The association of Lord Krishna's devotees is the MOST important act one can do! Always avoid close association with non-devotees, they are poison to the soul.

The association of Lord Krishna's devotees is the MOST important act one can do!

Srila Prabhupada - "It is better to accept the miseries of being encaged within bars and surrounded by burning flames than to associate with those bereft of Krishna consciousness. Such an association is a very great hardship". (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya-lila 22.91)

I feel that way ever time I am with the family of my birth, from a Krishna Conscious standard, it was a really bad birth to be with them, all meat heads and even worse.

Being with them was the result of my own karma or how I led my life in previous births.

Being born with those lusty parents was really bad karma however, that misery of wasting my life with them, is what FORCED me to search for a way out.

So, on a more positive note, a search had begun in 1969 to become free from the horrible impersonal meat eating society of my birth.

So eventually I left Melbourne and went to live in Sydney.

While there in 1971, somehow I became aware Prabhupada was in Town, it was Prabhupada who found me, yes that's right, he found me!7

I never went to India looking for him, Prabhupada came to Sydney, arriving there in May 1971

It was there I eventually saw him on TV. He fascinated me as a man of God, I was immediately attracted.

At the time, I lived around the corner from the Paddington Temple in a Town house in Surry Hills while Prabhupada was personally in Sydney installing the Radha Gopinath Deities.

I did go to the Temple while he was there in the Temple, but did not go in, I felt unworthy, too fallen, and not ready to reach the mountain top as it was to me.

Fortunately though, a week after Prabhupada left Sydney, I built up enough strength and guts to go in and see for myself.

At the front door I was met by Upananda Dasa who was a very nice friendly devotee, very knowledgeable about Krishna I found.

At once all my fears were over come about the mystery of the unknown, I realized God's devotees CAN even be approached by a fallen wretch soul like me.

Upananda never judged me, never saw me as not good enough, he just saw me as another searching 18 year old soul who needs to begin their journey back home, back to Godhead.

He invited me in and preached to me for about an hour, then had to go and cook for the new Deities Radha and Gopinath.

So with Prabhupada came a new hard cover Book called KRSNA BOOK, so Upananda gave me a copy to read.

The large hard covered KRSNA book's printing was paid for by George Harrison from the Beatles which I found pretty amazing.

Then Upananda asked me to sit at the Kitchen door and continue reading KRSNA BOOK while he cooked

This was my first day with the devotees in May 1971.

Upananda Dasa today is known as Avadhoot Maharaj.

As the years went on, many street Sankirtans we went on together, especially in the early pioneering years when we chanted from 9.30 am to 4pm every week day.

We even got arrested by the Police together for chanting on the streets and distributing BTG Magazine and Books.

Today, not only are the devotees accepted by the Government, they support our Prasadam distribution by giving the devotees financial assistance (500 thousand dollars in 2016)

How things have changed since 1971.

Back then Avadhoot Maharaj (Upananda Dasa) also arranged daily plays we did inbetween street chanting, we did these plays on City streets and at the University every day.

Those early pioneering days from 1971 were really amazing.

Sadly today no devotees do these street and university plays any more.

I would love to see this 2020 generation of devotees bring Krishna plays brought back to the streets of all major cities.

In top photo that is me (Gauragopala Dasa) playing Mridangum drum next to Srila Prabhupada at the July Rathayatra festival in Melbourne Australia 1974.