BiblioVault - Books about International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Betrayal of the Spirit

My Life behind the Headlines of the Hare Krishna Movement

Nori J. Muster

University of Illinois Press, 1996

Combining behind-the-scenes coverage of an often besieged religious group with a personal account of one woman's struggle to find meaning in it, Betrayal of the Spirit takes readers to the center of life in the Hare Krishna movement.

Nori J. Muster joined the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)--the Hare Krishnas--in 1978, shortly after the death of the movement's spiritual master, and worked for ten years as a public relations secretary and editor of the organization's newspaper, the ISKCON World Review. In this candid and critical account, Muster follows the inner workings of the movement and the Hare Krishnas' progressive decline.

Combining personal reminiscences, published articles, and internal documents, Betrayal of the Spirit details the scandals that beset the Krishnas--drug dealing, weapons stockpiling, deceptive fundraising, child abuse, and murder within ISKCON–as well as the dynamics of schisms that forced some 95 percent of the group's original members to leave. In the midst of this institutional disarray, Muster continued her personal search for truth and religious meaning as an ISKCON member until, disillusioned at last with the movement's internal divisions, she quit her job and left the organization.

In a new preface to the paperback edition, Muster discusses the personal circumstances that led her to ISKCON and kept her there as the movement's image worsened. She also talks about "the darkest secret"–child abuse in the ISKCON parochial schools--that was covered up by the public relations office where she worked.

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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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Hare Krishna In America

Rochford, E. Burke

Rutgers University Press, 1985

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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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