Page 103 - Defending Prabhupada Words - By Harivlas Das

PROFILE

Hari Vilas Das Joined ISKCON in 1969 and was
initiated the following year by Srila Prabhupada. He
set up the first temple in Paris the same year and was
appointed the temple president. Prabhupada visited
Paris for the first time in 1971 and returned six times.

Sensing a need for satvik products in USA, he started
the Spiritual Sky in Paris in 1971. It bloomed into a
very big business by 1976 with two factories, one in
France and the other in England with offices in France,
England and Holland to enable distribution of products
all over Europe. The business helped him fund many
projects, the first being sponsoring the French yatra
from 2003 to 2007.

Hari Vilas das realized the importance of books in
Prabhupada’s mission and donated generously to print
Srila Prabhupada’s books in foreign languages in order
to spread Krishna Consciousness across the world.
His generosity resulted in translation and printing of
books in many languages like Bengali, Oriya, Japanese,
Swahili, Urdu, Turkish, Arabic, Armenian, and Farsi.
Hari Vilas das, with his keen grasp on philosophy and
working of ISKCON, was nominated as a member
of the GBC in 1987 and also a BBT Trustee. In 1987,
he moved to Berkeley to take on the role of Temple
President and became GBC for California, Oregon,
Washington State, Western Canada, Alaska and many
countries of the Middle East and parts of India.

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