Srila Prabhupada

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acharya of ISKCON, appeared in this world in Calcutta in 1896 on Nandotsav day, the day following Janmastami. In his youth in 1922, he met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta
Saraswati Thakura, who convinced him to dedicate his life to teaching Vedic knowledge, especially in the English language. In 1944, he single-handedly started Back to Godhead, an English fortnightly magazine. Though practically penniless, his faith in the order of his
spiritual master took him to New York in 1965 at the advanced age of 70. After a year of intense struggle, in July 1966, he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) with its first centre in New York. During the next eleven years, before his passing away on November 14, 1977, he undertook vigorous preaching tours that took him round the globe fourteen times. Under his guidance, he saw the society grow to over 108 centres. ISKCON continues to expand even now with over 600 centres all over the world. He taught the individual and the congregational chanting of the Holy Names of Lord Krishna as the topmost form of yoga and meditation and millions of people all over the world have adopted this mantra meditation as an integral part of their lives.

Srila Prabhupada - The Ambassador of The Kingdom of GOD. In 1968, Srila Prabhupada created New Vrindavana, an experimental Vedic community in the hills of West Virginia. In
1972 His Divine Grace introduced the Vedic system of education in the West by founding a gurukula in Dallas, Texas. Srila Prabhupada inspired the establishment of a forum of leading God- conscious scientists named, the Bhaktivedanta Institute (BI). He established international cultural centres in Sridhama Mayapur, Vrindavana, Mumbai and other places. He also took India’s festivals, especially Rath-Yatra, to the West. Srila Prabhupada’s most significant contribution is his books - 70 authoritative renditions of ancient Indian classics, including Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, the most widely read edition of the Bhagavad-Gita in English and a multi-volume commentated translation of the eighteen thousand verse Srimad Bhagavatam. Even the Encyclopaedia Britannica noted, “A C Bhaktivedanta Swami astonished scholars by his prolific writing“

“Poverty means poverty of knowledge,” Srila Prabhupada would often say. His conviction was that humanity was lacking in spiritual knowledge, which was essential for achieving real happiness in life. He vision therefore was that of a global East- West synthesis, based on the proverbial blind man-lame man story. India has the divine vision of spiritual wisdom, but is financially crippled due to centuries of foreign exploitation and so is like the
lame man. USA has financial and technological resources but is lacking in spiritual knowledge and so is like the blind man. If the blind man and the lame man join forces, both of them can reach the destination. Similarly, Srila Prabhupada brought together
Indian spiritual wisdom and American technology to revive God consciousness all over the world through ISKCON. With this in mind, he trained thousands of disciples to live a life of pure spiritual principles in the modern world.

Srila Prabhupada preached that the chanting of the holy names of God, especially the Hare Krishna maha mantra, is a practical and powerful way to raise spiritual consciousness – individually and globally. He demonstrated the liberating potency of mantra meditation by freeing hundreds of hippies from self-destructive drug addictions during the period of the counter-culture in USA in the 1960s and 1970s, a feat that was recognized even by Western scholars and sociologists. Srila Prabhupada would stress, “Without the awakening of divine consciousness, there is no use of crying for world peace.” Srila Prabhupada will always be remembered for the selfless saintly compassion with which he gave the light of genuine spiritualism in the darkness of materialism. Thus he built a house
in which the whole world can live.