The first Travelling Temple Double Decker Bus went all over Australia in July 1972.
This is a story from the early pioneering great days of Sankirtan (congragational chanting of Hare Krishna) history 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 to Northern Australia (New South Wales and Queensland).
ISKCON in Australia had only been going for just 2 years, starting in March 1970 by Upendra dasa and 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 Madhudvisa Swami was 24 years old and Balarama was the oldest at 29 years old.
We had written in big letters on the side of the Bus -
''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 thousands of life times to achieve such a privilege to be on the Double Decker Hare Krishna Temple Bus.
We were on the very first preaching mission to every Town and Village around Australia.
The devotees on this first travelling preaching mission were:
Madhudvisa Swami,
Caru (only came part of the way)
Balarama,
Chittahari,
Yasomatinandana,
Dvaipayana, the cook,
Krsna Caitanya (Ted Spencer who the previous year was the world champion for surfboard riding),
Kuntiboja,
Kainaram,
Srngi (now Muralidhar das) (meet up with in Cairns)
Krishna Prema (meet up with in Cairns)
And me Gauragopala dasa, who shared Bus driving duties with Chittahari and Balarama and 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 Kurandah near Cairns.
Most of us were teenagers back then except for Madhudvisa Swami, Balarama, Chittahari and Krsna Caitanya dasa.
Krsna Caitanya dasa was the great Ted Spencer world surfing champion, Krsna Caitanya dasa or Ted Spencer 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 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.
That 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 knew 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,
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 people had claimed to pick 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 youth was intrigued.
Madhudvisa Swami used this to preach to us the difference between the subtle and gross body.
After Byron Bay with all the hippies, we went to Murwillumbah where we chanted in the streets for the first time. Soon (1977, 5 years later) we would establish the farm New Govardhana there.
We visited Tweed Heads and Coolangatta, two Towns on the border of NSW and Queensland, then went to the Gold Coat that started at Coolangatta that included 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 us.
We 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 only highly educated coloured people were allowed in Australia. At this time the ''white Australia policy'' was still in place and enforced by the Government and that is why no Indian devotees were in our Temples in Australia during the 1970s.
At the time all black people also were mostly banned from getting into Australian, except for famous singers and entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr, that's why all photos from the 1970s of ISKCON devotees, you will see no black people at all, not even one, and no Indians also except for a small few, maybe just 4 or five at a Sunday love feast.
Today in 2020, 99% of congregation are from Indian, unheard of in the 1970s because the white Australia racist policy no longer exists.
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, Chittahari was walking to the bus one cold morning with what we thought was a board, it was 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 Krsna Caitanya where surfboard riders, they attracted many young people to learn about Krishna and take prasad. Especially Krsna Caitanya (Ted Spencer) who was a well-known celebrity around the world winning his first World Surfing title in 1968 at 19 years old.
Then we went 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 people.
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 Krsna Caitanya dasa (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 Chittahari, Balarama and myself were the Bus Drivers. We were all the inquisitive philosophers, especially asking about the ''origin of the jiva''.
We just knew 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 if Srimad Bhagavatam he 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 because there were 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 Kurandah, 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 the experience-
''I was there at Kurandah 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.
Most of us wore beautiful long hippie dresses or sarongs etc. some of the guys used to get around naked as I recall, but my girlfriend and 8 or 9 other friends and I who I all hitchhiked up from Melbourne together to Kurandah were quite chaste and wore nice clothing.
After a few months in Kurandah and Cairns I lived in the Temple in Melbourne for a few months, then lived in the Adelaide Temple for a few months, then moved back to Melbourne and lived in a flat with Deva Darshana Devi Dasi'' (End quote)
There was an explosion of devotees around the end 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 hippies came out of the forest and followed us singing Hare Krishna.
There were hundreds of them at a place called Kurandah 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, 48 years later, you can go up on that steep hill in Kurandah 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 Kurandah 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 Swami 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, Chittahari was 22, Krsna Caitanya was 22 and Balarama was the oldest at 29).
The rest of us where still teenagers. 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#..
