Traces the growth of the Hare Krishna movement in the U.S., describes the experiences of individual followers, and analyzes recruitment patterns, activities, and leadership of the movement.

This book examines issues of leadership and succession in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) which was founded in by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1966. After the founder’s death in 1977, the movement was led by a group of gurus in a "zonal system" until their authority was challenged and reformed in the mid-1980s. At the heart of the book is an exploration of the developments, conflicts, and defining characteristics of leadership in ISKCON in this decade. Themes of hierarchy, status, power and authority, and the routinisation of charisma are shown to be keys to understanding the events of the time. With careful analysis of interviews and documentary evidence, the research offers a unique insight into ISKCON as an organisation and the broader religious community in which ISKCON is located. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of new religious movements and those concerned with religious leadership.

Combining behind-the-scenes coverage of an often besieged religious group with a personal account of one woman's struggle to find meaning in it, Betrayal of the Spirit takes readers to the center of life in the Hare Krishna movement. Nori J. Muster joined the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)--the Hare Krishnas--in 1978, shortly after the death of the movement's spiritual master, and worked for ten years as a public relations secretary and editor of the organization's newspaper, the ISKCON World Review. In this candid and critical account, Muster follows the inner workings of the movement and the Hare Krishnas' progressive decline. Combining personal reminiscences, published articles, and internal documents, Betrayal of the Spirit details the scandals that beset the Krishnas--drug dealing, weapons stockpiling, deceptive fundraising, child abuse, and murder within ISKCON–as well as the dynamics of schisms that forced some 95 percent of the group's original members to leave. In the midst of this institutional disarray, Muster continued her personal search for truth and religious meaning as an ISKCON member until, disillusioned at last with the movement's internal divisions, she quit her job and left the organization. In a new preface to the paperback edition, Muster discusses the personal circumstances that led her to ISKCON and kept her there as the movement's image worsened. She also talks about "the darkest secret"–child abuse in the ISKCON parochial schools--that was covered up by the public relations office where she worked.

"This book examines issues of leadership and succession in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) which was founded in by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1966. After the founder's death in 1977, the movement was led by a group of gurus in a 'zonal system' until their authority was challenged and reformed in the mid-1980s. At the heart of the book is an exploration of the developments, conflicts and defining characteristics of leadership in ISKCON in this decade. Themes of hierarchy, status, power and authority and the routinisation of charisma are shown to be key to understanding the events of the time. With careful analysis of interviews and documentary evidence, the research offers a unique insight into ISKCON as an organisation and the broader religious community in which ISKCON is located. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of new religious movements and those concerned with religious leadership"--

A Summary Study of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita Taking the role of His own devotee, Lord Sri Krishna appeared as Sri Krishna Chaitanya about five centuries ago in Bengal, India, and began a great social and spiritual revolution that has profoundly affected the lives of millions worldwide. His conversations with the great scholars, kings, and mystics of the day form the basis of Teachings of Lord Chaitanya.

The first draft of The Hare Krishna Explosion was written in July 1969 just after Srila Prabhupada’s first visit to New Vrindavan. At that time Hayagriva realized that the details of the beginnings of the Krishna Consciousness Movement had best be recorded when the events were still fresh. Working from notebooks, diaries and memories he compiled the first edition in a month. Then the manuscript remained packed away until Srila Prabhupada left the mortal world in 1977.

Dancing and chanting with their shaven heads and saffron robes, Hare Krishnas presented the most visible face of any of the eastern religions transplanted to the West during the sixties and seventies. Yet few people know much about them. This comprehensive study includes more than twenty contributions from members, ex-members, and academics who have followed the Hare Krishna movement for years. Since the death of its founder, the movement, also known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), has experienced debates over the roles of authority, heresy, and dissent, which have led to the development of several splinter movements. There is a growing women's rights movement and a highly publicized child abuse scandal. Providing a privileged look at the people and issues shaping ISKCON, this volume also offers insight into the complex factors surrounding the emergence of religious traditions, including early Christianity, as well as a glimpse of the original seeds and the germinating stages of a religious tradition putting down roots in foreign soil.

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhup?da (1896-1977), founder of the Hare Krishna Movement, traced his lineage to the fifteenth-century Indian saint Sri Chaitanya. He authored more than fifty volumes of English translation and commentaries on Sanskrit and Bengali texts, serving as a medium between these distant authorities and his modern Western readership and using his writings as blueprints for spiritual change and a revolution in consciousness. He had to speak the language of a people vastly disparate from the original recipients of his tradition's scriptures without compromising fidelity to the tradition. Tamal Krishna Goswami claims that the social scientific, philosophical, and 'insider' forms of investigation previously applied have failed to explain the presence of a powerful interpretative device-a mahavakya or 'great utterance'-that governs and pervades Prabhupada's 'living theology' of devotion on bhakti. For Prabhupada, the wide range of 'vedic' subject matter is governed by the axiomatic truth: Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Goswami's academic training at the University of Cambridge, his thirty years' experience as a practitioner and teacher, and his extensive interactions with Prabhupada as both personal secretary and managerial representative, afforded him a unique opportunity to understand and illuminate the theological contribution of Prabhupada. In this work, Goswami proves that the voice of the scholar-practitioner can be intimately connected with his tradition while sustaining a mature critical stance relative to his subject. A Living Theology of Krishna Bhakti includes a critical introduction and conclusion by Graham M. Schweig.

Most widely known for its adherents chanting “Hare Krishna” and distributing religious literature on the streets of American cities, the Hare Krishna movement was founded in New York City in 1965 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Formally known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, it is based on the Hindu Vedic scriptures and is a Western outgrowth of a popular yoga tradition which began in the 16th century. In its first generation ISKCON actively deterred marriage and the nuclear family, denigrated women, and viewed the raising of children as a distraction from devotees' spiritual responsibilities. Yet since the death of its founder in 1977, there has been a growing women’s rights movement and also a highly publicized child abuse scandal. Most strikingly, this movement has transformed into one that now embraces the nuclear family and is more accepting of both women and children, steps taken out of necessity to sustain itself as a religious movement into the next generation. At the same time, it is now struggling to contend with the consequences of its recent outreach into the India-born American Hindu community. Based on three decades of in-depth research and participant observation, Hare Krishna Transformed explores dramatic changes in this new religious movement over the course of two generations from its founding.

When ex-Krishna Steve Bryant launched a one-man holy war against the Hare Krishna cult, his body was found murdered. It was the Krishnas' response to make Bryant a monkey on a stick, a gruesome warning to all other Krishnas that death was in store for those with dreams of defection. 16 pages of photos.