Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda is the honorific used by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) to refer to ISKCON founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.[1]
Etymology
Prabhupāda (প্রভুপাদ)[2] is composed of the words prabhu (প্রভু) and pāda (পাদ). Prabhu means "Lord," while pāda means "foot" or "feet."
Interpretations
- Lord's Feet
- At the Lord's Feet.
- One Who Sits at the Lord's Feet
- He at Whose Feet All Masters Sit (—Tamal Krishna Goswami)[3]
Usage
- In Gaudiya Vaishnavism, "Prabhu" usually refers to Caitanya "Mahā Prabhu", i.e. "Great Lord Caitanya."
- In the Gaudiya Math, "Prabhupāda" is used as an honorific for the founder Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.
- In the ISKCON, "Prabhupāda" has been used since 1968 exclusively to refer to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. From 1966 to 1968, his American disciples called him "Swamiji." In 1968 ACBS, objected to the term, and said that in India they called their guru "Prabhupāda."[4] The ISKCON has called him "Prabhupāda" ever since and has made the honorific term so popular worldwide that most non-Indians mistakenly think that "Prabhupāda" and "Swāmī Prabhupāda" are his names – although A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami himself did not use this honorific to refer to himself.
Similar terms
This usage set a pattern for the "ISKCON Guru-Ācāryas" – who took over the ISKCON after the death of ACBS in 1977 – to create similar self-applied honorifics, such as "Ācāryapāda," "Bhaktipāda," "Gurupāda," "Tīrthapāda," etc.
- Visnupāda = "Visnu's Feet" (an honorific for Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī)
- Bhagavatpāda = "Lord's Feet" (a popular honorific for Sankara)
- Padmapāda = "Lotus Feet" (a disciple of Sankara)
- Srīpāda = "Venerable Feet" (an honorific for Sankara, Rāmanuja, and Madhva)[note 1]
- Sripadaraja = "Kingly Venerable Feet" (the honorific for Dvaita teacher Svāmī Laksminārāyana Tīrtha)
- Srīpāda, Srīpādaru, Srīpādangalavaru = Satyatma Tirtha
- Krsnapāda = "Krsna's Feet"[note 2]
- Rāmapāda = "Rāma's Feet"[note 3]
- Kālīpāda = "Kālī's Feet"[note 4]
- Gangapāda[note 5]
Notes
- See the Wikipedia disambiguation page Sripada.
- Used as a name by Krishnapada Ghosh.
- Used as a name by Ramapada Chowdhury.
- Used as a name by Kalipada Singha Thakur, Kalipada Ghosh Tarai Mahavidyalaya, Kalipada Ghoshal, Kalipada Pahan.
- Used as a name by Gangapada Basu.
References
- This may be verified on the title page of all ISKCON books authored by the founder, where the author is always stated as "His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada."
- The Digital South Asia Library, Biswas, Sailendra. Samsada Bangala abhidhana. 7th ed. Calcutta, Sahitya Samsad, 2004.
- The Perils of Succession. harekrsna.org.
- Satsvarūpa Dās Goswāmī, Srīla Prabhupāda-līlāmrta.
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