Beginning of the Hare Krishna Movement

(written on Nov 22, 2019)

(Reference: SP Lecture on SB 2.1.1)

Srila Prabhupada started the Hare Krsna movement by doing sankirtan on the streets of New York when he first arrived. He explains this in his lecture on SB 2.1.1: “So I began in this New York in that storefront simply by chanting. So i did not bribe you American boys and girls to come after me. This is the only asset was chanting. That in Tompkinson Square Park, this Bramhananda Swami he first came to dance in my chant. [laughter] He and Acyutanananda, that was the first dancing of our Krsna consciousness movement.” Srila Prabhupada explains this to substantiate the power of chanting the holy names of the Lord. As he chanted the Mahamantra, he drew flocks of people in and many people began dancing and singing along to the transcendental sound vibrations of the holy names.

Only in this way, Srila Prabhupada mentioned, he was able to establish the Hare Krsna movement. He said, “So I was chanting Hare Krsna for from two to five, three hours, and so many boys and girls were coming and joining, and there was first photograph in the Times, New York Times, they appreciated, and people also appreciated. So this chanting, the beginning was only chanting. There was no, nothing more.”