An in-depth study of a spiritual influencer
Srila Prabhupada left a deep global impact with his ISKON movement, but not much is known about the man himself. Hindol Sengupta seeks to present a rounded picture
EVEN IF SOME PEOPLE KNOW PRABHUPADA OUTSIDE THE HARE KRISHNA MOVEMENT, HIS GURUS AND THEIR HISTORY ARE ENTIRELY UNKNOWN. BUT UNLESS THIS HISTORY IS UNDERSTOOD, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHY PRABHUPADA DECIDED TO GO TO AMERICA AS A PENNILESS MONK AT THE AGE OF NEARLY 70 AND SUBSEQUENTLY CREATED A MOVEMENT THAT TOUCHED EVERY PART OF THE WORLD
Sing, Dance and Pray brought out by Penguin Random House India is the inspirational story of Srila Prabhupada, the der of ISKCON. He has been ribed as a charismatic leader,
was successful in attracting wers ranging from writer-poet n Ginsberg to The Beatles’
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to self-realization. have powerful early memories
onks from Srila Prabhupada’s r, in a temple near our home alcutta, setting birds free from cages. During my readings on religious history, I kept coming across Srila Prabhupada’s name, and of course ISKCON. It occurred to me that very little was known among the wider public about Prabhupada and his life. He was a man who created one of the biggest modern religious movements in the world and his story was so little known. Therefore, I decided to fill this knowledge gap,” shares Sengupta, whose book The Man Who Saved India won the best non-fiction award at the Valley of Words literary festival in India in 2019.
Writing the book meant going through endless details of Prabhupada’s early life (as Abhay Charan De) and then his incredible journey to America at the age of nearly 70! “Prabhupada left behind a wealth of material (including 70 books that he wrote) and wading through all that to carve out a narrative was really challenging. Also, I write in detail about his early life, having dug out material on the Calcutta Abhay Charan lived in, placing many of his thoughts and actions in much needed context. I do the same with his time in America and around the world. It was a process which I enjoyed very much – I learnt so many new things about Calcutta, my hometown, and Bengali life in the 19th and 20th centuries through this book,” says the author.
Sengupta, as the award-winning author of nine books, somehow knew that his tenth one would be very special. “This is the first biography of Prabhupada written by a historian and someone who is not affiliated in any way with the ISKCON movement. It is the first independent historical assessment of the life and work of Srila Prabhupada in one comprehensive biography,” says Sengupta, who is also Vice-President and Head of Research at Invest India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
The story of Srila Prabhupada is the story of how the efforts of a single man changed global opinion about India and Hinduism. “I detail his spiritual path and have included a special chapter on his gurus and their lives – this too is little known,” says the author. “Even if some people know Prabhupada outside the Hare Krishna movement, his gurus and their history are entirely unknown. But unless this history is understood, we will not be able to understand why Prabhupada decided to go to America as a penniless monk at the age of nearly 70 and subsequently created a movement that touched every part of the world,” says Sengupta, who has been inspired by the works of Bimal Matilal, the great scholar of Hinduism at Oxford.
“I have also learnt a lot from the work of scholars like Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti (Cambridge) and John Stratton ‘Jack’ Hawley (Columbia), and it is an incredible honour that he endorsed Sing, Dance and Pray,” he says.
Talking about the challenges of writing about a spiritual figure, he says, “It is perhaps the toughest kind of history to write because these are revered figures for millions, and yet one absolutely does not want to write a hagiography. Devotees usually want hagiographies, but no serious writer would write that. However, one also wants to be careful in the assessment and not offend anyone’s deeply-treasured beliefs. This takes a lot of careful and delicate work.”