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What is Hare Krishna
“Hare Krishna” is the popular name of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the branch of Vaishnavism that reached the West in 1965. The name comes from the mantra its devotees chant.
A young movement with ancient roots
Anyone who sees a group of devotees singing in the street for the first time tends to think it is something new. The organisation is: it was founded in 1966. But what it teaches and practises is Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the tradition that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu spread in India at the start of the 16th century, rooted in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Devotees do not call themselves “the Hare Krishnas”. They speak of Krishna consciousness: living while remembering God in everything one does.
Prabhupāda, the founder
Abhay Charan De was born in Calcutta in 1896. He was a pharmacist and a family man until, later in life, he took up the renounced order and devoted his days to translating the Vaishnava scriptures into English. Decades earlier, his teacher had asked him to bring this teaching to the West.
In 1965, aged 69, he boarded the cargo ship Jaladuta bound for the United States, with a few rupees and a trunk of books. He began by singing under a tree in a New York park. In July 1966 he founded ISKCON; by the time he left this world in 1977 he had circled the globe several times, opened more than a hundred temples and published dozens of volumes, among them Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. His disciples call him Śrīla Prabhupāda.
The mantra and its meaning
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
The maha-mantra, “the great mantra”
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
It is three words repeated until they add up to sixteen:
- Krishna means “the all-attractive one”. It is the name of God.
- Rama means “the source of all joy”. It is another name of God.
- Hare is the way of calling Harā, God’s energy of devotion, personified in Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.
It is not a formula for asking for things. Prabhupāda explained it as a plea: “O Lord, O energy of the Lord, please engage me in Your service.” It is chanted in two ways: alone and softly, on a string of beads (japa), or together and with music (kīrtan).
How a devotee lives
Most devotees do not live in a temple. They have families, jobs and homes like anyone else, and they organise the day around a few practices:
- Chanting the maha-mantra every day on beads. Those who have taken initiation commit to sixteen rounds a day.
- Reading the Bhagavad-gītā or the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for a while.
- Offering their food to Krishna before eating it. The diet is vegetarian.
- Meeting other devotees, usually at the temple.
In addition, initiated devotees follow four principles:
- No meat, fish or eggs.
- No intoxicants, including alcohol and tobacco.
- No gambling.
- Sexuality only within marriage.
The clothes, the hair and the mark on the forehead
The image of the devotee in an orange robe with a shaved head belongs to the monks. The saffron colour is worn by men who live in celibacy; married men wear white, and women wear saris. The small tuft of hair on the crown is called a śikhā, and the clay mark on the forehead is tilaka. None of this is required to come along: it is the traditional dress of those who have decided to dedicate themselves completely.
Where to meet devotees
There are Hare Krishna temples and centres in most large cities in the world, and almost all of them are open to the public. Our temple map covers Spain, Portugal, France and Latin America; for other countries, ISKCON keeps a worldwide directory of centres.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hare Krishna a cult?
It is a branch of Vaishnavism, one of the great traditions of India, with scriptures, a lineage of teachers and centuries of history. Scholars of religion place it within Hinduism.
The question usually comes from the image of the 1970s: young Westerners who changed their lives overnight. Like other religious institutions, ISKCON has gone through crises and serious mistakes, above all in the years after its founder’s death, which it has publicly acknowledged and which led it to reform. Today the great majority of its members live outside the temples, with their families and jobs.
The best way to answer is to see for yourself: the temples are open, nobody will ask you for anything to come in, and you can leave whenever you like.
Are Hare Krishnas Hindus?
They belong to a tradition born in India and share scriptures with Hinduism. They usually describe themselves as Vaishnavas, or devotees of Krishna, because they understand that devotion to God does not depend on being born into a particular culture.
Why do they sing and dance in the street?
They follow the example of Śrī Caitanya, who in the 16th century took the chanting of God’s names out into the streets of Bengal so that it would reach everyone. They call it harināma saṅkīrtana.
Why are they vegetarian?
For two reasons. The first is non-violence: avoiding unnecessary suffering to other beings. The second is that they only eat what they have first offered to Krishna, and in the Bhagavad-gītā He asks for plant foods: a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water.
What was George Harrison’s connection with the Hare Krishnas?
The Beatles guitarist met the devotees in the late sixties, produced the single Hare Krishna Mantra in 1969, included the mantra in his song My Sweet Lord and in 1973 donated an estate near London that is still a temple today.