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On September 17, 1965, Bhaktivedanta Swami arrived in America, a strange and new country. H carried only a trunk full of his books and just a little bit of money when he stepped off the boat. Some friends came to bring him home with them. He soon met many new people, and always told everyone he met about Krishna and the Vedas. The newspapers called him "India's Spiritual Ambassador to the World". After one long year, he had enough friends and followers in New York City to open up a little temple of his own in a place called "Matchless Gifts". Then, on July 16, 1966, he named his group "The International Society for Krishna Consciousness".
To his friends and followers, this Indian Swami was someone very special. So they called him "Srila Prabhupada". He showed them a wonderful way to live with God, whose name is Krishna. He taught them how to do everything and use everything simply for Lord Krishna's pleasure and how easy. it was to give up their bad habits. His followers learned quickly that whenever they tried to please Lord Krishna, somehow they also became naturally very happy. To be a devotee of Lord Krishna was something very special.
They taped Prabhupada's songs and classes and made videos of dramas and puppet shows, all about Krishna and His devotees. They celebrated important festivals like Rathayatra, Janmastami, Ram, Navami, and Gaura Purnima. They helped him to open temples in every major city in the world. But most important of all, they helped him print his new books. Some devotees painted the pictures, some helped at the printers, and others helped him sell millions of his books door to door in very town and village around the world.
For him, they gave out 400 million books, started more than 400 temples, farms, schools, museums, and theaters just for learning Vedic sciences, arts and a simple God-centered way of life. The, gave help and free vegetarian meals to 60 million poor people who got caught in floods, earthquakes an wars. They also fed 300 million people who came to festivals and temple feasts.
Prabhupada took his American devotees back to India with him. The Indian people loved these Western boys and girls who dressed and lived the simple, saintly life of their own culture. Soon, he opened big temples in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bombay, and Vrndavana. He began the biggest one in Mayapur, West Bengal. This temple is growing into a city which will one day have 50,000 devotees living the Vedic way of life just as Krishna lived 5,000 years ago.
On November 14, 1977, Srila Prabhupada left this world in Vrndavana, surrounded by hundreds of his own disciples chanting Hare Krishna. In just twelve years, he had gone around the world fourtee: times to share what billions of people in India have known for millions of years: that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that all living beings are His eternal servants.
He invited the whole world to taste real happiness and planted the seeds of that happiness in his books and temples. Today, anyone can taste the delicious fruits of love of Godhead anywhere, anytime, Just by chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare.
In this coloring book, come and live with Prabhupada as he grows up and later travels all around the world. Soon you will be able to travel back in time and discover Lord Jagannatha with Indradyumna Maharaja and pull the cart with your own friends.
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