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[gentle orchestral music playing]

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-I'm Reid Collins.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,

Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.

A hypnotic, rhythmic chant of 16 words has replaced LSD

and other drugs for some in New York's East Village.

On Second Avenue and First Street is a storefront

in which a Swami has set up shop.

There, his American disciples

are learning about Krishna consciousness.

[atmospheric music playing]

[Thomas Hopkins] -If someone told you the story, you wouldn't believe it.

Here he is.

He's 70 years old.

He has no money, he has no contacts.

He has none of the things that makes for success.

He's starting an effort, and it turns into

an international movement.

[atmospheric music playing]

[thunder rumbles]

[atmospheric music playing]

[rock music playing]

[Radhanath Swami] -Prabhupada came to America

at an extraordinary time.

[Martin Luther King Jr.] All we say to America

is be true to what you said on paper.

[rock music playing]

[Devamrita Swami] -Everyone was questioning.

Everyone was searching for a better way of life.

[Timothy Leary] -Turn on, tune in,

and drop out.

[Govinda D] -Timothy Leary came along with the drug bandwagon.

But that wasn't good enough.

We wanted an alternate reality that wasn't drug induced.

[Shyamasundar] -And suddenly, this new force from the East was coming in.

People began to look towards India.

[Abhirama] -There was a sense in us that the ancients knew something,

that there was a goodness inherent in man,

and there was a wisdom.

[Amarendra Das] -So Prabhupada got here

right at that historical moment in time.

He walked right into the middle of it.

[Indian music playing]

[Sally Agarwal] -He was such a curiosity.

I mean just to look at him was just an amazement.

Wow.

[Edwin Bryant] -He was a person that seemed

to be experiencing a state of happiness

that came from someplace that they knew nothing about

and never had any access to.

And so they were intrigued.

[Amarendra] -He says, this movement

is meant to bring about a revolution

in the life of a misdirected civilization.

[Schweig] -Prabhupada brought forward the great culture

and the great teachings of those who came before him.

[Indian music playing]

-If I see this person is a soul,

struggling just like I'm struggling in my body,

then all of a sudden, we're family.

And I have a reason to love you.

That's... that's deep.

[Abhirama] -He challenged the very premise

of our material life.

And for many of us, that was...

exactly what we needed to hear.

[gentle music playing]

[horns honking]

[Rukmini Dasi] -Prabhupada was staying in an office building,

moving from one office to another.

[radio announcers] -Coldest winter in memory.

The states of New York... Federal disaster areas...

Four to eight more inches tonight.

-He had no idea what snow would be like.

He never saw snow.

[Rukmini] -He was writing so many letters back to India,

to industrialists, asking for help or support.

And he didn't receive one letter of encouragement

or one letter of offer to help.

[Yogesvara] -Here he was, 70 years old...

and he's a stranger in a strange land.

-Ooh, now that's a hamburger. -That's a Whopper.

-Something to be proud of. -Hey, you're all right!

-You have to imagine what it must have been like for him

growing up in the 19th century

in Colonial India.

The image of America was what was presented in "Life" magazine

of this monstrous industrialized nation.

Rugged individualism

and, you know, questioning authority.

To think about bringing

a message of self-control,

of minimizing needs,

of love for Krishna, love for God,

must have been daunting.

And yet, that's what he had to do.

Having been requested by his guru,

"Go to the West and speak

"Krishna's message in the English language.

Spread this teaching around the world."

[gentle piano music playing]

[glass breaking]

[Hari Sauri Das] -He did it two or three times.

The clerk at the shipping counter, he asked him,

"Well, Swamiji, you keep asking when the boat's going back,

but you never actually go."

-Traditionally, swamis, yogis, Zen masters

all moved uptown to the rich,

and were sponsored and funded by the rich.

And you would find Krishnamurti living in elegant apartments

on the Upper East Side with drawing rooms

and French furniture, and here was Bhaktivedanta

like in the depths of Calcutta, where the hippies were

and where the acid heads were, and the freaks

and the amphetamine heads, and the meth... monsters.

So, it seems like he was actually bringing

some kind of ray of song and light to the right place.

The lower depths, where it was needed.

-Rather than being a hippie, I was more of a seeker,

a spiritual seeker, because I didn't have long hair,

and I didn't really identify

with the alternative and revolutionary movement.

But there was something inside me

that was searching for something else.

[Indian music playing]

The way I first met Prabhupada was

I was on a crosstown bus in Manhattan, on Grand Street,

and ran into a person that I knew, and this person

on a scrap piece of paper gave me an address, and he said,

"This is the address of an Indian Swami.

"He's lecturing three times a week,

and I think you should go there."

[Indian music playing]

When I first met Prabhupada, I was very impressed

with the fact that he was elderly,

and that he was very learned and that he was alone.

And that made me feel like I really had to help.

[Indian music playing]

[Mukunda] -I went to the newsstand

that carries "The Village Voice."

And I saw an advertisement for 26 Second Avenue.

[Thomas Hopkins] -It had been a gift shop, Matchless Gifts.

They were going to take the sign off of the window,

and he told them, "No, no. [chuckling]

This is what we have is matchless gifts."

[Mukunda] -There was usually not more than about

seven or eight people there.

And some of them were-- were seekers and hippies,

and others were just coming to pick up on the vibes,

and it was just kind of a motley assortment of people.

-I just came in and, uh, I was tired and they said,

"If you're tired, go to sleep. Lay down here."

-You mean it's your first day? -Uh-huh.

[Kirtanananda] -One thing which usually happens,

those who come like this,

they come and they just never go.

Once you come, you stay.

Because the swami has something which you are looking for.

[Mukunda] -We thought that Prabhupada was a sincere person,

devoid of hypocrisy which people,

especially young people, really do not like.

And we didn't see any evidence of hypocritical teachings

in anything that Prabhupada taught

or anything that was part of his persona.

[Hopkins] -The marvelous thing about Prabhupada

was that he was so... no other word but loving.

He accepted them,

he welcomed them into the temple.

[Yogesvara] -Plus he could cook like nobody's business.

You know, the food was a slam dunk.

[Schweig] -So not only was it delicious and healthy,

but it would be something even sacred.

[Kirtanananda] -In the Gita, Krishna has told us

what he wants us to eat,

namely, fresh fruits and grains.

And so we have a very delicious meal here.

It's very cheap. Uh, it goes a long way.

It's quite easy to prepare

and we have a lot of fun.

[Indian music playing]

[Mukunda] -When the first love feast occurred in the Bowery,

Prabhupada's demeanor was as a very affable and happy host

and he seemed to always be smiling and encouraging people

to take more and more and more and more.

He was like a friend,

and he was giving a party, and it was his party,

and he just wanted everyone to be happy.

[Rukmini] -Prabhupada's standing in line for the bathroom

with the young men and, um, serving them,

and washing the pots,

until someone finally asked after some time,

"Maybe we could help you?"

[Hopkins] -He put up with no nonsense,

but he didn't expect them to be perfect.

He expected them, if they wanted to stay, to make some effort.

-We're here to learn and that's what we're doing.

And we also, uh, we have jobs to perform.

We, uh, recently purchased

a couple of mimeograph machines,

and that's helping our printing.

[Yogesvara] -Prabhupada laid down the law.

If you really want to progress in spiritual life,

this is the bare minimum.

Live a clean life,

chant every day, and you'll see the results.

-The first thing that he did for us

was give us our method of chanting,

which is so powerful a method that it will work for anyone.

-If I meditated on the word "Raymond, Raymond, Raymond,"

that wouldn't be the same at all.

The word "Krishna" is God.

-You're singing, you're dancing,

your mind is fully engaged in thinking about God.

What more can there be?

This is the full aim of any kind of yoga.

-Anyone who chants "Hare Krishna."

Ha-Have you got the whole chant?

-Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare, Hare.

Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare.

[singing "Hare Krishna"]

-Some of the drug followers, they are functioning,

functioning high on a low level.

And we are functioning high,

and we are functioning low on a high level.

[woman] -Could you explain that?

-Did you get that?

They're functioning high, they're, they're,

they're, this feeling, this is, this...

[Hari Sauri] -We had no idea about anything.

Looking back at what we were,

and, you know, the kinds of people

that Prabhupada was trying to spread this movement through,

and, you know, we were a sorry bunch.

[bell jingling]

[Radhanath] -Historically, India is a place where it was the normal life

for everyone to live in harmony with God's will.

It was a culture where the focus of everything

was so much in devotion to Krishna.

[Yogesvara] -That spiritual culture of India acknowledges

that throughout history, humanity has always needed

spiritual revival at different moments.

500 years ago, the pioneer of Krishna devotion,

the great teacher Shri Chaitanya,

appeared into the troubled world

of 1500s India.

[Gauravani] -The movement of Shri Chaitanya

was a movement of sacred sound,

and people would gather in the street

and they would sing and dance.

[Abhishek Ghosh] -Caitanya decided to take his bhakti movement,

his devotional movement to all the corners of India.

He had inspired thousands, if not millions of people

to take up the chanting of the holy names of Krishna.

[Gauravani] -And people were trying to understand,

"Well, what is this revolution for?"

It was for equality of the soul,

to understand that we are not these bodies.

And that we are all brothers and sisters, children of God.

Wherever there is life, there is sacredness.

[Indian music playing]

[man chanting]

[Gauravani] -Then Prabhupada did something unusual for America.

He decided it was time to take the chanting and the music

and the dancing out onto the streets,

as Chaitanya had done 500 years earlier.

[Indian music playing]

[chanting "Hare Krishna"]

[Indian music playing]

[Thomas Hopkins] -They had never seen anything like him before.

He was a phenomena

that they had never, never encountered.

-He looked like...

the Prime Minister of the galaxy.

[Sally Agarwal] -He was sort of forbidding-looking.

But when he laughed, he just took in the world.

He was oceanic.

And you just couldn't help laughing, too.

[chanting and drumming]

[Gauravani] -He didn't even have a proper drum or anything.

He would just, you know, whatever he had,

he'd just bonk on it just to make a little sound

to keep the rhythm.

But he had the name.

He chanted with so much faith

that it just drew a universe of people to him.

[Ramesvara] -At first I heard the cymbals, the hand cymbals,

and I started to follow the sound until I found

where they were chanting.

And I was struck with wonder

that this is extraordinary.

This means I don't have to go to India to get a mantra.

Here are these ecstatic monks

bringing the mantra to me, for free.

[atmospheric music playing]

[Larry Shin] -Reciting the names of Krishna is a tradition

that goes far back in India as a way,

when recited repetitively with deep spirituality,

pulls you into the sphere of Krishna himself.

[Yogesvara] -He understood what could happen if the chanting

of Hare Krishna made its appearance on a world stage.

[Yogesvara] -It's a cleansing

of the collective consciousness of society

that can unleash all kinds of amazing transformations.

[Brahmananda] -"The New York Times" took a photograph.

The caption was, "Swami's flock finds ecstasy in the park."

Prabhupada said, "'The Times' of New York

"was the most important newspaper in the world.

This article marked the beginning of my movement."

[gentle music playing]

[Govinda Dasi] -He asked me about my life,

and I told him I had traveled all over Europe.

He looked at me and says, "Oh? You're so young

and you have traveled so much?"

And I said, "Yes, Swamiji,

but none of it made me happy."

And he burst into a beautiful smile and said,

"Ah, yes. That is required."

[gentle music playing]

[Yogesvara] -The thing that's extraordinary about the '60s is that

there were so many things being thrown into question.

The world's a desperate place, we're destroying the planet,

we're destroying one another.

There has to be some other solution.

[Abhirama] -As a young man,

Srila Prabhupada's looking for that.

He was a Gandhian.

[Yogesvara] -Prabhupada had been attracted to Gandhi's movement

because it was a non-violent demonstration,

a protest, against circumstances that were intolerable.

But something happens when he meets his spiritual master,

and he's reminded that there's another kind of revolution

going on that's much more important,

for a higher purpose, not a political end

but a spiritual end.

[Indian music playing]

[Yogesvara] -Everything about Bhaktisiddhanta

spoke to his spiritual gravitas.

[Ramesvara] -He comes from a line

of spiritual teachers that goes back more than 5,000 years.

[Yogesvara] -Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati's core message was

you are the soul...

the consciousness

animating the body with life.

And what is the nature of that life?

It's eternal, it's fully self-aware...

and joyful, blissful.

[Abhirama] -This was a very ambitious thought,

and Prabhupada understood how ambitious it was.

[atmospheric music playing]

[Yogesvara] -That's a universal message.

And it's meant to be shared with the rest of the world.

-What is an epiphany? What, what happens

that something completely transforms a life?

[Abhirama] -Then, there's another,

more urgent request from his guru,

this time in the form of a letter.

[Yogesvara] -The stakes were now raised.

[bomb whistling]

[Hitler shouting in German]

Energies would become even more focused on making it happen,

one way or another, as impossible as it was.

[Yogesvara] -The articles that he wrote analyzed how human greed

had led to World War II.

How conflict between peoples and between nations

can be traced back to spiritual ignorance.

[Rambhoru] -His children were grown and in school or married,

and it was time.

[Yogesvara] -He finally accepted the sannyas order.

[train horn whistles]

[hooves clopping]

[Yogesvara] -Going to Vrindavan was a way of harnessing energies.

He's there contemplating

what's needed to bring Krishna to the world.

[Rukmini] -This is very much a part of the Indian culture.

From ancient times, at the end of life,

one will focus on the most important work of life:

realizing who I am

in relationship with the Divine Person.

[gentle piano music playing]

[Yogesvara] -It was an intense period of writing,

and getting those first three books

of the Srimad-Bhagavatam published.

He was able to synthesize a vast library of Sanskrit wisdom texts

down to their essence, and transpose that

into a language that people of the 20th and 21st centuries

can understand.

In this one text,

the entire expanse of creation is described.

-This book has the potential

to lead a revolution in consciousness,

which he felt was the need of the hour.

[radio host] -So we're talking with Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta.

-You know the Hare Krishna chant?

-No, go ahead.

-♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪™

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Rama Rama ♪

♪ Hare Hare... ♪

[Brahmananda] -We were getting a lot of publicity.

Allen Kallman came and wanted to make the record.

[chanting]

There was this station, WBAI, alternative radio,

the top show for interesting talk and alternative music.

And one night he played the record, non-stop,

from 10:00 at night to 6:00 in the morning.

[chanting "Hare Krishna"]

[Yogesvara] -Part of the radical-ness of Prabhupada's mission

was really upsetting the social apple cart

by sending students into the streets to chant and dance.

That's not considered normal behavior.

And yet, it's gripping.

You can't remain indifferent.

[chanting continues]

[Gargamuni] -We used to make these leaflets called "Stay High Forever."

People really got a kick out of those.

People would look at that and say,

"Wow! He is high!

"He's so high, he's trying to keep himself down

just from the mantra."

-If you can think about what you might call "chutzpah,"

[chuckling] this was incredible.

Incorporating an international society

when you're living out of a storefront

and you have no resources whatsoever.

They didn't have any idea what he was doing,

and he assured them, "Well, this is what we're gonna be."

[Govinda] -And he would turn the globe,

and he was studying all the countries of the world.

And sometimes he would say,

"Brahmananda, you shall go to Russia.

Gaurasundar, you go to Japan."

And his plan was to... to send people all over the world.

But you have to realize,

we only had about 12 teenagers.

[Rukmini] -So he was looking into the eyes of each one of us,

saying, "I want each one of you to open a temple somewhere."

And at that time, I was so young and so impetuous,

and I was only 16 years old.

And I just said, "Even the girls?"

Prabhupada looked at me, and he said,

"There is no difference between the boys and the girls.

"When you are teaching Krishna consciousness,

there is no difference."

[Mukunda] -When I was leaving for the West coast,

I was walking out the door, Prabhupada said,

"Just, while you're on the West coast,

try to start a center."

And somehow, that-- that simple phrase, uh...

rang in my mind over and over again.

[rock music playing]

[Shyamasundar] -A car pulled in, and it was Michael and Jan.

They had just driven out from New York.

And the reason they came

was to tell us about this swami they had met.

[Mukunda] -They thought I was pretty cool because of the way that I was

after I had met the swami and I had taken initiation,

so they got enthusiastic and decided

to help found a temple in the San Francisco area,

because they were involved with Ken Kesey

and the movement that he espoused.

[honky tonk music playing]

[Shyamasundar] -San Francisco in those days

was the epicenter of the cultural breakthrough

that we call the hippie movement now.

And in this small neighborhood,

suddenly there were over 100,000 young people.

[honky tonk music playing]

[Malati] -One of the wonderful aspects of the hippies

was they were searching, they were seekers.

They actually wanted something better

than what was being presented to them.

[rock music playing]

[Shyamasundar] -The Avalon Ballroom was a--

an old-time dance venue.

And every weekend,

they would hold rock and roll dances there.

[rock music playing]

[crowd cheering]

[Gurudas] -The rock dances were phenomenal.

They were inexpensive, great performers,

and we all knew each other.

-We had no money to find a place,

an establishment for the swami.

If the Grateful Dead would agree to do

a charity concert with us,

then we could raise some money.

-We were able to actually get these great bands together

to donate for free.

[Shyamasundar] -So we sent tickets

to the swami to come from New York.

The swami comes down, Ralph the dog is running around.

Immediately we see this person.

He is so different than anybody we've ever seen.

He wasn't an old man to us.

He seemed so fresh and young and youthful.

[Mukunda] -It became a very big event.

It was called the Mantra Rock Dance,

and Timothy Leary came.

[Shyamasundar] -And with Allen Ginsberg there to introduce him,

it was the perfect setup.

[Gurudas] -We were afraid the Hell's Angels

were gonna trash us,

so we made them our security.

[Robert Plant's "Skip's Song" playing]

-♪ Take me far away ♪

♪ My wiles and mind can't beat a dream of death today ♪

-♪ Crying, "Save me" ♪

-♪ Save me ♪ -♪ Save me... ♪

-The main thing of the evening was Prabhupada speaking.

And he spoke before this-- this huge gathering.

And even though it was a Sunday night,

the place was-- was packed with people.

[Shyamasundar] -And then all the bands came onstage

and started a spontaneous kirtan.

It was like electricity through this hall.

Everyone felt it.

I could see that he really liked it.

He loved it.

He was into it.

He saw that small speck of seeking in everyone in that room

and made it very big.

Ahh, my-- my estimation of the Swami

increased a million-fold.

[chanting "Hare Krishna"]

[Edwin Bryant] -He embodied spirituality

and his disciples wanted it.

They said, "We want some of that.

Whatever it is he's having, we want-- I want that."

So, this is the guru.

[Dayananda] -So many hippies were really in love with Prabhupada

and in love with the devotees and considered the Hare Krishna

to be the hippie religion at this point.

[reporter] -If everyone in the United States

believed in Krishna to the-- and to the extent that you do,

what would happen to this country?

What would, how would it be transformed?

[laughter]

-What-- what would you describe as a hippie?

Someone who smokes...

[laughter]

[Shyamasundar] -And he sat with us every day, morning and evening,

telling us about Krishna and the philosophy.

[atmospheric music playing]

[Govinda] -We had a wonderful life there.

It was just wonderful.

It couldn't be any better.

It was as good as it could get.

I mean, it was like a family.

[gentle piano music playing]

Then one day, he was trembling all over.

Swamiji had a heart attack.

He was, from all appearances, leaving this world.

And so the devotees were fervently praying,

all night in San Francisco,

all night in New York.

We were praying to Krishna,

"Please, don't take him away."

"He's just come here. Please, we need more time."

[Mukunda] -We never had the feeling that he was ailing and old,

but that he was the leader of the movement,

and we just-- just depended on him.

We couldn't imagine what life would be like without him.

[Damodar] -We were really distraught because we felt

if he goes to India, he's going to stay there.

And we didn't know what to do.

[Rukmini] -So Srila Prabhupada told us,

"Just go on chanting Hare Krishna.

"We will be all packed up together.

"You will be chanting here, and I will be chanting there,

and this vibration will circulate around the planet."

[Krishna Abhishek] -And he turns to the picture

of Bhaktisiddhanta and says,

"Here are a bunch of people, they are not completely trained

"in our theology and practices,

"but they are very sincere and they are very enthusiastic.

"This is your movement. They are your people.

Please take care of them."

[atmospheric music playing]

[Abhirama] -We were lost.

We just couldn't accept the idea that he might never come back.

[atmospheric music playing]

For five months we grieved.

[haunting vocal music playing]

[Govinda] -Then we received word that Prabhupada was better.

[enthusiastic chanting]

We got him back!

Now we had to step it up.

We had to learn as much from him as we could.

[haunting vocal music playing]

[Yogesvara] -From the outset, our intention had been

let's do something really big for Prabhupada.

And there wasn't much bigger in 1968 than The Beatles.

-♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ With a love like that, you know you should be glad ♪

[fans screaming]

♪ With a love like that... ♪

[Shyamasundar] -We got news that the Beatles

had been in Rishikesh, in India, studying with a guru there.

And then "Life" magazine came out with this huge spread.

And their new records came out with all these songs about

Eastern philosophy that we had loved so much.

So I came up with this idea.

Go to London and start a center for Prabhupada

and meet these Beatles.

[rock music playing]

The first thing that we realized when we got to England is that

in order to stand out,

for people to recognize us in this huge metropolis,

we're gonna have to shave our heads.

Up to that time, the thought of shaving

my curly hair was atrocious to me.

I didn't want to do it.

Nor did we want to wrap these bed sheets around us.

Yellow was the color, our first color.

[chuckling] We just thought yellow

would really stand out in London.

[Indian vocal music playing]

We named ourselves Radha Krishna Temple,

the rock group.

[Indian vocal music playing]

We began getting engagements at rock concerts.

-♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare... Hare Rama... ♪

[Shyamasundar] -We used to, almost daily,

go down to the Apple offices and give the staff

and everyone there the food or books.

Unbeknownst to us, George Harrison had got a hold

of the Swami's record called "Krishna Consciousness."

And he told me later

that he was listening to it almost every day.

[George Harrison] -Through the Beatle experience,

I'd experienced so many things,

and met so many people, but I realized

that there was nothing actually

that was giving me a buzz anymore.

I wanted something better.

I remember thinking, "I'd love to meet somebody

who will really impress me."

[Shyamasundar] -He had memorized the swami's introduction to the album.

He knew it word for word.

[Shyamasundar] -One day I wound up in the Apple Records' offices,

and George Harrison was there.

He saw me sitting in a group of people, in the very back.

He opened the door, walked through all these people,

and came over to me and said, "Where have you been?

I've been waiting to meet you."

George came down to see us where we were living

in our warehouse in Covent Garden.

-He so much appreciated the Hare Krishna mantra,

that he immediately said, "Let's make a 45 record."

-So we all went over to Abbey Road studios,

made that record, "Hare Krishna Mantra."

None of us had ever done anything like this before.

Paul McCartney was there, and he volunteered to mix it

in the-- from the control booth,

and George played with us.

He had a little sit-down harmonium

with psychedelic flowers all over it.

And then all the Apple staff who was there

joined in the chorus.

-♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna... ♪

[Shyamasundar] -It sold 70,000 copies the first day.

[Yamuna] -Apple organized tours for us.

We went to Germany and France,

and had television coverage.

-♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare... ♪

-The "Sunday Times" wanted to do a feature on us,

and we were able to send the report

back to Srila Prabhupada with the headlines,

"Krishna Consciousness Startles London."

-♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Rama Rama, Hare Hare ♪

[bell tolls]

[George Harrison] -I became quite friendly at one point

with Swami Bhaktivedanta, who formed the Krishna Temple.

They'd call me up and say, "Come to the temple, um,

the Swami's here and he'd love to see you."

And I'd be like, going through

some private nightmare or something.

And I'd think, "How can I go to the temple when I'm like this?"

But then I'd go, and I'd always walk out of there thinking,

"Oh, thank you, Lord."

[atmospheric music playing]

[Gurudas] -And he said to me at a certain time,

"I want to do songs for Krishna."

We were back stage in Apple and he says, "Here's this song."

And he plays "My Sweet Lord."

[playing "My Sweet Lord"]

[crowd cheering]

-Hare Krishna.

[George Harrison] The music really was the key

that opened the door into the yoga

and the Vedic scriptures,

which is really the foundation of everything.

You know, it gave some sort of...

backbone to my life.

♪ Guru Vishnu ♪

-♪ Hare Krishna ♪

-♪ Gurudeva ♪

-♪ Krishna Krishna... ♪

[George Harrison] -Krishna said there's no time

when we didn't exist,

and there'll be no time when we cease to exist.

The only thing that changes is the body.

♪ Tasmayi Shree ♪

-♪ Hare Rama ♪ -♪ Guruve... ♪

-When George introduced this, it went worldwide.

[upbeat music playing]

-Life was an adventure. He'd call me in and say,

"We got invitations to Paris, Bombay, Sydney,

"and one just arrived from Nairobi.

Where do you think we should go?"

By then I knew to say the wildest place.

"I think we should go to Nairobi."

"I was thinking the same thing."

[chuckling]

He always wanted to go where there was the least development,

where he could contribute the most.

[upbeat music playing]

[playing harmonium]

[chanting]

[Abhirama] -The energy that he displayed was... unimaginable.

I was in my early 20s,

and I could not keep up with him.

[Amarendra] -And then around the late '60s

to the early '70s, ISKCON just exploded.

People were joining left and right.

[Shyamasundar] -He managed to manage everything through his letters.

[Ramesvara] -Prabhupada would be receiving mail

from hundreds of students,

and he would personally write to every one of them.

Prabhupada never got a letter that he didn't answer.

[Mukunda] -Receiving letters from Srila Prabhupada

is what probably kept us going, and whenever a letter came

from Prabhupada, it was usually read out loud.

[Shyamasundar] -And some of those letters

are like two or three pages long

where he answers every aspect.

He'll say do this,

then you do that, then you do this,

and by the way, for Melanie's cough,

you should give her this kind of syrup,

and you know, every detail.

Many times I would be whispering to someone in the hallway,

"No, you can't see him right now."

I would hear, "Let them come in!"

He would see whoever came.

Prabhupada had time for everyone.

[birds chirping]

[Ramesvara] -The only thing is that we will have to delay the loan

because, for the next three months,

all our money will be used to print these 17 books.

As the head of the American BBT,

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, I was the person

that Prabhupada would say, "Okay, now send money here.

Now send money there."

So I was watching Prabhupada

build this Hare Krishna Movement through his book sales.

[Shyamasundar] -He would translate usually after everyone else was asleep.

Oh, say from 11:00 till 3:00, 4:00 in the morning.

-You can imagine at his age, translating so many books,

the Gita, the Srimad Bhagavatam,

which is, like, a huge work, translating 18,000 verses.

Writing a commentary for each one of them.

The intensity and the urgency and the compassion

that comes through every single line.

His words carry so much power.

It's a full expression

of his heart that comes through.

[Shaunaka] -He really transformed people's lives

with his very straightforward translations and commentaries

and purports, very scholarly presentation, in fact.

And he wanted the intellectual class of men to,

as, you know, his words,

to examine and explore these texts.

And he had all kinds of people examine and explore them.

[Vaisesika] -Prabhupada advocated

living in harmony with nature

and having self-sustaining farms,

and to also take advantage of all of the gifts

that God has given us,

and not try to artificially change them,

but take them as they come, as a gift from nature.

[Vaisesika] -He set up simple living

and high thinking as a standard

and showed that if you simply had an acre of land

and took care of it nicely, and you protected the animal,

like the cow especially,

that you could be self-sustaining

and that everything good could come from that.

[folk rock guitar]

-♪ From Bombay to Bangalore ♪

♪ All the Hindus know the score ♪

♪ If you wanna live some more ♪

♪ Hare hare hare... ♪

[Edwin Bryant] -Hare Krishna was a dynamic tradition

that just seemed to be growing so fast.

-The Bhagavad Gita and many other scriptures were translated

into European languages,

into the languages of Africa and Asia.

-Everywhere people went, there were Hare Krishnas.

Comedians would always tell jokes

about the Hare Krishnas in the airports.

-Dinner in first class tonight

will be bean sprouts and broccoli.

-Fine. -And will that be

chanting or non-chanting?

-Chanting please.

[Graham Schweig] -Krishna became a household word

and became part of the cultural scene.

-You! You with the banjo!

Ah, can you help me?

I have lost my sense of direction.

-Have you tried Hare Krishna?

-Ha ha. No.

-Let me ask you, in reincarnation.

does that mean my soul would pass to another human being,

or would I come back as a moose or an aardvark or something?

-Take our literature. -Uh-huh.

-Read it over and think about it.

-♪ Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna Hare ♪

♪ Hare Ram, Hare Ram ♪

♪ Rama Rama, Hare Hare ♪

♪ Krishna... ♪

-I left the supermarket in a really bad mood,

and then I met these very nice people,

the "Hairy Krishnas."

[audience laughing]

They sang me a song, they gave me some rice,

it was just the little pickup I needed.

You know, if I hadn't had to make dinner,

I might've gotten into their van!

[laughing]

[upbeat news theme]

-I understand, but do you feel that in the Bible,

the Quran, and so forth,

don't you run into conflicts at all,

or contradictions in those particular philosophies?

-When something was incorrect,

if something was misleading to Prabhupada,

he would boldly speak out about it.

He was fearless, and he was bold.

[Shyamasundar] -For years he kept saying,

"I want to go to communist countries."

Everyone said, "No, that's not possible.

You just can't go there."

[ominous music playing]

We had just passed through the missile crisis in Cuba.

To give a visa to Americans to travel to Russia in 1971

was just unheard of.

I don't know how it happened.

[chuckling]

As we would pass churches, he would see that

there were armed guards in front of the churches.

Nobody was going in and out.

Prabhupada said after that the ordinary citizens of Russia

are spiritual,

but because of their leaders,

they have no access to God anymore.

I went to a bank to change some money.

Outside the bank,

there were two boys, and they came up to me.

"Do you have any Beatles records?"

I said, "Ah, no, but... The Beatles met my guru,

and he's back in my hotel room."

"Whoa!" [chuckling]

And they came back with me to meet Prabhupada.

But this Russian boy just drank in

every word that Prabhupada said, you know?

He asked the most cogent questions right away.

You know, "Who is God? What-- Who am I?

What am I here for? What is real activity?"

And Prabhupada explained all of that to him

in such concise detail.

He convinced him, completely, beyond any doubt,

that he should take on this mission

and take the greatest risk you can take.

[Niranjana Swami] -Religious books were completely forbidden.

And in fact, if anybody was even caught

producing a religious book... he could be executed.

-I gave him my Bhagavad Gita, and from that text,

he was able to copy it, and translate it,

and spread it throughout all of Russia

during Communist times.

[Niranjana] -Some of the books were...

smuggled into the country.

They would make photocopies of them.

I went to one flat and saw how the--

all the devotees were sitting

with photographed copies of each page,

and they were stitching the books,

putting them together, and going out.

[Shyamasundar] -And from that one little seed,

thousands of Krishna devotees came up.

[gentle Indian music playing]

We all got a letter in late September

with a list of 20 names.

"I want these people to come and join me in India."

I just looked on the list, my name was on it.

And I was over the moon. India at last!

[Edwin Bryant] -And he brought back Westerners wearing saffron,

shaved heads, sikhas, sacred clay, and women in saris.

I mean, this was an incredible sight.

[haunting vocal music playing]

[Shyamasundar] -Americans, Europeans, boys and girls.

And it just took India by storm.

India had ever seen anything like this,

these sadhus from the West!

-People would come up and they'd go like this to our skin

and look at it like maybe it was gonna...

this whiteness was going to come off, you know?

[Surat] -The whole town was just suffused

with Krishna consciousness.

The entire town was on fire with devotion.

[Radhanath Swami] -Prabhupada brought his followers back to India

because he wanted to revive

and tell the people of India that the greatest treasure

is the heritage of your own country.

But you've forgotten it, you've neglected it.

"I've brought these people back

to remind you of what you have forgotten."

[Shyamasundar] -And then we started putting on major festivals.

We got the grounds in the heart of Bombay

and built a huge, elaborate tent.

Several million people, over that ten days,

got to sit and listen to Swamiji speak.

[atmospheric music playing]

[chanting]

[TV announcer] -It's the Ratha Yatra festival coming to the heart of London

from Jagannatha Puri, India.

There, it's a 2,000-year-old festival

attended annually by over a million people.

Here at Marble Arch,

the number of worshipers may be less,

but they are no less devoted

to finding their eternal happiness

in Krishna consciousness.

[gentle piano music playing]

[Mahatma] -The Ratha Yatra festival

is an ancient Indian tradition

that Prabhupada introduced to the West.

The deities spend the whole year in the temple,

and this is the day that they come out of the temple,

so everybody can see them.

[gentle piano music playing]

People seemed to really respond to that idea.

[gentle piano music playing]

[Sruti Kirti] -It was a victory for Prabhupada,

this Ratha Yatra going right down, like,

the main byways there in London to Trafalgar Square.

And he just danced and walked the entire way.

This was conquering London... he conquered the British.

When he was young, when he first met his spiritual master,

he was into the Gandhi movement.

He wasn't into British rule.

So now he came and took over Britain.

[gentle piano music playing]

[Shyamasundar] -We were all so young

and unskilled in managing big things.

They were going on real fast.

He started with two temples.

By the time he came to India,

there were nearly 50 centers worldwide.

That means dedicated centers where devotees lived

and preached Krishna consciousness.

[Mahatma] -And it was an amazing time.

We were excited,

and we were getting revolutionaries,

people who wanted to change the world.

[Yogesvara] -His students were not all hippies.

There were a lot of people of substance and accomplishment,

but spiritually, we were all children.

And he knew that.

He also knew that... this was an emergency.

However much time he had left, he had to establish

the foundation of an international society.

[Mahatma] -And he was very confident that, if we follow our principles

and we maintain our purity, we will be successful.

[Larry Shin] -A guru inspires, teaches,

tries to set in a positive direction.

But ultimately, every one of us

live out our own religious life.

-Mistakes can be our best...

way of learning anything.

And Prabhupada knew that there were going to be mistakes.

-And gradually, as we learned how to distribute

Prabhupada's books, money came in.

And some people who were salesmen decided,

as salesmen sometimes do, stretch the truth a little bit.

And people would tell Prabhupada,

"You know, Prabhupada, they're saying

"when they distribute a book,

that the money is going to Bangladesh."

And Prabhupada said, "If that's what you're saying,

that's where it has to go."

And he said, "You need to learn how to get people motivated

"to buy the book by convincing them

"how this book will help them.

That's the purity of a spiritual salesman."

So we were genuinely motivated, but we were a little aggressive.

[chanting "Hare Krishna"]

[TV reporter] -Many would consider members of the Hare Krishna sect

to be little more than a noisy nuisance.

They've been labeled dangerous religious fanatics

and lumped together with cults,

but the Krishnas say they're simply misunderstood.

-They are the mafia of the religious world.

As a matter of fact, they have ties

to the organized crime families of the United States.

-Now, that's a serious charge. -It sure is.

-Are you saying that crime is an organized planned program

of the Hare Krishna?

[man] -Yes.

-The scholars called it the NRMs,

the New Religious Movements.

-The story you are about to see is a parent's nightmare:

the story of a family whose daughter disappeared.

When they finally found her, they had to fight

just to get to talk with her because she had joined a cult.

[Amarendra] -Thousands and thousands of young people

leaving their former religions and joining the NRMs.

The parents and the religious leaders,

there was a tremendous backlash.

[TV announcer] -Cheryl Zimmera is 18.

She tried university and a job in treasury

before leaving both to join the sect a few months ago.

Today, after her initiation by the spiritual master,

she says she's found true happiness.

But her mother and her aunt are not so sure.

-She's given up university to do this.

Given up everything, she's not working.

And I can't see any future in it at all.

What's going to happen in ten years' time?

-Your mother is-- is worried that, in fact,

all the things you are saying, uh,

are largely due to brainwashing.

Are you worried that she's worried?

-Oh, yes, I'm worried that she's worried,

but I don't think she should be.

-These parents became alarmed.

-'Cause they were actually kidnapping people.

You'd be walking down the street,

and they would just throw you in a car.

[tires screeching]

And they'd say, "Your parents are in the car behind us.

We need to talk to you."

And they'd put you in a hotel.

Parents were hiring people who would kidnap us

and try to deprogram us.

So there was a whole business started of deprogramming.

-You think that these groups have techniques of mind control

that you feel are dangerous?

-Yes. Hare Krishna is one of the, the main one.

Uh, and, uh, they use the same technique--

It's no different from Guyana, uh, Jim Jones.

It's no different from Hitler.

-The anti-cult movement developed this theory

that anybody that would join one of these movements

could not possibly have done so voluntarily.

It had to be the victim of mind control,

that they were brainwashed.

Of course, Prabhupada had admitted many times,

"Yes, we are brainwashing.

The brain is very dirty, and we are cleaning it!"

This was a case, "People vs. Murphy."

Criminal charges brought against two devotees

in the Supreme Court of New York City.

This was an attack on everything that we stand for.

On the fundamental principles of the Bhagavad Gita,

that the Bhagavad Gita is a tool of mind control.

[Hari Sauri] -Prabhupada said our defense statement

is the whole Srimad Bhagavatam, the Bhagavad Gita,

the Nectar of Devotion, the Nectar of Instruction.

He said, "You present all of our books."

He said, "Let the case go on for years."

The more he got attacked, the more energized he became.

He was a fighter.

Prabhupada loved a good fight.

[Mahatma] -In the end, Justice Leahy

of the New York Supreme Court said, quote,

"They were reaping the benefits of a bona fide religion

with roots in India that go back thousands of years."

-We have a right, an absolute right in this country,

to believe in anything that we want.

[gentle music playing]

This is always considered to be a watershed event.

It's mentioned in all the law review articles,

it's mentioned in all the articles

on the history of the anti-cult movement.

It's had an impact all over the country.

[gentle music playing]

You know, that was a big victory for Prabhupada.

[sweeping orchestral music playing]

[Gauravani] -Prabhupada believed that Krishna's love

would supersede any obstacle.

The idea that God's love is more powerful than anything else

and that it will come like a tsunami down the street.

-♪ Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama, Hare Rama ♪

♪ Hare Rama, Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama, Hare Rama ♪

♪ Hare Rama, Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama... ♪

-There was never a day that just didn't astonish me.

There was never a moment when I would walk up to his door

to go in when I wouldn't just be totally...

ahh... full of excitement.

That I never knew what was going to happen

the moment I opened that door.

[Rukmini] -Prabhupada was quite unlike

any teacher we'd ever known.

There was no gap between what he spoke and what he lived.

[Ghosh] -He shared his particular love for his followers,

and they shared love with each other.

That is the heart of what holds his movement together.

And that was his last request:

"If you love me, please work with each other,

despite differences."

[Hari Sauri] -He was not at all disturbed in his consciousness

by the breakdown of his body.

You could see, here's a person that really understands

he's not this body.

I was there when he was still translating the Bhagavatam

two weeks before he left the planet.

[atmospheric music playing]

[bells jingling]

[Indian music playing]

-♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama Hare ♪

♪ Rama Rama Ram Rama ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

[man with crowd] -♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Rama Rama ♪

[crowd] -♪ Hare Hare ♪

[man] -One more time, real loud.

[all] -♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

[crowd] -♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Rama Rama ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

[man] -♪ Hare Krishna ♪

[crowd cheering]

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Rama Rama ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

[crowd] -♪ Hare Krishna ♪

[man] -Whoa!

[crowd] -♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Rama Rama ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

[man] -♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Krishna ♪

♪ Krishna Krishna ♪

♪ Hare Hare ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Hare Rama ♪

♪ Rama Rama... ♪

[atmospheric music playing]