front cover of Hare Krishna In America
Hare Krishna In America
Rochford, E. Burke
Rutgers University Press, 1985
You have seen them dancing and chanting on street corners or soliciting donations in airports. Their shaven heads, long robes, and sense for the dramatic set them apart from others around them and generate curiosity, sometimes mistrust, wherever they appear. 

Sociologist E. Burke Rochford, Jr., began his study of the Hare Krishna movement in America in the mid-1970s, only to find himself increasingly drawn into the movement even as he struggled to maintain a critical distance. Convinced to wear beads, chant, and take part in religious ceremonies, as well as to move in for occasional stays, Rochford found his new form of devotion a cause of concern for his family, friends, and colleagues. Participation in the movement's activities, however, enabled him to experience from within the forces at play between a society often intolerant of religious deviation and a religion dedicated to the continual recruitment of new followers. 

Rochford uses several different sociological approaches--the life history of a single devotee, analysis of male-female recruitment patterns, surveys of members, and extensive field notes--to present he reader with a vivid portrait of the Hare Krishna movement as it has developed and changed in the first twenty years of its existence. 
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front cover of Hare Krishna In America
Hare Krishna In America
Rochford, E. Burke
Rutgers University Press, 1985
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front cover of Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna
(Studies in Contemporary Religion)
Federico Squarcini
Signature Books, 2004
 The founder of the Hare Krishna movement (or International Society for Krishna Consciousness / ISKCON) was the Indian guru, Swami Bhaktivedanta, who during the last years of his life brought a Hindu denomination to the West. He represented the Bengali (Gaudiya) school of Vaisnavism—devotion to Vishnu and Krishna—which he molded somewhat to the times when he arrived in New York in the 1960s. Since then, ISKCON has evolved along more conventional—by Western standards—denominational lines with a largely middle-class, lay membership.

When Bhaktivedanta arrived in America, it was a bold step because historically a guru who ventured outside of India was stripped of his Brahman status. However, the effort bore fruit—not the least of which was the type of intercultural understanding promoted by the current authors through their study of ISKCON’s place within the religion and culture of India.

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