The Hare Krishna Movement

By Janaspriha das

I was at the Vancouver temple on 16 Avenue and had been living at the temple for a few months when I heard that Srila Prabhupada was coming to L.A. I’d never seen Prabhupada before so I got very excited as I knew that I must meet him! I asked Bahudak, who was the temple president, that I wanted to go to meet Prabhupada. He said, “If you want to please Prabhupada, you stay here and do your service.” So I said, “OK, prabhu.” (yeah, right) As soon as he left I ran upstairs to the brahmacari ashram and just grabbed my red coat. I ran out the back door into the alley and escaped! I didn’t have any money and I was in Canada. During those years the hippie movement was very prominent therefore the US customs made it difficult to enter the US without money. So there I am, shaved head, dhoti, tilak, bead bag and penniless! The boarder guards started laughing and said “looks like we got ourselves a strange Mormon!” Within that laughter It seemed as though Krishna’s yogamaya took over and they waved me past. At this point a great triumph overwhelmed me as I had made it across the border! I start hitchhiking and got almost to the Oregon state line the first night, where I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere. I crawled under a barbed wire fence and slept snuggly under a tree that seemed to have a God-made cradle under it’s protective branches. Around sunrise I was rudely awakened by a slight tremor and loud heavy breathing. I was afraid to open my eyes! I mustered up the courage to do so and there just inches away from my face, stood a huge bull! Unluckily, I had my bright red coat on and the bull was preparing to charge! I immediately started praying to Krishna to please save me!