His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was born in 1896 in Calcutta, India.

He met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, in Calcutta in 1922.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was a religious scholar and the founder of sixty-four Gaudiya Mathas (Vedic institutes) in India.

Srila Prabhupada became his student and formally his disciple in 1933.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati requested Prabhupada to translate Vedic knowledge into English.

In the years that followed, Srila Prabhupada wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita.

In 1944, he started Back to Godhead, an English magazine. Single handedly, Srila Prabhupada edited, typed, and distributed the copies.

In 1959, Srila Prabhupada began work on his life's masterpiece: a multivolume, commented translation of the eighteen-thousand-verse Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana).

After publishing three volumes of the Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada came to the U.S. in 1965.

Subsequently, His Divine Grace wrote more than 50 volumes of authoritative commentated translations and summary studies of the philosophical and religious classics of India.

When he first arrived by freighter in New York City, Srila Prabhupada was almost penniless.

After only a year he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, in July of 1966.

Before he passed away on November 14, 1977, he had guided the Society and seen it grow to a worldwide confederation of more than one hundred asramas, schools, temples, institutes, and farm communities.

Srila Prabhupada's most significant contribution is his writings. Highly respected by scholars for their authority, depth, and clarity, they are used as textbooks in numerous college courses.

His writings have been translated into over fifty languages. His writings are a veritable library of Vedic philosophy, religion, literature, and culture.