Hare Krishna

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HARE KRISHNA

The Hare Krishna movement, more formally known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), was founded in New York City in 1966, one year after the arrival of its charismatic leader, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, from India. The mission of ISKCON's founder was to gain recognition for his Hindu beliefs, which derived from a tradition originating in Bengal, India. While aligned with orthodox Hinduism, the Krishna Consciousness preached by Swami Prabhupada traces its roots to the Krishna bhakti movement founded by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the 16th century. Their beliefs derive from scripture contained in the Vedas, but the movement's central religious text is the Bhagavad-Gita, in which the devotional activity of bhakti is first fully detailed. Swami Prabhupada preached to his young followers that love for and devotional service to Krishna (God)—the basis of the bhakti-yoga tradition—would lead to spiritual realization. To gain this spiritual fulfillment Krishna devotees are required to take part in a number of religious practices: chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and living an austere lifestyle which avoids meat, intoxicants, illicit sex, and gambling.

The initial growth of the Krishna movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s in America was sustained largely by the involvement of middle-class countercultural youth, who were protesting against the traditional values and socio-political structures of American society. Krishna members have joined ISKCON on the basis of a variety of social, psychological, and religious motivations: a search for spiritual enlightenment, the desire for meaningful primary relations, disenchantment with the materialism of contemporary culture, or an attraction to the Krishna lifestyle. The movement gained considerable notoriety during the 1970s as its members were often seen chanting and distributing religious literature in airports and other public settings. Hare Krishna, branded by the public and the media as one of the major "cults," was thought to subject its members to "mind control" and various forms of "exploitation."

Reorganization. As the counterculture faded from America and other Western countries, ISKCON's membership pattern changed. At its height in the mid-1970s, ISKCON claimed a membership of approximately 5,000 in North America and 10,000 worldwide. Since that time, ISKCON's full-time membership in North America has declined somewhat. However, it has grown worldwide due to an expanding congregation of as many as several million part-time members, many of whom are East Indians. In the mid-1980s, ISKCON had 200 centers and communities on every continent, with over 70 in North America alone.

Following Swami Prabhupada's death in November of 1977, ISKCON was reorganized politically and spiritually. Eleven of Bhaktivedanta's closest disciples were appointed to serve as gurus, responsible for initiating new members into Krishna Consciousness and for helping to oversee the affairs of the movement's communities worldwide. Within a year following the leader's death, however, ISKCON faced a series of succession problems as the authority and legitimacy of the gurus was challenged by many long-time members. In the 1980s ISKCON faced factionalism, schism, the expulsion or defection of four of the original eleven appointed gurus, and the departure of countless other long-time members from the movement. This stabilized somewhat in the 1990s, as the remaining leaders consolidated the movement.

See Also: new religious movements; cults; sect.

Bibliography: a. burr, I Am Not My Body: A Study of the International Hare Krishna Sect (New Delhi 1984). f. daner, The American Children of Krishna: A Study of the Hare Krishna Movement (New York 1976). s. j. gelberg, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna (New York 1983); "The Catholic Church and the Hare Krishna Movement: An Invitation to Dialogue," ISKCON Review 2 (1986) 1–63. s. d. goswami, Prabhupada (Los Angeles 1983). g. johnson, "The Hare Krishna in San Francisco," c. glock and r. bellah, eds., The New Religious Consciousness (Los Angeles 1976). j. s. judah, Hare Krishna and the Counterculture (New York 1974). t. h. polling and j. f. kenny, The Hare Krishna Character Type: A Study of Sensate Personality (Lewiston, N.Y. 1986). e. b. rochford, Hare Krishna in America (New Brunswick, N.J. 1985). "Dialectical Processes in the Development of Hare Krishna: Tension, Public Definition and Strategy," d. bromley and p. hammond, eds., The Future of New Religious Movements (Macon, Ga.1987). l. d. shinn, "The Many Faces of Krishna," j. fichter, ed., Alternatives to American Main-Line Churches (New York 1983).