The above picture is reproduced from the front pages of the Boston Globe, April 27, 1967. It shows Rayarama Das and Brahmananda Das holding kirtan at the Franklin Park zoo Be-in of the previous day. This was Boston's first such gathering, and a great number of people joined in the chanting of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Such encouraging interest has added impetus to our hopes of establishing a center in that city.

Please forgive the late appearance of this issue, which is in fact out of sequence, as it carries Part II of Hayagriva Das' Krishna Consciousness In American Poetry, the third part of which appeared last issue. Back to Godhead has been undergoing considerable transformations, of which we'll speak at greater length shortly. Before that, here are some ISKCON bulletins:

*The Society's record album, KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, has been selling wonderfully well wherever it has reached the public, and is already on sale as far away as London.

*The great Love Feast which the New York Temple was planning has come to nothing, but a different program of monthly though modest-feats is still being considered.

*The Ratha Yatra Chariot Festival will begin on July 9 with a parade through New York's streets to a beach-provided a suitable beach can be found.

*The San Francisco Temple's Chariot Festival is all set; we'll publish details next issue.

*As shown on our second page, New York's Tompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side at 7th Street and Avenue A will again resound with the chanting of the Maha-Mantra on Sunday afternoons, beginning May 7, at 3pm.

 

This brings us back to Back to Godhead. Last issue we promised that, although the cover was about to be changed, the price was not. Now we feel like those politicians who've promised to do away with the taxes: once in office, they find things to be not what they had hoped for: Beginning with the May issue, No.13, Back to Godhead will be offset printed from cover to cover, and will include considerably more pictorial material than it has in the past. Printing will greatly aid circulation, as many stores flatly refuse to carry mimeographed work. It will also, unfortunately, force us to raise the price of the magazine. This and future editions will contain more than double the present amount of material, and will appear monthly rather than semi-monthly. After reviewing the May Back to Godhead, why not write and tell us what you think of the change? We'll be hoping to hear from you.

Hare Krishna

The editors.