Mukunda Goswami

Mukunda Goswami (Sanskrit: मुकुन्द गोस्वामी; born April 10, 1942) is a spiritual leader (guru) within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (popularly known as ISKCON or the Hare Krishnas). Mukunda Goswami was born as Michael Grant in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from Reed College he became a professional jazz musician and moved to New York to pursue his music career. In 1965 Michael met the Hare Krishna founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The next year he was in the first group of initiated disciples, receiving the Sanskrit name Makunda Das. It was later changed to Mukunda Goswami.

Mukunda was a pioneer in the early days of the Hare Krishna movement. In 1966 in New York City he helped Bhaktivedanta Swami rent a storefront for the first Hare Krishna temple. In 1967 he founded the first Hare Krishna temple in San Francisco and organized a major music event, the Mantra-Rock Dance. In 1968 Mukunda with his wife at that time, Janaki, with two devotee couples went to London to set up the Hare Krishna movement, where they established ISKCON. (read more on wikipedia)

Links to Peel
Makunda was a high profile spiritual leader in the Hare Krishna movement and made an appearance on Peel's Night Ride show on 16th July 1969. On the show, Makunda did not do a session but more likely, as there are no current available recordings of the show, talked to Peel about the Hare Krishna Movement, an organisation that was quite popular with hippies, who were his main listeners and he himself was one in the 60's, although not a Hare Krishna follower.

A year later, Mukunda was credited (under the name of Mukunda Das Adhikary) with arranging traditional songs for the Radha Krsna Temple album, whose two singles made the top 40 UK singles chart, even appearing on Top Of The Pops. The Radha Krsna Temple songs also got airplay on Peel's show.