Swami Prabhupada
| A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada | |
|---|---|
| |
| Religion | Vaishnavism |
| Lineage | Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya |
| Sect | Gaudiya Vaishnavism |
| Temple | ISKCON |
| Philosophy | Achintya Bheda Abheda |
| Other names | Abhay Caranaravinda, Abhay Charan De, Shrila Prabhupada, Prabhupada |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Born |
Abhay Charan De 1 September 1896 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India |
| Died |
14 November 1977 (aged 81) Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Resting place | Bhaktivedanta Swami's Samadhi, Vrindavan |
| Senior posting | |
| Based in | Vrindavan, India |
| Title | Founder-Acharya of ISKCON |
| Period in office | 1966–1977 |
| Predecessor | Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura |
| Religious career | |
| Teacher | Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura |
| Works | Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam |
| Initiation | Diksa–1933, Sannyasa–1959 |
| Post | Guru, Sannyasi, Samsthapaka-Acharya |
| Website | Official Website of ISKCON Official Website of Prabhupada |
Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Bengali: অভয় চরোনারবিন্দ ভক্তিবেদান্তো স্বামী প্রভুপাদ; 1 September 1896 – 14 November 1977) was a Vedic spiritual teacher (guru) and the founder preceptor (Acharya) of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the "Hare Krishna Movement". Members of the ISKCON movement view Prabhupada as a representant and messenger of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Born Abhay Charan De in Calcutta, he was educated at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta. Before adopting the life of a pious renunciant (vanaprastha) in 1950, he was married with children and owned a small pharmaceutical business. In 1959 he took a vow of renunciation (sannyasa) and started writing commentaries on Vaishnava scriptures. In his later years, as a travelling Vaishnava monk, he became an influential communicator of Gaudiya Vaishnava theology to India and specifically to the West through his leadership of ISKCON, founded in 1966. As the founder of ISKCON, he "emerged as a major figure of the Western counterculture, initiating thousands of young Americans." He received criticism from anti-cult groups, as well as a favourable welcome from religious scholars such as J. Stillson Judah, Harvey Cox, Larry Shinn and Thomas Hopkins, who praised Bhaktivedanta Swami's translations and defended the group against distorted media images and misinterpretations. In respect to his achievements, religious leaders from other Gaudiya Vaishnava movements have also given him credit.
He has been described as a charismatic leader, in the sense used by sociologist Max Weber, as he was successful in acquiring followers in the United States, Europe, India and elsewhere. His mission was to propagate, throughout the world, Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a school of Vaishnavite Hinduism that had been taught to him by his guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. After his death in 1977, ISKCON, the society he founded based on a type of Hindu Krishnaism using the Bhagavata Purana as a central scripture, continued to grow. In February 2014, ISKCON's news agency reported reaching a milestone of distributing over half a billion of his books since 1965. His translation and commentaries of the Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is is considered by adherents to the ISKCON movement and many Vedic scholars as one of the finest literary works of Vaishnavism translated into the English Language.
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