Aligning Hare Krishna Political Activists, Hippies, and Hindus

ABSTRACT

The underlying premise of this case study of the growth and development of the Hare Krishna movement is that frame alignment is a necessary, but largely unexplored, element in recruitment to religious movements. Attention is given here to the interactive and communicative processes used by ISKCON members in the United States as they strategically sought to align the practices, goals and beliefs of the movement with the unconventional interests and perspectives of recruits from the 1960s counterculture. The alignment processes described here represent attempts to gain the provisional interest of potential recruits. Whether successful or not, the alignment strategies helped define the Hare Krishna movement in America. As the counterculture declined in the mid-1970s, however, the leadership turned to a new constituent base of Hindu immigrants from India to secure the movement's future. This required new forms of alignment that contributed to the Hinduization of the North American Hare Krishna movement.

Like every great religion of the past … we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present—turn on, tune in, and drop out.

Timothy Leary¹

Srila Prabhupada did not want us to emulate the American (aka Western) way of life. He came to improve it, to change it, to replace American culture with Vedic culture. He wanted us to transcend the American way of life.

Phalini Devi Dasi²

In the American imagination, the 1960s represent an era defined by the Civil Rights movement, anti-Vietnam War protests, a rebellious counterculture, and the blossoming of the second-wave women's movement. Each of these movements challenged the values that defined mainstream American life and culture. War, materialism, racism, imperialism and sexism all pointed to the reality that the American dream was a source of injustice and alienation instead of unlimited opportunity. As sociologist of religion Robert Bellah argued, by the late 1960s America faced a "crisis of meaning" in which the legitimacy of American values and institutions was under attack by a new generation.

But it is precisely the significance of that decade that the irrationalities and horrors of modern history were borne in upon Americans so seriously that for the first time mass disaffection with the common understandings of American culture and society began to occur … [including] the legitimacy of American institutions—business, government, education, the churches, the family—that set in particularly among young people.³

Although the crisis Bellah speaks of certainly contributed to the emergence of various political movements during the 1960s, few had any impact beyond the decade.⁴ In spite of widespread protest, the Vietnam War continued unabated until it finally ended in 1975. Because stopping the war and bringing about meaningful political change appeared increasingly hopeless, many activists abandoned the political struggle, especially after the major New Left groups became embroiled in doctrinal disputes and destructive factionalism.⁵ Experiencing a "crisis of means,"⁶ many of these former activists drifted into the counterculture and/or other up-and-coming social movements.⁷ Among these successor movements were a growing number of new religions that appeared in America during the late 1960s and early 1970s. These groups had appeal because of their world-rejecting and world-transforming perspectives and missions.⁸ Thus, like their political counterparts, the new religions challenged the foundations of mainstream American culture while offering an alternative vision of society based on their spiritual beliefs and ideals.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), more popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, was founded in New York in 1966 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977). The new religion's membership drew heavily from former political activists and countercultural youths—"hippies"—in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, as I argue here, gaining membership required "ideological work" directed toward aligning these young people's unconventional beliefs with ISKCON's religious worldview, practices, and way of life.⁹ Thus, recruitment to ISKCON involved strategic efforts by Prabhupada and his followers to align the movement with the political and counter-cultural ideals of persons expressing interest in the movement.¹⁰

The underlying premise grounding this discussion of ISKCON's early growth and development is that alignment—what David Snow, E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Steven Worden and Robert Benford have referred to as "frame alignment"—is a necessary element of the recruitment process.¹¹ Frames, or frameworks, are interpretive representations that allow individuals to meaningfully organize experience and thereby provide a basis for social action. Frame alignment draws attention to the interactive and communicative nature of recruitment and the way movement adherents seek to strategically link the interests, values, and beliefs of potential members to the activities, goals, and ideology of the movement.¹² Successful frame alignment, therefore, is a product of ideological work by movement members and leaders to nurture the interest and involvement of potential recruits.

SOCIAL MOVEMENT CAREERS AS PROLOGUE

Many of the young people who joined new religions in the 1960s and 1970s had extensive social movement backgrounds. James T. Richardson has used the term "conversion career" to describe the process whereby young people converted to a new religion after previous involvement in one or more political, religious and/or psychologically oriented groups or movements.¹³ Stephen Kent likewise has revealed how some activists went from shouting political slogans to chanting mantras during the latter stages of the Vietnam War era.¹⁴ Evidence of such a career can be found among many of the young people who joined ISKCON during its formative years.

J. Stillson Judah's survey of ISKCON members in Berkeley and Los Angeles in 1969–1970 found that two-thirds (68 percent) of his respondents were strongly opposed to the Vietnam war, with another 21 percent moderately opposed. Many also held strongly negative views of America's government, educational system, and materialistic way of life.¹⁵ As one former anti-war activist turned Hare Krishna explained:

A strong part of the attraction of devotees for me was their sheer defiant otherworldliness. Because … my ideology basically was just the world as it is is just in such bad shape it's not worth saving. … Destroy it and start over again; things are really hopeless. And here are these people [ISKCON members] who clearly are making a statement that they had really … entered into another realm of consciousness and being. And even though I knew very little about it ideologically, philosophically, just that itself was enough to cause me to have great interest.¹⁶

Table 1.

Involvements in the Anti-War movement, Political Movements, Psychological Groups, and Religious Groups by Year Joined ISKCON

Rochford, E. Burke, Jr. Hare Krishna in America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1985. Copyright © 1985 by Rutgers, the State University. Reprinted by permission of Rutgers University Press.

^aPolitical movements included: various radical groups (e.g., Students for a Democratic Society, Anti-war groups, The Socialist Workers Party), conventional political groups and parties, and an assortment of others including, The Nixon Eviction Committee, Movement for a Democratic Military, and No Nukes.

^bSelf-awareness and psychological groups included: Encounter groups, "T" groups, Erhard Seminar Training (EST), Esalan Institute, and a variety of less well-known self-help groups, such as the Berkeley Holistic Health Center and Morehouse.

^cReligious movements, churches, and spiritual groups included: Established faiths (e.g., Catholic Church, Jewish, Methodist), Fundamentalist Christian Churches (e.g., Pentecostal Church), various yoga groups (e.g., Hatha yoga, Kundalini yoga), other new religions (e.g., Self-Realization Fellowship, Divine Light Mission, Sri Chimoy, Satya Sai Baba, Scientology, Transcendental Meditation), and a variety of other religious groups such as Sufism, Quakerism, and Buddhism.

Judah also found that two-thirds of the Krishna devotees in his study had previous involvements in various Hindu and Buddhist groups and practices, including the Kundalini Yoga of Yogi Bhajan, Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation.¹⁷

Another study discovered that a significant number of ISKCON's earliest members were involved in social movements and protest groups. Elsewhere, I have written that large numbers who joined ISKCON during the 1960s-1970s had previously participated in a variety of movements based on politics, religion, and/or psychology.¹⁸ Table 1 shows survey data on this pre-ISKCON involvement among 214 devotees who joined the movement between 1967–1980.¹⁹ The findings are presented across three time periods to allow for tracing patterns of social movement participation over time. Among those who joined between 1967–1971, over half (54 percent) were active in the anti-war movement, with one-quarter (27 percent) participating in specific political groups or movements. Progressively fewer, however, were politically active as the 1970s unfolded. Interestingly, significant percentages were involved in psychologically oriented groups and movements, and this level of involvement remained consistent across time. Self-exploration was thus part of the "meaning-seeking" of many ISKCON members during the 1960s–1970s.²⁰ Although less common, a consistent percentage also had previous involvements in one or more religious groups.

POLITICAL PROTEST AND ALIGNMENT

Although often overlooked, some ISKCON members remained active in American politics after becoming ISKCON devotees.²¹ In fact, several ran for political office and did so with the blessing of Prabhupada, who told one such disciple that "there is ample scope for protest in this Sankirtan Movement, and you yourselves be president [of the United States], that is my hope for saving the misled mankind from total chaos."²² To advance these political ambitions, ISKCON established the "In God We Trust" party in 1972. As one early investigator of ISKCON noted:

The swami [Prabhupada] began by promoting his movement as a political alternative to the doctrines of contemporary leaders such as [Black Panther Party leader Eldridge] Cleaver, [Chairman] Mao, [Students for a Democratic Society's Tom] Hayden, [Nelson] Rockefeller, [George] Wallace and [Richard] Nixon by claiming that "they can't help you," and offering chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra as the "highest form of social work. …" With the "In God We Trust" party ISKCON points a finger at the current moral state of American government.²³

Prabhupada's expectation was that election to political office would allow his disciples to preach Krishna Consciousness on a larger scale. In 1974, he stated:

So everything, solution is there in the Bhagavad-gītā, and we are trying to spread this knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā all over the world, and people are accepting. Now we have started in America a political party, "In God We Trust." So they are doing very successfully. People are accepting. They are criticizing the so-called leaders. After Nixon, people are disgusted with the so-called leaders. … If they are personally sinful, how they can lead other people? That is not possible. … If a man is himself [a] blind man, how he can lead other blind men?²⁴

For devotees with a background in political activism, Prabhupada's encouragement was welcome. The first ISKCON member to campaign for political office sought election in 1972 as city commissioner in Gainesville, Florida. After failing in his election bid, he sought to become mayor of Dallas in 1973. That same year, another ISKCON member launched a campaign to become mayor of Atlanta under the banner of the "In God We Trust" party. After a crushing defeat, he ran unsuccessfully for the Georgia legislature. Over a span of two years, ISKCON devotees launched political campaigns in the District of Columbia, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia.²⁵

Prabhupada instructed his disciples running for political office to challenge the "bad state of affairs of present day society."²⁶ As he wrote to his disciple running for state representative in Georgia:

[I]t is very much our duty to come to [the people's] aide and point out exactly how this sinful living, namely, slaughtering animals, intoxication, illicit sex life, and gambling, how these sinful activities are so much degrading to the human kind and how they are only producing hippies, wars, and endless suffering as a result. So we want to give the citizens the positive value of Krishna consciousness way of life, so for that activity we must always be preaching very strongly in the public.²⁷

On the campaign trail, devotees running for political office followed Prabhupada's instructions, emphasizing America's ongoing moral deterioration and how Krishna Consciousness offered a solution. The devotee who campaigned for city commissioner in Gainesville and for mayor of Dallas recalled:

My earlier campaigns were straight philosophy: only saintly, God conscious leaders could solve the problems of the world, and there should be regular festivals for chanting the names of God and distributing prasadam [sanctified food]. Also, a lot of discussion about Varnashram Dharma [the Vedic social system]. Everything was from Srila Prabhupada's books, which I also talked about whenever I could. Interestingly, Srila Prabhupada told me to stay away from the four regulative principles, and offer a positive alternative.²⁸

Given poor election results, the cost in money and labor associated with political campaigns, and the fact that politics promised to sidetrack ISKCON from its mission, Prabhupada ended ISKCON's political ambitions in 1974.²⁹ He wrote to a disciple who had requested permission to again run for political office:

I can understand that you want to run for political office, but we cannot spend money even if we have money. If you have money of your own and you want to spend it for running for office you can do that. But for running we not only have to draw on the society's [ISKCON's] money but also on our men. This is not desirable. By competing with the politicians we may drop from our spiritual ideal.³⁰

Although short-lived and unsuccessful, the foray into American politics nonetheless served to visibly align ISKCON with the political concerns

Photo 1.

Srila Prabhupada leading a kirtan at a hippie gathering in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, in 1967 or 1968. Courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, www.Krishna.com.

of activists and former activists in and outside the movement. But while failure served as an unmistakable reminder of the limits of conventional politics, the belief that significant social and political problems could be resolved through Krishna Consciousness remained central to ISKCON's ideology and mission. In essence, self-transformation would ultimately result in world transformation. As one Prabhupada disciple who campaigned for political office concluded, "[Y]ou really had to transform everything in order to solve the fundamental problems—that was just a manifestation of a deeper problem regarding the purpose of life."³¹ Another enthusiastically declared that in the future, people "will not vote, they will chant."³² Finally, a devotee previously involved in the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) stated that "ISKCON was the realization of SDS; a real alternative to American society."³³

THE COUNTERCULTURE, DRUGS, AND CONSCIOUSNESS

Because the counterculture served to heighten people's awareness and feelings of discontent without promoting any one ideology or organizational form, it provided the constituency that helped fuel the growth of numerous social movements during the 1960s and early 1970s.³⁴ A number of researchers have highlighted the importance of the counterculture to ISKCON's early growth and success. Indeed, the first book published on ISKCON, by J. Stillson Judah, was appropriately titled Hare Krishna and the Counterculture. One study found that nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of those who joined ISKCON between 1967–1971 had ties to the counterculture, and 41 percent of those joining between 1972–1976 participated.³⁵ These findings are entirely consistent with those of other ISKCON researchers.³⁶

The counterculture has often been viewed interchangeably with the 1960s drug culture—marijuana, LSD, and other psychedelic substances were commonly used by countercultural youths. Psychedelic drugs in particular were seen as vehicles for promoting mystical experiences and religious insight. Such a connection was inscribed in the minds of many countercultural youths by the influential book The Doors of Perception (1963), wherein Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) offered a spiritual interpretation of hallucinogenic drug use. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), philosopher Alan Watts (1915–1973), author Ken Kesey (1935–2001), psychologist Timothy Leary and author Richard Alpert, among others, claimed that psychedelic drugs were a means to personal discovery.³⁷ In place of radical political change, they called for a "revolution of consciousness," and psychedelic drugs became the means to that end.³⁸

Like many who joined new religions during the 1960s and 1970s, ISKCON members had extensive experience in the drug culture. Judah found that 91 percent of the devotees he surveyed in California had used marijuana prior to joining ISKCON, and that most had done so on a regular basis. Eighty-five percent had at least experimented with LSD and, again, many admitted to regular use. Judah concluded that nearly half (46 percent) of his respondents were extensive drug users prior to their ISKCON involvement. Moreover, he found a correlation between drug use and spiritual practice, as 61 percent acknowledged that they had practiced "a spiritual discipline while on drugs."³⁹ As one young woman who joined the ISKCON temple in San Francisco recalled:

I wanted to find God. I took a lot of LSD one time and I was just living alone and fasting … meditating, reading yoga books. … Then I realized

Table 2.

Prior Use of Drugs and Alcohol by ISKCON Members (1967–1980)

Rochford, E. Burke, Jr. Hare Krishna in America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1985. Copyright © 1985 by Rutgers, the State University. Reprinted by permission of Rutgers University Press.

that I just wanted to love God. That's all I wanted to do. I was trying to think, what can I do? I just want to love God. Then something flashed inside. Why don't you get to the Krishna temple? I didn't even know that much about the Krishna temple at all. … I just went and lived there.⁴⁰

During the late 1960s, ISKCON members generally accepted that "tripping on LSD" was a prerequisite for understanding the spiritual insights associated with Krishna Consciousness.⁴¹ One member, who lived in ISKCON's San Francisco temple in the late 1960s, reported that the devotees were initially taken off guard when young people who had not experienced LSD expressed interest in joining. He added that temple authorities discussed whether these inexperienced newcomers should be temporarily pushed out of the temple, with the understanding that they would take LSD before returning.⁴² It was simply unimaginable that someone could understand Krishna Consciousness without having experienced LSD.

The data reported in Table 2 underscores how drug use remained a constant for the young people who joined ISKCON during the 1960s-1970s, with only 13 percent having never used drugs of any type. A substantial majority had at least experimented with one or more drugs (i.e., alcohol, marijuana, hallucinogens), with 80 percent having smoked marijuana and 62 percent having taken LSD.⁴³

Many of the hippies who came to ISKCON's New York and San Francisco temples in the late 1960s sought to understand Krishna Consciousness through their drug experiences—most notably hallucinogens such as LSD. Because drugs and the counterculture were so much a part of the lives of those drawn to ISKCON, Prabhupada and his early disciples sought to align Krishna Consciousness with both. When he opened his center on the Lower East Side of New York in 1966, Prabhupada attracted the interest of a small group of musicians and hippies who lived in the area. Many of those who came to the storefront temple on Second Avenue to hear Prabhupada lecture on the Bhagavad Gita, and to take part in the collective chanting, were high on drugs. A question of particular interest was whether chanting Hare Krishna could get you high. As one of Prabhupada's earliest disciples in New York recalled:

Prabhupada had to teach that Kṛṣṇa consciousness was beyond the revered LSD trip. "Do you think taking LSD can produce ecstasy and higher consciousness?" he once asked his storefront audience. "Then just imagine a roomful of LSD. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is like that." People would regularly come in and ask Swamiji's [Prabhupada's] disciples, "Do you get high from this?" And the devotees would answer, "Oh, yes. You can get high just by chanting. Why don't you try it?"⁴⁴

As word spread about the swami who chanted a mantra that could get you high, hippies from the New York area and beyond began coming to the center on Second Avenue. One evening, about ten members of the Millbrook commune led by Timothy Leary came to take part in the kirtan (collective chanting).⁴⁵ After they had chanted the Hare Krishna mantra and Prabhupada had finished his lecture, a Millbrook leader asked him about drugs. Prabhupada replied that drugs were not necessary for spiritual life because they could not promote spiritual consciousness. Chanting Hare Krishna, he explained, was a purifying process that would uncover one's pure consciousness. Unsatisfied with this answer, the Millbrook leader pressed further, asking Prabhupada if he had ever taken drugs himself. Prabhupada responded that he had not, but that his disciples who had previously used marijuana and LSD had given them up after becoming devotees.⁴⁶ Prabhupada then asked his disciple Hayagriva to speak.

Well, no matter how high you go on LSD, you eventually reach a peak, and then you have to come back down. Just like traveling into outer space in a rocket ship. (He gave one of Swamiji's familiar examples.) Your spacecraft can travel very far away from the earth for thousands of miles, day after day, but it cannot simply go on traveling and traveling. Eventually it must land. On LSD, we experience going up, but we always have to come down again. That's not spiritual consciousness. When you actually attain spiritual or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you stay high. Because you go to Kṛṣṇa, you don't have to come down. You stay high forever.⁴⁷

Following the evening kirtan and discussion with the Millbrook commune members, Prabhupada returned to his room in the company

Photo 2.

Sidewalk kirtan by women devotees in Haight-Ashbury in 1967. Note the blending of hippie dress with japa beads around their necks. Courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, www.Krishna.com.

of several disciples.⁴⁸ His disciple Umapati commented to Prabhupada, "Kṛṣṇa consciousness is so nice, Swamiji. You just get higher and higher, and you don't come down." Prabhupada smiled, "Yes, that's right." "No more coming down," Umapati said, laughing, and the others also began to laugh. Some clapped their hands, repeating, "No more coming down."⁴⁹ The conversation inspired a new handbill meant to attract countercultural youths to Krishna Consciousness.

                    STAY HIGH FOREVER!                    No More Coming Down                Practice Krishna Consciousness            Expand your consciousness by practicing the            *TRANSCENDENTAL SOUND VIBRATION*HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE        HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE⁵⁰

When ISKCON opened a temple in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco at the end of 1966, an expanded version of this handbill was reproduced as a four-foot-high, multicolored poster on the wall of the temple. Included was the following appeal to the thousands of young hippies who were migrating to Haight-Ashbury.

Turn on through music, dance, philosophy, science, religion and prasadam (spiritual food). Tune in. Awaken your Transcendental Nature! Rejoice in the Ocean of Bliss! The process of Sankirtan brings about transcendental ecstasy. Drop out of movements employing artificially induced states of self-realization and expanded consciousness. … End all bring-downs, flip out and stay for eternity.⁵¹

As the poster suggested, ISKCON's members made every effort to translate the movement's spiritual message into a language and style that would be both familiar and appealing to countercultural youths.⁵²

However, the primary appeal for most who visited the Haight-Ashbury temple was the collective chanting and dancing that formed the basis of ISKCON's religious ritual and practice. Ecstatic experience, rather than doctrine, appears to have been the initial attraction for most. As one early researcher of that temple observed, many of those who actively participated in the group kirtan quietly left the temple when the "post-mantra doctrinal discussions began." He concluded, "Clearly, if a person is immediately seduced by the mantra, he was a likely convert; if he was not, the likelihood of his joining was much less."⁵³

Shortly after Prabhupada traveled to San Francisco in January 1967, devotees organized a "mantra-rock dance" at the Avalon Ballroom to help fund the newly established Haight-Ashbury temple. Notable bands performed, including the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Jefferson Airplane. Allen Ginsberg, who previously had been introduced to Prabhupada and the devotees in New York, also took part. A capacity crowd attended the show, including Augustus Owsley Stanley III (1935–2011), known within the counterculture for the quality of the LSD he produced. The event was carefully staged to link Krishna Consciousness with the counterculture.

Almost everyone who came wore bright or unusual costumes: tribal robes, Mexican ponchos, Indian kurtas, "God's-eyes," feathers and beads. Some hippies brought their own flutes, lutes, gourds, drums, rattles, horns, and guitars. … The devotees began a warm-up kirtana onstage, dancing the way Swamiji [Prabhupada] had shown them. Incense poured from the stage and from the corners of the large ballroom. … [M]ost in the audience were high on drugs. … The light show began: strobe lights flashed, colored balls bounced back and forth to the beat of the music, large blobs of pulsing color splurted across the floor, walls, and ceiling. … Suddenly the light show changed. Pictures of Kṛṣṇa and His pastimes flashed onto the wall: Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna riding

Photo 3.

Poster advertising the Mantra Rock Dance at the Avalon Ballroom, 29 January 1967. Courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, www.Krishna.com.

together on Arjuna's chariot, Kṛṣṇa eating butter, Kṛṣṇa subduing the whirlwind demon, Kṛṣṇa playing the flute.⁵⁴

When the music stopped, Prabhupada asked Ginsberg to say something to the crowd about the Hare Krishna mantra. After speaking about the mantra, Ginsberg invited everyone to the temple on Frederick Street in Haight-Ashbury, adding: "I especially recommend the early-morning kirtanas, for those who, coming down from LSD, want to stabilize their consciousness on reentry."⁵⁵ The next morning the Haight-Ashbury temple was crowded with young people who had attended the previous night's concert.

Significant numbers of counterculture youths were initially drawn to ISKCON hoping to reproduce the high they associated with drug use and hoping that the chanting and dancing in temple kirtanas would allow for "staying high forever." One early ISKCON member

Photo 4.

Allen Ginsberg and musicians on stage at the Mantra Rock Dance at the Avalon Ballroom. Courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, www.Krishna.com.

commented on that high: "It opened the door, but Krishna let me step through."⁵⁶ However, the connection between drug use and Krishna Consciousness was hardly straightforward, given that drugs were strictly forbidden within ISKCON. Rather, the connection was a product of the ideological work by ISKCON members who sought to strategically align drug experiences with the "highs" associated with the practice of Krishna Consciousness.⁵⁷

DECLINE, REALIGNMENT AND TRANSFORMATION

The growth of the Hare Krishna movement in America was sustained by the 1960s political counterculture, but as political activism and the counterculture waned by the mid-1970s, recruitment stagnated and then declined. As indicated in Table 3, the number of devotees initiated by Prabhupada in North America peaked in 1974.⁵⁸

ISKCON's decline in recruitment, however, represented only one of the significant challenges the organization faced by the end of the 1970s. Following Prabhupada's death in November 1977, ISKCON experienced ongoing controversy, political infighting, and significant defection.⁵⁹ Mass defection,⁶⁰ in combination with the dramatic downturn in revenue from literature distribution,⁶¹ left ISKCON's North American communities struggling to survive.⁶² The movement's leaders responded by seeking a new constituent base in hopes of bringing both

Table 3.

Number of Initiations by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada for North America by Year*

people and financial resources into ISKCON's temple communities. They did so by turning to the previously peripheral immigrant Indian-Hindu community in a determined effort to build an ethnic Hindu congregation. Success at this effort is suggested by the fact that the majority of ISKCON's approximately 50,000 membership in the United States today is comprised of ethnic Hindus. In cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and New York, Indians, other Hindu immigrants, and their children represent 80 percent or more of the local congregation.⁶³

ISKCON's outreach to the Indian immigrant community was a function of availability, financial need, and preservation of its Indian cultural elements. From ISKCON's beginnings, immigrant Indians visited temples to take darshan (viewing) of the deities. At first, the western devotees generally ignored them, in part because ISKCON's founder, Prabhupada, did not want his movement identified with Hinduism. Nonetheless, growing numbers of Indians continued to come to ISKCON's temples, as there were relatively few American Hindu temples in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Official recognition only came after members of the Indian community stepped forward to authenticate ISKCON as a legitimate Hindu organization in the face of anticult claims that ISKCON was a deviant and dangerous cult.⁶⁴

As ISKCON's financial situation took a downward turn in the late 1970s, its leaders sought to build an Indian Hindu membership to bring

Photo 5.

Immigrant Indian family at the Montreal ISKCON temple in 1976. Courtesy of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, www.Krishna.com.

much-needed financial resources into its temple communities. As the Indian president of a major American ISKCON temple stated, "The growing importance of Indian people in ISKCON is because of a lack of a proper economic infrastructure. That is what it boils down to. The leaders had no plans for maintaining the temples. Zero plans."⁶⁵ Apart from financial support, the leadership also believed an Indian Hindu membership would help change the public's view of ISKCON from a cult to a "denomination of the Hindu church."⁶⁶

The effort to attract Indian Hindus both preserved and altered portions of ISKCON's religious culture. Unlike many Hindu-inspired new religions, ISKCON created a robust religious culture in keeping with its Vaishnava religious teachings as well as with the culture of India.⁶⁷ For ISKCON's earliest members, becoming a Krishna devotee was more than a matter of religious conversion; it also involved "a relocation in culture," given that ISKCON reproduced many Indian cultural practices and styles in dress, diet, gender roles, marital relations, and in morals and values.⁶⁸ Such a radical departure from American culture proved attractive to many countercultural youths. Not surprisingly, these Indian cultural characteristics also appealed to recent immigrants looking to reinforce their own and their children's ties to India.

Building an Indian Hindu membership in ISKCON required a fresh message. Talk of political activism and drugs were discarded, as was the notion of ISKCON becoming an alternative to American society.⁶⁹ These ideas simply had no relevance to Indian immigrants who came to America in hopes of taking advantage of the opportunities it afforded. For them, ISKCON proved attractive largely because it offered a temple for worship and a familiar setting to socialize with other ethnic Hindus.⁷⁰ Ethnic identity, rather than ISKCON membership, was the primary motivation for their involvement, and relatively few Indian Hindus committed to ISKCON's beliefs, practices, and purposes.⁷¹

Because Hindus immigrating to America and the west come from different regions, language groups, and sects practicing diverse rituals, Hinduism typically becomes an ethnic religion outside of India⁷² as it undergoes a process of "standardization" that produces a "text-book Hinduism."⁷³ Given the diversity of immigrant Indians drawn to ISKCON, efforts at alignment resulted in reworking the movement's religious culture toward a more inclusive form of Hinduism.⁷⁴ This Hinduization involved a number of changes and innovations, including: the introduction, in some ISKCON temples, of deities and rituals not sanctioned by Prabhupada; the staging of Hindu festivals such as Holi (Festival of Colors) and Diwali (Festival of Lights) to attract immigrant Hindus and their families; the demise of proselytizing to westerners; and the promotion of ISKCON as a Hindu organization.⁷⁵

CONCLUSION

This case study has highlighted how various alignment processes contributed to ISKCON's efforts to recruit former political activists, counter-cultural youths, and immigrant Hindus. ISKCON members engaged in ideological work meant to frame the movement's beliefs and religious practices in ways that fit their interests and perspectives. For those with a background in political activism, the "In God We Trust" party aligned ISKCON with the politics of the era. Claims that communal chanting would allow for "staying high forever" drew many members of the counterculture to ISKCON's temples. Then, as the counterculture declined in the mid-1970s, ISKCON reached out to the immigrant Indian community to bring much-needed resources into the movement's struggling temples. Given the diversity of these immigrants, and the fact that most were looking to reinforce their Indian identity rather than become ISKCON members, ISKCON's religious culture underwent change. From a countercultural new religious movement defined by worldly rejection and world transformation, over the course of two decades ISKCON evolved into an ethnic religious organization that largely serves the religious and social needs of immigrant Hindus and their families.⁷⁶

Given that new religious movements generally demand high levels of participation and commitment, especially during their formative stages, frame alignment is best considered an initial step in a chain of events that may lead to frame transformation or conversion. In important respects, the alignment processes described in this study of ISKCON are best conceptualized as attempts at "hooking"—efforts to gain the provisional interest of individuals who may, or may not, ultimately choose to become committed members.⁷⁷ Only with more intensive interaction can the fundamental reframing that defines conversion and committed membership occur.⁷⁸ For the fact is, the great majority of recruits walk away long before they reach the point of becoming "deployable agents" actively committed to a new religion's beliefs, mission, and way of life.⁷⁹ Whether or not it has been successful in securing committed members, however, the ideological work associated with frame alignment helped define ISKCON to potential members as well as to interested bystander publics.

More broadly, my discussion of ISKCON's career in North America underscores how shifts in the social environments in which new religions operate can lead to organizational change and transformation. Because these shifts influence the ability of new religions to mobilize resources—both people and financial support—they affect how new religions form and adapt over time and space. As we have seen, the end of the political counterculture left ISKCON without the recruitment base that had fueled its early growth. Having recruited exclusively from among alienated and disenfranchised youths, the movement faced the need to develop alternative sources of recruitment. But ISKCON's reputation as a threatening cult limited the available recruitment pools, a dilemma that was only resolved by the presence of recent immigrants from India. In order to gain their support and involvement, ISKCON discarded its oppositional framework to attend to the religious, cultural, and social needs of these immigrants. Doing so, however, came at the expense of some of ISKCON's Vaishnava beliefs and practices, as well as its overall mission as defined by Prabhupada. Realignment in the service of organizational maintenance, therefore, helped transform one of the iconic new religions of the 1960s era.⁸⁰