Aditi Panwar
REL 110
FALL 2018
ISKCON Movement
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness also known as the Hare Krishna movement was founded by Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1965. ISKCON belongs to the Gaudy Vaishnava community and is based on the texts like Bhagavad Gita which shows that the aim for all living beings is to be one with the God or Krishna.
Swami Prabhupada was a teacher of Vedic writings and Bhakti-yoga. He was viewed as the true follower and messenger of the divine avatar Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu who re-energised the concept of devotion of Krishna in 1500s. Abhay was born in a Bengali family on September 1st in 1896 and was married at the age of 22. At age of 26 when he met his spiritual leader, Srila Bhaktisidhhanta Sarasvati he was immensely inspired by his work and wisdom that he decided to follow him on the path of “sannyasa” and thereby making the decision of leaving his family. He took the name of Srila Prabhupada since he was now a disciple of his leader. Srila Bhatisidhhanta was himself a leader of a Gaudiya Vaishnava community which believes in the worship of Vishnu and his different incarnations and this community was also inspired by Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Srila Bhatisidhhanta wanted the teachings of Krishna to reach all over the world and wanted to start by spreading it to the West for which he passed the responsibility to Abhay. Since the time he has started his path of being a Vedic Scholar, he has translated around 80 Vedic Texts including the Bhagavad-Gita and also provided a summary for a lot of these writings. Working and preparing for the duty that had been bestowed upon him for approximately forty years, in 1965 he finally boarded a ship to New York with just 7 dollars and a bag of his translations with him to start the expansion of Krishna consciousness in the world.
"History of the Hare Krishna Movement." What Are the Vedas? | Krishna.com. Accessed December 11, 2018. http://www.krishna.com/history-hare-krishna-movement-0. In this article we get to know that Srila Prabhupada had an extremely tough start in the United States of America. Since he was low on money he had to book small yoga studios, YMCAs or lofts for his speakings and live in the houses of people who empathised with him and his work. He would take a small drum and just sit under a tree and chant Krishna’s name which would catch a lot of attentions. Curious individuals would talk and listen to him and soon he gained quite a few followers who helped him with his journey. His small book speakings soon become regular weekly lectures on Bhagavad-Gita while he continued his public chanting sessions in the Tompkins Square Park which now has an elm tree dedicated to bhakti-yoga. In the beginning the followers of Srila Prabhupada were mostly caucasian people who got so involved and influenced that they dropped out of colleges, gave up drugs, quit their jobs and greatly influenced the hippie life. In the same year he opened the first ISKCON centre in New York City at 26 Second Avenue in Manhattan. By 1968 with more followers he had opened ISKCON temples in Montreal, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The first Ratha-yatra festival was celebrated in San Francisco in 1967 which was a big step towards the acceptance of bhakti-yoga in the west. It’s a very important festival for this religion which consists of a public procession of Lord Krishna in a chariot along with people chanting his name. In 1972, Swami Prabhupada founded the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, a publishing house for publishing just books and texts on Krishna consciousness. He translated more than 40 volumes of great classics of Krishna including Bhagavad-Gita, Bhagavata Purana and Sri Caitanya-caritamrita which are now published in more than 50 languages and sold worldwide. In 1973, he also opened a Bhaktivedanta Institute for getting a degree in consciousness studies. In November 1977, Srila Prabhupada passed away but made his name as the world's most prominent contemporary authority on bhakti-yoga. As of today there are around 500 ISKCON temples in the world.
JUDAH, J. STILLSON. "The Hare Krishna Movement." In Religious Movements in Contemporary America, edited by Zaretsky Irving I. and Leone Mark P., 463-78. Princeton University Press, 1974. http://www.jstor.org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/stable/j.ctt13x0r27.26. In this chapter we realise the idea behind the Hare Krishna Movement. Firstly, they believe that Krishna is the “highest personality of Godhead” that means the main God which is why one must surrender to him since we are all his children, a small part of the universe he has created. By doing so we make the bond between Krishna and man stronger. Devotion of Krishna will bring us clarity with what is “real” and the original consciousness that we are eternally related to him. Secondly, they believe that they must always be spreading the teachings and knowledge of Krishna consciousness to everyone who is curious and willing to learn. They believe that being the children of the God, the main purpose of their lives is to serve Krishna and thus they take up the “sannyasa” life which is the life stage of renunciation so it is easier for them to focus on what is “important”. The followers of Krishna believe this is a difficult age for one to discover the reality because of karma for one’s involvement with materialistic pleasures. They think that people are so lost in the illusory material life of pleasure seeking or “maya” that it will be very hard for them to see the transcendental reality of Krishna. Human preservations lies in his or her purification by surrendering completely to bhakti-yoga and only then they will be able to learn that the spiritual pleasure they get from just doing everything for Krishna is much greater, stronger and permanent as compared to the materialistic pleasure they used to receive before. The Vedic writings have an important role in Krishna consciousness. Firstly, reading them supports their devotion to Krishna and making them feel more connected with him. Secondly, devotee want to know more about the Krishna’s transcendental experiences to relate to their own lives and once again feel more in sync with the God.
Berg, Travis Vande, and Fred Kniss. "ISKCON and Immigrants: The Rise, Decline, and Rise Again of a New Religious Movement." The Sociological Quarterly 49, no. 1 (2008): 79-104. http://www.jstor.org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/stable/40220058.
This journal talks about the issues devotees faced and development of the internal culture. Since many devotees were married, had children and jobs it was very hard for them to balance this with being a Krishna conscious person. ISKCON lacked the importance of family. Many people did not want to leave their family even though they were devoted to Krishna. As a result, a new internal culture was built which broke down a few walls limiting the external culture. Although bhakti-yoga shows the material world as false pleasure, a Krishna conscious person can have a job and other materialistic things but must never get too invested in it and must always remember that Krishna is most important. Basically krishna conscious individuals can have materialistic things but can not have materialistic attachments.
All the devotees regardless of their race and ethnicity have devoted their lives to this religion which is a part of Hinduism. Thus they try to adapt to the “Hindu culture” in their day to day lives. The devotees start wearing indian traditional clothes and eat vegetarian food. They try to learn and speak in different indian languages and read religious texts and classics of Krishna in Sanskrit. Since temples play such an important part in India for devotions, all ISKCON temples are made to have the same divine atmosphere. With the increase in the Indian immigrants the values of ISKCON became legitimate and the interaction between the Indians and westerners are proved that Krishna consciousness is a religion for those who believe in the spiritual reality and is not related to your ethnicity and race.
ISKCON is a global religion. The number of people who believe in a somewhat new religions is uncanny. It shows how much people are able to relate with the religion and trust it enough to make such extreme changes in their lives making the religion legitimate.