Srila Prabhupada’s accomplishments outweigh the material accomplishments of this world. We usually look at the accomplishments of people and assign them value, especially in the modern world. In the material world, a human being’s accomplishment is limited by the karmic account which dates back to the person’s previous life activities.
The scriptures and acharyas inform us that accomplishments in Krishna Consciousness are beyond the influence of time and karma. In a span of 12 years, Srila Prabhupada flew 14 times around the earth and accomplished feats impossible for an ordinary mortal.
His most unique feat was the chanting and singing of the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra globally. As per the scriptures such as the Kali Santarana Upanishad, chanting of the holy names of Hari is the Kali-yuga dharma. He induced the entire world to take part in Hari Naam Sankirtan by performing grand public kirtans individually in the beginning and later with his disciples.
The scriptures and acharyas inform us that accomplishments in Krishna Consciousness are beyond the influence of time and karma. In a span of 12 years, Srila Prabhupada flew 14 times around the earth and accomplished feats impossible for an ordinary mortal.
His most unique feat was the chanting and singing of the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra globally. As per the scriptures such as the Kali Santarana Upanishad, chanting of the holy names of Hari is the Kali-yuga dharma. He induced the entire world to take part in Hari Naam Sankirtan by performing grand public kirtans individually in the beginning and later with his disciples.
He established 108 Krishna temples all over the world beginning with his first ISKCON centre in New York city in 1966 and initiated more than 10,000 disciples in such a short time.
Another important feat of Srila Prabhupada is book distribution. Millions of his books have been distributed to date including the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam, etc. He would often say that his books are like ticking time-bombs which would explode at the right time and lead the human civilization towards a happy, peaceful and prosperous existence.
He established the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) in 1972 to print his books. Today, his books are printed in all the major languages on earth. The BBT went on to become the world’s largest printer of Vaishnava books and those connected to Bhakti-yoga.
He founded the Bhaktivedanta Academy as well as the Gurukulas for children. Not to forget his introduction of the world-famous Jagannath Ratha Yatra to the outside world. Srila Prabhupada conducted the first Ratha Yatra outside India in San Francisco city (USA) in 1967. Thereafter, the Jagannath Ratha Yatra has been a yearly global affair.
He tirelessly worked day and night with barely three hours of sleep. He and his disciples would chant and perform Hari-Naam Sankirtana in parks, conduct mega Sunday love feasts, distribute Back to Godhead magazines and lecture extensively from the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam. The Back to Godhead magazine was started single-handedly by Srila Prabhupada in India in 1944. His disciples restarted the magazine in the USA.
An interesting fact to note here is that Srila Prabhupada accomplished all of this starting from a rented store-front in one of the prominent hippie localities of New York city. All that he had was ₹40, a few clothes and a few trunk cases of Srimad Bhagavatam when he arrived by ship in the USA. From there onwards, everything else is history.