Today, ISKCON has branches all over the world. Millions of lives have been transformed by the Hare Krishna mantra and the philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita; thanks to the vision of Srila Prabhupada and the efforts of his sincere followers. But in 1966, no one (except Prabhupada himself) could foresee how this society could ever manifest on such a scale.
Excerpts from Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta
“We shall call our society ISKCON." Prabhupada 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 Krsna was God, then the International Society for Krishna Consciousness would tell them, by spreading His glories “in every town and village." Similarly, the place of worship, 26 Second Avenue, was not a New York storefront, a former curiosity shop. It was a small place, but it had now been spiritualized. The storefront and the apartment were now a transcendental haven.
Plain, small, and impoverished as it was, Prabhupada regarded the storefront as “a holy place of transcendental pastimes, dedicated to the Personality of Krsna” It was a world headquarters, a publishing house. a sacred place of pilgrimage, and a center from which an army of devotees could issue forth and chant the holy names of God in all the streets in the world.
“Society at large” could come here; the whole world could take shelter here, regardless of race or religion.
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