Mr. Greene said his own awakening came three years later after seeing Hare Krishna devotees chanting at Woodstock.
In Mayapur, downriver, we visited the huge headquarters of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, where a long stream of saffron-robed devotees chanting "Hare Krishna" passed by, except for one follower bizarrely dressed as Elvis Presley.
In a ceremony on the banks of the River Ganges, with over three thousand of our devotees chanting prayers, I immersed her ashes in the sacred river and prayed that her immortal self swiftly reach the sea of the Divine's loving grace.
Hare Krishnas have been a fixture in the neighborhood since 1965, when the group's founder, Srila Prabhupapa, traveled from Calcutta and began attracting devotees while chanting in Tompkins Square Park.
The exception was the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, whose devotees were chanting in city streets and parks back in the late 1960s.
When chanting this mantra, some devotees went into samadhi (a form of meditation) This act is also called maha-samadhi ("great samadhi") and claimed that they could see their personal gods, even though they had no knowledge of Astanga Yoga.
As devotees chanted in the background, Kapindra Swami stood in the second storefront and lamented that the group's daily servings of lentils, vegetables and sweet pudding may soon end.
Three thousand devotees showed up, chanting, drumming, dancing and visiting the sunken circular kivas where native people still worship and leave offerings.
Six miles away on the other side of town, Rihanna may have been chanting "Rude Boy" to her crowd of Top-40 devotees.
All that was ignored, however, by his devotees who flocked to Rome after his death, chanting "Santo Subito" ("Make him a saint now") outside the papal apartments.
