A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Template:IAST3; Template:Langx) (1 September 1896 – 14 November 1977) was a spiritual, philosophical, and religious teacher from India who spread the Hare Krishna mantra and the teachings of "Krishna consciousness" to the world. Born as Abhay Charan De and later legally named Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami, he is often referred to as "Bhaktivedanta Swami", "Srila Prabhupada", or simply "Prabhupada".Template:Sfn

To carry out an order received in his youth from his spiritual teacher to spread "Krishna consciousness" in English, he journeyed from Kolkata to New York City in 1965 at the age of 69, on a cargo ship with little more than a few trunks of books. He knew no one in America, but he chanted Hare Krishna in a park in New York City, gave classes, and in 1966, with the help of some early students, established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which now has centers around the world.

He taught a path in which one aims at realizing oneself to be an eternal spiritual being, distinct from one's temporary material body, and seeks to revive one's dormant relationship with the supreme living being, known by the Sanskrit name Krishna. One does this through various practices, especially through hearing about Krishna from standard texts, chanting mantras consisting of names of Krishna, and adopting a life of devotional service to Krishna. As part of these practices, Prabhupada required that his initiated students strictly refrain from non-vegetarian food (such as meat, fish, or eggs), gambling, intoxicants (including coffee, tea, or cigarettes), and extramarital sex. In contrast to earlier Indian teachers who promoted the idea of an impersonal ultimate truth in the West, he taught that the Absolute is ultimately personal.

He held that the duty of a guru was to convey intact the message of Krishna as found in core spiritual texts such as the Template:IAST. To this end, he wrote and published a translation and commentary called Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is. He also wrote and published translations and commentaries for texts celebrated in India but hardly known elsewhere, such as the Template:IAST (Template:IAST) and the Template:IAST, thereby making these texts accessible in English for the first time. In all, he wrote more than eighty books.

In the late 1970s and the 1980s, ISKCON came to be labeled a destructive cult by critics in America and some European countries. Although scholars and courts rejected claims of cultic brainwashing and recognized ISKCON as representing an authentic branch of Hinduism, the "cult" label and image have persisted in some places. Some of Prabhupada's views or statements have been perceived as racist towards Black people, discriminatory against lower castes, or misogynistic.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Decades after his death, Prabhupada's teachings and the Society he established continue to be influential,Template:Sfn with some scholars and Indian political leaders calling him one of the most successful propagators of Hinduism abroad.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Early life (1896–1922)

Abhay Charan De was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, on 1 September 1896, the day after Janmashtami (the birth anniversary of Krishna).Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn Following Indian tradition, Abhay's father invited an astrologer, who predicted that at the age of seventy, Abhay would cross the ocean,Template:Sfn become a famous religious teacher, and open 108 temples around the world.Template:Sfn

Abhay was raised in a religious family belonging to the Template:Transliteration 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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

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

At the age of six, Abhay organized a likeness of the "chariot festival", or Ratha-yatra, an annual Vaishnava festival in the city of Puri, Odisha.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Decades later, after going to America, Abhay would bring Ratha-yatra festivals to the West.Template:Sfn

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

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

Abhay grew up while India was under British rule, and like many other youth of 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Midlife (1922–1965)

File:Bhaktivinoda Asan Roof 2 - ISKCON Ultadanga, Kolkata.jpg

Memorial at the spot of Abhay Charan De's first meeting with Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. Kolkata

In 1922, while still in college, Abhay was persuaded by a friend, Narendranath Mullik,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The word math denotes a monastic or missionary center.Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhanta was continuing the work of his father, Bhaktivinoda Thakur (1838–1914), who regarded Chaitanya's teachings as the highest form of theism, intended not for any one religion or nation but for all of humanity.Template:Sfn

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?"Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn However, 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 that Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati effectively countered.Template:Sfn Convinced by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, Abhay accepted the instruction to spread the message of Chaitanya in English, and it was in pursuing this order from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati that he later traveled to New York.Template:Sfn Many years later he recalled: "I immediately accepted him as spiritual master. Not formally, but in my heart".Template:Sfn

The Gaudiya Math and initiation (1933)

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

Over the next three years, whenever Abhay was able to visit Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in CalcuttaTemplate:Sfn or Vrindavan,Template:Sfn he would carefully listen to his spiritual master.Template:Sfn In 1935, Abhay moved for business reasons to Bombay;Template:Sfn then, in 1937, he moved back to Calcutta.Template:Sfn In both places, he assisted other members of the Gaudiya Math by donating money, leading Template:IAST, lecturing, writing, and bringing others to the Math. At the end of 1936, he visited Vrindavan, where he again met Bhaktisiddhanta, who told him, "If you ever get money, print books",Template:Sfn an instruction that would inform his life's work.Template:Citation needed

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

"Bhaktivedanta" title (1939)

In 1939, elders in the Gaudiya community honored Abhay Charanaravinda (A.Template:NbspC.) with the title "Bhaktivedanta". In the title, Template:IAST means "devotion", and Template:IAST means "the culmination of Vedic knowledge".Template:Sfn Thus the honorary title acknowledged his scholarship and devotion.Template:Sfn

Back to Godhead magazine (1944)

In an effort to fulfill the order of his guru, in 1944, A.Template:NbspC. Bhaktivedanta began publishing Back to Godhead, an English fortnightly magazine presenting the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He single-handedly wrote, edited, financed, published, and distributed the magazine,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which is still published and distributed by his followers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Accepting Template:IAST

In 1950, A.Template:NbspC. Bhaktivedanta accepted the Template:IAST (the traditional retired order of life), and went to live in Vrindavan, regarded as the site of Krishna's Lila (divine pastimes),Template:Sfn although he occasionally commuted to Delhi.Template:Sfn In Mathura, adjoining Vrindavan, he wrote for and edited the Template:IAST magazine published by his godbrotherTemplate:Efn Bhakti Prajnan Keshava.Template:Sfn

Forming "The League of Devotees" (1952)

File:Prabhupada's passport.jpg

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

In 1952, A.Template:NbspC. Bhaktivedanta attempted to set up organized spiritual activities in the central Indian city of Jhansi, where he started "The League of Devotees",Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn only to see the organization collapse two years later.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Taking Template:IAST (1959)

On 17 September 1959,Template:Sfn prompted by a dream of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati calling on him to accept Template:IAST (renounced order of life), A.Template:NbspC. Bhaktivedanta formally entered Template:IAST 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, as a sign of humility and connection to his spiritual master he kept the initials "A.Template:NbspC." before his Template:IAST name, becoming A.Template:NbspC. Bhaktivedanta Swami.Template:Sfn

Staying at the Radha Damodar temple (1962–1965)

From 1962 to 1965, Bhaktivedanta Swami stayed in Vrindavan at the Radha-Damodar temple. There he began the task of translating from Sanskrit into English and commenting on the 1800-verse Template:IAST (Bhagavata Purana),Template:Sfn the foundational text of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Journey to the United States (1965)

Template:Multiple image After accepting sannyasa, Bhaktivedanta Swami began planning to travel to America to fulfill his spiritual master's desire to spread Chaitanya's teachings in the West.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

To leave India, Bhaktivedanta Swami had many hurdles to overcome. He needed a sponsor in America, official approvals in India, and a ticket for his travel. After significant difficulties he managed to secure the needed sponsorship and approvals.Template:Sfn He then 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.Template:Sfn Because of his age, she at first tried to dissuade him.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Finally she relented and granted him a ticket on a freighter, the Jaladuta. Bhaktivedanta Swami began the 35-day journey to America on 13 August 1965, at the age of 69.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Bhaktivedanta 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.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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

Later years (1965-1977)

Beginnings in New York City

Template:See also 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn 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 such as the local YMCA.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

After a month in Butler, he returned by bus to New York City.Template:Sfn He stayed at various places — sometimes in a windowless room,Template:Sfn sometimes a Bowery loftTemplate:Sfn — until with the help of early followers he found a place to stay in the Lower East Side, where he converted a store-front curiosity shop at 26 Second Avenue with the serendipitous name "Matchless Gifts" into a small temple.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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File:Hare Krishna Tree.jpg

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".Template:Sfn He slowly gained a following, mainly from young people of the 1960s counterculture.Template:Sfn

In contrast to the 1960s countercultural lifestyle, he required 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

In July 1966, he incorporated the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn

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

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.Template:Sfn After he completed his Bhagavad-gita As It Is (by mid-January 1967),Template:Sfn he asked a new disciple to find a publisher for it.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn

San Francisco

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File:Prabhupada's arrival in San Francisco 1967.jpg

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

In 1967, Bhaktivedanta Swami established a second center, in San Francisco.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn This "Mantra Rock Dance", held at the popular Avalon Ballroom, attracted some three thousand peopleTemplate:Sfn and brought attention to the local Hare Krishna temple. One commentator dubbed it the "ultimate high of that era".Template:Sfn

File:1967 Mantra-Rock Dance Avalon poster.jpg

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.Template:Sfn He would later establish this annual festival in major cities around the world,Template:Sfn with big vehicles —"chariots" — and thousands of people taking part.

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

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".Template:Sfn

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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Even before then, George Harrison and John Lennon had obtained a copy of the maha-mantra recording released by Prabhupada and his students in New York and had begun singing Hare Krishna.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In August 1969, Harrison produced a single of the Hare Krishna mantra, sung by the London disciples, and released it on Apple Records.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn For the recording, the disciples called themselves "The Radha Krishna Temple".Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Seventy thousand copies of the record sold on the first day.Template:Sfn It rose to number 11 on the British charts,Template:Sfn and Prabhupada's students performed live four times on the BBC's popular TV show Top of the Pops.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnThe next year, 1970, Harrison produced with Prabhupada's disciples another hit single, "Govinda", and in May 1971 the album The Radha Krishna Temple.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Also in 1970, Harrison sponsored the publishing of the first volume of Prabhupada's book Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn which related 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,Template:Sfn fifteen miles northwest of London. The Hare Krishna devotees converted this into a rural temple-ashram and renamed it Bhaktivedanta ManorTemplate:Sfn in Prabhupada's honor.

File:Prabhupada and the devotees outside Schloss Rettershof, Frankfurt.jpg

Prabhupada and devotees outside Schloss Rettershof, Frankfurt (1974).

Once Prabhupada's disciples had made a start in England, over the years Prabhupada visited England many times and from there traveled to Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Efn

Africa

In 1970, Prabhupada made the first of several visits to Kenya.Template:Sfn 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. Soon the hall was flooded with African people.Template:Sfn Then he held kirtan and gave a talk. Prabhupada told his local leaders that they should spread Krishna consciousness among the local African people.Template:Sfn Prabhupada also later visited Mauritius and South AfricaTemplate:Sfn and sent his disciples to Nigeria and Zambia.Template:Sfn

The Soviet Union

File:Prabhupada in Moscow 1971.tif

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

Prabhupada's visit to Moscow from 20 to 25 June 1971 marked the beginning of Krishna consciousness in the Soviet Union.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Efn Pinyaev, who went on to become the first Soviet Hare Krishna devotee, met Prabhupada through the son of an Indian diplomat stationed in Moscow.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Pinyaev was later imprisoned in Smolensk Special Psychiatric Hospital and forcibly treated with drugs for his practice of Krishna consciousness.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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 its original spiritual sensibilities.Template:Sfn He came back to India with a party of Western disciplesTemplate:Sfn — ten American sannyasis and twenty other devoteesTemplate:Sfn — 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).Template:Sfn

By that time, Prabhupada saw that India had set a course towards EuropeanizationTemplate:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn

File:A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami travels.webm

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

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

Around the world

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.Template:Sfn Among the places he sent disciples to spread Krishna consciousness was China.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn By giving his students instructions, advice, and encouragement, he ensured a "strong paternal presence" in their lives.Template:Sfn He wrote more than six thousand letters, many now collected and kept in the Bhaktivedanta Archives.Template:Sfn Besides receiving reports of accomplishments, he also had to deal through correspondence with almost daily setbacks, perplexities, quarrels, and failures. He tried to correct or resolve these as much as he could and kept on advancing his movement.Template:Sfn

Wherever he was, he took an hour-long early-morning walk, which became a time for disciples to ask questions and receive personal guidance.Template:Sfn On returning from his walk, he lectured daily on the Srimad-Bhagavatam,Template:Sfn 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.

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

Death (1977)

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

Succession

File:Srila Prabhupada samadhi in Vrindavan.jpg

Prabhupada's samadhi in Vrindavan, India.

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.Template:Sfn In 1977, four months before his death, he appointed eleven senior disciples to perform spiritual initiations on his behalf while he was ill.Template:Sfn

Despite the measures Prabhupada took to organize the management of his movement, his death caused a crisis of authority in ISKCON that destabilized the organization and became a turning point in its development.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The succession process was beset by conflicts, with disagreements persisting for decades.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn Prabhupada comes in the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya lineage, which traces back to Chaitanya MahaprabhuTemplate:Sfn and Madhvacharya, and further back, its teachings say, to the beginnings of creation.Template:Sfn This lineage (sampradaya) follows such texts as Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Bhagavad-gita, and the writings of Chaitanya's disciples and their followers.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The Absolute Truth

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.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:Radha Syamasundar Vrindavan Radhastami 2004.jpg

Radha-Krishna, the supreme manifestation of God in the teachings of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, which Prabhupada represented. Radha-Krishna installed by Prabhupada in his temple in Vrindavan, India.

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 BhagavanTemplate:Sfn – in Sanskrit, svayam-bhagavan, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead himself.Template:Sfn No one is equal to or greater than Krishna.Template:Sfn Brahman and Paramatma are partial realizations of Krishna.Template:Sfn The various Vishnu forms, such as Rama and Narasimha, are "nondifferent" from Krishna; they are the same Personality of Godhead, appearing in different roles. 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.Template:Sfn

The energies of the Absolute

If the Absolute Truth is one, this raises the question of how diversity can exist. 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This "oneness and difference" accounts for the oneness of an Absolute Truth that includes limitless varieties.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The inferior and superior energies

Template:Vaishnavism Among Krishna's energies, Prabhupada taught, the ingredients of this world collectively belong to Krishna's "inferior energy"Template:Sfn — inferior in that, being inert matter, it lacks consciousness.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn But superior to inert matter are the conscious living beings (jivas) that belong to Krishna's "superior energy".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn But because of contact with the "inferior energy" since time immemorial,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Living beings struggle against birth and death, disease, and old age in each life.Template:Sfn While trying to control and enjoy the resources of nature, living beings increasingly suffer from entanglement in nature's complexities.Template:Sfn

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".Template:Sfn Prabhupada phrased this understanding in a maxim he often used: "I am not this body".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

He taught that when we falsely identify with these bodies, we are under the influence of Maya, or illusion. Only when this illusion is dispelled can the soul become liberated from material existence.Template:Sfn

Bhakti

Prabhupada taught that 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.Template:Sfn This eternal service in devotion to Krishna, rendered by one freed from all material designation, is called bhakti.Template:Sfn

File:Hari Haraye Namah Krsna (Nama Sankirtana) by Narottama Dasa.ogg

Prabhupada sings a Bengali bhajan by Narottama Dasa Thakur.

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

Impersonalism

Prabhupada crusaded against what he called "impersonalism"—the idea that the Supreme has no form, qualities, activities, or personal attributes. In this way, he stood opposed to the teachings of Shankara (AD 788–820), who held that everything except Brahman is illusory, including the soul, the world, and God.Template:Sfn Before Prabhupada, Shankara's system of thought, known as Advaita Vedanta, had generally provided the framework for Western understandings of Hinduism,Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn

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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn So Prabhupada strongly opposed impersonalistic views wherever he encountered them and asserted the eternal personal existence of the Absolute and of all living beings.Template:Sfn Where Buddhism shares ground with Shankara's views by teaching that ultimately personality disintegrates, leaving nothing but a void nirvana,Template:Sfn Buddhism too came in for Prabhupada's strong personalistic critique.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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).Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Moreover, devotional qualifications always supersede material ones.Template:Sfn Following Chaitanya, who challenged the caste system and undercut hierarchical power structures,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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

Spiritual practices

Kirtan

File:Prabhupada Germany Studio.jpg

Pranbhupada plays the harmonium during a recording session in Germany. (1974)

The primary spiritual practice Prabhupada taught was Krishna sankirtana (also 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.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}Kirtan literally means "description" hence "praise", and sankirtana indicates kirtan performed by people together.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn

File:Hare Kṛṣṇa Kīrtana and purport.ogg

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.Template:Sfn 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".Template:Efn

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.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Prabhupada therefore gave great importance to such distribution.

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".Template:Sfn And so when Prabhupada incorporated ISKCON, its founding document included as one of the Society's purposes "To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna".Template:Sfn

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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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).Template:Sfn

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".Template:Sfn It is sometimes described as "the ripened fruit of the Vedic tree".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Accordingly, Prabhupada instituted daily classes on the Bhagavatam in all his centers,Template:Sfn and he spoke on Bhagavatam daily, wherever he went.Template:Sfn

Deity worship

In accordance with Vaishnava teachings, Prabhupada introduced the 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".Template:Sfn{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}

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 worldwide.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn From the beginning of his mission, Prabhupada distributed prasadam to visitorsTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and soon made it into the movement's primary outreach vehicle.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn A weekly prasadam feast for the public has always been a program at all of ISKCON centers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn

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, he 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".Template:Sfn

Principal writings

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, who had specifically encouraged writing and publishing, at one meeting told Prabhupada: If you ever get money, print books.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn So regardless of how busy or sometimes unwell Prabhupada might have been, he remained focused on producing books.Template:Sfn Prabhupada slept little, waking at 1:00 am every nightTemplate:Sfn to translate and comment on the Srimad-Bhagavatam and other texts.Template:Sfn During the day he would give attention to guiding disciples and seeing to the affairs of his international society and its temples, and very early in the morning, while most people were asleep, he did most of his writing "because even with his age and uncertain health, he was unwilling to sacrifice his writing time for extra rest".Template:Sfn

By 1970, he had translated the Bhagavad-gita, two cantos of the Bhagavatam, a summary study of its tenth canto, and a summary volume drawn from the expansive Caitanya-caritamrta. Starting in 1970, his literary output slowed only slightly due to the demands of his expanding Hare Krishna movement.Template:Sfn His task, as scholars have observed, was not merely to translate the text but to translate an entire tradition.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Historian of religion Thomas Hopkins relates that Prabhupada told him in a conversation in Philadelphia in 1975 that "the Gita provided the basic education on Krishna devotion, the Srimad-Bhagavatam was like graduate study, and the Caitanya-caritamrita was like postgraduate education for the most advanced devotees".Template:Sfn

Hopkins says that by presenting in English such works as the Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrta, Prabhupada made important texts accessible to the Western world that were simply not accessible before. Hopkins says, "[W]hat few English translations there were of the Bhagavata Purana and Caitanya-caritamrta were barely adequate and very hard to get hold of".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Prabhupada, Hopkins says, "made these and other texts available in a way that they never were before" and "made the tradition itself accessible to the West".Template:Sfn

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

File:Indian President Pratibha Patil receives Bhagavad Gita.jpg

President of India Pratibha Patil receives a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is. (14 December 2011)

In 1966–67, Prabhupada wrote a translation and commentary on the Bhagavad-gita he entitled Bhagavad-gita As It Is. It was first published by the Macmillan Company in 1968 in an abridged edition and later, in 1972, in full.Template:Sfn For each verse he first gives the Sanskrit Devanagari script, then a roman transliteration and word-for-word gloss, followed by his translation and a commentary, or "purport".Template:Sfn Scholar of religion Richard H. Davis comments that this was "the first English translation of the Gita to supply an authentic interpretation from an Indian devotional tradition".Template:Sfn It is "by far the most widely distributed of all English Gita translations".Template:Sfn In 2015 Davis wrote, "The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust estimates that twenty-three million copies of Prabhupada's translation have been sold, including the English original and secondary translations into fifty-six other languages".Template:Sfn For Prabhupada, Davis says, "the essential fact about the Bhagavad-gita is its speaker. The Gita contains the words of Krishna, and Krishna is the 'Supreme Personality of Godhead.'" In Prabhupada's view, other translations lack authority because the translators use them to express their own opinions rather than the message of Krishna. In contrast, Prabhupada saw his task in presenting what Krishna wanted to say, and so he claimed to present the Bhagavad-gita "as it is".Template:Sfn

Srimad-Bhagavatam

At once a sacred history, a theological treatise, and a philosophical text,Template:Sfn the Srimad-Bhagavatam "stands out by reason of its literary excellence, the organization that it brings to its vast material, and the effect that it has had on later writers".Template:Sfn Praising the poetry of the Bhagavatam, scholar of religion Edwin Bryant says, "[S]cholars of the text have every right to say that 'the Bhagavata can be ranked with the best of the literary works produced by mankind.'"Template:Sfn

File:Srimad-Bhagavatam set.jpg

Prabhupada's edition of Srimad-Bhagavatam, with his translation and commentary.

It was this great work that Prabhupada, after taking sannyasa, set out to present in English, with, once again, the original Sanskrit text, its word-for-word meanings, a translation, and an in-depth commentary.Template:Sfn Also known as Srimad-Bhagavata Purana, Bhagavata Purana, or just the BhagavataTemplate:Sfn Srimad-Bhagavatam is a work of twelve books ("cantos" was the word Prabhupada used) comprising more than fourteen thousand verse couplets.Template:Sfn "Srimad" means "beautiful" or "glorious".Template:Sfn

Prabhupada began his translation and commentary on the Bhagavatam after accepting sannyasa in 1959, and by 1965 he had completed and published the first canto.Template:Sfn He worked on translating the Srimad-Bhagavatam into English for the rest of his life.Template:Sfn

The cantos were published one by one, as he finished them. He completed nine cantos and thirteen chapters of the tenth. The rest of the Bhagavatam was completed by his disciples.Template:Sfn

Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

Considering his old age and the vast size of the Bhagavatam, Prabhupada knew he might not live to finish it. So in 1968 he undertook to present the BhagavatamTemplate:'s tenth canto — the essence of the work — in summary form as Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.Template:Sfn

This summary study is "Prabhupada's own exposition of the story of Krishna as it is told in the Tenth Canto".Template:Sfn It "laid out the account of Krishna from the Bhagavata Purana that provides the images and stories central to Krishna devotion".Template:Sfn

As Bryant says:

"The tenth book of the Bhāgavata has inspired generations of artists, dramatists, musicians, poets, singers, writers, dancers, sculptors, architects and temple-patrons across the centuries. Its stories are well known to every Hindu household across the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent, and celebrated in regional festivals all year round".Template:Sfn{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} Prabhupada himself inspired artists among his disciples to provide the text with profuse full-color illustrations. Such illustrations became a feature of nearly all his books.Template:Sfn

A related work is Light of the Bhagavat, written by Prabhupada in Vrindavan in 1961, before he went to the West, but published only after his death. The book is a treatment of one chapter (chapter twenty) of the tenth canto. Prabhupada composed forty-eight commentaries for the chapter's verses. The book is accordingly illustrated with forty-eight paintings.Template:Sfn

Ishopanishad

In 1969 Prabhupada published, again in his full verse-by-verse format, his translation and commentary for the IshopanishadTemplate:Sfn — also known as the Īśa Upaniṣad or Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad,Template:Sfn which in 1960 he had partially serialized in his Back to Godhead magazine.Template:Sfn The Ishopanishad, consisting of only eighteen mantras,Template:Sfn is considered one of the principal Upanishads.Template:Sfn In all indigenous collections of the Upanishads, the Iśopaniṣad comes first.Template:Sfn Its first verse, "highly regarded as a capsule of Vedic theology",Template:Sfn presents a god-centered view of the universe.Template:Sfn The celebrated traditional commentator Shankara wrote, "One who is eager to rid himself of the suffering and delusion of saṁsāra, created by ignorance, and attain Supreme Bliss is entitled to read this Upaniṣad".Template:Sfn

The Nectar of Devotion

Begun in 1968,Template:Sfn The Nectar of Devotion is a summary study of Rupa Goswami's Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, his "famous exposition of the principles of devotion".Template:Sfn Scholar-practitioner Shrivatsa Goswami has described Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu as "a textbook of devotional practice, an exposition on the philosophy of devotion, and a study of devotional psychology".Template:Sfn The Nectar of Devotion "gave access to Gaudiya Vaisnavism's most important theological treatise on devotion".Template:Sfn

Caitanya-caritamrta

Caitanya-caritamrta is the seventeenth-century account of the life and teachings of Chaitanya, who founded the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.Template:Sfn Written in the Bengali language, it runs to more than 15,000 verses and "is regarded as the most authoritative work on Śrī Caitanya", a work of "rare merit", with "no parallel in the whole of Bengali literature".Template:Sfn Scholar of religion Hugh Urban calls it "one of the greatest works in all of Indian vernacular literature".Template:Sfn

Prabhupada completed his translation in 1974, within two years,Template:Sfn and it was published in seventeen volumes, again with verse-by-verse text, transliteration, word meanings, translation and commentary.Template:Sfn He based his commentary on the Bengali commentaries of his predecessors Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.Template:Sfn

Before Srila Prabhupada's translation, the work in English was simply unavailable. After Prabhupada's edition came out, scholar J. Bruce Long wrote, "The appearance of an English translation of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī's Śri Caitanya-caritāmṛta by A.Template:NbspC. Bhaktivedānta, Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, is a cause for celebration among both scholars in Indian Studies and lay-people seeking to enrich their knowledge of Indian spirituality".Template:Sfn

Several years earlier, in 1968, Prabhupada published Teachings of Lord Caitanya.Template:Sfn The book offers a summary of selected portions of Caitanya-caritamrita.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

The Nectar of Instruction

Prabhupada also wrote a verse-by-verse commentated translation of Rupa Goswami's eleven-verse Upadeshamrita,Template:Sfn one of Rupa Goswami's shortest works,Template:Sfn which provides concise directions on how to carry out devotional service.Template:Sfn

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

In 1972 Prabhupada founded the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT), which manages the international publishing and distribution of his writings.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Apart from his major works, the BBT publishes various paperbacks derived from his lectures.Template:Sfn The BBT also publishes Back to Godhead, the magazine Prabhupada founded, in multiple languages.Template:Sfn Between 1973 and 1977, Prabhupada's followers distributed several million books and other pieces of Krishna conscious literature every year in shopping malls, airports, and other public locations in the United States and worldwide.Template:Sfn As of 2023, his books had been translated into eighty-seven languages.Template:Sfn In 2022, the BBT printed more than two million pieces of literature.Template:Sfn

Critical assessments of Prabhupada's writings

Shrivatsa Goswami has said, "Making these Vaiṣṇava texts available is one of Śrīla Prabhupāda's greatest contributions. Apart from the masses, his books have also reached well into academic circles and have spurred academic interest in the Caitanya tradition".Template:Sfn Further, he says, "The significance of making these texts available is not merely academic or cultural; it is spiritual. Jñāna, knowledge, is spread, proper doctrines are made known, people come closer to reality".Template:Sfn Other academics, too, have applauded Prabhupada's publicationsTemplate:Sfn as his most significant legacy.Template:Sfn

But his edition of Bhagavad-gita, in particular, has come in for criticism as well. Eric Sharpe, scholar of religion, considers Prabhupada's reading of Bhagavad-gita single-minded and fundamentalist.Template:Sfn Sanskrit scholar A.L. Herman concurs.Template:Sfn Another scholar, K. P. Sinha, takes exception to Prabhupada's "misinterpretations and unkind remarks" directed toward Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy of absolute monism.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

The most detailed critical analysis by a Western, non-Hindu scholar comes from historian of religion Robert D. Baird.Template:Sfn Baird takes upon himself the task of not merely seeing Prabhupada as "an authentic proponent of Vaishnavism" but of examining as an academic scholar the way Prabhupada reads the Bhagavad-gita.Template:Sfn

File:SP in a lecture in front of Rupa Goswami samadhi.jpg

Prabhupada lectures on The Nectar of Devotion in front of Rupa Goswami's samadhi in Vrindavan, India. (1972)

Whereas many scholars, Baird writes, see "some degree of progression" in the Gita, with different themes emphasized in different parts of the book, Prabhupada "reads the complete teaching of the book, indeed of Vedic literature generally, into any passage".Template:Sfn It appears "that he considers it legitimate to interpret any verse in the light of the whole system found in the Gītā whether it is explicitly mentioned in that verse of the Gītā or not".Template:Sfn In this way, he reads "Krishna consciousness" even into portions of the text where Krishna is not explicitly mentioned.Template:Sfn Prabhupada cites later passages in the Gita to explain earlier passages.Template:Sfn Indeed, he even quotes from other texts in the canon (whether written before the Gita or afterTemplate:Sfn) to indicate the intention of the Gita, "as though they have the same authority as the Gita itself".Template:Sfn And so: "In all, a wide range of texts are used to serve as authorities for understanding the Gītā. Swami Bhaktivedanta not only treats specific texts in a way that would be unusual among Western scholars, but he sees specific texts in the light of the Vedas in general".Template:Sfn

Whereas other scholars, Baird writes, would give great attention to the overall structure of the Gita, Prabhupada gives the structure scant notice, preferring instead to make this point: "In every chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa stresses that devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of life".Template:Sfn

Prabhupada uses the text of the Gita to present various aspects of Krishna theology.Template:Sfn And "he also goes beyond specific texts and the Gītā itself when he makes it the occasion for the inculcation of a Vaishnava lifestyle,"Template:Sfn typified by chanting the maha-mantra, regulating one's sexual activity, offering food to Krishna, and following a vegetarian diet.Template:Sfn And so: "Swami Bhaktivedanta is more interested in expounding the principles of Krishna consciousness than in merely explicating the text at hand".Template:Sfn In one instance cited, "the text recommends one thing [astanga-yoga] and Bhaktivedanta Swami cancels that and offers the mahāmantra".Template:Sfn

As for competing interpretations: "Bhaktivedanta often seeks to show the superiority of the Vaishnava position and the error of other positions".Template:Sfn "The position that is attacked with the most regularity and vigor is that of Advaita Vedanta,"Template:Sfn "the system of thought that is commonly used to provide the structure for Western understandings of 'Hinduism'",Template:Sfn whose advocates Prabhupada calls Mayavadins, impersonalists, or monists.Template:Sfn For Advaita Vedanta he reserves his strongest condemnations.Template:Sfn

Nor does Prabhupada only criticize "impersonalists". Rather, "Scholars in particular come under Swami Bhaktivedanta's condemnation because they are merely 'mental speculators'".Template:Sfn In Prabhupada's view, Baird says, "Since these scholars are not surrendered to Krishna, they are not Krishna conscious; they are merely offering their own ideas rather than the truth within the paramparā system [the lineage of masters and disciples]".Template:Sfn Prabhupada "seldom engages in the kind of argumentation that scholars are accustomed to when deciding between alternative positions".Template:Sfn Instead he takes a position as a spiritual master within the disciplic succession and "merely declares" what is true.Template:Sfn And so, Baird says, "The gulf between Swami Bhaktivedanta's presentation and that of the scholarly exegete is simply unbridgeable, for their purposes operate on different levels".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

But what some scholars might see as faults, others see as virtues. Thomas Hopkins sees Prabhupada's translations and purports as successfully conveying the meaning of the text precisely because Prabhupada draws upon the commentaries of his predecessors and brings to his work the understandings of his entire tradition.Template:Sfn Moreover, Hopkins says, Prabhupada does this in such a way that the entire text becomes comprehensible to a modern reader, not only theoretically but practically.Template:Sfn Translations of such texts as the Gita, Hopkins says, cannot be done mechanically.Template:Sfn The translator has to understand the spirit and the experience that lie behind the text.Template:Sfn Where Prabhupada's translations expand the text, they do so "for the sake of making the meaning more clear, rather than obscuring it".Template:Sfn Hopkins says, "Writing a commentary is not a merely intellectual or academic exercise—it has a practical goal: to engage people with a living spiritual tradition".Template:Sfn Prabhupada, he says, brings the meaning of the text out of the past and into the present, giving it meaning in terms of people's lives.Template:Sfn

Challenges and controversies

Prabhupada's efforts to establish and expand Krishna consciousness included some difficulties internal to his new and growing movement. He had to train disciples unaccustomed to Vaishnava culture and philosophy and engage them in furthering his Hare Krishna movement;Template:Sfn he had to set up and then guide his Governing Body Commission to see to ISKCON's global management. He often had to intervene when clashes and controversies within ISKCON grew out of hand. He had to sort out difficulties faced by individual disciples, ensure a proper understanding of his teachings, and, more broadly, transplant an entire cultural movement.Template:Sfn He also faced challenges from the outside world.

Cult image and "brainwashing"

Until the mid-1970s, the attitude of the Western public towards Prabhupada and his movement was cordial. News reports described Hare Krishna devotees, their beliefs, and their religious practices in a spirit of curiosity.Template:Sfn By the mid-1970s, this changed. The rapidly expanding Hare Krishna movement — distinctive, foreign, highly visible, and vigorous (often over-vigorous) in spreading its message — became an early target for a nascent anti-cult movement. The Hare Krishna movement no longer represented an authentic spiritual tradition. Instead, it was now one of a myriad of "destructive cults" that won converts and took over their lives by "mind control" and "brainwashing". When young adults, supposedly robbed of free will and "programmed" by mind control, became Hare Krishna devotees, some parents hired "deprogrammers" to kidnap them and "free them from the cult". "Deprogrammings" typically involved days or weeks of isolation, browbeating, and intense verbal haranguing and harassment.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

After one such deprogramming failed, the New York City District Attorney's Office charged two local Hare Krishna leaders with illegally imprisoning two Hare Krishna followers by brainwashing them.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Prabhupada instructed his disciples to fight these charges, among other ways, by entering his books into evidence.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, two hundred scholars signed a document defending ISKCON as an authentic Indian missionary movement.Template:Sfn

In March of 1977, a New York State Supreme Court justice threw out the charges and recognized ISKCON as a bona fide religious tradition.Template:Sfn Nonetheless, in America and Europe the "cult" label and image persisted for the rest of Prabhupada's lifetime and beyond.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

As scholar James Beckford notes, in the 1970s, Hare Krishna devotees became increasingly active in selling their literature and collecting donations from the public,Template:Sfn so they were sharply criticized for what was seen as harassing people for money at airports and other public places. As Bryant and Ekstrand comment, "Questionable fund-raising tactics, confrontational attitudes to mainstream authorities, and an isolationist mentality, coupled with the excesses of neophyte proselytizing zeal, brought public disapproval"Template:Sfn — something that Prabhupada had to deal with too.

Institutionalization

As ISKCON evolved towards being a worldwide organization, it suffered from the inevitable travails of institutionalization. Young disciples, mostly from an anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian background, became members of the GBC and found themselves running a worldwide institution. Preaching sometimes started giving way to revenue production; gender issues arose; leaders sometimes fell, and scandals broke out. Bureaucracy intruded on spontaneity, and many members left. As much as Prabhupada tried to leave management to the GBC, much of this he too had to deal with personally.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Child abuse

Prabhupada directed his disciples to train children in boarding schools called gurukulas, where they would receive education from spiritual teachers. However, as reported by sociologist of religion E. Burke Rochford, through mismanagement, these schools became like orphanages. After Prabhupada's departure, it came to light that physical and sexual abuse occurred within these schools due to lack of oversight.Template:Sfn

Obstacles in India

In India, Prabhupada faced a special set of challenges. He had much to accomplish there, but his American and European disciples were inexperienced in how to get things done in India and even how to live there.Template:Sfn

When Prabhupada's young American followers came to India in the early 1970s and began holding festivals, including public sankirtana, many Indians were surprised to see Westerners adopting Indian modes of worship and devotion. Some local people, including even some Indian officials, suspected that the American devotees must be undercover operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Outspoken and uncompromising as he was in the way he presented Krishna's teachings in India, as elsewhere, Prabhupada found himself battling with opposing views of all sorts.Template:Sfn Therefore, another challenge came from Prabhupada's consistent rejection of the common Hindu notion of caste by birth. Since Prabhupada, like his predecessors, insisted that anyone, from any race or nation, could become spiritually purified and fit to perform the duties of priests, he faced opposition from Hindu brahmins who held that performing such duties was an exclusive birthright of their caste.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

When Prabhupada resolved to build a temple on land in Juhu, Bombay (now Mumbai), the man who had sold ISKCON the land tried to swindle the devotees and take it back. The man had deep political connections in the Bombay municipality and employed lawyers and even thugs to drive the devotees off, but Prabhupada persisted and eventually won.Template:SfnTemplate:EfnTemplate:Primary source inline

Deviations

While working to establish his movement, Prabhupada had to deal with problems caused even by leading disciples, who, monks or not, could still hold on to intellectual baggage, disdain for authority, and ambitions for power.Template:Sfn In 1968 Prabhupada's first sannyasi disciple openly disregarded Prabhupada's instructions to him and twisted core tenets of Prabhupada's teachings. This foreshadowed succession problems and issues of authority that Prabhupada's movement would face both during Prabhupada's presence and after.Template:Sfn

Unlike Indian gurus who declared themselves avatars, divine appearances of God, Prabhupada, from the very beginning of his preaching, called himself only a servant or representative of God.Template:Sfn But in 1970 four of Prabhupada's early sannyasis announced at a large ISKCON gathering that Prabhupada's followers had failed to recognize that Prabhupada was Krishna: God himself. Prabhupada expelled those sannyasis from his Society (he eventually readmitted them after they recanted their claim).Template:Sfn

In 1972, without consulting Prabhupada, eight of the twelve members of the GBC held a meeting in New York aimed at centralizing control of ISKCON's activities and finances. Their plans would have lessened Prabhupada's own oversight and set aside his emphasis on the autonomy of each ISKCON center. This prompted Prabhupada to suspend the entire GBC "until further notice", establish direct lines of communication with each temple's leaders, and re-emphasize spiritual purity, the selfless and voluntary nature of devotional life, and the exemplary conduct befitting ISKCON leaders. He said he wanted this, not corporate bureaucracy and excessive centralization. (He later unsuspended the GBC).Template:Sfn

In 1975, a clash broke out when a team of ten parties of itinerant sannyasis, assisted by two hundred brahmacharis, crisscrossed America, visiting ISKCON temples to extoll renunciation and a missionary spirit — and urge brahmacharis to abandon the temples and join the sannyasi parties. The temples, the team argued, were led by presidents who were grihasthas (married men), and grihasthas had a propensity for enjoyment that undermined what should be an austere temple atmosphere.Template:Sfn

The conflict reached its peak in 1976 in Mayapur at ISKCON's annual global gathering when a sannyasi-dominated GBC passed resolutions severely restricting the role of women and families in ISKCON.Template:Sfn After hearing from both sides, Prabhupada came down against this type of discrimination, calling it "fanaticism", and had the GBC undo the resolutions. Prabhupada said, "I cannot discriminate — man, woman, child, rich, poor, educated, or foolish. Let them all come, and let them take Krishna consciousness".Template:Sfn

Controversial views and statements

In the course of his preaching work in the West, Prabhupada made controversial statements that criticized various ideals of modern society or spoke offensively of certain groups.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn

"In a traditional Hindu vein",Template:Sfn Prabhupada spoke favorably of the myth of Aryan bloodlines and compared darker races to shudras [people of low caste], thus implying them being inferior to the lighter-complexioned humans.Template:Sfn In a recorded room conversation with disciples in 1977, he calls African Americans "uncultured and drunkards", further stating that after being given freedom and equal rights, they caused a disturbance in the society.Template:Sfn

Prabhupada called democracy "the government of the asses", "nonsense", and "farce", at the same time praising the monarchial form of government and speaking favorably of dictatorship.Template:Sfn While comparing Napoleon and Hitler to great demons of Hindu mythology Hiranyakashipu and Kamsa, he called their activities "very great". On other occasions, he made "generally approving remarks about Hitler" and said that Hitler killed the Jews because they "were financing against Germany".Template:Sfn He also expressed some misogynistic views, asserting that "women cannot properly utilize freedom and it is better for them to be dependent",Template:Sfn stating that they are "generally not very intelligent",Template:Sfn and "in general should not be trusted".Template:Sfn

Scholars have commented, however, on the contrast between such controversial pronouncements and the full picture of what Prabhupada actually taught and did.Template:Sfn Kim Knott, a religious studies scholar, extensively discusses Prabhupada's statements about women.Template:Sfn Describing her perspective about ISKCON as that of an "outsider" and a "western feminist",Template:Sfn she highlights Prabhupada's firm belief that "bhakti-yoga", the path of Krishna Consciousness, allows transcendence beyond gender distinctions.Template:Sfn Knott emphasizes that, according to Prabhupada, women devotees, regardless of their gender, possess equal potential for spiritual advancement and service to Krishna.Template:Sfn She further commends Prabhupada for opening up the Hare Krishna movement to women despite cultural norms and traditional prescriptions.Template:Sfn In this way, she writes, Prabhupada took time, place, and circumstance into account and acted in the spirit of Krishna consciousness, "in the manner of Chaitanya".Template:Sfn

Commenting on the role and degree of responsibility that Prabhupada's statements about women played in their abuse in ISKCON, E. Burke Rochford notes that Prabhupada's personal example in dealings with his earliest women disciples was "far more important".Template:Sfn Their collective personal experiences, Rochford observes, portray Prabhupada's "respectful attitude and behavior toward his women disciples"Template:Sfn and his empowerment for the same rights and duties as his male disciples.Template:Sfn Prabhupada encouraged and engaged women in conducting public scriptural discourses, kirtans and temple worship, writing for ISKCON magazines and publications, personally accompanying and assisting him, and assuming "significant institutional positions in ISKCON".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Similarly, scholar of religion Akshay Gupta observes that Prabhupada did not regard his black disciples as lower or "untouchables",Template:Sfn displaying to some of them the same or even greater degree of affection than to his followers of other ethnicities.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Another scholar of religion Mans Broo adds that when Prabhupada speaks about castes, he referred to an envisioned "ideal society" in which people would be divided into different occupational groups "based not on hereditary but on individual qualifications".Template:Sfn

Broo also notes that scholarly analysesTemplate:Sfn attribute some of such statements to Prabhupada's "flair for drama and overstatement"Template:Sfn — particularly noting his penchant for making politically incorrect remarks to reportersTemplate:Sfn and adding, "It is difficult to decide how seriously any single remark is meant to be taken from a transcript". However, Broo concludes that this behavior does not clear Prabhupada from responsibility for his more radical, politically incorrect statements.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Another scholar of religion, Fred Smith, suggests that some of Prabhupada's statements (such as those concerning Hitler) "must be understood in the context of the intellectual and political culture in which he matured"Template:Sfn — specifically that of mid-twentieth-century Bengal,Template:Sfn brewing with anti-colonialist nationalism championed by such figures as Subhash Chandra Bose, and therefore more favorably disposed to Nazi Germany than to Great Britain.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Broo notes that Prabhupada's followers continue to grapple with his controversial statementsTemplate:Sfn — which paint "a picture of a not very pleasant man, one far removed from the Gaudiya Vaishnava ideals described in the classical texts of the tradition"Template:Sfn — and respond to them in different ways: Some remain silent, while others invoke context or argue that Prabhupada is being unfairly quoted due to negative biases. Still, others are willing to differentiate between his statements they deem "absolute" and those they consider "relative", acknowledging that some teachings may be contingent on the circumstances of Prabhupada's life before coming to the US.Template:Sfn However, some followers view this approach as "exceedingly risky", questioning who has the authority to determine which teachings are relative and which are not.Template:Sfn Therefore, Broo concludes, this issue is "not likely to be resolved soon".Template:Sfn

Commenting on the underlying causes for such controversies, scholar of religion Larry Shinn attributes the conflict between Prabhupada's teachings and Western cultural values to "[Prabhupada]'s insistence on the infallibility of the Krishna scriptures and (...) the authenticity of Prabhupada's Krishna faith and practice".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Influence

By explaining the teachings of bhakti yoga and Gaudiya Vaishnavism and arousing interest in them worldwide, Prabhupada made a lasting contribution.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Through his writings and his movement, many Westerners have become aware of bhakti for the first time.Template:Sfn He translated and commented on important spiritual texts, particularly the Bhagavad-gita, the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the Caitanya-caritamrta, making these texts accessible to a global audience.Template:Sfn His commentaries brought the traditional wisdom of these writings into a contemporary context, making possible a deeper comprehension of their spiritual meaning and its practical application in one's life.Template:Sfn Within Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Prabhupada's preaching achievements are viewed as the fulfillment of a mission to introduce Caitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings to the world.Template:Sfn

Although the "steady procession of Hindu swamis" who had come to America before Prabhupada had generally aligned their views with the monistic Advaita Vedanta of Shankara (AD 788‒820) and the idea of "the ultimate absorption of the self into an impersonal Reality or Brahman",Template:Sfn Prabhupada rejected Advaita VedantaTemplate:Sfn and coherently argued that the Absolute is ultimately the Personality of Godhead.Template:Sfn

Sardella has written that in the twelve years between Prabhupada's arrival in America and his demise, Prabhupada "managed to build ISKCON into an institution comprising thousands of dedicated members, establish Caitanya Vaishnava temples in most of the world's major cities, and publish numerous volumes of Caitanya Vaishnava texts (in twenty-eight languages), tens of millions of which were distributed throughout the world".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Prabhupada also spread the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra worldwide.Template:Sfn

In 2013, Rochford wrote, "[T]he fact that ISKCON has survived for nearly 50 years, despite significant change, is a testament to the devotees' resilience and to the power of Prabhupada's teachings and vision for ISKCON".Template:Sfn

In India, Prabhupada's movement has become a well-respected institution, with recognition at all levels of Hindu society.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn ISKCON has large temple complexes active in cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn ISKCON's center in Mayapur has become an Eastern Indian place of pilgrimage for millions every year. Thousands of middle-class Hindus, both in India and elsewhere, have joined ISKCON.Template:Sfn And Hindus both in India and in the Hindu diaspora have provided ISKCON vast support.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

But Prabhupada's legacy also faces scrutiny on various fronts. Criticisms have emerged regarding the movement's organizational structure, controversies have arisen surrounding continuity of leadership after his passing,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and misdeeds and even criminal acts have been committed by some ISKCON members, including once-respected former leaders.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Concerns have been expressed about the movement's adaptability to modern values, especially concerning gender roles and societal norms.Template:Sfn And although ISKCON has benefited from the support and participation of a large and growing number of Indian families in its congregations outside India,Template:Sfn the "Hinduization" of ISKCON has in many places tended to diminish the involvement of other audiences.Template:Sfn

Nonetheless, Prabhupada's influence endures through his writings and ISKCON's ongoing activities.Template:Sfn Despite significant setbacks, the movement he started continues to grow.Template:Sfn

Recognition

From scholars

Kim Knott writes that scholars describe Prabhupada as a charismatic spiritual leader and emphasize his "humanity" and "uniqueness".Template:Sfn Prabhupada's missionary successes in such a short period, and at such an advanced age, she writes, are extolled by scholars using terms such as "stunning", "remarkable", and "extraordinary".Template:Sfn In the same vein, Klaus Klostermaier, scholar of Hinduism and Indian history, refers to Prabhupada as "probably, the most successful propagator of Hinduism abroad".Template:Sfn

Representing such thoughts, Harvey Cox, American theologian and Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard University, said:

There aren't many people you can think of who successfully implant a whole religious tradition in a completely alien culture. That's a rare achievement in the history of religion. In his case it's even all the more remarkable for his having done this at such an advanced age. When most people would have already retired, he began a whole new phase of his life by coming to the United States and initiating this movement. He began simply, with only a handful of disciples. Eventually he planted this movement deeply in the North American soil, throughout other parts of the European-dominated world, and beyond. Although I didn't know him personally, the fact that we now have in the West a vigorous, disciplined, and seemingly well-organized movement–not merely a philosophical movement or a yoga or meditation movement, but a genuinely religious movement--introducing the form of devotion to God that he taught, is a stunning accomplishment. So when I say [he's] "one in a million," I think that's in some ways an underestimate. Perhaps he was one in a hundred million.Template:Sfn{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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From officials

Prabhupada's success in spreading Indian spirituality among non-Indians across the world brought him acclaim from Indian political leaders.Template:Sfn

Indian Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deve Gowda,Template:Sfn Narendra Modi, and Indian Presidents Shankar Dayal Sharma, Pranab Mukherjee, and Pratibha Patil have praised Prabhupada, his work and mission.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:PM Narendra Modi on 125th birth of Prabhupada (Hindi with English subtitles ).webm

Narendra Modi speaks on Prabhupada's 125th birth anniversary. (2 September 2021)Template:Sfn

In 1998, speaking at the opening ceremony of an ISKCON temple in New Delhi, Prime Minister Vajpayee credited Prabhupada's movement with publishing the Bhagavad Gita "in millions of copies in scores of Indian languages" and distributing it "in all nooks and corners of the world",Template:Sfn calling Prabhupada's journey to the West and the rapid global propagation of his movement "one of the greatest spiritual events of the century".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Releasing a 125-rupee commemorative coin on the occasion of Prabhupada's 125th birth anniversary,Template:Sfn Prime Minister Modi also praised Prabhupada for his efforts "to give India's most priceless treasure to the world", describing Prabhupada's accomplishments in spreading the thought and philosophy of India to the world as "nothing less than a miracle."Template:Sfn

On the fiftieth anniversary of Prabhupada's voyage to the West, US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard praised the "compassion that drove Srila Prabhupada to attempt something so brave and so daring to deliver the message of Lord Chaitanya and the Holy Name to all of mankind".Template:Sfn

Prabhupada was conferred with the title Vishwa Guru by the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad during the 2025 Prayag Maha Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh in recognition of his contributions to humanity and his efforts in spreading Indian culture, traditions and "spiritual wisdom to every corner of the world".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Commemoration

Shrines, memorials, museums

File:Samadhi Mandir of Srila Prabhupada (front), Mayapur 07102013.jpg

Pushpa-samadhi of Prabhupada in Mayapur, West Bengal.

In keeping with Gaudiya-Vaisnava rites, after Prabhupada's death at the Krishna-Balarama temple in Vrindavan (Uttar Pradesh, India), his disciples interred his body on the temple premises and erected a marble samadhi, or shrine, over his burial site.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In Mayapur (West Bengal), they built a much larger pushpa-samadhi — a shrine sanctified with flowers from Prabhupada's burial ceremony.Template:Sfn Daily puja (traditional worship) is offered to larger-than-life statues of Prabhupada at both sites.Template:Sfn

Another shrine is dedicated to Prabhupada in New Vrindaban (West Virginia, USA), where a residence built to host Prabhupada during his occasional visits evolved into the elaborate Prabhupada's Palace of Gold.Template:Sfn After opening to the public in 1979, two years after Prabhupada's death, the memorial site is now a place of worship and an attraction for pilgrims and tourists,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn listed in America's National Register of Historic Places.Template:Sfn Other rooms ‌in which Prabhupada stayed while in Vrindavan, Mumbai, Los Angeles, London, Melbourne and several other places around the world have been preserved as museums.

File:Prabhupada family and Jaladuta monument.jpg

Prabhupada's son Vrindavan Chandra De (back, in red shirt) in front of the Jaladuta monument with his family (standing) and the monument's team (seated, left to right): concept director, manager, and sculptor. ISKCON Kolkata. (August 2015)

Prabhupada's birthplace, in the Tollygunge neighborhood of Kolkata, was inaugurated as a memorial site in 2021, on the 125th anniversary of Prabhupada's birth, by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.Template:Sfn In the Ultadanga neighborhood of Kolkata, the building, known as Bhaktivinode Asan where Prabhupada first met his guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, has also been restored as a heritage site.Template:Sfn

On August 13, 2015, the fiftieth anniversary of Prabhupada's departure from Kolkata to the United States, a two-meter-high bronze monument, created by Ukrainian sculptor Volodymyr Zhuravel, was unveiled in Kolkata by the Governor of West Bengal Keshari Nath Tripathi and Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry Kiran Bedi.Template:Sfn The monument was created in two parts — one depicting Prabhupada's departure for America, the other his arrival. After the monument was unveiled, the "departure" part was installed at the ISKCON temple in Kolkata, the "arrival" part in front of the ISKCON temple in Boston.Template:Sfn

In November 2024, Scottish Church College inaugurated the "Abhay Charan Seminar Hall", honoring A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The hall was constructed with support from the Bhaktivedanta Research Centre.<ref name="k927">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="h939">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web

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File:Prabhupada Seminar Room at Scottish Church College.jpg

Prabhupada Seminar Room at Scottish Church College

Biographies, memoirs, diaries

In 2008, Ketola wrote that there were more than thirty historical, biographical, and autobiographical works centering on Prabhupada.Template:Sfn Since then they have increased.

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami's official six-volume biography Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta ("carefully researched", Ketola reportsTemplate:Sfn) has more recently been joined by a shorter biography, Swami in a Strange Land, by Joshua Greene.Template:Sfn Both authors are Prabhupada's disciples. Among memoirs that focus on specific times or places, Ketola mentions several, including Hayagriva Dasa's The Hare Krishna Explosion.Template:Sfn)

Ketola also notes two published diaries kept by direct assistants of Prabhupada: Tamal Krishna Goswami's TKG's Diary and Hari Sauri Dasa's multi-volume Transcendental Diary.Template:Efn

Film, and filmed memoir collections

In 1996 Gaurav Seth produced the fifty-five-minute biographical film Prabhupada: A Lifetime in Preparation.Template:Sfn In 2017 John Griesser, a Prabhupada disciple, produced an uncritical 91-minute film: Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami who started it All.Template:Sfn

Disciples have also undertaken two video projects collecting memories of Srila Prabhupada, one entitled Remembering Srila Prabhupada,Template:Sfn the other Following Srila Prabhupada.Template:Sfn

The Bhaktivedanta Archives, in North Carolina, serves as a repository for Srila Prabhupada's manuscripts and letters, for photographs of Srila Prabhupada, and for audio recordings.Template:Efn Template:Multiple image

Stamps, coin, and plaque

In 1996, the Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in Prabhupada's honor and in 2021 a 125-rupee commemorative coin.<ref>Times of India, September 13, 2021</ref>

In 2001, the City of New York installed a plaque in Tompkins Square Park to mark the "Hare Krishna tree", the elm under which Prabhupada and his early followers first began chanting the Hare Krishna mantra in 1966.Template:Sfn

File:TompkinsHareKrishnaTree.JPG

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

Schools

Various ISKCON-related schools and other institutions have been named after Srila Prabhupada, including the Bhaktivedanta Research Centre in Kolkata, which holds a full collection of the works of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati as well as publications from the first twenty years of the Gaudiya Math.Template:Sfn

In 2023, Scottish Church College and the Bhaktivedanta Research Center jointly established the "A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Memorial Award" to commemorate Prabhupada's student years at the college, meant to recognize both the most meritorious student for outstanding academic achievements and a faculty member for exceptional community service.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Roads

In 1978, a prominent entrance road into Vrindavan was named Bhaktivedanta Swami Marg after Prabhupada.Template:Sfn

Bibliography

Translations with commentary

• Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Template:ISBN
• Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) (multiple volumes) Template:ISBN (completed by disciples)
• Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Template:ISBN
• Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (multiple volumes), Template:ISBN
• The Nectar of Instruction, Template:ISBN

Summary studies

• Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Template:ISBN
• Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead (multiple volumes), Template:ISBN
• The Nectar of Devotion, Template:ISBN

Other books

• Easy Journey to Other Planets (1990), Template:ISBN
• The Perfection of Yoga, Template:ISBN
• Beyond Birth and Death, Template:ISBN
• On the Way to Kṛṣṇa, Template:ISBN
• Rāja-vidyā: The King of Knowledge, Template:ISBN
• Elevation to Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, Template:ISBN
• Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: The Matchless Gift, Template:ISBN
• Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: The Topmost Yoga System, Template:ISBN
• Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers, Template:ISBN
• Teachings of Lord Kapila, the Son of Devahūti, Template:ISBN
• The Science of Self-Realization, Template:ISBN

Posthumously published

• Mukunda-mālā-stotra: The Prayers of King Kulaśekhara, Template:ISBN (completed by disciples)
• Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, Template:ISBN (completed by disciples)
• Light of the Bhāgavata, Template:ISBN
• Message of Godhead, Template:ISBN
• Renunciation Through Wisdom, Template:ISBN
• Beyond Illusion and Doubt, Template:ISBN
• Teachings of Queen Kuntī, Template:ISBN
• Civilization And Transcendence, Template:ISBN
• Dharma, The Way Of Transcendence, Template:ISBN
• Kṛṣṇa, the Reservoir of Pleasure, Template:ISBN
• The Path of Perfection, Template:ISBN
• The Quest for Enlightenment, Template:ISBN

Sources

Academic and documentary

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Media

News

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Officials

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Videos

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ISKCON-related

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Works by Prabhupada's followers

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Further reading

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External links

• {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }} — Online repository of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's legacy
• {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }} – Official online multilingual library of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
• {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }} — Archives of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
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• Template:BNF – Bhaktivedanta Swami, A. C. (1896–1977)
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