GBC SPT

Episode-4

Episode-3

Episode-2

Episode-1

Episode 11

The Birth of Systematic Child Protection with Anuttama Das GBC SPT welcomes you to join the eleventh episode of GBC History series. This series is to encourage devotees to ask any questions pertaining to the GBC body, its conception to inception to execution. This week we have the honor to hear from Anuttama Das in conversation with Kaunteya Das about the systematic beginning of child protection in ISKCON.

About Anuttama Das

As a student in political and social science at Michigan State University, USA, Anuttama Das found the university incapable to provide answers to the most important questions in life. Thus he chose to not complete his formal education. After exploring varied traditions ranging from Zen Buddhism to Methodism, he finally ended up in an ISKCON ashrama in Colorado in 1975. Although a skeptic, he vowed, after his first night at the temple, that he wouldn’t go back to things he’d found unfulfilling and would leave only if he found a better path to God. Anuttama Das was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in Vrindavan, India in 1976.

Anuttama Das began serving as leader of BBT book distribution and later he became president of the Denver temple the same Colorado ashram he had visited in 1975. He relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1993.

Anuttama Das has been a member of the GBC since 2000 and his GBC assignments are all in the USA: Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. He is co-GBC in West Virginia. His vision for the future of ISKCON is that it will mature and grow to be a respected and influential culture and religion around the world.

“ISKCON and the Vaishnava tradition have great gifts to share with the world, especially in these troubled times. I have faith that as ISKCON devotees become better qualified to follow and represent Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya, the great culture of Bhakti that they brought to the world will have tangible and long lasting effects.”

Besides his GBC duties, Anuttama Das currently serves as ISKCON’s International Director of Communications and is on the Board of the Bhaktivedanta College in Belgium. A founding member of Children of Krishna, and the Grihasta Vision Team, he is active in several interfaith initiatives in Washington, D.C., including the Religion Communicators Council. Under his direction, the communications office founded the annual Vaishnava-Christian Dialogue and Vaishnava-Muslim Dialogue as well as the North America’s Festival of Inspiration.Anuttama Dasa is a regular contributor to ISKCON News and has authored articles for the ISKCON Communications Journal, and several interfaith publications. He is also active in several religious freedom initiatives and networks with government and NGOs in Washington to promote religious freedom around the world.

Anuttama Das enacts his leadership goals by teaching the following seminars in ISKCON communities worldwide: “ISKCON’s Leadership and Management,” Communications Course,” “Guru Seminar,” and the new “Disciples Course,” all of which he helped co-author with teams of senior devotees. Anuttama Das and his wife, Rukmini Devi Dasi, own a business which for many years has been a principal source of revenue for the International Communications Ministry. They live in Rockville, Maryland and attend the local ISKCON temple in Potomac, Maryland.

Episode 10

All the way up to the US Supreme Court: Badrinarayan Swami

GBC SPT welcomes you to join the tenth episode of GBC History series. This series is to encourage devotees to ask any questions pertaining to the GBC body, its conception to inception to execution. This week we have the honor to hear from Badrinarayan Swami in conversation with Kaunteya Das.

About Badrinarayan Swami

Badrinarayan Swami is an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada, the Founder/Acharya of ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness). Born in 1952, he met Srila Prabhupada in 1969, moved into the Laguna Beach temple as a full-time monk in 1970, and took his initiation vows in 1971.

He was the temple president of the ISKCON temple in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1973 through 1977 and of the San Diego temple from 1978 until 1993.

He has been serving as a member of ISKCON’s international governing body (GBC) since 1987. Badrinarayan Swami has served as the chairman of  ISKCON’s international GBC and is a member of ISKCON’s North American GBC executive committee.

He is the author and co-author of several GBC position papers and serves as a member of a number of the GBC’s strategic and steering committees.

Badrinarayan Swami was awarded the sannyasa order in 2014 and became an ISKCON diksha guru in 2020.

Episode 9

The Reform Movement & The 50-Men Committee with Hridyananda Das Goswami & Brahma Tirtha Das

GBC SPT welcomes you to join the ninth episode of GBC History series. This series is to encourage devotees to ask any questions pertaining to the GBC body, its conception to inception to execution. This week we have the honor to hear from Hridyananda Das Goswami and Brahma Tirtha Das in conversation with Kaunteya Das.

About Hridayananda das Goswami

As one of the most senior and respected spiritual leaders of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Hridayananda das Goswami (Howard J. Resnick, Ph.D.) is an early pioneer and renowned teacher of bhakti yoga in the Western world. At the forefront of contemporary religious dialogue, he is celebrated for his unique ability to adapt the wisdom of ancient Indian philosophy into teachings that are comprehensible for Western audiences. H.D. Goswami (born November 5, 1948) grew up in Los Angeles, California and began his studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he participated in the political and cultural movements of the late sixties. In 1969, after attending a campus lecture delivered by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, he began studying the philosophical literature of Prabhupada’s movement, and in September 1969, took up the monastic practice of bhakti-yoga in the Prabhupada’s Berkeley ISKCON center. In 1970, he was formally initiated into the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. During the next four years, he served as president of bhakti-yoga centers in Gainesville, Florida and Houston, and lectured on university campuses throughout North America. In 1974, Prabhupada asked him to assume responsibility for Latin America and in the next several years, he opened dozens of bhakti-yoga centers in over a dozen countries, and organized the leading publishing house of Indian spiritual literature in Spanish and Portuguese. In 1982, he took responsibility for ISKCON’s many centers in Florida, and in 1987 in Italy and Greece. Around this time, together with a team he formed, he completed Prabhupada’s epic translation and commentary on the Bhāgavata-purāṇa.

Meanwhile, H.D.Goswami had returned to the University of California in 1991 as a student of World Religions. After graduating, he continued his studies at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in Sanskrit & Indian Studies in 1996. Having published articles with Harvard University Press, University of California Press, and Columbia University Press, he recently published his dissertation as the ninety-first volume of the prestigious Harvard Oriental Series. He has taught at the Graduate Theological Union and the University of Florida, and lectured at many dozens of universities in North and South America, Europe, and India. Fluent in seven languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, and Sanskrit), Resnick recently completed the literal translation of his popular Complete Guide to the Bhagavad-gītā with Literal Translation, and published Quest for Justice, an explanation of the epic Mahā-bhārata. He is now currently working on a trilogy of the Mahā-bhārata.

Around 2013, he founded Krishna West to help facilitate ISKCON’s outreach to Western audiences. Krishna West now has centers throughout the world.

About Brahma Tirtha Das

Brahma Tirtha Prabhu is a board member at Krishna House, a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada, a professional mediator, and an advisor for the EPA, and the director of the City of Gainesville Planning Board. His initial conversations with Srila Prabhupada were recorded and later published in a book entitled Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers.

Episode 8

My First Years as a GBC with Jayapataka Swami

GBC SPT welcomes you to join the eight episode of GBC History series. This series is to encourage devotees to ask any questions pertaining to the GBC body, its conception to inception to execution.

About Jayapataka Swami

Jayapataka Swami was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. His scholastic achievements led to an offer of a full scholarship by Brown University after his completion of high school. As a new student at Brown, Jayapataka Swami heard a guest lecturer speak on the life of Buddha. This inspired in him the desire to search for his spiritual teacher.

Having lost all interest in his studies, Jayapataka Swami deemed India to be the best destination to find this teacher. Before departing he came across a group of Hare Krishna devotees and became interested in sharing their practices. Shortly thereafter he visited the San Francisco ISKCON center where he helped to build a cart for the now world famous Ratha Yatra Festival. He joined ISKCON’s San Francisco center on Ratha Yatra day and then traveled to Montreal to meet Srila Prabhupada immediately afterward. Srila Prabhupada welcomed him and spontaneously invited Jayapataka Swami to join him for lunch. He was so moved by his newly found teacher that he vigorously participated in the pioneering activities of the fledgling movement.

He received initiation from Srila Prabhuapda in Montreal, Canada in 1968 and two weeks later took over the post of president of ISKCON Montreal center. He helped open an ISKCON center in Toronto, then with Bhagavan Dasa helped open ISKCON’s center in Chicago. In 1970, Srila Prabhupada sent him to India where he served as president of the ISKCON Kolkata center. About a year and half later Srila Prabhupada sent him to Mayapur where he received sannyasa initiation. He and the other foundational team members were entrusted with the responsibility of developing Mayapur with Srila Prabhupada’s words “I have given you the kingdom of God. Now develop it and enjoy it.” Mayapur’s current state of development stands testimony to Jayapataka Swami’s untiring efforts over the last four decades, along with the able assistance of other dedicated followers of Srila Prabhupada.

At the time of his departure from this mortal world in 1977, Srila Prabhupada requested Jayapataka Swami to take up the responsibility of being an initiating spiritual master and to act as one of ISKCON’s governing body commissioners. Since then Jayapataka Swami has been executing these responsibilities.

During his initial time in Mayapur, West Bengal, Jayapataka Swami learned the Bengali language and was one of the few Western devotees to obtain Indian citizenship. His activities have included distribution of BBT books, temple construction, agricultural development, cultivating new members in the cities and villages, schools and colleges and organizing large events to share Krishna consciousness, which have included thousands of participants in attendance. Other notable achievements are the establishment of the Food For Life program in rural Bengal, the organization of large-scale pilgrimages for Western devotees and his service as chairman of Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust, which was established by Srila Prabhupada to renovate Gaudiya Vaishnava temples and maintain ancient sites in the holy lands. Jayapataka Swami has found time for book translation amidst his multifarious activities. He has translated Vaishnava Ke, Vrindavan Bhajan and Godruma Kalpatavi.

Episode 7

My Experience of the Zonal Acarya Days with Vraj Vihari Dasa

GBC SPT welcomes you to join the seventh episode of GBC History series. This series is to encourage devotees to ask any questions pertaining to the GBC body, its conception to inception to execution.

About Vraj Vihari Dasa

Vraja Vihari Dasa joined ISKCON in 1977, and is part of the Strategic Planning Team from its inception in 2006. From 1978 to 1988 he was a member of ISKCON Detroit’s Sankirtan team. He then moved to Vrindavan and served at the Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education from 1989-2010. In 2002 he formed ISKCON Resolve where he still serves as co-director. Vraj Vihari Dasa has a master’s degree in conflict resolution and has published several papers on the subject. He lists his special interests in Krishna consciousness as teaching from Srila Prabhupada’s books. He presently lives in Maryland with his wife Ananda Vrindavanesvari Devi Dasi and their son Gopinath.

Episode 6

My GBC Days with Balavanta Das

GBC SPT welcomes you to join the sixth episode of our GBC History series. This series is to encourage devotees to ask any questions pertaining to the GBC body, its conception to inception to execution.

This is a specially exciting series as we welcome Balavanta Das, who lived through the Zonal Acarya days of ISKCON being a GBC and will share with us his first hand experiences during that era.

About Balavanta Das

Balavanta Das got his first association with the Krishna Consciousness movement in 1969 in Berkeley, California where he met Hari Basara Das. He was a very expert Sankirtan preacher and engaged Balavanta Das along with him. Balavanta Das later became the President of the Atlanta ISKCON center. He was inducted into the GBC in 1974 and served on it until 1988. He became the GBC chairman in 1986. With Srila Prabhupada’s blessings, he enrolled in law school at the University of Florida from where he graduated in 1982. He was then admitted into the Florida and Tennessee bars. He has been practicing law since then. He presently resides in the Alachua, Florida Dham. His got married to Ballavhi in 1971 with Srila Prabhupada’s blessings. They have two grown children and four grandchildren.