The Hindu sect the Vallabha Sampradaya was founded in India in the 15th century by a devotional saint, Vallabhacharya. Their bhakti tradition worships a variety of forms of Krishna as a seven-year-old child. Following U.S. immigration reforms in 1965, members of the sect established a spiritual headquarters for the faith in Pennsylvania and began to construct temples across the United States. Since then, the growth has continued as this 500-year-old faith becomes an American religion, as this work demonstrates.

The Hindu sect the Vallabha Sampradaya was founded in India in the 15th century by a devotional saint, Vallabhacharya. Their bhakti tradition worships a variety of forms of Krishna as a seven-year-old child. Following U.S. immigration reforms in 1965, members of the sect established a spiritual headquarters for the faith in Pennsylvania and began to construct temples across the United States. Since then, the growth has continued as this 500-year-old faith becomes an American religion, as this work demonstrates.

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.

Scholars of comparative religion, theology, philosophy, History, sociology, and psychology and members of the Hare Krishna movement discuss the history, theology, and organization of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and public reaction to the movement in America.

"In 1965, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada brought the Hare Krishna religion from India to the U.S. and began opening temples and attracting followers, who then spread his teachings around the world. This is a story of struggle, sacrifice, ecstasy, and a merging of the ordinary and the extraordinary in a quest for spiritual dwelling as one generation after another discovers the meaning of their religion in America. This research emphasizes the hopes of the founder with special focus on the New Raman Reti community of North Florida, bringing a religious studies approach to the academic field of new religious movements, previously the domain the social sciences. Borrowing terms and concepts from sociology, anthropology, and psychology, this research illuminates and explains the Hare Krishna religion as a social movement in America."--P. [364].