In which american city was the international society for krishna consciousness originally registered in 1966?

Question

In which american city was the international society for krishna consciousness originally registered in 1966?

Answer 1

26 Second Avenue, New York City, on July 11th

Excerpts from Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita.

"We shall call our society ISKCON." Prabhupäda had laughed playfully when he first coined the acronym.

He had initiated the legal work of incorporation that spring, while still living on the Bowery. But even before its legal beginning, he had been talking about his "International Society for Krishna Consciousness," and so it had appeared in letters to India and in The Village Voice. A friend had suggested a title that would sound more familiar to Westerners, "International Society for God Consciousness," but Prabhupada had insisted: "Krishna Consciousness." "God" was a vague term, whereas "Krishna" was exact and scientific; "God consciousness" was spiritually weaker, less personal. And if Westerners didn't know that krishna was God, then the International Society for Krishna Consciousness would tell them, by spreading His glories "in every town and village."

"Krishna consciousness" was Prabhupada's own rendering of a phrase from Srila Rupa Gosvami's Padyavali, written in the sixteenth century. Krishna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita: "to be absorbed in the mellow taste of executing devotional service to krishna."

The purposes stated within ISKCON's articles of incorporation reveal Prabhupäda's thinking. They were seven points, similar to those given in the Prospectus for the League of Devotees he formed in Jhansi, India, in 1953. That attempt had been unsuccessful, yet his purposes remained unchanged.

Seven Purposes of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness:

(a) To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all peoples 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.

(b) To propagate a consciousness of Krishna, as it is revealed in the Bhagavad Gétä and Çrémad Bhagwatam.

(c) 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).

(d) To teach and encourage the sankirtan movement, congregational chanting of the holy name of God as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

(e) To erect for the members and for society at large, a holy place of transcendental pastimes, dedicated to the Personality of Krishna.

(f) To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life.

(g) With a view towards achieving the aforementioned Purposes, to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, books and other writings.