The Founder Acarya of ISKCON - FounderAcharya.com

116 Pages·2014·0.78 MB·English

The Founder Acarya of ISKCON
A GBC Foundational Document
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Founder-Ācārya: His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

Ravīndra Svarūpa Dāsa

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who is very dear to Lord
Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master,
servant of Sarasvatī Gosvāmī. You are kindly preaching the
message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western
countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
© ISKCON GBC PRESS All rights reserved.
First Printing 2014
Printed in India by Gokul Offset Pvt. Ltd.
25,000 copies
Published by ISKCON GBC PRESS
For more information please contact your local ISKCON Center.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Note from ISKCON’s
GBC Executive Committee....................9
Foreword...............................................11
Preface...................................................17
Text.......................................................21
Text with Commentary.........................27
Abbreviations......................................106
Works Cited........................................107
Glossary...............................................109
Śrīla PrabhuPāda Position
Committee members
Akrūra Dāsa
Ātmārāma Kṛṣṇa Dāsa
Bhakta Priya Devī Dāsī
Bhakti Charu Swami
Bhaktivaibhāva Swami
Caitanya Candrodaya Dāsa
Gopāl Kṛṣṇa Goswami
Hari Śauri Dāsa
Hṛdayānanda Goswami (former member)
Madhu Sevita Dāsa
Mālatī Devī Dāsī (former member)
Ravīndra Svarūpa Dāsa
Śraddhādevī Dāsī
Sureśvara Dāsa
Vāsudeva Dāsa
Vīrabāhu Dāsa
Viṣṇu Mūrti Dāsa
Yadubara Dāsa
a note from the exeCutive Committee of isKCon’s
GoverninG body Commission
This work, Śrīla Prabhupāda: The Founder-Ācārya of ISKCON,
authored by Ravīndra Svarūpa Dāsa, is officially endorsed by
ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission (GBC).
The GBC requests all devotees and friends of ISKCON
to give deep and careful attention to this work. To do so will
broaden our collective understanding of, and appreciation for,
the position of Śrīla Prabhupāda and his unique role in the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Śrīla Prabhupāda did not simply carry the message of
Lord Caitanya and Lord Krishna to us. While that in itself is a
glorious task, Śrīla Prabhupāda, as our Founder-Ācārya, created
the very foundation, function and vision of ISKCON as a global
community aiming for the “respiritualization of the entire
human society.”
Śrīla Prabhupāda’s role, as you will read, is ongoing. His
presence is to be felt in the life of every ISKCON devotee today,
and in the lives of devotees many centuries into the future.
Understanding how Śrīla Prabhupāda is in the center of
our lives and our society, and knowing how to keep him in
that essential role, is the purpose of this text. As Bhakti Charu
Swami writes in the Foreword, “this book is not meant for casual
reading, but for implementation.”
GBC Executive Committee
December, 2013
9