A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

"Bhaktivedanta" and "Prabhupada" redirect here. For the college, see International Society for Krishna Consciousness. For other people called Prabhupada, see Prabhupad.

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in Germany, 1974
Personal
Born	Abhay Charan De (1896-09-01)1 September 1896 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died	14 November 1977(1977-11-14) (aged 81) Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India
Resting place	Srila Prabhupada's Samadhi Mandir, ISKCON Vrindavan 27.57196°N 77.67729°E / 27.57196; 77.67729
Religion	Hinduism
Denomination	Vaishnavism
Sect	Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Notable work(s)	Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (translation), Caitanya Caritāmṛta (trans.)
Alma mater	Scottish Church College, University of Calcutta
Monastic name	Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Bhakti-vedānta Svāmī
Organization
Temple	Gaudiya Math, ISKCON
Philosophy	Bhakti yoga
Religious career
Period in office	1966–1977
Initiation	Diksha, 1933 (by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati) Sannyasa, 1959 (by Bhakti Prajnan Keshava)
Post	Founder-Acharya of ISKCON
Website	prabhupada.krishna.com

Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (IAST: Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Bhakti-vedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda; 1 September 1896 – 14 November 1977) was an Indian Hindu spiritual teacher who was the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement. Followers of ISKCON view Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada as a representative and messenger of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) to a Suvarna Banik family, he was educated at the Scottish Church College. While working at a small pharmaceutical business, he met and became a follower of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. In 1959, after his retirement, he left his family to become a sannyasi and started writing commentaries on Vaishnava scriptures. As a travelling Vaishnava monk, he became an influential communicator of Gaudiya Vaishnavite theology across India and the Western world through his leadership of ISKCON, founded in 1966. He was well regarded by a number of American religious scholars but was criticised by anti-cult groups.

He has been subject to criticism over his racist views against black people, discrimination against lower castes, anti-Semitism, negative views on women, and advocacy of crimes of Adolf Hitler.

Early life (1896–1922)

Abhay Charan De was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, on September 1, 1896, the day after Janmashtami (the birth anniversary of Krishna). His parents, Gour Mohan De and Rajani De, named him Abhay Charan, meaning “one who is fearless, having taken shelter of Lord Krishna’s lotus feet”. Following Indian tradition, Abhay’s father invited to the house an astrologer, who calculated the child’s horoscope. The astrologer predicted that at the age of seventy Abhay would cross the ocean, become a famous religious teacher, and open 108 temples around the world.

Abhay was raised in a religious family belonging to the suvarna-vanik mercantile community. His parents were Gaudiya Vaishnavas, or followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who taught that Krishna is the Supreme Personality and that pure love for Krishna is the highest attainment.

Gour Mohan was a middle-income merchant and had his own fabric and clothing store. He was related to the rich and aristocratic Mullik mercantile family, who had been trading in gold and salt for centuries.

Opposite the De house was a temple of Radha-Krishna that for a century and a half had been supported by the Mullik family. Every day, young Abhay, accompanied by his parents or servants, attended temple services.

At the age of six, Abhay organized a likeness of the “chariot festival”, or Ratha-yatra, the huge Vaishnava festival held annually in the city of Puri in Odisha. For this purpose, Abhay persuaded his father to obtain for him a scaled-down copy of the massive chariot on which the form of Jagannatha (Krishna as “Lord of the universe”) rides in procession in Puri. Decades later, after going to America, Abhay would bring Ratha-yatra festivals to the West.

Education (1916–1920)

Though Abhay’s mother wanted Abhay to go to London to study law, his father rejected the idea, fearing Abhay would be negatively influenced by Western society and acquire bad habits. In 1916 Abhay began his studies at Scottish Church College, a prestigious school in Calcutta founded by Alexander Duff, a Christian missionary.

Marriage and family

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Abhay Charan De (seated, left) with his wife Radharani (standing), father Gour Mohan (seated, center), and other family members. (1924)

In 1918, while in college, Abhay, as arranged by his father, married Radharani Datta, also from an aristocratic family. They had five children over the course of their marriage. After graduation from college, Abhay began a career in pharmaceuticals and later opened his own pharmaceutical company in Allahabad.

Gandhi’s movement

Abhay grew up while India was under British rule, and like many other youth his age he was attracted to Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement. In 1920 Abhay graduated from college with a specialization in English, philosophy, and economics. He successfully passed the final exams, but as a sign of opposition to British rule he refused to take part in the graduation ceremony and receive a diploma.

Midlife (1922–1965)

Memorial at the spot of Abhay Charan De's first meeting with Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. Kolkata. (2024)

In 1922, while still in college, Abhay was persuaded by a friend, Narendranath Mullik, to meet with Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (1874-1937), a Vaishnava scholar and teacher and the founder of the Gaudiya Math — a spiritual institution for spreading the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. (The word “math” denotes a monastic or missionary center). Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was continuing the work of his father, Bhaktivinoda Thakur (1838-1914), who regarded Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings as the highest form of theism, intended not for any one religion or nation but for all humanity.

When the meeting took place, Bhaktisiddhanta said to Abhay, “You are an educated young man. Why don’t you take the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and spread it in English?” But Abhay, according to his own later account, argued that India first needed to become independent before anyone would take Chaitanya’s message seriously — an argument Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati defeated. Convinced, Abhay accepted the instruction to spread the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in English, and it was in pursuance of this order from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati that he later traveled to New York. Many years later he recalled: “I immediately accepted him as spiritual master. Not formally, but in my heart”.

The Gaudiya Math and initiation (1933)

After meeting Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur in 1922, Abhay had little contact with the Gaudiya Math until 1928, when sannyasis (renounced, itinerant preachers) from the Math came to open a center in Allahabad, where Abhay and his family were living. Abhay became a regular visitor, contributed funds, and brought important people to the lectures of the Math’s sannyasis. In 1932 he visited Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in the holy town of Vrindavan, and in 1933, when Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati came to Allahabad to lay the cornerstone for a new temple, Abhay received diksha (spiritual initiation) from him and was given the name Abhay Charanaravinda.

Over the next three years, whenever he was able to visit Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in Calcutta or Vrindavan, Abhay Charanaravinda would carefully hear from his spiritual master. In 1935 Abhay Charanaravinda moved for business to Bombay and then in 1937 back to Calcutta. In both places he assisted other members of the Gaudiya Math by donating money, leading kirtans, lecturing, writing, and bringing others to the Math. At the end of 1936 he visited Vrindavan, where he again met Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, who told him, “If you ever get money, print books” — an instruction that would inform his life’s work.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, two weeks before his death on January 1, 1937, wrote a letter to Abhay Charanaravinda urging him to teach Gaudiya Vaishnavism in English. . After Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur passed away, the unified mission of the Gaudiya Math split, and a battle for power broke out between his senior disciples. Although Abhay Charanaravinda continued to serve with other disciples of his spiritual master and wrote articles for their publications, he kept clear of the political struggles.

“Bhaktivedanta” title (1939)

In 1939, elders in the Gaudiya community honored Abhay Charanaravinda with the title “Bhaktivedanta”. In the title, bhakti means “devotion”, and vedanta means “the culmination of Vedic knowledge”. Thus the honorary title acknowledged his scholarship and devotion.

Back to Godhead magazine (1944)

In an effort to fulfill the order of his guru, in 1944 A. C. Bhaktivedanta began publishing Back to Godhead, an English fortnightly magazine presenting the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He singlehandedly wrote, edited, financed, published, and distributed the magazine, today still published and distributed by his followers.

Accepting vanaprastha

In 1950 A. C. Bhaktivedanta accepted the vanaprastha ashram (the traditional retired order of life), and went to live in the Indian holy town of Vrindavan, regarded as the site of Krishna’s Lila (divine pastimes), although continuing to commute to Delhi on occasion. In Mathura, adjoining Vrindavan, he wrote for and edited the Gauḍīya Patrikā magazine published by his godbrother Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Goswami.

Forming “The League of Devotees” (1952)

In 1952, A. C. Bhaktivedanta attempted to set up organized spiritual activities in the central Indian city of Jhansi, where he started “The League of Devotees” — only to see the organization collapse two years later.

Taking sannyasa (1959)

Prabhupada's passport, issued for his journey to the United States. (1965)

On September 17, 1959, prompted by a dream of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati calling on him to accept sannyasa (renounced order of life), A. C. Bhaktivedanta formally entered sannyasa asrama from Bhakti Prajnan Keshava at his Keshavaji Gaudiya Math in Mathura and was given the name Bhaktivedanta Swami. Wishing to preserve the initiatory name given him by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, as a sign of humility and connection to his spiritual master he kept the initials “A. C”. before his sannyasa name. Now he was A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.

Staying at the Radha Damodar temple (1962–1965)

From 1962 to 1965 Bhaktivedanta Swami stayed in Vrindavan at the historic Radha-Damodar temple. There he began the task of translating from Sanskrit into English and commenting on the eighteen-thousand-verse Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), the foundational text of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. With great effort and struggle, he finally succeeded to translate, produce, raise funds for, and print the first of its twelve cantos, in three volumes.

Journey to the United States (1965)

The Jaladuta. (1961)

It was at this time also, after accepting sannyasa, that Bhaktivedanta Swami began planning to travel to America to fulfill his spiritual master’s desire to spread Chaitanya’s teachings in the West.

To leave India, Bhaktivedanta Swami had many hurdles to overcome: He needed a sponsor in America, official approvals in India, and of course a ticket for his travel. After significant difficulties he managed to secure the needed sponsorship and approvals, and at last he approached one of his well-wishers, Sumati Morarjee, the head of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, to ask for free passage to America on one of her cargo ships. Because of his age, she at first tried to dissuade him: “I said to him, ‘Swamiji, don’t go there. You are too old to go, and it will be too cold for you.’ I said, ‘Are you crazy? Old man, you are going to die! Who will look after you? What will you do there?’”

August 31, 1965. After Prabhupada undergoes a heart attack onboard the Jaladuta, for five days his diary has no entries. He then writes, “Passed over a great crisis on the struggle for life and death”.

But finally she relented and granted him a ticket on a freighter, the Jaladuta. Bhaktivedanta Swami began the 35-day journey to America on August 13, 1965, at the age of 69.

He took with him little more than a suitcase, an umbrella, some dry cereal, forty Indian rupees (about seven US dollars), and two hundred three-volume sets of his translation of the first canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam.

After surviving two heart attacks during his maritime journey, Bhaktivedanta Swami finally arrived at the Boston Harbor on September 17, 1965, and then continued on to New York City.

Later years (1965-1977)

Beginnings in New York City

See also: International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Bhaktivedanta Swami had no support or acquaintances in the United States except the Agarwals, an Indian-American family, who, although strangers to him, had agreed to sponsor his visa. Upon reaching New York, he took a bus to the town of Butler, Pennsylvania, where the Agarwals lived. In Butler he delivered lectures to different groups at venues like the local YMCA.

After a month in Butler, he returned by bus to New York City. He stayed at various places — sometimes in a windowless room, sometimes a Bowery loft — until with the help of early followers he found a place to stay in the Lower East Side, where he converted a storefront curiosity shop with the serendipitous name “Matchless Gifts” into a small temple at 26 Second Avenue. There he offered classes on the Bhagavad-gita and other Vaishnava texts and held kirtan (group chanting) of the Hare Krishna mantra:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

The Hare Krishna Tree in Tompkins Square Park, New York.

After he and his followers held Hare Krishna kirtan one Sunday under a tree in nearby Tompkins Square Park, The New York Times reported the event: “Swami’s Flock Chants in Park to Find Ecstasy; 50 Followers Clap and Sway to Hypnotic Music at East Side Ceremony”. He slowly gained a following, mainly from young people of the 60s counterculture.

In contrast to the 60s countercultural lifestyle, he required of that in order to receive spiritual initiation his followers had to vow to follow four “regulative principles”: no illicit sex (that is, sex outside of marriage), no eating of meat, fish, or eggs, no intoxicants (including drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and even coffee and tea), and no gambling. New initiates also vowed to daily chant sixteen meditative “rounds” of the Hare Krishna 'mantra' (that is, to complete sixteen circuits of chanting the mantra on a 108-bead strand). During the first year in New York, he initiated nineteen people.

In July 1966 he incorporated the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

In December of 1966 he made a recording of Krishna kirtan (along with a brief explanatory talk) that took the form of an album entitled Krishna Consciousness, released under the “Happening” record label. The record helped the early spread of what he called “the Hare Krishna movement”.

With his small band of followers in a little storefront, he was already sharing a vision of spreading “Krishna consciousness” around the world. He asked them to help — for example, by typing his manuscripts for the second canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. After he completed his Bhagavad-gita As It Is (by mid January of 1967), he asked a new disciple to find a publisher for it.

Bhaktivedanta Swami personally taught his first followers to spread Krishna’s message, prepare food to offer to Krishna, collect donations, and chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra (“great mantra”) on the streets.

San Francisco

Main article: Mantra Rock Dance

Allen Ginsberg greeting A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami at the San Francisco airport. (January 1967)

]In 1967 Bhaktivedanta Swami established a second center, in San Francisco. The opening of the temple in the heart of the booming hippie community of Haight-Ashbury attracted many new adherents and was a turning point in his movement’s history, marking the beginning of rapid growth. To gain attention and raise funds, his disciples organized a two-hour concert with kirtan led by Bhaktivedanta Swami and rock performances by the Grateful Dead and other famous rock groups of the day. This “Mantra Rock Dance”, held at the popular Avalon Ballroom, attracted some three thousand people and brought attention to the local Hare Krishna temple. One commentator dubbed it the “ultimate high of that era”.

The Mantra-Rock Dance poster by Harvey W. Cohen (created December 1966).

Later that year, Bhaktivedanta Swami’s followers organized San Francisco’s first Ratha Yatra, the festival he had celebrated as a child in imitation of the massive parade held annually in the Indian city of Puri. For this first San Francisco version, a flatbed truck with four pillars holding a canopy took the place of Puri’s three huge ornate wooden vehicles. He would later establish this annual festival in major cities around the world, with big vehicles —“chariots” — and thousands of people taking part.

At first Bhaktivedanta Swami’s followers referred to him as “the Swami” or “Swamiji”. From mid-1968 onwards they called him “Prabhupada”, a respectful epithet that “enjoys currency with devotees and an increasing number of scholars”.

Great Britain and Europe

In 1968, Prabhupada asked three married couples among his disciples to open a temple in London, England. Following his instructions, the disciples, dressed in their robes and saris, began singing Hare Krishna regularly on London streets and at once attracted attention. Soon newspapers carried headlines like “Krishna Chant Startles London” and “Happiness is Hare Krishna”.

A further breakthrough came in December 1969 when the disciples managed to meet with members of the rock band the Beatles, who were at the peak of their global fame. Even before then, George Harrison and John Lennon had gotten a copy of the maha-mantra recording released by Prabhupada and his students in New York and had begun singing Hare Krishna.

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Prabhupada with disciples in Paris. 1974

In August 1969, Harrison produced a single of the Hare Krishna mantra, sung by the London disciples, and released it on Apple Records. For the recording, the disciples called themselves “The Radha Krishna Temple”. Harrison told a press conference convened by Apple that the Hare Krishna mantra was not a pop song but an ancient mantra that awakened spiritual bliss in the hearts of people listening to and repeating it. Seventy thousand copies of the record sold on the first day. It rose to number 11 on the British charts, and Prabhupada’s students performed live four times on the BBC’s popular TV show Top of the Pops. The record was also a success in Germany, Holland, France, Sweden, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia (as well as South Africa and Japan), and so the group was invited to perform in a number of European countries.

The next year, 1970, Harrison produced with Prabhupada’s disciples another hit single, “Govinda”, and in May 1971 the album The Radha Krishna Temple. In 1970, Harrison sponsored the publishing of the first volume of Prabhupada’s book Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, which relates the activities of Krishna's life as told in the tenth canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. In 1973 Harrison donated a seventeen-acre estate known as Piggots Manor, fifteen miles northwest of London. The Hare Krishna devotees converted this into a rural temple-ashram and renamed it Bhaktivedanta Manor in Prabhupada’s honor.

Once Prabhupada’s disciples had made a start in England, Prabhupada over the years visited England many times and from there traveled to Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, leading kirtans, installing forms of Krishna in ISKCON temples, meeting religious and intellectual leaders and others keen to meet him, and guiding and encouraging his disciples.

Africa

In 1970 Prabhupada made the first of several visits to Kenya. Although the disciples he had sent there had settled into doing spiritual programs for the local Indian people, Prabhupada insisted on doing programs meant for Africans. On one notable occasion in Nairobi, when he was scheduled to do a program at an Indian Radha-Krishna temple in a mainly African area downtown, he ordered the doors opened to invite the local residents, so that the hall soon flooded with African people. Then he held kirtan and gave a talk. Prabhupada told his local leaders that this is what they should do: spread Krishna consciousness among the local African people. Prabhupada also later visited Mauritius and South Africa and sent his disciples to Nigeria and Zambia.

The Soviet Union

Prabhupada in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow. (July 1972)

Prabhupada’s visit to Moscow from June 20 to June 25, 1971 marked the beginning of Krishna consciousness in the Soviet Union. During his five days in Moscow, Prabhupada managed to meet only two Soviet citizens: Grigory Kotovsky, a professor of Indian and South Asian studies, and Anatoly Pinyaev, a twenty-three-year-old Muscovite. Pinyaev, who went on to become the first Soviet Hare Krishna devotee, met Prabhupada through the son of an Indian diplomat stationed in Moscow. Prabhupada’s assistant gave Pinyaev a copy of Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita, which Pinyaev was able to translate into Russian, copy, and then distribute underground in the Soviet Union during Communist times. Pinyaev showed a great interest in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, accepted initiation from Prabhupada, and did much to ignite interest in Krishna consciousness in the Soviet Union. Pinyaev was later imprisoned in Smolensk Special Psychiatric Hospital and forcibly treated with drugs for his practice of Krishna consciousness.

India

Having achieved some success in the West, in 1970 Prabhupada directed his attention especially to India, with the hope of turning India back toward her original spiritual sensibilities. He came back to India with a party of Western disciples — ten American sannyasis and twenty other devotees — and for the next seven years focused much of his effort on establishing temples in Bombay, Vrindavan, Hyderabad, and a planned international headquarters in Mayapur, West Bengal (the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu).

By that time, Prabhupada saw, India had set a course towards Europeanization and sought to imitate the West. Therefore, the appearance on Indian soil of American and European Hare Krishna devotees who had rejected Western materialism and embraced Indian spiritual culture “caused nothing less than a sensation among the modernizing (i.e. Westernizing) Indians, planting seeds for an authentic religious revival there”.

By the early 1970s, Prabhupada had established his movement’s American headquarters in Los Angeles and its world headquarters in Mayapur.

Around the world

Timeline of Prabhupada's travels around the world (1965‒1977)

In Latin America, Prabhupada visited Mexico and Venezuela. In Asia he visited Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. He also spent time in Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. In the Middle East he visited Iran. Among the places he sent disciples to spread Krishna consciousness was China.

Early in the movement, Prabhupada had guided his students personally, but later, as the movement rapidly expanded, he relied more on letters and his secretaries. By giving his students instructions, advice, and encouragement, he ensured a “strong paternal presence” in their lives. He wrote more than six thousand letters, many now collected and kept at the Bhaktivedanta Archives. Besides receiving reports of accomplishments, via correspondence he also had to deal — almost daily — with setbacks, perplexities, quarrels, and failures. He tried to correct them as much as possible and kept on advancing his movement.

Wherever he was, he took an hour-long early-morning walk, which became a time for disciples to ask questions and receive personal guidance. On returning from his walk, he lectured daily on the Srimad-Bhagavatam, often reading from the portion of the manuscript he was working on. Every afternoon he met with disciples or with dignitaries and leaders from various parts of his mission.

Prabhupada's samadhi in Vrindavan, India.

Traveling constantly to lecture and tend to his disciples, Prabhupada circled the world fourteen times in ten years. He opened more than one hundred temples and dozens of farm communities and restaurants, as well as gurukulas (boarding schools) for ISKCON's children. He initiated nearly five thousand disciples.

Death (1977)

On November 14, 1977, at the age of 81, after a long illness, Prabhupada passed away in his room at the Krishna Balaram Mandir, the temple he had established in Vrindavan, India. His burial site is located in the courtyard of the temple beneath a samadhi (memorial shrine) built by his followers.

Succession

In 1970 Prabhupada established a Governing Body Commission (GBC), then consisting of twelve leading disciples, to oversee ISKCON’s activities around the world and to serve as ISKCON’s ultimate managing authority. In 1977, four months before his departure, he appointed eleven senior disciples to perform spiritual initiations on his behalf while he was ill.

Despite the measures Prabhupada took to organize the management of his movement, his death in November 1977 caused a crisis of authority in ISKCON that destabilized the organization and became a turning point in its development. The succession process was beset by conflicts, with disagreements persisting for decades. Nonetheless, by 2023 nearly one hundred disciples and grand-disciples in succession from Prabhupada were serving as initiating gurus in his branch of the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage.

Philosophy and teachings

Within Eastern systems, spiritual lineages are integral to each tradition, and a teacher is mandated to maintain theological fidelity by transmitting knowledge as given in the lineage. Prabhupada comes in the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya lineage, which traces back to the fifteenth-century saint and mystic Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533) and the thirteenth-century theologian Madhvacharya (1238–1317), and further back, its teachings say, to the beginnings of creation. This lineage (sampradaya) follows such texts as Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Bhagavad-gita, and the writings of Chaitanya’s disciples and their followers. Prabhupada’s extensive commentaries on the sacred texts follow those of Bhaktisiddhanta, Bhaktivinoda, and other traditional teachers, such as Baladeva Vidyabhushana, Vishvanatha Chakravarti, Jiva Goswami, Madhvacharya, and Ramanujacharya.

The Absolute Truth

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Prabhupada talks with a Catholic priest in Paris. (1973)

In accordance with the teachings of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Prabhupada taught that the supreme truth, or Absolute Truth, is the one unlimited, undivided spiritual entity that is the source of all. That Absolute Truth, he taught, is realized in three phases: as Brahman (all-pervading impersonal oneness), as Paramatma (the aspect of God present within the heart of every living being), and as Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Though the Absolute Truth is one, he taught, that one Absolute is progressively realized in these three features according to one’s level of spiritual advancement. In the initial stage the Absolute is realized as Brahman, in a more advanced stage as Paramatma, and at the most advanced stage as Bhagavan.

Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and so in Prabhupada’s teachings, Krishna is seen as the original and supreme manifestation of Bhagavan – in Sanskrit, svayam-bhagavan, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself. No one is equal to or greater than Krishna. Brahman and Paramatma are partial realizations of Krishna. The various Vishnu forms, such as Ramachandra and Narasimha, are “nondifferent” from Krishna; they are the same Personality of Godhead, appearing in different roles. But the form of Krishna is the original and the most complete form. In the Hindu pantheon, he taught, the gods other than the Vishnu forms are demigods — that is, assistants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The energies of the Absolute

If the Absolute Truth is one, this raises the question of how there can be diversity. If, as the Upanishads say, there is only the Absolute Truth and nothing else, we need some way to account for the existence of living beings, with all their differences, and the world, with all its many colors, forms, sounds, aromas, and so on. Prabhupada responds by referencing a statement from the Upanishads that the Absolute Truth has varied energies. As a fire located in one place gives off heat and light throughout a room, the Absolute Truth fills the world with every sort of variety.

Oneness and difference

Prabhupada taught Chaitanya’s doctrine of achintya bheda-abheda-tattva, in which everything is seen as simultaneously, inconceivably one with the Absolute — that is, with Krishna — and yet different. By way of analogy, Prabhupada gives the example that heat is in one sense identical with the fire from which it emerges and yet the two are different — when sitting in a fire’s warmth, we are not burning in the fire itself. This “oneness and difference” accounts for the oneness of an Absolute Truth that includes limitless varieties.

The inferior and superior energies

Among Krishna’s energies, Prabhupada taught, the ingredients of this world collectively belong to Krishna’s “inferior energy” — inferior in that, being inert matter, it lacks consciousness. But superior to inert matter are the conscious living beings (jivas) that belong to Krishna’s “superior energy”.

The predicament of the living being

Because the living beings belong to Krishna’s “superior energy”, Prabhupada taught, they share in Krishna’s divine qualities, including knowledge, bliss, and eternality (sat, cit, and ananda). But because of contact with the “inferior energy” since time immemorial, the divine nature of the living beings has been covered, and subjecting the living beings in this world to ignorance, suffering, and repeated birth and death. In each life the living beings struggle against birth and death, disease and old age. While trying to control and enjoy the resources of nature, the living beings increasingly suffer from entanglement in nature’s complexities.

As spiritual beings, belonging to the “superior energy”, the living beings are different from their material bodies: the body may be male or female, young or old, white or black, American or Indian, but the living being within the body is beyond what he called these “material designations”. Prabhupada phrased this understanding in a maxim he often used: “I am not this body”.

When we falsely identify with these bodies, he taught, we are under the influence of maya, or illusion. Only when this illusion is dispelled can the soul become liberated from material existence.

Bhakti

Prabhupada sings a Bengali bhajan (devotional song) by Bhaktivinoda Thakur.

Prabhupada sings a Bengali bhajan by Narottama Dasa Thakur.

Prabhupada taught that the living beings can be freed from illusion, and from their entire material predicament, by recognizing that they are tiny but eternal parts of Krishna and that their natural engagement lies in serving Krishna, just as a hand serves the body. Dormant within every living being, Prabhupada taught, is an eternal loving relationship with that Absolute, or Krishna, and when that loving relationship is revived, the living being resumes its natural eternal and joyful life. This eternal service in devotion to Krishna, rendered by one freed from all material designation, is called bhakti.

One can begin practicing bhakti, Prabhupada taught, even while in the earliest stages of spiritual life. In this way, bhakti is both the final end to be achieved and the means by which to achieve it. As a spiritual practice, bhakti is a powerful, transformative process that purifies the soul and enables it to see God directly.

Impersonalism

Prabhupada crusaded against what he called “impersonalism” — that is, the idea that ultimately the Supreme has no form, qualities, activities, or personal attributes. In this way he stood opposed to the teachings of Shankara (A.D. 788–820), who held that everything except Brahman is illusory, including the soul, the world, and God. Before Prabhupada, Shankara’s system of thought, known as Advaita Vedanta, had generally provided the framework for Western understandings of Hinduism, and the “steady procession of Hindu swamis” who came to America generally aligned themselves with Shankara’s monistic views and the idea of “the ultimate absorption of the self into an impersonal Reality or Brahman”.

But prominent Vaishnava philosophers from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries like Madhva and Ramanuja had opposed Shankara’s views with personalistic understandings of Vedanta. Those teachers presented strong philosophical arguments criticizing Shankara’s “illusionism” (mayavada), his view that personal individuality, indeed all individuality, is illusory. Philosophers in the Gaudiya line such as, in the sixteenth century, Jiva Goswami had continued to argue formidably against impersonalism, which they regarded as the essential metaphysical misconception”. So Prabhupada strongly opposed impersonalistic views wherever he encountered them and asserted the eternal personal existence of the Absolute and of all living beings. Where Buddhism shares ground with Shankara’s views by teaching that ultimately personality disintegrates, leaving nothing but a void nirvana, Buddhism too came in for Prabhupada’s strong personalistic critique.

Societal organization

Prabhupada taught that society should ideally be organized in such a way that people have specific duties according to their occupation (varna) and stage of life (ashrama). The four varnas are intellectual work; administrative and military work; agriculture and business; and ordinary labor and assistance. The four ashramas are student life, married life, retired life, and renounced life. In accordance with the Bhagavad-gita and in opposition to the modern Hindu caste system, Prabhupada taught that one’s varna, or occupational standing, should be understood in terms of one’s qualities and the work one actually does, not by one’s birth.

Moreover, devotional qualifications always supersede material ones. Following Chaitanya, who challenged the caste system and undercut hierarchical power structures, Prabhupada taught that anyone could take to the practice of bhakti-yoga and become self-realized through the chanting of God’s holy names, as found in the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

Prabhupada also emphasized the importance of self-sufficient farming communities as places where one could live simply and cultivate Krishna consciousness.

Spiritual practices

Kirtan

Pranbhupada plays the harmonium during a recording session in Germany.

The main spiritual practice Prabhupada taught was Krishna sankirtana (also simply called kirtan or kirtana), in which people musically chant together names of Krishna, especially in the form of the maha-mantra:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Kirtan literally means “description”, hence “praise”, and sankirtana indicates kirtan performed by people together.

On the authority of traditional Sanskrit texts, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had taught that Krishna kirtan is the most effective method for spiritual realization in the present age (Kali-yuga) – more effective than silent meditation (dhyana), speculative study (jnana), worship in temples (puja), or performing the various physical or mental disciplines of yoga. Krishna kirtan, he had taught, can be done by anyone, anywhere, at any time, and without hard-and-fast rules. Because the names of Krishna are “transcendental sounds”, identical with Krishna himself, the chanting is spiritually uplifting.

Prabhupada leads Hare Krishna kirtan and explains the maha-mantra. October 1966.

When Prabhupada began his efforts to spread Krishna consciousness in the United States, he held kirtans in a Bowery loft, in his early storefront temples, in Tompkins Square Park in New York and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and wherever else he went. Following Prabhupada, his disciples soon began holding kirtans regularly in streets, parks, temples, and other venues in major cities in North America and Europe and then in Latin America, Australia, Africa, and Asia.Because of Hare Krishna kirtan, Prabhupada’s movement itself came to be referred to simply as “Hare Krishna” and its followers as “Hare Krishnas”.

Theologically speaking, the term sankirtana can extend from the public chanting of Hare Krishna to the distribution of books spoken by or about Krishna. Kirtan in the sense of public chanting is traditionally accompanied by kartals (hand cymbals) and mridangas (drums), and Prabhupada’s spiritual master and grand spiritual master had said that distribution of Krishna literature was the “great mridanga” because such distribution spreads Krishna consciousness still further. Prabhupada therefore gave great importance to such distribution.

File:661125-Handwritten Notice by SP-01.tif

In 1966 Prabhupada posted this notice on the bathroom door of his first temple in New York, listing the principles he expected his disciples to follow.

Association with devotees

Prabhupada’s tradition constantly makes the point that “association with saints inspires saintliness, association with devotees inspires devotion. The association of genuine devotees can exert a powerful effect upon one's consciousness”. And so when Prabhupada incorporated ISKCON, its founding document included as one the Society’s purposes “To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna”.

Initiation vows

Prabhupada required of his followers, as a prerequisite for spiritual initiation, that they promise to follow four “regulative principles”: no illicit sex (that is, no sex outside of marriage), no eating of meat, fish, or eggs, no intoxicants (including drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and even coffee and tea), and no gambling. New initiates also vowed to daily chant sixteen meditative “rounds” of the Hare Krishna mantra (that is, to complete sixteen circuits of chanting the mantra on a 108-bead strand).

Hearing of Srimad-Bhagavatam

For at least the last millennium, the Srimad-Bhagavatam has been “by far the most important work in the Krishna tradition” and “the scripture par excellence of the Krishnaite schools”. It is sometimes described as “the ripened fruit of the Vedic tree”. Accordingly, Prabhupada instituted daily classes on the Bhagavatam in all his centers, and he spoke on Bhagavatam daily, wherever he went.

Deity worship

File:BWneg 336 y21A-22.tif

Prabhupada gives spiritual initiation to a disciple.

In accordance with traditional Vaishnava teachings, Prabhupada introduced worship of Krishna in the form of a murti: figures cast in metal or carved in stone or wood to match descriptions of Krishna given in Vaishnava texts. Scholar of religion Kenneth Valpey writes:

“Prabhupāda explained that although omnipresent, Kṛṣṇa makes himself perceivable and hence worshipable through material elements which are, after all, his own ‘energies.’ Based on this reasoning one should understand the image of Kṛṣṇa to be ‘Kṛṣṇa personally,’ appearing in a way quite suitable for our vision,’ that is, perceivable by ordinary persons with ordinary powers of sight”.

Prabhupada taught that because Krishna is personally present as the deity (the term Prabhupada used for such a form), worshiping the deity helps one develop loving exchanges with Krishna. Prabhupada installed deities in ISKCON temples around the world.

Food prepared and offered to the deity of Krishna with devotion becomes sanctified as krishna-prasadam ("mercy of Krishna"). Prabhupada taught that eating only prasadam purifies one’s existence and helps one develop in bhakti. From the beginning of his mission Prabhupada distributed prasadam to visitors and soon made it into the movement's major outreach vehicle. A weekly prasadam feast for the public has always been a program at all of ISKCON centers. Prabhupada wrote, “The Hare Krishna Movement is based on the principle: chant Hare Krishna mantra at every moment, both inside and outside of the temples, and, as far as possible, distribute prasadam".

Living in Vrindavan

Prabhupada’s predecessors such as Rupa Goswami had taught the value of living in Vrindavan (sometimes spelled “Vrindaban”), the sacred town between Agra and New Delhi that is held to be the site of Krishna’s rural “pastimes” on earth and therefore conducive to constant remembrance of Krishna. Prabhupada accordingly brought his disciples on pilgrimage to Vrindavan and there established the Krishna-Balaram temple. Yet with a broader outlook he wrote one disciple, “[W]herever you remain, if you are fully absorbed in your transcendental work in Krishna consciousness, that place is eternally Vrindaban. It is the consciousness that creates Vrindaban”.

Views

Slavery

Swami said that black people should remain in bondage.

The blacks were slaves. They were under control. And since you have given them equal rights they are disturbing, most disturbing, always creating a fearful situation, uncultured and drunkards. What training they have got? They have got equal rights? It is best, to keep them under control as slaves but give them sufficient food, sufficient cloth, not more than that. Then they will be satisfied.

Shudras

A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has been criticized for statements he has made in relation to a person's caste. He has commented extensively on shudras, saying, "shudras have no brain." Nevertheless, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has also provided reason to respect shudras, stating, "anyone who knows the science of Krishna should be accepted as spiritual master, regardless of any material so-called qualifications, such as rich or poor, man or woman, or brahmana or shudra."

Hitler and Jews

Swami mentioned Hitler to provide an example of a notorious villain, comparing him to Vedic demons, and using the term "hero" to describe one who has many gifts but squanders them for evil purposes:

Sometimes he becomes a great hero -- just like Hiranyakashipu and Kamsa or, in the modern age, Napoleon or Hitler. The activities of such men are certainly very great, but as soon as their bodies are finished, everything else is finished.

He held Jews to be responsible for Holocaust:

Therefore Hitler killed these Jews. They were financing against Germany. Otherwise he had no enmity with the Jews... And they were supplying. They want interest money -- "Never mind against our country." Therefore Hitler decided, "Kill all the Jews."

Women

A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was known to be "kind and accommodating" to his female disciples, but much of his literary work, conversations, and lectures contradict his actions. Prabhupada has made negative remarks about women, addressing topics such as adulteration, prostitution, women's lesser intelligence, and women's need for dependence on men. Prabhupada has said that "women in general should not be trusted" and "women are generally not very intelligent," among other statements. After studying Prabhupada's life, some scholars have argued that balancing religious beliefs and traditions at a given time and place can result in mixed interpretations of events. Although he has received negative attention for his statements about women, he has also received admiration for making the philosophy and practice of the Hare Krishna movement available to women and men equally, which was not commonly seen prior.

Evolution

Swami was an advocate of Vedic creationism and referred to Charles Darwin and his followers as "rascals". He disputed evolution, and claimed that:

Darwin's theory stating that no human beings existed from the beginning but that humans evolved after many, many years is simply nonsensical.

Religion

Swami said:

Actually, it doesn't matter – Krishna or Christ – the name is the same. The main point is to follow the injunctions of the Vedic scriptures that recommend chanting the name of God in this age.

Other typical expressions present a different perspective, where he pointed out that "today I may be a Hindu, but tomorrow I may become a Christian or Muslim. In this way faiths can be changed, but dharma is a natural sequence, a natural occupation or a connection and it can not be changed, because it is permanent, according to him". While the ISKCON theology of personal god is close to Christian theology, both personal and monotheistic, being a preacher of bhakti and a missionary he sometimes would add that "already many Christians have tasted the nectar of divine love of the holy name and are dancing with karatalas (hand-cymbals) and mridangas (drums)".

His approach to modern knowledge was similar to that of sectarian Orthodox Judaism, where the skills and technical knowledge of modernity are encouraged, but the values rejected. "Whatever our engagement is, by offering the result to Krishna we become Krishna conscious". Similar to many traditional religions, he considered sexuality and spirituality as conflicting opposites.

Other

Swami rejected reports of the 1969 Moon landing citing his unwillingness to accept that no living beings were found in the Moon.

Monuments

Statue of Prabhupada at Radha Damodar Mandir in Vrindavan

Samadhi of Swami in Vrindavan.

A number of samadhis or shrines to Prabhupada were constructed by the members of ISKCON, with those in Mayapur and Vrindavan in India being notable. Prabhupada's Palace of Gold, built by the New Vrindavan community in 1979, was intended to be a residence for Prabhupada, but has now developed into a tourist attraction.

In 1996 the Government of India issued a commemorative stamp and in 2021, a Rs 125 commemorative coin in his honour.

Legacy

In 2023, Scottish Church College and The Bhaktivedanta Research Center has established an academic award in honor of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Memorial Award to keep alive the memory of Prabhupada's college life.

Books and publishing

Srila Prabhupada's books are considered to be among his most significant contributions. During the final twelve years of his life, Prabhupada translated over sixty volumes of classic Hindu scriptures (e.g. Bhagavad Gita, Chaitanya Charitamrita and Srimad Bhagavatam) into the English language. His Bhagavad-gītā As It Is was published by Macmillan Publishers in 1968 with an unabridged edition in 1972. It is now available in over sixty languages around the world with some of his other books available in over eighty different languages.

The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust was established in 1972 to publish his works.

In February 2014, ISKCON's news agency reported reaching a milestone of distributing over half a billion books authored by Swami since 1965.

Bengali writings

• Gītār Gān (in Bengali). c. 1973.

• Vairāgya-vidyā (in Bengali). 1977.

A collection of his early Bengali essays, which were originally printed in a monthly magazine that he edited called Gauḍīya Patrika. Starting in 1976, Bhakti Charu Swami reprinted these essays in Bengali language booklets called Bhagavāner Kathā (Knowledge of the Supreme) [from 1948 & 1949 issues], Bhakti Kathā (The Science of Devotion), Jñāna Kathā (Topics of Spiritual Science), Muni-gānera Mati-bhrama (The Deluded Thinkers), and Buddhi-yoga (The Highest Use of Intelligence), which he later combined into Vairāgya-vidyā. In 1992, an English translation was published called Renunciation Through Wisdom.

• Buddhi-yoga (in Bengali).
• Bhakti-ratna-boli (in Bengali).

Translations with commentary

• Srimad Bhagwatam. Vol. 3 vols. Delhi: League of Devotees. 1962–1965. LCCN sa64001457. OCLC 64215631.
• Bhagavad-gītā As It Is (in Sanskrit and English), New York: Macmillan, 1968, LCCN 68008322, Wikidata Q854700
• Śrī Īśopaniṣad. Boston, Mass.: ISKCON Books. 1969. ISBN 0-89213-138-1. LCCN 78102853. OCLC 70457388. OL 1145820M. Wikidata Q108771214.
• Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Vol. 30 vols. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1972–1977. LCCN 73169353.
• Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, vol. 17 vols., New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1973–1975, LCCN 74193363, Wikidata Q108771289
• The Nectar of Instruction. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1975. LCCN 75039755.
• Teachings of Lord Kapila, the Son of Devahūtī. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1977. LCCN 77011077.

Summary studies

• Teachings of Lord Caitanya, a treatise on factual spiritual life. New York: International Society for Krishna Consciousness. 1968. LCCN 68029320.
• Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Vol. 2 vols. Boston, Mass.: ISKON Press. 1970. LCCN 74118081.
• The Nectar of Devotion: The Complete Science of Bhakti-yoga. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1970. LCCN 78118082.

Discography

• Krishna Consciousness (12 in. LP record). New York, NY: Happening Records. 1966. OCLC 11402285. CA2210.
• Govinda (12 in. LP record). Los Angeles, CA: Golden Avatar Productions. 1973. LCCN 94748438. OCLC 12622399. GOPI-108.
• Kṛṣṇa Meditation (2 x 12 in. LP records). Germany: Radha Krsna Productions. 1974. OCLC 17247069. RKP-1005.

Other works

• Back to Godhead (magazine). 1944–1966. LCCN 45002240.
• Easy Journey to Other Planets (by practice of Supreme Yoga). Vrindaban, U.P. (India): The League of Devotees. 1960. ISBN 91-7149-699-8. LCCN 70118080.
• Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: The Topmost Yoga System. Boston, Mass.: ISKON Press. 1970. LCCN 77127182.
• Beyond Birth and Death. Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1972. ISBN 0-912776-41-2. LCCN 74118081. OCLC 1181333746.
• Kṛṣṇa, the Reservoir of Pleasure. Boston, Mass.: ISKCON Press. 1970. ISBN 0-89213-149-7. OCLC 1086768968.
• The Perfection of Yoga, New York: ISKCON Press, 1972, LCCN 72076302, Wikidata Q108770991
• Elevation to Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1973. LCCN 73076635.
• On the Way to Kṛṣṇa. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1973. LCCN 72084842.
• Rāja-vidyā: The King of Knowledge. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1973. LCCN 72084845.
• Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: The Matchless Gift. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1974. LCCN 73076634.
• Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1977. LCCN 74027525.
• The Science of Self-Realization. New York: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 1977. ISBN 978-1-84599-039-8. LCCN 77095065. OCLC 819932403. OL 32140029M. Wikidata Q108772906.

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Media

News

• Banerjee, Sudeshna (25 February 2022), "Birthplace of Gaudiya Mission and Iskcon reopens as a temple-cum-museum: The single-storeyed stucture spread over eight cottahs at Gauribari Lane off Raja Dinendra Street", The Telegraph

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• Garga Samhita (16 July 2022), "Verse 1.2.28 [Garga Samhita]", Wisdom Library; The portal for Hinduism, Sanskrit, Buddhism, Jainism, Mesopotamia etc..., retrieved 22 October 2023

• Goodstein, Laurie (9 October 1998), "Hare Krishna Movement Details Past Abuse at Its Boarding Schools", The New York Times, retrieved 6 February 2024

• Hanz, Joyce (8 January 2023), Daycation: Palace of Gold in West Virginia on National Register of Historic Places, TribLIVE, retrieved 27 February 2024

• IANS (4 May 2018), "Facing 'ban Gita' case, Hindus build Krishna temple in Moscow", Deccan Herald, retrieved 1 April 2024

• Jaisinghani, Bella (13 August 2015), "Iskcon founder's journey to west completes 50 years", The Times of India, Mumbai

• Jenkins, Mark (13 July 2017), "'Hare Krishna!' takes an uncritical look at a controversial spiritual movement and its leader", The Washington Post, retrieved 9 February 2024

• Kazmin, Amy Louise (25 April 1998), "The Hare Krishnas caught up with me in New Delhi", Financial Times, At the ceremony, Vajpayee praised devotees for their work towards 'the globalisation of the Gita'. He cited the rapid spread of the movement as proof of 'the disillusionment of leading western minds' with 'materialist ideologies that are incapable of satisfying the real needs of man'. For the Hare Krishnas, long dismissed as fringe weirdos, it was the ultimate stamp of legitimacy.

• Kenigsberg, Ben (5 May 2017), "Summer Movie Release Schedule 2017 (English)", The New York Times

• LA Times (6 March 2016), "Hare Krishnas Say Suit Spurs Bankruptcy Filing", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 7 February 2024

• Maurya, Abhai (22 December 2011), "Russians kick up an unholy row over holy book", The Times of India, retrieved 22 October 2023

• McCarthy, Ellen (11 January 2013), "Can Hare Krishnas at Palace of Gold in W.Va. rebuild its tarnished community?", The Washington Post

• Mehta, Mona (28 December 2011), "Moscow courts had dismissed Gita cases", The Times of India, retrieved 6 February 2024

• Newsweek (23 July 2006), "Beliefwatch: Krishnas' New Look", Newsweek, [Hare Krishnas] are now part of the culture in ways that the average person couldn't have imagined some 20 or 25 years ago. ... ISKCON communities offer premarital counseling, interfaith activities, social-service programs and baby-sitting—just the kind of institutional structure that many early converts were fleeing.

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• Pandey, Jhimli Mukherjee (11 July 2019), "Iskcon complaint gets UP to revoke road name rejig", The Times of India, Kolkata, India

• Pandey, Jhimli Mukherjee (2 September 2021), "Iskcon acquires founder's birthplace in Tollygunge, West Bengal CM unveils 'spiritual park'", The Times of India, Kolkata, India

• Pandey, Kirti (1 September 2020), "AC Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada Swami birth anniversary: Krishna devotee who founded the million-strong ISKCON", Times Now, If today the Bhagavad Gita is printed in millions of copies in scores of Indian languages and distributed in all nooks and corners of the world, the credit for this great sacred service goes chiefly to ISKCON. ... For this one accomplishment alone, Indians should be eternally grateful to the devoted spiritual army of Swami Prabhupada's followers. The voyage of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to the United States in 1965 and the spectacular popularity his movement gained in a very short spell of twelve years must be regarded as one of the greatest spiritual events of the century.

• Popham, Peter (12 April 1998), "India's PM takes to robots for Krishna", The Independent, Some people say my government is opposed to globalisation. But let me say I am all in favour of the globalisation of the message of the Bhagavad Gita. ... What we need today is the application on a national scale of the work-related ideology of the Bhagavad Gita. This will create a new work culture, and a new work culture will create a new India.

• Press Trust of India (13 August 2015), "Devotees from 106 countries practice yoga to mark ISKCON", Business Standard, Kolkata

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• Ritts, Penny (22 September 1965), "Devotee of Hindu Cult Explains Commission to Visit the West", Butler Eagle, Butler, PA

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• Vallely, Paul (21 November 1998), "Spirit of the Age: Rebirth of an ancient religion", The Independent, [T]here is a growing sense that the Hare Krishnas are forming a useful bridge to Britain's Indian community - and at the same time becoming reasonable and articulate exponents to the English of the Vedic way. Perhaps the Hare Krishnas are coming of age.

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• Попова, Анна (28 December 2011), "На поле дхармы", Lenta.ru (in Russian), retrieved 28 December 2011

Officials

• Gabbard, Tulsi (2015), Tulsi Gabbard Message for Srila Prabhupada's Journey to USA_ISKCON 50th Anniversary, retrieved 12 February 2024

• India Govt Mint (2021), PM Modi Released Rs 125 Commemorative Coin To Honour ISKCON Founder

• Modi, Narendra (2021a), PM releases a special commemorative coin on the occasion of 125th Birth Anniversary of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Ji

• Modi, Narendra (1 September 2021b), PM's speech at release of commemorative coin on 125th Jayanti of Swami Prabhupada Ji -With Subtitles (in Hindi), retrieved 12 February 2024, It is as if millions of minds are bound by one emotion and millions of bodies are connected by one common consciousness! This is the Krishna consciousness which has been spread by Prabhupada Swami ji to the entire world. (...) Prabhupada Swami was not only a supernatural devotee of Krishna, but he was also a great devotee of Bharat. (...) Srila Prabhupada Swami always used to say that he is traveling in the countries because he wants to give India's most priceless treasure to the world. (...) Swami ji's revered Guruji Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati ji saw that potential in him and instructed him to take the thought and philosophy of India to the world. Srila Prabhupada ji made this command of his Guru his mission, and the result of his efforts is visible in every corner of the world today. (...) When we visit any country and when people greet us with 'Hare Krishna', we feel so much warmth and pride. (...) Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON took up this great responsibility of propounding Bhakti Yoga to the world. He worked to connect Bhakti Vedanta with the consciousness of the world. This was no ordinary task. He started a global mission like ISKCON at the age of about 70, when people become inactive. This is a huge inspiration for our society and for every person. (...) Prabhupada Swami remained active for his resolutions from his childhood till his whole life. When Prabhupada ji went to America by sea, he was almost empty-pocket; he had only Gita and Shrimad Bhagwat! During the journey, he suffered heart attacks twice. When he reached New York, he did not have any arrangements for food and no place to stay. But what the world saw in the next 11 years, in the words of revered Atal ji, it was nothing less than a miracle.

Videos

• IMDb (1996). Gaurav Seth (ed.). "Following Srila Prabhupada (TV Series 1997– )". IMDb. Retrieved 27 February 2024.

• Morarjee, Sumati (2017), Hare Krishna! The Mantra, The Movement And The Swami Who Started It All, event occurs at 34:45, retrieved 12 February 2024

• Syamasundar Das (2017), Hare Krishna! The Mantra, The Movement And The Swami Who Started It All, event occurs at 1:04:45, retrieved 12 February 2024

• Tripati, Keshari Nath (2015), Unveiling of Brass Srila Prabhupada Statue Jaladuta Journey to USA, event occurs at 4:35, retrieved 12 February 2024

ISKCON-related

• A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (1997), Light of the Bhagavata, Los Angeles, CA: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, ISBN 9789171492678

• BBT. "Languages". The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Retrieved 23 October 2023.

• Bhaktivedanta Hospital, "History of Hospital", Bhaktivedanta Hospital & Research Institute, retrieved 21 October 2023

• Bhaktivedanta Research (1 March 2023), "Home", BRC Global, retrieved 21 October 2023

• Bhuta Bhavana Dasa (2018). Siddhanta Dasa (ed.). Prabhupada Memories. Vol. 47. Event occurs at 18:18.

• Child Protection Office (2018), ISKCON Child Protection Guidelines (PDF)

• Das, Daiva Rama (29 February 2020), "Major Street in Ahmedabad Renamed In Honor of Srila Prabhupada", ISKCON News, Gujarat, India

• Garga Samhita (16 July 2022), "Verse 1.2.28 [Garga Samhita]", Wisdom Library; The portal for Hinduism, Sanskrit, Buddhism, Jainism, Mesopotamia etc..., retrieved 22 October 2023

• GBC (2024). "List of Initiating Gurus in ISKCON".

• Haribol, Thomas (16 August 2023). "NE-BBT Releases 2022 Stats Showing Growth in Distribution, Printing, eBooks, and More". ISKCON News. Retrieved 23 October 2023.

• ISKCON (9 July 2011). "India". ISKCON Centers - World wide directory of official ISKCON Centres & Branches. Retrieved 23 October 2023.

• Prabhupada, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (1965), The Jaladuta Diary (PDF), The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

• PrabhupadaDotCom. "About Srila Prabhupada". Prabhupada.com. Retrieved 27 February 2024.

• PrabhupadaMemories. "Prabhupada Memories". Retrieved 27 February 2024.

• Reviews, Scholarly Appreciations of Srila Prabhupada's Books, retrieved 23 August 2013

• Smullen, Madhava (20 August 2018), "Srila Prabhupada and Jaladuta Sculpture Installed Outside ISKCON Boston", ISKCON News

• Vanipedia (2024). "Timeline of Srila Prabhupada's Life".

• Vedabase (14 February 1977). "Room Conversation — Varṇāśrama System Must Be Introduced". Online Vedabase. Retrieved 22 October 2023.

• Vedabase (21 May 1973). "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.1.10". Online Vedabase. Retrieved 22 October 2023.

• Vedabase (28 July 2021). "Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.25.10". Online Vedabase. Retrieved 22 October 2023.

Works by Prabhupada's followers

• Greene, Joshua (2006), Here Comes the Sun. The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison, Los Angeles, CA: Turner Publishing, ISBN 9780471690214

• Greene, Joshua (2016), Swami in a Strange Land, San Rafael: Mandala Publishing, ISBN 9781608876440

• Griesser, John; Griesser, Jean; Ross, Lauren (15 December 2017), Hare Krishna: The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All, India: Spirituality & Practice, retrieved 29 August 2023

• Hayagriva Dasa (1970), "The Spiritual Master: Emissary of the Supreme Person" (PDF), Back to Godhead, no. 38

• Hayagriva Dasa (1985), The Hare Krishna Explosion: The Birth of Krishna Consciousness in America, 1966-1969 (PDF), Moundsville, WV: Palace Press

• Jayadvaita Swami (2015), Vanity Karma: Ecclesiastes, the Bhagavad-gita, and the meaning of life, Los Angeles, CA: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, ISBN 9780892134496

• Kaunteya Das (2022), Tough Questions, Difficult Answers on Srila Prabhupada’s Contentious Remarks, Eye of the Storm Press

• Kurma Dasa (1999), The Great Transcendental Adventure: Pastimes of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in Australia and New Zealand, Botany, Australia: Chakra Press, ISBN 9780947259228

• Mukunda Goswami (2011), Miracle on Second Avenue: Hare Krishna Arrives in the West, Badger, CA: Torchlight Publishing, ISBN 978-0981727349

• Ravindra Svarupa Dasa (1993), "Disease", Back to Godhead magazine, 27 (1), The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

• Rosen, Steven J. (2007b), Black Lotus: The Spiritual Journey of an Urban Mystic, Hari-Nama Press, ISBN 979-8640550719

• Satsvarupa dasa Goswami (2002), Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta, Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, ISBN 9780892133550

• Satyaraja Dasa (2011), "A Spiritual Happening on the Lower East Side", Back to Godhead, 45 (2)

• TheTVDB. "Following Srila Prabhupada". The TVDB. Retrieved 27 February 2024.

Further reading

• Zeller, Benjamin E. (2023), "The Hare Krishna Look: ISKCON Adornment as Religious Activism", in Zeller, Benjamin E.; Dallam, Marie W. (eds.), Religion, Attire, and Adornment in North America, Columbia University Press, pp. 295–319, ISBN 9780231555548

• Sengupta, Hindol (2023), Sing, Dance and Pray: The Inspirational Story of Srila Prabhupada Founder-Acharya of Iskcon, India Penguin Ananda, ISBN 9780143462446

External links

• Vanipedia — Online repository of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's legacy
• Bhaktivedanta Vedabase – Official online multilingual library of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
• The Bhaktivedanta Archives — Archives of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
• A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at Curlie
• A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at IMDb
• BnF 118918976 – Bhaktivedanta Swami, A. C. (1896–1977)
• A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Works by or about A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at Internet Archive