Hare Krishna ‘growing up’

SEATTLE – The giant pink wedding cake of a building stands in bold contrast to nearby houses painted polite Northwest shades of beige and taupe.

Naresh Bhatt beams as he gives a tour of this new temple in Sammamish, Wash. He chose the colors. Happy, blissful colors, he says.

Inside, as the service begins, Bhatt joins his wife, two daughters and many others – most of Indian descent – who chant exuberantly: “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.”

The Hindu-based movement, highly visible in the 1960s and ‘70s, is making a comeback. But it’s a different movement today from what it was back then.

Where it once attracted mainly young white people known for their shaved heads and peach robes, today many, if not most, of its members are Indian.

Where before, most members lived in temples and communities called ashrams and made a living selling their guru’s books, members today typically have homes, families and regular jobs.

And while the temples are still houses of worship, many also are cultural centers that offer programs for children and seniors, and Indian cultural festivals and performances.

When Bhatt, a 40-year-old high-tech professional, came to the U.S. from India in 1993, the only local Hindu community he could find was centered in a run-down three-bedroom house in what was then Issaquah. It was all that remained of the local Hare Krishna movement.

He found some things strange: The temple was not grand. Almost all of the 25 or so members were white. And they ate zucchini.

But other things were familiar: The aroma of Indian vegetarian food, and the colorful Krishna and Rama deities – statues that devotees believe embody the spirits of the gods they represent.

“I felt a connection right away,” says Bhatt, who lives in Sammamish and is now a temple board member.

These days, about 300 people worship regularly in the 12,200-square-foot temple that replaced the old house. The $4.5 million, marble-floored structure, formally called the Vedic Cultural Center, opened last month and had its grand opening last week.

The temple represents how the movement has matured, says Vineet Chander, a national spokesman.

People ask Chander where the Hare Krishna are these days, “like they’re looking for public chanting and saffron robes.

“It’s not that we’ve gone,” he says. “It’s that we’re growing up.”

The Hare Krishna movement, formally called the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), was established in 1966 in New York by a Hindu guru from India, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Its main mission was to spread spiritual knowledge and to raise awareness of, and love for, Krishna, whom devotees believe to be the Supreme Being, or God.

It attracted idealistic young people. By the 1970s, the movement nationwide had up to 4,000 monastics living in temples and ashrams. Many had cut ties with families and friends, leading some to accuse the movement of brainwashing converts.

Within years, bookselling income plunged and members made money in controversial ways, including dressing up as Santa Claus to solicit donations. After Prabhupada died in 1977, power struggles ensued. Some of the guru’s successors became embroiled in scandals. One was convicted of racketeering.

Then came allegations of abuses at boarding schools where Hare Krishna parents had sent their children. Several temples elsewhere in the U.S. that were named in an abuse lawsuit filed for bankruptcy and paid millions in a settlement with some 600 victims. The boarding schools in the U.S. have since closed.

By 2000, there were fewer than a thousand monastics nationwide.

But then came the influx of Indian immigrants – the basis for the movement’s revitalization, says E. Burke Rochford, a professor at Vermont’s Middlebury College and an expert on the Hare Krishna movement.

Many temples were facing financial difficulties and “they didn’t have anyone else who was knocking at their door,” he says. “The organization simply needed them.”

That’s not to say temples across the country are flourishing. Today, about half still struggle financially. Nonetheless, there are now an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 members in North America.

And especially in India, the movement is gaining a large following, with temples built or under way in New Delhi, Mumbai and many other cities.