Malati Dasi

Malati Dasi (मालती दासी,, also ) is a senior spiritual leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

Melanie Lee Nagel was born on August 30, 1945, in Vallejo, California.

She dropped out before graduating and joined the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

After her boyfriend, Sam Speerstra, got a position with the US Forest Service, she lived with him in a remote lookout tower near Bend, Oregon, where their job was to spot forest fires and report them to the National Park Service.

After graduating, in 1963, from El Camino Fundamental High School in Sacramento, California, Nagel attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

In 1966, Speerstra's old friend from Reed College Michael Grant became one of the first Hare Krishna followers in the United States and was given the name Mukunda Das.

A surprise visit in October 1966 by Mukunda and his wife Janaki Dasi inspired Speerstra and Nagel to start following Gaudiya Vaishnava teachings and spiritual practices.

Speerstra and Nagel convinced Mukunda to postpone his planned trip to India in order to try to open a Hare Krishna temple in San Francisco, and offered their assistance.

When Mukunda agreed, Speerstra and Nagel moved to San Francisco and helped rent a storefront in the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, which at that time was becoming the hub of hippie counterculture.

Subsequently, Mukunda, Speerstra, and Nagel converted the storefront into the first Hare Krishna temple on the west coast of the US.

In order to raise funds, win supporters for the new temple, and popularize Prabhupada's teachings among the hippie and countercultural audience of the Haight-Ashbury scene, Mukunda, Speerstra, and Nagel decided to hold a charitable Mantra-Rock Dance concert at the Avalon Ballroom and invited Prabhupada to attend.

Using his acquaintance with Rock Scully, manager of the Grateful Dead, and Sam Andrew, founding member and guitarist of the Big Brother and the Holding Company – who were among the most prominent rock groups in the United States at the time – Speerstra secured their consent to perform at the concert, charging only the "musicians’ union minimum" of $250.

Preparing for the event, Nagel happened to hear Moby Grape, a relatively unknown group at the time, and convinced the other team members to invite the band to play at the concert as well.

Her initiative later proved pivotal for Moby Grape, catapulting the band onto the professional stage, with subsequent gigs with The Doors at the Avalon Ballroom and at the "First Love Circus" at the Winterland Arena, and a contract with Columbia Records.

After Prabhupada arrived in San Francisco, he gave Sam and Melanie initiations and the names Shyamasundara Das Adhikari and Malati Devi Dasi.

Malati Dasi became more active in the new temple activities, primarily in shopping, collecting donations of bulk produce, and cooking for what came to be wildly popular with the local hippie community as the "love feasts", or free distribution of prasad, opulent vegetarian food sanctified by being offered to Krishna.

Malati is also credited for her role in introducing the worship of Jagannath, a form of Krishna, in ISKCON.

Born in Vallejo, California, she was part of the hippie movement before becoming an initiated disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1967.

In the same year, she and her husband, Shyamasundar Das, helped Mukunda Das organize the Mantra-Rock Dance, a countercultural musical event held at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco; the dance was a fundraiser for ISKCON's first center on the west coast of the US.

Prabhupada's official biographer Satsvarupa dasa Goswami describes the incident that happened in 1967 in San Francisco:

One day Malati hurried into Prabhupada's apartment, took a small item out of her shopping bag, and placed it on Prabhupada's desk for his inspection.

"What is this, Swamiji?"

Shrila Prabhupada looked down and beheld a three-inch wooden doll with a flat head, a black, smiling face, and big, round eyes.

The figure had stubby, forward-jutting arms, and a simple green and yellow torso with no visible feet.

Shrila Prabhupada immediately folded his palms and bowed his head, offering the little figure respects.<

"You have brought Lord Jagannatha, the Lord of the universe," he said, smiling and bright-eyed.

"He is Krsna. Thank you very much."

Shrila Prabhupada beamed with pleasure, while Malati and others sat amazed at their good fortune of seeing Swamiji so pleased.

Prabhupada explained that this was Lord Jagannatha, a Deity of Krsna worshiped all over India for thousands of years.

Jagannatha, he said, is worshiped along with two other deities: His brother, Balarama, and His sister, Subhadra.

Excitedly, Malati confirmed that there were other, similar figures at Cost Plus, the import store where she had found the little Jagannatha, and Shrila Prabhupada said she should go back and buy them.

Malati told her husband, Shyamasundara, and together they hurried back and bought the two other dolls in the set.

After acquiring a full set of Jagannath figures, Prabhupada asked Shyamasundara, an expert carpenter, to carve large replicas and then inaugurated their worship in the San Francisco temple, naming it "New Jagannatha Puri".

Small duplicates of these deities immediately became a "psychedelic hit" and were worn by many hippies on strings around their necks.

In 1968, together with five other Hare Krishna followers, Malati flew to London to establish ISKCON's foothold in the United Kingdom.

There, she helped introduce Beatles guitarist George Harrison to Gaudiya Vaishnava's philosophy and practice.

In 1968, Malati and Shyamasundara, along with their infant daughter Saraswati, joined two other Hare Krishna couples – Mukunda and Janaki, and Gurudas and Yamuna – on a missionary trip to London in a bid to establish for ISKCON a foothold in England.

In recognition of her pioneering role in ISKCON's UK missionary activities, Malati was invited as a special guest to attend the 30th anniversary of the Bhaktivedanta Manor, ISKCON's headquarters in England, donated by Harrison to the organization in 1973.

In 1997, Malati helped organize the ISKCON Women's Ministry, which paved the way for the provision of "equal facilities, full encouragement, and genuine care and protection for the women members of ISKCON."

In 1998, despite fierce opposition, Malati became the first female member of the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON.