The story you are about to read is, like many true stories, highly improbable. An elderly Indian swami comes to New York City in the mid-1960s on a vaguely defined mission. Charged by his teacher in India to bring his spiritual message to the West, he arrives in New York with no prior knowledge of America, no base of support, almost no money, and no clear plan of action. He moves about the city somewhat aimlessly, lives for a while in an artist's loft on the Bowery, and finally-with help from a few early followers-rents a storefront building in the area known as East Village, the heart of the 1960s drug and counterculture movement. There he begins to preach an unlikely message of sexual restraint, abstention from drugs, and purity of mind and body-and in behalf of devotion to the Hindu God Krsna.
What follows is a remarkable tale of faith, determination, and success beyond anyones expectation. The present volume gives only the beginnings of the story, but it tells us in fascinating detail how the first seeds of success were planted in what seemed such unpromising ground. It is a very human story, with a very human A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami at the center.
Religions are a composite of many factors, some of which are largely collective products such as social movements, institutions, and systems of belief and practice. The history of religions is often put in terms of these relatively objective factors, so that religious history becomes part of the more general history of various times and places. The story of Bhaktivedanta Swami reminds us forcefully that there are other factors, more personal and elusive, which also shape the history of world religion. Social and cultural factors make a difference, but so also do individuals: holy men,