After Srila Prabhupada’s April 1969 visit to our university in Buffalo, NY, my friend Loren became much more involved with the Hare Krishna temple. It was all he would talk about, and he drew people into constant philosophical discussions, repeating what he had heard at the temple, inserting his own doubts and views, and trying to get others to help him sort it all out. But not many of the students were very philosophical, myself included; still somehow Loren would gradually dispense with his uncertainties and he became more and more convinced of the transcendental knowledge of Bhagavad Gita. He relished the exercise of these deliberations, and this went on for many months. Meanwhile I was rather uninterested in his ongoing “should I, shouldn’t I” join the Hare Krishnas dilemma. He tried to get me to join him on the campus lawn where the devotees would be engaged in kirtan, sitting and swaying with closed eyes in a circle. I watched from a distance but was too shy; the strangely exotic sound of the drum and hand cymbals was attractive but I could not overcome my social awkwardness. Then the devotees would chant in the Student Union hallway, and Loren was again there with them, enjoying the publicity and the meditational singing of the Hare Krishna mantra. I struggled to walk by without making eye contact. Whenever there was a chance, I would distract Loren with other agendas.

A total of sixteen students from SUNY at Buffalo eventually became devotees, drawn from the sixty enrolled students and some auditing students who also attended Rupanuga’s Transcendental Meditation class, plus others who watched through the glass windows from the hallway. Trivikram, Bhurijan, Prahladananda, Jagadish, Bhagavan, Krishna Bhamini, Janmanjaya, Taradasi, Satchitananda, Laxmimoni, Satyanarayan, Gunagrahi, Narottamananda (Loren), myself, and a few others. Rupanuga’s confidence, seriousness, and academic demeanor was very effective in holding the students attention and attracting them to the process of chanting (kirtan), which began and ended each class session. Finally, Rupanuga would cut up an apple or two into small pieces, mix it with raisins, and pass it around as a sort of ritual sacrament, but I did not like unpeeled apples. Continue reading →