Prabhupada’s Chant Versus LSD

Greg Scharf (Brahmananda’s brother) hadn’t tried LSD, but he wanted higher consciousness so he decided to try the chanting.

Greg:  I was eighteen.  Everyone at the storefront had taken LSD and I thought maybe I should too, because I wanted to feel like part of the crowd.  So I asked Umapati, “Hey, Umapati, do you think I should try LSD?  Because I don’t know what you guys are talking about.”  He said no, that Swamiji said you didn’t need LSD.  I never did take it, so I guess it was OK.

Hayagriva:  Have you ever heard of LSD?  It’s a psychedelic drug that comes like a pill, and if you take it you can get religious ecstasies.  Do you think this can help my spiritual life?

Prabhupada:  You don’t need to take anything for your spiritual life.  Your spiritual life is already here.

Had anyone else said such a thing, Hayagriva would never have agreed with him.  But because Swamiji seemed “so absolutely positive”, therefore there was no question of not agreeing.

Satsvarupa:  I knew Swamiji was in a state of exalted consciousness, and I was hoping that somehow he could teach the process to me.  In the privacy of his room, I asked him, “Is there spiritual advancement that you can make from which you won’t fall back?”  By his answer—“Yes”—I was convinced that my own attempts to be spiritual on LSD, only to fall down later, could be replaced by a total spiritual life such as Swamiji had.  I could see he was convinced, and then I was convinced.

Greg:  LSD was like the spiritual drug of the times and Swamiji was the only one who dared to speak out against it, saying it was nonsense.  I think that was the first battle he had to conquer in trying to promote his movement on the Lower East Side.  Even those who came regularly to the storefront thought that LSD was good.