Foreword to the First Printing
of Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta –
Volume Six (Chapters 45–55)

This volume in the life story of Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals many major events and themes in his life. It tells of his distribution of spiritual knowledge through his writings, of his struggle to establish the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in his native country, India, and of his averting a potential schism among his followers. Through all these events he emerges as an imaginative, resourceful teacher equipped with the deepest understanding of his tradition; and thus we see how this indomitable personality imparted stability and confidence to all who contacted him.

These pages tell the story of a visionary spiritual teacher who understood the chaos of the present-day civilization and who resuscitated spiritual values in the face of the materialistic values of consumerism and hedonism now dominating society. We meet in this volume a saint, indiscriminately inspiring the humanity that surrounds him with purpose of life, and offering them not a mere theory but a practical way of living. We also see how, even though physically indisposed in his last year, Śrīla Prabhupāda nobly continued to offer his life as an inspiring example up until his last day on earth.

We all know that religion should be a way of life. But a religious way of life becomes easier to understand and to follow if there is a living reference. For thousands of people all over the world he was an ideal translated into a simple human being. Read his story and you will be convinced that his teachings and his example shed a calm, gentle light on the face of troubled humanity.

Prabhupāda knew that the Western mind in its quest for empiricism displayed a naive, absolute faith in “realism,” a faith akin to that of a child’s attributing reality to fairy tales, quite forgetting that they are of his own making. Although this naiveté is considered a strength in Western cultures, it has proved to be a most fertile ground for human error and misunderstanding. Prabhupāda’s Western followers are most painfully aware of this naiveté, and I believe that this awareness, fortified with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s wisdom, has produced some of the truly great personalities of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in the West.

But in this volume we see that the great contribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda was not just that he taught spiritual values, not just that he provided the answers to life’s inevitable and ultimate questions, but that he inspired persons with the consciousness to live those spiritual values and to discover those answers for themselves. Prabhupāda’s stature is awe-inspiring, and a consciousness radiated from him, steering many minds from material concerns to spiritual, helping them develop the inner strength to see that the “self” could become a far more potent force than the body.

In many parts of the world today men and women are seeking the consciousness Śrīla Prabhupāda inspired, and these followers believe that happiness and world peace can be achieved by the way of life Śrīla Prabhupāda taught. For these Kṛṣṇa conscious people, a new (though ancient) age is in the making. For them, a life of bliss, purity, responsibility, and civic service is no longer a dream belonging to an irreducible remote future, but is a vision almost within grasp.

Read the story of this simple and pure, almost godlike individual, and you will see how in certain hearts and minds a great spiritual vision is being actualized. These pages display the spiritual force that has changed the lives of thousands by making them reflect on their own inner behavior. Prabhupāda was here in this world to show us how to live. His words and deeds, as narrated on these pages, have the ability to make our souls joyous and free.

Shaligram Shukla
Professor of Linguistics
Georgetown University