This is a story of those early great days of pioneering Sankirtan in Australia.
For some of us, those early years were the best days of our devotional life in ISKCON.
The World's First Travelling Hare Krishna Temple.
It was at 83 Hereford Street Glebe Temple near the Sydney University in early July 1972 we began our first preaching mission on our Travelling Temple Hare Krishna Bus in Northern Australia.
ISKCON in Australia had only been going for just 2 years, starting in March 1970 by the late Upananda dasa and the late Bali madana dasa who arrived in Sydney from San Francisco USA.
By July 1972 there was about 55 devotees in Australia in two Temples, Sydney and Melbourne.
In July 1972 from Sydney a third Temple was established on a Double Decker Bus.
On the Temple Bus there were 14 devotees, young boys and girls mostly still in their teens.
Although in July 1972 that late Madhudvisa Swami was 24 years old and Balarama was the oldest at 29 years old.
We had written in big letters on the side-
"The Hare Krishna Movement, The Positive Alternative."
We were spreading the mission of Lord Caitanya for the first time on Australian soil.
So we left Sydney Temple for the trip of a lifetime, we came to believe that we had probably taken us thousands of life times to achieve such a privilege. We were on the very first preaching mission to every Towns and Villages around Australia.
The devotees on this first travelling preaching mission were:
The late Madhudvisa Swami,
Caru (only came part of the way),
Balarama,
The late Yasomatinandana,
Dvaipayana, the cook,
Ted Spencer who the previous year was the world champion for surfboard riding,
The late Kuntiboja,
The late Kainaram,
Chittahari,
Srngi (Muralidhar das) meet up with in Cairns,
Krishna Prema dasa (meet up with in Cairns).
And me Gauragopala dasa, who shared Bus driving duties with Balarama, and also lead many kirtans playing mridanga.
The 'boys' (because that's what we were back then) lived in the Brahmacari's quarters, which were the bottom deck of the bus (except for the bus drivers who had a private space upstairs), while the second deck (upstairs) was the Brahmacharini or girls quarters, they are:
Ambika,
Kamarupa (who joined us in Cairns)
Sukla devi-dasi.
Elaine Mitchell also joined us there in the Commune at Kuranda near Cairns.
Most of us where teenagers back then except for Madhudvisa Swami, Balarama and Ted Spencer.
Ted Spencer was world surfing champion, he was 19 when he won his first Bell at Bells Beach in 1968 and again in 1969.
He famously declared - "When I surf, I dance for Krishna", urged on in his heats by a full Hare Krishna cheer squad." (Bells Beach, Australia - the Age Newspaper).
Other famous surfers like Nat Young also spent time with us when we arrived in Brisbane.
It was on this bus trip we hear that Siddhasvarupa Swami (Chris Butler) was preaching the soul originated from the Impersonal Brahmajyoti, he had heard this from some of Prabhupada's Godbrothers in the Gaudiya Math.
This created the ''origin of the jiva'' controversy that went on over the next few months.
The idea that we originated from the impersonal Brahman was quickly rejected in a letter from Prabhupada called ‘'Crow-And-Tal-Fruit Logic'' that eventually was sent to all Temple Presidents in Australia and the World.
It was a very hot topic back then in 1972 but Prabhupada was personally present to guide us with what is now a famous letter denying the foolish nonsense we all originated from the Impersonal Brahmajyoti.
We all knew this was a very auspicious time in history in 1972 and being part of something very special, we felt blessed to be at the very beginnings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Sankirtan Movement.
We just new that the teachings of Srila Prabhupada we were hearing, was the revelation of a long kept secret and explanations that told us about the vast universe and it's creator Lord Krishna.
As we travelled up North we chanted and distributed Magazines for the first time on the streets of the City Newcastle and then all Towns in-between Sydney and Brisbane,
Kempsey,
Port Macquarie,
Foster,
Bellingen,
Coffs Harbour,
Nambacca,
Grafton,
Ballina,
Murwillumbah,
Lismore,
Nimbin the hippie centre of Australia,
Lennox Head,
Byron Bay.
By far the spookiest place we went to was Byron Bay; Kainaram claimed he had seen the ghost of a dead girl who had been killed by a train many years ago.
On many occasions he said people had said they picked up this lonely little girl to take her home, only to find when they got to there home she had mysteriously disappeared. People would go up to the house to tell the little girls parents only to find she had died many years before.
Obviously, it was just an urban legend and our simplistic very young immature minds were intrigued with Madhudvisa Swami told us. He used this story to preach to us the difference between the subtle material body and gross material body.
After Byron Bay with all the hippies there, we went to Murwillumbah where we chanted in the streets for the first time. Soon, in May 1977, (5 years later) we would establish the farm New Govardhana there.
We then visited Tweed Heads and Coolangatta, two Towns on the border of NSW and Queensland on the Gold Coast, we chanted there for two hours handing out "Back To Godhead Magazines," then went to Tugan, Burleigh heads, Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise and Southport.
For the first time in Australian history, we chanted in all these places, distributed Back To Godhead Magazine and Prasadam and spoke to the enormous crowds that gathered around watching us.
We stayed on the Gold Coast for four days then went inland to Armadale where there was a University.
We meet an Indian Professor who invited us to the Uni where we chanted and distributed Prasadam. Many highly educated Indian families lived there and some of us went to their houses to speak from Bhagavad Gita As It Is.
Back in those days in 1972, only highly educated coloured people were allowed in Australia, who were only mostly Christian.
At this time this "white Australia policy" was the law.
The Liberal Australian Government of that time only want to immigrated white Europeans to Australia from mainly the UK and Western Europe and did not want Africans, Chinese, Indians and other Asians to immigrate to Australia.
This is why no Indian devotees were in our Temples in Australia during the 1970s however, the Indians in Armidale were highly educated and wealthy.
Some claimed to also be Christian (when they were really Hindus) but lied just so they could get into Australia.
At the time all black people were mostly banned from entering Australian except for famous rich singers and entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr.
That's why in all photos from the 1970s of ISKCON Australia, you will see no back people or Indians at all, not even one living in the Temple. Only a few Indians and Asian came to the Sunday love feast. A few blacks sometimes turned up but they were Aboriginals.
Today in 2025, it's the other way around, in Melbourne ISKCON, 99% of congregation are from Indian, unheard of in the 1970s because the white Australia racist policy that was eradicated in 1979.
HERE HERE HERE
As the night progressed, the Indian women cooked up some amazing food preparations that we offered to Srila Prabhupada. That place was very, very cold. Every morning, even in the middle of winter, we had cold showers behind the bus. To give one an idea, Balarama was walking to the bus one cold morning with what we thought was a board, but it was really his underwear (kopings) frozen solid!
We eventually arrived in Toowoomba in Queensland and chanted to the rednecks out back Queenslanders who thought we were some alien invasion from another planet!
Many of the devotees on the Bus, like Balarama and Ted Spencer where surfboard riders, they attracted many young people to learn about Krishna and take prasad.
Especially Ted Spencer, as said above, who was a well-known celebrity around the world winning his first World Surfing title in 1968 at 19 years old.
We then left Armadale and headed back to the Gold Coast, to Beenleigh, in-between the Gold Coast and Brisbane.
The day we arrived in Brisbane, we chanted on the city streets and were on page two of the Couramail Newspaper the next day.
The headline was "The Hare Krishna's have arrived with the chant of peace."
Brisbane was also having their annual "Royal Show" that attracted tens of thousands of peoples. We chanted out the front gates of the "Show grounds" where so many people saw the Hare Krishna's for the first time ever in Queensland, many receiving Back To Godhead Magazine.
It was there Nat Young, another famous surfer World Champion and friend of Ted Spencer joined us for a few days and become friends with Madhudvisa Swami who nicely preached to him about Krishna.
We never had the full version of the Gita in those days, only the abridged edition with the forward by Allen Ginsberg.
Those years were extraordinary. Dwaip cooked up beautiful offerings to Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya and Nityananda while Balarama and myself were the Bus Drivers.
We were all young inquisitive philosophers, especially asking about the "origin of the jiva-soul."
We just new we were very fortunate to be on that bus hearing such wonders of creation. Some of us asked 'what did we deserve to hear the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Some of us speculated we were yogis, mystics, devotees and even demons from the Satya-yuga. Madhudvisa Swami laughed and simply said 'It is by the causeless mercy of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada that the seeds of Bhakti are now sown in our hearts.
Madhudvisa Swami read from one of Prabhupada's original volumes of Srimad Bhagavatam Srila Prabhupada brought with him in 1965 to America, those classes were amazing, I personally learned so much about Krishna Consciousness in those wonderful classes.
In those days we would chant on the streets for 6 or 8 hours a day. One night at the showgrounds we chanted from 9 am to 10 pm (11 hours) because there where so many people there.
We chanted through all the Towns and cities as we proceeded up north to Cairns.
We went through Towns that include -
Bundaberg,
Mackay,
Hervey Bay where we had big feast with hundreds of curious locals attended, (the Americans call them rednecks, we call them yobbos).
Gladstone,
Rockhampton,
Hervey Bay,
Airlie beach,
Townsville, where we were on the front page of the main paper.
Actually all papers in all Towns were doing articles on us that kept us very busy doing interviews and arranging interviews with Madhudvisa Swami.
Then we arrived in Cairns near the top of Australia. We had travelled over 3,500 miles since we left Sydney in a Bus that went only 35 miles per hour or 60 Kilometres an hour in today's system. The change over from miles to Kilometres did happen until 1974.
At Kuranda, just 30 Kilometres or 17 miles outside of Cairns, Madhudvisa Swami lead a blissful kirtan through the hippie community and to our surprise many hundreds of them came out of the forest and joined us in a long procession.
Many dancing to the chanting of Hare Krishna were naked, some as young as 14 joined in chanting and dancing, never have I have seen anything like this before nor since. Those hippy days were amazing times.
Elaine Mitchell who was there has said on her experience-
"I was there at Kuranda in August/September 1972 and went on the Travelling Temple Bus to the Millaa Millaa Buddhist colony for the Janmastami (Krishna's Birthday). It was very special.
I had been going to the temple regularly before going to Cairns and I remember well, people were mostly naked in the commune when they went swimming although only a few guys used to get around naked all the time as I recall.
Most of the girls wore beautiful long hippie dresses or sarongs etc. My girlfriend and 8 or 9 other friends hitchhiked up from Melbourne together to be in Kuranda. I personally was quite chaste and wore nice clothing."(end)
There was an explosion of devotees around the middle of 1972, the communes we went to in Australia were full of hippies and potential devotees at that time, we chanted through the forest areas and were like the pied piper and hundreds of hippies came out of the forest and followed us singing Hare Krishna.
Yes, there were hundreds of them at a place called Kuranda in Northern Queensland, it was truly amazing at that time, I have never ever seen anything like it since.
Even today, if you stand on the hill where all those hippies once gathered and chanted Hare Krishna, you can still see where the high water mark of transcendental bliss reached in the early 70s.
So now, 53 years later, you can go up on that steep hill in Kuranda and look down over the beautiful forest, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave of transcendental Hare Krishna Sankirtan bliss finally broke and rolled back.
Devotees before this 1972 Bus trip had never visited anywhere outside of Sydney or Melbourne. We were the pioneers at the very beginning of Lord Caitanya's Golden Age in Kali-yuga.
We celebrated Janmastami (Krishna's Birthday) at a Buddhist colony not far from Kuranda on 1 Sep 1972; we loaded as many hippies as we could in the double decker Hare Krishna bus, all chanting Hare Krishna and dancing 'on the bus' to the excellent blissful kirtans with Madhudvisa leading. IT WAS VERY SPECIAL.
The following day 2nd of September was Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa-puja and Madhudvisa Swami had lit a candle under Srila Prabhupada's photo, the aura, bliss, love and security from that photo permeated the entire bus with an amazing mood of reverence and Krishna Consciousness.
They were amazing days and there was a childish innocence about those days; In fact we thought Madhudvisa Swami was old (he just was 24 years old, Ted Spencer was 24 and Balarama was the oldest at 29). The rest of us where still teenagers or just 20 years old like me.
The present generation I don't think realize how young we were in those beginning years of ISKCON.
There was also no hanky panky going on either back then in 1972, everyone was very sincere, very dedicated and very attached to Prabhupada.
We only honoured food offerings to the Deities and absolutely nothing else from outside the Temple, if it was not prepared on the Bus we would not eat it except on rare occasions at an Indians home as we did in Armadale (We had a beautiful photo of the Panca-tattva with a wonderful Photo of Prabhupada at their feet).
No one even dreamed of eating anything unprepared by devotees or even drink soft drinks in those blissful days.
End of Part 1 The World's First Travelling Hare Krishna Temple.
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