The Hare Krishna movement is one of the most well-known new religious movements in the Western societies. It was founded in New York in 1966 by the Indian monk A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda (1896-1977). The fact that it emerged during the heyday of the countercultural protests is often invoked in the explanations of its success. This book offers a completely new account for the rise and growth of the Hare Krishna movement by analysing it from the viewpoint of cognitive science of religion. It focuses on the charisma of the founder-guru through the writings of his earliest disciples and also takes a close look at the theology and ritual practices of the movement.

This book offers a new account for the emergence of the Hare Krishna movement from the perspective of cognitive science of religion. It focuses especially on the charisma of its founder guru, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhup'da (1896-1997) through the writings of his disciples.

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.

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.

Combining behind-the-scenes views of an often besieged religious group with a personal account of the author's struggle to find meaning in it, Betrayal of the Spirit takes the reader closer than any other source so far to the reality of life in the Hare Krishna movement. Nori J. Muster, a California native, joined the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKON) - the Hare Krishnas - in 1977, shortly after the death of the movement's spiritual master, Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. She lived in the Krishnas' western world headquarters in Los Angeles and worked for ten years as a public relations secretary and editor of the organization's newspaper, the ISKON World Review. Her story of the Hare Krishnas' decline is a gripping presentation of facts gleaned from personal reminiscences, published articles, and internal documents. Betrayal of the Spirit details drug dealing, weapons stockpiling, deceptive fund-raising, child abuse, and murder within ISKON, as well as the dynamics of schisms that forced some 95 percent of the group's original members to leave. Although the movement fell into disarray after the death of its founder, the author's story is one of a continual search for truth and religious meaning as an ISKON member. Muster's account of the scandal-plagued decade following Swami Prabhupada's death ends in 1988 when, disillusioned over the continuing internal strife and scandals, she left her job and the movement.

DURING A SCANDAL-FILLED DECADE, after they had buried the saintly Founder of the institution, eleven "spiritual" leaders and managers of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)--more commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement--(along with the Governing Body Commission which spawned them), utilized deception and collective fantasy to enact what some called "a bloodless coup." This ultimately resulted in the hijacking of a Gaudiya-Vaishnava religious institution, the banishment of dissenters, the abuse of innocents, the alienation of the public, the brutal murder of one outspoken reformer, and the near-fatal hemorrhaging of the Society. Thousands of formerly loyal members defected, were blacklisted, or, in some cases, even committed suicide. This decade-long reign of self-aggrandizement and political intrigue by the leaders appointed by the GBC, periodically characterized by strong-armed tactics, tainted the Society which had been painstakingly cultivated for more than a decade by the ISKCON Founder and spiritual preceptor, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977). After Prabhupada passed away, eleven senior disciples were installed by the GBC as his successors. Each of the eleven ruled their own zones, where they were worshiped as good as God. Known among their supporters as "The Magnificent Eleven," they claimed their orders came directly from Lord Krishna, whom devotees consider the Absolute Truth and Cause of All Causes. They also claimed that Prabhupada had appointed them as perfect and pure "Acharyas." Unfortunately they, like the main character in Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 tale of The Emperor's New Clothes, pretended to be something they were not, and were eventually revealed as frauds. The system of succession that they and the GBC established collapsed like a house built upon sand. This book chronicles the ISKCON era of the zonal-acharyas from their first appearance in 1978 through their meteoric rise to power, their ten-year reign, their fall in 1987, and beyond. For fifteen years (1978-1993), the author served as a faithful disciple of one of the zonal acharyas, and he lived through many of the events described in this book. Recently, he has interviewed major players in this drama, who have contributed important inside information to help everyone interested more fully understand this unfortunate and little-documented chapter in the history of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

A critical look at widely-believed assumptions and theories held by modern scientists about the origin of life. For people who have come to accept every pronouncement of modern scientists as tested and proven truth, this book will be an eye-opener. Life Comes From Life is an impromptu but brilliant critique of some of the dominant policies, theories and presuppositions of modern science and scientists by one of the greatest philosophers and scholars of the twentieth century, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada's vivid analysis uncovers the hidden and blatantly unfounded assumptions that underlie currently fashionable doctrines about the origins and purpose of life. This book is based on taped morning-walk conversations between Srila Prabhupada and his disciple Thoudam D. Singh, Ph.D., an organic chemist.