The International Society for Krishna CONsciousness (ISKCON), which is popularly known as the Hare Krishna Movement or Krishna Consciousness, was founded in New York City in 1966 by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada with the help of disciples, friends, and well-wishers.

ISKCON was founded as a spiritual society that encompasses a worldwide association of Vaishnavas or devotees of The Supreme Personality Of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna, for the express purpose of reviving the factual identity of all souls regardless of their current misidentification with the body based on race, sex, creed, country, language, or any other erroneous belief centered and focused on the bodily concept of life.

The principle process for reviving our original consciousness is through the medium of mantra meditation recommended by the ancient Vedic literatures as the means of freeing us from the mundane concept of reality towards a transcendental state of consciousness , in a more practical and action oriented method, by the chanting of the Maha ( or great) mantra, which includes all other mantra potencies and potentialities within this one grand, all encompassing mantra which is displayed below for your edification and conscious upliftment...

Hare Krishna ~ Hare Krishna ~ Krishna Krishna ~ Hare Hare ~ Hare Rama ~ Hare Rama ~ Rama Rama ~ Hare Hare

The prime goal of ISKCON is to re-spiritualize the society at large towards a more God centered approach to life, which in turn, leads to peace and contentment due to the lack of a mundane approach to life and its concomitant problems.

The Seven Fundamental Purposes Of ISKCON

When Srila Prabhupada first incorporated ISKCON in 1966, He gave His fledgling spiritual society seven fundamental purposes by which to guide the growth of the society:

1. To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all people in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world.
2. To propagate a consciousness of Krishna, as it is revealed in the Bhagavad-Gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
3. To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, thus to develop the idea within the members, and humanity at large, that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna).
4. To teach and encourage the sankirtana movement, congregational chanting of the holy names of God as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
5. To erect for the members, and for society at large, a holy place of transcendental pastimes, dedicated to the personality of Krishna.
6. To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life.
7. With a view towards achieving the aforementioned purposes, to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, books and other writings.