Krishnadasa Kaviraja

Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami (born 1496; date of death unknown) was the author of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, a hagiography on the life of the mystic and saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533), who is considered by the Gaudiya Vaishnava school of Hinduism to be an incarnation of Radha and Krishna combined.

Early life

There is scant information about the life of Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami. Krishna Dasa was born in 1496 CE in a family of physicians in the village of Jhamatpur,near Salar, within the district of Bardhaman, Bengal. His father was called Bhagiratha, and his mother was named Sunanda. He also had a younger brother named Shyamananda Dasa. Both his parents died when he was young, thus he and his brother were raised by relatives.

Instructions

Krishna Dasa relates in his Chaitanya Charitamrita that, once his brother argued with a prominent Vaishnava devotee Minaketana Ramadasa over the ontological positions of Chaitanya and Nityananda (Chaitanya’s lifelong companion) and belittled the position of Nityananda. Krishna Dasa considered this to be an unpardonable offence and rejected his brother forthwith.

Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami (born December 7, 1950) is a guide, community builder, activist, and acclaimed author. He has been a Bhakti Yoga practitioner and spiritual teacher for more than 40 years. He is the inspiration behind ISKCON's free midday meal for 1.2 million school kids across India, and he has been instrumental in founding the Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai. He works largely from Mumbai in India, and travels extensively throughout Europe and America. In the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), he serves as a member of the Governing Body Commission. Steven J. Rosen described Radhanath Swami as a "saintly person respected by the mass of ISKCON devotees today."

Biography

Born as Richard Slavin in a Jewish family, he studied a number of religious paths such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. At the age of 19, he began traveling through Europe and the Middle-East, aiming for India and eventually settling for over a year in the Himalayas. He was living as a sannyasi (monk) in India when he first met with Krishna devotees near Delhi. Through contact with the devotees in Vrindavan, and after receiving the name Ratim Krishna from Swami Bon, Radhanath Swami began to focus exclusively on his spiritual path in Krishna Consciousness. In 1971, Radhanath Swami observed A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada during the Cross Maidan festival in Mumbai. After leaving India, Radhanath Swami returned to the United States, where he joined the New Vrindaban ISKCON farm community in West Virginia during July 1972. There he accepted initiation from Prabhupada in February 1973 receiving the name Radhanath das, later to receive the name Radhanath Swami, when he received sannyasa initiation from Kirtananda Swami in 1981.