The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krsna movement, is a worldwide association of devotees of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. God is known by many names, according to His different qualities and activities. In the Bible he is know as Jehovah (“the almighty one”), in the Koran as Allah (“the great one”), and in the Bhagavad-gita as Krsna, a Sanskrit name meaning “the all-attractive one.”
The movement’s main purpose is to promote the wellbeing of human society by teaching the science of God conciousness (Krsna conciousness) accourding to the timeless Vedic scriptures of India
Many leading figures in the international religious and academic community have affirmed the movement’s authenticity. Diana L. Eck, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard University, describes the movement as “a tradition that commands a respected place in the religious life of humankind.”
In 1965, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, known to his followers as Srila Prabhupada, brought Krsna conciousness to America. On the day he landed in Boston, on his way to New York City, he penned these words in his diary: “My dear Lord Krsna, I am sure that when this transcendental message penetrates [the hearts of the westerners], they will certainly feel gladdened and thus become liberated from all unhappy conditions of life.” He was sixty-nine years old, alone and with few resources, but the wealth of spiritual knowledge and devotion he possessed was an unwavering source of strength and inspiration.
“At a very advanced age, when most people would be resting on their laurels,” writes Harvey Cox, Harvard University theologian and author, “Srila Prabhupada harkened to the mandate of his own spiritual teacher and set out on the difficult and demanding voyage to America. Srila Prabhupada is, of course, only one of thausands of teachers. But in anothersense, he is one in a thousand, maybe one in a million.” In 1966, Srila Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Conciousness, which became the formal name for the Hare Krsna movement.
Astonishing Growth
In the years that followed, Srila Prabhupada gradually attracted tens of thousands of followers, started more than a hundred temples and ashrams, and published scores of books. His achievement is remarkable in that he transplanted India’s ancient spiritual culture to the twentieth-century Western world.
New devotees of Krsna soon became highly visible in all the major cities around the world by their public chanting and their distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books of Vedic knowledge. They began staging joyous cultural festivals throughout the year and serving millions of plates of delicious vegetarian food offered to Krsna (known as prasadam). As a result, ISKCON has significantly influenced the lives of millions of people. In the early 1980′s the late A. L. Basham, one of the world’s leading authorities on Indian history and culture, wrote, “The Hare Krsna movement arose out of next to nothing in less than twenty years and has become known all over the West. This is an important fact in the history of the Western World.”
