How many times have we recently been asked, “Who will succeed Srila Prabhupada as the spiritual leader of the Hare Krsna movement?” And how often have we been confronted with the ominous inquiry, “Will the Hare Krsna movement be able to survive without His Divine Grace?”
At 7:20 p.m. on November 14, 1977, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada departed from this world. At the time, he was in his quarters at the Krsna-Balarama temple in Vrndavana, India, surrounded by loving disciples chanting the Hare Krsna mantra.
While it is natural for us to be sorrowful that Srila Prabhupada has passed away, we can know for sure that he will never pass away, for he is “living still in sound.” As he himself said, “I will never die. I will live forever in my books.”
The event climaxed with a special gift to Lord Krishna: a half-ton cake shaped like an ancient Indian palace, complete with domes and balconies, colored lights, nectar-showering fountains, and gingerbread elephants.
Devotees outside the St. Louis center of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. 1976.
The September 1976 issue of Back to Godhead magazine features a photo-article “Summer Sessions” presenting some of the highlights of Srila Prabhupada’s summer tour.
“Alienation,” social scientists say, is our inability to relate meaningfully to others, to nature, and to ourselves. Alienation is growing at an alarming and unprecedented rate. This trend appears to result from a radically different life view imposed upon the past few generations.
Even the residents of South Honda have never heard of the Jobaticaba tree or the star apple tree. Yet there they are, right on an 8.5-acre estate that fifty devotees have transformed into a tropical paradise.
Anyone can chant the Hare Krishna mantra, anytime, anywhere. The main thing is to listen closely to the sound. Whether you sing it or say it, alone or with others, the Hare Krishna chant brings about joyful spiritual awareness.
Krishna and His cowherd boyfriends are coming back home at the end of the day, and the cowherd girls are looking on. Being the Lord naturally means being completely likeable which makes sense, because the name Krishna means ‘the all-attractive one.
On June 1, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada stepped from a plane at Los Angeles International Airport and began his summer tour of the United States.
ISKCON devotees chant Hare Krishna in New York City in 1976.
The August 1976 issue of Back to Godhead magazine is the Janmastami Issue. With great articles showing how the ISKCON devotees celebrate Janmastami.
Concepts of the self, duty, personal attainment, and self-reliance—all facets of a world germane to Emerson and Thoreau and their contemporaries—now become clear in this rich edition.
Devotees chanting Hare Krishna in New York’s Central Park.
This issue of Back to Godhead magazine features an article glorifying the name of God in any language, the transcendental trends in science and Lord Varaha.
You see them in almost every big city in the United States: devotees of Krishna singing the holy names of God (Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare).
July 6, 1976, marks the tenth anniversary of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In only a decade, ISKCON has grown into a worldwide confederation of more than one hundred asramas, schools, temples, institutes, and farm communities.
The special design of the Hare Krishna chant makes it easy to repeat and pleasant to hear. Spoken or sung, by yourself or in a group, Hare Krishna invariably produces a joyful state of spiritual awareness—Krishna consciousness.
This July 1976 issue of Back to Godhead is the 1776-1976 Independence Day celebration issue. The cover story is “Declaring our Dependence on God.”