DMH Spotlight - Forty-two years on, Hare Krishna devotees names are found! Back

Hare Krishna devotees in front of St. Thomas Episcopal church on Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street, are:

Person at left: Gauri Dasi

Second person from left: Bhumi Dasi

Third person from left: Sikhandini Dasi

Man in front of sign: Jaisacinandana Das

Left, front: Krishna Murti Dasa

Left, behind him: Srila Dasa

http://www.credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00681


Now that more than 2,000 of Diana Mara Henry's photographs have gone online at U Mass Amherst's " Credo " digital archive of her Special Collection, Diana Mara Henry is working to find, reconnect, and identify the people in her photographs. Thanks to Ekendra Dasa,Vishnugada dasa, Yamaraja Dasa, Manorama Dasa, and Dravida Dasa, thanks to whose unrivaled generosity and goodwill, have identified the Hare Krishna devotees, very early disciples of the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON) Abhay Charan De, later known by the honorific A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) who are seen here on the streets of NYC in July 1973.

   HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE |
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE ||

Left photo: Sravaniya Dasi proselytizing to a businessman on Fifth Avenue

The following commentary was sent by a correspondent at http://www.prabhupada.net/:

"In fact youcan see that she is offering him a book, so a better caption would be that
the woman is doing book distribution. In the early days, our movement was
built on the financial success of receiving donations for distributing
books. We used that money to build temples and expand the movement. All of
the books were written by Prabhupada, they were English translations of
ancient spiritual scriptures from India."

http://www.credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00685

Right photo:Jaisacinandana's sister at left, Gauri Dasi at right

http://www.credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00682


( History below from the website, http://www.iskcon.org/founder-acharya/ )

In 1965, at the age of sixty-nine, Srila Prabhupada begged a free passage and boarded a cargo ship, the Jaladhuta, to New York. The journey proved to be treacherous and he suffered two heart attacks aboard. After 35 days at sea, he first arrived at a lonely Brooklyn pier with just seven dollars in Indian rupees and a crate of his translations of sacred Sanskrit texts.

In New York, he faced great hardships and began his mission humbly by giving classes on the Bhagavad-gita in lofts on the Bowery and leading kirtan (traditional devotional chants) in Tompkins Square Park. His message of peace and goodwill resonated with many young people, some of whom came forward to become serious students of the Krishna-bhakti tradition. With the help of these students, Bhaktivedanta Swami rented a small storefront on New York’s Lower East Side to use as a temple....

Baby: Tulsi Ananda; woman wheeling her: Bhadra Dasi (Pariksit's wife); woman at right: Jahnava Dasi

Behind Bhadra is Bhadrasena prabhu

http://www.credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00684


Email us please with any Id's you can contribute, as well as for permission to reproduce these images.

They are Copyright © 1973 Diana Mara Henry. Thank you.

 

 

Hare Left: Krishna monk, Dravida Das, with a businessman, July 1973

"He is doing
book distribution (we call it 'sankirtan') - a core tenet of our movement."

http://www.credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00686

Right: House master with followers

"He is likely not a Hare Krishna leader since he is not wearing dhoti (robes) which would have definitely been worn by leaders at that time."

"On the back right is the mother of Lokamangala prabhu, a devotee not pictured."

"Our NY centre was at 439 Henry Street from 1969 to 1975 - see
http://content.iskcon.org/worldwide/centres_detail/brooklyn.html

for more information."

http://www.credo.library.umass.edu/view/zoom/muph051-s01b-i00687

 

Far left: Dravida Dasa; Vishnugada Dasa, second from left; Bhadra Dasi wheeling baby; behind Bhadra is Bhadrasena prabhu;

Krishna Murti Dasa second from right; Balaji Dasa at far right.

This was sent by a correspondent at http://www.prabhupada.net/

- The devotees in these pictures that have orange cloth tied in a knot on
their right shoulders are called 'sannyasis' - renounced monks. They are
amongst the leaders of our movement. In 1970, there would have been very few
of them, so older devotees should be able to identify them. However,
although Prabhupada awarded the sannyasa order to about 55 devotees, about
50 of them left the movement.

http://www.credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00683

 

Left: Sikhandini Dasi and Vishnu Gada Dasa; "Pictures like this that show dancing/singing on the streets are what we
called 'harinam' - spreading the holy names of the Lord. Harinam and
sankirtan are the two most fundamental activities of our movement.
Prabhupada started the movement with great emphasis on these activities,
hence your pictures reflect that those were the main two activities at that
time (they still are)."

http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00680

 

right: Srila Dasa at right,Vishnu Gada Das in the lead. To the right of Vishnugada dasa is Virendra dasa

"- The devotees in these pictures that have orange cloth tied in a knot on
their right shoulders are called 'sannyasis' - renounced monks. They are
amongst the leaders of our movement. In 1970, there would have been very few
of them, so older devotees should be able to identify them."

http://www.prabhupada.net/

http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00688-001

Photograph made a couple of years earlier by Diana Mara Henry, of the Hare Krishnas in front of Macy's, NYC, 1970.

"The taller person with glasses was named Cediraja prabhu. The smaller person with glasses is named Jagadananda prabhu."

http://www.credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01b-i00192

 

"The names of devotees are given when they receive initiation from a guru (spiritual teacher). They indicate that the person is a servant of Krishna, God, or a servant of a close associate of Krishna.
For example the name Srila refers to God (Krishna) who is the possessor of all opulence (e.g., beauty, strength, knowledge, fame, wealth, and renunciation) and the name dasa or das indicates the servant of that Lord, therefore Srila dasa (sometimes the last "a" is dropped in writing since in North Indian dialects it is often silent when speaking). So all of the names that devotees receive at initiation have the added "dasa" at the end.
Now a person referring to him or herself will call themselves dasa (or dasi in the feminine) to emphasize their recognition of being an aspiring servant of Krishna.
However, when I address such an aspiring servant of Krishna, I will usually refer to that person as "prabhu" meaning master (male or female) in recognition of their being a very special servant of God and as an address of respect.
The Hare Krishna philosophy (technically called Vaisnava dharma) encourages people to appreciate that serving the servants of Krishna is even more important than serving Krishna directly, which is another factor contributing to the use of the address "prabhu" (small "p", since the big master, God, would be "Prabhu").
So to himself, the person Srila will call himself Srila dasa but others will address his as Srila prabhu.
Hope that makes sense".

 

Thank you so much, Vishnugada prabhu!


Email us please with any Id's you can contribute, as well as for permission to reproduce these images.

They are Copyright © 1973 Diana Mara Henry. Thank you.

All images © Diana Mara Henry. All rights reserved. Terms of Use