A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada (full name: Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ), was born in Calcutta, India, on the day of Nandotsava, the annual festival celebrating the birth of Krishna, in 1896. His father was a devotee of Krishna who always invited holy men to his house for meals and requested them to bless his son to become a great devotee of Radharani, the most beloved devotee and consort of Krishna.

AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was born into a pure Gaudiya Vaishnava family in 1896 in Calcutta. From early childhood, he showed signs of devotion to Sri Krishna.

At the behest of his spiritual master, AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada began translating and writing Vedic literature into English to bring the message of Krishna to the West. In 1950, at the age of fifty-four, Srila Prabhupada retired from married life, accepting the vanaprastha (retired) order to devote more time to his studies and writing. Srila Prabhupada traveled to the holy city of Vrindavan, where he lived in very modest circumstances in the historic medieval Radha-Damodara temple. There he engaged in deep study and writing for several years. He accepted the renounced order (sannyasa) in 1959. At Radha-Damodara, Srila Prabhupada began work on his life’s masterpiece: a multi-volume translation of the Srimad-Bhagavatam with eighteen thousand verse commentaries. He also wrote “Easy Journey to Other Planets.”