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Vartmana Pradarshaka Gurudeva George Harrison
by Raghavendu das

Dear Bhakta Jerry,

Thank you for your nice offering on the disappearance of Bhakta George Harrison. When I joined the Boston Temple in May of 1971 the ISKCON Press had moved to Brooklyn one week earlier taking with then about 50 initiated devotees. What remained were four initiated devotees and twenty uninitiated. The initiated devotees were Satsvarupa and Harer Nama Prabhus and Mothers Gauri and Prabhavati All the uninitiated devotees ( including the future Dhrstadyumna, Suhotra and Mathuresh Prabhus) had joined Srila Prabhupada’s movement in late ‘70 and early ‘71.

Of course everyone was very keen on telling each other the story of his or her conversion to Krishna Consciousness. After a while I realized that almost all of us were deeply affected by George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album, released in the spring of 1970. After all, we were almost all former "heads" and Beatles fans to the extreme. To say that our generation was obsessed with the Beatles is an understatement.

Clearly, the most potent song on the album was "My Sweet Lord," in which George Harrison introduced millions of people to the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. The kirtan on that album is unbelievably beautiful. Also it must be noted that how he transitioned from Halleluyah to Hare Krishna and the song’s title was a brilliant way of introducing people to the personal conception of God. And the lyrics "It takes so long, I know" reflects the mood of separation given by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

One week after I joined, we received the first copies of the Krishna Book at the Boston Temple. We would all show the guests at the Sunday feast George’s introduction. If anyone was thinking of blooping at that point, forget it! A few days later, several copies of the Radha Krishna Temple album arrived from London.

It seemed that Prabhupada and Krishna were acting through George Harrison and a huge wave of Krishna Consciouness was inundating the world. During that small slice of time, ‘70 through ‘72, I would estimate that as many as 25 percent of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples joined ISKCON and most of them were very much indebted to the service of Bhakta George Harrison, our vartmanapradarshaka guru, the guru who shows the path.

Sincerely, Raghavendu das
(Santa Cruz, CA)

© CHAKRA 5 December 2001