West Germany:

This is an article printed in Hamburg's "Welt am Sontag" on May 11, 1969, about our center there:

He calls himself "Jaya Govinda," he looks like a tibetan monk, speaks the American idiom of the West Coast and works as a gardener in the Botanical Gardens of Hamburg. He is the president of the first Krishna Society on the European Continent, which will hold this Sunday at 5:00 a feast of Indian food and lectures in its temple, on Eppendorfer WEG 11.

Three Americans and one German from Augsburg, who lived in America for 15 years, have come to Europe to spread the teachings of Krishna. This is said to be the oldest Indian method for spiritual realization. In America there are more than a thousand adherents, Allen Ginsberg and Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon have interest in Krishna Consciousness.

Victory for Krishna (which is what Jaya Govinda means), Servant of Krishna (Krishna Das) and Best Prayers for Krishna (Uttama Sloka) are the names of these young people, with ages ranging from 19 to 25 years, who, on Monckeberg Street, held an open meditation hour and distributed leaflets. In the leaflet it was announced that one may visit the temple Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. It said, "We serve a specially cooked Indian feast."

What will await the visitor? From the outside the temple gives the effect of a hippie locale. The big window pane is painted deep blue. Just after you enter, a bearded young man requests you to take off your shoes. I sat next to a young couple who were likewise barefooted, sitting against the wall. The room is painted white, with wall-tapestries, and there is an altar. The meditators, close to half a dozen, are sitting on the floor, with crossed legs, singing: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

This verse-an Indian mantra, as a young man later clarified-is always practiced in the temple: it is painted on the walls, spoken and sung. A drum played by a young man with a shaved head gives the rhythm, a continuous monotone is coming from a harmonium, and two cymbals clang. After half an hour, refreshments are served-pieces of apples. And now, one may ask questions.

They call themselves "devotees." Their regulations: no cigarettes and no alcohol. The four did not give their names of birth. A venerable Guru in the U.S., A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, is their teacher. In the U.S. there are quite a number of temples established, and in furthering this work, these young men have come to Europe. Is Hamburg a good missionary area? May I know? Uttama Sloka, the 22-year-old German, answered: "We are interested in the young people. Even rockers." [Rockers are the Hells Angels of Europe.]

And how do the four missionaries live? "We do not need much," answered Krishna Das, a thin 19-year-old from San Francisco, and apart from Uttama Sloka the only devotee who can speak German. "The gardener is working mostly for the rent and maintenance. I myself am an apprentice to a Hamburg goldsmith. Yet he does not know that he has a devotee as an apprentice."