The International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Movement·Founded 1966 CE·No single count. The society reports several hundred temples and a congregation in the hundreds of thousands, with a much smaller full-time monastic and brahmachari population.

Vedic Religion → Hinduism → Vaishnavism → The International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Branch
Core tenet of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Krishna is not an avatar. He is the source.

Gaudiya theology reverses the usual order: Vishnu is Krishna's expansion rather than the other way round. It is the doctrinal signature of the line and it is stated on page one.

Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

In the standard Vaishnava account Vishnu is the supreme form and Krishna one of his descents. Gaudiya Vaishnavism, following Chaitanya and the six Goswamis of Vrindavan, reverses it: Krishna is svayam bhagavan, God in his own person, and Vishnu is his expansion. This is not a technicality — it decides which name is chanted, which form is installed in the temple, and what the goal of practice is. ISKCON states it in the first pages of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, which is why some Hindus find the movement's presentation of Hinduism narrow, and why Gaudiya Vaishnavas find it exactly right.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
G God the Father holds supreme authority. Remnant Fellowship Church · figure Meet them →
Taking refuge. Buddhism · rite Go deeper →
T The yakshis. Jainism · figure Meet them →
God is one being in three persons. Christianity Go deeper →

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