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 Bhaktivi-
node 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 our 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.
