April 24. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami: David Allen Goes Crazy on LSD,
At first David and the Swami lived together peacefully in the large hall, the Swami working concentratedly on his side of the partition and David ranging throughout the large open space. David, however, continued taking marijuana, LSD and amphetamines. Prabhupada had no choice but to tolerate it. Several times he told David that drugs and hallucinogens would not help him in his spiritual life, but David would look distracted. He was becoming estranged from the Swami.
But Prabhupada had a plan to use the loft as a temple – to transform it into New York’s first temple of Radha-Krishna – and he wanted David’s cooperation. Although the neighborhood was one of the most miserable in the world, Prabhupada talked of bringing deities from Jaipur or Vrindavana and starting temple worship, even on the Bowery. He thought David might help. After all, they were roommates, so there could be no question of David’s not cooperating, but he would have to give up his bad habits.
Prabhupada was trying to help David, but David was too disturbed. He was headed for disaster and so were Prabhupada’s plans for the loft. Sometimes, even when not under the influence of a drug, David would pace around the loft. Other times, he appeared to be deep in thought. One day, on a dose of LSD, he went completely crazy. As Carl Yeargens put it, “He just flipped out and the Swami had to deal with a crazy man.” Things had been leading to this – “he was a crazy kid who always took too much” – but the real madness happened suddenly.
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