April 2. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: Bill Epstein.
Harvey Cohen and Bill Epstein were friends. Harvey was a freelance artist and Bill worked at The Paradox. After Harvey had been to Prabhupada’s place at Dr. Mishra’s yoga studio a few times, he came by The Paradox and began to describe all about the new Swami to Bill and other friends.
Bill: I was working at The Paradox one night and Harvey came to me and said, “I went to visit Mishra and there’s a new Swami there, and he’s really fantastic!” Well I was involved in macrobiotics and Buddhism, so at first, I couldn’t care less. But Harvey was a winning and warm personality and he seemed interested in this. He said, ‘Why don’t you come uptown? I would like you to see this.’
So I went to one of the lectures on 72nd Street. I walked in there and I could feel a certain presence from the Swami. He had a certain very concentrated, intense appearance. He looked pale and kind of weak. I guess he had just come here and had been through a lot of things. He was sitting there chanting on his beads, which he carried in a little bead bag. One of Dr. Mishra’s students was talking and he finally got around to introducing the Swami. He said, “We are the moons to the Swami’s sun.” He introduced him in that way. The Swami got up and talked. I didn’t know what to think about it. At that time, the only steps I had taken in regard to Indian teachings were with Ramakrishna, and this was the first time, to my knowledge, that bhakti religion had come to America.
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