Within India
Initially, Bhaktivedanta Swami began his public preaching mission in India. He founded the League of Devotees in Jhansi in 1953.
Following the establishment of temples and centres in the United States and Europe, Bhaktivedanta Swami returned to India in 1971, holding many public programs which were well attended. From 1971 onwards, the movement became increasingly popular and spread throughout the country, Bhaktivedanta Swami was particularly eager to see the progress at "the impressive temple project in" Mumbai which he and his disciples had fought very hard to establish, with large temples in Mayapur and Vrindavan to follow in mid-1970s. To promote the vedic education system in modern Indian education structure, he introduced the chain of Gurukul in various part of India. The Bhaktivedanta Gurukula (Vrindavan) is one of the most successful school in the list.
In 1996, the Government of India recognized Bhaktivedanta Swami's accomplishments by issuing a commemorative stamp in his honour as a part of Prabhupada Centennial celebrations.
Speaking at the inauguration of ISKCON's cultural center in New Delhi on 5 April on occasion of Ramnavmi in 1998, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then India's prime minister, said:
| “ | If the Bhagavad Gita, the holy text of the Hindu traditions, is printed in millions of copies and scores of languages and distributed in all nooks and corners of the world, the credit for this great sacred service goes chiefly to ISKCON. For this accomplishment alone, Indians should be eternally grateful to the devoted spiritual army of Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, and to his followers. . .
The arrival of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in the United States in 1965 and the particular popularity his movement gained in a very short span of twelve years must be regarded as one of the greatest spiritual events of the century. |
” |
| — Atal Bihari Vajpayee - April 1998 |
Read more about this topic: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
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