Hare Krishna: Studies in Contemporary FROM THE PUBLISHER
The founder of the Hare Krishna movement (or International Society for Krishna Consciousness / ISKCON) was the Indian guru, Swami Bhaktivedanta, who during the last years of his life brought a Hindu denomination to the West. He represented the Bengali (Gaudiya) school of Vaisnavism -- devotion to Vishnu and Krishna -- which he molded somewhat to the times when he arrived in New York in the 1960s. Since then, ISKCON has evolved along more conventional -- by Western standards -- denominational lines with a mostly middle-class, lay membership.
When Bhaktivedanta arrived in America, it was a bold step because historically a guru who ventured outside of India was stripped of his Brahman status. However, the effort bore fruit -- not the least of which was the type of intercultural understanding promoted by the current authors through their study of ISKCON's place within the religion and culture of India.
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