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. Bhakti-
siddhanta Sarasvati, a prominent religious scholar and the founder of
sixty-four Gaudiya Mathas (Vedic institutes), 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 knowledge
through the English language. In the years that followed, Srila Prabhu-
pada 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 and struggled to
maintain the publication. Once begun, the magazine never stopped; it is
now being continued by his disciples in the West and is published in
nineteen languages.

Recognizing Srila Prabhupdda’s philosophical learning and devo-
tion, 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 time to his studies and writing. Srila Prabhupada traveled to
the holy city of Vrndavana, where he lived in very humble circum-
stances in the historic medieval temple of Radha-Damodara. There he
engaged for several years in deep study and writing. He accepted the re-
nounced order of life (sannydsa) in 1959. At Radha-Damodara, Srila
Prabhupada began work on his life’s masterpiece: a multivolume trans-
lation of and commentary on the eighteen-thousand-verse Srimad-
Bhégavatam (Bhagavata Purana). He also wrote Easy Journey to Other
Planets.

After publishing three volumes of the Bhégavatam, Srila Prabhupada
came to the United States, in 1965, to fulfill the mission of his spiritual
master. Subsequently, His Divine Grace wrote more than sixty volumes

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