A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (September 1, 1896 - November 14, 1977) was born Abhay Charan De, in Calcutta, West Bengal. His birth name Abhay Charan means one who is fearless, having taken shelter of the feet of the Lord. He studied at the Scottish Church College, Calcutta, which was then administered by the British.

Prior to adopting the life of a vanaprastha, or pious renunciant in 1950, he was married with children, and ran a small pharmaceutical business. In July 1966, he brought Hare Krishna to the West, founding the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in New York City. By the time of his disappearance in Vrindavan eleven years later, ISKCON was a widely known expression of Hinduism in the West.

Upon Prahhupada's first meeting with his spiritual master in 1922, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, requested that he spread Vedic knowledge in the English language. In 1933 he became a formally initiated disciple. Starting in 1944 and without assistance he started Back to the Godhead, an English language fortnightly for which he acted as publisher, editor and copy editor. In 1947 the Gaudiya Vaisnava Society recognised Prabhupada's scholarship with the honorific Bhaktivedanta (Sanskrit: One who has both devotion and knowledge. See Bhakti and Vedanta). Beginning in 1950 he lived at the medieval Temple of Radha-Damodara in the holy city of Vrndavana. He took sannyasa vows in 1959 following which he singlehandedly published the first three volumes his thirty volume translation of the 18,000 verse Srimad-Bhagavatam and the commentary on it. He then left India to fulfill his master's spiritual mission. In his possession were a suitcase, an umbrella, a supply of dry cereal, about seven dollars worth of Indian currency, and several boxes of books.

In the twelve years from his arrival in New York until his death he:

• circled the globe fourteen times on lecture tours that took him to six continents.
• introduced Vedic gurukul education to a Western audience.
• directed the founding of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, the world's largest publisher in the field of Vedic religious texts and commentary.
• founded New Vrindaban
• authored sixty books (many available online here) on Vedantic philosophy, religion, literature and culture (including four in Bengali)
• watched ISKCON grow to a confederation of more than 100 schools, temples, institutes, farm communities and ashrams.

Prabhupada followed the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and introduced bhakti yoga to a wide Western audience.

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