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This year, we celebrate the 125th anniversary of the appearance of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, born in 1896 in Calcutta. Leading up to his Appearance Day or Vyasa-Puja on August 31st, ISKCON News is commorating the occasion with a series of articles glorifying his achievements, contributions and qualities.  

A Mission of Care

One of Srila Prabhupada’s prominent qualities, embodied in his entire mission, was care for all living beings. Out of a desire to alleviate humanity’s suffering and introduce “India’s message of peace and goodwill” to the Western world, he left his home in the sacred village of Vrindavana on a cargo steamship in 1965 at the age of sixty-nine, enduring stormy seas and two heart-attacks along the way.

Carrying only forty rupees and a trunk of his Bhagavatam commentaries, the early days as he worked to establish ISKCON were in extremely adverse conditions. In New York City, he lived in a windowless room with no kitchen, and had to walk to the home of his only contact, Dr. Ramamurti Mishra, to cook during the frigid winter months. His typewriter and reel-to-reel tape recorder were stolen; and later, while he lived in the Bowery, he was threatened by a young man in an LSD-induced rage. But he persisted in his mission to give people the spiritual knowledge he knew could rescue them from the struggle of material existence, until followers like Mukunda Goswami (Michael Grant) joined him, and he incorporated ISKCON in July 1966.

Read more: https://iskconnews.org/your-ever-well-wisher-stories-of-srila-prabhupadas-care-for-all,7809/