With the Swami in the Temple

We like to remember the simplicity and innocence of those days at 26 Second Avenue when Swamiji chanted Hare Krishna surrounded by wild Americans who he had turned into ecstatic chanters of the holy name.  We were crude, but Prabhupada refined us little by little.

Would I like to go back to those days?  Perhaps I am holding on to some romantic conception of myself and my relationship with Prabhupada.  I had so many material desires then.  I must be in better shape now.  I really wouldn’t want to go back, at least not as I am now.  But those days were full of the freshness of hope and faith and Krishna conscious spirit that we had in 1966.  Krishna consciousness in New York City … I was there!  Swamiji was there!  It happened, by Krishna’s grace.  The spirit of 26 Second Avenue was summed up by Prabhupada: “These boys, you will see that they are practically thinking of Krishna twenty-four hours a day.  We have so many engagements.  We have manufactured engagements.  Someone is typing; someone is editing; someone is writing; someone is distributing or dispatching; someone is cooking.”  I don’t know whether we really can ever go back, but ultimately that “going back” means returning to the spiritual world.  That is the meaning of 26 Second Avenue.