Aug 06, 2022
Fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s Vision
Brahmatirtha das Director, Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies
In 1974, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada expressed his desire to “establish a Vaisnava Research Institute” to present the science of Krishna Consciousness for an intellectual audience. The following year, Prabhupada requested his disciple, Dr. Thoudam D. Singh (Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Maharaja), to establish an institute in the United States. On December 10, 1976 in Washington, D.C., Srila Prabhupada and the founding board members including Singh as director, Richard L. Thompson (Sadaputa dasa), Michael Marchetti (Madhava dasa), William H. Deadwyler (Ravindra Svarupa dasa), and Robert Corens (Rupanuga dasa) signed incorporation papers that legally established the Bhaktivedanta Institute. Dr. Singh recalled that at that time, “Prabhupada specifically instructed us to build a model of the universe that could later be built full size at the future Mayapur Temple and Planetarium complex.”
