| Jayadvaita Swami | |
|---|---|
| Religion | Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Hinduism |
| Other name(s) | Jay Israel |
| Personal | |
| Born | November 2, 1949 |
| Religious career | |
| Initiation | Diksa–1968, Sannyasa–1978 |
| Post | ISKCON Guru, Sannyasi |
| Website | http://www.jswami.info |
Jayadvaita Swami is a Gaudiya Vaishnava swami and an ISKCON guru.[1][2] He is an editor, publisher, and a disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON. He has been the seniormost editor for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust for more than forty years[3] and has been described as "one of ISKCON's most independent-minded and respected thinkers".[3]
Jayadvaita Swami was born Jay Israel to a reformed Jewish family.[2] He spent his childhood in Englewood, New Jersey.[2] In 1968 in New York City he was first introduced to Krishna Consciousness[2] and received initiation from Srila Prabhupada.[4] Jay shaved his head, received the spiritual name Jayadvaita, and began to study the teachings of Krishna.[5] Practically the first task assigned to him in ISKCON was to staple booklets.[2] Later he went on to become the editor of dozens of books and magazines.[2] He was engaged in transcribing Srila Prabhupada's dictation for books, and then typesetting, proofreading, managing book production, and editing.[4] Although before joining ISKCON Jayadvaita attended some college classes at Carnegie Institute of Technology, "he is in the most general sense self-educated and taught himself everything he needed to know in order to become a literary editor".[2]
In 1978 he accepted the order of renounced life, sannyasa, from Satsvarupa dasa Goswami. In 1985 and 1986, he spent a year and a half traveling with a party of pilgrims on padayatra, a journey on foot, through various states of India, stopping in a different town or village every night.[6] From 1991 through most of 1998[7] he served as editor in chief of Back to Godhead magazine,[8][9] for which he had been an assistant editor for several years. Recently he served as editor for a three-volume translation and commentary for Brihad-bhagavatamrita, a sixteenth-century Sanskrit philosophical and devotional work.[10] Jayadvaita Swami has also been involved in debates with the proponents of the "ritvik" doctrine, an unusual notion about discipular succession he regards as contrary both to tradition and to Srila Prabhupada's teachings.[11]
Apart from his services in publishing, Jayadvaita Swami travels widely, teaching and lecturing in over 50 countries.[2]