Abstract

His Divine Grace Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda was a highly revered ācārya from the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition, an important Hindu lineage of Kṛṣṇa bhakti that historically can be traced back to the venerated saint Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu in sixteenth-century Bengal. Among a variety of other groundbreaking achievements, Bhaktivedānta Swami is notable for being the founding Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York City in 1966. At a surprising rate, it quickly became a large international movement and, therefore, is an interesting case study for theologies of religion in the contemporary, global era.