Indradyumna Swami
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Indradyumna Swami, named after the famous king Indrayumna of ancient India, is a spiritual leader (guru) in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Gaudiya Vaishnava movement founded in 1966 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
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[edit] Early life
He was born as Brian Tibbits on May 20th 1949 and grew up in Palo Alto, California. He left university while still an undergraduate to devote himself to the search for spiritual knowledge, and soon reached his goal in 1970, when he joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Detroit, Michigan. After several months of associating with devotees of ISKCON, he and his wife moved into the temple community on East Jefferson near the center of the city.
Within a week of joining the movement he had begun to lead the congregational chanting of the holy names, or harinam sankirtan, and had joined the book distribution parties. That same year, Indradyumna Swami met his spiritual master, or guru, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, who awarded Indrayumna both harinam and brahmin initiation into the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya, and it was at this time he was also given the name Indrayumna.
[edit] Missionary activities
Following the instruction of his spiritual master to “preach boldly and have faith in the holy names,” Indradyumna Swami left the USA in 1971 and headed for Europe where he would assist devotees in opening new centers.
Srila Prabhupada’s instructed his followers to dedicate their lives to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world, so in order to fulfill his guru's desire, Indradyumna Swami took sannyasa in 1979 when he was 29. Sannyasa is the renounced order, in which the practitioner gives up family life. Thus Indradyumna Swami now lived apart form his wife and then young child. During the eighties he served as temple president at the New Mayapur château temple and farm near Chateauroux in France.
Since 1986 Indradyumna Swami has been traveling and spreading Krishna Consciousness throughout the world, particularly in Poland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia and South America and the USA. He is well-known as one of ISKCON’s most active preachers, and his current large-scale preaching project is the Festival of India tour which he organizes annually in Poland. These festivals attract thousands of people who can learn about Krsna Consciousness through music, dance, drama, spiritual discussion, and plates of prasadam (food that is first offered to Krishna).
Indradyumna Swami has been publishing his Diary of a Traveling Preacher since 1995, which describes his adventures and personal realisations while continuously travelling and meeting people. When once asked how readers can believe some of his miraculous and incredible adventures, he replied jokingly that he doesn't publish the most amazing ones, because they are much further beyond what anyone could possibly believe.[citation needed]
Indradyumna Swami became an ISKCON guru in 1988, and has initiated around 2,000 disciples of his own[citation needed].
