A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

The founder of the Hare Krishna Movement [Asp001]

For centuries, the wisdom and culture of bhakti-yoga—Krishna consciousness—were practiced mainly within India. Today, millions around the world honor Srila Prabhupada for sharing this timeless path of devotion globally.

Born Abhay Charan De on September 1, 1896, in Calcutta, he grew up with a love for spirituality and service. As a young man, he joined Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement, but in 1922, a meeting with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, a prominent spiritual leader, redirected his life. That moment planted the seed for a mission that would transform the world.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta was a leading teacher in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, a monotheistic path within Hindu culture. At their very first meeting, he urged Abhay to share Krishna’s teachings with the English-speaking world. Inspired and humbled, Abhay became his disciple in 1933, dedicating himself to that calling.

In 1965, at the age of sixty-nine, Abhay—now honored as A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada—boarded a cargo ship bound for New York. He carried little more than a trunk of sacred books and seven dollars. After a perilous journey, he began teaching in small lofts and parks in New York City, attracting young seekers with his wisdom, compassion, and joyful kirtan (devotional chanting).

In 1966, he formally founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). In just eleven years, he circled the globe 14 times, established temples and communities worldwide, launched the Food for Life relief program, and published over 70 authoritative books on the Krishna tradition—many of which remain widely respected by scholars and practitioners today.

Srila Prabhupada passed away in 1977 in the holy town of Vrindavana, surrounded by his students. His legacy continues through the global ISKCON movement, his translated works, and the communities that live by his vision of peace, devotion, and spiritual unity. [Asp002]