A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was a spiritual, philosophical, and religious teacher from India who spread the Hare Krishna mantra and the teachings of “Krishna consciousness” to the world. Born as Abhay Charan De and later legally named Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami, he is often referred to as “Bhaktivedanta Swami”, "Srila Prabhupada", or simply “Prabhupada”.
To carry out an order received in his youth from his spiritual teacher to spread “Krishna consciousness” in English, in his old age, at 69, he journeyed in 1965 from Kolkata to New York City on a cargo ship, taking with him little more than a few trunks of books. He knew no one in America, but he chanted Hare Krishna in a park in New York City, gave classes, and in 1966, with the help of some early students, established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which now has centers throughout the world.
He taught a path in which one aims at realizing oneself to be an eternal spiritual being, distinct from one’s temporary material body, and seeks to revive one’s dormant relationship with the supreme living being, known by the Sanskrit name Krishna.