Smita Krishna Swami
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Smita Krishna Swami, born in Sweden in 1952, is an ISKCON swami.[1]. He became a sannyasa in 1986 and is presently an initiating guru within ISKCON as of 1988.[2] He is also an active mediator in the ISKCON Resolve program.[3] He is actively involved with various ISKCON European leaders (EuroGBC) programs.[4]
Krishna Ksetra Dasa remembers early incident of interaction with Smita Krishna:
"I had been in some anxiety that I might forget one or another of the four regulative principles when saying my vows, but for some reason, Prabhupāda didn't ask me to say them. Perhaps he saw my anxiety. He simply handed me the beads and said, 'Your name is Kṛṣṇa-kṣetra Dāsa. It means the servant of the place where Kṛṣṇa appears, or Vṛndāvana.' In my excitement I didn't fully comprehend the meaning, but I understood that my name included the name 'Kṛṣṇa.' This fulfilled a wish I had when I first met Smita Kṛṣṇa Prabhu in Germany: that it would be nice to be given a name that included 'Kṛṣṇa.'"
– Śrīla Prabhupāda and His Disciples in Germany , V.Dasa[5]
He met devotees during late spring trip to Germany after some spiritual search in 1969. Two of the first Gaudiya Vaishnava devotees he met were Śivānanda and Maṇḍalibhadra of ISKCON.[5]
His search for god and spirituality concluded in discovering Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy and he describes his own conversion as following:
"On Sunday I went to Bartelsstrasse. Maṇḍalibhadra gave a lecture, and when I heard him talk about yoga, karma, and reincarnation, I thought, somewhat proudly, 'Sounds familiar.' I wasn't that impressed. But then he mentioned that one needed a guru and had to be sincere in order to take up spiritual life and that God was nondifferent from His holy name. His words were like a revelation to me."After the lecture, during prasādam, Maṇḍalibhadra sat next to me and asked, 'Do you have any questions?' I thought for a second and said, 'How do I become sincere?' 'Well,' he replied, 'you just stay in the association of those who are sincere.' His words struck me, because I was seriously looking for answers, and I thought, 'Then I shall have to stay here.' At that very moment, all kinds of thoughts about things dear to me came into my mind, and I felt so sad at the prospect of giving them up that tears came to my eyes. I felt devastated. "Meanwhile the devotees began to hold a kīrtana in the temple room, and I thought, 'Why not join them?' And as I chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa along with them, my sadness gradually disappeared and an unknown feeling of happiness surged forth from within. I thought, 'How nice! This is the real thing-to sing the names of God.'
– Śrīla Prabhupāda and His Disciples in Germany], V.Dasa[5]
[edit] References
- ^ List of Sannyasis in ISKCON April 2008 ISKCON Sannyasa Ministry, Retrieved on 2008-05-05
- ^ A Man, An Ox, Caught Up in An 'Evil System' ISKCON News
- ^ ISKCON Mediators ISKCON Resolve
- ^ EuroGBC workshop minutes
- ^ a b c Śrīla Prabhupāda and His Disciples in Germany V. Dasa, 1996. 463 p.
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