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Those were the days!

Posted by ISKCON Desire Tree on November 2, 2015 at 11:52am
Those were the days! Kurma das: Monday, 17 July 1972 “Civil authorities in Melbourne followed Sydney’s lead by arresting the devotees, albeit it under slightly different circumstances. In Sydney, devotees would be spontaneously arrested for street chanting. In Melbourne, however, although the police disapproved of the chanting parties, devotees were mainly getting charged for selling Back to Godhead magazines on the street. The charging would result in court cases with fines being imposed against the devotees. The devotees, of course, would neither show up for the court case nor pay the fines. These cases would end with summonses, subsequent arrests and jail sentences. Having received news of Srila Prabhupada’s advice to Caru, the devotees in Melbourne were now clear on what they should do. On 28 September 1972, The Age accurately and sympathetically summed up the recent events in an article headed "Hare Krishna Song Goes on in Prison”: Upananda the monk, William Willis to the police, walked out of the St.Kilda Watchhouse at 6 p.m. yesterday, after two days behind bars, still chanting the jubilant Hare Krishna mantra. And at Pentridge Jail, two other Hare Krishnas who had been imprisoned for two days and facing three more days inside, are keeping up their “Hari Hari” prayer, fasting all the while. The three men were arrested by police who broke into the Burnett Street Temple in St.Kilda of the Hindu religious congregation, the Hare Krishnas, at 3a.m. on Tuesday. Lead by Detective Sergeant A. Miller, the police marched through the two storey building, shining torches in the faces of the sleeping men. The police carried warrants of arrest over the non-payment of City Council street fines imposed for taking donations for the Krishna magazines, alleged to be begging. There was believed to be several hundred unpaid fines, averaging three dollars each. The total of unpaid fines may be $1,800. The monks say they have no money to pay it, and in any case will not pay on the principle of “freedom of religion” At Pentridge, the monk, Gaura Gopal and Hare Krishna novice, Pat Deegan, gaoled two days with three to go, had taken no food up to last night. The Hare Krishna monks are strict vegetarians and the two prisoners say they were offered meals containing meat. The prisoners told Sanaka dasa, their 25-year-old Temple President who visited them in jail yesterday: “We shall persevere. Do not worry for us.” Deegan told his Temple President a Pentridge warder threatened to cut off his sikha, the pigtail of hair, but he dissuaded them. As the embattled monks sat in council over their evening meal last night, word was brought that a fourth had been arrested in Bourke Street City at 4.30 p.m. One monk reported “A City Council employee pointed ‘That’s him’, and a policeman dragged him away to the police car.” The monk is now held in the St. Kilda Watchhouse. Sanaka dasa, a calm young man born in Athens, whose parents are Melbourne citizens said, “We are ready to endure this persecution in order to win the freedom of religion that lies in the future for us.”

Those were the days!
Kurma das: Monday, 17 July 1972
“Civil authorities in Melbourne followed Sydney’s lead by arresting the devotees, albeit it under slightly different circumstances. In Sydney, devotees would be spontaneously arrested for street chanting. In Melbourne, however, although the police disapproved of the chanting parties, devotees were mainly getting charged for selling Back to Godhead magazines on the street. The charging would result in court cases with fines being imposed against the devotees. The devotees, of course, would neither show up for the court case nor pay the fines. These cases would end with summonses, subsequent arrests and jail sentences.
Having received news of Srila Prabhupada’s advice to Caru, the devotees in Melbourne were now clear on what they should do. On 28 September 1972, The Age accurately and sympathetically summed up the recent events in an article headed "Hare Krishna Song Goes on in Prison”:
Upananda the monk, William Willis to the police, walked out of the St.Kilda Watchhouse at 6 p.m. yesterday, after two days behind bars, still chanting the jubilant Hare Krishna mantra.
And at Pentridge Jail, two other Hare Krishnas who had been imprisoned for two days and facing three more days inside, are keeping up their “Hari Hari” prayer, fasting all the while.
The three men were arrested by police who broke into the Burnett Street Temple in St.Kilda of the Hindu religious congregation, the Hare Krishnas, at 3a.m. on Tuesday.
Lead by Detective Sergeant A. Miller, the police marched through the two storey building, shining torches in the faces of the sleeping men. The police carried warrants of arrest over the non-payment of City Council street fines imposed for taking donations for the Krishna magazines, alleged to be begging.
There was believed to be several hundred unpaid fines, averaging three dollars each.
The total of unpaid fines may be $1,800. The monks say they have no money to pay it, and in any case will not pay on the principle of “freedom of religion”
At Pentridge, the monk, Gaura Gopal and Hare Krishna novice, Pat Deegan, gaoled two days with three to go, had taken no food up to last night. The Hare Krishna monks are strict vegetarians and the two prisoners say they were offered meals containing meat.
The prisoners told Sanaka dasa, their 25-year-old Temple President who visited them in jail yesterday: “We shall persevere. Do not worry for us.” Deegan told his Temple President a Pentridge warder threatened to cut off his sikha, the pigtail of hair, but he dissuaded them.
As the embattled monks sat in council over their evening meal last night, word was brought that a fourth had been arrested in Bourke Street City at 4.30 p.m.
One monk reported “A City Council employee pointed ‘That’s him’, and a policeman dragged him away to the police car.” The monk is now held in the St. Kilda Watchhouse.
Sanaka dasa, a calm young man born in Athens, whose parents are Melbourne citizens said, “We are ready to endure this persecution in order to win the freedom of religion that lies in the future for us.”


Source...http://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/132322864551/those-were-the-days-kurma-das-monday-17-july

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