The History of ISKCON

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was incorporated as a legal entity in 1966 in New York City, USA. At that time, it had only a handful of members serving under the guidance of its founder – His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Far from being an “international society” at the time, its name would prove to be astonishingly prophetical as the Krishna Consciousness movement swept across the world in the 5 decades following its founding.

“It arose out of next to nothing in less than twenty years and has become known all over the West. This, I feel, is a sign of the times and an important fact in the history of the western world.” – Dr. A.L. Basham, world-renowned historian, on ISKCON.

Under Srila Prabhupada’s guidance, ISKCON has grown from a small group of disciples assembling in a New York City storefront into an international society with scores of centers. At present, there are more than 500 ISKCON centers worldwide.

Although it may have seemed to appear out of nowhere, ISKCON is built on a rich legacy of ancient and profound spiritual philosophy.

Ancient History & Disciplic succession

To truly understand the history of ISKCON, we need to look further back in time… about 500 years back, to the time of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1532). Mahaprabhu and his followers revolutionized spiritual culture throughout 16th century India by introducing the practice of sankirtana – the congregational chanting of the 32 syllable maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Before this time, the maha-mantra was veiled in obscurity and its glories were known to none but a few enlightened brahmanas (saintly priests of India).

ISKCON’s history includes a disciplic succession (sampradaya), i.e. it draws its legitimacy from its place in a succession of spiritual teachers and disciples (guru parampara). There are four major Vaishnava disciplic successions, and ISKCON belongs to the Brahma-Gaudiya-Madhva sampradaya, founded by Lord Krishna Himself and continued through Madhvacharya (1239-1319) and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Vaishnavism is a monotheistic tradition (within what’s commonly known as Hinduism) centred around the devotional worship of Krishna. Gaudiya-Vaishnavism was practised historically in the region of Gauda (West Bengal/Bangladesh) when Sri Chaitanya made his advent there. Philosophically, this tradition is based on the Vedic scriptures, Bhagavad-gītā and Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana). These are the primary historic texts of bhakti yoga, which teach that the ultimate goal of life for all living beings is to reawaken their dormant love of God, or Krishna. The Bhagavad-gītā is over 5000 years old.

It is worth mentioning that although Krishna consciousness is culturally recognizable as coming from the Gaudiya-Vaishnava tradition, it more accurately refers to the eternal function of the soul – sanatana dharma. As such, it transcends the limitations of temporary material identities and their associated designations.

Sri Krishna Chaitanya (as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is sometimes referred to) is understood to be an incarnation of Krishna in the guise of His own devotee. He appeared in this form out of compassion, in order to teach by His own example how to best awaken love of God in the hearts of materially conditioned living beings. Sankirtana was the essence of His teachings, and it remains the essence of His legacy as represented within ISKCON.

Under the direction of Sri Chaitanya, hundreds of volumes on the philosophy of Krishna consciousness were compiled – many by the six goswamis of Vrindavan (Sanatana, Rupa, Jiva, Gopal Bhatta, Raghunatha Dasa and Raghunatha Bhatta). Many devotees followed in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu including, in the 19th century, an outstanding Vaishnava theologian and high court judge, Bhaktivinoda Thakura (1838-1914), who brought Krishna consciousness to a modern audience.

Bhaktivinoda’s son, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami (1874- 1937), became the guru of Srila Prabhupada.

Srila Prabhupada

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu preached exclusively on the Indian subcontinent, but predicted that one day, the sankirtana movement would spread throughout the world with the help of his empowered devotee – who time would reveal to be His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

ISKCON’s founder, affectionately known by his followers as Srila Prabhupada, has drawn appreciation from scholars and religious leaders alike for his remarkable achievement in presenting India’s Vaishnava spiritual culture in a relevant manner to contemporary western and worldwide audiences.

“At a very advanced age, when most people would be resting on their laurels,” writes Harvey Cox, Harvard University theologian and author, “Srila Prabhupada hearkened to the mandate of his own spiritual teacher and set out on the difficult and demanding voyage to America. Srila Prabhupada is, of course, only one of thousands of teachers. But in another sense, he is one in a thousand, maybe one in a million.”

His achievement is remarkable in that he transplanted India’s ancient spiritual culture to the twentieth-century western world.

Milestones in the Making of a Modern Spiritual Movement

In 1965, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, brought Sri Chaitanya’s movement to the West and founded ISKCON in New York City under seemingly humble circumstances.

1965 – Prabhupada arrives in Boston At the advanced age of 69, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada left a quiet life of study and meditation in Vrindavan, India in order to honor the instruction of his spiritual teacher – to propagate Sri Chaitanya’s sankirtan movement in the Western world.At 5:30 am, on September 17, 1965, Prabhupada arrived in Boston harbour by cargo ship from Calcutta, with only 40 rupees ($7) in his pocket, and a trunk full of books that he himself had translated from Sanskrit into English.
On the day he landed in Boston, on his way to New York City, he penned these words in his diary: “My dear Lord Krsna, I am sure that when this transcendental message penetrates [the hearts of the westerners], they will certainly feel gladdened and thus become liberated from all unhappy conditions of life.” He was sixty-nine years old, alone and with few resources, but the wealth of spiritual knowledge and devotion he possessed was an unwavering source of strength and inspiration.

For the first year he struggled alone, booking speaking engagements at yoga studios, YMCAs, and bohemian artists’ lofts, while living in the homes of people he met who sympathized with his cause and would give him temporary residence. He would often take a small bongo drum and sit under a tree in a public park to chant the holy names of Krishna. Curious onlookers would gather. Some joined in the chanting. A few began to take an active interest in his mission.

1966 – ISKCON is born Srila Prabhupada was living in New York City, in Manhattan’s then impoverished Lower East Side, and had begun regular weekly lectures on the Bhagavad-gita, along with public chanting sessions (kirtan) in Tompkins Square Park. He had a handful of faithful followers who naturally became his first western students to whom he would impart the knowledge and culture of Krishna consciousness.On 13 July 1966, less than a full year following his arrival in the USA, Prabhupada and some of his American followers signed the certificate of incorporation for the International Society of Krishna Consciousness. In the official document of incorporation, the seven purposes of ISKCON are recorded for the first time.*
1966 – 1968 – You can’t keep a good thing small As more and more spiritual seekers became attracted to Krishna consciousness, Prabhupada oversaw the opening of ISKCON temples in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Montreal, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1967 – Historic festival in San Francisco Ratha-yatra is one of the oldest and largest annual religious festivals in the world, performed each year in the holy city of Jagannatha Puri on the east coast of India. Several million people line the streets to pull giant chariots carrying deity forms of Lord Krishna through the streets, accompanied by festive chanting of His names. The first of these “Festival of Chariots” to be held outside of India, was in 1967, in San Francisco. This festival is now held by members of ISKCON in cities around the world.
1969 -1973 – Continental Drift Several temples were established in Canada, Europe, Mexico, Africa, South America and India. New devotees of Krsna soon became highly visible in all the major cities around the world by their public chanting and their distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books of Vedic knowledge. They began staging joyous cultural festivals throughout the year and serving millions of plates of delicious vegetarian food offered to Krsna (known as prasadam). As a result, ISKCON has significantly influenced the lives of millions of people.
1970 – GBC The Governing Body Commission, ISKCON’s managerial body, was established to oversee the growing society. To date, ISKCON remains under the ultimate managing authority of the Governing Body Commission (GBC), as instructed by Srila Prabhupada.
1970-1977 – Back to India While regularly facing massive challenges, opposition and threats, ISKCON built major centers at the holy Indian pilgrimage sites of Mayapur and Vrindavana, as well as a large temple in Juhu, Mumbai.
1971 – 1989 Preaching behind an iron curtain After multiple attempts to enter the USSR as an official representative of India, Prabhupada was granted a short stay tourist visa.“During his visit, Prabhupada spoke with Professor G. G. Kotovsky, at that time the head of the Indian and South Asian Studies Department of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. The conversation left a distinct impression on the professor, who had it published in an important Russian periodical. But it was Prabhupada’s meeting with a young Russian seeker—Anatoly Pinyayev—that was the true catalyst for Krishna consciousness in the Soviet Union. Soon renamed Ananta-shanti Dasa, the young man took Prabhupada’s message to heart, and began to enthusiastically share what he had learned. ”¹
Over the course of the following 18 years, Krishna consciousness grew steadily underground in the former Soviet Union despite severe persecution by the state, which sometimes resulted in the imprisonment and even death of the movement’s members.

1972 – Bhaktivedanta Book Trust In 1972, Srila Prabhupada founded the publishing house Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) – now the world’s foremost publisher of Krishna consciousness literature.From 1966 through 1977, Srila Prabhupada translated more than 40 volumes of the great literary classics of Krishna consciousness from Sanskrit into English, giving elaborate commentaries based on the realizations of previous masters as well as his own. These books include the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the definitive presentation of Lord Krishna’s teachings; the Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), an 18-volume history of Lord Krishna’s incarnations, pastimes and devotees; and Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, the 9-volume biography and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. These books have been published by the BBT in more than 50 languages, with several million copies sold and distributed by members of ISKCON to people all over the world.
1973 – Bhaktivedanta Institute established The Bhaktivedanta Institute was formed to promote the teachings of the Vedas with scientific rigor.
1974 – Food For Life Since 1974, ISKCON’s “Food for Life” charities have run karma-free vegetarian food relief programs in disaster areas and cities around the world.
1977 – Prabhupada Leaves In November 1977, Srila Prabhupada passed from this world. By that time, ISKCON had established more than 108 temples, centers, schools and farm communities, with more than 10 000 initiated members.
1989 – Eastern Europe opens up In 1988 the Moscow Society for Krishna Consciousness became the first religious society registered in the Soviet Union since World War II. In 1989, the Hare Krishna movement came out from the underground in the Soviet Union, as glasnost brought an end to persecution. By 1991, more than one million copies of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is had been sold in the former Soviet Union.
2010 – ToVP Construction begins On 19 March 2010, the first pile was sunk to begin construction work on the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (ToVP) in Mayapur, India. Construction currently remains in progress and is scheduled for completion around 2022. Once completed, it will be the largest Vedic temple in modern history, and one of the largest religious monuments in the world (second only to St. Peter’s Basilica) with a size exceeding 400 000 sq. ft. (37 000 m²); a height of 350 feet (106.7 m); the largest religious dome in the world, and a capacity to hold 10 000+ visitors at one time.
2016 – ISKCON 50 In 2016 ISKCON celebrated the 50th anniversary of its incorporation.
Today, ISKCON has about 500 centers around the world, with a worldwide congregation in the hundreds of thousands—from all walks of life.

References

https://iskconnews.org/russia-iskcons-freedom-fighters,1339/

The Seven Purposes of ISKCON

In ISKCON’s incorporating document, Srila Prabhupada imparts the “Seven Purposes of ISKCON”:

To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all peoples in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world.
To propagate a consciousness of Krishna as it is revealed in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, and thus to develop the idea, within the members, and humanity, at large, that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna).
To teach and encourage the Sankirtan movement of congregational chanting of the holy name of God as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
To erect for the members, and for society at large, a holy place of transcendental pastimes, dedicated to the personality of Krishna.
To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life.
With a view towards achieving the aforementioned purposes, to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, books and other writings.