Mantra-Rock Dance

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. 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, and as a promotional and fundraising effort for their first center on the West Coast of the United States.

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. The bands agreed to appear with Prabhupada and to perform for free; the proceeds were donated to the local Hare Krishna temple. 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.

The Mantra-Rock Dance concert was later called "the ultimate high"" and "the major spiritual event of the San Francisco hippy era." It led to a few significant and favorable media exposures for Prabhupada and his followers, most notably on the radio station KFRC, on ABC's The Les Crane Show, and on a KPFK radio station program hosted by Peter Bergman. The media coverage brought the Hare Krishna movement to the wider attention of the American public for the first time. The 40th anniversary of the Mantra-Rock Dance was commemorated in 2007 in Berkeley, California.

Background

Main articles: International Society for Krishna Consciousness and A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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." 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.

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, which at that time was turning into the hub of the hippie counterculture, and stayed to take care of the developing new center.

Preparation and promotion

See also: Beat Generation, Hippie, and History of the hippie movement

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. Despite his position as a Vaishnava sannyasi, Prabhupada agreed to come from New York for the event. 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. 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.

Another leading countercultural figure, the beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg, was a supporter of Prabhupada. He had met the swami earlier in New York and assisted him in extending his United States visa. 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 and declared that it brought a state of ecstasy. 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. Ginsberg agreed to take part in the Mantra-Rock Dance concert and to introduce the swami to the Haight-Ashbury hippie community.

"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" 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." 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. 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.

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.

Event

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. Admission was fixed at $2.50 and limited to door sales. 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. Latecomers had to wait outside for vacancies in order to enter. Regardless of the prohibition on drugs, many in the audience were smoking marijuana and taking other intoxicants. 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.

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. When the swami himself arrived at 10 PM, thousands of hippies respectfully stood to receive him with applause and cheers. 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."

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. 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.

Reaction and effect

The LSD pioneer Timothy Leary, who made a surprise appearance at the event and even paid the entrance fee, pronounced the event a "beautiful night". 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," while historians referred to it as "the ultimate high"" and "the major spiritual event of the San Francisco hippy era."

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.

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. As the Hare Krishna movement's popularity with the Haight-Ashbury community continued to grow, Prabhupada's followers started chanting and distributing sanctified vegetarian food (prasad) at any important event in the locale, usually with the swami in attendance.

Prabhupada chanting in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, with the deity of Jagannath to his right. February 1967

Prabhupada's appearance at the Mantra-Rock Dance made a deep impact on the Haight-Ashbury community. 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. The Hare Krishna mantra and dancing became adopted in some ways by all levels of the counterculture, including the Hells Angels, and provided it with a "loose commonality" and reconciliation, as well as with a viable alternative to drugs.

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

Prabhupada's increased popularity attracted the interest of the mainstream media. He and Mukunda Das were interviewed on ABC's The Les Crane Show, and he lectured on the philosophy of Krishna consciousness on a KPFK radio station program hosted by Peter Bergman. His followers also spoke about their activities on the radio station KFRC. These significant and favorable media exposures helped bring the Hare Krishna movement to the wider attention of the American public for the first time.

Commemoration

On August 17, 2007, at the People's Park in Berkeley, California, ISKCON followers held a commemorative event dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Mantra-Rock Dance, with one of its original organizers, Gurudas, in attendance.

References

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• Cohen, Allen (1991), Allen Cohen (ed.), The San Francisco Oracle: The Psychedelic Newspaper of the Haight-Ashbury (1966–1968). Facsimile edition. (1st ed.), Berkeley, CA: Regent Press, ISBN 9780916147112, retrieved February 7, 2011 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Spörke, Michael (2003), Big Brother & the Holding Co. 1965–2003: Die Band, die Janis Joplin berühmt machte (in German), Kassel: BoD – Books on Demand, ISBN 9783831148233, retrieved February 7, 2011 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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External links

• Allen Ginsberg and a group of hippies receive Prabhupada at the San Francisco airport. January 17, 1967. (0:00–1:01)
• "Mantra-Rock Dance" revisited: commemoration of the 40th anniversary at the People's Park in Berkeley, California. August 17, 2007.