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Hare Krishna in the Twenty-First Century 1

1 Introduction and Historical Origins

of the Hare Krishna Movement
The Hare Krishna movement has been most easily identified by the sight of young
men dressed in orange or white robes and women dressed in colorful saris singing
and dancing on the street. The Hare Krishna movement was established when the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was founded in 1966
in New York City by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977),
hereafter referred to as Prabhupada (see Figure 1).1 Prabhupada was an Indian
sannyasi who arrived in the United States in 1965 for the purpose of spreading
“Krishna consciousness” in the West (Satsvarupa das Goswami, 1993c, p. 5).2
Krishna consciousness refers to meditation on Krishna, the deity of the monothe-
istic Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.
Although ISKCON is a modern Western organization, it belongs to a broader
and older religious tradition since it is an outgrowth of the Brahma Madhva
Gaudiya Sampradaya in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. A sampradaya is
a religious community, and so the Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Sampradaya is the
religious community or the broader religious tradition to which the Hare
Krishna movement belongs, and dates back to the sixteenth century. It is within
this community that the line of gurus – the parampara – passes on the teachings
of Gaudiya Vaishnavism to the next generation of students.
Gaudiya Vaishnavism was established in West Bengal, India by the Indian
saint Chaitanya in the early sixteenth century. Chaitanya is believed by Gaudiya
Vaishnavas to be an incarnation of Krishna. After Chaitanya, the tradition
continued by being passed on through a line of teachers (parampara) and
communities until the late nineteenth century when Bhaktivinoda Thakura
(1838–1914), a Bengali civil servant and magistrate, converted to Gaudiya
Vaishnavism. Bhaktivinoda introduced innovations in the propagation of
Gaudiya Vaishnavism, including the use of the printing press to make
Vaishnava scriptures much more widely accessible. He focused his proselytiz-
ing efforts on the administrative and intellectual class (bhadraloka), which
greatly increased the spread of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in West Bengal (Fuller,
2005). His efforts were continued by his son, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
Thakura (1874–1937), who formed a monastic mission called the Gaudiya
Math in Bengal in 1920 for the purpose of building on his father’s propagation
of Krishna consciousness throughout India.

1
Prabhupada means “The feet of the master” (Tamal Krishna Goswami, 2012, p. 22). It is an
honorific title his disciples used to address him.
2
A sannyasi is a man who has formally accepted the renounced order of life, or sannyasa, which
entails renouncing wife and family and paid work in order to focus on spiritual practices.

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2 New Religious Movements

Prabhupada and the Founding of ISKCON

Prabhupada was born Abhay Charan De in Kolkata in 1896 and was a practitioner
of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, taking initiation into the Brahma Madhva
Gaudiya Sampradaya from his guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, in 1932.
Bhaktisiddhanta told Abhay Charan that he should spread the teachings of Gaudiya
Vaishnavism in the English language (Rochford, 1985, p. 10). This instruction
implied spreading the teachings in the West, and had its roots in Chaitanya’s vision
that Krishna bhakti (devotion) would be propagated all over the world (Tamal
Krishna Goswami, 2012, p. 33). Abhay Charan followed this instruction by
engaging in proselytizing efforts independently due to the splintering of his
guru’s mission, the Gaudiya Math, over internal leadership disagreements after
Bhaktisiddhanta’s death (Satsvarupa das Goswami, 1993a, pp. 139–40, 222). In
1959, Abhay Charan entered into the life stage of sannyasa in the varnashram
system.3 At his sannyasa ceremony he was given the name Abhay Charanaravinda
Bhaktivedanta Swami and shortened it to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (Satsvarupa
das Goswami, 1993a).4 He would later be given the honorific title “Srila
Prabhupada” (Ravindra Svarupa Dasa, 2014), often shortened to “Prabhupada.”
In 1965, Prabhupada obtained a free passage to the United States on a ship
called the Jaladuta. He arrived in September 1965 and traveled to New York
City where he gave regular lectures on Krishna consciousness. Prabhupada’s
classes attracted older, middle-class women and counterculture youth.5
However, a move to the Lower East Side of New York City meant a new
audience consisting mostly of youth who had an interest in spirituality. His
following increased slowly but then picked up momentum, and in July 1966 he
gave his preaching efforts institutional status by registering an entity called the
“International Society for Krishna Consciousness” (ISKCON) (Satsvarupa das
Goswami, 1993c).6 While institutionalizing his new movement through the
legal process of registration was in itself an important step, the significance of
Prabhupada’s charisma in his role as the founder of ISKCON should not be
overlooked (Ketola, 2008, pp. 42–3). Prabhupada’s ability to attract increasing
numbers of followers over the coming years would appear to support this
conclusion. In 1967, Prabhupada traveled to San Francisco and established

3
The varnashram system is a social system of varnas or social classes based on occupation and
ashrams or stages of life. The four varnas are: brahmanas (priests and teachers); kshatriyas
(warriors and administrators); vaishyas (farmers and merchants); and shudras (laborers). The four
ashrams are: brahmacaris (celibate students); grihasthas (married householders);
vanaprasthas (retired married couples); and sannyasis (male renunciates).
4
Sanskrit is an historical Indo–Aryan language.
5
The counterculture in this context means, “an alternative culture that differs from the predominant
American culture” and refers primarily to “hippiedom” (Judah, 1974, p. 98).
6
Krishna consciousness refers to constant remembrance of Krishna as the supreme God.

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Hare Krishna in the Twenty-First Century 3

Figure 1 A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, New York, 1972. Courtesy

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Photo by Bhargava das, used with
permission.

a following there, and the movement then spread to other parts of the United
States at a rapid rate during the remainder of the 1960s (Satsvarupa das
Goswami, 1993b). In 1969, he sent three married couples to the United
Kingdom to open a center. The enterprising couples managed to meet with the
Beatles and, soon after, they recorded the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra
with the group, which was released by Apple Records and sold 70,000 copies on
the first day. Soon after, the devotees appeared on the popular television show
“Top of the Pops,” singing the Hare Krishna mantra and bolstering awareness of
the movement (Satsvarupa das Goswami, 1980a).
In the early 1970s, ISKCON grew at a rapid rate and centers were established
in many parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, several other European

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4 New Religious Movements

countries, India, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and various
parts of Asia. Most centers included living quarters where full-time members
could live in order to serve the mission. In November 1977, Prabhupada passed
away in India at the age of eighty-one. While his death threw the movement into
a state of shock, the institution carried on under the leadership of disciples who
had already been acting in that capacity for some years; this will be discussed in
detail in Section 3.

ISKCON in Context: Hinduism, Gaudiya Vaishnavism,

and New Religious Movements
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness is a modern Western
institution that is part of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition that dates to the
sixteenth century. While many scholars of South Asian studies categorize the
movement as part of the Hindu tradition, members of ISKCON generally self-
identify as “Gaudiya Vaishnavas” or “Vaishnavas,” rather than as “Hindu.”
However, some members of ISKCON also identify as Hindu to align with an
established world religion. Similarly, some members of ISKCON reject the
“new religious movement” label as inappropriate since the Gaudiya Vaishnava
tradition extends back to the sixteenth century.7 Knott (personal communica-
tion, 2006) argues that although the broader Vaishnava tradition of which
ISKCON is a part dates back thousands of years, ISKCON as an institution is
new, founded only in 1966. Melton makes this point in a more nuanced fashion,
arguing that recognizing the roots of new religions contextualizes them within
the movement of world religions to the West, and understanding the modern
diffusion of the world’s religions helps us understand the seemingly sudden
emergence of “new” religions in a Western context (Melton, 2007a, p. 31).
To add another layer of nuance to an already fraught exercise in categoriza-
tion, Haddon (2013b) argues that the attempt to categorize ISKCON is further
complicated by the fact that there has been continual cross-cultural traffic
between India and the United States as well as other Western countries since
the movement’s inception in the West. For this reason, the transnational Hare
Krishna movement today cannot be understood entirely with reference to
a Western sociological frame (see also Burt, 2013), or essentialist, ahistorical
notions of Indian tradition. Haddon proposes a more sophisticated understand-
ing of ISKCON's cross-cultural development.
Introvigne (1997) argues that the use of the new religious movement label is
better than the label of “cult,” which can be used as tool of discrimination.
Nevertheless, the former can still lead to misunderstandings about movements

7
See, for example, Mukunda Goswami (1995).

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Hare Krishna in the Twenty-First Century 5

such as ISKCON, which are new only in the West and represent much older
traditions in their countries of origin. The most neutral term in his opinion is
“religious minorities” because it avoids judgments about whether a group is
acceptable or connected to an old tradition. Vande Berg and Kniss (2008, p. 100)
suggest that new religious movements are often not all that new; rather, they
may combine and adapt previous religious forms to create something that
becomes innovative and new.
Therefore, while the label “new religious movement” is an easy categor-
ization, the presence of “new” in that label may gloss over the fact that
a modern organization like ISKCON is a development of a much older
tradition. Such a tendency can prevent a deeper understanding of
a tradition and its rich history. This author takes the stance that while
ISKCON can be categorized as a new religious movement, since it was
founded in 1966, this movement is part of a religious tradition that dates
back to the sixteenth century. Many new religious movements take
a syncretic approach, borrowing aspects of various religious traditions and
merging them into a new form. However, ISKCON represents a movement
that has essentially imported a religious tradition in its totality, with adapta-
tions for a modern Western following. A key theme running throughout this
Element is the idea that the Hare Krishna movement can be simultaneously
thought of as the continuation of a 500-year-old religious tradition and a new
religious movement (Melton, 1987, 2004, 2007a, 2007b), although, as the
movement ages, the label becomes less applicable.
While the Hare Krishna movement is a rubric for an array of groups, on an
institutional level the largest of these organizations is ISKCON. Until the death
of ISKCON’s founder in 1977, the Hare Krishna movement and ISKCON could
be considered one and the same. However, ISKCON faced factionalism and
schism in the late 1970s, resulting in the emergence of several social movement
organizations within the broader Hare Krishna movement (Rochford, 1989,
p. 163). Since the lines between these different groups are sometimes sharply
drawn and sometimes not, it is not always possible to make neat distinctions
between them, and between members, former members, and apostates, for
reasons that will be discussed in Section 3. In addition, ISKCON as an institu-
tion is more than the institutional structure of its corporate form. The historical
fact of ISKCON as key to the genesis of the Hare Krishna movement cannot be
ignored. As ISKCON is often thought of as synonymous with the Hare Krishna
movement, ISKCON devotees are known as Hare Krishnas, both internally and
by the wider public. Consequently, the two terms are sometimes used inter-
changeably and sometimes a distinction is made between them. For these
reasons, this Element will embrace both terms as part of acknowledging the

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6 New Religious Movements

history and the lived experience of current and former members, while noting
the context-dependent differences that exist between them.

Previous Scholarly Work on the Hare Krishna Movement

A number of monographs published in the 1970s and 1980s provided scholarly
analyses of the Hare Krishna movement that considered the prevailing social and
cultural contexts shaping the movement’s expansion in the West. The most recent
monograph that looked at the movement as a whole was published by E. Burke
Rochford (2007a). Two edited volumes comprising interviews with academics
were published by Dwyer and Cole, the last in 2013 (Dwyer and Cole, 2007,
2013). Monographs from the early 2000s are focused on particular aspects of the
movement. For example, Fahy (2019) takes a look at the community in Mayapura,
and Karapanagiotis (2021) focuses her analyses on the evolving outreach programs
within the movement. Therefore, a monograph is needed that addresses the multi-
tude of issues facing the movement, that takes into account major social and cultural
upheavals that have taken place since the scholarly analyses of the early 2000s, and
that draws on recent scholarship. This Element aims to fill that gap.
It is important to acknowledge that much of the scholarly work on the Hare
Krishna movement to date is based on fieldwork in the United States in the
1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Most noteworthy among this scholarship are works by
Judah (1974); Daner (1976); Rochford (1982, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1998, 1999);
and Rochford and Heinlein (1998). Knott (1986, 1993, 1994, 1995a, 1995b,
1995c, 2004) carried out her fieldwork in the United Kingdom, and Hopkins,
whose early work was based in the United States, reflected upon the movement
as a whole in his later work (Hopkins, 1989, 1998, 1999). More recent scholar-
ship based on fieldwork in the United States in the early 2000s includes
Rochford (2007a, 2007b, 2009, 2016, 2018, 2020); Vande Berg and Kniss
(2008); Lucia (2015); and Karapanagiotis (2021). This focus on the American
experience is justified to some degree since the movement was founded in the
United States and from there spread globally with an American influence.
However, it needs to be borne in mind that the conclusions from this research
do not entirely represent what is going on in the movement globally or in other
Western countries. For this reason, the Element will draw on recent scholarship
that is based on research conducted in other parts of the world in an attempt to
provide a more nuanced understanding of the movement.
My encounters with ISKCON communities have indicated that Rochford’s
findings, for example, are generalizable to some extent.8 Regional differences

8
Rochford’s work is noted here because he is by far the most prolific scholar of the Hare Krishna
movement.

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Hare Krishna in the Twenty-First Century 7

where the Indian cultural influence is greater than the Western influence can be
seen, for example, in Fiji, which has a large Indian and Hindu population. In
fact, ISKCON membership is almost 100 percent Indian in Fiji. The same may
be the case for other countries where local and Indian cultures have more
influence. This, of course, indicates the need to increase research in locations
outside of the United States, including Europe and Australasia, but also to
extend it to areas neglected by research, including Russia, Ukraine, Africa,
the Middle East, Asia, and South America. Fortunately, there has been a variety
of research since the beginning of the twenty-first century based on fieldwork
addressing different aspects of the movement in the United States, Europe,
India, South America, Australia, and the Middle East. This Element aims to
bring this scholarship together in one volume for a twenty-first-century audi-
ence. Of note is anthropological fieldwork in Australian Hare Krishna commu-
nities by Haddon (2013a, 2013b, 2013c) and an ethnographic study of the
ISKCON temple community in Mumbai by Robison (2016). Anthropological
fieldwork has been conducted in ISKCON’s flagship temple community in
Mayapura, India by Fahy (2017, 2018, 2019b, 2019a) and Mitsuhara (2019).
Čargonja (2022) has studied Hare Krishna devotees’ religious experience of
a personal relationship with Krishna by conducting research at communities in
Croatia, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and India (Vrindavan,
Mayapura, and Jagannath Puri).
My own fieldwork consisting of interviews for the ISKCON Oral History
Project in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia,
New Zealand, and Fiji has involved interviewing members from across the
globe. American devotees are highly represented in this cohort – largely
because the movement started in the United States. My research has focused
on the early members in order to capture the history of the movement from its
inception. The need to interview them was pressing due to the rapid attrition of
this cohort as they approach their seventies and eighties.

Theoretical Lenses
This Element’s analysis of the movement engages Stark’s (1996) model of ten
propositions that outline the conditions necessary for a religious movement to
succeed or fail. This serves as a useful framework by which to assess the Hare
Krishna movement’s success so far and to predict future success or failure based
on its current trajectory. Key to this theory is tension – “the degree of distinc-
tiveness, separation, and antagonism between a religious group and the ‘outside’
world” (Stark and Finke, 2000, p. 127). This tension has characterized the
movement’s relationship with its host communities since its inception and it

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8 New Religious Movements

will be unpacked with reference to some of Stark’s propositions. Stark’s model

emphasizes the importance of cultural continuity with the host culture and we can
observe varying degrees of cultural continuity of the Hare Krishna movement
with its host cultures throughout its history. This model will be used as
a theoretical lens throughout this Element.
The model of alignment processes (Snow et al., 1986; Bromley and Melton,
2012; Eidson et al., 2017) provides a useful theoretical framework for under-
standing the movement’s path since its inception in 1966. Frame alignment
has been used by scholars of religion to understand the ways in which people
become and remain members of religious organizations. Snow et al. (1986,
p. 464) defines frame alignment as the phenomenon of congruence and com-
plementarity between individual interests, values, and beliefs, and social
movement activities, goals, and ideology. The term “frame” is derived from
Goffman (1974, p. 21) who defined it as “schemata of interpretation” that
enable individuals to identify and label occurrences they encounter and
thereby render them meaningful. In this way, frames organize experience
and guide action, on individual and collective levels. Frame alignment is
necessary for participation in a movement; a movement’s members work to
align the interests, values, and beliefs of potential recruits with the activities,
goals, and ideology of the movement. Ideological work by movement mem-
bers and leaders that sustains the interest and participation of potential recruits
results in successful frame alignment, which is necessary for expanding the
movement’s membership (Rochford, 2018, p. 36). Put another way, a social
movement needs to link its master frame with the frames of potential adher-
ents so that they may identify with the movement and participate in it (Vande
Berg and Kniss, 2008, p. 90).
Frame alignment provides a way of understanding changes in the Hare
Krishna movement from the 1960s up to the present in terms of the movement’s
placement within broader cultural contexts. It also allows us to think about the
possible future paths that it may take, given the crossroads it is currently at in
terms of the cultural choices being made by its membership. These choices
involve those based on Indian cultural traditions as well as Western cultural
expectations that are being driven by movements for equality and social justice.
A number of scholars have identified the importance of the concept of frame
alignment for understanding ISKCON’s evolving trajectory in a changing world
(Vande Berg and Kniss, 2008; Rochford, 2018; Zeller, 2021). Stark’s model of
cultural continuity and the frame alignment model are complementary in this
analysis of the Hare Krishna movement. Frame analysis (Goffman, 1974; Snow
et al., 1986; Eidson et al., 2017; Persson, 2019) will also be useful for under-
standing the movement’s development since its inception.

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Hare Krishna in the Twenty-First Century 9

Resource mobilization theory (McCarthy and Zald, 1977; Jenkins, 1983;

Zald and McCarthy, 2017) also provides a useful theoretical framework for
understanding the movement’s changing fortunes. Resource mobilization is the
process by which a group secures collective control over the resources needed
for collective action (Jenkins, 1983, p. 532). Assets frequently mobilized by
movements include money, facilities, labor, and legitimacy (McCarthy and
Zald, 1977), as well as land, capital, and technical expertise (Tilly, 1978,
p. 69, cited in Jenkins, 1983, p. 533). Tangible assets such as money, facilities,
and means of communication have been distinguished from intangible or
“human” assets that include specialized resources such as organizing and
legal skills and the unspecialized labor of supporters (Freeman, 1979, pp. 172–5).
The major issues regarding resource mobilization are the resources controlled by
the group prior to mobilization efforts, the processes by which the group pools
resources and directs these toward social change, and the extent to which outsiders
increase the pool of resources (Jenkins, 1983, pp. 532–3).
In addition, the Element will utilize the theoretical frame of lived religion
(Hall, 1997; Orsi, 2002), which aims to capture followers’ everyday experi-
ences of their religious tradition, acknowledging that religious experience often
defies categorization (McGuire, 2008). To that end, emic language and spelling
of unique words will be used, rather than the language of the disciplines that
study the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, to accurately reflect the experience and
practice of Hare Krishna devotees. The emic perspective is an account of the
informant’s own descriptions, while the etic perspective is the observer’s
attempt to redescribe that information (McCutcheon, 1999, p. 17). The
Roman transliteration of Sanskrit terms will reflect popular pronunciation
within the movement, and avoid the use of diacritical marks in Sanskrit terms,
to make the Element accessible to a nonspecialist readership. It should be noted
that there are variations in Roman transliteration of Sanskrit terms and one
variant for each term has been chosen for consistency, except in the case of
direct quotations. Hare Krishna devotees who have taken initiation receive
a “spiritual name” with a suffix for men – das (servant) – and for women –
dasi (servant) or devi dasi (divine servant). There is variation in how each
individual spells this suffix – i.e. das, dasa, Das, Dasa, dasi, Dasi, devi dasi,
Devi Dasi. The name will be spelled in the way that the name holder spells it and
this will give rise to some inconsistency in spelling. In addition, in-text refer-
ences will include the name plus the suffix, to honor the convention that Hare
Krishna devotees always add the suffix when using their name – an acknowl-
edgment that they think of themselves as a servant of Krishna. The same is true for
names of renunciates that end in the suffixes Swami and Goswami, which indicate
one who masters their senses.

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10 New Religious Movements

Overview of the Element

This Element discusses the movement’s history and early challenges as well as
those that the movement currently faces against the backdrop of social, cultural,
and political changes that are taking place globally. It has been constructed to
give the newcomer the best possible understanding of a diverse and constantly
changing religious movement. In pursuit of that goal, Section 2 discusses the
beliefs and practices of followers of the movement while acknowledging the
many and varied ways in which devotees follow the precepts of the tradition.
Section 3 examines institutional and community dynamics and the impact these
have had on the trajectory of the movement. Section 4 looks at controversies,
issues, and challenges that have beset the movement since its inception as well
as the ways in which members of the movement have responded to these
challenges. Finally, Section 5 concludes by drawing together the main themes,
reflecting upon the state of play in the movement, looking to future paths that the
movement may take, and what that may tell us about its fate. I will now turn to
discussing the beliefs and practices that form the bedrock of the Hare Krishna
movement, while taking into account the ways in which these practices have
changed to adapt to an ever-changing global context and digital world.

2 Beliefs and Practices

In this section, the main theological beliefs of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition
that underpin the Hare Krishna movement are discussed, as well as the practices
and rituals that support and enact these beliefs. It is important to note that not all
devotees in the movement follow all the practices all the time. In these cases,
conceptualizing adherents as participants in a movement rather than as mem-
bers of an institution allows us to comprehend the different types and levels of
involvement in this tradition. While these practices form the core for serious
practitioners within the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, the reality within the Hare
Krishna movement is that they will be practiced with varying degrees of
regularity and strictness or may not be practiced at all by some participants in
the movement. For this reason, this section adopts a lived religion approach
(Hall, 1997; Orsi, 2002), which aims to understand the way adherents live and
experience the tradition in their everyday lives and acknowledges that they do
not always fit into neat categories (McGuire, 2008). In this way, in addition to
presenting the ideal according to the tradition’s precepts, the reality of adher-
ents’ lives is interrogated. With this caveat in mind, I will explore the beliefs and
practices of participants in the Hare Krishna movement.
The geographical diversity of ISKCON centers also undermines broad gen-
eralization. The movement has a presence in North America, South America,

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