Ohio Newsletter:

Columbus, Ohio, ISKCON, 318 E. 20th Ave: Prabhupad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami arrived Friday, and our Kirtan at the Columbus airport attracted attention in local papers ("Undoubtedly the most exotic procession ever to grace the airport portals"-Citizen Journal). Guests crowded the new Hare Krishna center to hear a talk delivered as soon as Prabhupad arrived. Kirtans have been lively. Poet Allen Ginsberg arrived and spent the night and next day at the temple conversing with Prabhupad and chanting. He was especially impressed with the Aratrik ceremony, especially the music, which was "the most beautiful I've heard in years."

Several days later Prabhupad and Ginsberg filled a campus auditorium (which seated 750) to twice the capacity. Students flooded the stage and aisles, and when we started chanting they immediately responded. Within five minutes the chant was out of our control. Over 1500 students were roaring Hare Krishna, standing in their seats, waving their arms, dancing in the aisles and on stage. Ginsberg, sweat pouring down his face, chanted and danced ecstatically. When his garland broke in the melee, we seized the flowers and started throwing them to the students who clambered for them. Then Prabhupad stood on his dais and all the students rose to their feet. He gave his garland to Kirtanananda and indicated that we were to throw the flowers to the audience. The students grabbed them, then joined arms to dance. Prabhupad began jumping up and down and the dais bounced.

All this went on for thirty minutes. Then Ginsberg gave a talk to introduce Prabhupad, and then Prabhupad talked. The students were attentive, though hot and exhausted from the chanting and dancing. Then, remarkably enough, we had a second Hare Krishna Kirtan which was as wild as the first. The sound rose to a grand cataclysmic roar and the stage thundered with dancing. NBC-TV shot film during the whole Kirtan. Some students wept with joy. Afterwards Ginsberg said that he had never before seen so many students "burst out their skins" and chant and dance so vigorously and responsively. Hayagriva was reminded of a Kirtan at Stanford U. in Palo Alto in '67, at which the students similarly flipped out to the mantra, though the crowd was much smaller. Our only regret was that we did not get a larger hall to accommodate the crowds that were standing outside. We approximated over 1500 managed to cram into the auditorium. The following day all the students were talking about it. It seems that Ohio State had never before so completely broken out of its robotic regimen.