Sri la prabhupada biography definitions

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As a youth growing up in British-controlled India, Abhay became involved with Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement to secure independence for his nation. Before Srila Prabhupada passed away on November 14, 1977 at the age of 81, his mission proved successful. It was, however, a 1922 meeting with a prominent scholar and religious leader, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, which proved most influential on Abhay’s future calling.

And then, whatever they decided, they should do. With beginning the translation of the Bhagavatam from Sanskrit to English, Prabhupada was preparing to fulfill his spiritual master’s order to preach in the West.

But the best was yet to come – Prabhupada’s initial English translation would prove to be the first stepping stone in “a lifetime in preparation.” As Satsvarupa Goswami wrote years later in the authorized biography Srila Prabhupada-lilamrita, Vol.

1, Ch. 10: “He had not come to Vrindavan to die and return to Godhead. The exact shape of his future mission Bhaktivedanta Swami did not know, but he did know that he must prepare himself for preaching Srimad-Bhagavatam to the English-speaking Western world.”

So in 1965 at the age of sixty-nine, he left his homeland on a freight ship bound for the United States of America.

And his disciples were thus empowered and inspired by him to give up everything in their lives to distribute them to the masses of fallen embodied humans in non-stop marathons. These are centers where Westerners can live to gain firsthand experience of Vedic culture.

Srila Prabhupada's most significant contribution, however, is his books. In 1950, at the age of fifty-four, Srila Prabhupada retired from married life, and four years later he adopted the vanaprastha (retired) order to devote more time to his studies and writing.

He first met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, in Calcutta in 1922. Eventually Srila Prabhupada called a meeting with all the devotees, and he heard all of their complaints. He set up residence in Vrindavan, the birthplace of Lord Krishna. The temple president had somehow become preoccupied with doing business - for the temple, but doing business nonetheless - and he wasn't taking care of the devotees.

We weren't getting proper food, we were new in India, and we depended on the temple president to make many arrangements for us. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, established in 1972 exclusively to publish the works of His Divine Grace, has thus become the world’s largest publisher of books in the field of Indian religion and philosophy.

In the last ten years of his life, in spite of his advanced age, Srila Prabhupada circled the globe twelve times on lecture tours that took him to six continents.

Rather, he had come because it was the ideal place to gain spiritual strength for his main life’s work. On July 11, 1966, he officially registered his organization in the state of New York, formally founding the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

In the eleven years that followed, Srila Prabhupada circled the globe 14 times on lecture tours, bringing the teachings of Lord Krishna to thousands of people on six continents.

He then began working on the 5th Canto that was completed in early 1975. A similar project is the magnificent Krsna-Balarama Temple and International Guest House in Vrndavana, India. Sometime in 1970 - 1971 he resumed 3rd Canto and oversaw the publication of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is by McMillan in 1972. He was finally on his way to fulfill his master’s desire to distribute bhakti yoga (the practice of devotion to the Lord) outside the borders of India.