How Did BEATLES Became A Part Of Hare Krishna Movement? History Of ISKCON

 As you might have been recently noticing, foreigners are getting indulged in chanting HARE KRISHNA on roads or in temples, be it in INDIA or any other country. So, why do you think so many foreigners are chanting mantras about LORD KRISHNA? This is when HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT comes into the picture. All these foreigners chanting HARE KRISHNA are a massive part of the HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT. ISKCON created this movement. As of today, there are more than 600 centres of ISKCON worldwide. This HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT has played an immense role in spreading the messages of KRISHNA around the globe. This becomes even more interesting when BEATLES became part of this movement, but how did they end up being a bhakth/ devotee of HARE KRISHNA? 

It's an excellent thing to chant god's name. Then why is this movement so controversial? Let's dive deeply into its history and find out What is this movement? What is ISKCON? And who are these people who are chanting these mantras. ?

HISTORY :

The HARE KRISHNA movement is a HINDU movement which Gaudiya Vaishnavism created. The HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT was started in the 16th century in Bengal by Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The members of this movement constantly chant HARE KRISHNA. 

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in 1485 in the Nadia district of West Bengal. He was a Sanskrit teacher for children. His life turned upside down when he met Shri Ishwar Puri. Shri Ishwar Puri told him about LORD KRISHNA, and Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu became a devotee of Krishna. He left his house and became a saint at the age of 25. He firmly believed that chanting HARE KRISHNA on the roads would benefit people around them and did the same. He and his followers chanted Lord Krishna's name repeatedly, called SANKIRTANA. But townspeople were fed up with SANKIRTANA and complained to Qazi about the same. The Qazi menaced them against sankirtana. 

 But as a devotee of Lord Krishna, breaking the rules for one's goodness prevails. Then Qazi sent police

 officers who went on to break SHRI CHAITNYA'S MRIDANGAMS. When Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Ji discovered this incident, he started CIVIL DISOBEDIENT MOVEMENT. He then gathered his followers and started moving towards Qazi's house and discussing the surprise edict Shastras and Quran. To everyone's surprise, Qazi became Shri Chaitanya's follower after this discussion. He believed anyone could be a part of his movement. Still, modern-day research has criticised him on this issue because most of his followers were from the upper caste and very few female participants. Like, Shri Chaitanya, there was another religious scholar we know about who greatly impacted Hinduism, Swami Vivekanand. 

HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT in the WEST was in the 1960s, midway through the youth revolution by Srila Prabhupada, to spread KRISHNA consciousness across the globe. In 1965, HIPPIE CULTURE was at its pinnacle. HIPPIE CULTURE was a culture where people said they wouldn't do things that others were already doing. They wore different clothes and kept long hair. This movement arose because such people were against the connection of the US Government in the Vietnam War. Drugs were prevalent among them. When Swami Prabhupada saw this situation, he thought these people needed Lord Krishna and started telling them about him. ALLEN GINSBERG, a famous American poet, became one of the famous hippies to join this movement, and after that, many people were influenced to join this movement leaving Christianity behind. 

In 1966 he registered his organisation and called it THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, aka ISKCON. The primary identity of an ISKCON devotee is a shaven head, and when asked by the leader, he connected this ritual to the act of self-hygiene and nothing else.

The Growth Strategy to spread its teachings was;

1. Chanting at airports, for which the airlines have even been prohibited, but it got them to connect with maybe the most famous HARE KRISHNA disciples...THE BEATLES. In 1968, when the devotees of Prabhupada reached the UK, they wanted to meet the BEATLES but couldn't at first. BEATLES, at that time, were the most famous people; they knew that if they could get BEATLES with them, they could be a massive chance of expansion. So, they decided to chant the mantras around the BEATLES office and finally, GEORGE HARRISON agreed to meet them. He even wrote a song titled HARE KRISHNA MANTRA and released MY SWEET LORD after two years and sold 50 lakh copies and ISKCON became famous after that.
2. Selling Books, ISKCON adopted this technique by analysing American values. They knew that at that time, 18% of the population was not attached to any religion yet read spiritual books. Americans spend almost a billion dollars on self-help books.
3. Kitchens and restaurants Prabhupada instructed his followers to start lunch programs in universities. For a case in point, ISKCON's kitchen has been successfully functioning for about 50 years in Florida and serves 1000 veg meals regularly. During COVID-19, 50 million free meals have been distributed by ISKCON in India and worldwide. After dropping out of college, STEVE JOBS relied on ISKCON's kitchen. From this, people started recognising such kitchens even more.

From all these strategies, they gained donations, and the followers were even more famous, like Russell Brand, Don Foose, Poly Styrene (Maharani Dasi), and Alfred Ford. Alfred Ford, the owner of the Ford company, donated about $35 million; they wanted to start a Temple of Vedic Planetarium in West Bengal in 2024. The total cost of the temple will be $100 million, and it will be the most prominent religious building in the world. The only issue with ISKCON was its history. In the 1990s, Prabhupada set up boarding schools abroad to preserve the culture of GURUKUL, but in 1998, some news reports accused them of sexual and physical abuse. Total words were from the areas of Dallas, West Virginia, and Seattle.

Although ISKCON did not deny the allegations, it has agreed to repay the victims, which has tainted its image. Then, the other allegations were about the lack of female gurus when half of ISKCON members were females. ISKCON recently said that they would recruit female gurus in the organisation.
The third controversy was the murder controversy. Swami Keerthanand was an old member of this movement. In 1968, he built a temple in West Virginia named NEW VRINDAVAN MANDIR. This temple generated a tremendous amount of revenue for ISKCON. In 1987, he was absolved from the ISKCON community. In 1990 he was accused of two killings which were not in favour of his HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT. A 20-year prison sentence has been imposed on him.

To conclude, the entire thing, in my opinion, is that mistakes can be made by messengers of god because even they are humans like us. So, they, too, are not perfect. We should use our intellect to analyse any situation, not blindly trust any community and then disregard the whole because of some faults.

SOURCES ; 

https://theharekrishnamovement.org/

https://www.krishna.com/history-hare-krishna-movement-0

https://iskconeducationalservices.org/HoH/further-information-and-teaching-resources-secondary/fact-sheets/the-hare-krishna-movement/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0AlY3_b4PA