Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
We call Srila Prabhupada "his Divine Grace" because through him we receive God's grace: knowledge of the spiritual science whereby we can perfect our relationship with the Supreme Lord. Srila Prabhupada is a perfact medium for Krsna's grace.
In the summer of 1965, at the advanced age of sixty-nine, Srila Prabhupada sailed from Calcutta to America to fulfill his guru's order to bring Krsna consciousness to the West. Braving a heart attack on the way, Prabhupada arrived in Boston with a few trunks full of books, a few private belongings, and five dollars.
In the twelve years between his arrival in America and his passing away in November 1977, Srila Prabhupada made "Hare Krsna" household words across the globe. Thus he fulfilled the five-hundred-year-old prophecy that Krsna consciousness would be spread to the whole planet. He inspired his disciples to open more than a hundred temples, farm communities, vegetarian restaurants, schools, and institutes on six continents. He circled the globe fourteen times, lecturing daily and meeting with many world figures, religionists, and scholars, whom he encouraged to pursue Krsna consciousness.
Despite his busy schedule, Srila Prabhupada found time to write some seventy books on the science of Krsna consciousness. Fifty of them are translations from Sanskrit with alaborate commentaries, and they present an encylopedic treatment of India's Vedic philosophy, religion, literature, and culture. Scholars worldwide acknowledge his books as works of gifted scholarship, exceptionally valuable for understanding the science of awakening pure love for God.
One of Srila Prabhupada's most outstanding accomplishments was his bringing us the message of Bhagavad-gita intact, just as a faithful postman delivers mail without tempering with the contents.
The essence of the Gita's message is summed up in the title of the magazine Srila Prabhupada started in 1944 Back to Godhead. By perfecting our Krsna consciousness, we embodied souls can get free from the miseries of repeated birth, death, old age, and disease and go back home, back to Godhead, the spiritual world. In teaching this vital spiritual science, both by his precept and by his example, Srila Prabhupada showered us with divine grace.