Language | Hindi |
---|---|
ISBN-10 | 978-9382176336 |
No of pages | 459 |
Book Publisher | Bhaktivedanta Book Trust |
Abhaya Caranaravinda Bhaktivedānta Svāmi (born Abhay Charan De; 1 September 1896 – 14 November 1977) was an Indian spiritual teacher and the founder-preceptor of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the "Hare Krishna Movement".
Members of the ISKCON movement view Bhaktivedānta Swāmi as a representative and messenger of Krsna Caitanya.
Born Abhay Charan De in Calcutta, he was educated at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta. Before adopting the life of a novice renunciate (vanaprastha) in 1950, he was married with children and owned a small pharmaceutical business.
In 1959 he took a vow of renunciation (sannyasa) and started writing commentaries on Vaishnava scriptures. In his later years, as a traveling Vaishnava monk, he became an influential communicator of Gaudiya Vaishnava theology to India and specifically to the West through his leadership of ISKCON, founded in 1966.
As the founder of ISKCON, he "emerged as a major figure of the Western counterculture, initiating thousands of young Americans.
" He received criticism from anti-cult groups, as well as a favorable welcome from religious scholars such as J. Stillson Judah, Harvey Cox, Larry Shinn and Thomas Hopkins, who praised Bhaktivedānta Swāmi's translations and defended the group against distorted media images and misinterpretations.
In respect to his achievements, religious leaders from other Gaudiya Vaishnava movements have also given him credit.
He has been described as a charismatic leader, in the sense used by sociologist Max Weber, as he was successful in acquiring followers in the United States, Europe, India and elsewhere.
His mission was to propagate, throughout the world, Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a school of Vaishnavite Hinduism that had been taught to him by his guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. After his death in 1977, ISKCON, the society he founded based on a type of Hindu
Krishnaism using the Bhagavata Purana as a central scripture, continued to grow. In February 2014, ISKCON's news agency reported reaching a milestone of distributing over half a billion of his books since 1965.
His translation of and commentary on the Bhagavad Gītā, titled Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, is considered by adherents of the ISKCON movement and many Vedic scholars as one of the finest literary works of Vaishnavism translated into the English Language.
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One of the most profound book that sums up the essence of all that Hindu philosophy stands for, the Bhagavad Gita, from the original Sanskrit version has been translated into several languages of the world. This Hindi version of the Bhagavad Gita has been translated by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a well known sanskrit scholar, spiritual leader and the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). In a world confronted by materialistic strife, terrorism and conflicts, the sermon that Lord Krishna gives his favourite disciple Arjuna in the midst of Kurukshetra battlefield where two large armies are ready to battle has come to occupy a central theme about the inner and outer conflict that mankind has faced ever since he evolved into a thinking being. Considered as the crux of all vedantic thought, Krishna urging Arjuna to do his duty and not shy away for the battle he faces, simply because the opposing army consists of cousins, uncles, gurus and other close relatives, lays emphasis on the theory of karma where the question of birth, death and rebirth are also debated. Consisting of eighteen chapters, all the 700 verses of the book have been translated in simple language that can be understood by any person who understands elementary Hindi. For authenticity, the original sanskrit verses have also been included in this edition. Meaning of the sanskrit words has been rendered in as elaborate a form as possible to make it as close as possible to the original meanings of the language. The book also is illustrated with some paintings of select scenes picked out of Mahabharata, the epic of which the Bhagavad Gita is just one part. Published in both Hindi and English, the deluxe edition comes in hardcover and has 600 pages in it.