How Robert Kennedy heard the holy names shortly before departing this world.
Ginsberg bade Kennedy goodbye and rejoined Walinsky and Jeff Greenfield, then a junior speechwriter on Kennedy’s staff, in their small office. Only then, with a start, did he realize he’d neglected to do something with the senator, something more important than any words they’d exchanged. And, as luck would have it, Kennedy happened into the room. It was as if he’d hadn’t had quite enough of Ginsberg, and had come back for a bit more.
“Wait a minute,” Ginsberg told him. “I wanted to sing you the Hare Krishna mantra. Can you stay and listen? It’ll just take one minute.” After Kennedy agreed, Ginsberg pulled out his harmonium. “He has this one-tone mouth harp, so he blows his note on that – what’s the sound? Mmmmmmmmmmgggg?” Edelman recalled. Ginsberg chanted two choruses. “I think Kennedy was kind of … I don’t know if it was delighted or amused,” Greenfield recalled. “I think he was kind of intrigued.”
“What was that?” Kennedy had asked.
“That’s a magic spell for the preservation of the planet,” Ginsberg told him. “Hear it once and you’re immediately enlightened.”
“The guy on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue needs that more than I do,” said Kennedy. “You ought to sing that to the guy up the street.”
“Well, make an appointment for me,” Ginsberg replied. But he never did see Lyndon Johnson.
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