Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-205).

"July 2003". / Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Anthropology, 2004. / Bibliography: p. 337-345. / Introduction: representing ISKCON: spreading the message of Krishna Consciousness -- "Easy journey" to another planet: fieldwork, culture conversion, and the location of the spiritual -- A taste for Krishna: aesthetic theology and transubstantiation of culture -- Spiritual culture: varnasrama-dharma and brahminical training -- ISKCON and imitation: appropriating the model in Gaudiya-Vaisnavism -- Remembering Prabhupada: hagiography as spiritual practice -- The nectar of translation: mantra, text and the "yoga of spiritual transmission" -- Conclusion: conversion, mimesis, translation: self-realisation and the other in Krishna Consciousness. / This is a cultural anthropological study of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), or the Hare Krishna movement. Data for this research derive primarily from ethnographic participant-observation, and include tape-recorded interviews with Hare Krishna informants as well as ISKCON literature collected during fieldwork. -- Analysis focuses on Hare Krishna techniques (saddhana, or yoga) of religious transformation, including physical, aesthetic, and discursive practices involved in the pursuit of spiritual realisation in ISKCON. Conversion, mimesis, and translation are the three key conceptual themes which inform a critical analysis of the production and effect of cultural difference in Hare Krishna spiritual practice. Ethnicity and conversion emerge as parallel concerns as the involvement of diasporic Indian and Indo-Fijian Hindus at the congregational level of ISKCON's ministry in Sydney, Australia, is examined for its effect on Western converts' experiences of Krishna Consciousness. A new conceptual approach to the meaning of 'conversion' to ISKCON is developed from this account. -- Recent sectarian developments in ISKCON's relationship with the Indian tradition of Gaudiya-Vaisnavism are also examined within a comparative theological framework. Hagiographic practices surrounding ISKCON's Bengali founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), and textual practices surrounding the founder's translations of Vaisnavite scripture, are both analysed as core features of Hare Krishna spirituality. The theological significance of these practices is directly correlated with recent sectarian tensions between ISKCON and the Indian tradition. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 345 p. ill. (some col.)

This essay explores ISKCON’s religious text A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, as an American scripture. This commentary expressed a philosophy which attracted ISKCON’s American converts and gave voice to the protest they had against the larger American culture. Using Thomas Tweed’s theory of dissent, I show how the Bhagavad Gita As It Is gave the American converts of the 1960s and 1970s a language of dissent in the larger American conversation and allowed them to create an alternative American identity. In this way, the Bhagavad Gita is an American text.

The thesis called Education in the Hare Krishna movement aims primarily to gather information about the purpose, principles and methods of education in gurukulas of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) abroad and open research problems of education in Czech Hare Krishna movement. At first the text describes the background and theoretical concepts of education in the movement and its comparison with the original method of education vaisnava tradition. Further, the text describes a specific historical development and education form of ISKCON΄s gurukulas, the issue of child abuse and provides available information about the current form of education in the world gurukulas. The last part is focused on the project Gurukula Krishna΄s court in Czech Republic and reconstruction of failed efforts of Czech devotees dedicated to its inclusion in the network of schools and educational institutions of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in the period 1995-1997 on the basis of unpublished archival materials. Key words Guru, gurukula, education, ISKCON, Krishna΄s court, Prabhupada, Rochford, The Hare Krishna movement, The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, training

The archives of religious communities is a sparingly treated subject and christian community archives constitute the majority of the archives studied. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relevance of James M. O'Toole's four characteristics of religious archives put forward in his article What’s different about religious archives? Another implicit purpose is to expand the knowledge of religious community archives and include archives from other world religions. The thesis's theoretical starting-point is O'Toole's characteristics which are also used as a basis for the questions that the thesis set out to answer. The main question is to what extent O'Toole's characteristics are relevant for studying archives linked to modern religious communities operating in Sweden. The method used is interviews. A total of seven people were interviewed who had knowledge of seven religious community archives. The archives were linked to the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden, the Catholic Bishopric, the Jewish Community in Stockholm, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Triratna Buddhist Community and the Baptist Union of Sweden. With the exception of interviews, the source material consisted of literature (books and articles), web pages, archive registers and email correspondence. The result is that O'Toole's characteristics are not particularly relevant for studying archives linked to modern religious communities operating in Sweden. Religion does not seem so important for religious archives as O'Toole claims. On a scale of 0–5, the relevance of O'Toole's characteristics is 1–2. For this reason, the characteristics need to be modified. There are good opportunities for future researchers to develop the subject and supplement this study. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archival Science.