Jayapataka Swami
Jayapataka Swami (IAST: Jaya-patākā Svāmī); born on April 9, 1949) is a Vaishnava swami[1] and a religious leader for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).[2][3][4][5] He is a senior disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.[6] In 2004 he was one of the initiating spiritual masters, (ISKCON Gurus),[5] a member of the Governing Body Commission (GBC),[4][5] and a divisional trustee for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT). He is one of the senior-most sannyasis in the Hare Krishna movement.[7][8]
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Acāryapāda | |
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 Jayapataka Svāmī | |
| Title | Tridandi Swami |
| Personal | |
| Born | Gordon John Erdman II April 9, 1949 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| School | Vaiṣṇavavāda |
| Lineage | Brahma-Madhva-Gauḍīya Sampradāya |
| Sect | Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavavāda |
| Monastic name | Jaya-patākā Svāmī |
| Philosophy | Achintya Bheda Abheda |
| Religious career | |
| Teacher | A. C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī |
| Predecessor | A. C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī |
| Initiation | Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Dīkṣā 1968 Montreal, Canada by Bhaktivedānta Swāmī |
| Ordination | Gauḍīya Sannyāsa, 1970, Calcutta, by Bhaktivedānta Swāmī |
| Post | ISKCON Sannyasin, ISKCON Guru-Ācārya, ISKCON Governing Body Commissioner |
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Honorifics
- His Holiness
- Maharaja
- Guru
Early years
Jayapataka Swami was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as Gordon John Erdman II to Gordon John Erdman and Lorraine Erdman (Golich).[5] He attended St. John's Northwestern Military Academy and Brown University.[5] There, as a fresh enrollee, he was influenced by a guest lecture on the life of Buddha that he lost all interest in his studies and began searching for a spiritual teacher.[5] After some time of searching he concluded he would have to go to India to find his teacher.
Before leaving for India, Gordon came across some Hare Krishna devotees, doing kirtan and distributing Back To Godhead magazine. Shortly after he visited the San Francisco ISKCON center, where he met Jayananda das who introduced him to the Ratha Yatra festival. His first service in ISKCON was to help build the Ratha Cart. From there he travelled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada where he met Srila Prabhupada. John took first initiation in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and was given the name 'Jayapataka dasa'.[5] Soon after he was awarded 2nd initiation in New York.
While in Montreal, Jayapataka dasa was engaged in the service of printing books and dispatching them to other ISKCON temples around the world. Later, on the instruction of Srila Prabhupada, Jayapataka went to Toronto to open a temple there.[5] When Jayapataka dasa took over the Toronto center as president he wrote to Srila Prabhupada enquiring about his service and was told by him to go to India.[9]
References
- List of Sannyasis in ISKCON April 2008 Archived 21 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine ISKCON Sannyasa Ministry, Retrieved on 5 May 2008
- White 1994, p. 166
- Mukherjee 2002, pp. 115–118
- Police chief flags off Jagannath rath yatra "The Hindu", Saturday, 14 January 2006
- Eternal odyssey through people’s hearts The Telegraph, Calcutta, 16 February 2004
- Muster 2001, p. 30
- Rosen, Steven J. (12 April 2022). From Milwaukee to Mayapur. Clever Fox Publishing.
- "From Milwaukee to Mayapur - Clever Fox Publishing". 9 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- Rosen, Steven J. (12 April 2022). From Milwaukee to Mayapur. Clever Fox Publishing.
Works cited
- Mukherjee, Manju Mohan (2002), Hippies in India: a study of sub-cultural system, Bibhasa, ISBN 81-87337-12-5
- Muster, Nori Jean (2001), Betrayal of the spirit: my life behind the headlines of the Hare Krishna movement, University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-06566-2
- White, Barbara-Sue (1994), Turbans and traders: Hong Kong's Indian communities, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-585287-7