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The Hare Krishna (or ISKCON to give them their official name) have the benefit of being an offshoot of a genuine real religious tradition, so there's backing and a foundation to it. It's not like a Western-version of Krishna devotion completely made up by a couple of white guys (or chicks, paging Helena Blavatsky) out of a mish-mash of poorly digested Oriental traditions. Without the source, they would have dried up and blown away entirely if they only had the hippie culture to rest on.
I think an important part of early adoption of the movement was some heavy hitters of pop culture noticing the faith. You had people like John Lennon and George Harrison associating with the Hare Krishnas (with the latter even paying for their London temple to be made), and they even had ISKCON-related songs like "My Sweet Lord" that made it onto the pop charts.
I think it's actually a bit of a sad thing to read through some of ISKCON's material. There's so much optimism surrounding their incredible growth in the earlier period of Western transmission in the 60's and 70's, and so many promises that eventually "Hare Krishna" will be on the lips of every person, and then there's the harsh reality that most people have barely heard of them. Maybe some people in big cities have bumped into them handing out books, but I'd dare to say that the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons have a much bigger cultural presence in the United States today.
My city's ISKCON temple seems to be about half Indian immigrant families using it as a local Hindu temple, and half Western converts to the faith.
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