Rasa Pranskevičiūtė Amoson - Acting in the Underground: Life as a Hare Krishna Devotee in...

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Acting in the Underground: Life as a Hare Krishna Devotee in the Republic of Lithuania (1979-1989)
Rasa Pranskevičiūtė-Amoson - Vilnius University, Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies Lithuania
The research focuses on the origins and early development of the Hare Krishna community (also known as ISKCON, International Society for Krishna Consciousness) in Lithuania until 1989, when the collapse of the Soviet Union began. The aim of the research is to reveal the situation in which ISKCON found itself in Lithuania under the Soviet regime until the Society’s official registration in 1989, focusing on life as a Krishna devotee under the threat of KGB. Using a historical narrative method, the formation of ISKCON is retraced as well as how the movement came to Lithuania from Moscow, Russia through Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia. The material in the paper is derived mainly from Lithuanian ISKCON archives, as well as, from the previously secret documents of the State Security Committee of the Lithuanian SSR (KGB) on Lithuanian Hare Krishnas, which are now preserved in the Lithuanian Special Archives (LSA). The community developed within the underground under the threat of KGB repressions where it existed until the beginning of the Sąjūdis (the Reform Movement of Lithuania), when public community activities became possible -, such as public programs, religious book distribution and the founding of official temples. The ideas and practices of ISKCON were a form of resistance to the Soviet regime and the communist ideology. It did not emerge as an open opposition towards the prevalent communist ideology, but its actions appeared more as an attempt to exist in a suppressive sociocultural environment. The Lithuanian ISKCON community played a significant role in the development of ISKCON throughout the Soviet Union, because, after the imprisonment of Armenian activists, Lithuanian members organised secret printing and distribution of ISKCON literature throughout the Soviet region.