Lokanatha Swami
Lokanatha Swami (born 1949, Aravade, Maharashtra) is an ISKCON guru from India. He's a senior disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (the founder of ISKCON). Lokanatha Swami oversees ISKCON activities and preaching in Maharashtra and Noida, and serves on the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON as a Minister of Padayatra. Lokanatha Swami is involved with various worldwide ISKCON preaching activities. He travels in India and in the West, giving discources on Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu texts.
Lokanatha Swami was born in Aravade, a small village Maharashtra, India. In the year 1971, after meeting A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his western disciples at a preaching program in Mumbai, he "forsook his study of chemistry in favour of studying the Bhagavad Gita" and joined ISKCON. He took sannyasa (renounced order of life) in 1975. In 1976 he inaugurated the Padayatra walking pilgrimage tour of India where, together with a group of Hare Krishna devotees, a cart and religious books, "he treaded his way on foot across India, preaching the knowledge of sanatana dharma". In 1989 he inaugurated the same preaching program in America. Since then, Padayatra has become instrumental in propagation of Krishna consciousness. In 1986 Lokanatha Swami was appointed an initiating guru in ISKCON. In 1996 he was responsible for organizing a celebration of 100th Anniversary of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in India.
Bibliography
- In English
- Lokanāth Swami Festivals: Śrīla Prabhupāda at the Māyāpur-Vr̥ndāvana festivals. — Noida: Padayātrā Press, 2001. — 244 p. — ISBN 8190113216
- Lokanāth Swami Kumbha: Festival of Immortality. — Noida: Padayātrā Press, 2001. — 136 p.
- Lokanāth Swami My Prabhupāda. — Noida: Padayātrā Press, 2007. — 159 p.
- In Russian
- Локанатха Свами Обратно к Богу. — М.: Философская книга, 2003. — 96 с. — ISBN 5820500229
- Локанатха Свами Кумбха-мела. Праздник бессмертия / Пер. с англ.: Анируддха дас. — М.: Философская книга, 2003. — 144 с.
- Локанатха Свами Фестивали. — М.: Ведабук, 2007. — 350 с. — ISBN 9785902399148
- Локанатха Свами Мой Прабхупада. — М.: Философская книга, 2008. — 240 с.
External links
- Lokanath Swami Website
- Lokanath Swami Blog
- Lokanath Swami Media
- Bhajans of Lokanatha Swami
- ISKCON Aravade
gu:લોકનાથ સ્વામી મહારાજ ru:Локанатха Свами