Hare Krishna movement
The voyage of the Jaladuta
In 1965 Srila Prabhupada sailed to America on a cargo ship, with a trunk of books. Drag the ship, and follow his 35 days at sea.
The 35 days at sea
Drag the ship or tap the route to sail the voyage, or use the slider. A stylized chart, not to scale.
Kolkata · 13 August 1965
Leaving India
Srila Prabhupada, nearly 69, boarded the Jaladuta, a cargo ship, with a trunk of his books and about forty rupees.
His spiritual master had asked him to share Krishna in English, and now he was going.
Put his life in order
Postcards from Srila Prabhupada’s life are jumbled up. Put each one where it belongs on the road.
Five moments from a long life, before he sailed.
- Did the postcard in your hand happen before or after the ones on the road?
- Tap the spot where it belongs, or drag the card there.
A magazine, almost alone
A stack of new magazines, with a pen and an inkpot.
Stamped 1944.
Your postcard · 4 to go
Writing in two rooms
Books and a lamp in a temple courtyard in Vrindavan.
When did this happen?
Where does this postcard go? Tap a spot on the road, or drag the card there.
Tell me more: his life in order
- 1896
He was born in Kolkata on 1 September, the day after Janmashtami, and named Abhay Charan.
- 1922
He met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, who asked him to share Krishna’s teachings in English.
- 1944
Working almost alone, he began an English magazine, Back to Godhead, and handed out copies himself.
- 1959
He took sannyasa, the renounced order of life, and gave all his time to his spiritual master’s wish.
- 1962–65
In two rooms at the Radha-Damodara temple he translated the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and printed its first three volumes.
- 13 Aug
He boarded the Jaladuta with a trunk of his books and about forty rupees.
- About day 7
He was very ill. Then he dreamed that Krishna was rowing the ship, and his strength slowly came back.
- About day 16
A canal through the desert carried the Jaladuta from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean.
- About day 23
The Atlantic is often rough, but this time it was calm. The captain’s wife felt it was because of the holy man on board.
- 17 Sept
After 35 days, the Jaladuta docked in Boston, and he wrote a prayer offering himself to Krishna.
- 1966
In a small storefront in New York, he founded ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
- 1967
The first Ratha-yatra outside India rolled through San Francisco.
- 1968
Devotees began New Vrindavan, a farm community in the hills of West Virginia, where they cared for cows.
- 1975
The Krishna-Balarama temple opened in Vrindavan, India, where he had once lived in two rooms.
- 1977
By the time he left this world, there were more than a hundred temples on six continents.
Srila Prabhupada’s own diary of the voyage is published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust; this page retells it in our own words.