Master who dreamt big: Srila A C Bhakthivedantha Swami Prabhupada.
He was 69 when His divine Grace Abhaya Charanaravinda Bhaktivedantha Swami Prabhupada (A C Bhakthivedantha Prabhupada) to see his forty years' dream to fructfy. At the orders of his master Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Saraswati Goswami, the greatest devotee of Krishna of his time, he set to travel ourside India to spread the message of Sri Krishna.
On September,17,1965, when he first arrived on a complimentary passage by freighter S S Jaladuta in New York City, Srila Prabhupada had forty rupees and an Indian steel trunk full of vedic litrature and an umbrella with him. It was after almost a year of great difficulty that he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISCON) in July of 1966. Under his careful guidance, the Society grew within a decade to a worldwide confederation of almost one hundred asramas, schools, temples, institutes and farm communities. Next twelve years after his arrival in America the Hare Krishna movement spread to major cities worldwide. Today ISCON movement has spread in six continents with thousands of dedicated followers. His life itself is an awe inspiring movement.
Srila Prabhupada's most significant contribution,apart from ISCON, however, is his books. Highly respected by the academic community for their authoritativeness, depth and clarity, his books are used as standard textbooks in numerous college courses. He has translated, written and published 51 volumes of books. His writings have been translated into twenty-eight languages. Tens and millions of which have been distributed all over the world. He has delivered thousands of lectures, written letters and taken part numerous discussions with scholars and critics.
On November 14, 1977 great Vishnava Srila Bhaktivendantha Swami passed away at the age of 81 in Vrindavan. It is an astonishing story as to how a person could acomplish such a fete between his age of 70 and 82.
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.
He was 69 when His divine Grace Abhaya Charanaravinda Bhaktivedantha Swami Prabhupada (A C Bhakthivedantha Prabhupada) to see his forty years' dream to fructfy. At the orders of his master Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Saraswati Goswami, the greatest devotee of Krishna of his time, he set to travel ourside India to spread the message of Sri Krishna.
On September,17,1965, when he first arrived on a complimentary passage by freighter S S Jaladuta in New York City, Srila Prabhupada had forty rupees and an Indian steel trunk full of vedic litrature and an umbrella with him. It was after almost a year of great difficulty that he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISCON) in July of 1966. Under his careful guidance, the Society grew within a decade to a worldwide confederation of almost one hundred asramas, schools, temples, institutes and farm communities. Next twelve years after his arrival in America the Hare Krishna movement spread to major cities worldwide. Today ISCON movement has spread in six continents with thousands of dedicated followers. His life itself is an awe inspiring movement.
Srila Prabhupada's most significant contribution,apart from ISCON, however, is his books. Highly respected by the academic community for their authoritativeness, depth and clarity, his books are used as standard textbooks in numerous college courses. He has translated, written and published 51 volumes of books. His writings have been translated into twenty-eight languages. Tens and millions of which have been distributed all over the world. He has delivered thousands of lectures, written letters and taken part numerous discussions with scholars and critics.
On November 14, 1977 great Vishnava Srila Bhaktivendantha Swami passed away at the age of 81 in Vrindavan. It is an astonishing story as to how a person could acomplish such a fete between his age of 70 and 82.
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.
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