This was an academic paper from 1993, so please forgive the academic tone--though I never did write strict academese. I will say I am feeling more distant from the experience these days. Perhaps being involved in Wicca for the last several years makes a difference in my perspective.
I spent fifteen years as a devotee of Krsna. Some of that time I was living in the Hare Krsna temples founded by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami -- affectionately known as "Prabhupada" to his disciples. I was initiated by him shortly before he died in 1977. Following his death I believed that the organization he founded, the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, had been corrupted by power-hungry disciples who had taken over, calling themselves "appointed" gurus. Many of us did not believe their story that Prabhupada appointed them as gurus. Nor did we feel that they were acting responsibly as such.
For the next twelve years, I continued to practice the principles of bhakti yoga apart from any official organization, although I did listen to lectures by my godbrother (fellow disciple of Prabhupada) Siddhaswarupanada on cassette tape. He had founded an organization apart from ISKCON called Science of Identity. He also spoke out against the idea of "appointed gurus", and maintained that gurus appear as such by their qualifications, not by some political method as appointment. He believed that Prabhupada knew that and would not have appointed gurus, but would have relied on the Board of Directors (called the GBC or Governing Body Commission) to keep order until some of Prabhupada's disciples clearly demonstrated the qualities of a bona fide guru.
When it comes to spiritual authenicity, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada taught his disciples well. We were fundamentalist Gaudiya Vaisnavas, and the philosophy was not watered down for us. In fact, Prabhupada was advised in the beginning when he arrived in America to do just that or he would not attract followers. The assumption was that Americans lacked the necessary discipline to follow such strict requirements . The primary rules were: No meat eating (including eggs and fish), no intoxication (including caffeine), no illicit sex (including while married--only once in a month if you were intending to conceive), and no gambling. We were also to chant sixteen rounds of the hare Krsna mantra daily. (One round consisted of the mantra chanted while fingering each of 108 beads. This took about 2 hours daily, more for beginners). His only concession was lowering the amount of rounds--he and his Godbrothers chanted 64 rounds daily. He did not feel that Americans, new to meditation, would be able to concentrate for so long a period.
The beginning days of the movement, in New York, were the primary period of socializing the American disciples as a group to understand and follow these requirements. He introduced them gradually, as he felt his followers were ready to become more serious. There came a point when there were enough people in the little storefront temple on 2nd Avenue in New York that he felt the need to make the standards clear to everyone who wished to live there full time. That point came in November 1966, and he made a sign directed to disciples who had already taken initiation from him regarding the rules they must follow-- which he had already spoken of before. Now it was official, and all new devotees had to come to the point of practicing these rules before they could live in the temple (Satsvarupa 1980: 177-190).
By the time I joined in 1975, temple life was a fully formed culture containing aspects of both India and America, although officially the culture was said to be a re-creation (as far as possible) of Vedic culture. New devotees joining the temple went through a period of culture shock, as I did. All the standards of social behavior were suddenly different. For a woman, men were to be spoken to only when absolutely necessary. We were not even to look them in the eye. Our lives were segregated strictly by gender. In many smaller temples, even husbands and wives were not able to live together, but had a meeting place where they could spend time. Finances were the reason for this arrangement--it was difficult for smaller temples to afford to rent apartments for their householder couples.
Other differences included hygiene rules that were perhaps somewhat stricter even than the average Hindu in India would need to follow because we lived in the same building as the deities of Krsna--the temple--and there were rigorous standards of cleanliness so as not to offend Their Lordships. Besides the daily or twice daily shower, showers were taken if you went outside the temple and were exposed to the pollutants of American life-- cigarette smoke being a major one. Additionally, one could not wear a sari or dhoti into the bathroom and then wear it into the temple room in front of the deities.
We also learned stringent rules about eating with the right hand, using the left to clean our bodies, and washing our hands and mouths after eating and before we could touch scriptures. We learned to share water from a jug without touching our mouths to it--upending it and allowing the water to fall into our mouth. The idea of "pollution" as it is called in India, or "contamination" as we called it, was something we gradually internalized. Even though I have not been following all of these rules for some time--consciously--I still eat with my right hand and when I cook I wash my hands almost continuously, so firmly have I been conditioned. I can consciously override these standards, as when I use both hands to eat a large sandwich, but I must do so deliberately.
Against the backdrop of Indian or Vedic standards we were learning, there still existed the American context and American motivations. In this short space I have chosen to focus on the lives of women in the movement and their relationship with the men. Gender roles were affected adversely by the mixture of these two cultures, as I will demonstrate. I will include material from scripture and personal letters I have received from devotees over the years.