The Radha Krsna Temple – The Radha Krsna Temple

This is a Landmark album. In 1968, a group of six devotees of the Hare Krishna movement went to London, to fulfill the wish of their spiritual master, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, to spread Krishna Consciousness in England. These six friends, three couples, personally trained in kirtan singing by the Swami, came with practically no money and struggled really hard to create a temple, that after almost two years came into being. What they did bring was the Holy name of Krishna, and that, together with their enthusiasm and dedication, made it happen.

George Harrison had already heard a record of Bhaktivedanta Swami chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, and when these six friends tried to get into with the Beatles by sending home baked apple pies to Apple Records, their started happening. George became friends with them and helped in several ways, and suggested they made recordings. This first delivered the Hare Krishna Mantra single in 1969, and then the Govindam prayers single in January 1970 and this album later that year. The cover holds the Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara Deties, which, together with the manifesting of the temple, are a special story in Themselves. The singles are featured on the album, and especially the Mantra single, made it to several European hitparades. The album itself has been bootlegged many times over across the globe.

The recording of the Govindam prayers was desired by Apple. This ancient Sanskrit prayer, the Brahma-samhita, was sung by Yamuna and the melody was made by Mukunda. It was the instrumentation that made it so transcendentally special. George wanted it to sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, who had sixty four voices, so he recorded the six, and later added an extra group of devotees from , and recorded and mixed it over and over into this magical recording. Then there was the London String Quartet, which George was able to hire, Billy Preston on organ, George on guitar, Harivilasa on oud, Gurudas and Janaki on kartals, Tamal Krishna and Dhananjaya and other sang, and Yamuna on harmonium. Later the recording was criticized by some more conservative devotees because it was sung by a lady, but this was dismissed by Bhaktivedanta Swami, and to this day, upon greeting the deities in practically every ISKCON Hare Krishna temple around the world, this song is played.

Also on the album we find Bhaja Mana Hure. After a day of recording in the studio, late at night, exhausted and her voice scratchy and a good octave lower from singing, Yamuna sat down privately to immerse herself in this bhajan, and sang this song while playing harmonium and tapping on it. When she finished, it turned out George had recorded her, to Yamuna's great shock. The first line of the song is actually Bhaja Hure Mana. Yamuna had incorrectly heard Bhaktivedanta Swami sing it. There were no songbooks at the time. Later this song also was criticized because of that, but this criticism also was dismissed by Bhaktivedanta Swami, because of the sincerity. "The secret of Krishna Consciousness is sincerity."