Free Balloons, Literature and Food : Festival of Krishnas Is Their Time for Giving

A mother with her child in tow approached a robed young woman holding balloons Sunday and asked the obvious: “How much?”

“They are free,” the woman said as she handed a yellow balloon to the toddler. “We gave away 750 yesterday.”

Only days after a court upheld their right to solicit money at Anaheim Stadium, Orange County Hare Krishna devotees gathered to distribute religious literature and food samples on the sidewalk Sunday at Main Beach Park in Laguna Beach. But they didn’t ask for money in return.

“Everything is free,” said Alvin Marsden, 36, Hare Krishna Laguna Beach temple president, taking a break from his chanting. “This is a festival.”

Still Need Donations

Although the Hare Krishnas are able to hand out free literature and balloons, they still rely to some degree on public donations. Already they have returned to Anaheim Stadium to collect money. But these days, a spokesman said, they are less dependent on that source of income than they used to be.

The men with shaved heads and women wrapped in colorful saris gently beckoned to passers-by along Pacific Coast Highway, where tents were erected for the celebration. Charts and murals depicted the history of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), established 20 years ago by Srila Prabhupada.

The Festival of India, an event the religious group hopes to hold annually in Laguna Beach, also had been the subject of a lawsuit by Hare Krishnas challenging the city’s ban on temporary structures in the park. An out-of-court settlement permitted the displays, according to Marsden.

Mayor Was ‘Dismayed’

The legal dispute in Anaheim, however, hinged on whether the group had the right to solicit donations around the stadium.

Citing free speech protections, a federal appeals court last Tuesday ruled that it is unconstitutional to require Hare Krishna members to obtain a city permit to solicit donations at the stadium. The court also said Anaheim cannot ban solicitation merely because stadium spectators might be annoyed.

Anaheim Mayor Don Roth said he was “dismayed” at the ruling, but an ISKCON attorney declared it “a blow for freedom.”

Marsden said that on Friday Hare Krishna members had returned to the stadium to solicit donations from Angels fans arriving for the evening ballgame.

“In the 1960s and 1970s,” Marsden said, “we had no financial support, so we solicited just to get established. He conceded that “over-zealousness” among devotees of that era left an impression that Hare Krishnas “agitate and disturb.”

Reportedly Less Aggressive

But since broadening its base of financial support, members soliciting money in public have become less aggressive, he said.

During the 1960s, Marsden said, publicly solicited donations accounted for 100% of the fledgling religious sect’s funds. But today, he said, contributions in public places such as Anaheim Stadium account for only about 30% of the group’s finances, the balance coming from a lay congregation of working class and professional people.

“Money is still essential--we require money to print the books,” Marsden said, motioning at the stacks of paperbacks and pamphlets being handed out. “We should be allowed to present our philosophy and we should be allowed to solicit.”

Walking away from a booth, his arms full of free books, Dana Point electrician Tracy Bollinger, 31, said he thinks the Hare Krishnas could spend their time more effectively soliciting donations somewhere other than Anaheim Stadium.

Not Thinking of Afterlife

“I don’t think that’s really appropriate at Anaheim Stadium,” he said. “Most of the people going there are not thinking about the afterlife. They are thinking about how drunk they will get.”

But Bollinger said he believes the religious group “shouldn’t be prohibited from going there” to solicit donations.

Meanwhile, Laxmi Van Winkle, 24, continued to give away balloons to passing children.

Van Winkle and her husband, the temple cook, once were lifeguards at a hotel-casino in Las Vegas, where her mother still deals blackjack.

“She comes to visit and sleeps on the floor with us,” said Van Winkle, who lives with her husband and daughter in a home rented by the temple in Laguna Beach.

Donations received by the Hare Krishna devotees and contributions from lay members of the congregation pay for the literature passed out to the public as well as living expenses of temple members, she said. But the missionary members of the temple--those typically with shaved heads and traditional Indian dress--live frugal lives, eschewing material possessions, said Van Winkle and Marsden.