ABOUT THE AUTHOR
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was born Abhay Charan De on September 1, 1896 in Calcutta. In 1920 he finished his schooling, majoring in philosophy, English and economics at the University of Calcutta. Soon afterward, Abhay Charan De took up the duties of manager of a large chemical concern. Then in 1922, he met His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Cosvami Maharaj, the founder of 64 Caudiya Vaisnava Maths in India, Berlin and London. Bhaktivedanta Swami recently recalled the key to his approaching his spiritual master: “When I first started going to see my Guru Maharaj, he said of me, ‘This boy hears very nicely. He does not go away. So I shall make him a disciple.’ That was my qualification, or whatever you may call it. I would simply ask when Guru Maharaj would speak, then I’d sit down and go on hearing. I would understand, or not understand; others would disperse, I’d not disperse. So he remarked, ‘This boy is interested to hear.’ Because I was serious in hearing, therefore I am now serious about  kirtanam , which means speaking or preaching. If one has heard nicely, then he will speak nicely.”
At Allahabad in 1933, Abhay Charan De was formally initiated, and in 1936, just days before Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s departure from this mortal world, he was specifically ordered to spread Krsna consciousness in the English language to the West.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, known as Prabhupada to his disciples, has told us that at first he did not take the mission given to him by his spiritual master with the utmost seriousness. But then he was reading a  Bhagavad-gita  commentary written by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, who was the father of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and the pioneer of the Krsna consciousness movement in the modern age. Srila Bhaktivinode has written that just as one cannot separate the body from the soul while in this conditioned state, so the disciple cannot separate the spiritual master’s order from his very life. Bhaktivedanta Swami took these words seriously, and gradually his whole life became dedicated to carrying out the orders of his Guru Maharaj. In 1959 he took  sannyasa , the renounced order of spiritual life, and in 1965, at the advanced age of 70, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami arrived in New York City to fulfill his master’s sacred mission.