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Mantra-Rock Dance

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The Mantra-Rock poster showing an Indian swami sitting cross-legged in the top half with circular patterns around and with information about the concert in the bottom half
The Mantra-Rock Dance poster by Harvey W. Cohen (created December 1966)

Mantra-Rock Dance was a musical countercultural event held on January 29, 1967, at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco.[1] It was organized by followers of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) as an opportunity for its founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, to address a wider public,[2] and as a promotional and fundraising effort for their first center on the West Coast of the United States.[3][4]

The Mantra-Rock Dance featured leading rock groups of the time such as the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, as well as the then relatively unknown Moby Grape.[5] The bands agreed to appear with Prabhupada and to perform for free; the proceeds were donated to the local Hare Krishna temple.[3] Participation of such countercultural leaders as poet Allen Ginsberg, who led the singing of the Hare Krishna mantra onstage along with Prabhupada, and LSD promoters Timothy Leary and Stanley Augustus Owsley III, considerably boosted the event's popularity.[3][6]

The Mantra-Rock Dance concert was later called "the ultimate high""[4][7] and "the major spiritual event of the San Francisco hippy era."[3] It led to a few significant and favorable media exposures for Prabhupada and his followers[8] and brought the Hare Krishna movement to the wider attention of the American public.[6] The 40th anniversary of the Mantra-Rock Dance was commemorated in 2007 in Berkeley, California.[9]

Background

Main articles: International Society for Krishna Consciousness and A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
A color photo of a building with 'Haight' and 'Ashbury' signs on opposite sides of its corner
Haight-Ashbury, 2001

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (also referred to as "Bhaktivedanta Swami" or "Prabhupada") was a Gaudiya Vaishnava sannyasi and teacher who arrived in New York City in 1965. He "caught the powerful rising tide" of a counterculture that was fascinated with India and open to new forms of "consciousness-expanding spirituality."[10] After establishing his first American temple in New York City at 26 Second Avenue, Prabhupada requested his early follower Mukunda Das and his wife Janaki Dasi to open a similar ISKCON center on the West Coast of the United States.[11][12][13]

Mukunda and Janaki met up with friends from college, who would later come to be known as Shyamasundar Das, Gurudas, Malati Dasi, and Yamuna Dasi. Teaming up with them, Mukunda rented a storefront in the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury neighborhood,[14][15] which at that time was turning into the hub of the hippie counterculture, and stayed to take care of the developing new center.[11][16]

Preparation and promotion

See also: Beat Generation, Hippie, and History of the hippie movement
Allen Ginsberg accompanies the saffron-clad swami and a group of young followers in the airport lounge
Allen Ginsberg greeting Prabhupada at the San Francisco Airport, January 17, 1967

In order to raise funds and gain supporters for the new temple and to popularize Prabhupada's teachings among the hippie and countercultural audience of the Haight-Ashbury scene, the team decided to hold a charitable rock concert and invited Prabhupada to attend.[4] Despite his position as a Vaishnava sannyasi, Prabhupada agreed to come from New York for the event.[6][nb 1] Using his acquaintance with Rock Scully, manager of the Grateful Dead, Shyamasundar met with them and with Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company – some of the most prominent rock groups of the time – and secured their consent to perform for charity at the concert.[17] Malati Dasi happened to hear Moby Grape, a relatively unknown group at the time, and she convinced the other team members to invite the band to play at the concert as well.[18]

Another leading countercultural figure, the beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg, was a supporter of Prabhupada. He had met the swami earlier in New York[11] and assisted him in extending his United States visa.[19][nb 2] Despite disagreeing with many of Prabhupada's required prohibitions, especially the ones pertaining to drugs and promiscuity, Ginsburg often publicly sang the Hare Krishna mantra, which he had learned in India. He made the mantra part of his philosophy[20] and declared that it "brings a state of ecstasy."[21] He was glad that Prabhupada, an authentic swami from India, was now trying to spread the chanting in America. Along with other countercultural ideologues like Timothy Leary, Gary Snyder, and Alan Watts, Ginsberg hoped to incorporate Prabhupada and the chanting of Hare Krishna into the hippie movement.[nb 3] Ginsberg agreed to take part in the Mantra-Rock Dance concert and to introduce the swami to the Haight-Ashbury hippie community.[20][22]

A scanned newspaper page with a title "The New Science" and a futuristic drawing of a man
"The New Science" article in the San Francisco Oracle (part), January 1967

As for the choice of venue, the team considered both the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom, finally settling on the latter as its impresario, Chet Helms, appeared to be "more sympathetic to the spirit of the concert"[23] and agreed to let it be used for a charity event. Artist Harvey Cohen, one of the first ISKCON followers, designed a Stanley Mouse-inspired promotional poster with a picture of Prabhupada, details of the event, and a request to "bring cushions, drums, bells, cymbals."[24] To generate interest among members of the countercultural community of Haight-Ashbury, Mukunda published an article entitled "The New Science" in the San Francisco Oracle, a local underground newspaper specializing in alternative spiritual and psychedelic topics.[25] He wrote:

The Haight-Ashbury district is soon to be honored by the presence of His Holiness, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, who will conduct daily classes in the Bhagavad Gita, discussions, chanting, playing instruments, and devotional dancing in a small temple in the neighborhood. ... Swamiji's use of the Hare Krishna Mantra is already known throughout the United States. Swamiji's chanting and dancing is more effective than Hatha or Raja Yoga or listening to Ali Akbar Khan on acid or going to a mixed media rock dance.[26]

Ginsberg helped plan and organize a reception for Prabhupada, who was scheduled to arrive from New York on January 17, 1967. When the swami arrived at the San Francisco Airport, 50 to 100 hippies chanting "Hare Krishna" greeted him in the airport lounge with flowers.[11]

Event

A scanned image of the Mantra-Rock Dance listed in the San Francisco Oracle
The Mantra-Rock Dance listing in the San Francisco Oracle, January 1967

The Mantra-Rock Dance was scheduled on Sunday evening, January 29, 1967 – a day of the week that Chet Helms deemed odd and unlikely to generate substantial attendance.[27] Admission was fixed at $2.50[3] and limited to door sales.[28] Despite the apprehensions of the organizers, by the beginning of the concert at 8 PM an audience of nearly 3,000 had gathered in the hall.[29] Latecomers had to wait outside for vacancies in order to enter.[30] Regardless of the prohibition on drugs, many in the audience were smoking marijuana and taking other intoxicants.[29][31] Strobe lights and a psychedelic liquid light show, along with pictures of Krishna and the words of the Hare Krishna mantra, were being projected onto the walls.[32]

The evening opened with Prabhupada's followers – men in Merlin gowns and women in saris – chanting Hare Krishna to an Indian tune, followed by Moby Grape.[32] When the swami himself arrived at 10 PM, the crowd of hippies rose to their feet to respectfully greet him with applause and cheers.[4] Ginsberg welcomed Prabhupada onto the stage and spoke of his own experiences chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. He translated the meaning of the Sanskrit term mantra as "mind deliverance" and recommended the early-morning kirtans at the local Radha-Krishna temple "for those coming down from LSD who want to stabilize their consciousness upon reentry," calling the temple's activity an "important community service." He introduced Prabhupada and thanked him for leaving his peaceful life in India to bring the mantra to New York's Lower East Side, "where it was probably most needed."[3][4][33]

After a short address by Prabhupada, Ginsberg sang "Hare Krishna" to the accompaniment of sitar, tambura, and drums. Then Prabhupada stood up and led the audience in dancing and singing, as the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Moby Grape joined the chanting and accompanied the mantra with their musical instruments.[34][35][36] The audience eagerly responded, playing their own instruments and dancing in circles. The group chanting continued for almost two hours, and concluded with the swami's prayers in Sanskrit while the audience bowed down on the floor. After Prabhupada left, Janis Joplin took the stage, backed by Big Brother and the Holding Company, and continued the event with the song "The House of the Rising Sun" late into the night.[37]

Reaction and effect

The LSD pioneer Timothy Leary, who made an appearance at the Mantra-Rock Dance along with Stanley Augustus Owsley III and even paid the entrance fee,[3] pronounced the event a "beautiful night".[31] Later Ginsberg called the Mantra-Rock Dance "the height of Haight-Ashbury spiritual enthusiasm, the first time that there had been a music scene in San Francisco where everybody could be part of it and participate,"[4] while historians referred to it as "the ultimate high"[4][7] and "the major spiritual event of the San Francisco hippy era."[3]

Moby Grape's performance at the Mantra-Rock Dance catapulted the band onto the professional stage. They subsequently had gigs with The Doors at the Avalon Ballroom and at the "First Love Circus" at the Winterland Arena, and were soon signed to a contract with Columbia Records.[5]

A black-and-white photo of the swami sitting cross-legged with a figure of round-eyed smiling deity to his right
Prabhupada chanting in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, with the deity of Jagannath to his right. February 1967

The Mantra-Rock Dance helped raise around $2,000 for the temple and resulted in a massive influx of visitors at the temple's early morning services. Prabhupada's appearance at the Mantra-Rock Dance made such a deep impact on the Haight-Ashbury community that he became a cult hero to most of its groups and members, regardless of their attitudes towards his philosophy or the life restrictions that he taught.[38] The Hare Krishna mantra and dancing became adopted in some ways by all levels of the counterculture, including the Hells Angels,[39] and provided it with a "loose commonality" and reconciliation,[38] as well as with a viable alternative to drugs.[40] As the Hare Krishna movement's popularity with the Haight-Ashbury community continued to increase, Prabhupada and followers chanting and distributing sanctified vegetarian food (prasad) became a customary sight at important events in the locale.[6][29]

At the same time, as the core group of his followers continued to expand and become more serious about the spiritual discipline, Prabhupada conducted new Vaishnava initiations and named the San Francisco temple "New Jagannatha Puri" after introducing the worship of Jagannath deities of Krishna there.[14] Small replicas of these deities immediately became a "psychedelic hit" worn by many hippies on strings around their necks.[41]

Since the Mantra-Rock Dance brought the Hare Krishna movement to the wider attention of the American public,[6] Prabhupada's increased popularity attracted the interest of the mainstream media. Most notably, he was interviewed on ABC's The Les Crane Show and lectured on the philosophy of Krishna consciousness on a KPFK radio station program hosted by Peter Bergman.[42] Prabhupada's followers also spoke about their activities on the San Francisco radio station KFRC.[43]

On August 18, 2007, a free commemorative event dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Mantra-Rock Dance was held at the People's Park in Berkeley, California.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ After observing the event's sensual atmosphere, Prabhupada remarked, "This is no place for a brahmachari." (Brooks 1992, p. 79)
  2. ^ Addressing speculation that he was Ginsberg's guru, Prabhupada answered by saying, "I am nobody's guru. I am everybody's servant. Actually I am not even a servant; a servant of God is no ordinary thing." (Greene 2007, p. 85; Goswami 2011, pp. 196–7)
  3. ^ (from the "Houseboat Summit" panel discussion, Sausalito, Calif., February 1967, Cohen 1991, p. 182):
    Ginsberg: So what do you think of Swami Bhaktivedanta pleading for the acceptance of Krishna in every direction?
    Snyder: Why, it's a lovely positive thing to say Krishna. It's a beautiful mythology and it's a beautiful practice.
    Leary: Should be encouraged.
    Ginsberg: He feels it's the one uniting thing. He feels a monopolistic unitary thing about it.
    Watts: I'll tell you why I think he feels it. The mantras, the images of Krishna have in this culture no foul association. ... [W]hen somebody comes in from the Orient with a new religion which hasn't got any of these [horrible] associations in our minds, all the words are new, all the rites are new, and yet, somehow it has feeling in it, and we can get with that, you see, and we can dig that!

Footnotes

  1. ^ Cohen 1991, p. 106
  2. ^ Bromley & Shinn 1989, p. 106
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Chryssides & Wilkins 2006, p. 213
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Greene 2007, p. 85
  5. ^ a b Goswami 2011, p. 160
  6. ^ a b c d e Chryssides 2001, p. 173
  7. ^ a b Ellwood & Partin 1988, p. 68
  8. ^ Goswami 2011, pp. 201, 262, 277
  9. ^ a b "Arts Calendar". Berkeley Daily Planet. August 17, 2007. Retrieved February 7, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |autor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Bromley & Shinn 1989, p. 102
  11. ^ a b c d Muster 1997, p. 25
  12. ^ Dasa Goswami 1981, p. 17
  13. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 100–1
  14. ^ a b Knott 1986, p. 33
  15. ^ Goswami 2011, pp. 132–5
  16. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 110
  17. ^ Goswami 2011, pp. 119, 127
  18. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 130
  19. ^ Goswami 2011, pp. 76–7
  20. ^ a b Brooks 1992, pp. 78–9
  21. ^ Szatmary 1996, p. 149
  22. ^ Ginsberg & Morgan 1986, p. 36
  23. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 126
  24. ^ Goswami 2011, pp. 141–2
  25. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 125
  26. ^ Cohen 1991, pp. 92, 96
  27. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 127
  28. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 141
  29. ^ a b c Brooks 1992, p. 79
  30. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 151
  31. ^ a b Muster 1997, p. 26
  32. ^ a b Goswami 2011, p. 152
  33. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 154
  34. ^ Spörke 2003, p. 189
  35. ^ Tuedio & Spector 2010, p. 32
  36. ^ Joplin 1992, p. 182
  37. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 159
  38. ^ a b Brooks 1992, pp. 79–80
  39. ^ Oakes 1969, p. 25
  40. ^ Bromley & Shinn 1989, pp. 106–7
  41. ^ Brooks 1992, p. 80
  42. ^ Goswami 2011, pp. 262, 277
  43. ^ Goswami 2011, p. 201

References

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37°47′15″N 122°25′17″W / 37.78761°N 122.42129°W / 37.78761; -122.42129


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