HH Jayadvaita Swami

Jayadvaita Swami received initiation from Srila Prabhupada in 1968, at the age of nineteen. Practically the first task assigned to him was to staple booklets. He later went on to typing manuscripts, transcribing Srila Prabhupada's dictation for books, and then typesetting, proofreading, managing book production, and editing. He has served as an editor or assistant editor for nearly all the books of Srila Prabhupada published during Srila Prabhupada's lifetime. Since 1988 he has served as a director of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, and from 1991 through most of 1998 he served as editor in chief of Back to Godhead magazine, for which he had been an assistant editor for several years. Recently he served as editor of a three-volume translation and commentary for Sri Brhad-bhagavatamrta, a sixteenth-century Sanskrit philosophical and devotional work by Srila Sanatana Gosvami, and Sri Krishna Lila Stava, by the same author.

In 1985 and 1986, he spent a year and a half traveling with a party of pilgrims on pada-yatra, a journey on foot, through various states of India, stopping in a different town or village every night. In 1987, along with Dhanurdhara Swami and Bhurijana Dasa, he co-founded the Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education. Apart from his services in publishing, he travels widely, teaching about the philosophy and culture of Krishna consciousness. He has lectured extensively at colleges and universities, especially in the United States, but also in more than 50 other countries. Maharaj is a regular teacher for the MI Bhakti-sastri Course, and recently also began teaching for the MI Bhaktivaibhava Course.