Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda (1838 – 1914), hailed by contemporary scholars as the most influential Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava leader of his time, is credited, along with his son Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, with pioneering the propagation of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism in the West and its eventual global spread. He edited and published over 100 books on Vaishnavism. In his later years, Bhaktivinoda founded and conducted nāma-haṭṭa – a traveling preaching program that spread the theology and practice of Caitanya Mahāprabhu throughout rural and urban Bengal.

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda (1896 –1977) is the founder/ācārya (spiritual guide) of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). In 1944, he started the Back to Godhead magazine, for which he was writer, designer, editor, publisher, and distributor. In 1966, he founded ISKCON in New York City. From 1967 until 1977, he traveled eleven times around the globe, cultivating ISKCON’s disciples, temples, schools, book publishing, and farm communities. He translated and commented on over sixty volumes of classic literature, including the Bhagavad-gītā, Caitanya Caritāmṛta, and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, which have now been translated into as many as 80 languages, with total sales of over half a billion.

Rūpa-Vilāsa dāsa (Robert MacNaughton) was born in 1945. He received spiritual initiation from Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1972. He is a well-known lecturer in ISKCON and has written a number of biographical works about the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas like A Ray of Vishnu, The Seventh Goswami, Nāmācārya, and Without Fear (Glimpses of Śrīla Prabhupāda). He recently submitted an updated and expanded biography of Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda to the BBT press to be released later this year or early the next. He has also published an expanded biography of Gaura Kiśora dāsa Bābājī and Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī Mahārājas called Bābājī Mahārāja (Two Beyond Duality). He presently lives in the U.K. with his wife Śarad-bihārī devī.

Dayānanda dāsa (Michael Wright) met Srila Prabhupāda in 1967 after which he and his wife started the ISKCON temple in Los Angeles. They later helped establish the temple in Tehran, Iran. Over the years, he has studied Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Farsi, and Spanish as well as the history and philosophy of Vaiṣṇavism and its relation to culture and the environment. For the last 20 years, he has been writing and lecturing on the Bhagavad-gītā and how Vaiṣṇava culture can contribute essential solutions to the earth’s environmental crises. He has published several books, pamphlets, and articles.

Kṛṣṇa Kathā dāsa (Chris Scott) is a retired homeopath and bookseller and has contributed many articles to various magazines. He has managed temples in Dublin, Co. Fermanagh and Belfast and has lived in several rural devotional communities in Ireland and France. He received spiritual initiation from Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami in 1982 and now lives in London with his wife Yamuna Lila.

Vyāpaka dāsa was initiated by Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1975 in Winnipeg, Canada. For several years, he studied and practiced organic farming both inside and outside of ISKCON. He subsequently spent 15 years as an inspector in the organic foods industry while operating his own farm. As a researcher and writer, he contributed to the Organic Field Crop Handbook compiled by Canadian Organic Growers (COG). He has written many articles and currently lives in Jaipur, India where he assists the farm there.