A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 103

In 1972, His Divine Grace introduced the Vedic system
of primary and secondary education in the West by found-
ing the Gurukula school in Dallas, Texas. The school began
with three children in 1972, and by the beginning of 1975
the enrollment had grown to one hundred fifty.

Srila Prabhupada has also inspired the construction of a
large international center at Sridhama Miyapur in West
Bengal, India, which is also the site for a planned Institute
of Vedic Studies. A similar project is the magnificent Krsna-
Balarama Temple and International Guest House in
Vrndavana, India. These are centers where Westerners can
live to gain firsthand experience of Vedic culture.

Srila Prabhupada’s most significant contribution,
however, is his books. Highly respected by the academic
community for their authoritativeness, depth and clarity,
they are used as standard textbooks in numerous college
courses. His writings have been translated into eleven
languages. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, established in
1972 exclusively to publish the works of His Divine Grace,
has thus become the world’s largest publisher of books in
the field of Indian religion and philosophy. Its latest project
is the publishing of Srila Prabhupada’s most recent work: a
seventeen-volume translation and commentary—com-
pleted by Srila Prabhupada in only eighteen months—on
the Bengali religious classic Sri Caitanya-caritamrta.

In the past ten years, in spite of his advanced age, Srila
Prabhupada has circled the globe twelve times on lecture
tours that have taken him to six continents. In spite of such
a vigorous schedule, Srila Prabhupada continues to write
prolifically. His writings constitute a veritable library of
Vedic philosophy, religion, literature and culture.
