1966 New York Journal - 26 Second Avenue

1966 - The Beginning - The New York Journal

The Bowery - Memoranda and Accounts

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

July 1 through November 4, 1966

26 Second Avenue Summary

July 1 marks the day Śrīla Prabhupāda takes possession of the storefront and one of the rear apartments at 26 Second Avenue. He immediately conducts regular classes. Mr. Goldsmith finalizes the incorporation of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Entries in this section are abbreviated, as compared with the previous sections. This perhaps results from Śrīla Prabhupāda's being absorbed with the active beginnings of his movement. These events are elaborately discussed in the Śrīla Prabhupāda Līlāmṛta.

On July 15 Śrīla Prabhupāda trains one of his followers to keep the accounts until the end of August, when Śrīla Prabhupāda resumes this practice.

Notable occurrences are the initiation of Brahmānanda, Acyutānanda, Satsvarūpa and Kīrtanānanda, the purchase of the first two mimeograph machines and subsequest publication of the first Western edition of Back to Godhead, the beginning of Śrīla Prabhupāda's relationship with Allen Ginsberg, and the hiring of Judson Hall to hold a lecture program.

There are problems with the immigration authorities after they refuse to renew Śrīla Prabhupāda's visa because he has been in the U.S. for more than one year. On September 27, a collection is held to defray the legal costs, and Allen Ginsberg donates $100.

Śrīla Prabhupāda still wants to acquire a large building for a temple and preaching purposes. On October 31 there is a $1300 donation to the building fund by Brahmānanda, and the November accounts section (see page 206) shows a loan for $5,000 from a donor named Jonathan, a friend of Ravindra-svarūpa dāsa, on November 1.

Friday 1 July

Chaturdasi: Sunrise 4/35 Sunset 7/32 Moonsets 4.07

Today I entered the new house at 26 Second Avenue rear portion Room #B1. For my purpose it all good. I do not why Krishna is trying to establish me in New York. I am his servant's servant and therefore let His desire be fulfilled through my agency.

The Landlord Mr. Gardiner is pukka landlord. He knows how to increase the rent. But I am not sorry. For two months namely July and August I will have to pay at 62 and odds whereas from September 1st I will have to pay $71 and odds. Let me see how Krishna arranges the things.

In the evening there was meeting in the New Store. There was about eight men Collection $5.50. Book Collection 4.00

The whole day I waited for Con Edison but they did not

Telephone duly installed The New Number 674-7428

Expenditure (?) .50 c

Saturday 2 July

Purnima. Sunrise 4/36 Sunset 7/32 Moon rise 8/45

Today also I phoned to Con Edition they have promised to come sometimes today. Let me see what they do.

Sunday 3 July

Pradipada: Sunrise: Sunset (?)

Monday 4 July

Dwitya

Sunrise. Sunset Moonrise:

Tuesday 5 July

Tritiya

Sunrise Sunset Moonrise

Wednesday 6 July

Chaturthi

Sunrise: Sunset: Moonrise:

Today I purchased stove and utensils $18.00

In the meeting the collection was $8.00.

Society Collection:

Raymond* $10.00

Karl - $10.00

Rapheal - $20.00

$40.00

In the meeting at 26 Second Street Store, It is settled that the Society shall be incorporated and the name of the Society shall be: International Society for Krishna consciousness

Eleven Trustees were agreed.

Thursday 7 July

Panchami

Sunrise: 4/38. Sunset. 7/31 Moonrise 10/49

Today I saw Mr. Goldsmith in his office. He has paid $10.00. The papers of the meeting were handed over to him. It is expected that the Society shall be registered by the next week. He says everything is alright.

Michael Grants was paid $20.00 for Con Edition deposit for the Society.

$40.00

Less 20.00

20.00

Add 10.00

$30.00 for Society

Bus fare - .30

In the evening two Indian gentlemen namely Bhagwat and Trivedi met me and talked with me till 10 at night.

Expenditure - $2.00

CONSTITUTION OF ASSOCIATION

1. The name of the society is The International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

2. The headquarters of the Society are located at Radhakrishna Temple, 26 Second Avenue, New York City, 10003, USA.

3. The objectives for which the Society is being established are:

(A) To educate the greater human society in the techniques of spiritual life as the basis for a balanced psychic and biological development, and thereby achieve for the first time in human society a real peace and unity among the contending forces in the world today.

(B) To propagate the Sense of Godhead, the all attractive Personality of primal and eternal Form, as He Himself revealed in His own words in the Bhagavad Gita, the Holy Scripture of the Lord Sri Krishna, the Godhead.

(C) To bring together individuals in a Society, regardless of nationality and irrespective of creed or caste, in order to develop a nearness to the Godhead and thereby the idea that within the members and humanity-at-large there is an infinitesimal soul-spirit that is part and parcel in quality with the Godhead, and that all life is meant for the satisfaction of said Godhead, the Supreme Soul.

(D) To encourage the teachings of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who demonstrated practically the transcendental process of approaching the absolute Personality of Godhead by His acts of congregational chanting of the holy name of God, a process known as Samkirtan.

(E) To prove by active work and preaching that Lord Sri Krishna is the only enjoyer of all the outcomes of individual and collective sacrifice, penance, meditation, arts, culture, science, because He is the Supreme Proprietor of the whole universe, eternally apart of Him everyone knows Him as a friend. Real peace can be attained when this is realized, in fact.

(F) To assist whenever and wherever possible in the building of a social structure on the real foundation of spiritual progress and establishment of peace and unity between men throughout the world.

(G) To attempt to save men individually from the chain of victimization the ongoing trend in modern civilization operates by, in the name of ideologies of false sentiment, so that Man may again be a free soul, to act and live freely with spiritual vision. This is possible by individual spiritual initiation, Diksha, when a man can see everything in Godhead and Godhead in everything.

(H) To further toward realization this highest truth as revealed by Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the six Goswamins headed by Srila Rupa and Sanatana Goswamins.

(I) To have for its objectives amongst the others four principles which the Goswamins had in view. They are the following:

1. To erect a holy place of transcendental pastimes as well as a place where members of the Lord Sri Krishna can flourish.

2. To propagate all over the world in the form of missionaries the process of devotion, the transcendental service to the Godhead, and to make known that this devotional service is the main function of the human being.

3. In order to accomplish this, to adopt proselytizing methods of peaceful means and to establish a broader society of association for all members, including scholars and admirers, to engage in this service as put forth in the Srimad Bhagwatam.

4. To install, wherever it is possible, the worship and temple of Radhakrishna and that of Sri Chaitanya, and to give facility to everyone to become trained in the modes of Archan or preparatory principles of devotional service.

(J) To introduce to the members of the Society and humanity-at-large a simpler and more natural purpose in life by means suitable to the particular place and time, and as enjoined in the Bhagavad Gita.

(K) To organize educational programs, such as classes and lecture tours, and to institute services, such as mailing, for the benefit of the members of the Society and humanity-at-large.

(L) To publish periodicals, books and/or pamphlets in all important languages in order to reach human society and give an opportunity to same to communicate with the Society.

(M) To invoke the quality of goodness particularly in every member of the Society, individually by the process of Diksha and by establishing one in the status of a Brahmin (good and intelligent man) on the basis of truthfulness, knowledge and faith in the transcendental service of the Lord.

(N) Among the secondary objectives of the Society, it shall undertake the following activities:

1. To revive the scientific system of social orders of classification based on intelligence, martial spirit, productivity and common assistance, generally known as the four castes with reference to quality and worth for the common cause of world society.

2. To discharge as a matter of course the vitiated system of supremacy of one man over another by false prestige of birthright or vested interests.

3. To popularize the vegetable-grain diet under approved methods in order that full value of protein, carbohydrate, fat and vitamin benefit may be derived therefrom.

4. To discourage intoxicating or addicting habits of all descriptions and dimensions and to expose such persons thus afflicted to approved methods of spiritual realization.

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Acharya

Raymond Marais

Michael A. Grant

Robert Lefkowitz

James S. Greene

Friday 8 July

Sasthi.

Sunrise: 4/38 Sunset. 7/31 Moonrise: 11/08.

Society's account four bulbs, tester etc. $2.00

Society's balance $28.00.

Electric light fitted today and there was

about twenty men attending. It is

encouraging. The collection was $15.00

one boy Gerald was very much

interested.

Society's balance 28

Karl - 10

Raymond - 10

48

Saturday 9 July

Saptami

Sunrise: 4/39 Sunset: 7/31 Moonrise: 11/08

In the Sanskrit Class Mrs. Carol paid

$5.00. No letter received. Brad (?) met me

in the evening. The same problem of life.

Sunday 10 July

Astami

Sunrise: 4/40 Sunset. 7.31 Moonrise: 11/28

Monday 11 July

Navami:

Sunrise: Sunset. Moonrise:

Tuesday 12 July

Dasami:

Sunrise: Sunset: Moonrise:

FROM HERE ACCOUNTS ONLY UNTIL

Thursday 1 September

Exp: | Income

Milk etc. 1.00 | Mrs. Carol - 10.00

Balance B.F. 153.48

Income - 10.00

163.48

Expenditure - 1.00

Balance c/o 162.48

Mr. Gardiner wants to increase the rent to 71.odds.

He came and got it signed

by me before the trustees.

I think it is not just.

FROM HERE ACCOUNTS AND NAMES AND ADDRESSES ONLY UNTIL

Wednesday 14 September

(Accounts)

Dr. Edward Harnick* Psychiatrist supplied one set of books Bhagawatam through Keith

Dr. Edward Harnick

c/o Einstein Psychiatric Institute

11 West 73rd Street

N.Y.C.

Allen Ginsberg: "Peter Orlovsky and I met Harnick at a group that I knew called the GAP, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. We had been to their conference. They had invited us to talk about hippies and they wanted to know what was this generation thing. It was like a breakthrough between the poets and the new culture and the psychiatry groups. So we'd given a big poetry reading and made friends with a lot of them, and sang Hare Kṛṣṇa with them, the whole thing.

"Over the years Harnick and I developed a pleasant friendship and worked out an arrangement that if I knew anybody particularly gifted among the younger generation that was getting screwed up in the Lower East Side for drugs or busts or madness or whatever, that rather than have them go through the whole horror mill of Bellevue and not know what to do, to put them in touch with him and the Einstein Clinic, so he could intervene to make sure that they had a safe refuge. When Kīrtanānanda's case came up, at that time he wasn't the only one in trouble. There were a lot of hippies going through the same problem, wandering the street, flipping out. It was a question of finding a psychiatrist who had a little political clout in the New York psychiatric community among the hospitals, whom we could talk to and explain what the situation was, that this guy was a devotee practising traditional Vaiṣṇava practice, and that's why he looked so funny in the American context, but it was all right, he wasn't crazy, he was just doing his thing. Harnick was good. He picked up fast and could intervene.

Thursday 22 September

ACCOUNTS

To four boys Bruce, Charles, Steve and Keith* initiated with Harinama.

Donald sent some apples by post. Thanks.

Friday 23 September

Accounts

Today Visa office sent their decision not to extend further to me to stay.

All the members startled.

They want me to stay. We went to perform Kirtan out of New York City arrange by Greene and it was nice. We are invited by the Ananda Ashram

Note: *

Monday 26 September

Accounts

Today the Trustees resolved that legal steps should be taken for my stay. They are prepared to spend up to $500.00 for this purpose

Tuesday 27 September

[Accounts}

Excerpt from an interview with Allen Ginsberg for Śrīla Prabhupāda Līlāmṛta given around 1979:

Allen Ginsberg: "Swami Bhaktivedanta was having difficulty getting a permanent visa. He had a lawyer whom I met. He seemed like a naive local lawyer. Maybe somebody he'd (Śrīla Prabhupāda) met from Ananda (Ashram)*. I couldn't figure the guy out. I met him in the Jewish vegetarian restaurant a couple of times and talked with him on Second Avenue. At that time I was having problems with the narcotics bureau, which was trying to set me up for a bust, and that year, J. Edgar Hoover put me on the dangerous security list, and the narcs made several attempts to frame me. So I went to Robert Kennedy's office in Washington to put counterpressure and complain, and to warn them that someone might bring marijuana into my apartment, bust the door down, and accuse me of having it. I had a long talk about this with Kennedy. Later, I'd gone back to see his secretary, and he came back into the office in his shirt sleeves to see one of the secretaries. I said, "Oh, there's something I forgot. I was going to sing you a little song." He said, "Okay, I got a minute." So I sang about eight verses of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and he said, "What's that?" And I said, "When you hear this, it's supposed to bring immediate liberation." So he said, "Well, the guy up the block needs it more than I do," pointing up to the White House when Johnson was running the Vietnam war. That was Kennedy's introduction to Hare Kṛṣṇa.

"Later on, when the Swami was having trouble, he asked around everybody who could help, and I said, "Well, let's see now. We could write to Kennedy." It's just a normal thing, you know. That's what senators are for. In this case Kennedy knew who I was and I knew Kennedy's people, or I was somewhat a celebrated literary figure, so if I wrote a letter saying this swami was good it would be taken seriously. So I wrote Kennedy a letter saying here was this nice swami who was really doing something interesting, bringing Hare Kṛṣṇa, and his work could only be good; and if he was having trouble, that could only be bad. Is there anything they could do to facilitate and make sure that he didn't have any difficulties? That he really was a legitimate swami, and was doing something great. I don't know if it helped or not.

Note: *

Wednesday 19 October

Accounts

There is hope to purchase the house.

Thursday 20 October

Accounts

Today first hearing was done in the matter of my visa extension It will be heard again on 10/28/66 at 9 a.m.

Note: *

Sunday 23 October

Accounts

Gargamuni & Ranchhordas are given Harinama today.

Back to Godhead published again Today

Monday 24 October

Accounts

Back to Godhead appeared in shape

Price 15 c

Book Collection $30.00

Note: *

Friday 28 October

Accounts

Today to attend Immigration Department.

Contact Ypsilantin*

Note: *

Notice

NOTICE

All initiated devotees must attend morning and evening classes.

Must not be addicted to any kind of intoxicants including coffee, tea and cigarettes.

They are forbidden to have illicit sex-connections.

Must be strictly vegetarian.

Should not extensively mix with non-devotees.

Should not eat foodstuff cooked by non-devotees.

Should not waste time in idle talks nor

Engage himself in frivolous sports.

Should always chant and sing the Lord's Holy names.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

____

Thank you,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Acharya.

International Society for Krishna Consciousness

26 Second Avenue

New York, NY

Dated Nov. 25, 1966

1966 - The Beginning - The New York Journal

The Bowery - Memoranda and Accounts