His
Divine Grace
 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 Prabhupada wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gita
and in 1944, without assistance, started an English fortnightly magazine.
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
(sannyasa) in 1959. At Radha-Damodara, Srila Prabhupada began work
on his life's masterpiece: a multivolume translation and commentary on
the 18,000-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 sixty 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 grew within a decade to a worldwide
confederation of almost one hundred asramas, 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, then a thriving
farm community of more than one thousand acres, his students founded several
similar communities in the United States and abroad.
In 1972, His Divine Grace
introduced the Vedic system of primary and secondary education in the West
by founding 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 also
inspired the construction of a large international center at Sridhama Mayapur
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.
In the last ten years
of his life, in spite of his advanced age, Srila Prabhupada circled the
globe twelve times on lecture tours that have took him to six continents.
In spite of such a vigorous schedule, Srila Prabhupada continued to write
prolifically. His writings constitute a veritable library of Vedic philosophy,
religion, literature and culture.
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