The New Hip Crowd

The new group from The Paradox was young and hip, in contrast to the elder, more conservative uptown people who had been attending Prabhupada’s classes.  In those days, it was still unusual to see a person with long hair and a beard, and once such people started coming to the Swami’s meetings on the West Side, some of the older people were alarmed.  As one of them noted: “Swami Bhaktivedanta began to pick up another kind of people.  He picked them up at the Bowery; or some addicts.  And they came with funny hats and grey blankets wrapped around themselves, and they startled me.