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The Bhagavad-gītā was important to Śrīla Prabhupāda. He saw it as the perfect book to convey Krishna consciousness, as it consists of the Lord's own words and His interactions with His loving devotee. When Prabhupāda arrived in New York in 1965, he gave priority to his work on the Gītā. In India he had already completed a translation, spanning well over a thousand pages, but it was stolen. In New York, he met with another loss: his typewriter, cassette recorder, and several books were taken from him. But he was resilient and determined to complete his work. In 1967 he finished the new manuscript, again over a thousand pages, and resolved to get a major publisher so that his message would be heard throughout the world. Several friends and disciples tried to find a publisher, but until Brahmananda Das came , did it bear some fruits. He didn't know anything about publishing, but Prabhupāda put the manuscript in his hands, saying, 'You must get this published.' The opportunity arrived when the devotees received an order from the Macmillan office for one of their records, released in 1967. Macmillan was one of the biggest publishers in the world at that time and they were based just a few blocks away from the temple. Prabhupāda gazed knowingly into his disciple's eyes and gave the following directives: "Do not mail out this order as we do with others. Instead, bring the record to Macmillan's offices and hand deliver it to the person who sent us the letter. "When you deliver the album," Prabhupāda continued, "tell them that you are a disciple of a guru from India and that he has translated the Bhagavad-gītā'. They will publish it. Do not worry."

The next day, dressed in suit and tie, Brahmananda made his way up to the Macmillan skyscraper. His expectations as large as the building itself, he was disappointed when he learned that the order for the album had come from a clerk in the mailroom. So Brahmananda dutifully delivered the album and had pretty much given up hope that his teacher's Gītā would get published. Just then, in the midst of polite small talk with the clerk, a young executive happened to appear, hoping to collect his mail. Brahmananda seized the moment and introduced himself as a disciple of a Guru from India, who has just finished the translation of the Bhagavad-gītā.

"What?" Wade responded, incredulously. "We've just published a full line of spiritual books, and we were looking for a Bhagavad-gītā to fill out the set."

And the rest is History…… After printing the abridged version of the Bhagavad-gītā in 1968, The Macmillan printing company published the full complete edition of the Bhagavad-gītā as It Is in 1972. Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and commentary are not merely his own; they bring to bear the insights of his predecessors in disciplic succession. And so he titled his edition "As It Is." The name boldly announces to his readers that this is not yet another interpretation but rather the original message of the book's initial speaker: Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Fast forward to 2022, Prabhupāda's Gītā went on to become the most important edition in the modern world, outselling both popular and scholarly translations. Claiming millions of readers in over sixty languages, from Polish to Japanese, German to Azerbaijani, Danish to Croatian, English to numerous Indian languages, Śrīla Prabhupāda's Gītā is a phenomenon. It can be found in homes, bookstores, research libraries, and academic institutions around the world.