| About the Author
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| His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupdada ap-
peared in this world in 1896 in Calcutta, India. He first met his
spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, in
Calcutta in 1922. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, a prominent religious — -
, scholar and the founder of sixty-four Gaudiya Mathas (Vedic in-
Stitutes), liked this educated young man and convinced him to
dedicate his life to teaching Vedic knowledge. Srila Prabhupada
became his student, and eleven years later (1933) at Allahabad he
became his formally initiated disciple.
At their first meeting, in 1922, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
. Thakura requested Srila Prabhupada to broadcast Vedic knowl-
edge through the English language. In the years that followed,
Srila Prabhupada wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gita,
assisted the Gaudiya Matha in its work and, in 1944, without assis-
tance, started an English fortnightly magazine, edited it, typed the
, manuscripts, and checked the galley proofs. He even distributed
the individual copies and struggled to maintain the publication.
Once begun, the magazine never stopped; it is now being con-
tinued by his disciples in the West and is published in over twenty
languages.
: Recognizing Srila Prabhupada’s philosophical learning and de-
; votion, the Gaudiya Vaisnava Society honored him in 1947 with
the title ‘‘Bhaktivedanta.”’ In 1950, at the age of fifty-four, Srila
Prabhupada retired from married life, adopting the vanaprastha
(retired) order to devote more timé to his studies and writing.
Srila Prabhupada traveled to the holy city of Vrndavana, where he
lived in very humble circumstances in the historic medieval tem-
, , ple of Radha-Damodara. There he engaged for several years in
deep study and writing. He accepted the renounced order of life
(sannydsa) in 1959. At Radha-Damodara, Srila Prabhupada began
, work on his life’s masterpiece: a multivolume translation of and
commentary on the eighteen-thousand-verse Srimad-Bhagavatam
(Bhdagavata Purana). He also wrote Easy Journey to Other Planets.
After publishing three volumes of the Bhdgavatam, Srila
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