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Other Contributors xi

with his wife and eldest daughter, he received Gauḍīya
Vaiṣṇava initiation from Bhakti Vikāsa Swami and was
named Raṅganātha Dāsa.

Rasarāja Dāsa (Ravi Gomatam, Ph.D.) is also of South
Indian Vaiṣṇava lineage. After earning his M.E. in 1974
from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science
in Rajasthan, he worked for Air India in Mumbai. In
1977 he emigrated to America and developed systems
software for General Motors, Ford, and other major
companies. After a short and superficial period of
attraction to American life, Rasarāja became inspired
by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and joined ISKCON in 1980,
rejecting an opportunity for a major career advancement.
At present he is the international secretary of the
Bhaktivedanta Institute, the academic and educational
wing of ISKCON.

For his Ph.D. he did important work in the foundations
of quantum mechanics, integrating the views of Einstein
and Bohr. And in collaboration with the Birla Institute
of Technology and Science, he initiated the world’s
first M.S./Ph.D. program in Consciousness Studies
— a new, interdisciplinary area of study in modern
science, involving such fields as neuroscience, artificial
intelligence, quantum physics, molecular biology, and
cognitive philosophy. Among his many publications is
a co-edited volume of essays on science and religion,
to which many eminent scholars, including six Nobel
Laureates, have contributed. He has lectured across the