Hare Krishna (International Society for Krishna Consciousness)

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, was founded by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977), an Indian religious reformer. Prabhupada emigrated to the United States in 1965 and, a year later, founded his devotional movement for “the spiritual benefit of human society.”

Now a worldwide confederation of Krishna devotees, ISKCON is essentially a monotheistic Hindu tradition in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. Its connection to Gaudiya Vaishnavism comes through Prabhupada himself, who, as a primary disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, a renowned scholar and saint who founded an earlier ISKCON-like institution known as the Gaudiya Math, inherited the lineage mantle from his teacher.

Prabhupada founded ISKCON as a universalist institution, advocating sanatana dharma (“traditional religion,” a term that the ...