Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World

Denominations

ISKCON (Hare Krishna)

Also Known As Hare Krishna The popular name, taken from the maha mantra the movement is known for chanting in public. · ISKCON The acronym of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Hinduism

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Origin 1965 to 1966

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a devotional (bhakti) movement in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism, worshiping Krishna as the supreme personality of Godhead. Founded in New York and spread worldwide, it is best known for the public chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, vegetarianism, temple worship, and the distribution of the Bhagavad-Gita.

Facts
History
Separation or Divergence
ISKCON is a distinct institution rather than a doctrinal separation from Gaudiya Vaishnavism, and its lineage claim is recognised by some Gaudiya bodies and questioned by others 1
Separation or Divergence
The Gaudiya Math, from which Prabhupada came 1
Date of Separation
1966 1
Belief
Defining Doctrinal Position
Achintya bhedabheda: inconceivable oneness and difference 1Tradition: Hinduism
Defining Doctrinal Position
Vishnu as the supreme reality 1Tradition: Hinduism
Position on Sexuality
Same-sex orientation or practice is held to bar full membership or participation 2
Sourced to the subject's own accountISKCON's Governing Body Commission does not endorse a same-sex blessing or marriage. Resolution 317, passed at the GBC's Annual General Meeting in Sri Mayapur Dham, 12 to 23 February 2009, reviewed a same-sex commitment ceremony blessing given by a senior ISKCON leader in California in November 2008 and found the action and the public statements around it "controversial and divisive in ISKCON," not endorsed or supported by the GBC.
Sexuality Position DetailSourced to the subject's own account
Resolution 317, "Action and Public Statements of Hridayananda Das Goswami," passed at the GBC's Annual General Meeting, Sri Mayapur Dham, 12 to 23 February 2009, states: "The GBC has carefully reviewed the recent action (giving blessings) and the public statements of Hridayananda Maharaja concerning homosexuality," concluding they "remain controversial and divisive in ISKCON" and that the GBC does not endorse or support them. The resolution followed a same-sex couple's commitment ceremony in California in November 2008 at which Hridayananda Das Goswami had given a blessing. 2
Practice
Liturgical Language
Sanskrit 1
Liturgical Language
The vernacular 1
Practice StatusSourced to the subject's own account
ISKCON, the Hare Krishna movement, actively distributes its core texts, including the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, to the public as a central practice, and its temples generally welcome visitors; no closed initiatory core restricts outside description of the movement, though formal discipleship under a guru marks a deeper level of personal commitment. 3
Status
Status Today
Living tradition, practised today 1
Origins
Origin Period
1965 to 1966 1
Place of Origin
New York City 1
Founder
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977). 1
Organisation
Governance
A single central governing body over the whole movement 1
The Governing Body Commission, established by Prabhupada in 1970, over all ISKCON temples.
Governance
Authority in a living teacher and their succession 1
Ordination
Open to women and men 1
The Governing Body Commission resolved in 2019 that women may act as diksha-gurus
Ordination
Varies between provinces or member bodies 1
The resolution remains contested within the society and is not applied everywhere
Ordination
Authority conferred by initiation rather than by ordination 1
Brahminical and sannyasa initiation conferred by an authorised guru
Accountability
Settlement Total
9,500,000 7
The 2005 bankruptcy court settlement of gurukula boarding school abuse litigation, United States and India, roughly 450 claimants, $2,500 to $50,000 each; no separate accused-headcount fact is written, since no official count of individual accused staff was documented in the sources checked, the same discipline the founding band applied to the Southern Baptist Convention's Guidepost report.
Bankruptcy Filings
1 7
ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 while the gurukula abuse litigation was still active, resolved by a US bankruptcy court ordered settlement announced in 2005.
Response Policy Adopted
ISKCON's Governing Body Commission formed a Task Force on Child Abuse in 1997, adopted its proposals as policy at the 1998 Mayapur meetings, began Child Protection Office operations on 1 April 1998, and adopted a further Child Protection Policy and Procedure Guideline in 2005. 8
Recorded from ISKCON's own Child Protection Office history page; this atlas has not independently verified the guideline's current operating status beyond what that page states.
Finances
Institutional Wealth or Finances
International Society For Krishna Consciousness Bhaktivedanta Manor Limited, the UK charity operating ISKCON's Bhaktivedanta Manor temple in Watford, reports total funds (net assets) of 14,836,740 pounds as of 31 December 2024, up from 13,635,087 pounds a year earlier, of which 13,524,093 pounds is unrestricted and 1,312,647 pounds restricted, in its own audited Trustees' Annual Report and Financial Statements. This is one UK temple's own accounts, not a figure for ISKCON worldwide or even for ISKCON in the UK as a whole; the charity's ultimate controlling party, International Society for Krishna Consciousness Limited, files a separate consolidated statement not read for this fact. 4
Basis of the Wealth Figure
Audited Annual Report 4
Financial Disclosure Regime
Bhaktivedanta Manor is a registered charity (number 1157877) audited annually, filing accounts with the Charity Commission for England and Wales and, as a company limited by guarantee (number 08300433), with Companies House; the wider ISKCON movement is not centrally audited and each temple trust files separately. 4
Wealth Figure As Of Year
2024 4
Giving
Standing Giving ExpectationSourced to the subject's own account
ISKCON's own Governing Body Commission describes its temples as financially independent under the Commission's ecclesiastical management, tracing that arrangement to Srila Prabhupada's own founding directions rather than to a churchwide giving quota. At the congregational level no fixed percentage or mandatory rate is set for an ordinary devotee; a temple's own donation policy states that the temple respects a donor's decision to give as inspired by the Lord, and describes undesignated gifts, those given without any stipulation from the donor, as the majority of what funds day to day temple life. Individual temples separately run optional life membership and patron programs, one time contributions made in exchange for continuing access and recognition rather than an ongoing obligation, and the amounts asked for these vary by temple rather than being fixed centrally. 5 6
How the Expectation Is EnforcedSourced to the subject's own account
Customary Norm 5
Trajectory
Membership Over Time
ISKCON reports about a million congregational members worldwide, alongside a much smaller core of about 10,000 full-time temple members worldwide. 9
Membership Figure As Of
2019-07-03 9
Basis of the Membership Figure
Church-Reported Rolls 9
Learn More
Prabhupada and the Hare Krishna Mission

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, was founded in New York City in 1966 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), who had arrived from India the previous year to bring the devotional worship of Krishna to the West. ISKCON is a modern, missionary expression of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Bengali devotional tradition tracing itself to the sixteenth-century saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is revered as an incarnation of Krishna and who taught salvation through the ecstatic chanting of the divine names. Its theology, in the line of Chaitanya, is one of achintya-bheda-abheda, the "inconceivable oneness and difference" of the soul and God, and it identifies Krishna not merely as an avatar of Vishnu but as the supreme, personal Godhead himself.

The movement's central practice is the congregational and private chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, together with temple worship of Krishna and Radha, study of scripture, and a disciplined devotional life. Prabhupada's prolific translations and commentaries, above all his edition of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, remain the doctrinal foundation of the society.

Practice, Expansion and Place

ISKCON asks committed members to adopt a demanding devotional regimen: rising early for worship, chanting a fixed number of mantra rounds daily on beads, and observing four regulative principles, no meat, fish or eggs; no intoxicants; no gambling; and no illicit sex. Devotees historically became known in Western cities for their public chanting (sankirtana), saffron robes, vegetarian prasadam food distribution and the sale of Prabhupada's books. From its origins in the 1960s counterculture the movement spread rapidly across North America, Europe and beyond, and after Prabhupada's death in 1977 it weathered a difficult period of leadership disputes, the collapse of its original guru system into scandal, and legal troubles, before stabilising under a Governing Body Commission.

In India it built major temples and pilgrimage centres, notably at Mayapur and Vrindavan, and it has become in many places a substantial and respected presence within the broader Vaishnava world, drawing large numbers of Indian as well as Western devotees. Scholars classify ISKCON both as a transplant of authentic Gaudiya Vaishnavism and as a new religious movement in its Western setting, and it is widely credited with introducing Hindu devotional practice to a global audience.

Controversies and Responses

Two distinct clusters of documented controversy run through ISKCON's record, both rooted in the difficult period after founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's 1977 death, when he had named eleven initiating gurus to guide the movement and several of that original group were later removed for serious misconduct.

The first is the gurukula abuse settlement, already carried in this atlas as its own inquiry record: a 400 million dollar federal lawsuit filed in Texas in June 2000 alleged child sexual, physical and emotional abuse at ISKCON boarding schools in the United States and India between 1972 and around 1990. ISKCON filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002 while the litigation continued, and a US bankruptcy court ordered a 9.5 million dollar settlement, announced May 2005, ultimately paid to roughly 450 claimants.

The second is the collapse of the original zonal guru system into open scandal. Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, who co-founded the New Vrindaban community in West Virginia and was one of the eleven gurus Prabhupada named, was expelled by ISKCON's Governing Body Commission in March 1987 for defying ISKCON policy and claiming sole spiritual authority. He was indicted in 1990 on racketeering, mail fraud and conspiracy to murder charges connected to the killings of two devotees who had threatened his control of the community; a jury convicted him on the racketeering and fraud counts in 1991, and he pleaded guilty to one racketeering count in 1996, receiving a twenty year sentence later reduced to twelve. ISKCON's Governing Body Commission has since replaced the original guru monopoly with a system open to multiple qualified initiators.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

1966, Years

The atlas dates the origin of ISKCON (Hare Krishna) to 1966.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Denominations

ISKCON is one branch of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and not the whole of it.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
ISKCON Abuse Cases Settled for USD 9.5 Million, Sources

This source names ISKCON directly: "Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)."

Source ISKCON Abuse Cases Settled for USD 9.5 MillionThe Pluralism Project
Vrindavan, Cities

Vrindavan has been a major ISKCON centre since the 1970s.

Belongs to Tradition

Hinduism, Religions

Branch Of

Hinduism, Religions

Contained In

Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Denominations

ISKCON is a twentieth century institutional movement within the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage, founded by Prabhupada on a claimed disciplic succession from Chaitanya through Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.

Founded By

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Figures

Founded in New York in 1966, the year after he arrived there.

Held Differently

Brahmin, Religious Roles & Titles

ISKCON confers brahminical initiation on anyone qualified by practice, regardless of birth or nationality, holding the varna to describe character rather than descent. It is the brahmin office detached from the hereditary basis that defines it elsewhere.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, Mantras

Initiated members undertake a fixed count of sixteen rounds a day, so what is elsewhere a devotion undertaken freely is here a measured daily obligation with a number attached to it.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Yajnopavita, Religious Dress & Vestments

ISKCON confers brahminical initiation and the thread on qualified initiates without regard to birth or nation, which keeps the sign while reversing the rule of descent it traditionally marked.

Paramatman, Doctrines

The indwelling supreme self is held in ISKCON.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Samadhi, Doctrines

Collected absorption is held in ISKCON as absorption in Krishna reached through chanting rather than through seated withdrawal.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Sat-Chit-Ananda, Doctrines

Being, consciousness and bliss are held in ISKCON as real qualities of Krishna.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Critiqued Here

Chakras, Disciplines

Gaudiya teaching in this movement holds the yoga of the subtle body impractical for the present age and directs the practitioner to devotional chanting instead.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Holds Element

Govardhan Hill, Sacred Sites

The movement organises pilgrimage to the hill and keeps the annual worship of it as one of its principal observances.

Guru, Religious Roles & Titles

ISKCON initiating gurus stand in a line the movement traces through its founder, and the relation of disciple to guru is formal, exclusive and lifelong.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Jagannath Temple, Puri, Sacred Sites

The movement holds Jagannath as its own deity and stages the chariot festival in cities worldwide, while the temple at Puri admits only Hindus and has refused entry to its foreign members.

Kirtan (Bhakti Devotional Chanting), Sacred Sound

Street chanting is the movement's public face and the reason the world knows it by the mantra rather than by its name.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Lotus (Padma), Religious Symbols

The lotus is present in the movement's art and architecture as it is throughout Vaishnavism, and the movement's own recognised emblem is the name of Krishna rather than the flower.

Mala, Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

Sixteen rounds of the beads a day is the standing vow taken at initiation, which makes the counted recitation the movement's defining discipline.

Mathura, Sacred Sites

The movement maintains temples in the town and in the surrounding forest region, and its founder began his own preaching from there.

Murti, Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

The deity in the temple is served on the traditional daily cycle, and the movement's temples are built around that service.

Nag Champa, Incense

The blend is burned at the temple offering and at the household altar, and the movement made it familiar far outside India.

Prasad, Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

Food offered and then distributed is central to the movement's public work, and the free meal programme grew directly out of it.

Sandalwood, Incense

Sandalwood is offered before the deity and its paste is used for the marks worn on the body.

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Acharya, Religious Offices
Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Congregational Chanting of the Divine Names Is the Practice Appointed for This Age, Beliefs & Restrictions
Four Regulative Principles, Doctrines

The four regulative principles are ISKCON's own codified membership standard, formulated by Prabhupada.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Guru, Religious Offices
Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
ISKCON Disciplic Succession, Doctrines

ISKCON's own claimed guru-parampara and Governing Body Commission structure, distinct from the wider Gaudiya lineage's other institutional forms.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Karma: action determines future rebirth, Beliefs & Restrictions
Krishna Is the Supreme Person, Not an Avatar of Vishnu, Beliefs & Restrictions
Moksha: liberation from rebirth, Beliefs & Restrictions
My Sweet Lord, Musical Works

George Harrison wrote the song's chanted Hare Krishna mantra after his own turn toward Krishna Consciousness under A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ISKCON's founder; in 1973 Harrison donated the property that became and remains ISKCON's United Kingdom headquarters. This is a second, more specific edge alongside the entity's existing edge to the wider Gaudiya Vaishnavism tradition, not a replacement for it.

Source Wikipedia, "My Sweet Lord"
Radha's Love for Krishna Is the Highest Religious Condition, Beliefs & Restrictions
Reincarnation (samsara), Beliefs & Restrictions
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Organizations

The Akshaya Patra Foundation was founded in 2000 by devotees of ISKCON Bangalore on the Hare Krishna Hill temple campus, explicitly carrying out founder Prabhupada's stated vision that no one within ten miles of a temple should go hungry, so linked to ISKCON (Hare Krishna) as the specific denomination that founded and continues to be closely associated with it, rather than to Hinduism generally.

Source The Akshaya Patra Foundation (USA): Financial Statements, Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022The Akshaya Patra Foundation (USA); audited by KellyVitaleRaffol, LLC
The cow is sacred and not eaten, Beliefs & Restrictions
The Four Regulative Principles Forbid Meat, Intoxication, Illicit Sex and Gambling, Beliefs & Restrictions

Originates in Language

Sanskrit, Languages
Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Position On

Achintya Bheda Abheda, Doctrines

Inconceivable difference and non-difference is held in ISKCON, carried over from the Gaudiya sampradaya it belongs to.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Ahimsa, Doctrines

Non-injury is held in ISKCON, and the first of the four regulative principles turns it into an enumerated entry standard.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Atman, Doctrines

The self is held in ISKCON to be eternal, distinct from the body, and eternally a part of Krishna.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Avidya, Doctrines

Ignorance is held in ISKCON as forgetfulness of Krishna.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Bhakti, Doctrines

Devotion is the means and the goal in ISKCON.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Brahman, Doctrines

Brahman is held in ISKCON to be Krishna, following the Gaudiya ranking of the three aspects of the absolute.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Dana, Doctrines

Giving is held in ISKCON, and the free distribution of food offered to Krishna is one of the movement's most visible institutional programmes.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Dharma, Doctrines

Dharma is held in ISKCON, with devotional service presented as the eternal function of the soul and the ordinary duties as secondary to it.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Guru Parampara, Doctrines

The teaching lineage is central in ISKCON, and initiation into it is what constitutes membership.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Ishta-Devata, Doctrines

A chosen deity is held in ISKCON and the choice is not open: Krishna with Radha is the supreme reality.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Jnana Yoga, Doctrines

Knowledge is valued in ISKCON and is not the means: devotional service is, and knowledge pursued apart from it is taught to obstruct.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Karma, Doctrines

Karma is held in ISKCON, and devotional service is taught as what frees a person from it.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Lila, Doctrines

The play is held in ISKCON as the eternal reality of Krishna's activity rather than as allegory.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Mahapurusha, Doctrines

The supreme person is held in ISKCON, with Krishna as that person in his own right.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Moksha, Doctrines

Liberation in ISKCON is entry into Krishna's eternal association, taught in the Gaudiya terms the movement carries.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Papa and Punya, Doctrines

Merit and demerit are held in ISKCON.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Samsara, Doctrines

Transmigration is held in ISKCON, and the movement's introductory teaching commonly begins from it.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Samskara, Doctrines

Latent impressions are held in ISKCON.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Sankirtana as Yuga-Dharma, Doctrines

Congregational chanting as the practice prescribed for this age is held in ISKCON, and the movement's public chanting is the doctrine acted out.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
The Three Gunas, Doctrines

The three strands are held in ISKCON, and the movement's dietary and conduct standards are taught in terms of them.

Source Hare Krishna TransformedE. Burke Rochford Jr.
Vedanta, Doctrines

Vedanta is held in ISKCON in the Gaudiya reading, inconceivable difference and non-difference.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Related To

The Gaudiya Vaishnava Movement, Religious Events

Studied By

ISKCON Gurukula Abuse Settlement, Abuse Inquiries and Response Policies
Source ISKCON Abuse Cases Settled for USD 9.5 MillionThe Pluralism Project
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.), Routledge, 2008s.v. Gaudiya VaishnavismView the Source
2. 2009 Resolutions (International Society for Krishna Consciousness Governing Body Commission)
ISKCON Governing Body Commission, 2009the stated position on sexuality and its supporting detailthe holders' own accountView the Source
3. Wikipedia, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (source)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia
4. International Society For Krishna Consciousness Bhaktivedanta Manor Limited, Trustees' Annual Report and Financial Statements, Year Ended 31 December 2024
International Society For Krishna Consciousness Bhaktivedanta Manor Limited, audited by KNAV Limited, Statutory Auditors, 2025View the Source
5. Governance Structure (International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Governing Body Commission)
International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Governing Body Commissionthe holders' own accountView the Source
6. Donation Policy (ISKCON of DC)
ISKCON of DC
7. ISKCON Abuse Cases Settled for USD 9.5 Million
The Pluralism Project, Harvard University, 2005View the Source
8. ISKCON Child Protection Office, History
ISKCON Child Protection Office, ISKCON Child Protection OfficeView the Source
9. Factsheet: Iskcon and the Hare Krishna Movement (Religion Media Centre, 2019)
Religion Media Centre, 2019View the Source
Hare Krishna Transformed
E. Burke Rochford Jr., New York University Press, 2007chapters on the gurukula schools and the abuse findingsView the Source
The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
James R. Lewis (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2004s.v. ISKCON / Hare Krishna
An Introduction to Hinduism
Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press, 1996Gaudiya Vaishnava devotionView the Source
Community

0 members · 2 organizations

Visit This CommunityBrowse Organizations

Organizations In This Tradition

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.