Param Gati Swami was born on June 29, 1953 in a town Pouso Alegre, Minas Gerais State, Brazil.[2] He was brought up in a Catholic family of strong local traditions.[2] His father served the Brazilian army.[2] He eventually moved to the capital of the State, Belo Horizonte, and began to study journalism at the Catholic University of Minas Gerais.[2] Since young age, Param Gati Swami was interested in oriental philosophy, practiced yoga and followed a Vegetarian diet.[2] Soon he became interested in the knowledge of the Vedas, and had managed to acquire book authored by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON.[2] Later, while walking down the roads of Belo Horizonte, he encountered a group of the Hare Krishna devotees, who offered him the 'Sri Isopanisad'.[2] His interest in Vedic culture and admiration for Swami Prabhupada gradually grew, and soon he felt the need to join the Hare Krishna movement and take part in spreading the Vedic philosophy.[2] He dropped out of the University and leaving his trainee course at the newspaper 'Estado de Minas', went to live in the ISKCON ashram in Sao Paulo, fully dedicating himself to the spiritual life.[2] After arriving at Sao Paulo, he dedicated himself full time in the service of distributing spiritual books and sanctified spiritual food prasadam.[2] Param Gati Swami took initiation from A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in July 1976, three months after he moved into the ISKCON temple.[2]
Vista ampliada. Haz clic en una imagen y arrástrala para moverla.
Param Gati Swami no FEI em Ubatuba
In 1977 he became the world's No.1 book distributor.[2] His guru expreesed desire to personally meet him so he traveled to Mayapur in West Bengal, India, the place where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took birth.[2] There, Param Gati Swami took his second, brahminic initiation.[2] After returning to Brazil, he picked up his preaching activities and established the first ISKCON temple in Belo Horizonte.[2]
In 1982, at the age of 28, Param Gati Swami took up the renounced order of life (sannyasa) from Hridayananda dasa Goswami.[2] He then started to travel around the world and preach.[2] He first went to Paris and became the direct supervisor of Hare Krishna movement in France.[2] As of 2008, he was the head of ISKCON in France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Brazil.[2]
Today's parikrama brought us to Akrura Ghat, the boundary between Mathura and Vrindavan. When Akrura brought Krsna and Balaram to Mathura, it was upto this point where Yasodanandan Sri Krsna and Rohininandan Baladev traveled and from there on it was the Vasudev Krsna and Sankarshan Balaram who traveled with Him to Mathura. Also nearby is Bathrol Gaon where the wives of the Brahmins (Yajna patnis) fed Krsna, Baladev and Their cowherd friends with the foodstuffs they have prepared for their husbands' sacrificial offerings. Thanks to Uma didi for sharing what she has heard from Srila Gurudev about these places.
Today is ekadasi and so under guidance of Srila Gurudev, all our devotees headed by our tridandi sannyasis and the sankirtan party circumambulated Sri Vrindavan. Here in this episode, you can take darshan of some of the key places along the parikrama marg of Sri Vrindavan. We started from our program site in Gopinath Bhavan to Keshi ghat, the place Krishna killed the Keshi demon. Then we passed by Pani ghat from where the gopis crossed Yamuna to visit Durvasa Rishi. Then passing by Mahaprabhu's baithak (sitting place), Baladev Temple, Ananda dham, Iskcon Krsna-Balaram Mandir and Samadhi Mandir of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Kaliya Daha, Sri Madanmohan Temple, Imli Tala and other places, we reached Gopinath Bhavan and completed our Sri Vrindavan parikrama.