Hare Krishna is the popular name for the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (or
ISKCON), a new religious movement based on Hinduism. Hare Krishna worship the Hindu god
Krishna as the one Supreme God and strive for “Krishna Consciousness”, as well as the central
practice of chanting their mantras. I found the Hare Krishna beliefs to be different than what I
thought I knew, so I decided to look further into it.
Based on my research, the Religious Movements homepage states the ISKCON group was
founded in 1966 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada in New York, New York.
Prabhupada studied under one of India’s prominent religious scholar Srila Bhakti Siddhanta
Sarasvati. Sarasvati is the founder of sixty-four Vedic scriptures and the reason Prabhupada
dedicated his life to teaching Vedic knowledge in English. In 1962, Prabhupada translated the
Srimad-Bhagavatam, which in his opinion was the most important and informative Vedic
scriptures. He wrote three completed volumes of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Although, founded in
New York, Prabhupada moved to San Francisco where he gained many followers from the youth
culture, but notoriety to the Krishna movement came poet Allen Ginsberg and Beatle George
Harrison became involved. Prabhupada organized the Governing Board Commission (GBC) to
lead the movement and spread the knowledge across the world. In North America alone, there
are 52 temples, while hundreds of temples are in every continent and steadily growing.
However, ISKCON’s theology comes from the Bengali Gaudiya-Vaisnaya tradition of Hinduism.
Prabhupada is seen as guru of the spiritual masters going back to the times of Sri Caitanya.
