That's how "Spiritual Sky" was born

Swarup: In '69 at 61 (2nd Ave) Gargamuni and I were trying to develop an incense business. First we asked Srila Prabhupada for permission; i.e. would it be authorized activity or maya. Srila Prabhupada said he wanted to think about it for a few days. Then he called us to his room and said that the Rama Krishna Mission in India does it, so we could also. (There is a historical connection between RKM in Calcutta and Srila Bhakti Siddhanta's Gaudiya Math of the 1930's, which is a story unto itself.)

New York Yellow Pages directed us where to get the scented oils, but we couldn't figure out where to get the sticks for dipping. Then someone recalled how as kids we lit our July 4th firecrackers with these slow burning "punks." The crackers were Chinese and so were the punks. Down in Chinatown, we found tons of punks, cheap as anything. All that was left was a brand name.

We debated over "Krishna", "Hare Krishna", "Lord Chaitanya", etc. but none seemed right. Finally, I reverted back to my pre-devotee days when I used to make major decisions by consulting the I Ching Book of Changes. You ask the book a question, open the book randomly, point to text on the page, and start reading. And the book always answered your question. So, I took out a copy of the first volume of the Indian Srimad Bhagavatam, opened it and here's what I read. "In the spiritual sky, the effulgence of Brahman is spread all round and the whole system is dazzling in spiritual light. The Mahat Tattva is assembled in some corner of that vast unlimited spiritual sky and the part which is thus covered by the Mahat Tattva is called the material sky. This part of the spiritual sky, called the Mahat Tatwa, is only an insignificant portion of the whole spiritual sky, and within this Mahat Tattva there are innumerable universes." And, that's how "Spiritual Sky" was born, straight from Srila Prabhupada's purport.