Excerpt from a morning walk conversation with His Divine Grace in Los Angeles on June 25, 1975.

[break]

Dr. Judah: ...devotees, I think a long time, haven't you?

Jayatīrtha: Yes, Brahmānanda was one of the original...

Dr. Judah: I've seen his picture so often times in the Back to Godhead magazine playing the mṛdaṅga drum.

Jayatīrtha: What is it, ten years, Brahmānanda? Or nine years?

Brahmānanda: Well, '66. August '66.

Dr. Judah: August '66. You are one of the very earliest.

Prabhupāda: Actually, I began this movement from July '66. I came in '65 but I could not do anything. I was loitering here and there. Actually, I began my preaching work from '66, June, July, I think,yes.

Dr. Judah: You must have been one of the hippies he converted there in Tompkins Park then.

Brahmānanda: Well, I wasn't quite a hippie. [laughter] There weren't hippies at that time. It was just beginning. So I had been to the university. I graduated NYU. But I'd been to India.

Dr. Judah: You had been to India?

Brahmānanda: Yes. I was planning on going back also. I wanted to take a further degree. I was applying for a Fulbright.

Dr. Judah: I see. [break]