Page 34 - Lekha-mala (English)
P. 34
About the Author
The author was born in Britain in 1957 and joined ISKCON in
London in 1975. Later that year, he was formally accepted
as a disciple of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupāda, the founder-ācārya of ISKCON, and renamed
Ilāpati Dāsa.
From 1977 to 1979, Ilāpati Dāsa was based in India, mostly
traveling in West Bengal distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books.
He spent the following ten years helping to pioneer ISKCON’s
preaching in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
In 1989 he was granted the order of sannyāsa, receiving the
name Bhakti Vikāsa Swami, and again made his base in India.
Since then he has preached Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout
the subcontinent, lecturing in English, Hindi, and Bengali. He
also spends a few months each year preaching in the West. His
television lectures in Hindi have reached millions worldwide.
Bhakti Vikāsa Swami writes extensively on Kṛṣṇa conscious
topics. His books have been translated into over twenty
languages, with one and a half million in print. Lekha-mālā is
his eighteenth book.
He is also involved in developing several gurukulas and also
Vedic rural projects based on simple living and high thinking.