Bill Epstein 

Harvey Cohen and Bill Epstein were friends.  Harvey was a freelance artist and Bill worked at The Paradox.  After Harvey had been to Prabhupada’s place at Dr. Mishra’s yoga studio a few times, he came by The Paradox and began to describe all about the new Swami to Bill and other friends.

Bill:  I was working at The Paradox one night and Harvey came to me and said, “I went to visit Mishra and there’s a new Swami there, and he’s really fantastic!”  Well I was involved in macrobiotics and Buddhism, so at first, I couldn’t care less.  But Harvey was a winning and warm personality and he seemed interested in this.  He said, ‘Why don’t you come uptown?  I would like you to see this.’

So I went to one of the lectures on 72^nd Street.  I walked in there and I could feel a certain presence from the Swami.  He had a certain very concentrated, intense appearance.  He looked pale and kind of weak.  I guess he had just come here and had been through a lot of things.  He was sitting there chanting on his beads, which he carried in a little bead bag.  One of Dr. Mishra’s students was talking and he finally got around to introducing the Swami.  He said, “We are the moons to the Swami’s sun.” He introduced him in that way.  The Swami got up and talked.  I didn’t know what to think about it.  At that time, the only steps I had taken in regard to Indian teachings were with Ramakrishna, and this was the first time, to my knowledge, that bhakti religion had come to America.

Bill Epstein was a dashing, romantic person with long, wavy dark hair and a beard.  He was good-looking and effervescent, and took upon himself a role of informing people at the restaurant of the City’s spiritual news.  Once he became interested in the new Swami, he made the Swami an ongoing topic of conversation at the restaurant. 

Bill:  I went in the back and asked Richard, the manager, “I am going to take some food to the Swami.  You don’t mind, do you?”  He said, “No, take anything you want.”  So I took some brown rice and other stuff and I brought it up there. 

I went upstairs and I knocked on the door and there was no answer.  I knocked again and I saw that the light was on – because it had a glass panel – and finally he answered.  I was really scared because I had never really accepted any teacher.  He said, “Come in!  Come in!  Sit down.”  We started talking and he said to me, “The first thing that people do when they meet is to show each other love.  They exchange names, they exchange something to eat.”  So, he gave me a slice of apple and he showed me the tape recorder he had, probably for recording his chants.  Then he said, “Have you ever chanted?”  I said, “No, I haven’t chanted before.”  So he played a chant, and then he spoke to me some more.  He said, “You must come back.”  I said, “Well, if I come back, I’ll bring you some more food.”