SOME PERSONAL COMMENTS about Srila Prabhupada


Note: Some of the scholars quoted here may now hold different posts or be affiliated with different institutions than the ones this file mentions. Our apologies for any outdated information. (Corrections are welcome.)

"[The biography] of Srila Prabhupada is pointed proof that one can be a transmitter of truth and still be a vital and singular person. . . . At what almost anyone would consider a very advanced age, when most people would be resting on their laurels, he harkened to the mandate of his own spiritual teacher and set out on the difficult voyage to America. Srila Prabhupada is, of course, only one of thousands of teachers. But in another sense, he is one in a thousand, maybe one in a million."

          
                    --Dr. Harvey Cox
                      Harvard University        

"Besides being a man of deep moral strength, humility, and holiness, he was genuinely renounced. Unlike many modern gurus, he was content to live as his disciples did. Even when his health failed and he returned to the blazing heat of Delhi for his recovery, he sought nothing better than a poorly furnished room, without air-conditioning, in a Hindu temple where he had resided before coming to America. Srila Prabhupada's life. . . is the epitome of his ideal, an ideal that he set forth for others to follow. In an age of pervasive hypocrisy and cynicism, it is this kind of rare model that we need."

                    --Dr. J. Stillson Judah
                      Professor Emeritus, History of Religions
                      and Director of Libraries
                      Graduate Theological Union
                      Berkeley, California

"His books are significant contributions to the salvation of mankind."

                    --Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri
                      Former Prime Minister of India

"The great contribution of Srila Prabhupada 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 consciousness to *live* those spiritual values and to discover those answers for themselves. Prabhupada'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 Srila Prabhupada inspired, and thee followers believe that happiness and world peace can be achieved by the way of life Srila Prabhupada taught. For these Krishna 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. . . .

"Prabhupada was here in this world to show us how to live. His words and deeds. . . have the ability to make our souls joyous and free."

                    --Dr. Shaligram Shukla
                      Professor of Linguistics
                      Georgetown University     

Scholars