The Hare Krishna Movement: Beliefs, Spirituality, and Social Work

This report provides a literature review on the Hare Krishna Movement, examining its core beliefs, including the worship of Krishna, the importance of chanting mantras, and the concept of reincarnation. It explores the movement's historical context, its spread from India to the West, and the establishment of ISKON. The report delves into the concept of spirituality within the movement, defining it as a source of strength, resilience, and a driving force for social work. It discusses the integration of spiritual values, such as mindfulness and kindness, within social work practices and frameworks. The report also examines how the Hare Krishna Movement influences social work professionals and their interactions with clients. The conclusion highlights the movement's global reach and its impact on individuals, particularly the youth, fostering spiritual growth and engagement in social activities. The report references several academic sources to support its findings, providing a comprehensive overview of the Hare Krishna Movement and its multifaceted impact.

Running head: SPIRITUALITY 0
THE HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT

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Table of Contents
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................................1
Discussion:...................................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................................4
References:..................................................................................................................................................5

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LITERATURE REVIEW
The Hare Krishna Movement is the registered movement and is the most important part of Hindu
religion and spirituality in east. During the time of 1960’s and 1970’s, this movement has
exported to the west. Now a day, The Hare Krishna movement’s followers can be seen
everywhere chanting the name of God in their saffron attires. This is not only the scene of India
but can be observed in all over the world. It is basically the branch of Hindu religion that is
followed by most of the population in India (Haddon, 2013). Chaitanya was the one who
developed this religion by changing the name of Krishna and dancing at public places. In India,
these bunches of people can be seen everywhere especially in Mathura, Vrindavan and at other
places near Delhi (Nath, 2010). The Gaudiya Vaishnav School believes that Krishna is their god
and is not incarnated from other god. While other Vishnu schools believe that Vishnu is the
original God whose incarnation are present. All this discussion suggests that The Hare Krishna
Movement is the movement that is based in India but its beliefs reaches to the west countries
because of its attractive principles and beliefs.
The first belief of The Hare Krishna Movement suggests the followers should follow and keep
their beliefs in God Krishna (Muster, 2013). Hinduism is the religion that believes in many gods.
Vishnu is one of the best known in all over the world. Krishna is believed to the incarnated form
of Vishnu. The image of Krishna in the minds of his followers is of a mischievous young man.
The story of Krishna suggests that he is a man who is very charming in nature and thus had
16,000 wives. Worshipping Krishna is somewhat different from worshiping all other Hindu
gods.
The second belief of The Hare Krishna Movement is salvation. As per this, chanting is the
solution for all (Sue, Rasheed & Rasheed, 2015). If someone wants to be saved from any of the
problem, he should chant the maha mantra that is “HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA,
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE. HARE RAMA HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA HARE
HARE”. It is the mantra that should be chanted by all the followers of Krishna. Mantra is made
up of two words that are man and tar. Man means mind and tar means deliverance. This suggests
that mantra is the thing that makes the mind free from all the unwanted thoughts.

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The last belief of The Hare Krishna Movement is reincarnation. This means that every person or
individual have to follow the cycle of life and death to the endless times. It is basically the
concept of rebirth (Moberg, 2012).
The Hare Krishna Movement has some requirement such as no meat, no eggs, no alcohol etc.
even after such strict requirements which are very different and contrasting from the bohemian
culture of New York, a centre of ISKON that is International Society for Krishna Consciousness
has been established (Pulla & Woods, 2014). No areas in America are left untouched from this
movement and its impact. The beliefs of this movement have majorly affected the young
population of the place. Slowly and gradually, the young converts have so much accepted this
religion that they are ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of Krishna. Till 1980’s, ISKON has
established its hundreds of temples and many communities along with various Gurukuls.
Particularly in India, this religion and the services of ISKON has achieved a great success in
terms of achieving high number of followers in their community (Pulla & Francis, 2014). The
Hare Krishna Movement is very much related with spirituality.
The root term of spirituality is “spirit”. Spirit is the basis of human activities and life. Being
spiritual means feeing powerful and energetic. Spirit is assumed to be a nascent soul that is
located somewhere inside the human body which motives the human to live and it is the survival
factor for humans (Crompton, 2017). Another definition of spirituality suggests that it is
something that is invisible but present just like soul.
Spirituality as strength:
Spirituality is the approach that is used to integrate different aspects of life such as physical,
occupational, intellectual, rational etc. The development of spirituality brings positivity in the
life and thinking of the human and also brings forgiveness, love, kindness, compassion, trust, etc.
Having all these characteristics in nature of human make him spiritual (Pulla, 2014). Therefore,
it is the approach that transforms the behaviour and nature of the human being and makes him
stronger fight with the issues in life.
Spirituality in coping and resilience:

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Studies suggest that, spirituality is the basis of resilience and coping from various situations. It is
majorly seen in the people who are of old age. The spiritual people believe in God and have faith
that God can never do wrong with them. Thus, this dependence on God gave them the power to
fight and cope with the situations. God is always the ray of hope for them which act as the
strength for the spiritual people (Pulla, 2013). Spirituality develops a sense of positivity in their
inner soul and thus faces the issues without any bad and negative thoughts in mind.
Spirituality and its practice in social work:
Social work is very much associated with spirituality. Social work teachings are very much
related with the themes of spirituality that are mindfulness, kindness etc. when an individual
practice any activity of social work, he used to engage with the community (Francis, A. P., Pulla,
Clark, Mariscal & Ponnuswami, 2014). When we look for the practices that are conducted in
regard with social work then it has been analysed that the social work values are directly related
to the concept of spirituality.
Various researches have been made in this context regarding social work and spirituality. The
integration of both these concepts help the humans to fight with some of the sever issues of their
lives like aging; illness etc. Spirituality in social work framework is a non-judgemental practice
(Canda & Furman, 2010). This means that the practices that are conducted by the individuals in
order to do something for the society then it should be non-judgemental and the intension of
doing those practices should be positive. Then only the social work can be considered to be done
with spirituality. It is argued that soul of the person should be pure when he is performing any of
the activity related to social work (Pulla & Woods, 2014). With this framework, more
opportunities of social welfare and relationship between the people can be achieved.
Spirituality in professional social work
Social work is not only about performing these activities but it becomes a profession these days.
Social work is concerned with working as per the preferences of the clients. Considering the
clients preferences help in developing the client engagement (Nikku & Pulla, 2014). Spirituality
is very much linked with social work practices because, it is a very noble cause to do without any
expectation from the society. The social workers perform the activities not for getting anything
in return but this is because of their own will to do something good for the society. Only the one

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with spiritual values can do this (Pulla, Chenoweth, Francis & Bakaj, 2012). Spirituality
amongst the people helps them to develop positivity in their mind and remove the bad and
destructive thoughts from the minds of the people. It has been analysed that people having
positive thoughts about the society remains happy because they cannot see anything wrong
around them and they do not expect anything from others. They do for the society and want
nothing in return.
The Hare Krishna Movement is helping the people to learn about spirituality. The youth is
moving in this direction which is not ruining their lives but making them understand the actual
situation of the world and their own self (Holloway & Moss, 2010). Learning the spiritual theirs
helps them to develop their mind and soul toward positivity and happiness. Doing something
without expectations is a very god feeing but is a very string practice to perform. In this
materialistic world, it is difficult to live with spiritual thinking as now and then society tries to
manipulate the thought of the people. But, spirituality gives that courage to stand by on those
beliefs.
Discussion:
It has been discussed in the literature that The Hare Krishna Movement has affected Indians but
its movement from India to western countries has proved that the impact is not limited to India
but the whole world is getting affected. The Hare Krishna Movement enables the people to come
on roads in their saffron attire and chant their god’s name. These practices provide power and
strength to them. It is not the scenario of Indian raids but it can also be seen in America and all
over Europe after the year 1977 (Pulla, 2014). This is because of the establishment of ISKON
that has raised the bar for the Krishna believers and this religion. It has also been discussed that
spirituality is the most important part of The Hare Krishna Movement. This movement has
shown the actual meaning of spirituality to the people (Pulla, 2014). Most of the people who
engaged with this movement believe in spirituality and this makes them to associate with the
social work activities. Thus spirituality is considered as one of the driving force for social work.
Conclusion:
It has been concluded from the discussion that The Hare Krishna Movement has paved its way
all over the world and no area is untouched with this movement. The movement has travelled

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from east to west and development of ISKON has enhanced its believers and its popularity
amongst the people. Today many of the youths are solicited with this The Hare Krishna
Movement. This movement has developed great souls among the people which create a sense of
spirituality and emotions towards the society. This also leads to engagement of most of the
people in social work.

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References:
Canda, E. R., & Furman, L. D. (2010). Spiritual diversity in social work practice: The heart of
helping. Oxford University Press.
Crompton, M. (2017). Children, spirituality, religion and social work. Routledge.
Francis, A. P., Pulla, V., Clark, M., Mariscal, E. S., & Ponnuswami, I. (2014). Advancing social
work in mental health through strengths-based practice. Primrose Hall.
Haddon, M. (2013). Anthropological proselytism: Reflexive questions for a Hare Krishna
ethnography. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 24(3), 250-269.
Holloway, M., & Moss, B. (2010). Spirituality and social work. Palgrave Macmillan.
Moberg, D. O. (2012). Aging and spirituality: Spiritual dimensions of aging theory, research,
practice, and policy. Routledge.
Muster, N. J. (2013). Betrayal of the spirit: My life behind the headlines of the Hare Krishna
movement. University of Illinois Press.
Nath, J. (2010). ‘God is a vegetarian’: The food, health and bio-spirituality of Hare Krishna,
Buddhist and Seventh-Day Adventist devotees. Health Sociology Review, 19(3),
356-368.
Nikku, B. R., & Pulla, V. (2014). Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development:
Voices of the social work educators from Asia. International Social Work, 57(4),
373-385.
Pulla, V. (2012). What are strengths based practices all about. Papers in strengths based
practice, 1-18.
Pulla, V. (2013). Coping and Resilience: Peoples Innovative Solutions. International Journal of
Innovation, Creativity and Change, 1(1), 1-9.
Pulla, V. (2014). Introduction to Strengths based Approach in Social Work. Adelaide Jounral of
Social Work, 1(1), 5-26.

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Pulla, V. (2014). Spiritually sensitive social work: The road worth taking. Social Work Edciation
and Practice. Australia: Primrosehall Publishing, 182-200.
Pulla, V. (2014). Towards the greening of social work practice. International Journal of
Innovation, Creativity and Change, 1(3).
Pulla, V., & Francis, A. P. (2014). A strengths approach to mental health. In Social Work in
Mental Health: Contexts and Theories for Practice (pp. 126-143). Sage
Publications Ltd..
Pulla, V., & Woods, J. (2014). The resilient Chinese in Australia: Ethnicity, identity and
‘Chineseness’.
Pulla, V., Chenoweth, L., Francis, A., & Bakaj, S. (2012). Papers in strength based practice.
Allied Publishers.
Sue, D. W., Rasheed, M. N., & Rasheed, J. M. (2015). Multicultural social work practice: A
competency-based approach to diversity and social justice. John Wiley & Sons.