In 1967, the Hare Krishna devotees, including the movement’s founder, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, we’re featured in a documentary entitled “The Maze: Haight Ashbury” on San Francisco’s CBS TV station KPIX (channel 5).
“Melanie had recently bought (at Tandy‘s craft store on Market Street) some of the same big red beads that Mukunda wore. We strung them up and wore them from time to time, but we really didn’t know how to check on them. We were too shy to chant with others in Kirtan. We didn’t even really know what Krishna looked like. Mukunda had a couple of bright-colored posters of Krishna, printed in India. I thought they were kind of kitschy, but they showed a blue-skinned man with long black hair, very handsome, wearing a peacock feather, Earrings, and jewelry made of gold and precious stones. He was playing a flute, been nuzzled by a Brahma cow. OK, this was a nice way to see God—as a beautiful person. But we really didn’t have a clue what Krishna consciousness was at all about, except that you had to give up all your vices, the daily resort to better living through chemistry, and learn how to chant the Hare Krishna mantra.”
—CRWTS, volume 1