Page 27 - WIS - Eng

About Çréla Prabhupäda

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda
appeared in this world in 1896 in Calcutta, India. In 1922 he
first met his spiritual master, Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté
Öhäkura, a prominent religious scholar and the founder of sixty-
four Gauòéya Maöhas. Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté liked this
educated young man and convinced him to dedicate his life to
teaching Vedic knowledge. Çréla Prabhupäda thus became a
student of Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté, and eleven years later
(1933), in Allahabad, a formally initiated disciple.
At their first meeting, Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura
had requested Çréla Prabhupäda to broadcast Vedic knowledge via
the English language. In the years that followed, Çréla Prabhupäda
wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gétä, assisted the Gauòéya
Maöha in its work, and, in 1944, started Back to Godhead, an
English fortnightly magazine. Recognizing Çréla Prabhupäda’s
philosophical learning and devotion, in 1947 the Gauòéya Vaiñëava
Society honored him with the title Bhaktivedanta. In 1950, at the
age of fifty-four, Çréla Prabhupäda retired from married life, and in
1959 he accepted the renounced order of life (sannyäsa).
After publishing three volumes of the Çrémad-Bhägavatam, in
September 1965 Çréla Prabhupäda came to the United States to
fulfill the mission of his spiritual master. When he first arrived
by steamer in New York City, he was practically penniless. Only
after almost a year of great difficulty was he able to establish the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (iskcon), in July
1966. Before his passing away, on 14 November 1977, he had guided
the Society and seen it grow to a worldwide confederation of more
than one hundred establishments—temples, ashrams, schools,
institutes, and agrarian communities.

143