'Hare Hare'

Devotees celebrate Krishna's presence in everything, for everything is either God itself or God's power. The figure of Krishna is worshipped as a deity because Krishna is God appearing in a physical form for souls who cannot yet see him. His presence in the form of the deity shows his immense kindness to such souls.

But while God takes a physical form in the figure of Krishna, his energy is present in everything. Thus devotees see God's energy in all material objects and use those objects for the sake of God, not necessarily for the sake of themselves or for others.

The flowers, burning ghee, white-haired brush and water are offered during the aroti ceremony as a sign of love, because Krishna is pleased when people offer him these gifts.

The devotees' chanting and dancing are ways they can gain greater consciousness of God, free themselves from the anxieties of the material world, and gain a sense of brotherhood with men and women.

One can chant any of the many names of God but the most successful and easiest chant is the maha-mantra, which goes "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." By chanting and dancing the devotees confirm the existence of their eternal souls as part of God, and their bodies as transient carriers of their souls.

Members of ISKCON believe the absolute truth is included in the Bible, Koran, Torah and all the other great scriptures of the world. However, the 5000-year-old Bhagavad-Gita is most important because it is an account of Krishna's actions and words.

Devotees believe Krishna takes his bodily form and visits men in every millenium, bringing his spiritual knowledge to earth. Krishna is supposed to have taken the bodily form during the first century A.D. in the village of Braj in North India. He is portrayed as a mischievous lad in The Round Dance of Krishna, a poem by Nanddas written in the 16th century and based on Sanskrit texts. Krishna is chased along the banks of the Jumnu River by 160 women and with an affected reluctance allows them to catch him. While declaring the strength of love, he multiplies himself and makes love to the 160 women simultaneously.

Women have the same rights as men in the Hare Krishna movement. Garuda's wife is a priest and has the same religious powers as any male priest. However, women usually do not leap and jump directly in front of the altar because they may "agitate" the male devotees, Garuda says. Many of the women dance behind the men and watch over their children during the aroti, signifying a somewhat different role, even within the movement.

When a devotee wishes to marry, the temple president introduces him or her to a prospective spouse and gives the two devotees time to get acquainted. There is no courting, as in Western cultures. In fact, a couple may not know each other before the temple president formally introduces them. Members of the movement consider sex an animalistic act on the level of eating and sleeping. They say it interferes with spiritual development. Therefore sexual intercourse is only practiced for the sake of procreation.

Children devotees are kept in the home until the age of five. At that time, they are placed in special schools. The schools shelter the children from the sinful world yet teach them the ways of life outside of the movement. The schools' curricula omit science because members of the movement believe it is a domination of the material world. "Science creates the illusion that man is God, man is ruler. However, man will never create life and so will never be the true ruler," Garuda says.

Some of ISKCON's activities may seem to represent a compromise of ISKCON's eastern traditions. The use of Hare Krishna Santa Clauses for fundraising is a case in point. ISKCON is, after all, transplanting a religion that places a strong emphasis on the spiritual world into a materialistic culture. However, the basic religious tenets of ISKCON do not differ from its fellow Vaishnava sects in India. ISKCON adheres to the same rituals and doctrines of other Vaishnava sects and has not compromised the basic Vaishnava religious traditions in coming to the United States, Diana L. Eck, assistant professor of Religion, who has studied the sects, says.

Paradoxically, ISKCON's strengths may also be its weaknesses. While many people are clearly attracted by the movement's heady emotionalism, others are alienated by some aspects of its accompanying foreign culture.

Garuda has been personally affected by one case of U.S. reaction against the movement. Although he is a Hare Krishna priest, last fall he was denied associate membership to the United Ministries, an ecumenical religious organization.

Henry E. Horn, president of the United Ministries and counselor to Lutheran students at Harvard, says Garuda was not accepted because he is a student doing research and represents a religion not listed in the World Almanac. Horn says he believes Garuda would use his membership to display his religion and try to attract potential followers.

Yet ISKCON is tax exempt and so is recognized as a faith by the federal government. Garuda has worked with the head chaplains of both Northwestern and Boston Universities, and as the ISKCON minister for universities in the Northeast he has been invited to discuss the movement with students at Brown and Columbia.

Horn says he does not oppose ISKCON, but believes many of the devotees are in the movement superficially, stopping at ISKCON momentarily as they jump from one faith to another in our country's "cafeteria style" religious culture.

But Garuda says that with the stringent requirements one must adhere to in order to become an initiated devotee, a quick hop in and out of ISKCON is impossible. Garuda believes his rejection by the United Ministries is a "possible case of religious prejudice." He believes many people do not accept ISKCON because they identify it as being similar to new religions like Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church and the New Light Movement.

According to Agrani, ISKCON will be universally accepted when all the devotees become experts in presenting Krishna consciousness and are able to convince people they are free from material or personal motivations. He says, "Today people are afraid and accustomed to being cheated. When we become pure enough to convince them we are spiritual servants of God, people will accept us."

The "purity" of Krishna devotees and the adverse effects of new religions may play a part in determining ISKCON's success. But despite the movement's gain of U.S. adherents, the greatest barrier to the movement may be Americans' reluctance to accept the beliefs and traditions of a foreign culture and give up materialistic values Krishna promises to destroy.