Alfred B. Ford

[KALKI]

Alfred B. Ford ( ) aka Ambarish Das grandson of Henry Ford (founder of the Ford Motor), and Trustee member of Ford Motor Company. He is involved in Ford's corporate charity work.

Throwing light on his personal association with India, Ford said he was attracted to Indian civilization after he studied Hinduism during his college days 30 years ago.

Soon after, he converted to Hinduism and has traveled to India dozens of times. He even married an Indian girl, Sharmila Bhattacharya, a doctor, who hails from Jaipur.

He joined Iskcon in 1975. He traveled to India for the first time that same year with Srila Prabhupada. He was instrumental in the establishment of the first Hindu temple in Hawaii. He also helped establish the Bhaktivedanta Cultural Center, which is a highly regarded tourist destination in Detroit. Alfred has made significant donations to Iskcon over the years which have assisted many ongoing projects and helped to build the Pushpa Samadhi Mandir of Srila Prabhupada. He is the founding chairman of the Iskcon Foundation, and campaign chairman of the Sri Mayapur Temple of Vedic Planetarium.

The love for Hinduism brought a great grandson of US automobile legend Henry Ford to the Russian capital to lobby for a Vedic cultural centre.

"If Moscow wants to be a world class capital, it has to open up to other cultures, particularly ancient cultures like Vedic culture."

Ford, during a visit to Moscow last week, said: "For me the most important thing is to spread the Hindu knowledge about the soul. This is more important than any other knowledge and is my main priority".

Russia has an estimated 90,000 Russian Hindus, sources at International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) here claim. Addressing representatives of the Indian community in Russia, Ford lauded their efforts to build the cultural centre complex that would be named "Glory of India".

He has said: "My main activity is connected with propagandizing Indian culture throughout the world.' The Alfred Ford Foundation and the Indian community are financing construction of the center."

(source: Alfred Ford lobbies for Vedic centre in Moscow - siliconindia.com and Indian Cultural Centre to be built in Moscow - russsiajournal.com and hindu.com and hindunet.com).