Though I have been a student of the Kṛṣṇa devotional traditions in India for fifteen years, in the late sixties I was influenced by the then common notion among academicians (not to mention the general public) that the movement begun by Bhaktivedanta Swami was simply another watered-down product of an Indian guru’s attempt to make Hindu teachings attractive to Western youth. The anticult campaigns of the midseventies highlighted ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) as one of the spurious “cults.” However, my research into the validity of such attitudes led me to conclude that the Kṛṣṇa movement in America was more authentically Indian than I had first imagined. When the opportunity presented itself, in 1980, for me to live in Kṛṣṇa temples in California for three weeks, I began an intensive study of ISKCON that has since taken me to fourteen temples throughout America and India. Through living in the temples and speaking at length with ISKCON leaders and devotees, I have come to regard many members of the movement as good friends and their guru, Bhaktivedanta Swami, as a man worthy of the attention and acclaim this biographical series affords.

In this volume of Bhaktivedanta Swami’s biography, one of the central lessons taught the astute reader is the complexity and depth of the guru–disciple relationship. Much of the criticism from parents and anticult groups centers on the authoritarian demand of “cult” leaders for absolute submission from their followers. It is assumed that the leader has personal motives (e.g. power or monetary gain) that drive him to control others, while the surrendered disciples are manipulated, in an unthinking state, by the capricious whim of the spiritual master. In this volume of the life of Bhaktivedanta Swami, we see the foolishness of such an analysis. What springs from page after page is the willing devotion of young men and women to a man whom they admire for his deep faith and humility, not his autocratic or forceful demands. Early in ISKCON’s life in America, the very fabric of this fledgling institution was threatened by schismatic teachings of newly ordained ascetics on the relative place of the guru in the life of faith and in the institution. Bhaktivedanta Swami had to state forcefully the Indian tradition that the guru’s position is absolute – that of the eternal spiritual father – not simply one of convenience, to be overshadowed by time.

Yet we can see why some of the young devotees were confused as Bhaktivedanta Swami prostrated himself before the images of Kṛṣṇa and of his guru in the line of spiritual teachers before him. Such, however, is the character of paramparā, or guru succession. One’s guru is the only channel through which one’s devotion is transmitted faithfully to God, and such is also the case for one’s guru (though some, like Bhaktivedanta Swami, seem also to have direct access as well). Thus to a mother who exclaims, “You know, these boys actually worship you!” Bhaktivedanta Swami responds, “Yes, that is our system. I am also worshiping my Guru Mahārāja.”

This volume of Bhaktivedanta Swami’s biography reveals the religious dimensions of the guru–disciple relationship in the varied attempts this remarkable Vaiṣṇava ascetic made to nurture the deepening faith of his new American children in a God and a spiritual tradition foreign to their native soil. From loosely performed rituals to standardized pūjās (Deity worship) done according to classic Bengali texts, we see the old master encourage greater attention to the details of worship. From spontaneous but uninformed attempts to celebrate their guru’s birthday to formal Vyāsa-pūjās set in traditional Bengali songs and prayer, Bhaktivedanta Swami’s disciples are led into old Indian traditions of honoring one’s spiritual master as a part of the act of worshiping God. But what struck me as I read the pages that follow is the model of piety set by Bhaktivedanta Swami himself as he became deeply immersed in the praises of God while singing, or chanting, or dancing. It becomes quite clear that the lesson of the master is not merely what he says, but what he does. And it is also clear that the followers of Bhaktivedanta Swami struggled – not always successfully – to match up to the high standard of living and devotion the mature Bhaktivedanta Swami set.

The reader will marvel at the persistence, ingenuity, and faithfulness to Bhaktivedanta Swami’s vision his disciples evidence in their attempt to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness to every town and village. From the married couples who pioneered the movement in England and accomplished with the aid of the Beatles’ Harrison and Lennon (!) what renowned sages from India before them could not, to the disciples who endured the worst that India’s climate and cuisine could produce to work long days and nights bringing faith in Kṛṣṇa back to India’s own people, the contagious devotion of the master lives on in his spiritual children. Thus the success of ISKCON in these formative years (1969–1971) can be understood only when both partners in the guru–disciple relationship are given due attention. Nonetheless, it is Bhaktivedanta Swami, with his deep faith, energetic preaching, and persistent ideals, who forms the nucleus of the fledgling community of faith we observe in the early years of ISKCON.

What begins to happen before the careful readers’ eyes in this volume is the institutionalization or routinization of ISKCON’s dress, ritual behavior, and administrative structure. With the formation of the Governing Body Commission (G.B.C.) to run the practical affairs of the institution (book publication, temple economics, etc.), Bhaktivedanta Swami accomplished something his own master had envisioned but had not accomplished before his death, namely, to provide an administrative structure that could hold together disparate temples in varied locations with their separate leaderships. It is clear after Bhaktivedanta Swami’s death in 1977 that the G.B.C. has enabled ISKCON to weather storms from within (including the defection of one of Bhaktivedanta Swami’s eleven appointed successors) and from without (e.g. the tax and legal challenges to ISKCON’s religious status in California) that would have been impossible without central leadership. We see in this volume the beginnings of that leadership core and the freedom from administrative detail the G.B.C. afforded Bhaktivedanta Swami.

Having interviewed Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami and visited a farm under his management, I have seen the same devotion expressed for him by his disciples that he expresses here for Bhaktivedanta Swami. That is not surprising when one realizes that even with effective institutional structures like the G.B.C. in place, communities of faith remain vital only so long as there are living models to give expression to ideals and beliefs that can otherwise seem quite remote. Critics of ISKCON who see only the outward trappings of surrender to the guru miss the humility before God and guru that is demanded of each guru as well. This volume is a success not because of some academic standard of objectivity (which few biographers meet in any case), but because of the skillful blend of oral history, documented reminiscences, and transparent admiration, all of which bring Bhaktivedanta Swami to life for the reader as a real (and exceptional) person. We not only sense, but observe that it is complete devotion to God through the person of one’s spiritual master that animated ISKCON in its early years and continues to do so now, as evidenced by the author himself. Thus this book reads like a personal yet precise diary relating the formative years of ISKCON and its founder-teacher. And just as in reading a diary, we learn as much from reading between the lines as we do from the events and persons described. This is a fascinating chronicle I urge you to read.

Dr. Larry D. Shinn
Danforth Professor of Religion
Oberlin College
Oberlin, Ohio