My wife ran across this on Facebook and shared it with me. After reading it I thought it would make a good post, so I am sharing it with all you you.
At the age of 70 perhaps most of us wold think of retiring in a cozy cottage or in a farmhouse in the serenity of solitude. But this extraordinary persona embarked upon an extra ordinary journey that can be termed as the greatest achievement so far by an Indian in America.
In the year 1965, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada sailed for 32 days on the sea by and Indian freighter named Jaladut tp reach New York only with a suitcase , an umbrella, a type writer and just eight dollars in his hand. He fell ill twice in the mid sea. Yet nothing could deter him from achieving his goal to spread the mesage of Bhagavat Gita to the West. Withstanding all challenges, he established the International Society of Krishna Consciousness ( ISKCON) also know as the Hare Krishna Movement in 1966 and went on to establish 108 temples worldwide in just 11 years. Even the best management school in the world will not be able to teach such management & leadership lessons the Bhaktivedanta Swami mastered. With Millions of devotees worldwide, ISKCON has taken Indian spirituality to the global platform upholding the messages of Bhakti Yoga, universal brotherhood, peace and reawakening the love of God.
He came to the United States not like anyone else, but achieved much more than anyone of us could have imagined. His knowledge and determination were the only resources to start something. There was no email, no mobile phone during those days. He wrote around 10,000 letters to the devotees worldwide to make this great movement successful.
In 1972, he also started a gurukul in Dallas, Texas-an educational institution set up according to the traditional Vedic model. He said that no one should go hungry within a 10 mile radius of an ISKCON temple and offered prasadam to everyone irrespective of community, race and religion. For him every human being was a part of the supreme soul. Even Steve Jobs said in an interview that he used to walk 7 miles to the Hare Krishna temple to eat one free good meal in a week.
Today, ISKCON facilitates the World’s largest vegetarian food relief program. ISKCON acquired the midday meal scheme of Goverment of India and feeds 14 lakh children daily. Today, a number of hospitals, educational institutions, temples, free food distribution projects, eco-villages, and many other projects all over the world are taking forward the movement that Bhaktivedanta Swami started.
-Pankaj Uttara Sharma
The Hare Krishna Movement 