WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS?
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness was formed in July, 1966 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and a number of his American students. ISKCON is composed of devotees. Devotees are held together by mutual agreement to accept the principles of  bhakti-yoga  or devotional service as the goal of life. By mutual endeavor, the entire Society concentrates on Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, while engaged in various tasks, cooking, eating, working in an office or chanting the holy names in the city streets. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is a pure devotee, and those disciples who sincerely follow his instructions have every chance of becoming pure devotees themselves. The initiated devotees in each center live in urban commune settings (with the exception of New Vrndavana, ISKCON's  asrama  of homes, temples, farm land and cows in the hills of West Virginia), and are freeing themselves from the conditions of birth, death, disease and old age by fixing their minds on the eternal, joyful Personality of Godhead. To live in ISKCON as an initiated student, one agrees to accept four rules: no meat-eating, no illicit sex, no intoxicants and no gambling. The disciples perform devotional service, duties and chanting in a life-routine characterized by simple living and high thinking.
Krsna consciousness is experienced as a process of self-purification. Its means and ends are an open secret, and there is no financial charge for learning Krsna consciousness or receiving initiation into the chanting of Hare Krsna. The gist of devotional service to Krsna is that one takes whatever capacity or talent he or she has and dovetails it with the transcendental interest of the supreme enjoyer, the Absolute Truth. The writer or poet writes articles and poems for Krsna, and the Society publishes periodicals. The businessman does business in order to sell literature and establish many temples around the world. The householders raise children in the science of God, and husband and wife live in mutual cooperation for spiritual progress. And everyone in ISKCON goes on  sankirtana! Sankirtana  means chanting the Hare Krsna  mantra  in the city streets for the benefit of all citizens. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami has said that the  sankirtana  party is the heart and soul of the Hare Krsna movement. Therefore, in each of the twenty-five ISKCON centers,  sankirtana  is carried on several times daily, and all other activity is subsidiary. Our spiritual master stresses this, for we are in the line of Lord Caitanya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is revealed by Vedic scriptures to be Krsna Himself, come in the mood of a pure devotee. Five hundred years ago Lord Caitanya understood from scripture