Practice, Expansion and Place

ISKCON asks committed members to adopt a demanding devotional regimen: rising early for worship, chanting a fixed number of mantra rounds daily on beads, and observing four regulative principles, no meat, fish or eggs; no intoxicants; no gambling; and no illicit sex. Devotees historically became known in Western cities for their public chanting (sankirtana), saffron robes, vegetarian prasadam food distribution and the sale of Prabhupada's books. From its origins in the 1960s counterculture the movement spread rapidly across North America, Europe and beyond, and after Prabhupada's death in 1977 it weathered a difficult period of leadership disputes, the collapse of its original guru system into scandal, and legal troubles, before stabilising under a Governing Body Commission.

In India it built major temples and pilgrimage centres, notably at Mayapur and Vrindavan, and it has become in many places a substantial and respected presence within the broader Vaishnava world, drawing large numbers of Indian as well as Western devotees. Scholars classify ISKCON both as a transplant of authentic Gaudiya Vaishnavism and as a new religious movement in its Western setting, and it is widely credited with introducing Hindu devotional practice to a global audience.