A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ( born September 1, 1896 in Calcutta, India, † November 14, 1977 in Vrindavan, real name: Abhay Charan De "in the protection of the lotus feet of the Lord fearlessly " ) was the author, commentator and translator known the holy scriptures of Hinduism, as well as founder of the International society for Krishna consciousness (ISKCON ).

Life

Abhay grew up in Calcutta in modest circumstances. Great influence on him was the Krishna - worship of his father. As a teenager, he became a follower of Gandhi, but of whose beliefs he broke up later.

Between 1916 and 1920, visited the Scottish Church College Abhay in Kolkata, where he met Christianity and the Western lifestyle. He became friends with a Christian teacher, William Spence Urquhart, whose Bible study he visited daily.

In 1922, he first met his spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, the leader of the organization Gaudiya Math ( Order of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas ). This convinced the young Abhay to translate the writings and teachings of the Gaudiya Vaishnava religion in the English language and to spread missionary. First, however, Abhay worked as a trader of pharmaceutical products. 1933 Abhay was formally initiated as a disciple of Srila Saraswati.

Abhay published in 1944 without outside help, the magazine Back to Godhead. At that time, the magazine but no success was granted. Today there will be continued by his students. At its heyday in the 1970s it reached a monthly circulation of several million copies and was translated into up to 19 languages.

In 1947, the Gaudiya Vaishnava Society Gaudiya Math Abhay honored with the title Bhaktivedanta (see Bhakti and Vedanta ).

Abhay Bhaktivedanta retired in 1950 more and more from family life back in order to devote himself to his studies and his writing activities, more time can. He lived in medieval temple of Radha - Damodara in Vrindavan, a place of pilgrimage in North India. In 1959 he participated in an initiation as a mendicant and itinerant preacher ( sannyasa ) from his sannyasa -guru Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Goswami Maharaja in Sri Gaudiya Math in Mathura Kesavaji.

1965 AC Bhaktivedanta Swami traveled to the United States of America. His early followers, almost exclusively young people of the emerging hippie movement, called him Swamiji and later Prabhupada.

A year later, he founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness ( ISKCON ). In just one decade, the community developed into an organization of nearly 100 temples, schools, institutes and farm communities. AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada dictated numerous books, lectured, founded the temple and helped its up to ten thousand students in the organization of ISKCON. He also introduced the traditional annual Ratha Yatra - car festivals where idols are carried in temple chariots ( Ratha ), in many western cities. In 1972 the first Gurukula school was opened, which is based on the Vedic system of elementary and secondary education. Despite his age, he traveled several times around the world.

Died in 1977 AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada after several months of severe suffering in Vrindavan. He dictated to a short time before his death Comments on the Srimad- Bhagavatam, one of the classics of Puranic literature.

While still alive put Prabhupada one more person committee, the Governing Body Commission (GBC ), a working out through majority decisions the essential direction and strategy of ISKCON at international level. After his death, took and takes the GBC as an institution, the role of the successor of a Prabhupada.

Work

From his successors and disciples as " His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada " ( His Divine Grace ... ) or simply " Srila Prabhupada " (Holy Prabhupada ) and " founder - acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness " honored to be found today in the most temples of ISKCON around the world an almost lifelike looking picture figure of its founder. This deity is offered a ceremonial sacrifice every day and it is taken in similar dimensions and serves as the actual image forms of each temple (mostly of Krishna or Chaitanya ).

Worldwide attention was provided with its detailed comments translations of the most important works of Vaishnavas. These are mainly commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita ( Bhagavad -gītā as it is ), the Srimad Bhagavatam ( in twelve volumes ) and the Chaitanya - caritamrta ( in eleven volumes ), which were printed in millions of copies and been translated into many languages ​​and also are still available today. There are also several smaller works, often compilations of lectures and discussions that are being sold by members of ISKCON and is distributed on the street for a donation, for example, " Krishna - The source of all joy."

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