Hare Krishna Movement and New Age

In this analysis we will approach Brahmanism in Brazil from two perspectives: firstly, as springing from Prabhupada’s mission (ISKCON) and, secondly, from the influence of the New Age movement, which is a religious phenomenon that contributed to the enhancement and diversification of the meaning of being a Brahman in the West.

Broadly speaking, the Hare Krishna movement is usually identified as a branch of Hinduism linked to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, born in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries around the emblematic personality of the Bengali Brahman and Saint Chaitanya (1486–1534). The institutionalization of Chaitanya’s Hare Krishna movement took place before his six closest disciples – brothers Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami, Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami, Jiva Goswami (Rupa and Sanatana’s nephew), Gopala Bhatta Goswami, and Raghunatha dasa Goswami (Rosen 1991). These were highly scholarly Brahmans who wrote a large number of works in an attempt to articulate the religious...