140-476: Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati ( IAST : Bhakti-siddhānta Sarasvatī ; Bengali : ভক্তিসিদ্ধান্ত সরস্বতী ; Bengali: [bʱɔktisiddʱanto ʃɔrɔʃbɔti] ; 6 February 1874 – 1 January 1937), born Bimala Prasad Datt ( Bimalā Prasāda Datta , Bengali: [bimola prɔʃɑd dɔtto] ), was an Indian Gaudīya Vaisnava Hindu guru (spiritual master), ācārya (philosophy instructor), and revivalist in early twentieth-century India. To his followers, he
280-725: A cargo ship , taking with him little more than a few trunks of books. He knew no one in America , but he chanted Hare Krishna in a park in New York City , gave classes , and in 1966, with the help of some early students, established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) , which now has centers throughout the world. He taught a path in which one aims at realizing oneself to be an eternal spiritual being , distinct from one's temporary material body, and seeks to revive one's dormant relationship with
420-521: A center there, he was inspired by the suggestion and began preparing for its implementation. The disappearance of Bhaktivinoda and Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji left Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati with the burden of responsibility for their mission of reviving and safeguarding the Chaitanya tradition as they envisioned it. An uncompromising and even belligerent advocate of his spiritual predecessors' teachings, Bhaktisiddhanta saw battles to be fought on many fronts:
560-755: A criterion for religious eligibility marked a sharp departure in Bhaktisiddhanta's movement from customary Hindu caste restrictions. Bhaktisiddhanta spelled out his views, which appeared to be modern yet were firmly rooted in the early bhakti literature of the Chaitanya school, in an essay called "Gandhiji's Ten Questions" published in The Harmonist in January 1933. In the essay he replied to questions posed by Mahatma Gandhi , who in December 1932 challenged India's leading orthodox Hindu organisations on
700-477: A cultural and historical underpinning rather than a religious one, and as such, Gandhi's questions referred to a secular issue, not a religious one. As an alternative to the secular concept of "Hindu" and its social implications, Bhaktisiddhanta suggested an ethic of "unconditional reverence for all entities by the realization and exclusive practice of the whole-time service of the Absolute". By this he stressed that
840-540: A deputy magistrate, Kedarnatha Datta felt he needed assistance in his attempts to promote the cause Gaudiya Vaisnavism in India and abroad. A hagiographic account has it that one night the Deity of Jagannath personally spoke to Kedarnath in a dream: "I didn't bring you to Puri to execute legal matters, but to establish Vaishnava siddhanta. " Kedarnath replied, "Your teachings have been significantly [sic] depreciated, and I lack
980-629: A dispute about the astronomical calculations of the principal, Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna . A good friend of his father, the King of Tripura Bir Chandra Manikya , offered Sarasvati a position as secretary and historian at the royal court, which afforded him enough financial independence for pursuing his studies independently. Taking advantage of his access to the royal library, he pored over both Indian and Western works of history, philosophy, and religion and started his own astronomy school in Calcutta. After
1120-503: A following, mainly from young people of the 1960s counterculture . In contrast to the 1960s countercultural lifestyle, he required that in order to receive spiritual initiation his followers had to vow to follow four “regulative principles”: no illicit sex (that is, sex outside of marriage), no eating of meat, fish, or eggs, no intoxicants (including drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and even coffee and tea), and no gambling. New initiates also vowed to daily chant sixteen meditative “rounds” of
1260-433: A font, etc. It can be enabled in the input menu in the menu bar under System Preferences → International → Input Menu (or System Preferences → Language and Text → Input Sources) or can be viewed under Edit → Emoji & Symbols in many programs. Equivalent tools – such as gucharmap ( GNOME ) or kcharselect ( KDE ) – exist on most Linux desktop environments. Users of SCIM on Linux based platforms can also have
1400-493: A leading intellectual among the bhadralok (Western-educated and often Hindu Bengali residents of colonial Calcutta ), earning the title Siddhānta Sarasvatī ("the pinnacle of wisdom"). In 1900, Bimala Prasad took initiation into Gaudiya Vaishnavism from the Vaishnava ascetic Gaurkishor Dās Bābājī . In 1918, following the 1914 death of his father and the 1915 death of his guru Gaurakisora Dasa Babaji , Bimala Prasad accepted
1540-518: A middle-income merchant and had his own fabric and clothing store. He was related to the rich and aristocratic Mullik mercantile family, who had been trading in gold and salt for centuries. Opposite the De house was a temple of Radha-Krishna that for a century and a half had been supported by the Mullik family. Every day, young Abhay, accompanied by his parents or servants, attended temple services. At
SECTION 10
#17327730819051680-707: A modifier key to type letters with diacritical marks. For example, alt + a = ā. How this is set up varies by operating system. Linux/Unix and BSD desktop environments allow one to set up custom keyboard layouts and switch them by clicking a flag icon in the menu bar. macOS One can use the pre-installed US International keyboard, or install Toshiya Unebe's Easy Unicode keyboard layout. Microsoft Windows Windows also allows one to change keyboard layouts and set up additional custom keyboard mappings for IAST. This Pali keyboard installer made by Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) supports IAST (works on Microsoft Windows up to at least version 10, can use Alt button on
1820-778: A monastic or missionary center. Bhaktisiddhanta was continuing the work of his father, Bhaktivinoda Thakur (1838–1914), who regarded Chaitanya's teachings as the highest form of theism , intended not for any one religion or nation but for all of humanity. When the meeting took place, Bhaktisiddhanta said to Abhay, "You are an educated young man. Why don't you take the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and spread it in English?" However, Abhay, according to his own later account, argued that India first needed to become independent before anyone would take Chaitanya's message seriously, an argument that Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati effectively countered. Convinced by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, Abhay accepted
1960-591: A new disciple to find a publisher for it. Bhaktivedanta Swami personally taught his first followers to spread Krishna’s message, prepare food to offer to Krishna, collect donations, and chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra (“great mantra”) on the streets. In 1967 Bhaktivedanta Swami established a second center, in San Francisco . The opening of the temple in the heart of the booming hippie community of Haight-Ashbury attracted many new adherents and
2100-407: A personal letter: Sarasvati! ...Because pure devotional conclusions are not being preached, all kinds of superstitions and bad concepts are being called devotion by such pseudo-sampradayas as sahajiya and atibari. Please always crush these anti-devotional concepts by preaching pure devotional conclusions and by setting an example through your personal conduct. ...Please try very hard to make sure that
2240-668: A pivotal theme in Bhaktisiddhanta's teachings and personal practice. While not feeling in any way "inferior" due to his birth in a comparatively lower kayastha family, Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupāda soon faced opposition from the orthodox brahmanas of Nabadwip , who maintained that birth in a brahminical family was a necessary criterion for worshiping the images and deities of Vishnu. Refusing to submit to caste hierarchies and hereditary rights, instead Bhaktisiddhanta tried to align religious competence with personal character and religious merits. A defining moment of this brewing confrontation came on 8 September 1911, when Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupāda
2380-434: A portrayal of the hitherto popular worship of Radha-Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as irrelevant and deeply immoral. The growing public disapproval of Gaudiya Vaishnavism was aggravated by the prevalently lower social status of local Gaudiya Vaishnavas, as well as by erotic practices of tantrics such as the sahajiyas , who claimed close affiliation with the mainstream Gaudiya school. These negative perceptions led to
2520-669: A printing press in Calcutta, and called it bhagavat-yantra ("God's machine") and began to publish medieval Vaishnava texts in Bengali, such as the Chaitanya Charitamrita by Krishnadasa Kaviraja , supplemented with his own commentary. This marked Bhaktisiddhanta's commitment to leave no modern facilities unused in the propagation of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, and his new focus on printing and distributing religious literature. Bhaktisiddhanta's new determination stemmed from an instruction that he received in 1910 from Bhaktivinoda in
2660-474: A professor of Indian and South Asian studies, and Anatoly Pinyaev , a twenty-three-year-old Muscovite. Pinyaev, who went on to become the first Soviet Hare Krishna devotee, met Prabhupada through the son of an Indian diplomat stationed in Moscow. Prabhupada’s assistant gave Pinyaev a copy of Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita , which Pinyaev was able to translate into Russian, copy, and then distribute underground in
2800-481: A single reading and soon learned enough to compose his own poetry in Sanskrit. His biographers stated that even up to his last days Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati could verbatim recall passages from books that he had read in his childhood, earning the epithet "living encyclopedia". In the early 1880s, Kedarnath Datta, out of desire to foster the child's budding interest in spirituality, initiated him into harinama-japa ,
2940-439: A stage that many would regard as the epitome of success. His soul-searching led him to quit the comforts of his bhadralok lifestyle and search for an ascetic spiritual teacher. On Bhaktivinoda's direction, he approached Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji , a Gaudiya Vaishnava who regularly visited Bhaktivinoda's house and was renowned for his asceticism and bhakti. In January 1901, according to his own testimony, Siddhanta Sarasvati accepted
SECTION 20
#17327730819053080-600: A start in England, over the years Prabhupada visited England many times and from there traveled to Germany, France, Italy , Sweden, Switzerland , and the Netherlands , leading kirtans, installing forms of Krishna in ISKCON temples, meeting religious and intellectual leaders and others keen to meet him, and guiding and encouraging his disciples. In 1970 Prabhupada made the first of several visits to Kenya . Although
3220-524: A talk. Prabhupada told his local leaders that they should spread Krishna consciousness among the local African people. Prabhupada also later visited Mauritius and South Africa and sent his disciples to Nigeria and Zambia . Prabhupada’s visit to Moscow from 20 to 25 June 1971 marked the beginning of Krishna consciousness in the Soviet Union . During his five days in Moscow, Prabhupada managed to meet only two Soviet citizens: Grigory Kotovsky ,
3360-486: A template for sixty-four Gaudiya Math centres in India and three abroad, in London (England), Berlin (Germany), and Rangoon ( Burma ), which Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati established during his lifetime. Registered on 5 February 1919, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's missionary movement was initially called Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha , in the name of the society founded by Bhaktivinoda. However, it soon became eponymously known as
3500-456: A temple in London , England . Following his instructions, the disciples, dressed in their robes and saris , began singing Hare Krishna regularly on London streets and at once attracted attention. Soon newspapers carried headlines like “Krishna Chant Startles London” and “Happiness is Hare Krishna”. A further breakthrough came in December 1969 when the disciples managed to meet with members of
3640-538: A ticket on a freighter , the Jaladuta. Bhaktivedanta Swami began the 35-day journey to America on 13 August 1965, at the age of 69. Bhaktivedanta took with him little more than a suitcase, an umbrella, some dry cereal , forty Indian rupees (about seven US dollars), and two hundred three-volume sets of his translation of the first canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam . After surviving two heart attacks during his maritime journey, Bhaktivedanta Swami finally arrived at
3780-613: A traditional Gaudiya Vaishnava practice of meditation based on the soft recitation of the Hare Krishna mantra on tulasi beads . In 1885, Kedarnath Datta established the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha (Royal World Vaiṣṇava Association); the association, composed of leading Bengali Vaishnavas, stimulated Bimala's intellectual and spiritual growth and inspired him to undertake an in-depth study of Vaishnava texts, both classical and contemporary. Bimala's interest in
3920-467: A transformational effect on Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada. Later, reflecting on his first meeting with the guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati recalled: It was by providential dispensation that I was able fully to understand the language and practical side of devotion after I had met the practicing master [Gaura Kishora Das Babaji]....No education could have prepared me for the good fortune of understanding my master's attitude....Before I met him my impression
4060-469: A weekly magazine Gaudiya , and a monthly magazine in English and Sanskrit The Harmonist ( Shri Sajjana-toshani ). The intellectual and philosophical appeal of the Gaudiya Math outreach programs garnered particularly eager response in urban areas, where wealthy supporters started contributing generously towards the construction of new temples and large "theistic exhibitions" – public expositions on
4200-435: Is actually glottal , not velar . Some letters are modified with diacritics : Long vowels are marked with an overline (often called a macron ). Vocalic (syllabic) consonants, retroflexes and ṣ ( / ʂ ~ ɕ ~ʃ/ ) have an underdot . One letter has an overdot: ṅ ( /ŋ/ ). One has an acute accent : ś ( /ʃ/ ). One letter has a line below: ḻ ( / ɭ / ) (Vedic). Unlike ASCII -only romanisations such as ITRANS or Harvard-Kyoto ,
4340-684: Is based on a scheme that emerged during the 19th century from suggestions by Charles Trevelyan , William Jones , Monier Monier-Williams and other scholars, and formalised by the Transliteration Committee of the Geneva Oriental Congress , in September 1894. IAST makes it possible for the reader to read the Indic text unambiguously, exactly as if it were in the original Indic script. It is this faithfulness to
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati - Misplaced Pages Continue
4480-645: Is reported to have kept a map of London, pondering on ways of expanding his mission to new frontiers in the West. After a long and careful preparation, on 20 July 1933 three of Bhaktisiddhanta's senior disciples including Swami Bhakti Hridaya Bon arrived in London. As a result of their mission abroad, on 24 April 1934, Lord Zetland , the British secretary of state for India , inaugurated the Gaudiya Mission Society in London and became its president. This
4620-563: The vanaprastha ashram (the traditional retired order of life), and went to live in Vrindavan, regarded as the site of Krishna's Lila (divine pastimes), although he occasionally commuted to Delhi . In Mathura , adjoining Vrindavan, he wrote for and edited the Gauḍīya Patrikā magazine published by his godbrother Bhakti Prajnan Keshava . In 1952, A. C. Bhaktivedanta attempted to set up organized spiritual activities in
4760-682: The Srimad-Bhagavatam ( Bhagavata Purana ) and the Chaitanya Charitamrita , thereby making those texts accessible in English for the first time. In all, he wrote more than eighty books. In the late 1970s and the 1980s ISKCON came to be labeled a destructive cult by critics in America and some European countries. Although scholars and courts rejected claims of cultic brainwashing and recognized ISKCON as representing an authentic branch of Hinduism , in some places
4900-465: The sahajiyas , who presented their sexual practices as a path of Krishna bhakti, denouncing them as pseudo-Vaishnavas. Bhaktisiddhanta argued instead that the path to spiritual growth was not through what he described as sensual gratification, but through the practice of chastity, humility, and service. At the same time, Bhaktisiddhanta's approach to the material world was far from being escapist. Rather than shunning all connections with it, he adopted
5040-678: The Bhagavad-gita and other Vaishnava texts and held kirtan (group chanting) of the Hare Krishna mantra : Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. After he and his followers held Hare Krishna kirtan one Sunday under a tree in nearby Tompkins Square Park , The New York Times reported the event: “Swami’s Flock Chants in Park to Find Ecstasy; 50 Followers Clap and Sway to Hypnotic Music at East Side Ceremony”. He slowly gained
5180-627: The Boston Harbor on 17 September 1965, and then continued on to New York City . Bhaktivedanta Swami had no support or acquaintances in the United States except the Agarwals, an Indian-American family, who, although strangers to him, had agreed to sponsor his visa. Upon reaching New York, he took a bus to the town of Butler, Pennsylvania , where the Agarwals lived. In Butler he delivered lectures to different groups at venues such as
5320-568: The British administration in occupations requiring Western education, and proficiency in English and other languages. Exposed to and influenced by the Western values of the British, including their condescending attitude towards cultural and religious traditions of India, the bhadralok themselves started questioning and reassessing the tenets of their own religion and customs. Their attempts to rationalise and modernise Hinduism to reconcile it with
5460-464: The Gaudiya Math after the Calcutta branch and his weekly Bengali magazine Gaudiya . The Gaudiya Math rapidly gained a reputation as an outspoken voice on religious, philosophical and social issues via its wide range of periodical publications, targeting educated audiences in English, Bengali, Assamese , Odia , and Hindi . These publications included a daily Bengali newspaper Nadiya Prakash ,
5600-763: The ISO 15919 standard for transliterating Indic scripts emerged in 2001 from the standards and library worlds. For the most part, ISO 15919 follows the IAST scheme, departing from it only in minor ways (e.g., ṃ/ṁ and ṛ/r̥)—see comparison below. The Indian National Library at Kolkata romanization , intended for the romanisation of all Indic scripts , is an extension of IAST. The IAST letters are listed with their Devanagari equivalents and phonetic values in IPA , valid for Sanskrit , Hindi and other modern languages that use Devanagari script, but some phonological changes have occurred: * H
5740-509: The Shrimad Bhagavatam ) under the guidance of local pandits . He researched, translated, and published Gaudiya Vaishnava literature as well as wrote his own works on Vaishnava theology and practice in Bengali, Sanskrit, and English. The birth of Bimala Prasad concurred with the rising influence of the bhadralok community, literally "gentle or respectable people", a privileged class of Bengalis , largely Hindus , who served
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati - Misplaced Pages Continue
5880-732: The University of Sydney in Australia and at the Royal Asiatic Society of London. The book also made its way to prominent scholars such as Oxford Sanskritist Monier Monier-Williams and earned a favourable review in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society . Bhaktisiddhanta inherited the vision of spreading the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the West from his father Bhaktivinoda. The same inspiration
6020-630: The bhadralok youth; there, while studying the compulsory subjects, he pursued extracurricular studies of Sanskrit, mathematics, and jyotisha (traditional Indian astronomy). His proficiency in the latter was soon recognised by his tutors with an honorary title "Siddhanta Sarasvati", which he adopted as his pen name from then on. Sarasvati then entered Sanskrit College , one of Calcutta's finest schools for classical Hindu learning, where he added Indian philosophy and ancient history to his study list. In 1895, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupāda decided to discontinue his studies at Sanskrit College due to
6160-537: The smarta-brahmanas with their claims of exclusive hereditary eligibility as priests and gurus; the advaitins dismissing the form and personhood of God as material and external to the essence of the divine; professional Bhagavatam reciters exploiting the text sacred to Gaudiya Vaishnavas as a family business; the pseudo-Vaishnava sahajiyas and other Gaudiya spin-offs with their sensualised, profaned imitations of bhakti . Relentless and uncompromising oratory and written critique of what, in Bhaktisiddhanta's words,
6300-623: The supreme living being , known by the Sanskrit name Krishna . One does this through various practices, especially through hearing about Krishna from standard texts, chanting mantras consisting of names of Krishna, and adopting a life of devotional service to Krishna. As part of these practices, Prabhupada required that his initiated students strictly refrain from non- vegetarian food (such as meat, fish, or eggs), gambling , intoxicants (including coffee, tea, or cigarettes), and extramarital sex . In contrast to earlier Indian teachers who promoted
6440-498: The "cult" label and image have persisted. Some of Prabhupada's views or statements have been perceived as racist towards blacks , discriminatory against lower castes , or misogynistic . Decades after his death, Prabhupada's teachings and the Society he established continue to be influential, with some scholars and Indian political leaders calling him one of the most successful propagators of Hinduism abroad. Abhay Charan De
6580-788: The "perennial philosophy" and "the mother of religions". As a result, the other schools of Hinduism, including bhakti , were gradually relegated in the minds of the Bengali Hindu middle-class to obscurity, and were often seen as a "reactionary and fossilized jumble of empty rituals and idolatrous practices." At the same time, nationalistic ferments in Calcutta, the then capital of the British Empire in South Asia, social instability in Bengal , coupled with British influence through Christian and Victorian sensibilities, contributed to
6720-426: The 1800-verse Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana), the foundational text of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. With great effort and struggle, he finally succeeded to translate, produce, raise funds for, and print the first of its twelve cantos , in three volumes. After accepting sannyasa , Bhaktivedanta Swami began planning to travel to America to fulfill his spiritual master's desire to spread Chaitanya's teachings in
6860-664: The BBC’s popular TV show Top of the Pops . The record was also a success in Germany , Holland , France , Sweden , Yugoslavia , and Czechoslovakia (as well as South Africa and Japan ), and so the group was invited to perform in a number of European countries. The next year, 1970, Harrison produced with Prabhupada’s disciples another hit single, “Govinda”, and in May 1971 the album The Radha Krishna Temple . Also in 1970, Harrison sponsored
7000-525: The Babaji as his guru . According to the Gaudiya mutt follower's, along with his initiation ( diksha ) he received a new name, Shri Varshabhanavi-devi-dayita Dasa ( Śrī Vārṣabhānavī-devī-dayita Dāsa , "servant of Krishna , the beloved of Radha "), which he adopted until new titles were conferred upon him. The initiation from Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji, an illiterate yet highly respected personality, had
7140-493: The Gaudiya Math broke down as a battle for power broke out between his senior disciples . Although Abhay continued to serve with other disciples of his spiritual master and wrote articles for their publications, he kept clear of the political struggles. In 1939, elders in the Gaudiya community honored Abhay Charanaravinda (A. C.) with the title "Bhaktivedanta". In the title, bhakti means "devotion", and vedanta means "the culmination of Vedic knowledge". Thus
SECTION 50
#17327730819057280-414: The Gaudiya Math that lasted throughout Bhaktisiddhanta's life and even threatened it on a few occasions. As per popular stories, Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji on several occasions dissuaded Bhaktisiddhanta from visiting Calcutta, referring to the large imperial city as "the universe of Kali " ( kalira brahmanda ) – a standard understanding among Vaishnava ascetics. However, in 1913 Bhaktisiddhanta established
7420-646: The Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy by means of displays and dioramas . The Gaudiya Math core leadership consisted mainly of educated Bengalis and eighteen sannyasis who were sent off to pioneer the movement in new places in India, and later, in Europe. Its growing ashrama residents hub, however, represented a wide cross-section of the Indian society, with disciples from both educated urban and simple rural milieus. Householder disciples and sympathizers supported
7560-508: The Hare Krishna 'mantra' (that is, to complete sixteen circuits of chanting the mantra on a 108-bead strand). During the first year in New York, he initiated nineteen people. In July 1966 he incorporated the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). In December 1966 he made a recording of Krishna kirtan (along with a brief explanatory talk) that took the form of an album entitled Krishna Consciousness , released under
7700-550: The Hindu formal order of asceticism ( sannyasa ) from a photograph of his guru and took the name Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati inaugurated in Calcutta the first center of his institution, later known as the Gaudiya Math . It soon developed into a dynamic missionary and educational institution with sixty-four branches across India and three centres abroad (in Burma , Germany, and England). The Math propagated
7840-460: The Hindu middle class in India and the way Hinduism was understood in the West. Rather than appointing a successor, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati instead instructed his leading disciples to jointly run the mission in his absence, and expected that qualified leaders would emerge naturally "on the strength of their personal merit". However, weeks after his departure a crisis of succession broke out, resulting in factions and legal infighting. The united mission
7980-513: The Lord will you collect these things. Never engage in bad association, either for money or for some self-interest. After the death of his father Bhaktivinoda on 23 June 1914, Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupad relocated his Calcutta press to Mayapur and then to nearby Krishnanagar in the Nadia district . From there he continued publishing Bhaktivinoda's Sajjana-toshani , and completed
8120-547: The Math came to open a center in Allahabad , where Abhay and his family were living. Abhay became a regular visitor, contributed funds, and brought important people to the lectures of the Math's sannyasis . In 1932, he visited Bhaktisiddhanta in the holy town of Vrindavan , and in 1933, when Bhaktisiddhanta came to Allahabad to lay the cornerstone for a new temple, Abhay received diksha (spiritual initiation) from him and
8260-403: The Math. At the end of 1936, he visited Vrindavan, where he again met Bhaktisiddhanta, who told him, "If you ever get money, print books", an instruction that would inform his life's work. Two weeks before his death on 1 January 1937, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati wrote a letter to Abhay urging him to teach Gaudiya Vaishnavism in English. After Bhaktisiddhanta passed away, the unified mission of
8400-734: The Soviet Union. Pinyaev showed a great interest in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, accepted initiation from Prabhupada, and did much to ignite interest in Krishna consciousness in the Soviet Union. Pinyaev was later imprisoned in Smolensk Special Psychiatric Hospital and forcibly treated with drugs for his practice of Krishna consciousness. Having achieved some success in the West, in 1970 Prabhupada directed his attention especially to India, with
8540-498: The Vaishnava philosophy was further fuelled by the Vaishnava Depository, a library and a printing press established by Kedarnath (by that time respectfully addressed as Bhaktivinoda Thakur) at his own house for systematically presenting Gaudiya Vaishnavism. In 1886, Bhaktivinoda began publishing a monthly magazine in Bengali, Sajjana-toshani ("The source of pleasure for devotees"), where he published his own writings of
SECTION 60
#17327730819058680-620: The West. To leave India, Bhaktivedanta Swami had many hurdles to overcome. He needed a sponsor in America, official approvals in India, and a ticket for his travel. After significant difficulties he managed to secure the needed sponsorship and approvals. He then approached one of his well-wishers, Sumati Morarjee , the head of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company , to ask for free passage to America on one of her cargo ships. Because of his age, she at first tried to dissuade him. Finally she relented and granted him
8820-583: The West. Though Abhay's mother wanted him to go to London to study law, his father rejected the idea, fearing Abhay would be negatively influenced by Western society and acquire bad habits. In 1916 Abhay began his studies at the Scottish Church College , a prestigious school in Calcutta founded by Alexander Duff , a Christian missionary . In 1918, while in college, Abhay, as arranged by his father, married Radharani Datta, also from an aristocratic family. They had five children over
8960-495: The Western outlook eventually gave rise to a historical period called the Bengali Renaissance , championed by such prominent reformists as Rammohan Roy and Swami Vivekananda . This trend gradually led to a widespread perception, both in India and in the West, of modern Hinduism as being equivalent to Advaita Vedanta , a conception of the divine as devoid of form and individuality that was hailed by its proponents as
9100-493: The age of 63. The Gaudiya Math mission, inspired by Bhaktivinoda and developed by Bhaktisiddhanta, emerged as one of "the most powerful reformist movements" of colonial Bengal in the 19th and early 20th century. In mission and scope it parallelled the efforts of Swami Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Mission, and challenged modern advaita Vedanta spirituality that had come to dominate the religious sensibilities of
9240-561: The age of six, Abhay organized a likeness of the "chariot festival", or Ratha-yatra , the huge Vaishnava festival held annually in the city of Puri in Odisha . For this purpose, Abhay persuaded his father to obtain for him a scaled-down copy of the massive chariot on which the form of Jagannatha (Krishna as "Lord of the universe") rides in procession in Puri. Decades later, after going to America , Abhay would bring Ratha-yatra festivals to
9380-656: The ancient and vibrant Vaishnava Shri and Madhva sampradayas , collecting materials for a new Vaishnava encyclopaedia. He finally settled in Mayapur , 130 kilometres (81 mi) north of Calcutta, where Bhaktivinoda had acquired a plot of land at the place at which, according to Bhaktivinoda's research, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in 1486. At that time, Bhaktivinoda added the prefix "bhakti" (meaning "devotion") to Siddhanta Sarasvati, acknowledging his proficiency in Vaishnava studies. Starting from 1905, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupāda began to deliver public discourses on
9520-739: The area of Sanskrit studies make use of free OpenType fonts such as FreeSerif or Gentium , both of which have complete support for the full repertoire of conjoined diacritics in the IAST character set. Released under the GNU FreeFont or SIL Open Font License , respectively, such fonts may be freely shared and do not require the person reading or editing a document to purchase proprietary software to make use of its associated fonts. Bhaktivedanta A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ( IAST : Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda ; Bengali : অভয চরণারৱিন্দ ভক্তিৱেদান্ত স্ৱামী প্রভুপাদ ) (1 September 1896 – 14 November 1977)
9660-413: The best pioneers of spiritual improvement. He preaches that human thought should never be allowed to be shackled with sectarian views....The religion preached by Mahaprabhu is universal and not exclusive. The most learned and the most ignorant are both entitled to embrace it. . . . The principle of kirtana invites, as the future church of the world, all classes of men without distinction of caste or clan to
9800-474: The central Indian city of Jhansi , where he started "The League of Devotees", only to see the organization collapse two years later. On 17 September 1959, prompted by a dream of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati calling on him to accept sannyasa (renounced order of life), A. C. Bhaktivedanta formally entered sannyasa asrama from Bhakti Prajnan Keshava at his Keshavaji Gaudiya Math in Mathura and
9940-509: The child's umbilical cord was looped around his body like a sacred brahmana thread ( upavita ) that left a permanent mark on the skin, as if foretelling his future role as religious leader. Young Bimala Prasad, often affectionately called Bimala, Bimu or Binu, started his formal education at an English school at [Srirampur[Ranaghat]]. In 1881, he was transferred to the Oriental Seminary of Calcutta , and in 1883, after Kedarnath
10080-412: The claims of the hereditary brahmanas present at the conference. He described the varnashrama and its concomitant rituals of purity ( samskara ) as beneficial for the individual, but also as currently plagued by misguided practices. Although the debate at Balighai apparently turned into Bhaktisiddhanta's triumph, it sowed the seed of a bitter rivalry between the brahmana community of Nabadwip and
10220-536: The consumer edition since XP. This is limited to characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Characters are searchable by Unicode character name, and the table can be limited to a particular code block. More advanced third-party tools of the same type are also available (a notable freeware example is BabelMap ). macOS provides a "character palette" with much the same functionality, along with searching by related characters, glyph tables in
10360-448: The course of their marriage. After graduation from college, Abhay began a career in pharmaceuticals and later opened his own pharmaceutical company in Allahabad . Abhay grew up while India was under British rule , and like many other youth of his age he was attracted to Mahatma Gandhi 's non-cooperation movement . In 1920, Abhay graduated from college with a specialization in English, philosophy, and economics. He successfully passed
10500-528: The diacritics used for IAST allow capitalisation of proper names. The capital variants of letters never occurring word-initially ( Ṇ Ṅ Ñ Ṝ Ḹ ) are useful only when writing in all-caps and in Pāṇini contexts for which the convention is to typeset the IT sounds as capital letters. For the most part, IAST is a subset of ISO 15919 that merges the retroflex (underdotted) liquids with the vocalic ones ( ringed below ) and
10640-502: The disciples he had sent there had settled into doing spiritual programs for the local Indian people, Prabhupada insisted on doing programs meant for Africans. On one notable occasion in Nairobi , when he was scheduled to do a program at an Indian Radha-Krishna temple in a mainly African area downtown, he ordered the doors opened to invite the local residents. Soon the hall was flooded with African people. Then he held kirtan and gave
10780-595: The feet of Chaitanya Deva in an ocean of love, now kindly embrace us," when will that day come! Bhaktivinoda did not stop short of making practical efforts to implement his vision. In 1896 he published and sent to several addressees in the West a book entitled Srimad-Gaurangalila- Smaranamangala, or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, His life and Precepts that portrayed Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a champion of "universal brotherhood and intellectual freedom": Caitanya preaches equality of men ...universal fraternity amongst men and special brotherhood amongst Vaishnavas, who are according to him,
10920-455: The final exams, but as a sign of opposition to British rule he refused to take part in the graduation ceremony and receive a diploma. In 1922, while still in college, Abhay was persuaded by a friend, Narendranath Mullik, to meet with Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (1874–1937), a Vaishnava scholar and teacher and the founder of the Gaudiya Math , a spiritual institution for spreading the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The word math denotes
11060-582: The highest cultivation of the spirit. Bhaktivinoda adapted his message to the Western mind by borrowing popular Christian expressions such as "universal fraternity", "cultivation of the spirit", "preach", and "church" and deliberately using them in a Hindu context. Copies of Shri Chaitanya, His Life and Precepts were sent to Western scholars across the British Empire , and landed, among others, in academic libraries at McGill University in Montreal, at
11200-533: The history and philosophy of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, along with book reviews, poetry, and novels. Twelve-year-old Bimala assisted his father as a proofreader, thus closely acquainting himself with the art of printing and publishing as well as with the intellectual discourses of the bhadralok. In 1887 Bimala Prasad joined the Calcutta Metropolitan Institution (from 1917 – Vidyasagar College), which provided substantial modern education to
11340-465: The honorary title acknowledged his scholarship and devotion. In an effort to fulfill the order of his guru, in 1944 A. C. Bhaktivedanta began publishing Back to Godhead , an English fortnightly magazine presenting the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He single-handedly wrote, edited, financed, published, and distributed the magazine, which is still published and distributed by his followers. In 1950 A. C. Bhaktivedanta accepted
11480-523: The hope of turning India back toward its original spiritual sensibilities. He came back to India with a party of Western disciples — ten American sannyasis and twenty other devotees — and for the next seven years focused much of his effort on establishing temples in Bombay , Vrindavan, Hyderabad , and a planned international headquarters in Mayapur , West Bengal (the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ). By that time, Prabhupada saw that India had set
11620-587: The idea of an impersonal ultimate truth in the West, he taught that the Absolute is ultimately personal. He held the duty of a guru was to convey intact the message of Krishna as found in core spiritual texts such as the Bhagavad Gita . To this end, he wrote and published a translation and commentary called Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is . He also wrote and published translations and commentaries for texts celebrated in India but hardly known elsewhere, such as
11760-446: The instruction to spread the message of Chaitanya in English, and it was in pursuing this order from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati that he later traveled to New York. Many years later he recalled: "I immediately accepted him as spiritual master. Not formally, but in my heart". After meeting Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in 1922, Abhay had little contact with the Gaudiya Math until 1928, when sannyasis (renounced, itinerant preachers) from
11900-498: The king died in 1896, his heir Radha Kishore Manikya requested Sarasvati to tutor the princes at the palace and offered him full pension, which Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada accepted till 1908. Although equipped with an excellent modern and traditional education, and with an enviable social status among the intellectual and political elite of Calcutta and Tripura, along with the resources that it had brought, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada nonetheless began to question his choices at
12040-552: The local YMCA . After a month in Butler, he returned by bus to New York City. He stayed at various places — sometimes in a windowless room, sometimes a Bowery loft — until with the help of early followers he found a place to stay in the Lower East Side , where he converted a store-front curiosity shop at 26 Second Avenue with the serendipitous name “Matchless Gifts” into a small temple. There he offered classes on
12180-405: The local Hare Krishna temple. One commentator dubbed it the “ultimate high of that era”. Later that year, Bhaktivedanta Swami’s followers organized San Francisco’s first Ratha Yatra , the festival he had celebrated as a child in imitation of the massive parade held annually in the Indian city of Puri . For this first San Francisco version, a flatbed truck with four pillars holding a canopy took
12320-412: The main theme of his final address at a gathering of thousands of his disciples and followers at Champahati, Bengal, in 1936. In his address Bhaktisiddhanta restated the urgency and importance of presenting Chaitanya's teachings in the Western countries, despite all social, cultural, and financial challenges, and told, "I have a prediction. However long in the future it may be, one of my disciples will cross
12460-450: The most popular patriotic English-medium newspapers in India and "kept Vaishnavism alive among the middle class". The father of Bimala Prasad, Kedarnath Datta, was also a prominent member of this circle among Gaudiya Vaishnava intelligentsia and played a significant role in their attempts to revive Vaishnavism. (His literary and spiritual achievements later earned him the honorific title Bhaktivinoda). After being posted in 1869 to Puri as
12600-491: The most prestigious spiritual order in Hinduism, would be needed in the Chaitanya tradition as well to increase its respectability and to openly institutionalise asceticism as compatible with bhakti . On 27 March 1918, before leaving for Calcutta, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati resolved to become the first sannyasi of Gaudiya Vaishnavism post Chaitanya Mahaprabhu period, starting a new Gaudiya Vaishnava monastic order. Since there
12740-539: The name of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu again and again in their own countries, and raise the waves of sankirtana [congregational singing of Krishna's names], when will that day come! Oh! When will the day come when the white-skinned British people will speak the glory of Shri Shachinandana [another name of Chaitanya] on one side and on the other and with this call spread their arms to embrace devotees from other countries in brotherhood, when will that day come! The day when they will say "Oh, Aryan Brothers! We have taken refuge at
12880-567: The ocean and bring back the entire world". The deep international tensions globally building up in the late 1930s made Bhaktisiddhanta more certain that solutions to the incumbent problems of humanity were to be found primarily in the realm of religion and spirituality, and not solely in the fields of science, economy, and politics. On 3 December 1936, Bhaktisiddhanta answered a letter from his disciple Bhaktivedanta, who had asked how he could best serve his guru's mission: I am fully confident that you can explain in English our thoughts and arguments to
13020-470: The ocean, become a famous religious teacher, and open 108 temples around the world. Abhay was raised in a religious family belonging to the suvarna-vanik mercantile community. His parents were Gaudiya Vaishnavas , or followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu , who taught that Krishna is the Supreme Personality and that pure love for Krishna is the highest attainment. Gour Mohan was
13160-453: The opening states that "[h]ere ardent seekers after truth are received and listened to and solutions to their questions are advanced from a most reasonable and liberal standpoint of view." Bhaktivinoda Asana provided its students with accommodation, training in self-discipling and intense spiritual practice, as well as systematic long-term education in various Vaishnava texts such as the Shrimad Bhagavatam and Vaishnava Vedanta . It would become
13300-749: The opportunity to install and use the sa-itrans-iast input handler which provides complete support for the ISO 15919 standard for the romanization of Indic languages as part of the m17n library. Or user can use some Unicode characters in Latin-1 Supplement, Latin Extended-A, Latin Extended Additional and Combining Diarcritical Marks block to write IAST. Only certain fonts support all the Latin Unicode characters essential for
13440-456: The original Gaudiya Math and emulating its emphasis on dynamic mission and spiritual practice, ISKCON soon popularised Chaitanya Vaishnavism on a global scale, becoming a world's leading proponent of Hindu bhakti personalism. IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ( IAST ) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It
13580-497: The original Gaudiya Vaishnavism taught in the 16th century by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his close successors. The mission initiated by Bhaktivinoda Thakur and developed by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupāda emerged as "the most powerful reformist movement" of Vaishnavism in Bengal of the 19th and early 20th century. However, after the demise of Srila Prabhupāda in 1937, the Gaudiya Math became tangled by internal dissent, and
13720-456: The original scripts that accounts for its continuing popularity amongst scholars. Scholars commonly use IAST in publications that cite textual material in Sanskrit, Pāḷi and other classical Indian languages. IAST is also used for major e-text repositories such as SARIT, Muktabodha, GRETIL, and sanskritdocuments.org. The IAST scheme represents more than a century of scholarly usage in books and journals on classical Indian studies. By contrast,
13860-431: The people who are not conversant with the languages of other members. This will do much good to yourself as well as your audience. I have every hope that you can turn yourself [into] a very good English preacher if you serve the mission to inculcate the novel impression to the people in general and philosophers of [sic] modern age and religiosity. Shortly thereafter, on 1 January 1937, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati passed away at
14000-642: The philosophy and practice of Chaitanya Vaishnavism, gathering a following of educated young Bengalis, some of whom became his students. While assisting Bhaktivinoda in his developing project in Mayapur, Bhaktisiddhanta vowed to recite one billion names of Radha (Hara) and Krishna – which took nearly ten years to complete – thus committing himself to the lifelong practice of meditation on the Hare Krishna mantra taught to him first by his father and then by his guru. The aural meditation on Krishna's names done either individually ( japa ) or collectively ( kirtana ) became
14140-472: The philosophy and practice of Vaishnavism would speak for itself, gradually attracting intelligent and sensible people. However, despite considerable financial investments and efforts, the success of the Gaudiya Mission in the West remained limited to just a few people interested to seriously practice Vaishnavism. The importance of the Western venture prompted Bhaktisiddhanta to make the Western mission
14280-576: The place of Puri’s three huge ornate wooden vehicles. He would later establish this annual festival in major cities around the world, with big vehicles —“chariots” — and thousands of people taking part. At first, Bhaktivedanta Swami’s followers referred to him as “the Swami ” or “Swamiji”. From mid-1968 onwards they called him “Prabhupada”, a respectful epithet that “enjoys currency with devotees and an increasing number of scholars”. In 1968, Prabhupada asked three married couples among his disciples to open
14420-631: The power to restore them. Much of my life has passed and I am otherwise engaged, so please send somebody from Your personal staff so that I can start this movement". Jagannath then requested Kedarnath to pray for an assistant to the image of the Goddess Bimala Devi worshiped in the Jagannath temple. When his wife gave birth to a new child, Kedarnath linked the event to the divinatory dream and named his son Bimala Prasad ('"the mercy of Bimala Devi"). The same account mentions that at his birth,
14560-400: The practice of bhakti , or divine love, and service to God as the supreme person demanded moral responsibility towards all other beings who, according to Chaitanya school, are eternal metaphysical entities – minute in relation to God but qualitatively equal to one another. While emphasising the innate spirituality of all beings, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati strongly objected to representations of
14700-461: The practice of untouchability . In his reply, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati defined untouchables as those inimical to the concept of serving God, rather than those hailing from the lowest social or hereditary background. He argued that Vishnu temples should be open to everyone, but particularly to those who possessed a favourable attitude toward the divine and were willing to undergo a process of spiritual training. He further stated that untouchability had
14840-427: The prevalent strand of Hindu thought in India, seeking to establish traditional personalist krishna-bhakti as its fulfillment and higher synthesis. At the same time, through lecturing and writing, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupāda targeted both the casteism of smarta brahmins , hereditary priests and sensualised practices of numerous Gaudiya Vaishnavism spin-offs, branding them as apasampradayas – deviations from
14980-438: The principle of yukta-vairagya – a term coined by Chaitanya's associate Rupa Gosvami meaning "renunciation by engagement". This implied using any required object in the service of the divine by renouncing the propensity to enjoy it. On the basis of this principle, Bhaktisiddhanta used the latest advancements in technology, institutional building, communication, printing, and transportation, while striving to carefully keep intact
15120-442: The publication of Chaitanya Charitamrita . Soon after, his guru Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji also died. Without these two key sources of inspiration, and with the majority of Bhaktivinoda's followers being married and thus unable to pursue a strong missionary commitment, Bhaktisiddhanta found himself nearly alone with a mission that seemed far beyond his means. When a disciple suggested that Bhaktisiddhanta relocate to Calcutta to establish
15260-680: The publishing of the first volume of Prabhupada’s book Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead , which related the activities of Krishna's life as told in the tenth canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam . In 1973 Harrison donated a seventeen-acre estate known as Piggots Manor , fifteen miles northwest of London. The Hare Krishna devotees converted this into a rural temple-ashram and renamed it Bhaktivedanta Manor in Prabhupada’s honor. Once Prabhupada’s disciples had made
15400-446: The recording, the disciples called themselves “The Radha Krishna Temple”. Harrison told a press conference convened by Apple that the Hare Krishna mantra was not a pop song but an ancient mantra that awakened spiritual bliss in the hearts of people listening to and repeating it. Seventy thousand copies of the record sold on the first day. It rose to number 11 on the British charts, and Prabhupada’s students performed live four times on
15540-471: The right side of the keyboard instead of Ctrl+Alt combination). Many systems provide a way to select Unicode characters visually. ISO/IEC 14755 refers to this as a screen-selection entry method . Microsoft Windows has provided a Unicode version of the Character Map program (find it by hitting ⊞ Win + R then type charmap then hit ↵ Enter ) since version NT 4.0 – appearing in
15680-468: The rock band the Beatles , who were at the peak of their global fame. Even before then, George Harrison and John Lennon had obtained a copy of the maha-mantra recording released by Prabhupada and his students in New York and had begun singing Hare Krishna. In August 1969, Harrison produced a single of the Hare Krishna mantra , sung by the London disciples, and released it on Apple Records . For
15820-471: The sacred love between Radha and Krishna, described in the Bhagavatam and other Vaishnava texts, as erotic, which permeated the popular culture of Bengal in art, theatre, and folk songs. He stated that the sacred concept of love cherished by Gaudiya Vaishnavas was being profaned due to a lacking in philosophical understanding and proper guidance. He repeatedly critiqued such popular communities in Bengal as
15960-681: The sacred mantras of the Vaisnava tradition. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupāda accepted the invitation and presented a paper, Brāhmaṇa o Vaiṣṇava (Brahmana and Vaishnava), later published in an extended form. This was the first detailed exposition of Bhaktisiddhanta's thought in this matter that would lay the foundation of his forthcoming Gaudiya Math mission. After praising the important position that brahmanas hold as repositories of spiritual and ritual knowledge, Prabhupāda used textual references to assert that Vaishnavas should be respected even more due to their devotional practice, thus contradicting
16100-668: The service to Sri Mayapur will become a permanent thing and will become brighter and brighter every day. The real service to Sri Mayapur can be done by acquiring printing presses, distributing devotional books, and sankirtan – preaching. Please do not neglect to serve Sri Mayapur or to preach for the sake of your own reclusive bhajan. ...I had a special desire to preach the significance of such books as Srimad Bhagavatam, Sat Sandarbha, and Vedanta Darshan. You have to accept that responsibility. Sri Mayapur will prosper if you establish an educational institution there. Never make any effort to collect knowledge or money for your own enjoyment. Only to serve
16240-400: The short close-mid vowels with the long ones. The following seven exceptions are from the ISO standard accommodating an extended repertoire of symbols to allow transliteration of Devanāgarī and other Indic scripts , as used for languages other than Sanskrit. The most convenient method of inputting romanized Sanskrit is by setting up an alternative keyboard layout . This allows one to hold
16380-470: The size of its constituency. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupāda was born Bimala Prasad at 3:30 pm on 6 February 1874 in Puri – a town in the Indian state of Orissa famous for its ancient temple of Jagannath . The place of his birth was a house his parents rented from a Calcutta businessman, Ramacandra Arhya, situated a few hundred meters away from the Jagannath temple on Puri's Grand Road,
16520-498: The slow decline of Vaishnava culture and pilgrimage sites in Bengal such as Nabadwip , the birthplace of Chaitanya. To avert the decay of Vaishnavism in Bengal and the spread of nondualism among the bhadralok , Vaishnava intellectuals of the time formed a new religious current, led by Sisir Kumar Ghosh (1840–1911) and his brothers. In 1868 the Ghosh brothers launched the pro-Vaishnava Amrita Bazar Patrika , which pioneered as one of
16660-447: The teachings of Gaudiya Vaishnavism by means of daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals, books of the Vaishnava canon, and public programs as well as through such innovations as "theistic exhibitions" with dioramas. Bhaktisiddhanta is known for his intense and outspoken oratory and writing style as the " acharya-keshari " ("lion guru"). Bhaktisiddhanta opposed the nondualistic interpretation of Hinduism , or advaita , that had emerged as
16800-569: The temples with funds, food, and volunteer labour. The Gaudiya Math centres paid serious attention to the individual discipline of their residents, including mandatory ascetic vows and daily practice of devotion ( bhakti ) centred on individual recitation ( japa ) and public singing ( kirtan ) of Krishna's names, regular study of philosophical and devotional texts ( svadhyaya ), traditional worship of temple images of Krishna and Chaitanya ( archana ) as well as attendance at lectures and seminars ( shravanam ). A deliberate disregard of social background as
16940-527: The theological core of his personalist tradition. This hermeneutical dynamism and spirit of adaptation employed by Bhaktisiddhanta became an important element in the growth of the Gaudiya Math and facilitated its future global expansion. Back in 1882, Bhaktivinoda stated in his Sajjana-toshani magazine a coveted vision of universalism and brotherhood across borders and races: When in England, France, Russia, Prussia, and America all fortunate persons by taking up kholas [drums] and karatalas [cymbals] will take
17080-488: The traditional venue for the renowned Hindu Ratha-yatra festival . Bimala Prasad was the seventh of fourteen children of his father Kedarnath Datta and mother Bhagavati Devi, devout Vaishnavas of the Bengali kayastha community. At that time Kedarnath Datta worked as a deputy magistrate and deputy collector , and spent most of his off-hours studying Sanskrit and the theistic Bhagavata Purana text (also known as
17220-487: The transliteration of Indic scripts according to the IAST and ISO 15919 standards. For example, the Arial , Tahoma and Times New Roman font packages that come with Microsoft Office 2007 and later versions also support precomposed Unicode characters like ī . Many other text fonts commonly used for book production may be lacking in support for one or more characters from this block. Accordingly, many academics working in
17360-473: The united mission in India was effectively fragmented. Over decades, the movement regained its momentum. In 1966 its offshoot, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), was founded by Prabhupāda's disciple Bhaktivedanta in New York City and spearheaded the spread of Gaudiya Vaisnava teachings and practice globally. Prabhupāda's branch of Gaudiya Vaishnavism presently counts over 500,000 adherents worldwide, with its public profile far exceeding
17500-456: The “Happening” record label. The record helped the early spread of what he called “the Hare Krishna movement”. With his small band of followers in a little storefront, he was already sharing a vision of spreading “Krishna consciousness” around the world. He asked them to help, for example, by typing his manuscripts for the second canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam . After he completed his Bhagavad-gita As It Is (by mid-January 1967), he asked
17640-470: Was a contemporary religious "society of cheaters and the cheated" became the underlying tone of his missionary efforts, not only earning him the title " acharya-keshari " ("lion guru") but also awakening suspicion, fear, and at times hate among his opponents. Deliberating on how to best conduct the mission in the future, he felt that the example of the South Indian orders of sannyasa (monasticism),
17780-607: Was a spiritual, philosophical, and religious teacher from India who spread the Hare Krishna mantra and the teachings of " Krishna consciousness " to the world. Born as Abhay Charan De and later legally named Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami, he is often referred to as "Bhaktivedanta Swami", "Srila Prabhupada", or simply "Prabhupada". To carry out an order received in his youth from his spiritual teacher to spread "Krishna consciousness" in English , in his old age , at 69, he journeyed in 1965 from Kolkata to New York City on
17920-484: Was a turning point in his movement’s history, marking the beginning of rapid growth. To gain attention and raise funds, his disciples organized a two-hour concert with kirtan led by Bhaktivedanta Swami and rock performances by the Grateful Dead and other famous rock groups of the day. This “ Mantra Rock Dance ”, held at the popular Avalon Ballroom , attracted some three thousand people and brought attention to
18060-537: Was also bequeathed to Bhaktisiddhanta as the last will of his mother Bhagavati Devi prior to her death in 1920. Thus, from the early 1920s, Bhaktisiddhanta began to plan his mission to Europe. In 1927, he launched a periodical in English and requested British officers to patronise his movement, which they gradually did, culminating in an official visit by the Governor of Bengal John Anderson to Bhaktisiddhanta's headquarters in Mayapur on 15 January 1935. Bhaktisiddhanta
18200-464: Was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India , on 1 September 1896, the day after Janmashtami (the birth anniversary of Krishna ). His parents, Gour Mohan De and Rajani De, named him Abhay Charan, meaning "one who is fearless, having taken shelter of Lord Krishna's lotus feet". Following Indian tradition, Abhay's father invited an astrologer, who predicted that at the age of seventy, Abhay would cross
18340-469: Was confined to books and to a strict ethical life, but that sort of life was found imperfect unless I came in touch with the practical side of things. After receiving the bhagarati initiation, Siddhanta Sarasvati went on a pilgrimage of India's holy places. He first stayed for a year in Jagannath Puri, and in 1904 travelled to South India, where he explored various branches of Hinduism, in particular
18480-403: Was first split into two separate institutions and later on was fragmented into several smaller groups that began functioning and furthering the movement independently. The Gaudiya Math movement, however, slowly regained its strength. In 1966 Abhay Caranararavinda De, now A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, founded in New York City the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Modeled after
18620-529: Was followed a few months later by a center established by Swami Bon in Berlin, Germany, from where he journeyed to lecture and meet the German academic and political elite. On 18 September 1935, the Gaudiya Math and Calcutta dignitaries offered a reception to two German converts, Ernst Georg Schulze and Baron H.E. von Queth , who arrived along with Swami Bon. Bhaktisiddhanta maintained that, if explained properly,
18760-451: Was given the name Abhay Charanaravinda. Over the next three years, whenever Abhay was able to visit Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in Calcutta or Vrindavan, Abhay would carefully listen to his spiritual master. In 1935, Abhay moved for business reasons to Bombay and then in 1937 back to Calcutta. In both places he assisted other members of the Gaudiya Math by donating money, leading kirtans , lecturing, writing, and bringing others to
18900-524: Was given the name Bhaktivedanta Swami. Wishing to preserve the initiatory name given him by Bhaktisiddhanta, as a sign of humility and connection to his spiritual master he kept the initials "A. C." before his sannyasa name, becoming A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. From 1962 to 1965 Bhaktivedanta Swami stayed in Vrindavan at the Radha-Damodar temple . There he began the task of translating from Sanskrit into English and commenting on
19040-547: Was invited to a conference in Balighai, Midnapore , that gathered Vaishnavas from Bengal and beyond to debate the eligibility of the brahmanas and that of the Vaishnavas. The debate was centred on two issues: whether those born as non- brahmanas but initiated into Vaishnavism were eligible to worship a shalagram shila (a sacred stone representing Vishnu, Krishna or other deities), and whether they could give initiation in
19180-468: Was known as Srila Prabhupāda (an honorific also later extended to his disciple A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ). Bimala Prasad was born in 1874 in Puri (then Bengal Presidency , now Orissa ) in a Bengali Hindu Kayastha family as a son of Kedarnath Datta Bhaktivinoda Thakur , a recognised Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava philosopher and teacher. Bimala Prasad received both Western and traditional Indian education and gradually established himself as
19320-627: Was no other Gaudiya Vaishnava sannyasi to initiate him into the renounced order, he controversially sat down before a picture of Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji and conferred the sannyasa upon himself. From that day on, he adopted both the dress and the life of a Vaishnava renunciant, with the name Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami. In December 1918 Bhaktisiddhanta inaugurated his first center, called "Calcutta Bhaktivinoda Asana," at 1, Ultadinghee Junction Road in North Calcutta, renamed in 1920 as "Shri Gaudiya Math". Amrita Bazar Patrika' s coverage of
19460-522: Was posted as senior deputy magistrate in Serampore of Hooghly , Bimala was enrolled in the local school there. At the age of nine, he memorised the seven hundred verses of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. From his early childhood, Bimala demonstrated a sense of strict moral behaviour, a sharp intelligence, and an eidetic memory . He gained a reputation for remembering passages from a book on
19600-433: Was that the writings of the devotional school could not be fully realised in a practical life in this world. My study of my master, and then the study of the books, along with the explanations by Thakura Bhaktivinoda [Bhaktisiddhanta's father Kedarnatha Datta], gave me ample facility to advance toward true spiritual life. Before I met my master, I had not written anything about real religion. Up to that time, my idea of religion
#904095