1965

1965 - Srila Prabhupada sails to America to establish ISKCON, Aug. 27 to October 1.

1972

1972 - Srila Prabhupada establishes the Bhaktivedanta Boot Trust.

1988

1988 - Srila Prabhupada establishes the Bhaktivedanta Boot Trust.

1970

1970 - Srila Prabhupada establishes the GBC, with the Direction of Management, July 28.

1944

1944 - Starts writing and publishing ‘Back to Godhead’ magazine.

1977

1977 - Srila Prabhupada leaves the material world.

1966

1966 - ISKCON corporation founded Aug. 5. First centers open in New York and Height Ashbury

1933

1933 - Receives formal initiation from his spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami.

1975

1975 - Srila Prbhupada comes to South Africa & gives instruction to build temple.

1992

1992 - President Mandela visit ISKCON temple in Chatsworth, South Africa,

1971

1971 - First gurukula established in Dallas & Srila Prabhupad comes to Africa.

1979

1979 - First gurukula established in Dallas & Srila Prabhupad comes to Africa.

1959

1959 - Awarded sannyasa in Mathura by one of his God-brothers, His Holiness B.P. Kesava Maharaj.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), otherwise known as the Hare Krishna movement, includes five hundred major centers, temples and rural communities, nearly one hundred affilated vegetarian restaurants, thousands of namahattas or local meeting groups, a wide variety of community projects, and millions of congregational members worldwide.

Although less than fifty years on the global stage, ISKCON has expanded widely since its founding by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda in New York City in 1966.

ISKCON belongs to the Gaudiya-Vaishnava sampradāya, a monotheistic tradition within the Vedic or Hindu culture. Philosophically it is based on the Sanskrit texts Bhagavad-gītā and the Bhagavat Purana, or Srimad Bhagavatam. These are the historic texts of the devotional bhakti yoga tradition, which teaches that the ultimate goal for all living beings is to reawaken their love for God, or Lord Krishna, the “all-attractive one”.

God is known across the world by many names including Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, Rama, etc. ISKCON devotees chant God’s names in the form of the maha-mantra, or the great prayer for deliverance:

Many leading academics have highlighted ISKCON’s authenticity. Diana Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University, describes the movement as “a tradition that commands a respected place in the religious life of humankind.” In the 1980s Dr. A. L. Basham, one of the world’s authorities on Indian history and culture, wrote of ISKCON that, “It arose out of next to nothing in less than twenty years and has become known all over the West. This, I feel, is a sign of the times and an important fact in the history of the Western world.”

ISKCON’s founder, Srila Prabhupada, has drawn appreciation from scholars and religious leaders alike for his remarkable achievement in presenting India’s Vaishnava spiritual culture in a relevant manner to contemporary Western and worldwide audiences.

Members of ISKCON practice bhakti-yoga in their homes and also worship in temples. They also promote bhakti-yoga, or Krishna Consciousness, through festivals, the performing arts, yoga seminars, public chanting, and the distribution of the society’s literatures. ISKCON members have also opened hospitals, schools, colleges, eco-villages, free food distribution projects, and other institutions as a practical application of the path of devotional yoga.