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
