James Greene

James Greene, a thirty-year-old carpentry teacher at Cooper Union, was delving into Eastern philosophy.  He lived on the same block as The Paradox and began hearing about the Swami from Harvey Cohen and Bill Epstein, while regularly taking his evening meal at the restaurant. 

James:  It was really Harvey and Bill who got things going.  I remember one evening at Mishra’s in which Swamiji was only a presence, but did not speak.  Mishra’s students seemed more into the bodily aspect of yoga.  This seemed to be one of Swamiji’s complaints. 

His room on 72^nd Street was quite small.  He was living in a fairly narrow room with the door on the one end.  Swamiji would set himself up along one side and we were rather closely packed.  It would have been no more than eight feet wide, and it was rather dim.  He sat on his thin mattress, and then we sat on the floor. 

We wouldn’t chant.  We would just come and he would lecture.  There was no direction, other than the lecture on the Bhagavad-gita.  I had read a lot of literature and in my own way I was looking for a master, I think.  I have no aggression in me, or go-getting quality.  I was really just a listener, and this seemed right – hearing the Bhagavad-gita – so I kept coming.  It just seemed as if things would grow from there.  More and more people began coming.  Then it got crowded and he had to find another place.