GBC history-5 week series; Episode 3: Did the Zonal Acaryas Eclipse the GBC?: Hridyananda Das Goswami with Kaunteya Das
GBC SPT welcomes you to join the third episode of our 5-week series on the GBC History. 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 Hridayananda Das Goswami, who was an eye witness to the Zonal Acarya days of ISKCON and will share with his first hand experiences with us.
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 an 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 Kaunteya Das
Born in Rome, Italy, in 1963; he joined ISKCON in May 1980. After years of full-time book distribution, he moved to India, where he is based for more than twenty-seven years and where he served, among other things, as Gurukula teacher in Mayapur (Bhakti-Sastri, Bhakti-Vaibhava, etc.). He regularly teaches at the ILS (ISKCON Leadership Sanga) and at the GBC College.
Kaunteya Das is also a certified mediator and has practiced conflict resolution in several countries.
Kaunteya Das has a PhD in Indovedic Psychology and serves as distance-learning professor of Indovedic Philosophy & Psychology at the Bhakti Yoga College (Florida, USA), overseeing students from various continents. (www.bhaktiyogacollege.com)
He authored/compiled the following books on congregational development: the Bhakti-vriksha Manual, the Book of Icebreakers and Super Sunday. He has travelled to dozens of countries presenting seminars and workshops on principles and ideas for building vibrant Vaisnava communities. (www.iskconcongregation.com
, www.bhaktimarriages.com)
At present he is serving as:
Co-Minister - with HH Jayapataka Maharaja, his diksa-guru - of the ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry
Co-Chairman - with HG Gopal Bhatta Prabhu - of the GBC Organizational Development Committee
Member of the GBC Strategic Planning Team
Member of the Strategic Planning Committee for Mayapur
11 июн 2021
