PRABHUPADA, A. C. BHAKTIVEDANTA. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada (1896–1977) was the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), more commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement.

On September 19, 1965, the steamship Jaladuta sailed into New York harbor from Calcutta and docked at a Brooklyn pier. Seventy-year-old A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami emerged from the ship to fulfill the instructions of his spiritual master to teach the spiritual message of the Caitanya cult in the West. Caitanya, the founder of bhakti-yoga, preached that all people regardless of their station in life, could reach spiritual realization through love and devotion to Kṛṣṇa (God). Bhaktivedanta Swami was dressed in traditional garb: he wore kaṇṭhī-mālā (neck beads), a plain cotton dhotī around his body, a cādar (shawl), and he carried jāpā-mālā chanting beads). His head was shaven except for...