Thursday, May 25, 2006  Hare Krishna  Taken from The Joy Of
Sects  The International Society of Krishna Consciousness, AKA
Iskcon, AKA Hare Krishna  Founded: 1965 Country of origin: India
Gods and guiding voices: Hare Krishna Famous associates past and
present: George Harrison, Allen Ginsberg (briefly) Texts: The
Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, translated by His Divine Grace AC
Bhaktivedanata Swami Prabhupada Membership: 5,000 worldwide
Basic beliefs: By sincerely cultivating an authentic spiritual
science, devotees are told they can become free from anxiety and
achieve a state of pure, unending bliss. Each one of us is part
of the all-powerful, all-attractive God Krishna. The most
effective way for achieving God consciousness is to chant: Hare
Krishna.  If nothing else His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanata
Swami Prabhupada was a master of timing. Had he started a daily
routine of ritual chanting in a New York park at any other time
than the mid-1960s he would probably have been ignored as a
harmless, if unusually ugly,