It all started on a small store front on 26 Second Avenue in New York. The store was named Matchless Gifts. How prophetic it would be for what followed. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, lovingly called Srila Prabhupada, started a movement in the most unlikely of places to give the world the matchless gift of Krishna Consciousness.
Srila Prabhupada, a sanyasi who was living in Vrindavan, the holiest of all places, embarked on a journey to the west in 1965 at the age of 69 on a cargo ship called Jaladuta. He took the journey just because his Spiritual Master, Srila Bhakti Siddantha Saraswati had instructed him to preach Krishna Consciousness to the English speaking people of the world.
He didn't have to leave Vrindavan at such an old age. He had been serving his Spiritual Master throughout his life by preaching in English. He started a magazine called Back to Godhead in 1944. He began to write translations and commentaries on Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Caitanya Caritamrita, and other Vedic literatures. Nobody could have accused him of not heeding to his spiritual master's instructions.
Yet, out of his compassion and his unflinching faith in his spiritual master and Krishna, he came to New York after enduring two heart attacks during the journey. He could have still returned back to India as soon as he arrived citing his ill health. He didn't know anybody in the country, he didn't have a place to stay and had about 4-5 dollars when he arrived. When he arrived in Boston port, his port of entry into the United States, before leaving to New York, he wrote a poem titled Markine Bhagavata−dharma. It is a beautiful poem where He starts by saying
My dear Lord Krsna, You are so kind upon this useless soul, but I do not know why You have brought me here. Now You can do whatever You like with me.
and ends by saying
O Lord, I am just like a puppet in Your hands. So if You have brought me here to dance, then make me dance, make me dance, O Lord, make me dance as You like.
He started a movement in the most unlikely of circumstances and places, at the heart of American counter culture in Bowery, New York. In the next 10 years he would circle the globe 14 times, build 108 temples all over the world, initiate thousands of disciples, who were about 40-50 years younger than him and would trust him to dedicate their lives for him.
It has been 50 years since the inception of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1966. The movement has since grown leaps and bounds and yet only a very few people outside of the society know about Srila Prabhupada. He was very specific about always keeping Krishna or God in the center and not anybody else.
Especially in the times that we live in, the world would immensely benefit from knowing about Srila Prabhupada and his teachings. Even if viewed from a secular perspective, the things that he accomplished in such a short period of time, that too in the home stretch of his life where most of us would retire and take pleasure in relaxing, are remarkable to say the least.
He was a great scholar, a great leader, a great manager, a great teacher and a great social reformer. He translated and wrote commentaries to more than sixty Vedic scriptures. More than half a billion of books authored by him have been distributed all over the world. He led thousands of his disciples by inspiring them and moving them from place to place and getting them do things that they never thought they would be able to do. He managed a word wide movement and was an exemplary teacher to his disciples. He mentored them and guided them personally by responding to each and every query of theirs by writing letters while doing everything else. He brought back the varnasrama system, where in the divisions of human society is based on the quality and work and not by birth. He gave brahminical initiations to his disciples who were not born in brahmin families but had qualities and work that would qualify them as brahmanas.
A person would be considered a great even if he had mastered one of the above mentioned qualities. Srila Prabhupada was a master at all of them and yet the world outside ISKCON knows very little about him. This article is a very humble effort of mine wherein I have just scratched the surface of what Srila Prabhupada accomplished during his stay in this world. He built a house in which the whole world can live in.
Srila Prabhupada, a sanyasi who was living in Vrindavan, the holiest of all places, embarked on a journey to the west in 1965 at the age of 69 on a cargo ship called Jaladuta. He took the journey just because his Spiritual Master, Srila Bhakti Siddantha Saraswati had instructed him to preach Krishna Consciousness to the English speaking people of the world.
He didn't have to leave Vrindavan at such an old age. He had been serving his Spiritual Master throughout his life by preaching in English. He started a magazine called Back to Godhead in 1944. He began to write translations and commentaries on Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Caitanya Caritamrita, and other Vedic literatures. Nobody could have accused him of not heeding to his spiritual master's instructions.
Yet, out of his compassion and his unflinching faith in his spiritual master and Krishna, he came to New York after enduring two heart attacks during the journey. He could have still returned back to India as soon as he arrived citing his ill health. He didn't know anybody in the country, he didn't have a place to stay and had about 4-5 dollars when he arrived. When he arrived in Boston port, his port of entry into the United States, before leaving to New York, he wrote a poem titled Markine Bhagavata−dharma. It is a beautiful poem where He starts by saying
My dear Lord Krsna, You are so kind upon this useless soul, but I do not know why You have brought me here. Now You can do whatever You like with me.
and ends by saying
O Lord, I am just like a puppet in Your hands. So if You have brought me here to dance, then make me dance, make me dance, O Lord, make me dance as You like.
He started a movement in the most unlikely of circumstances and places, at the heart of American counter culture in Bowery, New York. In the next 10 years he would circle the globe 14 times, build 108 temples all over the world, initiate thousands of disciples, who were about 40-50 years younger than him and would trust him to dedicate their lives for him.
It has been 50 years since the inception of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1966. The movement has since grown leaps and bounds and yet only a very few people outside of the society know about Srila Prabhupada. He was very specific about always keeping Krishna or God in the center and not anybody else.
Especially in the times that we live in, the world would immensely benefit from knowing about Srila Prabhupada and his teachings. Even if viewed from a secular perspective, the things that he accomplished in such a short period of time, that too in the home stretch of his life where most of us would retire and take pleasure in relaxing, are remarkable to say the least.
He was a great scholar, a great leader, a great manager, a great teacher and a great social reformer. He translated and wrote commentaries to more than sixty Vedic scriptures. More than half a billion of books authored by him have been distributed all over the world. He led thousands of his disciples by inspiring them and moving them from place to place and getting them do things that they never thought they would be able to do. He managed a word wide movement and was an exemplary teacher to his disciples. He mentored them and guided them personally by responding to each and every query of theirs by writing letters while doing everything else. He brought back the varnasrama system, where in the divisions of human society is based on the quality and work and not by birth. He gave brahminical initiations to his disciples who were not born in brahmin families but had qualities and work that would qualify them as brahmanas.
A person would be considered a great even if he had mastered one of the above mentioned qualities. Srila Prabhupada was a master at all of them and yet the world outside ISKCON knows very little about him. This article is a very humble effort of mine wherein I have just scratched the surface of what Srila Prabhupada accomplished during his stay in this world. He built a house in which the whole world can live in.
