta Gennadi, all walking barefoot. The sky was just getting a little light at this hour. The pace was brisk: we first went to Manasi-ganga to pay obeisances and take her transcendental waters, then walked to Govinda-kunda to do the same. We chanted japa with every step. By the end of the parikrama I'd done nearly 32 rounds.

By 8:00 we were entering Radha-kunda village. Three-quarters of the parikrama was completed. We took bath by sitting at Sri Radha-kundas's shoreline, pouring Her nectarean waters over our heads with lotas. Here we were joined by two Kazakhstani devotees who had lost their own parikrama party. After we left Radha-kunda village and were halfway to Kusuma-sarovara, we stopped for sugarcane juice refreshment. I needed a sugar boost as I had not eaten solid food the day before. I only had taken juice because of my cold--which is still not completely gone away. So I had 5 glasses. Up to then on this morning I had not even taken a drink of water yet. So the sugar cane juice, with a little lemon and black salt, was great!

But after this the going got rough. The late April sun was high in the sky. Summer officially starts here in a few more days, the early part ofMay. Summer in the Vrndavana area is intolerable for most Western-born people. I'm told that the highest temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world, something like 135 degrees Fahrenheit (I believe that is 57 degrees Celsius), was at Govardhana. Anway, by 10:00 the late April sun baked the asphalt roadway and the sandy walkways on both sides of the road. Just after we passed Kusuma-sarovara I had to surrender to wearing flip-flop beach sandals. The bottoms of my feet felt like they were on fire! By the time we reached Govardhana village, it was so hot that the asphalt road surface was melting! Somehow Martanda and Gennadi managed to walk the whole way barefoot. One of the Kazakhstanis, who had no shoes, jumped aboard a passing tractor because for him walking was like taking step after step upon fiery coals. We returned to ISBSA a bit after 11:00, which was a record. I'd never done Govardhana-parikrama faster than 8 hours before. The whole parikrama is, roughly figured, an 18 kilometer walk.

Now is not parikrama season--at least not for daytime pilgrimages. I sometimes hear sankirtana parties going by on the parikrama path at night. But when I stayed here last November-December, thousands and thousands of pilgrams went around the Hill at all hours. Now it is too hot. The parikrama path is largely deserted during the day.

After I returned to IBSA the skin on my head, back, shoulders and arms was a dark reddish-brown; it doesn't feel burned now as I am writing this but the pain and peeling of sunburn may set in a little later. I'm physically beat. My legs ache, my feet hurt and I am in a daze of heat exhaustion. But it surely was blissful.

hantayam adrir abala hari-dasa-varyo
yad rama-krsna-carana-sparasa-pramodah
manam tanoti saha-go-ganayos tayor yat
paniya-suya vasa-kandara-kanda-mulaih

Of all the devotees, this Govardhana Hill is the best! O My friends, this hill supplies Krsna and Balarama, as well as Their calves, cows and cowherd friends, with all kinds of necessities-water for drinking, very soff grass, caves, fruits, flowers and vegetables. In this way the hill offers respect to the Lord. Being touched by the lotus feet of Krsna and Balarama, Govardhana Hill appears very jubilant. [Bhag. 10. 21. 18]

 

Fifth Day at IBSA

ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama, Govardhana, Sri Vrndavana Dhama
25 April 2003

It is a little after 10:00 AM. With great sadness I am leaving Govardhana for Delhi. I rose from sleep very painfully at 4:30 AM, still aching from yesterday's parikrama. I did my puja and yajna, then I went to the IBSA Deity greeting, Srila Prabhupada vyasapuja, and Srimad-Bhagavatam class (which I was asked to give). After class I packed up the Deities and the rest of my luggage. Keshava Bharati Maharaja and Prabhupada dasa came in to say their fond farewells. Gennadi loaded the luggage into this little red car, and at this very moment Vraja-dhama is rolling through my field of perception, going, going, going.

In this instant I feel my existence has no meaning whatsover. O my dear Lord Krishna, when will I attain your lotus feet? I suppose I am closer to You than countless sleeping souls spread throughout the creation. But this slightly nearer proximity to You, this bit more of awareness of You, is my only pain. Otherwise, to material suffering I am anesthetcized by the chanting and the teachings given me by the mercy of my spiritual master. The only pain left is You, my Lord.

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