Comprehensive study material on Vaishnavi Diksha Guru issue

List of authors

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HG Abhaya Mudra devi dasi

Articles by HG Abhaya Mudra devi dasi
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HG Ajamila dasa

His Grace Ajamila Prabhu is an Australian Srila Prabhupada disciple since 1972. He compiled Srila Prabhupada Siksamrita, which contains categorized quotes from all of Srila Prabhupada’s letters that facilitate ISKCON growth and maintenance. He wrote and art directed Illustrated Bhagavatam First Canto which has sold over 30,000 copies worldwide. He teaches Vastu and Vedic astrology, and is currently in Mayapur doing a GBCom approved world class Vastu compliant residential development with ISKCON Mayapur being the beneficiary.
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HG Akruranath dasa

HG Akruranath Das (Adam Bernstein) has been a member of state Bar of California practicing Law for nearly 25 years.
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HG Ambika devi dasi

Articles by HG Ambika devi dasi
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HG Basu Ghosh dasa

Basu Ghosh Das was born as Bryan Davies in Chicago, America. He was initiated by Srila Prabhupada. Who has spent 38 of his 54 years of life in Gujarat. Basu Ghosh Das, president of the ISKCON temple in Vadodara, is currently in Ahmedabad to participate in the All India Sanskrit Elocution Competition. Dressed in a white dhoti and upavastra, he speaks chaste Sanskrit as he walks on the SGVP International School campus, taking a break to communicate in Hindi and Gujarati with those who perhaps don’t follow Sanskrit entirely. It was Indian culture and language that drew him to India when he was 16. - See more at: http://iskconleaders.com/basu-ghosh-prabhu-acbsp/#sthash.ZhQhHtpT.dpuf
Articles by HG Basu Ghosh dasa
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HG Bhakta Rupa dasa

H.G. Bhakta Rupa Prabhu (ACBSP0 He has been serving in India for most the last 20 years or more. He has responsibilities with ISKCON's Governing Body Commission, as well as the Indian committees and chairman of ISKCON’s national assembly. He also serves as a copy editor and administrator for Gopal Jiu Publications in Bhubanesvar. - See more at: http://iskconleaders.com/bhakta-rupa-prabhu/#sthash.Z7NxTA1G.dpuf
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HG Bhaktilata devi dasi

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HG Brahma dasa

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HG Chadrasekhar acharya dasa

Articles by HG Chadrasekhar acharya dasa
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HG Chitralekha devi dasi

Articles by HG Chitralekha devi dasi
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HG Devaki devi dasi

Mother Devaki has served in various capacities for over 20 years and has in later years engaged in creating festivals and various meetings for devotees to listen about and glorify Krsna. She started pioneer preaching in former Soviet Union. For the last 11 years she lives as a travelling preacher, traveling intensly in Nepal, Bangladesh and Ukraina. She is a vice president in Daka temple and member of GBC comitee for devotee care. - See more at: http://iskconleaders.com/devaki-mataji/#sthash.QJjiUMjU.dpuf
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HG Dushyanta dasa

Articles by HG Dushyanta dasa
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HG Govinda devi dasi

Govinda Devi Dasi was a senior at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 when she and her husband went to San Francisco in search of a spiritual teacher.  She explains, “My yoga books said that when the chela is ready, the Guru will appear.  So I was trying to make myself ready with many hours of meditation and purificatory disciplines.  One day I went to a book shop and happened to read the description of Srila Prabhupada in Hayagriva’s  “Back to Godhead” article.  Upon reading this description, I saw him in my mind’s eye, as if a window had been suddenly opened, and began to weep, ‘I’ve found him, I’ve found him at last!”  I went immediately to the newly opened San Francisco storefront temple, and have never left Srila Prabhupada since that day.”
Articles by HG Govinda devi dasi
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HG Hari Parsada Dasa

Articles by HG Hari Parsada Dasa
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HG Kalakantha dasa

Articles by HG Kalakantha dasa
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HG Karuna Dharini devi dasi

HG Karuna Dharini devi dasi is a disciple of HG Virabahu Prabhu (ACBSP). She has been a regular contributor of articles to BTG.
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HG Kaunteya dasa

H.G. Kaunteya Prabhu a disciple of His Holiness Jayapataka Swami has been serving as Co-Minister of the ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry (www.namahatta.org), as a member of the GBC Strategic Planning Team and as Co-Chair of the GBC Organizational Development Committee. HG Kaunteya prabhu is from Italy and was introduced to ISKCON in 1980 and initiated in 1981. He is a PhD in Indovedic psychology. - See more at: http://iskconleaders.com/kaunteya-prabhu/#sthash.wh7gkK3a.dpuf
Articles by HG Kaunteya dasa
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HG Kesava Krsna dasa

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HG Krishna Devi Dasi

Articles by HG Krishna Devi Dasi
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HG Kṛṣṇa Kīrti Dāsa

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HG Madhavananda dasa

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HG Mohana Mohini devi dasi

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HG Narada Priya devi dasi

Articles by HG Narada Priya devi dasi
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HG Niscala devi dasi

Articles by HG Niscala devi dasi
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HG NityanandaDasa

Articles by HG NityanandaDasa
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HG Phalini devi dasi

Initiated by SP November 3, 1974. Married to Haripada dasa (ACBSP) for 33 years. Has two children and one grandchild. Home base: Udupi, Karnataka. Phalini devi and her husband travel around India, chanting Hare Krsna and preaching widely at temples, nama-hatta centers and colleges. She has thoroughly studied Srila Prabhupada's teachings regarding stri-dharma and Vedic culture. She writes about these topics on her blog wherethereisnofighting.blogspot.com. She is also a moderator for the private Facebook group “Dharmapatni.”
Articles by HG Phalini devi dasi
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HG Praghosa dasa

Articles by HG Praghosa dasa
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HG Puskaraksha dasa

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HG Rocana dasa

Articles by HG Rocana dasa
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HG Shatrughna Dasa

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HG Sita devi dasi

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HG Sita Ram dasa

Articles by HG Sita Ram dasa
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HG Sri Rama das

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HG Urmila devi dasi

Born in 1955 in New York City, Urmila Devi Dasi joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in 1973 in Chicago. She received first initiation by mail in 1973, thus becoming a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. She had several opportunities, along with her family, to meet with Prabhupada personally. She received second initiation in Philadelphia in 1975. Urmila Devi Dasi has served Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON continuously since 1973. Her current services as of 2014 are traveling internationally teaching seminars on sastra, education, leadership, and parenting which she has done since 2006. She teaches some bhakti shastri and Bhakti Vaibhava courses at the VIHE and Bhaktivedanta Manor, and also trains teachers and school administrators in various ISKCON educational projects. She is the interim chair of the Sastric Advisory Council to the GBC, on which she has served as an active member since 2000, and is an associate editor for Back to Godhead magazine, a service she has done since 1990. In 1973 Urmila Devi Dasi married Pratyatosa dasa, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada who started the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry as a brahmacari. They have three children—Murari dasa, a disciple of Satsvarupa Maharaja (married and working as a software engineer); Campakalata Devi Dasi, a disciple of Bir Krishna Maharaja (married and working as a bharatanatyam dance teacher and formerly as a gurukula academic teacher); and Keshava dasa (married and working as a financial manager). They also have twelve grandchildren. Pratyatosa Dasa and Urmila Devi Dasi have lived as vanaprasthas since early in 1996. Urmila lives under the protection of her sons.
Articles by HG Urmila devi dasi
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HG Virababhu dasa

Virabahu Prabhu was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1952 and was raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela from the age of three. In 1972 he and a group of friends became committed followers of Srila Prabhupada in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital city, just on the basis of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. Appointed to the GBC in 1990, Virabahu Prabhu is zonal secretary for Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. He is co-zonal secretary for Argentina, Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Caribbean, French Guiana, Guyana and Surinam. Past terms as an executive officer served by Virabahu Prabhu include GBC chairman 1991-1992, GBC vice-chairman 1992-1993 and GBC chairman 1993-1994. He was Latin American RGB chairman 2006-2008 and continues as a member of that regional committee. Current GBC committee assignments include Srila Prabhupada Position Committee and the Guru Services Committee. Virabahu Prabhu has been an initiating guru since 1985, administering to the spiritual needs of devotees in many parts of the world, but especially in Central and South America. His scholarly tendency has inspired him to complete the book The Guru and What Prabhupada Said: A Compilation and Analysis of Relevant Quotes about the Spiritual Master from the Teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, for the edification of all those who read it. For the past 33 years the home base of operations to Virabahu Prabhu has been New Dvaraka, ISKCON of Los Angeles. He has been married to Karta Devi dasi since 1974.
Articles by HG Virababhu dasa
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HG Vishakha devi dasi

Vishakha (pronounced Vi-shA-khA) Devi Dasi received an Associate of Applied Science degree with honors from Rochester Institute of Technology and shortly afterwards published her first book, Photomacrography: Art and Techniques. In 1971 she traveled to India, where she met His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, read his Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and eventually became his student. She traveled with and photographed Bhaktivedanta Swami and his students in India, Europe, and the United States. - See more at: http://iskconleaders.com/vishakha-mataji/#sthash.s9feNTX8.dpuf
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HG Vrndasundari devi dasi

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HH Badrinarayan Swami Maharaj

HH Badrinarayana Das Goswami has been a member of ISKCON since 1970. He began associating with members of the Hare Krishna movement while still at school and joined the Laguna Beach (California) temple in his eighteenth year after giving his reluctant parents the following choice: either you let me join or I’ll run away to India and join there.A year later, Badrinarayan Dasa took initiation from Srila Prabhupada in Los Angeles. Remembering his early days in Krsna consciousness, Badrinarayan says: “I had the immeasurable good fortune to hear Srila Prabhupada giving the Sunday feast lecture at the old LA temple. Then we drove from Laguna Beach each week to hear Monday class. This went on for nine months. It was ambrosial and convinced me to become a devotee.“ Again at an early age, Badrinarayan Dasa became a temple president – first at Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1973 to 1977, and then in San Diego from 1978 to 1995.His GBC responsibilities began in 1987 and his zonal assignments have included Southern California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Idaho. In addition to his GBC service, he has been sitting on significant committees such as Parallel Lines of Authority, Organizational Development, the North American GBC, and the Executive Committee. He has also served past terms as chair and as executive officer for the North American and the International GBC. His participation is always notable, giving a fresh perspective on most topics. He is a fluent and humorous speaker, well able to link current affairs with spiritual matters. Badrinarayan Dasa’s commitment to the GBC is lengthy, spanning twenty-four years, and he genuinely appreciates his peers as wonderful, kind, intelligent, powerful and humble members of that body, who take on the weight of service and responsibility for the whole society. Remarkably, Badrinarayan Dasa has maintained his home base at ISKCON San Diego for the last three decades, which has added to the stability and continuity of the community. This connection with the San Diego temple has allowed him to develop his gardening interests in the form of fragrant flowers, which he grows for the temple worship. He is also a keen chef in his spare time – which is not very often. In fact, Badrinarayan Dasa is trying to make more time in his life to complete several writing projects. - See more at: http://iskconleaders.com/badrinarayana-das-goswami/#sthash.7D0TTfOd.dpuf
Articles by HH Badrinarayan Swami Maharaj
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HH BhaktiVikas Maharaj

His Holiness Bhakti Vikasa Swami appeared in this world in 1957 in England. He joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in London in 1975 and was initiated in that year with the name Ilapati dasa by ISKCON's founder-acarya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. From 1977 to 1979 His Holiness was based in India, mostly traveling in West Bengal preaching Krishna consciousness and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books. He then spent the following ten years helping to pioneer ISKCON's preaching in Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, and Malaysia. In 1989 he was granted the order of sannyasa, receiving the name Bhakti Vikasa Swami, and again made his base in India. He has since travelled widely throughout the subcontinent, lecturing in English, Hindi, and Bengali. His Holiness also travels to and preaches Krishna consciousness in other parts of the world. He continues to write books and magazine articles. His books have been translated into more than fifteen languages.
Articles by HH BhaktiVikas Maharaj
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HH Bhanu Swami

Articles by HH Bhanu Swami
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HH Sivarama Swami

Sivarama Swami was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1949. In 1956, during the failed Hungarian revolution, he emigrated with his family to Canada. Sivarama Swami first came in contact with the books of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1970, becoming an initiated disciple of Prabhupada in 1973. Six years later he was awarded the order of sannyasa. In Canada and the USA he served ISKCON by distributing books, and opening and managing temples. In 1980 Sivarama Swami moved to the UK, becoming the president of Caitanya College, and the UK’s National Sankirtana leader. He was requested to accept the responsibility and service of a GBC member and ISKCON initiating guru in 1986. In 1988 he took up the leadership of ISKCON in Hungary, while in June 2003, Sivarama Swami stepped down from his GBC duties in UK and Ireland to be able to concentrate on his growing commitments in Hungary. As a member of the Governing Body Commission he is currently responsible for leading ISKCON’s mission in Hungary, Romania and Turkey. Books Sivarama Swami has authored: * The Bhaktivedanta Purports: Perfect Explanation of the Bhagavad-gita; 1998. * The Siksa-guru: Implementing Tradition within ISKCON; 1999. * Venu-gita: The Song of the Flute; 1999. * Na Paraye ‘Ham: I Am Unable to Repay You; 2000. * Siksa Outside ISKCON; 2002. * Krsna-sangati: Meetings with Krsna; 2004. * Suddha-bhakti Cintamani: The Touchstone of Pure Devotional Service; 2007. * Nava Vraja Mahima; To be published 2012 - See more at: http://iskconleaders.com/sivarama-swami/#sthash.tP7GMM2Y.dpuf
Articles by HH Sivarama Swami
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SAC

In 2001, the GBC passed resolution number 609, entitled “Brahminical Advisory Council” (BAC), stating that “The GBC could benefit from the support and advice of devotees who are particularly knowledgeable in scripture” and that, “The GBC decision-making process and resolutions could be reinforced by more comprehensive sastric evidence.” That year the GBC formed a subcommittee to produce an outline of the BAC’s “Functions and duties . . .qualifications and job description of members,” etc. Such outline, the resolution concluded, “will be voted on by the GBC at its next annual meeting (2002).” In 2002 the GBC passed resolution number 604, entitled “Sastric Advisory Council” establishing the SAC and defining its role: “The SAC is a permanent, pro-active body of senior, trusted and proven brahmanas that offers input to the GBC Body according to scripture, philosophy and realization. Subordinate to the GBC Body, the SAC is advisory only. The conclusions and advice of the SAC are in no way binding on the GBC Body.”