Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Skt. अभयचरणारविन्द भक्तिवेदान्त स्वामीप्रभुपाद, also known as Srila Prabhupada; September 1, 1896, Calcutta - November 14, 1977, Vrindavan); Vaishnava religious leader; author, translator and commentator of the Hindu scriptures; acarya and founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, née Abhay Charan De, was born in Calcutta, where he was educated at the prestigious Scottish Church College. In 1918 he got married, and in 1922 he first met the famous Vaishnava religious leader Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, who asked him to preach Gaudiya Vaishnavism in English. In 1933, Abhay took spiritual initiation from Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and the name Abhay Charanaravinda. Abhay had several children and to support the family he was in the pharmaceutical business. In 1950, he retired from family affairs, and in 1959 he took a vow of renunciation of the world, sannyasa, from Bhaktipragyana Keshava Goswami, receiving the name of Bhaktivedanta Swami. After that, he settled in the Hindu holy city of Vrindavan and began translating Vaishnava scriptures from Sanskrit into English.

Already in his old years, in 1965, fulfilling the will of his spiritual master, Bhaktivedanta Swami went on a cargo ship to the United States, where in 1966 he founded the Vaishnava religious organization International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). According to K. Klostermeier, Bhaktivedanta Swami has emerged as one of the main figures in the Western counterculture, giving spiritual initiation to thousands of young Americans. American disciples gave Bhaktivedanta Swami the respectful title of Srila Prabhupada, the name by which he is best known today.

In his preaching, Srila Prabhupada spread the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and opened the whole world to bhakti yoga - the yoga that leads to the perfection of the human person. Srila Prabhupada has traveled around the world fourteen times, giving lectures on six continents. He founded over one hundred temples and communities, as well as the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, which is now the world's largest publishing house for Vedic literature. Thanks to the enlightenment activities of Srila Prabhupada, the Vedic mantra "Hare Krishna" gained worldwide fame, became available to all mankind and today millions of people living outside India have the opportunity, by chanting this great mantra, to achieve the highest perfection of human life.

Srila Prabhupada is considered a saint in India, streets in Calcutta, Mumbai, in the holy cities of Hinduism Mayapur and Vrindavan, as well as various institutions: schools, hospitals, shelters, charitable foundations are named after him. Many Indians, including such eminent statesmen as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Shankar Dayal Sharma, view Srila Prabhupada as the spiritual ambassador of their country who made the ancient message of the Vedas available to the world. In honor of the centenary of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1996, the Government of India issued a postage stamp featuring him.

As a bona fide Spiritual Master, belonging to the parampara, Srila Prabhupada continued the activities of his predecessors, devoting his life to spreading Vedic knowledge throughout the world. Commenting on the Srimad-Bhagavatam texts, Srila Prabhupada wrote: "People living in this material world are willing to do anything to achieve happiness and enjoy life. Unfortunately, most of them do not know how to become happy." The greatest merit of Srila Prabhupada is that the Most Intimate Knowledge contained in the Vedic scriptures and capable of relieving suffering and making everyone happy, today has become available to all inhabitants of our planet - on all continents, in all cities and villages.