Srila Prabhupada was born in Calcutta, India in 1896 as Abhay Charan De. From birth he always remembered and loved Kṛṣṇa. As a married man at age 26 he met his spiritual master who instructed him to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the Western countries. In 1944, while still married he started the Back to Godhead magazine in India and distributed it personally. In 1959 at age 63 he entered the renounced order of life and began final preparations to travel to America, praying at Sri Sri Radha Damodar temple in Vrndavana, India and publishing the first volumes of the transcendental Srimad Bhagavatam.

In 1965, at the age of 69 Srila Prabhupada set out on a cargo ship on a treacherous journey across the Indian and Atlantic oceans, suffering two heart attacks in the process. First setting foot in Boston, he then struggled in New York’s Bowery neighborhood before finally settling in the Lower East Side Manhattan where he began chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa Maha Mantra, officially inaugurating the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in America. Many young Americans were attracted by his pure chanting of this spiritual sound vibration and stayed on as his disciples, spreading the chanting across America, Europe and the World.

Srila Prabhupada spent 12 years circling the globe bringing joy to all of his students while teaching them the complete science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and the 9 devotional processes to loving Kṛṣṇa. Srila Prabhupada perfectly exemplified his teachings and was thus considered an acharya, or one who teaches love of God by spotless example. He taught how to chant and dance, worship and cook for the deity in the temple and how to remain pure and clean in body and mind. He never forgot Kṛṣṇa for a moment and always remained a pure and humble executor of his own spiritual master’s order.

Srila Prabhupada gave the gift of a treasure trove of authentic, authorized and authoritative literature detailing the complete science of God, the eternal minute individual soul, the material and spiritual worlds, the temporary material body, the nature of eternal time and of material and spiritual activity. Each book, such as the world renowned Bhagavad Gita As It Is and Shrimad Bhagavatam was presented in the most sophisticated and scholarly way , providing original Sanskrit text, roman transliteration, word for word translation and wonderful purports explaining the meaning of each verse.

Srila Prabhupada engaged his disciples in every aspect of his own preaching effort. He had them prepare elaborate art works for his beloved books, open temples around the world and repeat his instructions in some of the most far off towns and villages as it was predicted he would do in the authentic Vedic literatures. He taught the most confidential knowledge of God’s transcendental qualities, activities and associates. The most important of all his instructions was to repeatedly chant and hear the mantra Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare with attention and love.

Srila Prabhupada made an unprecedented impact on the World in broadcasting the means for liberation from this material entanglement and the path back home to Godhead. But like his own spiritual master did, he left an enormous opportunity to serve his mission in the form of a challenge after his physical departure in 1977. It was to establish self-sufficient, God centered rural villages where artificial demands are minimized in favor of a peaceful life in harmony with nature and with ample time to cultivate the eternal spirit of knowledge and devotion to God that lies dormant in all of us. Thus he wanted us to flood the World with Kṛṣṇa consciousness.