* the LOVE GOD, featuring the one and only DON KNOTTS *
Electra Woman and Dyna Girl were previously here only to be replaced by this unique abstract design...
updated as of feb 19th '03
I would like to offer my respects to George Harrison, who was more than instrumental in bringing me to Krsna Consciousness. I first heard the Radha Krsna Temple album in the late 60s. when it went to the top of the hit parade in England. I saw his Krsna Books presented to Srila Prabhupada the night they came off the press in Kensington Town Hall, London in 1970. I bought his album ' Living in the material world' (which really finished me off and thats when I went to the Bhaktivedanta Manor and surrendered to Srila Prabhupada at that point.
I was always struck by George's humility. I remember him prostating himself in full dandavats to his music guru Ravi Shankar in the Royal Albert Hall in front of the full house. I would admit that when he left us last week I felt as overwhelmed as when Srila Prabhupada left the planet. I think this is simply because there are so few souls one truly feels are an ally. It was my experience that George Harrisons affinity for Krsna and his musical devotion to the transcendental path of Krsna consciousness opened and moved my heart and continues to do so . In that regard I offer my full respects. It is my hope that his wife and son can remain in the privacy of the mood of George.
With respects and eternal gratitude, Nandapatni devi dasi Santa Cruz California
12/05/2001
In a way George Harrison had a lot to do with me becoming interested in Krishna. When I was 19 and living in Philadelphia, I moved into a row home on Regent St. in West Philly. The devotees had found a new store front down town and needed someone to sublet the house on Regent so they could move Lord Jaganath to the new downtown temple site. I took over their lease for them and moved in.
It was 1969 and the Radha Krishna Temple album was just produced by Apple records thanks to George. Mail was still arriving for the devotees at the address and I would usually bring it to them when I visited their new temple. As a teen ager I worked for four years in a record store and had a record collection to die for. I was really into music; all kinds of music. One day at the home I was renting arrived a promotional copy of the Radha Krishna Temple album and I was so curious about it that I opened it and played it. I played it and played it, over and over and over again. I decided right then and there that I was not going to forward that piece of mail to the Hare Krishnas and instead I play it until it wore out. Three years later I joined the Miami temple. Witness the power of the Holy Name.
Thank you George for your spiritual insight and dedication to your spiritual Quest.
Nikunjavasini dasi, Alachua, FL
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12/02/2001
Saved by The Visnujanas and Namabhasa
I was living at a rather prestigious boarding school in New England in the late '60's. During those exciting times of the drug culture, I distinctly remember how the classmate nextdoor used to constantly play George Harrison's, "My Sweet Lord," and the sound tract from the musical, "Hair," which also featured a refrain of the maha-mantra. The effect of hearing the Hare Krsna maha-mantra repeatedly over time inevitably created deep impressions within my mind and ultimately had profound effect. Although I was not even conscious of the mantra at the time -- how it was pronounced, what it meant, or anything -- simply hearing the sound "Hare Krsna" was mystically transforming me.
Three years later at a college in Amherst, Mass., just after I had turned 18, I suddenly and unexplicably began to chant the entire maha-mantra by heart, "Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare," but without ever having previously uttered it or commited it to memory. Two hours later, I was hitch-hiking and, as if in answer to a prayer, picked up by HH Visnujana Maharaja and his traveling bus ("The Magical Mystery Tour," as I personally dubbed it). The "Visnujanas" (devotees) then took me to the Boston Temple, and I joined the Temple that very night. It was Lord Nrsimhadeva's Appearance Day. Two weeks later, I saw Srila Prabhupada in New York, and I subsequently took initiation from him.
There is supreme power in the Holy Name, even by namabhasa (a reflection of the Name), as long as one chants it without offenses. We must believe this and never allow our faith to falter and thus give up this chanting.
George Harrison's singing undoubtedly played a key role in my deliverance. I guess that continuing to chant as sincerely and unashamedly as George did is the only way I can ever hope to repay him. Hare Krsna. Srila dasa srila108@hotmail.com
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12/01/2001
Thank you for your timely article. You handled the subject of George's passing with insight and devotion.
In 1972 I bought a Krsna Book trilogy from two traveling bramacaris who approached me as I sat outside my dorm room at the University of New Mexico studying for finals. The introduction by George Harrison convinced me.
The books sat on my shelf for years, until I read a Back to Godhead magazine I found on the sidewalk. I was fascinated by the mention of a book called Srimad Bhagavatam. I had taken several philosophy courses, and had never even heard of it. On an impulse, I searched my bookshelf, and took out the light blue box containing three paperbacks. On the back, I read that this was the tenth canto of the ancient scripture, Srimad Bhagavatam.
I couldn't believe my good fortune, and I spent the summer of 1975 with a volume of Krsna Book tucked into the pocket of my overalls, as I rode my bike between the buildings of the U NM campus.
A group of friends and I decided to drive up to Boulder Colorado to see a George Harrison concert. I knew I had to see him in person. At the concert, George spoke between sets, "You're all so loving toward me, but it's the soul you really love. I'm not this bag of bones. What you see here, the body, isn't me. I'm the soul inside."
The encore that night was "My Sweet Lord". George had the audience chanting Hare Krsna and dancing in the aisles. He had the house lights turned on, and I found myself jumping and singing in the midst of my first kirtan.
Thank you, George, Braja Banesvari devi dasi
* BESTFRIENDS movie poster of '75*
great image eh ? :)
