Sing, Dance and Pray - 1

• i encounted ISKCON many times, but never paid attention much to it. Never wondered why the swami had the prefix AC in fron t of him. How did this particular strain of hinduism become popular in the west?
• This book answers these quesitons, although it does come off as hagiography
• Born Abhay Charan. (That's the AC of AC Bhaktivedanata)
• Born in a family of Suvarnavabanik
• Backdrop of Gaudiya vaishnavism in Bengal and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
• Bhaktivinoda Thakur and his son/heir/disciple Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati led a movement of Gaudiya mutt that challenged orthodoxy and brought krishna closer o masses, just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
• Abhay Charan was initiated into deeksha by Siddhantha Sarasvati. Both Vinoda Thakur and Siddhantha Sarasvati were big into book publishing and spreading the word of god thru books.
• Abhay Charan had this idea of spreading thru books thorouhly implante din his mind.
• Bhakti Sidhanta Sarasvati also implants another key idea in AC’s mind; He wished krishna’s name spread and chant in the west. He encourages AC to communicate his ideas in english. AC also has the idea of cooking delicios vegetarian food and serving folks and relishing in their apetite.
• Abhay Charan got married, had kids and worked as a pharmacist in Bombay for many years; before he lunged back into krishna
• He leave shis family behind and goes back to Vrindavan and Delhi and starts translating Bhagavadgita and Bhagavatam. The project is massive and is estimated to be several tens of volumes. He finishes the first part of the multivolume series and starts looking for a book publisher.
• He spends all his savings on this and doesnt compromise on the quality of paper or the quality of colors.
• He somehow manages to print the first volume and talks to several book publishers including Gorakpur press
• He takes sanyasa in 1959 at the age of 64. He also becomes Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami
• Things somehow happen and he travels to New York for the first time thru Cochin on a ship at the ripe old age of 69, in 1965; He suffers a couple of cardiac arrests en route and somehow survives
• Its suppposed to be a temporary trip; but things slowly work out
• The backdrop for this visit is - the world is at the peak of nuclear cold war; america’s involvement in vietnam has been ratcheting up; Usage of LSD and other drugs has been up
• He starts small first in Butler, PA, but more formally in New York. BY coincidence he rents a small room in a neighborhood that has artitsts and a cafe that serves vegetarian food. That cafe had to leave the neighborhood. Bhaktivedanta Swami starst serving khichidi and dal roti in his neigborhood.
• He officially establishes Iskcon and starts a chanting in a local park
• His chance encounter with a talented liberal poet Allen Ginsberg happens around this time (who later wins a Pulitzer prize). This encounter plays a significant role in Iskcon gaining momentum