Our Founder

Continuing a Legacy

In 1965, at the tender age of 69, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami sailed to the United States in a cargo ship to spread the teachings of Krishna consciousness. When he first arrived by freighter in New York City, he was practically penniless. It was after almost a year of great difficult, in July 1966, that he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Under his careful guidance, within a decade the Society grew to a worldwide confederation of over one hundred temples, schools, institutes and farm communities. In the last ten years of his life, in spite of his advanced age, Srila Prabhupada (as he became known) circled the globe twelve times on lecture tours that took him to six continents. He made over 5000 disciples around the world, from a variety of backgrounds, and introduced the famous Rathayatra street festival in major cities of the world.

Srila Prabhupada wrote over sixty volumes of authoritative translations, commentaries and summary studies of the philosophical and religious classics of India. 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 twenty languages.

The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust was established in 1972 exclusively to publish his book and has become the world’s largest publisher of books in the field of Indian religion and philosophy. Today Srila Prabhupada is recognised as one of India’s greatest spiritual ambassadors of the 20th Century.