Founder Acharya of ISKCON AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad was born in September 1896 in a tradition of the Baishnav family in Kolkata. His early name was Abhay Chandra Dey. His father was Gour Mohan Dey. His mother was Rajani Devi and his wife was Radharani Dutta. His family’s presiding deity was Radha Gopal Jew, who had been worshiped in his family for more than 150 years. His mother’s aim was that his son will be an advocate and earn a good name and fame by visiting foreign countries. His father wanted him to be a devotee of the lord. Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur was his Guru. He met him in the year 1922.
The Founder of Goudiya Mutt, Maha Bhagabat, great scholar Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur was a known name who sought to spread the Hare Krishna movement all over the world and preach Mahaprabhu’s Bani. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave initiation to Abhay in the year 1933 and his name became AC Bhaktivedanta Swami.
Prabhupad started a weekly spiritual magazine named "Back to God head” in the year 1944 as per advice of his Guru. He left his Grihastha Ashram and entered into Banaprsta life at the age of 54 in 1950. After 4 years at Lord Krishna’s land, Vrindaban, he engaged himself on Bhagabat seva at Radha Damodar Temple. There he discovered many Shastras and deeply read them and made analysis of them.
He translated the Gita, Bhagabat, Chaitanya Charitamrita etc in English language to disseminate their hidden knowledge to a wider section of readers. He had translated 700 slokas of Bhagavad Gita and 18,000 slokas Bhagabat in English language. In 1965, he proceeded to the USA on the ship of the Sindhia Group. He reached Boston city to preach the Hare Krishna movement in the west. In Buston city near Dumpkin square park, he performed kirtan with help of Kartal (clapping). Within a year, he established the Krishna Consciousness Society Centre in the USA. In this one year, he got opposition from the public and so many adverse remarks from the western people. But he was unfazed. In the next 10 years, the Hare Krishna movement covered all the world with his intellectual and administrative capacity.
He established 100 Ashrams, Gurukuls, temples and farm houses in the western countries. Prabhupad wrote more than 80 books in English language and travelled the world 12 times and spread the Hare Krishna movement. He established 108 centers among which ISKCON, Bhubaneswar was the last one. In 1968 in the hills of west America at Verginia, Prabhupad established the New Vrindaban Temple, whose area is 3000 acres. He established a spiritual Indian Vedic civilization institution before the people of America. He established Gurukul in the Vedic culture in Texas. Thousands of students are reading Hindu religious books there. Likewise, there is a Gurukul institution in Vrindavan.
Prabhupad reestablished Sanatan Dharma at Mayapur and imparted preaching and training about the Bhagabat culture. The most valuable gift of Srila Prabhupad to the people of the world is his books and shastras. He established the Bhaktivedanta Institute in 1972 to publish his writing, where he appointed his noble scientific scholar and his disciple Srila Bhakti Swarup Damodar Swami Maharaj as chief. The institution is the biggest Indian spiritual publication centre all over the world.
(The writer is State PRO, ISKCON, Bhubaneswar Mob: 9132090199)