Guidepost

Shaven-headed young men in orange robes approach you at the airport chanting " Hare Krishna! Hare Hare !" Who are these people? The " Hare Krishnas" are devotees of late Bahktivedanta Parabupada, who showed up penniless in the streets of New York back in the mid 1960s. This Vaishnava guru was already in his 70s when he began his hugely successful teaching mission to the West. He was following in the tradition of the fifteenth-century Bengali saint Chaitanya, who also liked to sing and dance in public streets.