306 THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION

it grow to a worldwide confederation of more than one hundred ashrams,
schools, temples, institutes, and farm communities.

In 1968, Srila Prabhupada created New Vrndavana, an experimental
Vedic community in the hills of West Virginia. Inspired by the success of
New Vrndavana (now a thriving farm community of more than one thou-
sand acres), his students have since founded several similar communities
in the United States and abroad.

In 1975 Srila Prabhupada’s magnificent Krsna-Balarama Temple and
International Guesthouse opened in Vrndavana, India. In 1978 a four-
acre cultural complex (including a temple, modern theater, guesthouse,
and vegetarian restaurant) opened at Juhu Beach, in Bombay. Perhaps
Srila Prabhupada’s most ambitious project is a planned city of fifty thou-
sand residents in Mayapur, West Bengal. Sridhama Mayapur will stand as
a model for the whole world—a microcosm of Vedic life as it was five
thousand years ago.

In addition, Srila Prabhupada gave the West the Vedic system of pri-
mary and secondary education. The gurukula (‘‘the school of the spiritual
master’’) started only in 1972, but already it has hundreds of students
and many branches around the world.

Srila Prabhupada’s most significant contribution, of course, is his
books. The academic community respects them for their authoritative-
ness, depth, and clarity, and has made them standard textbooks in
numerous college courses. In addition, translations of Srila Prabhupada’s
books now appear in twenty-five languages. The Bhaktivedanta Book
Trust, established in 1972 primarily 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. A recent project has been the publish-
ing of a seventeen-volume translation and commentary —which Srila
Prabhupadda completed in only eighteen months—on the Bengali
religious classic Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. In just twelve years, in spite of
his advanced age, Srila Prabhupada circled the globe fourteen times on
lecture tours that took him to six continents. In spite of such a vigorous
schedule, Srila Prabhupada continued to write prolifically. His writings
are a library of Vedic philosophy, religion, and culture.
