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
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