By Gauranga Das
In the 20th century, people were completely intoxicated with material progress, growth and modernisation. In that, the 2 gruesome World Wars had inflicted lot of pain and suffering in the world. Along with external warfare, the countries also faced internal socio-economic and political pressures in the form of unemployment, poverty, economic depression, etc. People in general had become selfish and insensitive which led to rebellious attitude in the air, especially amongst the youths.
In such a callous and pathetic situation, a divine spiritual being, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada comes to the West with the treasures of Holy India and Vedic Culture and distributes it selflessly and freely to the conditioned and suffering souls. He transformed the Hippies into Happies by transforming their reckless life into a purposeful, meaningful, cultured and divine spiritual life, opens more than 108 temples all over the world, many schools and large farmhouse communities. Srila Prabhupada achieved all this simply in a span of 11 years and that too in his age of 70 when people simply want to relax and spend time with their families. This is not a fairy tale or any imagination, but a true story of a selfless, compassionate and surrendered soul and a genuine servant of God.
One of the dedicated disciples of Srila Prabhupada, John Grisser (Yadubara Prabhu), is an experienced film maker. After several years of hard work he has made a humble attempt of presenting to the world a film on the sacrifices and selfless works of Srila Prabupada. We can see glimpses of Srila Prabhupada himself in the film. It’s a completely wonderful experience to see Srila Prabhupada with your own eyes and assimilate his teachings, words of wisdom and profound knowledge.
The world premiere of the movie was shown at the Illuminate Film Festival – the largest conscious cinema festival in the world – in Sedona, Arizona on Saturday June 3rd 2017. Following that the film was released in Newyork, LA and many other places in USA. The film was also released in few other countries like Australia, Canada and Europe.
In India, the movie was officially launched in Delhi on the 12th November 2017 by the Vice President of India, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu. Dr. Bibek Debroy, one of world’s well known economist and Indologist, executive members of India’s planning commission (NITI Aayog) and Chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council participated as the guest of honour.
This film is going to be released all over India in PVR cinemas starting from 15th December 2017 onwards and is an opportunity to spread Srila Prabhupada’s life and his glorious teachings, his profound work and ISKCON’s mission to each and every house and person of India. We request all ISKCON devotees to inspire their family members, relatives and friends to go and watch this movie by pre-booking the tickets online in their nearby theatre through the link https://www.vkaao.com/movie-details/2017/hare-krishna-the-mantra-the-movement-and-the-swami-who-started-it-all-hindi-