The International Society for Krishna Consciousness,Inc (ISKCON,Inc), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organisation. [1] ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. [2] Its core beliefs are based on the Vedic scriptures, particularly the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata Purana, and the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which has had adherents in India since the late 15th century and American and European devotees since the early 1900s. [3]The organization was formed to spread the practice of Bhakti yoga, the practice of love of God in which those involved (bhaktas) dedicate their thoughts and actions towards pleasing Krishna, the Supreme Lord. [4] Its most rapid expansions in membership as of 2007[needs update] have been within India and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in Russia, Ukraine, and the rest of the ex-Soviet aligned states of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.[5]
Today, it has around a million congregational members worldwide including 15,000 in the United Kingdom as of June 2019,[6] and despite the "relatively small number of followers in the West (around a few thousand fulltime practitioners)", it has been described as influential.