The authorized biography of the Hare Krishna movement's founder. When A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada entered the port of New York City on September 17, 1965, few Americans took notice—but he was not merely another immigrant. He was on a mission to introduce ancient teachings of Vedic India to mainstream America. Before Srila Prabhupada passed away at the age of eighty-one on November 14, 1977, his mission was successful. He had founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), colloquially known as the ‘Hare Krishna Movement,’ and saw it grow into a worldwide confederation of more than 100 temples, ashrams, and cultural centers. This is the inspirational story of Srila Prabhupada. As the founder of ISKCON, he ’emerged as a major figure of Western counterculture, initiating thousands of young Americans.’ He has been described as a charismatic leader who was successful in acquiring followers in many countries, including the United States, Europe, and India. Srila Prabhupada’s story is bound to put you on a path of self-realization.

This is the first intellectual history of political Hinduism from its medieval origins to current-day India. It provides the ideological context of India’s rise economically and politically in the world in the last decade, illustrating not only where political Hinduism comes from, but more importantly, where it seeks to go. It provides an intellectual framework not only to understand the rise of Narendra Modi and his politics in the world’s largest democracy, but also India’s political, economic, and diplomatic choices as it negotiates its space as a rapidly rising, billion-strong democracy in a fluid and precarious world order.

Winner of the 2018 Wilbur Award There are more than one billion Hindus in the world, but for those who don't practice the faith, very little seems to be understood about it. Followers have not only built and sustained the world's largest democracy but have also sustained one of the greatest philosophical streams in the world for more than three thousand years. So, what makes a Hindu? Why is so little heard from the real practitioners of the everyday faith? Why does information never go beyond cliches? Being Hindu is a practitioner's guide that takes the reader on a journey to very simply understand what the Hindu message is, where it stands in the clash of civilizations between Islam and Christianity, and why the Hindu way could yet be the path for plurality and progress in the twenty-first century.

One of the world's oldest forms of faith, Hinduism has an unbroken trajectory of beliefs and rituals that have continued for many millennia through the footsteps of pilgrims and the pedagogies of theologists; through myth, science and politics. But what does all that mean to the modern Hindu today? Why do Hindus call themselves so? Is it merely because their parents were Hindus? In what way does the faith speak to those who profess to follow it? What does Hinduism mean to the everyday-practicing or sometimes-accessing ordinary Hindu? Away from the raucous debate around religion, this is the journey of a common Hindu, an attempt to understand why, for so many Hindus, their faith is one of the most powerful arguments for plurality, for unity in diversity, and even more than the omnipresent power of God, the sublime courage and conviction of man. Being Hindu is an exploration of Hinduism in a way you have never seen before, almost through your own eyes. This is the first book on Hinduism to have won the Wilbur Award given by the Religion Communicators Council of America for excellence in writing about religion.