On July 13th, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is marking its 60th Anniversary. It was 60 years ago today that documents were filed in the city of New York, in the United States of America, by which His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) incorporated his fledgling society.
At the time of its original founding, ISKCON, what Prabhupada almost humorously named an “International Society,” consisted of one small storefront temple in New York City’s Lower East Side. That lone rented building and a handful of youthful followers were all that Srila Prabhupada could count as his material assets. Yet, he carried the vision and the instructions of his guru, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur (1874-1937), who had instructed Srila Prabhupada decades before to preach the message of Krishna bhakti, devotion to Lord Krishna, to the English-speaking world.
Inspired and committed to that instruction and vision, Srila Prabhupada spent decades in India, some would say “a lifetime,” in preparation to teach and preach in the West. When he arrived in America in 1965, at the age of 70, he came penniless, without institutional support, and with an invitation to stay at a private home in Pennsylvania for only 30 days. But he had something more important than material assets. He carried with him a mission given by his guru and two trunks containing his translations and commentary on the First Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, the Vaishnava scripture also known as the Bhagavata Purana.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/iskcon-celebrates-60-years/
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