The very term Sanatana Dharma implies that the tradition of Hinduism considers itself to be eternal and therefore does not have a starting point in history. The Vedic texts agree with this, insisting that before they were written down, they were transmitted orally. In the presence of the information age, it is difficult to imagine a time when knowledge did not need to be stored anywhere except in our memory but according to the Vedic tradition, in previous times people lived longer and had excellent memories. There was no need to convert the texts into a written form until the present age, in which both our memories and lifespan have decreased. As far as this country is concerned, Hinduism appeared more than a century ago when, as mentioned previously, Swami Vivekananda attended a religious conference in Chicago and presented an impersonal form of Hinduism. Vaishnavism, being a branch of Hinduism, is also considered by its followers to be eternal and thus does not have a beginning. The history of Vaishnavism outside of India was first predicted 500 years ago by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is considered among Vaishnavas to be an incarnation of Krishna. He predicted that in every town and village of the world, the names of Krishna would be chanted. This prediction was repeated early in this century by the Vaishnava saint Bhaktivinode Thakur who proclaimed that a time was coming soon when “Russians, Europeans, Americans, and all others will together sing the names of Hari (Krishna).” This prediction began to materialize when Bhaktivinode’s son, Srila Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakur, ordered his disciple Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to preach Vaishnavism in the Western countries. In 1965, at the age of sixty-nine, Srila Prabhupada set sail from Calcutta, India for America on a cargo ship. At the age of 70, he arrived in America with only forty rupees and an intense desire to carry out the orders of his guru. He soon began to attract interested disciples and in 1966 he founded ISKCON in New York City. In the decade that followed, he established 108 temples in major cities throughout the world and engaged thousands of disciples of all races and ages into the chanting of Krishna’s holy name, thus fulfilling the predictions of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Bhaktivinode Thakur (The Hidden Glory of India).