About:

As Hare Krishna Temple (KT) neophytes, we and our two dining companions entered the South Berkeley ISKCON temple (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) with trepidation.  After dutifully removing our shoes in the lobby, the first thing we observed was a bake sale whose proceeds helped “decorate and dress the deities.”  This table was situated directly across from a vast table full of literature by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement.  And above all of that were various fund-raising banners, filled in with names next to generous donation amounts, usually ending in a 1 or an 8.  The lobby was filled with a cacophony of chanting, emanating from the main temple room.

We were clearly out of our element, and were eventually rescued by Greg Anderson, a past president of the temple, and one of two scientists in the Bhaktivedanta Institute, ISKCON’s academic wing, which focuses mainly on consciousness studies.  He regaled us with a detailed history of the Hare Krishna movement, including the seminal role played in the past by the San Francisco temple, which later moved to its current location in Berkeley, after a brief stint in a building in the Mission that had recently been a mortuary (apparently cooking food where cadavers were once cleaved was a bit too much for the staff).  He then launched into the finer details of his past chemistry education with Yogi and Karthish, before eventually deciding to give us a tour of the Institute.