The serene beauty of Prajnaparamita statue found near Singhasari temple is believed to be the portrayal statue of Queen Dedes (the collection of National Museum of Indonesia).
Kirtanananda was born Keith Gordon Ham on September 6, 1937, the son of a Southern Baptist minister. He imbibed his father's missionary spirit and attempted to convert classmates to his family's faith. Despite an acute case of poliomyelitis which he contracted around his 17th birthday, he graduated with honors from Peekskill, New York, high school in 1955. In high school and college he excelled at debate.
Keith and Howard moved to New York City where they lived as hippies. Keith also promoted LSD use and became an LSD guru. For some time he worked as a reviewer of unemployment claims. Keith enrolled at Columbia University (1961-64) where he received a Waddell fellowship to study religious history with Whitney Cross, but he quit academic life when he and Howard travelled to India during October 1965 in search of a guru. Unsuccessful in their quest, they returned to New York after six months.[2]
Keith becomes Kirtanananda
Swami Prabhupada and Kirtanananda, undated
In June 1966, after returning from India, Keith met the BengaliGaudiya Vaishnava guru A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (then known simply as "Swamiji" to his disciples), the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), more popularly known in the west as the Hare Krishnas. After attending Bhagavad-gita classes at the modest storefront temple at 26 Second Avenue, Keith decided to accept Swamiji as his spiritual master, receiving initiation as "Kirtanananda das" ("the servant of one who takes pleasure in kirtan") on September 23, 1966. Swamiji sometimes called him "Kitchen-ananda" because of his cooking expertise.[3]
Kirtanananda was among the first of Swamiji's western disciples to shave his head (apart from the sikha), don robes (traditional Bengali Vaishnava clothing consists of dhoti and kurta), and move into the temple. During March 1967, on the order of Swamiji, Kirtanananda and Janus Dambergs (Janardan das), a French-speaking university student, established the Montreal ISKCON temple.
On August 28, 1967, while travelling with Swamiji in India, Kirtanananda das became Prabhupada's first disciple to be initiated into the Vaishnava order of renunciation (sannyasa: a lifelong vow of celibacy in mind, word and body), and received the name Kirtanananda Swami. Within weeks, however, Kirtanananda Swami returned to New York City against Prabhupada's wishes and attempted to add exoteric cultural elements of Christianity to Prabhupada's devotional bhakti system. Other disciples of Prabhupada saw this as a takeover attempt. In letters from India, Prabhupada soundly chastised him and banned him from preaching in ISKCON temples.[4]
The New Vrindaban Community
Kirtanananda, Vamanadev, Hrishikesh, Hayagriva and Pradyumna, at New Vrindaban (late summer, 1968)
Kirtanananda promptly moved in with his friend Howard (now known as Hayagriva das), who had accepted a position teaching English classes at a community college in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. In the San Francisco Oracle (an underground newspaper), Kirtanananda saw a letter from Richard Rose, Jr., who wanted to form an ashram on his land in West Virginia. "The conception is one of a non-profit, non-interfering, non-denominational retreat or refuge, where philosophers might come to work communally together, or independently, where a library and other facilities might be developed."[5]
During Easter weekend (April 13-14, 1968), Kirtanananda and Hayagriva visited the two properties owned by Rose. When Hayagriva returned to Wilkes Barre, Kirtanananda stayed on in Rose's backwoods farmhouse. In July 1968, after a few months of Kirtanananda's living in isolation, he and Hayagriva visited Prabhupada in Montreal. Prabhupada “forgave his renegade disciples in Montreal with a garland of roses and a shower of tears.”[6]
Kirtanananda Swami and New Vrindaban Community president Kuladri das, c. mid-1970s
When the pair returned to West Virginia, Richard Rose, Jr. and his wife Phyllis E. Rose gave Hayagriva a 99-year lease on the 132.77-acre property for $4,000, with an option to purchase for $10 when the lease expired. Hayagriva put down a $1,500 deposit.[7]
Prabhupada established the purpose and guided the development of the community in dozens of letters and four personal visits (1969, 1972, 1974 and 1976). New Vrindaban would fulfill four major functions for ISKCON:
establish and promote the simple, agrarian Krishna conscious lifestyle, including cow protection,
establish a place of pilgrimage in the West by building seven temples on seven hills,
train up a class of brahmin teachers by training boys at the gurukula (school of the guru), and
Kirtanananda eventually established himself as leader and sole authority over the community, and over time the community expanded, devotees from other ISKCON centers moved in, and cows and land were acquired until New Vrindaban properties consisted of nearly 5,000 acres. New Vrindaban became a favorite ISKCON place of pilgrimage and many ISKCON devotees attended the annual Krishna Janmashtami festivals.
Kirtanananda's previous offenses were forgiven. Many devotees admired him for his austere lifestyle (for a time he lived in an abandoned chicken coop), his preaching skills[8] and devotion to the presiding deities of New Vrindaban: Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra.[9] For other devotees who had challenged him and thereby encountered his wrath, he was a source of fear.
Palace of Gold
Bhagavatananda and Kirtanananda at Prabhupada's Palace, then underconstruction, c. 1977
Late in 1972 Kirtanananda and sculptor-architect Bhagavatananda das decided to build a home for Srila Prabhupada. In time, the plans for the house developed into an ornate memorial shrine of marble, gold and carved teakwood, dedicated posthumously during Labor Day weekend, on Sunday, September 2, 1979. The completion of the Palace of Gold catapulted New Vrindaban into mainstream respectability as tens (and eventually hundreds) of thousands of tourists began visiting the Palace each year.
A "Land of Krishna" theme park and a granite "Temple of Understanding" in classical South Indian style were designed to make New Vrindaban a "Spiritual Disneyland." The ground-breaking ceremony of the proposed temple on May 31, 1985, was attended by dozens of dignitaries, including a United States congressman from West Virginia. One publication called it "the most significant and memorable day in the history of New Vrindaban."[10]
Upon Prabhupada's death on November 14, 1977, Kirtanananda and ten other high-ranking ISKCON leaders declared themselves as initiating gurus to succeed him. In March 1979, he accepted the honorific title "Bhaktipada," a title which the current ISKCON leadership does not recognize.
He argues that the name American comes from the Sanskrit word Amaraka (land of immortals)[2], the name England from Vishnu's title Angulisthan, Sudamapuri became Shrewsbury, Jagannathapuri became Ainsbury, Shaileshpuri became Salisbury, Sankarapuri became Cambridge, Deutschland comes from Daityasthan, the Shaks became Czechs. Hungary is Shringeri, Budapest is Buddhaprastha, etc.[3]
Works
Proof of Vedic Culture's Global Existence
The Secret Teachings of the Vedas: The Eastern Answers to the Mysteries of Life
The Universal Path to Enlightenment
The Vedic Prophecies: A New Look into the Future
How the Universe was Created and Our Purpose In It
Toward World Peace: Seeing the Unity Between Us All
en español 
en inglés 
en francés - en alemán
