Ohio State University Welcomes Prabhupad

[EDITOR'S NOTE: On the night of May 12, 1969 His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and poet Allen Ginsberg filled a campus auditorium at Ohio State University in Columbus to twice the capacity. About two thousand students flooded the stage and aisles, and soon after His Divine Grace led the chanting, the students jumped from their seats, crowded the stage and danced and chanted ecstatically to a mantra most of them had never heard before. His Divine Grace jumped up and down on the dais and threw flowers from his garland at the students who scrambled for them and then joined arms to dance. Poet Ginsberg was surprised at the student response and afterwards said that he had never before seen so many students "burst out their skins" to chant and dance so vigorously. The night was testimony to the immediate power of the mantra-one can feel its power without being acquainted with the philosophy and without even previously hearing the mantra or even knowing what the words mean. The following two speeches were delivered to the students immediately after the chanting. The first, given by poet Ginsberg, is an introduction to A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami's samkirtan movement. The second is A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami's introduction to the simplest and most effective method of God realization-mantrayoga. His speech is an epitome of the basic principles underlying Krishna Consciousness and a challenge to the students to pursue a path of knowledge which is superterrestrial.]