The Author

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada appeared 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
devotional 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, Stila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura requested
Srila Prabhupada to broadcast Vedic knowledge 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 assistance,
started an English fortnightly magazine, edited it, typed the manuscripts and
checked the galley proofs. He even distributed the individual copies freely and
struggled to maintain the publication. Once begun, the magazine never stopped;
it is now being continued by his disciples in the West.

Recognizing Srila Prabhupada’s philosophical learning and devotion, 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, and four
years later he adopted the vanaprastha (retired) order to devote more time 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 temple 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
and commentary on the eighteen thousand verse Srimad-Bhagavatam
(Bhagavata Purana). He also wrote Easy Journey to Other Planets.

After publishing three volumes of Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada came to the
United States, in 1965, to fulfill the mission of his spiritual master. Since that time,
His Divine Grace has written over forty volumes of authoritative translations,
commentaries and summary studies of the philosophical and religious classics of
India.

In 1965, when he first arrived by freighter in New York City, Srila Prabhupada
was practically penniless. It was after almost a year of great difficulty that he
established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in July of 1966.
Under his careful guidance, the Society has grown within a decade to a world-
wide confederation of almost one hundred dasramas, schools, temples, institutes
and farm communities.

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

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