Srila Prabhupada's Mission

In September 1965, his divine grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada boarded the Indian freighter Jaladutta, bound for the United States. With only seven dollars and a trunk filled with his translations of an ancient devotional scripture, he set out to bring knowledge of Krishna to the West. This knowledge had been passed down for thousands of years, that God has an eternal spiritual form.

He never grows old, but stays eternally young. There are many names for God, Prabhupada wrote, the foremost being Krishna, the all-attractive. There was also knowledge of the soul, which is eternal, part and parcel of God. Although eternal, the soul is continually entrapped in temporary changing bodies that grow from childhood to youth and finally old age and death in a never-ending cycle.

Life after life, the soul fruitlessly searches for happiness away from God. Five hundred years ago, Krishna appeared on earth as Lord Chaitanya and inaugurated the most effective method of self-realization for this age, chanting the transcendental Hare Krishna mantra. Lord Chaitanya predicted that chanting Hare Krishna would spread to every town and village in the world. In the 19th century, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, a highly respected spiritual master, author, and magistrate in the British Indian government, predicted that someday people from all countries of the world would gather together and chant the names of Krishna.

The renowned scholar and author Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati became Prabhupada's spiritual master in 1922 and requested him to distribute knowledge of Krishna in the West. Prabhupada had spent most of his life in preparation for this moment. Alone in New York, Prabhupada taught people he met the precepts of Krishna consciousness. Progress seemed slow, but he never felt alone, feeling the presence and guidance of his spiritual master.

Within a few years, young Americans took his words to heart and Prabhupada ignited a fire of enthusiasm for devotion to Krishna which spread from city to city and country to country. No language or cultural barrier could bar the ecstatic chanting of the holy names of Krishna. Prabhupada had attracted the attention of the world as his shaven-headed, dancing, chanting Hare Krishnas appeared everywhere. Krishna is beyond material designations of culture and country, he said.

Someday, people will realize the significance of these literatures, which will awaken modern civilization from ignorance of the spiritual soul and Krishna. Prabhupada continually prayed to his spiritual master and Krishna that the Hare Krishna movement would spread to every country in the world.