Review
"The great strength of this very useful and important resource comes from its reliance on both the work of scholars in the field of Indian religions and the evaluations of those who have personally experienced this movement over years of change...Highly recommended" -- Choice


Review
"This volume of splendid and uncensored reports and reflections from the front lines of the Krishna Consciousness movement contains a degree of intelligence and wisdom unexpected, and in my experience, unprecedented for a "movement" that still actively propogates its teachings. Almost all of the contributors are devotees, many of them still active, who have become scholars, and have both the temerity and a ruthless commitment to honesty to look upon not only the Krishna Consciousness movement with equal degrees of passion and dispassion, but at their own lives as well. This is as clear a window into the trajectory of a modern spiritual movement as we are likely to see." -- Frederick M. Smith, University of Iowa


Book Description
This comprehensive study includes more than twenty contributions from members, ex-members, and academics who have followed the Hare Krishna movement for years. Providing a privileged look at the people and issues shaping ISKCON, this volume offers insight into the complex factors surrounding the emergence of religious traditions, including early Christianity, as well as a glimpse at the origins and growth of a religious tradition putting down roots in foreign soil.


About the Author
Edwin F. Bryant is assistant professor of Hinduism at Rutgers University. His publications include The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Cultureand Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God, Srimad Bhagavata Purana Book Ten. Maria L. Ekstrand is a psychologist on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco who was involved in the development of ISKCON's child abuse investigation guidelines.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Dancing and chanting with their shaven heads and saffron robes, Hare Krishnas presented the most visible face of any of the eastern religions transplanted to the West during the sixties and seventies. Yet few people know much about them. This comprehensive study includes more than twenty contributions from members, ex-members, and academics who have followed the Hare Krishna movement for years. Since the death of its founder, the movement, also known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), has experienced debates over the roles of authority, heresy, and dissent, which have led to the development of several splinter movements. There is a growing women's rights movement and a highly publicized child abuse scandal. Providing a privileged look at the people and issues shaping ISKCON, this volume also offers insight into the complex factors surrounding the emergence of religious traditions, including early Christianity, as well as a glimpse of the original seeds and the germinating stages of a religious tradition putting down roots in foreign soil.

SYNOPSIS