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International Society for Krishna Consciousness

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The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is the best-known organization of the religious movement popularly known as Hare Krishna. It is a sect of Vaishnava Hinduism which practices bhakti yoga in the worship of Lord Krishna, the eighth avatar of the god Vishnu and, according to ISKCON beliefs, his highest form ("the supreme personality of Godhead").

The teachings of ISKCON and its form of bhakti yoga (literally, "path of devotion") dates back to the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu in present-day West Bengal in the 1500s. It was revived in the 20th century in India, and introduced to the Western world by Prabhupada A.C. Bhaktivedanta, who incorporated ISKCON in New York in 1966 and subsequently published translations of the Bhagavad Gita and many other scriptures in English, as well as other Western languages, Hindi, and all Indian dialects, Chinese, Japanese, and African languages too. In fact his books are now published in over 60 languages all over the world.

Shortly before Swami Prabhupada's from this material world, eleven of his disciples were named as 'ritvik' acharyas. They were ordered to continue initiating new devotees on behalf of Prabhupada, however they decided to become gurus in their own right and started accepting their own disciples. This lead to the disaster known as the 'zonal acharya system' whereby these power-hungry disciples took over the movement with banning, violence, and censorship of any dissenting views.

Fortunately there is a group of devotees within ISKCON who are working diligently to restore the original teachings of Swami Prabhupada and remove these bogus gurus from power. This revolutionary group is called the ISKCON Revival Movement.

The nickname "Hare Krishnas" for devotees of this movement comes from the maha-mantra (great chant) they recite, which begins with those words. They are more appropriately referred to as Krishna devotees. Krishna devotees wearing saffron robes are celibate monks.

ISKCON has absorbed many western influences and maintains mandirs (temples) in more countries of the world than any other Hindu sect. Unlike other branches of Hinduism, it is actively evangelical, seeking to help anyone throughout the world irrespective of their "designated religion or faith", in development of love of God.

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