Govinda dasi: After his stroke, he was recovering by the ocean for three weeks. Goursundar and I were staying there along with Kirtanananda, the four of us were staying in a beach bungalow. They sent the copy of this reel-to-reel tape, and it was so wild and it was a brand new tune. They made up their own tunes – unheard of in New York. This was not done, and it was wild – horns and cymbals and you name it. It was a full wild party-sounding kirtan, and some of the devotees in New York were, “Oh, my gosh, what is this?” But Prabhupada loved it, he was so happy, and I noticed this. He was so happy that they were still chanting. It didn’t matter that it was a different tune, it didn’t matter that they were wild hippies dancing in frenzies and probably some of them were…most of them even were still taking intoxication. Prabhupada loved it. There was another one that they sent called “Narada Muni, the Eternal Spaceman,” which was a little record that they made. They were creative and innovative and far out. That’s the kind of people that were in San Francisco. And Prabhupada encouraged them, whereas the nature in New York was to criticize them and put them down because they weren’t conservative enough. Prabhupada didn’t have that mood at all. Instead he encouraged both. They were a little wild for me too because I was a little bit…I wasn’t as conservative as a New Yorker, but I was somewhat conservative. But what amazed me was when we went back there…sometime later we traveled back to San Francisco with Prabhupada…they had completely changed. The chanting had purified them. They were totally different. They were beautiful. We’re talking about Mukunda, Yamuna, Shyamasundara, Malati, all these early devotees. Malati was so wild. They were really heartfelt people willing to try anything, and they loved Prabhupada and they were out to do whatever they could.
Reference: Remembrances by Yadubara Das- Folio Vedabase
