Publisher's Synopsis
This 2 vol set is only avail as a set, or vol 2 can be purchased on it's own. This biography tells the story of a remarkable individual and a remarkable achievement. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - philosopher, scholar, religious leader and saint - was responsible for the revolutionary transplantation of a timeless spiritual culture from ancient India to 20th century America. The second volume of this biography begins in 1971. In the West, Srila Prabhupada had firmly established the Krsna consciousness movement, which his disciples were expanding in his absence. The author chronicles his triumphant return to India and his plans for constructing temples in three crucial locations: Bombay, the centre of India's wealth and business; Vrndavana, the sacred village where Lord Krsna lived and sported; and Mayapur, the holy birth site of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who had inaugurated the Hare Krsna movement some 500 years earlier. These are vigorous years spent building a spiritual society in India and establishing centres around the world where people could contact the ancient, orthodox faith of India in their own cities. In this volume, Srila Prabhupada circles the globe repeatedly, speaking out on timely issues and defending his budding religious society against "brainwashing" charges in America and shady business practices in India. Srila Prabhupada wanted to unite two worlds, the "lame man" of India and the "blind man" of America. "A blind man can carry a lame man", he said, "and together they can walk. Similarly, the combination of Indian spirituality and American technology can benefit the whole world". His principle means of accomplishing this feat was to publish his books - annotated translations of India's spiritual classics. Under his guidance, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust was organized, and by 1977 it had produced and distributed more than sixty million volumes of Srila Prabhupada's writings. A final tour of India in 1977 took Srila Prabhupada, 81 and in failing health, to the colossal Kumbha-mela religious festival, to Hrsikesha and finally back to his beloved Vrndavana. The time had come for his passing, he said. As his anguished disciples flooded to Vrndavan from all corners of the world, Srila Prabhupada presented them with the greatest challenge - and the greatest lesson - of their young spiritual lives.
