ISKCON Baltimore Competitors

In the United States the Transcendental Meditation® technique is offered through Maharishi Foundation USA, a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. All revenues from TM® courses are used to support the organization’s educational and charitable initiatives in the U.S. and around the world. As a non-profit, the Foundation has no owners or shareholders. No board members or other individuals profit financially from the organization’s programs. Employees—including senior management—receive salaries below the U.S. median salaries for their position. In addition the organization is audited annually by an independent CPA firm. Over the past six years, full TM course scholarships have been given worldwide to more than 500,000 members of at-risk populations via partnerships with other non-profit organizations and foundations. In particular, Maharishi Foundation USA works closely with the David Lynch Foundation on a wide range of charitable projects including programs for the homeless, U.S. war veterans and others suffering from traumatic stress disorders. The Transcendental Meditation technique has been learned by over 6 million people worldwide. To find the nearest certified teacher visit: www.tm.org or phone 888-LEARN TM This is the official LinkedIn company-page for Maharishi Foundation USA. Transcendental Meditation® and TM® are protected trademarks and are used in the United States under license or with permission.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), otherwise known as the Hare Krishna movement, includes five hundred major centers, temples and rural communities, nearly one hundred affilated vegetarian restaurants, thousands of namahattas or local meeting groups, a wide variety of community projects, and millions of congregational members worldwide. Although less than fifty years on the global stage, ISKCON has expanded widely since its founding by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda in New York City in 1966. ISKCON belongs to the Gaudiya-Vaishnava sampradāya, a monotheistic tradition within the Vedic or Hindu culture. Philosophically it is based on the Sanskrit texts Bhagavad-gītā and the Bhagavat Purana, or Srimad Bhagavatam. These are the historic texts of the devotional bhakti yoga tradition, which teaches that the ultimate goal for all living beings is to reawaken their love for God, or Lord Krishna, the “all-attractive one”. God is known across the world by many names including Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, Rama, etc. ISKCON devotees chant God’s names in the form of the maha-mantra, or the great prayer for deliverance: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Many leading academics have highlighted ISKCON’s authenticity. Diana Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University, describes the movement as “a tradition that commands a respected place in the religious life of humankind.” In the 1980s Dr. A. L. Basham, one of the world’s authorities on Indian history and culture, wrote of ISKCON that, “It arose out of next to nothing in less than twenty years and has become known all over the West. This, I feel, is a sign of the times and an important fact in the history of the Western world.”

The Land of Krishna