H.D. 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.
Affectionately known as โAcharyadevaโ by his students, 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 andย cultural movements of the late sixties. In 1969, after attending aย campusย lecture delivered by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, theย Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, he beganย studying the philosophical literature of Prabhupadaโs movement, and in September 1969,ย took up the monastic practice of bhakti-yoga in the Prabhupadaโs Berkeley ISKCON center.ย In 1970,ย heย was formally initiated into theย Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. During the next four years, he served as president of bhakti-yoga centers in Gainesville, Florida and Houston,ย and lectured on university campuses throughout North America. In 1974,ย Prabhupada asked him to assume responsibility for Latin Americaย and in the next several years, he opened dozens of bhakti-yoga centers in over a dozen countries, and organized the leading publishingย house of Indian spiritual literature in Spanish and Portuguese. In 1982, he took responsibility for ISKCONโs many centers in Florida, and inย 1987 in Italy and Greece. Around this time, together with a team he formed, he completed Prabhupadaโs epic translation and commentaryย on theย Bhฤgavata-purฤแนa.
โ
Meanwhile, H.D.Goswami had returned to the University of California in 1991 as a student of World Religions. After graduating, heย continued his studies at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in Sanskrit & Indian Studies in 1996. Having published articlesย with Harvard University Press, University of California Press, and Columbia University Press, he recently published his dissertation as theย ninety-first volume of the prestigious Harvard Oriental Series. He has taught at the Graduate Theological Union and the University ofย 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 hisย popularย Complete Guide to the Bhagavad-gฤซtฤ with Literal Translation, and published Quest forย Justice, an explanation of the epicย Mahฤ-bhฤrata. He is now currently working on a trilogy of the Mahฤ-bhฤrata.
โ
Around 2013, he founded Krishna West to help facilitateย ISKCONโs outreach to Western audiences. Krishna West now has centers throughout the world.
KRISHNA WEST
Making Bhakti-yoga Easy, Relevant and Enjoyable for Western People
Founded by H.D.Goswami, Krishna West is a spiritual project that serves the world through the teaching and practice of advanced spiritual knowledge found in ancient texts such as Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-bhagavatam. As one of the oldest, most cherished treatises on the philosophy and practice of yoga, Bhagavad-gita explains that we are all eternal spiritual beings. We have always existed and always will exist. Only our temporary body is born and dies. Compelled by the reactions to our worldly actions (karma) we wander through many lives until we clearly grasp our eternal identity as souls, and our loving relationship with an infinitely beautiful, all-knowing, and ever youthful God, Krishna. Krishna West teaches the timeless, non-sectarian path of bhakti-yoga, devotion to God and all souls. Bhagavad-gita describes bhakti-yoga as the highest stage of spiritual yoga.
Krishna West is part of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the “Hare Krishna Movement,” founded by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. We seek to serve the Western world with intelligent, appropriate, non-sectarian spiritual activism that powerfully addresses, with spiritual wisdom, issues of social and economic justice, the global environment, and ultimate liberation. Our vision, that every living being is an eternal part of God and thus worthy of our love, forms the basis of our approach to justice, the environment, and enlightenment.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) is the Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and the worldโs foremost teacher of Krishna Bhakti in the 20th century.
ISKCON
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), otherwise known as the Hare Krishna movement, includes five hundred major centers, temples and rural communities, nearly one hundred affilated vegetarian restaurants, thousands of namahattas or local meeting groups, a wide variety of community projects, and millions of congregational members worldwide.
