Krishna Consciousness

Saffron robes, shaved heads and prayer beads are still the classic symbols, but the Hare Krishnas are not the young zealots they used to be. When members commemorate the 30th anniversary of the movement in the United States this month, they are more likely to be gray-haired members dressed in business suits. Like its members--the baby boomers who were its earliest devotees in this country--the movement is maturing.

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will decide whether a Rhode Island high school may include a prayer in its graduation ceremony--a signal that it may be ready to permit a broader role for religion in schools and in public life. For at least two decades, the high court has been badly split on church and state issues, leading to a series of confused rulings on Christmas displays at city halls, prayers during public ceremonies and state aid to parochial schools.

Attorneys for the Bush Administration urged the Supreme Court Monday to reverse what may have been its most controversial ruling of the last year and to uphold a newly passed law that bans burning or defacing the American flag. The government should be permitted to protect the flag as one of those national symbols "special to us as a people," U.S. Solicitor Gen. Kenneth W. Starr told the court, which appeared to contain a majority that is still skeptical.

The Supreme Court Monday gave attorneys for the Hare Krishnas and the Church of Scientology another chance--although a slim one--to persuade a California court that it should throw out multimillion-dollar verdicts won in lawsuits filed by former devotees. Two weeks ago, the high court said juries may impose huge punitive damage verdicts so long as a state judge makes sure that the damage awards are in line with the gravity of the offenses.

A mistrial was declared Thursday in the murder case against an alleged hit man for a Hare Krishna sect after a Van Nuys Superior Court jury deadlocked, 8 to 4, in favor of acquittal. Thomas A. Drescher, 42, was charged with fatally shooting Stephen Bryant, 33, on May 22, 1986, while Bryant sat in a van parked near a Hare Krishna temple in West Los Angeles. Bryant was an embittered former member of the Hindu sect who traveled the country in his van writing and preaching against the organization.

Religious followers, humanitarians and advocacy groups can continue to seek donations at Los Angeles International Airport after a federal judge blocked a city ordinance Friday that would have banned the solicitors. U.S. District Judge John G. Davies granted a preliminary injunction against the measure but the decision may not be final. Los Angeles Deputy City Atty.

Attorneys for the Bush Administration urged the Supreme Court Monday to reverse what may have been its most controversial ruling of the last year and to uphold a newly passed law that bans burning or defacing the American flag. The government should be permitted to protect the flag as one of those national symbols "special to us as a people," U.S. Solicitor Gen. Kenneth W. Starr told the court, which appeared to contain a majority that is still skeptical.

Even in this city that swears by its diversity, the Hare Krishna have not always blended easily into the community's patchwork. Over the years, members of the Hare Krishna temple here have annoyed residents with late-night chanting and squared off against the city over the right to hold celebrations on crowded Main Beach. There was a drug scandal that rocked the temple in the late 1970s and a lawsuit by a Cypress teen-ager who alleged that she was brainwashed into joining the sect.

In 1968, some California devotees of a Hindu spiritual master saw a newspaper ad calling for people to settle in an isolated but beautiful part of the Mountaineer State. The acolytes set up a small farm, were joined by others and eventually formed a tightly knit religious community. In 1973, beginning with only a rough sketch on a piece of paper, they started building a home for Swami Prabhupada, their leader. In 1977, the swami died at his palace.

A Hare Krishna devotee, already serving a life-without-parole prison sentence in West Virginia for the murder of a fellow sect member, was charged Friday with the 1986 Los Angeles murder of a former Krishna member who had turned into a vociferous critic of the religious sect. Thomas A. Drescher, who was extradited to California on Thursday, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles Municipal Court in the death of Stephen L.