19

HARE IN AMERICA: GROWTH, DECLINE, AND ACCOMMODATION E. Burke Rochford, Jr.

It is a truism that religious movements and is called by his followers, travelled to the their organizational forms undergo change United States from India in 1965, at the over the course of their histories. Many new age of sixty-nine, to spread Krishna Con- religions burst onto the scene without fully sciousness to the Western world. One year articulated ideologies, established objec- after his arrival, Prabhupada founded tives, or stable organizational structures. ISKCON in New York City. Within a de- But neither do these groups over time reach cade, Prabhupada and his followers had what might be thought of as developmen- established a worldwide movement. Before tal endpoints, unless, of course, they fail his death in 1977, Prabhupada initiated altogether. Rather the careers of new faiths nearly five thousand disciples into Krishna are guided by a dialectical interplay be- consciousness and attracted tens of thou- tween internal movement forces and ex- sands of other less-committed followers. 1 ternal societal influences. While scholars Prabhupada was born in 1896 with the recognize that change in "new" and "es- name of Abhay Charan De. His family ad- tablished" religions takes place, we know hered to a strict Krishna-conscious lifestyle. much less about the specific processes that After graduating from the University of promote social change in religious organi- Calcutta with majors in English, philoso- zations. This case study of the International phy, and economics, Prabhupada was em- Society for Krishna Consciousness (hereaf- ployed as a manager in a chemical firm, ter ISKCON), more popularly known as the where he worked until his retirement in Hare Krishna movement, attempts to ex- 1954. In 1922, Prabhupada met his spiri- tend empirical and theoretical understand- tual master, Bhaktisiddhanta, from whom ing of how new religious movements he ultimately took initiation in 1933. Prior 2 develop in the American context. to Bhaktisiddhanta's death in 1936, he in- structed Prabhupada to carry the teach- ings of Krishna Consciousness to the West. In the years prior to his departure for Origins, American Beginnings, and America, Prabhupada raised a family and Religious Beliefs continued to promote the teachings of Bhaktisiddhanta. During this period he The presence of Hare Krishna in America started publishing Back to Godhead maga- comes from the inspiration of one man, A- zine, tohich he would later use to promote G-, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. his movement in America. Prabhupada Bhaktivedanta, or Srila Prabhupada, as he took the order of sannyasa at age fifty-nine,

215 216 E. Burke Rochford, Jr. thereafter retiring from family life. Until tices directed toward purifying the soul. his death, Prabhupada focused his ener- Central to this process of self-realization is gies on translating and writing commen- chanting the Hare Krishna mantra: Hare taries on ancient Vedic scriptures such as Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, the and the Srimad Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Bhagavatam. His many books were pub- Rama, Hare Hare. At the time of initiation lished by ISKCON's Bhaktivedanta Book from a guru, devotees commit themselves Trust in Los Angeles. to chant sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna The historical roots of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, on a string of japa, or prayer movement in America can be traced to beads. They must also abstain from eating Bengal, India, in the sixteenth century. meat, illicit sex (sex other than for the While aligned with the more prevalent propagation of God-conscious children), forms of , the Krishna Conscious- taking intoxicants (i.e., cigarettes, alcohol, ness preached by ISKCON's founder traces tea, coffee, drugs), and gambling. Although its beginnings to the Krishna bhakti no longer a mandatory requirement, many movement founded by Sri Caitanya ISKCON devotees take part in a morning Mahaprabhu. Caitanya revived the devo- worship program beginning in the temple tional form of Hinduism (bhakti yoga) em- at 4:30 A.M. There they worship the deities phasizing that love and devotional service on the altar, a spiritual plant Tulasi, and to God were the means by which one could their founding guru Srila Prabhupada. One gain spiritual realization. Instead of see- male devotee leads the others in singing ing him as one of several gods, Caitanya various Sanskrit verses to the beat of mu- and his followers made Krishna the su- sic provided by devotees playing mrdanga preme manifestation of God. In a major drums and karatals (small hand cymbals). split from other forms of Hinduism, Men and women are strictly segregated in Caitanya preached that all people, regard- the temple, with men generally standing less of their caste or station in life, could nearest the altar and women behind them. be self-realized through their activities per- Between each of the four morning ceremo- formed in the service of Krishna. nies devotees busily chant their daily rounds. Punctuating the end of the morn- Caitanya also developed another prac- ing program is a class on Prabhupada's tice unique to Hinduism, which has proved commentaries on the Vedic scriptures. a trademark of the Krishna movement in America. Growing out of his intense religious passion, Caitanya initiated sankirtana, a practice requiring his follow- ers to venture out into the streets to dance ISKCON's Growth and and sing their praises of Lord Krishna. Development in America When Prabhupada began his movement in America, sankirtana (preaching, book dis- The fortunes of the Krishna movement tribution, and chanting in public) became have changed rather drtimatically since its the principal means of spreading Krishna introduction to America in 1965. From very 3 Consciousness. humble beginnings in New York City, The spiritual goal of Hare Krishna devo- Prabhupada and his followers recruited tees is to escape birth in the material world thousands of members. Along with success, and go back to Godhead. Because of ma- however, came public scrutiny and contro- terial contamination, the soul is forced to versy. By the mid-1970s, ISKCON and other assume a continuous succession of rebirths. new religions of the period felt the effects To escape the laws of karma and break the of a countermovement of anticultists bent cycle of reincarnation, devotees seek to per- on halting what they saw as the "evil" fect their spiritual lives by controlling their influence of "cults." Under attack, and fac- senses. This is done under the direction of ing a downturn in its recruitment and eco- a spiritual teacher, or guru. The bhakti yoga nomic fortunes, ISKCON began to decline process involves a number of religious prac- as a religious organization. Prabhupada's Hare Krishna in America 217

death, in 1977, farther aggravated the only recently migrated to the area, and movement's growing sense of crisis. were without permanent or stable resi- ISKCON's efforts to deal with its decline dences, ISKCON's communal structure brought with it negotiation, compromise, emerged as a means to hold the young and change. countercultural youth being attracted to Krishna Consciousness. ISKCON's San Fran- GROWTH AND EXPANSION cisco organization served as a model for The early history of the Hare Krishna the many devotees who were deployed to movement in America mirrors in many other cities across America to establish respects the career of the 1960s and 1970s Krishna temples and recruit members. Be- counterculture. The war in Vietnam, and ing a missionary movement, ISKCON was the peace movement that grew in opposi- opportunistic in its recruitment strategies, tion to it, sparked the growth of numer- successfully recruiting in public places and ous social movements. American values through social networks.7 By the end of and ways of life faced critical questioning 1975, ISKCON had established nearly forty by many young people who began ex- communities and preaching centers in perimenting with a range of alternative North America and many more worldwide. value systems and lifestyles. Studies of Economically, ISKCON was largely sup- ISKCON have demonstrated how the ported by sankirtana, the public distribu- movement's early growth in the United tion of religious literature. During the late States was sustained by recruiting alien- 1960s and early 1970s devotees distributed ated youth from the counterculture. From incense or Back to Godhead magazines to the counterculture ISKCON attracted the public in exchange for donations. The mostly Anglo-Americans in their late teens economics of sankirtana changed greatly and early twenties from middle- and up- in 1971 and 1972, as devotees began to per-middle-class families. But with the end distribute Prabhupada's books in public lo- of the war, the counterculture began to cations, first in shopping malls and park- fade from the American landscape and ing lots, and then at major American ISKCON's growth leveled off; membership airports. Book distribution expanded yearly 4 began to decline in 1974. through 1978 and provided large sums of The Hare Krishna movement began money to bankroll ISKCON's worldwide ex- modestly in New York City in 1965. pansion. One conservative estimate is that Prabhupada, or the Swami as he was ISKCON's communities in North America known by his early followers, turned his grossed over thirteen million dollars be- proselytizing efforts to the young people tween 1974 and 1978 on hardback books 8 living on the Bowery on the Lower East alone. Side. After Prabhupada was observed Along with ISKCON's successful expan- chanting in Tompkins Square Park word sion came charges of brainwashing by spread amongst the musicians and bohe- anticultists. Although social science evi- mian crowd of the area. Within a short dence provides little or no support for brain- time, several of Prabhupada's followers washing explanations of conversion to new helped him establish a small temple on religions, such charges did have an im- Second Avenue. During this first year in pact on ISKCON's American development.9 New York, Prabhupada initiated nineteen Anticult propaganda, widely disseminated 5 disciples. by the media, helped reshape the public's ISKCON underwent radical change definition of Hare Krishna; from a pecu- after Prabhupada relocated to the emerg- liar, but essentially harmless movement. ing hippie community in the Haight- ISKCON came to be identified as threaten- 10 Ashbury district of San Francisco. Having ing and dangerous. Defined as a danger- located a temple in the heart of the dis- ous cult, ISKCON found it all the more trict, ISKCON recruited an estimated 150 difficult to attract new members and to to 200 converts during its first two years.6 secure the economic resources necessary to Because many of these new recruits had sustain its communities. 218 E. Burke Rochford, Jr.

DECLINE AND POLITICIZATION was also jeopardized by a growing num- The late 1970s and the 1980s was a period ber of ex-ISKCON members who challenged of decline, conflict, and change within the very idea that Prabhupada had actu- ISKCON. Recruitment declined significantly ally appointed successor gurus.12 and ISKCON witnessed a sharp downturn In 1982, Jayatirtha, the ISKCON guru in its economic fortunes. Prabhupada's in England, defected with as many as one death, in 1977, only intensified ISKCON's hundred of his disciples, after a failed at- decline as the movement faced years of tempt to have one of Prabhupada's conflict and instability in America. Godbrothers from India brought into By 1982, the level of ISKCON's North ISKCON as an initiating guru. Other lead- American book distribution was less than ing devotees also left ISKCON to join half its 1978 peak. The corresponding de- Sridara Maharaja in the early 1980s; some cline in sankirtana revenues had a devas- of these established communities in 13 tating effect on ISKCON's communities. In America. In 1983, after years of contro- an effort to bring much-needed revenue versy that included allegations of drug use into its communities ISKCON developed a and weapons violations in the Berkeley number of alternative economic strategies Temple, the guru Hansaduta was expelled in the late 1970s. In addition to distribut- from ISKCON. During 1986 and 1987, three ing books in public places, devotees began other gurus were forced to resign their selling record albums, artwork, candles, guruships after charges of sexual miscon- food, and various buttons supporting sports duct were brought against them. In a well- teams and rock bands. During the Christ- publicized legal case, ISKCON's West mas season, ISKCON members dressed as Virginia farm community, New Vrindaban, Santa Claus and solicited donations from witnessed murder and a resulting state and an unsuspecting public. Book distribution federal investigation. In 1987, ISKCON ex- declined sharply when these new and communicated New Vrindaban's leader highly profitably forms of enterprise gained Kirtanananda, and no longer recognized favor among most ISKCON leaders. While his community as part of ISKCON. The profitable, these practices also proved con- community now blends Krishna conscious troversial both within and outside of the theology with Christian millenarianism. movement. The movement's critics inter- After years of controversy, a reform preted these changes as evidence of a ba- movement emerged in America during the sic transformation in ISKCON's purpose in fall of 1984 in an effort to change the ex- America: finances and maintenance con- isting guru system. The reformers were se- cerns had come to replace the goal of nior Prabhupada disciples, many of whom expanding Prabhupada's Krishna Con- 11 were temple presidents in North America. sciousness movement. Finally, in 1987, changes were made to The death of a charismatic leader is of- the then-existing guru'system: ISKCON's ten a turning point in the history of any international governing body ruled that all religious movement, and ISKCON is no ex- qualified ISKCON members could become ception. Prabhupada's death brought about initiating gurus and that henceforth gurus widespread factionalism, substantial defec- could no longer control exclusive geo- tion, and schism. In the months preceding graphical zones over which they exercised his death Prabhupada appointed eleven of total political and spiritual authority. The his closest disciples to serve as initiating latter arrangement had effectively under- gurus for ISKCON. Following his death, mined ISKCON as the appointed gurus ISKCON's new gurus took spiritual and po- were essentially leading their own move- litical control over specific areas of the ments more or less independently of world. Each was responsible for initiating ISKCON. By the end of 1993, ISKCON had disciples in his zone. Beginning in 1978, more than seventy initiating gurus world- ISKCON faced a series of guru controver- wide. Although reform of the guru system sies that threatened to splinter the organi- quieted protest throughout much of the zation entirely. ISKCON's political stability movement, controversy remains. An out- Hare Krishna in America 219 spoken minority of Prabhupada disciples munity. More than two-thirds reported that hold the position that since none of the work and/or family obligations made it dif- new gurus are actually maha-bhagavata ficult for them to commit more time to- (qualified gurus) they should initiate dis- ward these activities. As these findings ciples only on Prabhupada's behalf. Newly suggest, ISKCON's previous sectarian initiated devotees should be considered lifestyle and purpose has given way to do- Prabhupada disciples, rather than disciples mesticity: Jobs, family responsibilities, edu- of any one of the present gurus.14 cating children, and the like now largely define the daily concerns of the average NEGOTIATION AND ISKCON devotee. This everyday reality has ACCOMMODATION forced ISKCON members to recraft their ISKCON's declining position in America re- identities to reflect their involvement in two sulted in a number of strategic decisions social worlds previously experienced as hos- by the leaders to bring much-needed re- tile to one another. As this has occurred at sources into the movement and its com- the individual level, ISKCON's social orga- munities. ISKCON faced the need to find a nization has changed accordingly from a new constituency from which it could en- monastic lifestyle to the creation of broad- list new members and mobilize financial based, pluralistic communities. support. Without adequate finances, ISKCON has also changed in recent ISKCON also found it difficult to sustain years because of the growth of its East In- its totalistic communal world: Exclusivity dian congregation. During ISKCON's early gave way to more flexible and inclusive days in America, Prabhupada made little boundaries as the movement sought nego- effort to involve East Indian immigrants tiation and compromise with the conven- in his movement. He sought to avoid tional culture. ISKCON's becoming identified as an eth- With declining financial resources avail- nic Hindu movement. Prabhupada's goal able to its communities ISKCON faced a was to reach out to a wider audience, significant turning point in its North though, in* the end, his movement in American history. No longer could ISKCON America appealed largely to white middle- afford to maintain its communal lifestyle: class youth. The first significant involve- Lacking a viable means of internal sup- ment of East Indians occurred in the face port most ISKCON members had little of efforts by anticultists to suppress ISKCON choice but to seek outside employment. A in the mid-1970s. For strategic purposes, 1992 survey of 271 ISKCON members in ISKCON had sympathetic Indian people the United States revealed that over half come forward to counter anticultists' claims were employed by non-devotee businesses, that ISKCON was a dangerou cult. Mem- or were self-employed. Fewer than a third bers of the Indian community effectively worked for an ISKCON business, or for a argued that anticult efforts to suppress local ISKCON community. Fewer than 5 ISKCON represented little more than overt percent distributed books, or sought dona- acts of persecution against all Hindus in tions in public locations. Having outside America. Thereafter, ISKCON made a more jobs, many, if not most, devotees have be- concerted effort to encourage the involve- come increasingly independent of ISKCON. ment of East Indians. ISKCON's temples Two-thirds of the surveyed devotees resided became places of worship for many thou- in housing outside of an ISKCON commu- sands of East Indians in America, though nity, although many did live nearby. Find- few in fact have become initiated disciples ings from the survey also revealed that of any of ISKCON's gurus. Most limit their ISKCON members employed in outside involvement to attending the Sunday pro- jobs, as compared to those working in devo- gram at a local ISKCON community where tee environments, were less likely to regu- they worship and socialize with other In- larly chant their rounds, attend religious dian people. Most importantly for ISKCON, functions at the temple, or to contribute its East Indian congregation contributes sig- time working in their local ISKCON com- nificant funding to help support local 220 E. Burke Rochford, Jr. temples. In a few locations (e.g., Houston, the surrounding culture. Without its own Detroit, Vancouver), Indian people have economic institutions in place, ISKCON taken on leadership positions as temple relaxed its formerly rigid boundaries to al- presidents. It is likely that the present low its members to seek outside employ- "Indianization" of ISKCON will continue ment. It also went about the business of in the future, with the possibility that some building a congregation of East Indian ISKCON temples in America will become members. By changing in these ways, ethnic churches. ISKCON became inclusive and pluralistic, its members as much involved in the con- ventional society as within ISKCON. It seems likely that ISKCON's future de- Conclusion velopment will involve still further changes and growing secularization. ISKCON's con- Throughout much of ISKCON's North gregation (i.e., lay as opposed to full-time American history the movement has found membership) seems destined to expand as itself in a relatively high state of tension the movement's second generation shows with the surrounding conventional society. little interest in taking up a monastic During the 1970s and early 1980s the gen- lifestyle. This and related trends seem des- eral public was suspicious and even out- tined to further erode ISKCON's sectarian wardly hostile toward ISKCON and some purposes and lifestyle. As a result, ISKCON's other new religious movements of the pe- uniqueness and overall mission may be riod. As a result, ISKCON faced difficulty threatened. As Rodney Stark reminds us, in mobilizing the resources (i.e., people, "To succeed, a new religious movement power, and money) required to underwrite must not make its peace with this world its expansionary aims. Facing decline, too rapidly or too fully. A faith too accom- ISKCON undertook a number of strategies modated to worldliness lacks power for con- requiring it to alter its relationship with tinued conversion."15

Notes

1. David G. Bromley and Phillip E. Stillson J. Judah, Hare Krishna and the Counter- Hammond, The Future of New Religious Move- culture (New York: Wiley, 1974), 18-68. ments (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 4. For a discussion of ISKCON's ties to the 1987). counterculture, see Gregory Johnson, "The 2. The question of change in religious or- Hare Krishna in San Francisco," in The New ganizations is of longstanding interest to Religious Consciousness, C. C^lock and R. Bellah scholars of religion. Much of this inquiry has (Berkeley: University of California Press, focused on how sects become institutional- 1976), 31-51; Judah, Hare Krishna and the ized as churches, or more precisely denomi- Counterculture; Rochford, Hare Krishna in nations. See, for example, Max Weber, The America, 60-68, 153-60. Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 5. , Planting the 1963); H. Richard Niebuhr, The Social Sources Seed: New York City, 1965-1966 (Los Angeles: of Denominationalism (New York: Meridian, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1980). 1929). For an application to ISKCON, see E. 6. For a discussion of ISKCON's growth in Burke Rochford, Jr., Hare Krishna in America San Francisco, see Johnson, "The Hare (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, Krishna in San Francisco"; Judah, Hare Krishna 1985), 214-20. and the Counterculture; Satsvarupa dasa 3. For discussion of ISKCON's roots in India, Goswami, Only He Could Lead Them: Sah Fran- see Charles R. Brooks, The Hare in In- cisco/India, 1967 (Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta dia (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, Book Trust, 1981). 1989), 27-55; Steven Gelberg, ed.. Hare Krishna, 7. See E. Burke Rochford, Jr., "Recruitment Hare Krishna (New York: Grove Press, 1983); Strategies, Ideology, and Organization in the Hare Krishna in America 221

Hare Krishna Movement," Social Problems 29, 10. See E. Burke Rochford, Jr. "Shifting Pub- no. 4 (1982): 399-410. lic Definitions of Hare Krishna," in Collective 8. See Rochford, Hare Krishna in America, Behavior, Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian 174-75. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1987), 9. For critical assessments of brainwash- 258-60. ing explanations of conversion, see Eileen 11. Rochford, Hare Krishna in America, 171- Barker, The Making of a Moonie: Choice or 220. Brainwashing? (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984); 12. Ibid., 221-55; E. Burke Rochford, Jr., David G. Bromley and James T. Richardson, "Factionalism, Group Defection, and Schism eds., The Brainwashing-Deprogramming Con- in the Hare Krishna Movement," Journal for troversy: Sociological, Psychological, Legal and the Scientific Study of Religion 28, na 2 (1989): Historical Perspectives (New York: Edwin 162-79. Mellen, 1983); E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Sheryl 13. Rochford, Hare Krishna in America, 245- Purvis, and NeMar Eastman, "New Religions, 253; Shinn, The Dark Lord, 130. Mental Health and Social Control," in Re- 14. See Karnamrta dasa, ed., Living Still in search in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Sound (Washington, Miss.: New Jaipur Press, ed. M. Lynn and D. Moberg (Greenwich, 1990). Conn.: JAI Press, 1989), 57-82; Larry D. 15. Rodney Stark, "How New Religions Suc- Shinn, The Dark Lord: Cult Images and the ceed: A Theoretical Model," in The Future of Hare Krishnas in America (Philadelphia: New Religious Movements, Bromley and Westminster, 1987), 122-43. Hammond, 11-29.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Daner, Francine. The American Children of Rochford, E. Burke, Jr. Hare Krishna in Krsna: A Study of the Hare Krsna Movement. America. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Uni- New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, versity Press, 1985. 1976. Shinn, Larry D. The Dark Lord: Cult Images Judah, Stillson. Hare Krishna and the Coun- and the Hare Krishnas in America. Philadelphia: terculture. New York: Wiley, 1974. Westminster, 1987.