Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati

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Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (Template:IAST3 (Prabhupada); Template:Langx; Template:IPA; (February 6, 1874 – January 1, 1937), born Bimala Prasad Datt (Template:IAST, Template:IPA), was a Gaudīya Vaisnava guru (spiritual master), Ācārya, and revivalist in early twentieth-century India. Known to followers as: Srila Prabhupāda.

Bimala Prasad was born in 1874 in Puri (then Bengal Presidency, now Odisha) in a Bengali Hindu Kayastha family as a son of Kedarnath Datta Bhaktivinoda Thakur, a Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava philosopher and teacher. Bimala Prasad received Western and traditional Indian education from the late 1880s up until he graduated from Sanskrit College in 1895. His studies gradually gained him recognition from the bhadralok (Western-educated Hindu Bengali residents of colonial Calcutta), earning the title Siddhānta Sarasvatī ("the pinnacle of wisdom").^[1] In 1900, Bimala Prasad was initiated into Gaudiya Vaishnavism from the Vaishnava ascetic Gaurakishora Dāsa Bābājī.

In 1918, following the death of his father in 1914 and the death of his guru Gaurakishora Dāsa Bābājī the following year, Bimala Prasad accepted the Hindu formal order of asceticism (sannyasa) from a photograph of his guru and took the name Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada.Template:Sfn He started the first center of his institution in Calcutta, later known as the Gaudiya Math. It developed into a missionary and educational institution with branches in India and abroad, distributing books and hosting public programs.Template:Citation needed

Bhaktisiddhanta opposed the non-dualistic interpretation of Hinduism, or Advaita, that had emerged as the prevalent strand of Hindu thought in India, seeking to promote Krishna-bhakti, which he regarded as its fulfillment and higher synthesis. He was critical of numerous Gaudiya Vaishnava lineages, describing them as apasampradayas – deviations from the original Gaudiya Vaishnavism taught in the 16th century by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his early successors. Additionally, he targeted what he alleged as casteism among "Smarta Brahmins". Template:Citation needed

The mission initiated by Bhaktivinoda Thakur and developed by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was referred to as "the most powerful reformist movement"^[2] of Vaishnavism in Bengal of the 19th and early 20th century.^[3] In 1966 its offshoot, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known for extensively popularizing Gaudiya Vaishnavism outside of India, was founded by Bhaktisiddhanta's disciple A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in New York City.

Early period (1874–1900): Student

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Birth and childhood

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupāda was born Bimala Prasad at 3:30 pm on 6 February 1874 in Puri – a town in the Indian state of Orissa best known for its 12th-century Jagannath Temple.Template:Sfn He was born a few hundred meters away from the Jagannath temple on Puri's Grand Road, the traditional venue for the Hindu Ratha-yatra festival.Template:Sfn

Bimala Prasad was the seventh of fourteen children of his father Kedarnath Datta and mother Bhagavati Devi, devout Vaishnavas of the Bengali kayastha community.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Efn At that time, Kedarnath Datta worked as a deputy magistrate and deputy collector Template:Sfn, and spent most of his off-hours studying Vaishnava scripture under the guidance of local pandits. He translated scripture and wrote works on Vaishnava theology and practice in Bengali, Sanskrit, and English.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was also a prominent associate of the Ghosh brothers, who launched the pro-Vaishnava Amrita Bazar Patrika newpaper.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn His literary and spiritual achievements later earned him the honorific title Bhaktivinoda.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

A group photograph of a large Indian family

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In 1869, after being posted to Puri as a deputy magistrate,Template:Sfn Kedarnatha felt he needed assistance in his attempts to promote the cause of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in India and abroad. Shortly thereafter, he had a dream of Jagannath, in which the deity encouraged Kedarnatha to drop his pursuit of the law and attend to his role as a Vaishnava. After Kedarnatha expressed his difficulty in pursuing his cause alone, Jagannath requested Kedarnatha to pray for an assistant to the image of the Goddess Bimala Devi.Template:Sfn When his wife gave birth to a new child, Kedarnatha linked the event to the divinatory dream and named his son Bimala Prasad ('"the mercy of Bimala Devi").Template:Sfn The same account mentions that at his birth, the child's umbilical cord was looped around his body like a sacred brahmana thread (upavita), which left a permanent mark on the skin.Template:Sfn

Education

Young Bimala Prasad, often affectionately called Bimala, Bimu, or Binu,Template:Sfn started his formal education at an English school at Ranaghat. In 1881, he was transferred to the Oriental Seminary of Calcutta, and in 1883, after Kedarnath was posted as senior deputy magistrate in Serampore of Hooghly, Bimala was enrolled in the local school there.Template:Sfn At the age of nine, he memorised the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit.Template:Sfn He gained a reputation for remembering passages from a book on a single reading and soon learned enough to compose his own poetry in Sanskrit.Template:Sfn His biographers stated that Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati could verbatim recall passages from books that he had read in his childhood, earning the epithet "living encyclopedia".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

A young Bengali boy looking forward

Bimala Prasad (1881)

In the early 1880s, Kedarnath Datta initiated him into harinama-japa, a traditional Gaudiya Vaishnava practice of meditation based on the soft recitation of the Hare Krishna mantra on tulasi beads.Template:Sfn

In 1885, Kedarnath Datta established the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha (Royal World Vaiṣṇava Association); the association, composed of leading Bengali Vaishnavas, inspired Bimala to undertake an in-depth study of Vaishnava texts, both classical and contemporary.Template:Sfn Bimala's interest in the Vaishnava philosophy was furthered by the Vaishnava Depository, a library and a printing press established by Kedarnath (by that time respectfully addressed as Bhaktivinoda Thakur).Template:Sfn In 1886, Bhaktivinoda began publishing a monthly magazine in Bengali, Sajjana-toshani ("The Source of Pleasure for Devotees"), where he published articles on the history and philosophy of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, along with book reviews, poetry, and novels.Template:Sfn Twelve-year-old Bimala assisted his father as a proofreader, thus closely acquainting himself with the art of printing and publishing as well as with the intellectual discourses of the bhadralok.Template:Sfn

In 1887, Bimala Prasad joined the Calcutta Metropolitan Institution (from 1917 – Vidyasagar College), known for its association with the bhadralok youth; there he pursued extracurricular studies of Sanskrit, mathematics, and jyotisha (traditional Indian astronomy).Template:Sfn His proficiency in the latter was soon recognized by his tutors with an honorary title "Siddhanta Sarasvati", which he adopted as his pen name from then on.Template:Sfn Sarasvati then attended Sanskrit College, a prominent liberal arts university, where he studied Indian philosophy and ancient historyTemplate:Sfn

Teaching

A photo of a sitting young Indian man wearing spectacles and looking to the right

Bimala Prasad as a student, early 1890s

In 1895, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati discontinued his studies at Sanskrit College due to a dispute about the astronomical calculations of the principal, Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna.Template:Sfn An associate of his father, the King of Tripura Bir Chandra Manikya, offered him a position as secretary and historian at the royal court,Template:Sfn which afforded him financial independence to pursue his studies independently.Template:Sfn With access to the royal library, he studied Indian and Western works of history, philosophy, and religionTemplate:Sfn and also started astronomy school in Calcutta.Template:Sfn

After the king died in 1896, his heir, Radha Kishore Manikya, requested Sarasvati to tutor the princes, a position Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati held till 1908.Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhanta was eventually unsatisfied with the bhadralok lifestyle and searched for an ascetic spiritual teacher.Template:Sfn On Bhaktivinoda's direction, he approached Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji, a Gaudiya Vaishnava ascetic and close of associate of Bhaktivinoda.Template:Sfn In January 1901, according to his own testimony, he accepted Gaurakishora as his guru.Template:Sfn Template:Efn Along with his initiation (diksha)Template:Efn he received a new name, Shri Varshabhanavi-devi-dayita Dasa (Template:IAST, "servant of Krishna, the beloved of Radha").Template:Sfn

Middle period (1901–1918): Ascetic

Religious practice

A photograph of a bearded Indian ascetic dressed in dhoti and sitting down cross-legged

Gaurakisora Dasa Babaji, the guru of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, ca.1900

The initiation from Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji, an illiterate yet highly respected personality, had a transformational effect on Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Later, reflecting on his first meeting with the guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati recalled:

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A young skinny Indian man sitting with chanting beads in hand

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati during his vow to chant one billion names of Krishna. Mayapur, ca.1905

After receiving the bhagarati initiation, Siddhanta Sarasvati went on a pilgrimage of India's holy places. He first stayed for a year in Jagannath Puri, and in 1904 travelled to South India, where he explored various branches of Hinduism, in particular the Vaishnava Shri and Madhva sampradayas, collecting materials for a new Vaishnava encyclopaedia.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He finally settled in Mayapur, Template:Convert north of Calcutta, where Bhaktivinoda had acquired a plot of land at the place at which, according to Bhaktivinoda's research, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in 1486.Template:Sfn At that time, Bhaktivinoda added the prefix "bhakti" (meaning "devotion") to Siddhanta Sarasvati, acknowledging his proficiency in Vaishnava studies.Template:Sfn

Starting from 1905, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupāda began to deliver public discourses on the philosophy and practice of Chaitanya Vaishnavism, gathering a following of educated young Bengalis, some of whom became his students.Template:Sfn While assisting Bhaktivinoda in his developing project in Mayapur, Bhaktisiddhanta vowed to recite one billion names of Radha (Hara) and Krishna – which took nearly ten years to complete – thus committing himself to the lifelong practice of meditation on the Hare Krishna mantra following the tradition of Gaurakishora Babaji and Bhaktivinoda Thakur.Template:Sfn The aural meditation on Krishna's names, done either individually (japa) or collectively (kirtana) became a pivotal theme in Bhaktisiddhanta's teachings and personal practice.Template:Sfn

Image and conflict

The birth of Bimala Prasad concurred with the rising influence of the bhadralok community, literally "gentle or respectable people",Template:Sfn an affluent class of Bengalis, largely Hindus, who served the British administration in occupations requiring Western education, and proficiency in English and other languages.Template:Sfn Their attempts to integrate Hinduism with Western philosophy eventually gave rise to a historical period called the Bengali Renaissance, championed by reformists including Rammohan Roy and Swami Vivekananda.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn This trend gradually led to a widespread popularization, both in India and in the West, of Advaita Vedanta, a philosophy of an impersonal, non-dual ultimate reality, with philosopher Swami Vivekananda terming it "the mother of religions".Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and his peers viewed the growing popularity of Advaita Vendanta as a threat to the personal conception of god in Achintya Bheda Abheda philosophy, as taught by Chaitayna Mahaprabhu, the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.^[4]

Bhaktisiddhanta was critical of the depiction of Gaudiya Vaishnavism from his contemporaries in British Calcutta, Nabadwip brahmana communities and British viewpoints through the English Christian and Victorian sensibilities.^[5]Template:Sfn In his essay “Real and Apparent,” he described the westernized depiction of Radha-Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as "a creed which may be suspected of a partiality for sexuality, passivism, childish ceremonial and credulity and which declares all secular effort as utterly powerless".^[5] Bhaktisiddhanta attributed what he saw as the growing public disapproval of Gaudiya Vaishnavism as aggravated by the prevalently lower social status of local Gaudiya Vaishnavas, as well as by erotic practices of tantrics such as the sahajiyas, who controversially claimed close affiliation with the mainstream Gaudiya school.Template:Sfn

On 8 September 1911, Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupāda was invited to a conference in Balighai, Midnapore, that gathered Vaishnavas to debate the eligibility of the Brahmanas and that of the non-Brahmin Vaishnavas. The debate was centred on two issues: whether those born as non-Brahmanas but initiated into Vaishnavism were eligible to worship a shalagram shila (a sacred stone representing Vishnu, Krishna or other deities), and whether they could give initiation in the sacred mantras of the Vaisnava tradition.Template:Sfn

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupāda accepted the invitation and presented a paper, Brāhmaṇa o Vaiṣṇava (Brahmana and Vaishnava), the first publication concerning Bhaktisiddhanta's perspectives on the Bramana varna – perspectives which later lead to criticism, and may have been a factor in violence towards Bhaktisiddhanta and his disciples.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhnanta, while holding Brahmanas as repositories of spiritual and ritual knowledge, asserted that devoted Vaishnavas are spiritually higher than a ritualistic Brahmin without devotion.Template:Sfn He described the varnashrama and its concomitant rituals of purity (samskara) as beneficial for the individual but also as currently plagued by misguided practices.Template:Sfn

Bhaktisiddhanta endorsed Mayapur as the birthplace of Chaityana Mahaprabhu, instead of the mainstream and historically-supported site, Nabadwip.Template:Sfn To this end, he created an institution based in Nabadwip, the Navadvipadhama Pracarini Sabha. Bhaktisiddhanta's viewpoints lead to poor relations among members of the local orthodox brāhmana community in Nabadwip.Template:Sfn

This, among other factors led to the decline in attendance of Nabadwip.Template:Sfn On January 29, 1925, Bhaktisiddhānta and a large gathering of his devotees were attacked by an upper-caste mob during a pilgrimage in Nabadwip, although the specific accounts of the perpetrators and their motives are incomplete or missing.Template:Sfn Template:Efn

Publishing

A portrait of a grey-haired elderly Indian man

One of the last photographs of Bhaktivinoda Thakur (ca.1910)

According to several accounts, Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji on multiple occasions dissuaded Bhaktisiddhanta from visiting Calcutta, referring to the large imperial city as "the universe of Kali" (Template:Transliteration) – a standard understanding among Vaishnava ascetics.Template:Sfn However, in 1913 Bhaktisiddhanta established a printing press in Calcutta and named it bhagavat-yantra ("God's machine")Template:Sfn, beginning to publish medieval Vaishnava texts in Bengali, such as the Chaitanya Charitamrita by Krishnadasa Kaviraja, supplemented with his own commentary. This marked Bhaktisiddhanta's new focus on printing and distributing religious literature.Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhanta's publications stemmed from an instruction that he received in 1910 from Bhaktivinoda in a personal letter:

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After the death of his father, Bhaktivinoda, on 23 June 1914, Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupad relocated his Calcutta press to Mayapur and then to nearby Krishnanagar in the Nadia district.Template:Sfn From there he continued publishing Bhaktivinoda's Sajjana-toshani, and completed the publication of Chaitanya Charitamrita.Template:Sfn Soon after, his guru Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji also died. Without these two key sources of inspiration, and with the majority of Bhaktivinoda's followers being married and thus unable to pursue a strong missionary commitment, Bhaktisiddhanta found himself nearly alone with a mission that seemed far beyond his means.Template:Sfn When a disciple suggested that Bhaktisiddhanta relocate to Calcutta to establish a centre there, he was inspired by the suggestion and began preparing for its implementation.Template:Sfn

Later period (1918–1937): Missionary

Template:MainAfter the deaths of Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati assumed the responsibility for their mission of revitalizing the Chaitanya tradition.Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati engaged with the smarta-brahmanas with their claims of exclusive hereditary eligibility as priests and gurus; the Template:Transliteration dismissing the form and personhood of God as material and external to the essence of the divine; professional Bhagavatam reciters using the text sacred to Gaudiya Vaishnavas as a family business; the sahajiyas and other Gaudiya spin-offs with their imitations of bhakti.Template:Sfn His critiques of contemporary religious practices, which he characterized as a "society of cheaters and the cheated," defined his missionary approach and earned him the title "acharya-keshari" ("lion guru").Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Sannyasa and Gaudiya Math

A photo of a standing Hindu monk in spectacles, with a shaved head and holding a staff

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami two days after taking sannyasa.Template:Sfn 29 March 1918

Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati visited the Ramanuja ashrams in South India to study their tridanda sannyasa order. Well-established lineages such as Shankara's and the Vaishnavas of South India had sannyasa orders. The Chaitanya tradition had none.Template:Sfn On 27 March 1918, before leaving for Calcutta, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati resolved to become the first sannyasi of Gaudiya Vaishnavism post Chaitanya Mahaprabhu period, starting a new Gaudiya Vaishnava monastic order. Since there was no other Gaudiya Vaishnava sannyasi to initiate him, he sat down before a picture of Gaurakishora Dasa Babaji and conferred the sannyasa upon himself.Template:Sfn From that day on, he adopted the dress and life of a Vaishnava renunciant under the name Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami.Template:Sfn

In December 1918, Bhaktisiddhanta inaugurated his first center, the "Calcutta Bhaktivinoda Asana," at 1, Ultadinghee Junction Road in North Calcutta, which was renamed "Shri Gaudiya Math" in 1920.Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati later established sixty-four Gaudiya Math centers in India and three abroad, in London (England), Berlin (Germany), and Rangoon (Burma) during his lifetime.Template:Sfn Registered on 5 February 1919, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's missionary movement was initially called Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha, in the name of the society founded by Bhaktivinoda. It soon became known as the Gaudiya Math after the Calcutta branch and his weekly Bengali magazine Gaudiya.Template:Sfn

Caste and untouchability

A group of India people with drums and flags in a semicircle

Bhaktisiddhanta with his disciples performing public kirtana outside Shri Bhaktivinoda Asana, Calcutta, ca. 1930

Bhaktisiddhanta noted his views in an essay titled "Gandhiji's Ten Questions" published in The Harmonist in January 1933.Template:Sfn In the essay he responded to questions posed by Mahatma Gandhi, who in December 1932 challenged orthodox Hindu organisations regarding the practice of untouchability.Template:Sfn In his reply, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati defined untouchables as those inimical to the concept of serving God, rather than those hailing from the lowest social or hereditary background.Template:Sfn He stated that Vishnu temples should be open to all, particularly to those who were open to the devotional practice and were willing to undergo a process of spiritual training.Template:Sfn He also stated that untouchability had cultural and historical origins rather than a religious one, and as such, Gandhi's questions referred to a secular issue, not a religious one. As an alternative to the secular concept of "Hindu" and its social implications, Bhaktisiddhanta suggested an ethic of "unconditional reverence for all entities by the realization and exclusive practice of the whole-time service of the Absolute".Template:Sfn He described this as consistent with the practice of bhakti (devotion), and with service to God as the supreme person, implying moral responsibility toward other beings, which the Chaitanya school describes as eternal metaphysical entities – minute in relation to God but qualitatively equal to one another.Template:Sfn

True love and renunciation

While emphasising the innate spirituality of all beings, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati strongly objected to representations of the sacred love between Radha and Krishna, described in the Bhagavatam and other Vaishnava texts, as erotic, which permeated the popular culture of Bengal in art, theatre, and folk songs.Template:Sfn He argued that certain public representations of Gaudiya Vaishnava concepts lacked philosophical accuracy. He repeatedly critiqued these communities in Bengal as the sahajiyas, who presented sexual practices as a path of Krishna bhakti, denouncing them as pseudo-Vaishnavas.Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhanta argued instead that spiritual growth was not through what he described as sensual gratification, but through the practice of chastity, humility, and service.Template:Sfn

At the same time, Bhaktisiddhanta's approach to the material world was not escapist. Rather than shunning all connections with it, he adopted the principle of yukta-vairagya – a term coined by Chaitanya's associate Rupa Gosvami meaning "renunciation by engagement". This implied using any object in the service of the divine by renouncing the propensity to enjoy it.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On the basis of this principle, Bhaktisiddhanta used the latest advancements in technology, institutional building, communication, printing, and transportation, while striving to carefully keep intact the theological core of his personalist tradition.Template:Sfn This hermeneutical dynamism and adaptation employed by Bhaktisiddhanta became an important element in the growth of the Gaudiya Math and facilitated its future global expansion.Template:Sfn

The Gaudiya Math in Europe

Template:Multiple imageBhaktisiddhanta inherited the vision of spreading the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the West from his father Bhaktivinoda and from the last will of his mother, Bhagavati Devi, prior to her death in 1920Template:Sfn and began planning his mission to Europe.Template:Citation needed In 1927, he launched a periodical in English and requested British officers to support his movement, which they gradually did, culminating in an official visit by the Governor of Bengal John Anderson to Bhaktisiddhanta's headquarters in Mayapur on 15 January 1935.Template:Sfn

On 20 July 1933, three of Bhaktisiddhanta's senior disciples including Swami Bhakti Hridaya Bon arrived in London.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On 24 April 1934, Lord Zetland, the British secretary of state for India, inaugurated the Gaudiya Mission Society in London and became its president. This was followed a few months later by a centre established by Swami Bon in Berlin, Germany, where he lectured and met the German academic and political elite.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On 18 September 1935, the Gaudiya Math and Calcutta dignitaries offered a reception to two German converts, Ernst Georg Schulze and Baron H.E. von Queth, who arrived along with Swami Bon.Template:Sfn

An old-looking hadwritten document

Bhaktisiddhanta's last will, 1936

Bhaktisiddhanta maintained that, if explained properly, the philosophy and practice of Vaishnavism would gradually attract interested people.Template:Sfn Despite investments and efforts, the success of the Gaudiya Mission in the West remained limited to just a few people interested to seriously practice Vaishnavism.Template:Sfn

In 1936, the importance of the Western venture prompted Bhaktisiddhanta to make it the main theme of his final address at a gathering of thousands of his disciples and followers at Champahati, Bengal.Template:Sfn Bhaktisiddhanta prioritized the Western mission and expressed his expectation that a future disciple would successfully spread the teachings globally.Template:Sfn

The deep international tensions globally in the late 1930s led Bhaktisiddhanta to stress that solutions to global problems were primarily in the realm of religion and spirituality, and not solely in the fields of science, economy, and politics.Template:Sfn On 3 December 1936, Bhaktisiddhanta answered a letter from his disciple Bhaktivedanta, who had asked how he could best serve his guru's mission:

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Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati died on 1 January 1937 at the age of 63.Template:Sfn

Literary works

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Crises of succession

The Gaudiya Math mission is described by scholars as a significant reformist movement in Bengal during the 19th and early 20th centuries.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In mission and scope it parallelled the efforts of Swami Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Mission, and challenged modern Advaita Vedanta spirituality that had come to dominate the religious sensibilities of the Hindu middle class in India and the way Hinduism was understood in the West.Template:Sfn Rather than appointing a successor, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati instead instructed his leading disciples to jointly run the mission in his absence, and expected that qualified leaders would emerge naturally "on the strength of their personal merit".Template:Sfn However, weeks after his departure a crisis of succession broke out, resulting in factions and legal infighting.Template:Sfn The united mission was first split into two separate institutions and later on was fragmented into several smaller groups that began functioning and furthering the movement independently.Template:Sfn

The Gaudiya Math movement, however, slowly regained its strength. In 1966 Abhay Caranararavinda De, now A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, founded in New York City the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).Template:Sfn Modeled after the original Gaudiya Math and emulating its emphasis on dynamic mission and spiritual practice, ISKCON soon popularised Chaitanya Vaishnavism on a global scale, becoming the world's leading proponent of Hindu bhakti personalism.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Today Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's Gaudiya Math movement includes more than forty independent institutions, hundreds of centres and more than 500,000 practitioners globally, with scholars acknowledging its public profile as far exceeding the size of its constituency.Template:Sfn

Recognition

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In November 2023, UNESCO included the 150th birth anniversary of "Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada, philosopher, social reformer and eminent spiritual leader (1874-1937)" in its list of celebration of anniversaries with which UNESCO could be associated in 2024-2025.Template:Sfn The inclusion was proposed by India with the support of Cuba, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Thailand and Vietnam.Template:Sfn

On February 8, 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a commemorative stamp and coin in his honor at a commemorative event for the 150th birth anniversary of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati at the Bharat Mandapam.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

On March 29, 2024, the Bhaktivedanta Research Center organized an exhibition at the ISKCON TOVP Temple in Mayapur in honor of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada's sesquicentennial celebration. This exhibition commemorates his life, spanning from his birth to his death, and emphasizes his role as a prominent figure in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and preaching globally. It presents his significant contributions to modern Gaudiya Vaishnavism, his extensive travels, the installation of Mahaprabhu's footprints, spiritual exhibitions across India, and his prolific writing and publishing endeavours. The exhibition includes original publications, rare photos, newspaper articles, handwritten manuscripts, and other historical documents.^[6]^[7]