HARE KRISHNAS

HARE KRISHNAS


Russian Hare Krishnas

The International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, more commonly known as the Hare Krishnas) is a branch of Bengali Vaishnavas. Known throughout the world for their shaved heads, saffron robes, chants and brain-washing techniques, the sect is headquartered in Vrindavan (30 miles from Agra). Hare, Krishna and Rama are all names of gods. The sect is based on Vedic teachings with an ancient tradition of bhakti or devotion to God and is credited with adapting Bengali Vaishnavas for the Western world.

The Hare Krishna movement was founded by A.C. Bkaktivedanta who arrived in the United States in 1965 with some scriptures and 40 rupees in his pocket after he was told by his guru to spread the spiritual love of Krishna to the West. The Hare Krishna movement started when he began chanting “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Rama..." at a Lower East Side New York park. [Source: Harvey Arden, National Geographic, May 1990]

According to Britannica.com: Hare Krishna is “the popular name of a semimonastic Vaishnava Hindu organization. It is a Western outgrowth of the popular Bengali bhakti (devotional) yoga tradition, or Krishna Consciousness, which began in the 16th century. Bhakti yoga’s founder, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Sri Chaitanya of Bengal, 1485–1534?), advocated the pursuit of mystical devotion through repetitive chanting, especially of the Hare Krishna mantra: [Source: John Gordon Melton,Britannica.com]

Barbara Bradley of NPR wrote: “The Hare Krishna movement is a branch of Hinduism, formally known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Its name comes from its chant — Hare Krishna — which devotees repeat over and over. Sri Chaitanya of Bengal emphasized the worship of Krishna and believed that chanting the names of God was so powerful that in addition to one's own meditation on them, they should also be chanted in the streets for the benefit of all. Swami Prabhupada brought the movement — formally called the International Society of Krishna Consciousness — to the U.S. in 1966. Public dancing and chanting became its trademark. [Source: Barbara Bradley, NPR, May 22, 2008]

According to krishna.com, the website The Hare Krishna movement, is a monotheistic branch of the Gaudiya Vaishnava spiritual tradition that is said to date back to Krishna Himself—the Supreme Personality of Godhead who appeared on Earth and spoke the Bhagavad-gita over five thousand years ago. ISKCON follows Krishna's teachings as revealed in the sacred Vedas, including Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam (aka Bhagavata Purana). [Source: krishna.com]

Websites and Resources on Hinduism: Hinduism Today hinduismtoday.com ; India Divine indiadivine.org ; Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Oxford center of Hindu Studies ochs.org.uk ; Hindu Website hinduwebsite.com/hinduindex ; Hindu Gallery hindugallery.com ; Encyclopædia Britannica Online article britannica.com ; International Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu/hindu ; The Hindu Religion, Swami Vivekananda (1894), .wikisource.org ; Journal of Hindu Studies, Oxford University Press academic.oup.com/jhs

A.C. Bhaktivedanta


AC Bkaktivedanta in Paris in 1972

A.C. Bkaktivedanta (Acyuta Dasa Bkaktivedanta, Swami Prabhupada; 1896–1977) was an Indian religious leader and author who founded the Hare Krishna movement. He was was born on September 1, 1896 in Calcutta. In 1920, he completed his B.A. in chemistry at the Scottish Churches’ College in Calcutta; by that time, his family had arranged a marriage for him, and he later established a pharmacy business. In 1922 his guru, a spiritual leader of the Vaisnava Hindu sect, urged him to preach the teachings of Krishna throughout the Western world. Thereafter Bhaktivedanta devoted much time as lecturer, writer, editor, and translator for the Vaisnaava and in 1933 was formally initiated as a disciple at Allahabad. [Source: Encyclopædia Britannica ==]

Because his family did not share his religious interests, Bhaktivedanta turned over his business to a son and renounced all family ties in 1954 to devote his full time to religious work. He received the title of swami in 1959. As a young man, Bhaktivedanta was instructed by his teacher to carry Krishna Consciousness to the West. After fulfilling family obligations, he took the vows of a sannyasi (a religious ascetic who renounces the world) and sailed for Boston, Massachusetts. ==

According to to Krishna.com: “In 1965, at the age of 69, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada left the holy land of Vrindavan, India, to spread Krishna's message in the West on the order of his spiritual master. He arrived in Boston by freight ship, carrying $7 in change and a trunk of books about Krishna. For the first year he struggled alone, booking speaking engagements at yoga studios, YMCAs, and bohemian artists' lofts, while living in the homes of people he met who sympathized with his cause and would give him temporary residence. He would often take a small bongo drum and sit under a tree in a public park to chant the holy names of Krishna. Curious onlookers would gather. Some joined in the chanting. Some began to take an active interest in his mission. [Source: Krishna.com ***]

Several months later he moved to New York City, where he established the headquarters of the Hare Krishna movement on the Lower East Side. By 1966 Srila Prabhupada was living in New York City, in Manhattan's then impoverished Lower East Side, and had begun regular weekly lectures on Bhagavad-gita, along with public chanting sessions, kirtan, in Tompkins Square Park. That same year, he incorporated ISKCON in New York City, envisioning that soon there would be centers around the world.” ***

“From a storefront, he taught classes on Vedic culture, which he claimed could affect the consciousness of a world afflicted with rampant materialism. The movement became especially popular among young people, and many of the swami’s books began to be studied on college and university campuses. Bhaktivedanta died on November 14, 1977 at the age of 81 in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India. Despite his failing health, by the time of his death had written and published more than 50 books on ancient Vedic culture and had opened more than 100 centres throughout the world. ==

History of the Hare Krishna Movement


AC Bhaktivedanta in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in 1967

According to krishna.com; More than five centuries ago “Krishna appeared as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the form of His own devotee to establish the congregational chanting of God's holy names, sankirtana, as the easiest and most sublime spiritual practice for this age. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu popularized the chanting of the maha-mantra, comprised of sacred names of God: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. [Source: krishna.com =\=]

In 1965, A.C. Bhaktivedanta brought Sri Chaitanya's movement to the West and founded ISKCON in New York City. (See A.C. Bhaktivedanta above). His first converts were hippies in New York City, who shaved their heads and adopted Indian clothing as signs of membership. They took to the streets to chant and dance (a practice called kirtan) and to airports to sell their teacher’s books. In the process, they became one of the most visible symbols of the new religious movements in the 1960s. [Source: John Gordon Melton, Britannica.com]

From 1966 to 1968, as more and more spiritual seekers became attracted to Krishna consciousness, he opened ISKCON temples in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Montreal, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1967, the first Ratha-yatra festival outside of India was held in San Francisco. Ratha-yatra is one of the oldest and largest annual religious festivals in the world, performed each year in the holy city of Jagannatha Puri on the East Coast of India. Several million people line the streets to pull giant 3-story chariots carrying deity forms of Lord Krishna through the streets, accompanied by festive chanting of His names. This festival is now held by members of ISKCON in cities around the world.=\=

From 1969 to 1973, temples opened in Europe, Canada, South America, Mexico, Africa, and India. In 1970, the Governing Body Commission, ISKCON’s managerial body, was established to oversee the growing society. From 1970 to 1977, ISKCON built major centers at the holy pilgrimage sites of Mayapur and Vrindavana, India, and a large temple in Mumbai. =\=


ISKCON Dwarka in Delhi

In 1972, Srila Prabhupada founded the publishing house Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT), now the world’s foremost publisher of books on Krishna consciousness, or bhakti-yoga. Krishna.com is a website project of the BBT. From 1966 through 1977, Srila Prabhupada translated more than 40 volumes of the great classics of Krishna conscious literature from Sanskrit into English, giving elaborate commentaries synthesizing the realizations of previous masters along with his own. These books include Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the definitive presentation of Lord Krishna's teachings, Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), the 18-volume history of Lord Krishna's incarnations, pastimes and devotees, and Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, the 9-volume biography and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. These books have been published by the BBT in more than 50 languages, with several million copies sold and distributed by members of ISKCON to people all over the world. =\=

In 1973, the Bhaktivedanta Institute was formed to promote the teachings of the Vedas in scientific terms. Since 1974, ISKCON Food for Life has run karma-free vegetarian food relief programs in disaster areas and cities around the world. In November 1977, Srila Prabhupada passed from this world. By that time, ISKCON had established more than 108 temples, centers, schools farm communities, with more than 10,000 initiated members. =\=

Hare Krishnas After A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Prior to his death in 1977, Bhaktivedanta appointed the Governing Board Commission to guide the movement internationally. Included in the commission were several people he had designated as teachers (gurus), and, as the movement expanded, more gurus were named. By the end of the 1990s, there were about 225 Hare Krishna centres in 60 countries, including 50 centres in the United States. While the number of formally initiated members is only a few thousand, several hundred thousand regularly worship at the Hare Krishna temples, including many expatriate Indians. [Source: John Gordon Melton, Britannica.com]


ISKCOn publication

In 1989, the Hare Krishna movement came out from the underground in the Soviet Union, as glasnost brought an end to persecution. By 1991, more than one million copies of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is had been sold in the former Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, various Internet projects were launched, including Krishna.com, ISKCON.com and other Hare Krishna websites. Today, ISKCON has about 500 centers around the world, with a worldwide congregation in the hundreds of thousands—from all walks of life. [Source: krishna.com]

Hare Krishna Beliefs

Essential practices of Krishna Consciousness involve the chanting of God's holy names—among several processes of devotional service—to bring about lasting happiness and peace in society by reviving our loving relationships with God. Meditation lies at the heart of their faith. The Hare Krishna mantra consists of three words praising Krishna that are repeated over and over in a precise pattern to clear the mind. Hare Krishnas don't have funerals they hold a "disappearance day" ritual when someone dies. They believe someone never dies he simply returns to "Krishna's spiritual abode."

According to krishna.com: “ISKCON,” “Krishna consciousness,” and “Krishna” Himself are non-sectarian and non-denominational terms which refer to the worship of God, the Supreme Person. Anyone, anywhere can practice Krishna consciousness and become a “fan” or member of ISKCON. You do not need to change your religion to adopt the practices of Krishna consciousness—such as chanting God's names. Although “Krishna consciousness” is culturally recognizable as coming from the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition within (what’s commonly known as) Hinduism, it refers to the eternal function of the soul, sanatana dharma. As such, it transcends the limitations of temporary material bodies and their associated designations. [Source: krishna.com]

John Gordon Melton wrote in Britannica.com: “The teachings of the Hare Krishna movement are derived from ancient Hindu scriptures, especially the Srinad-Bhagavatum and the Bhagavadgita. Adherents believe that Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu) is the Supreme Lord and that humans are eternal spiritual beings trapped in a cycle of reincarnation. The nature of the cycle for individual beings is determined by karma, the law of the consequences of past actions, which returns beings to physical existence. According to the movement’s doctrine, it is possible to change one’s karma by practicing extreme forms of yoga; however, the Lord has provided an easier method, the recitation of his holy names, Krishna and Rama. [Source: John Gordon Melton, Britannica.com]


George Harrison chanting Hare Krishna in Vrindavan, India

On Hare Krishna mantra “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,”, Barbara Bradley of NPR, “The word "mantra" means to deliver or free the mind. The word "Hare" refers to the divine feminine potency of God. "Krishna" means the all-attractive one, and "Rama" is the reservoir of all pleasure. Hare Krishnas believe that the sound vibration of the mantra has a direct impact on the soul. According to a philosophy of ancient India, the soul is spiritually asleep. Just as an alarm clock awakes a sleeping person, the Hare Krishna mantra awakens the soul to its spiritual reality — whereby it can experience its eternal connection with Krishna or God. And devotees believe that a person need not understand the language of the mantra, because the sound vibration transcends the sensual, mental and intellectual levels of consciousness and puts one directly in touch with the spiritual.”[Source: Barbara Bradley, NPR, May 22, 2008 ***]

On Hare Krishna, vegetarianism, Bradley wrote: “Hindus believe that animals are children of Krishna, created by God with a soul. Therefore, to eat an animal is an affront to God. Moreover, it's bad for your consciousness: Because the slaughter of animals is violent, when you eat meat, fish or fowl, you are subjecting yourself to more violent thoughts and, perhaps, violent behavior. In Hinduism, cooking is intertwined with spirituality. Hare Krishnas believe they are cooking for the pleasure of God. They never sample the food they are cooking, since it must be offered to Krishna first. Moreover, Hindus believe that food absorbs the consciousness of the cook. If you are angry and elbow deep in the lentils or kneading dough for chapattis (unleavened bread), Hindu philosophy claims that your emotions are transferred to the food — and then to the person who eats the meal. It is one reason monks don't go to restaurants, because it raises the question, "Whose consciousness are you eating today?"” ***

Hare Krishna and Hinduism

Barbara Bradley of NPR wrote: “Devotees of the Hare Krishna movement consider themselves monotheistic. According to the sacred texts, Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavat Purana, Krishna is the supreme God, who oversees millions of demigods — who are seen as administrators of the universal affairs. These demigods are needed to run creation. They have certain roles, but — just as the secretary of state reports to the president — these demigods serve at the pleasure of Krishna. Krishna is often accompanied by Radharani, the female aspect or counterpart of Krishna. [Source: Barbara Bradley, NPR, May 22, 2008 ***]


Hare Krishna temple in Triolet, Mauritius

“The Hare Krishna understanding is that when Hindus pray to Krishna, or when members of the Abrahamic faith pray to Allah or Yahweh, we are all praying to one and the same person. In addition, the Hare Krishna movement has adapted itself to the West. For example, Swami Prabhupada provided an equal opportunity to both men and women to become priests in the worship rituals — a privilege reserved only for men in traditional Hinduism. Perhaps because of its sensitivity to Western ethos, the Hare Krishna movement has been more successful than more traditional Hindu branches in attracting non-Indians into its culture, philosophy and practices.” ***

Mathuresa Dasa wrote in krishna.com: “The entire system of social and spiritual orders is called varnashrama-dharma (dharma meaning, very loosely, duty or religion), and the Vedic literatures prescribe detailed duties for an individual according to his or her position in a particular social and spiritual division. Although this varnashrama-dharma system does indeed constitute a complex body of religion and culture, the aim of all prescribed duties is unified—to serve and please the Supreme Lord. Service to the Supreme is called sanatana-dharma, or the eternal religion. Sanatana-dharma is the common function or duty of every living entity, the thread that unites all world religions, and the essence of the varnashrama system. The Srimad-Bhagavatam ( 1.2.13) states: "The highest perfection one can achieve by discharging the duties prescribed for one’s own occupation according to social divisions and spiritual orders of life is to please the Personality of Godhead." [Source: Mathuresa Dasa, krishna.com =/=]

“In the Gita also, the Personality of Godhead Himself explains that the purpose of all the Vedic literatures is to know Him. So the Vedic varnashrama system, though superficially complex, is essentially simple. To simplify further, Lord Chaitanya has taught that since in this age the Vedic prescribed duties are nearly impossible to follow in their exact details, the members of all social divisions should instead please the Lord by regularly chanting His holy names and by offering the fruits of their work to Him. =/=

“Another important difference between the original varnashrama system and Hinduism that has developed over time is that Hinduism recognizes no ultimate goal or conclusion. Hinduism embraces worship of both the original Personality of Godhead and the subordinate demigods, and recognizes the practice of many yoga disciplines, the performance of an array of austerities, and the execution of assorted rituals—all without ever acknowledging that the original purpose of these varied activities is to bring the widest possible variety of individuals to the transcendental platform of exclusive devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” =/=

Hare Krishna Followers


Pol'and' Rock Festival in 2018

According to Britannica.com: “Believers devote their lives to serving Krishna and spend several hours each day chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. They are vegetarians, and they renounce the use of alcohol and drugs. Sex is allowed only for procreation within marriage. Male devotees shave their heads, leaving only a small tuft of hair called a sikha, a sign of surrender to their teacher. Each morning male and female believers mark their foreheads with clay as a reminder that their bodies are temples of Krishna. [Source: John Gordon Melton,Britannica.com]

Julie Zauzmer wrote in the Washington Post, In the 1960s and 70s, Hare Krishna followers “were mostly young, white hippies drawn to a new version of counterculture spirituality. They gave up their jobs and their homes and then gave up alcohol and drugs and extramarital sex. They went to live in remote communes and proselytized to strangers in airports.” Bake then, “Hare Krishnas were a fixture in popular culture. George Harrison sang their mantra in his 1970 hit “My Sweet Lord,” and the mantra resounded on Broadway in the musical “Hair.” [Source: Julie Zauzmer, Washington Post, October 27, 2016 |+|]

“Hare Krishnas showed up in their orange robes and mostly-shaven heads as recurring characters in the 1980 comedy “Airplane!” — and in almost every traveler’s experiences in real-life airports too. “Twenty years ago, when I’d walk into a class and ask people if they knew who the Hare Krishnas were, virtually everybody would raise their hands,” Rochford said. “There was hardly a middle-class person in America who ever went to an airport who didn’t know the Hare Krishnas were in that airport.”|+|

Describing followers today, Zauzmer wrote: “They, took off their shoes and entered the temple. They lowered themselves all the way to the ground, foreheads touching the floor in obeisance. Then they took their seats and began to chant: “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.”...Under a stained-glass skylight, they sang the mantra to an ever-changing tune, taking breaks from their ecstatic worship to humbly offer food and candles to the deities sparkling on their altars.” |+|

Hare Krishna, the Cult


Boat Festival at Nueva Vrajamandala farm in Spain

Gordon Melton wrote in Britannica.com: “The Hare Krishna movement was among the first groups to be targeted by anticult organizations in the early 1970s. During the 1980s it was frequently accused of brainwashing, and anticult groups attempted to deprogram some Hare Krishna members. Claiming psychological and emotional damage, several former members sued the organization unsuccessfully. [Source: John Gordon Melton, Britannica.com]

Julie Zauzmer wrote in the Washington Post, “Although the berobed men in the airports drummed up donations, the attention on the religion was largely negative. The communes where devotees gave all their earnings to the temple and raised their children communally were viewed as cults. Then far darker news came out — ISKCON publicly confessed in 1998 to egregious physical and sexual abuse at the boarding schools where Hare Krishna parents often left their children while they traveled to solicit donations and souls for the movement. [Source: Julie Zauzmer, Washington Post, October 27, 2016 |+|]

“Nowhere are ISKCON’s darkest moments better known than at New Vrindaban, the West Virginia spot where devotees originally set out to build a house for their revered founder, then turned the edifice into a palace dedicated to his memory when he died while it was still under construction. Kirtanananda Swami, the leader of New Vrindaban’s 400-member commune, inspired extreme devotion in his followers — even when he was arrested and sent to prison on mail fraud and racketeering charges in connection with the murders of two followers who disobeyed him. The New Vrindaban community, which was once supposed to house the founder of the faith, was kicked out of ISKCON entirely. |+|

Hare Krishnas in West Virginia

Reporting from Moundsville, West Virgina, Julie Zauzmer wrote in the Washington Post. “The Palace of Gold — ornate, lavish and completely unexpected on this remote hilltop — was built by early devotees who taught themselves to cut marble and stained glass in order to pay homage to the traditions of India. [Source: Julie Zauzmer, Washington Post, October 27, 2016 |+|]


Smita Krishna Swami giving a SB class

“Although 150 followers are living communally here, the West Virginia attraction serves primarily as a beacon for thousands of Hare Krishna families on pilgrimages, like the Ramkumars, who typically make the drive from their Chantilly home a few times a year. Tourism from those outside the faith is picking up again, too. There’s even talk at New Vrindaban about adding a yoga center on the luscious grounds, where cows and peacocks roam free. |+|

“They may not be in airports anymore — many airports banned them, and ISKCON lost a Supreme Court case claiming a constitutional right to proselytize in the terminals — but the Hare Krishnas still believe in spreading the word about their faith far and wide. Manoharan has traveled with fellow members of the ISKCON temple in Potomac, Md., to distribute literature in cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa...The religion has found another route to recruitment in the country’s current fascination with Eastern spiritual practices. After all, Hare Krishnas were doing yoga long before every mom in America was wearing yoga pants.”



Hare Krishnas Attract Indians

Julie Zauzmer wrote in the Washington Post. “The Ramkumar family piled into their van early Saturday morning and drove five hours west from their home in the Washington suburbs into the American heartland. Today on the 50th anniversary of this homegrown religion, something remarkable has happened. After waves of migration to the United States from India over the past two decades, the vast majority of Hare Krishna’s believers in America are no longer white Americans. They’re Indian immigrants like the Ramkumars, who hold down regular jobs and drive to temples to worship, rather than live in communes. [Source: Julie Zauzmer, Washington Post, October 27, 2016 |+|]

“Hare Krishna reminded Ramkumar Manoharan and his wife, Jeyasree Jeyabalan, of the complex faith of their childhoods. The religion is attracting more families, along with visitors to its Palace of Gold in rural West Virginia. “We used to worship different forms of God, all the forms of God. … We were like a supermarket of gods,” said Manoharan, an IT contractor for the Department of Homeland Security. Burke Rochford, a Middlebury College professor who has studied the Hare Krishna movement since 1975, said that like the Ramkumars, many of today’s Hare Krishna believers started out looking for Hindu temples like those they left behind in India. They soon discovered that Hare Krishna temples and centers were often easier to find in American cities, Rochford said. |+|


Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi meeting Russian Hare Krishna in New Delhi in 1989

“Not long after Manoharan and Jeyabalan moved to the United States in the late 1990s, they were told by a relative about a palace in West Virginia built in the style of an Indian shrine. So they decided to take a sightseeing trip. “And right in this place,” Manoharan says, pointing at the ground in the West Virginia temple, he picked up his first copy of one of Prabhupada’s many books. Now, standing in the same spot years later, he points out the book that changed his life to his 10-year-old daughter Hamsika. He came to believe what the book said, he tells Hamsika — that there was only one God, Krishna, and that he should worship only the deities who are forms of Krishna. |+|

After that trip, Manoharan and Jeyabalan started chanting the Hare Krishna mantra at home. Now, they spend two hours every day repeating the three-word chant, praising Krishna over and over again. Hamsika makes an offering on the family altar each morning before skipping off to elementary school, and her 16-year-old sister, Sunethra, chants the Krishna mantra as a break from her SAT prep.” |+|

Hare Krishna Robots

A new Hare Krishna temple that opened in New Delhi in 1998 features a 150-seat theater where life-size, garishly-colored, lip-synching robots of the god Krishna and the warrior Arjuna act out one of the most well known scenes from the Mahabharata. There is also a robot of the Hare Krishna founder, Swami Prabhupada and four of his disciples.

The robots blink their eyes, raise their eyebrows, tilt their heads and have humanlike gestures. They were designed by the same company that made the mechanical dinosaurs for Jurassic Park . The temple also contains motion simulators like those found in amusement parks take visitors on a "Vedic airplane" described with ancient Hindu texts.

Vrindavan

Vrindavan (60 kilometers north of Agra), according to Hindu legend, is where Lord Krishna was born and raised thousands of years ago. This Hindu god and charioteer was nothing like Jesus or Buddha. He liked to cavort with milkmaids in the forest, eat clay, steal butter and play pranks. Hindu devotees claim that Krishnas "pastimes" were manifestations of his "love of the individual soul for God not desire." Sunday morning television programs for children recount episodes from Krishnas life as if is where Mighty Power Morph or a Teenage Ninja Turtle.

Vrindavan is also the home of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, more commonly known as the Hare Krishnas. The movement was founded by Acyuta Dasa Bkaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a holy man who arrived in the U.S. in 1965 with some scriptures and 40 rupees in his pocket after he was told by his guru to spread the spiritual love of Krishna to the West. The Hare Krishna movement started when he began chanting "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Rama..." at a Lower East Side park in New York." Later the swami and his disciples returned to Vrindavan where the constructed a grand temple. According to one Hare Krishna from New York: "It has some of the most intricate carving this side of the Taj. It's all marble , all done by hand with hammer and chisel." Among the other impressive temples devoted to Krishna. are Dwarkadish temple (in nearby Mathura) and the Govindo Deo temple (built in 1590). The Jugal Kishore, Radha Vallabh and Madan Mohan temples also date back to the 16th century.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Indian History Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “Encyclopedia of the World's Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); “Encyclopedia of the World Cultures: Volume 3 South Asia” edited by David Levinson (G.K. Hall & Company, New York, 1994); “The Creators” by Daniel Boorstin; “A Guide to Angkor: an Introduction to the Temples” by Dawn Rooney (Asia Book) for Information on temples and architecture. National Geographic, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton's Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated December 2023


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