Sebastopol

Sixty miles north of San Francisco is a hippie commune famous in the Haight-Ashbury scene. Morning Star Ranch serves as a haven for the counter-cultural "heads" with spiritual aspirations who want to get away from the city and live in a natural environment. Hippie ideals are espoused here and practiced candidly. It is a wide open commune owned by a free-thinking bohemian Lou Gottlieb, a former singer with the Limelighters. His wooded, hilly land is open to anyone and everyone as "an act of love and peace." Extending an invitation to the Swami, Lou comes on a Saturday morning to pick up Srila Prabhupada and some of the devotees. Lou Gottlieb: On the way out I was showing off my vast erudition in having read a biography of RamaKrishna. That's when Bhaktivedanta gave the best advice to the aspirant I ever heard. We were talking about RamaKrishna and Vivekananda and Aurobindo and this and that. So he said, "You know," putting a gentle hand on my knee, "when you have found your true path, all further investigation of comparative religion is merely sense enjoyment." Driving through forests of towering redwood trees reaching over two hundred feet into the sky, the car finally pulls into the ranch just past noon. As he walks towards the main house, Srila Prabhupada notices some of the residents on the "clothes optional" farm busy gardening. Lou explains that some of the members also live in the forest, in the hollows of giant redwood trees. After a brief rest Prabhupada is ready to start the program. Lou escorts him to a meadow up on a hill and offers him a wooden seat. The commune members, many of whom are unclothed, sit at his feet anticipating the group meditation. Prabhupada picks up his kartals and begins kirtan. Gaurahari: It was quite an amazing day. There was a hill on the farm and they had a big cross on that hill. They decorated it with scotch broom flowers that were available at the time. A yellow flower. It was an amazing scene because half the people were naked and Prabhupada was just sitting amongst them chanting. They were on top of the hill and they started dancing and chanting. It was quite a beautiful thing. The devotees from San Francisco came out with Prabhupada. There were no dhotis then and some of them wore beards. The kirtan has a big impact on the commune members. To Srila Prabhupada these people are living like monkeys, so he gives a short talk on markata-vairagya. He explains that monkeys are also quite renounced, living in the forest without clothing and taking vegetarian food. But at the same time they have so many bad habits and no understanding of God. Spiritual life means to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, and to serve Him. The best method to attain this spiritual consciousness is to constantly chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. In this way one becomes transcendentally situated and realizes his self as spirit soul, beyond the designations of the body. Prabhupada looks at them very gravely, and they feel he is looking right into their hearts. Madhudvisha: Some people had clothes on, some people didn't. Some were dancing around. But Swamiji wasn't looking at our bodies, he was looking at our souls and giving us the mercy we needed. Having touched the hearts of these youths, his influence will bring many of them to the point of wanting to be Krishna conscious. Everybody crowds around to wish the Swami and the devotees a fond farewell at the end of the program. One of them, now fully clothed, returns to the temple with the devotees. Gaurahari: Devananda left with Prabhupada that day. From that point, on the whole farm, people were chanting. They weren't chanting before that. I didn't join right away, but I started chanting a little bit. That's when I became a vegetarian. It is a historic irony that Prabhupada transplants an ancient, orthodox, demanding religious system in the heart of hippiedom, where do-your-own-thing is the raison d'?tre. That Jayananda becomes the older brother and role model for hippies plunging into the ISKCON experiment is another irony. The Hare Krishna mantra closes the gap between generations. A few days later Prabhupada is ready to return to New York. Only ten weeks ago he had arrived as a stranger, yet now as he prepares to board the plane, his followers are feeling pangs of separation. But he must tend to his flock on the East Coast too, so they can maintain whatever Krishna consciousness they have. In a shorter period a lot more has been accomplished than in New York. Jagannath Deities have been installed, and the worship must be maintained. The prasadam distribution program increases as more young people pour into Haight-Ashbury in search of a dream. They begin to attend the daily lunch program and some become devotees. Jayananda keeps everyone enlivened by his sincerity and tireless enthusiasm. On Prabhupada's request they are planning a Ratha-yatra festival. They carry on the programs he has introduced and seek out new places to chant, like Fisherman's Wharf and Union Square. Happily engaged in the service of Lord Jagannath, the San Francisco devotees hear the news of Prabhupada's festive return to New York. The reports come daily as Hayagriva and Kirtanananda are always on the phone. They hear about a Cosmic Love-In at an East Village theater that Prabhupada has been invited to attend. His fledgling ISKCON is taking root in the New York scene. Timothy Leary is also involved with the Love-In, but he's not meeting with the same success since the police paid him a visit. Mohanananda: We were all arrested and Millbrook folded. One day I was in New York walking by the temple and Rayarama was lecturing. I really felt, and could understand, how this person was a jiva soul and his body was like a puppet. For me it was the beginning of aham brahmasmi. I could see that the jiva soul was operating his body. Brahmananda was in charge then and I stayed for lunch. It was like stumbling onto some primeval ashram. I was absolutely blown away by it.