A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami – The Well-wisher of All Humanity
The readers of this website will find frequent references to, and quotes from, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, or simply “Srila Prabhupada.” The reason for this is simple: he is the person whose translation of the Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic scriptures form the basis of my work. Let me tell you something about this very important personality.
Bhaktivedanta Swami broke with his spiritual tradition by coming to the West in 1965 to teach the ancient Vedic knowledge. Traditionally, monks and saintly persons would never consider leaving the shores of India to venture to the other parts of the world. The traditional viewpoint was that the saint would become compromised or fallen by mixing with people outside of Vedic culture.
But Bhaktivedanta Swami was not concerned with that because he knew what he had to offer was beyond material influence. Being aware how much the world was held in sway by the Americans he reasoned that if he could convince the Americans about the validity and need of Vedic knowledge, which he described as “Krishna Consciousness,” and create a movement of followers, he might be able to rectify the imbalance in a world’s misdirected civilization. It was a bold undertaking to say the least. However he had already realized the spiritual truths of Vedic knowledge and he thus knew that without the help of that same knowledge the world would simply flop around in the darkness of oblivion suffering needlessly in the attempt to simply survive. So he set out on his philanthropic mission via a trans-Atlantic steamer with a trunk of books that he had translated to English and struggled to print. His destination was the quiet town of Butler, Pennsylvania, the home of his American sponsor.
Quickly realizing that the residents of Butler could not fully appreciate what he had to offer he set out for New York City, where after almost a year of empty struggle he began to attract a following of young people who resonated with his message. Thus the Hare Krishna Movement was born in the Big Apple in the summer of 1966. Bhaktivedanta Swami, who became known as “Srila Prabhupada” to his disciples and followers, had a vision that the world would one day ring with the wonderful mantra that he had taught them—the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
To that end he encouraged his young and inexperienced followers to take great risks by opening temples in all major cities of the world. Within a few short years the now “International Society for Krishna Consciousness” was indeed international, and the Movement was causing a scene and attracting attention everywhere—especially after Beatle George Harrison joined their ranks and helped produce a record of the Hare Krishna chant that quickly reached the Number 1 spot on the hit charts. Srila Prabhupada’s followers attracted a great deal of attention due to their unique appearance with the men in shaven heads and orange robes and ladies in colorful saris. Their singing and dancing on the street also put them in a category of their own and they quickly became known as the “Hare Krishna’s.” In this unique way the Swami spread his message.
And what was that message? To inform everyone of the spiritual reality of our existence. Srila Prabhupada’s message was not some vague flowery words about love, or inexplicable “spiritual” statements like the sound of one hand clapping. His teachings explained the spiritual reality in words that any person could understand—something extremely new and unique. So startling was the plain truth of his teachings that upon reading his books people all over the world immediately knew that this was what they wanted to give their life to. And they did. In this way Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada accomplished in a short twelve years what no other person had done in the history of the world—successfully transplanting a complete spiritual culture into decidedly materialistic countries of the West.
The most essential aspect of his message was teaching how each and every person, as a spiritual being, could transfer themselves to the spiritual world following their present life. But spiritual emancipation was not all he spoke about. He also taught how this world, being created by God, could function nicely with full facility for living for every person. In other words, there need not be any hunger problem, no overpopulation problem, no environmental problem, no social problems, no economic problems—no problems of any kind—if people would simply learn how this world works and live accordingly. Neither is this a plan of drudgery and endless toil, but a happy, joyful and complete culture dedicated to God, in which all of people’s necessities, and especially their spiritual needs, would be fulfilled.
His accomplishments are extraordinary. He arrived in the United States in 1965 via passage he begged on an ocean freighter, surviving two heart attacks en route. With him he had a trunk of the sacred books, the foundation of his movement, that he had translated from Sanskrit. After one year of no apparent success his mission finally took root on Manhattan’s lower east side, a haunt of the hippies and bohemians who found his message an appealing positive alternative to the aimless protests against society that lacked a positive platform for action. His mission? A challenge to the godless civilization with the powers of light: the holy names of God and a revelation of spiritual truths revealed in the Vedic scriptures. With that he built an army of thousands of followers who established centers of worship in more than fifty major cities around the world in less than a decade.
Despite being in his 70s, with the energy of a young man he circled the globe fourteen times in the next eleven years, wrote and published some 40 books explaining essential spiritual truths, began a magazine that saw up to 1,000,000 copies printed in one month, promoted the establishment of farms as the seeds of an alternative spiritual culture, established three major international centers in India, and initiated more than 5,000 people into the Vaishnava tradition. On the foundation that he laid the mission has grown today to more than 500 centers in almost every country of the world.
Srila Prabhupada is without a doubt the well-wisher of everyone having given us an understanding of what “spiritual” actually means. He also showed us not only how to live happily in this life in practical lives of devotion, but to literally, live happily ever after achieving spiritual emancipation in just one lifetime.
To give the reader a brief glimpse of the character of Srila Prabhupada I offer this commentary he wrote on the following verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam (1.5.11):
PURPORT
It is a qualification of the great thinkers to pick up the best even from the worst. It is said that the intelligent man should pick up nectar from a stock of poison, should accept gold even from a filthy place, should accept a good and qualified wife even from an obscure family and should accept a good lesson even from a man or from a teacher who from an uncultured person. These are some of the ethical instructions for everyone in every place without exception. But a saint is far above the level of an ordinary man. He is always absorbed in glorifying the Supreme Lord because by broadcasting the holy name and fame of the Supreme Lord, the polluted atmosphere of the world will change, and as a result of propagating the transcendental literatures like Srimad Bhagavatam, people will become sane in their transactions.
While preparing this commentary on this particular stanza of Srimad Bhagavatam we have a crisis before us. Our neighboring friend China has attacked the border of India with a militaristic spirit. We have practically no business in the political field, yet we see that previously there were both China and India, and they both lived peacefully for centuries without ill feeling. The reason is that they lived those days in an atmosphere of God consciousness, and every country, over the surface of the world, was God-fearing, pure-hearted and simple, and there was no question of political diplomacy. There is no cause of quarrel between the two countries China and India over land which is not very suitable for habitation, and certainly there is no cause for fighting on this issue. But due to the age of quarrel, Kali, which we have discussed, there is always a chance of quarrel on slight provocation. This is due not to the issue in question, but to the polluted atmosphere of this age: systematically there is propaganda by a section of people to stop glorification of the name and fame of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, there is a great need for disseminating the message of Srimad Bhagavatam all over the world. It is the duty of every responsible Indian to broadcast the transcendental message of Srimad Bhagavatam throughout the world to do all the supermost good as well as to bring about the desired peace in the world. Because India has failed in her duty by neglecting this responsible work, there is so much quarrel and trouble all over the world.
We are confident that if the transcendental message of Srimad Bhagavatam is received only by the leading men of the world, certainly there will be a change of heart, and naturally the people in general will follow them. The mass of people in general are tools in the hands of the modern politicians and leaders of the people. If there is a change of heart of the leaders only, certainly there will be a radical change in the atmosphere of the world. We know that our honest attempt to present this great literature conveying transcendental messages for reviving the God consciousness of the people in general and re-spiritualizing the world atmosphere is fraught with many difficulties. Our presenting this matter in adequate language, especially a foreign language, will certainly fail, and there will be so many literary discrepancies despite our honest attempt to present it in the proper way. But we are sure that with all our faults in this connection the seriousness of the subject matter will be taken into consideration, and the leaders of society will still accept this due to its being an honest attempt to glorify the Almighty God. When there is fire in a house, the inmates of the house go out to get help from the neighbors who may be foreigners, and yet without knowing the language the victims of the fire express themselves, and the neighbors understand the need, even though not expressed in the same language. The same spirit of cooperation is needed to broadcast this transcendental message of the Srimad Bhagavatam throughout the polluted atmosphere of the world. After all, it is a technical science of spiritual values, and thus we are concerned with the techniques and not with the language. If the techniques of this great literature are understood by the people of the world, there will be success.
Our presentation of Spiritual Economics is based on Srila Prabhupada’s teachings, specifically his Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Isopanisad, and Srimad Bhagavatam. These books are his great gift to humanity. We encourage all visitors to this website to capture the great opportunity of learning from his books and lectures. Doing so will make your life sublime and help to change the polluted atmosphere of the Kali-yuga.
Below is a video biography offering some further insights into the history of this great personality. Continuing on this page below the video we offer free downloads of his books in various formats, as well as audio books.
Srila Prabhupada’s Books
Srila Prabhupada’s teachings are widely available as a gift to humanity, and have been translated into more than 40 languages. If you prefer another language please inquire from the ISKCON temple(s) of that country. Click on the image of the book to download the Kindle version. The essential teachings that we refer to often are presented below. All of Srila Prabhupada’s other books, as well as his lectures in mp3 format are available as ebooks from here. Paper books can be purchased here in America, and here in Europe. Or they can be purchased from the local Hare Krishna temple.
The Sri Isopanisad is considered the foremost of the 108 Upanisads. It offers essential spiritual truths beginning with the Isavasyam Principle – Everything Belongs to God!
Presented with the original Sanskrit text, transliterations, English synonyms and purports, by a self-realized spiritual master (Acharya), this book is recommended for the novices and neophytes as well as the most highly elevated souls.
To download in PDF format right click HERE and choose “Save As.”
To download in epub format, right click HERE and choose “Save As.”
To download an audio version of this book, this link will take you to that page.
The Bhagavad-gita As It Is explains the essential and fundamental spiritual truths of life: We are not the body, how the soul lives in and is affected by this world, the nature of God and how He controls His various energies, how to achieve the transcendental state of existence and how to transfer oneself to the spiritual world. Bhagavad-gita will clear up all of your spiritual questions once and for all.
To download in PDF format with original art work and a clickable Table of Contents, right click HERE and choose “Save As.”
To download in epub format, right click HERE and choose “Save As.”
To download an audio version of this book, this link will take you to that page.
KRSNA – The Supreme Personality of Godhead. The KRSNA Book explains the appearance of the Supreme Lord on this planet some 5,000 years ago, as well as His many amazing pastimes. This book explains in an easily understandable manner the science of God.
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To download an audio version of this book, this link will take you to that page.
Within the interviews, lectures, essays and letters of The Science of Self Realization Srila Prabhupada describes practicing yoga in the modern age. Topics include karma and reincarnation, supreconsciousness, how to choose a guru, Krishna and Christ, and spiritual solutions to todays social and economic problems.
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To download in epub format, right click HERE and choose “Save As.”
To download an audio version of this book, this link will take you to that page.