His Glorious Life of Surrender to Srila Prabhupada

Early Life in Calcutta

His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami is a Gaudiya Vaishnava sannyasi and a leader of the International Society for    Krishna Consciousness. He was born in Bengal in 1945 and spent most of his early life in the city of Calcutta. In 1970, he left India to study chemistry in Germany. Coming across Vedic literature while in Germany, he discovered the richness of India’s spiritual heritage. In 1975 he returned to India to wholeheartedly pursue spiritual life.

Searching For a Spiritual Master

After thoroughly studying the Vedic scriptures, Maharaj became aware of the need to find a spiritual master who could lead him on a sound spiritual course. After travelling to the Himalayas and searching for one year without coming across a spiritual master to whom he could fully surrender, he felt despondent and disappointed. When he almost gave up hope, he came across a book called The Nectar of Devotion by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Srila Prabhupada).

A Search Fulfilled

Becoming engrossed in the depths of that book, he realised that he had found his spiritual master and the path for which he was searching. As he continued to read Srila Prabhupada’s works, his conviction grew stronger, as did his desire to meet Srila Prabhupada. At that time, Srila Prabhupada was in America.

A Life of Devotion and Surrender

In 1976, Maharaj joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness temple in Mayapur and became more involved in devotional service to the Lord, all the while awaiting Srila Prabhupada’s return to India.

When Srila Prabhupada returned to India at the end of 1976, the first meeting between guru and aspiring disciple finally took place. From their very first meeting, Srila Prabhupada gave Maharaj the assignment of translating his books into Bengali and then made him his Secretary for Indian Affairs. Srila Prabhupada gave Maharaj first and second initiation simultaneously, thus bringing him into the disciplic succession. Three months later, Srila Prabhupada awarded him the renounced order of Sannyasa.

Maharaj travelled with and personally served Srila Prabhupada for the final year of Prabhupada’s life. After Srila Prabhupada’s departure from this world in 1977, Maharaj served in Mayapur for several years whilst the society was going through a critical phase.

Milestones and Contributions

In 1987, Maharaj became an initiating guru in ISKCON and joined its Governing Body Commission, serving as its chairman in 1989.

By 1995, Maharaj had translated into Bengali all of Srila Prabhupada’s works on major Vedic literatures, consisting of more than fifty volumes of books including Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Chaitanya Charitamrita and Nectar of Devotion – just as Srila Prabhupada had instructed him in their very first meeting.

In 1996, Maharaj took on the mammoth task of making a biographical video epic on the life of his spiritual master, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Entitled Abhay Charan, this video series was broadcast on national television in India, and is distributed globally on DVD.

In 2004, at the invitation of the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Maharaj built a magnificent new ISKCON temple in just 10 months in Ujjain – the ancient and holy city also known as Avantika, and the place where Krishna and Balarama went to school. The temple has three huge altars for the worship of Sri Sri Radha Madanmohan, Sri Sri Krishna Balarama and Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, a goshala for cow protection, a midday meals facility for school children, a rural programme to spread Vedic culture to village people, and several outreach centres in Bhopal and Indore.

Maharaj served as the ISKCON governor for France and South Africa at a time when each of these zones were facing immense difficulties, and through perseverance was able to turn around the situations there.

In 2007, Maharaj began an altar production facility in Ujjain. The facility manufactures beautiful deity altars of all shapes and sizes for temples and devotees globally.

In 2014, Maharaj established Arogya Niketan, a traditional and authentic Ayurvedic clinic in Ujjain.

In the same year Maharaj joined the Artha Forum and began delivering keynote speeches globally on spirituality to large audiences of business leaders.

He was an executive of the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON and the GBC Zonal Secretary for ISKCON in Mayapur, Kolkata, Ujjain, Bhubaneswar, Bangladesh and Seattle. He travels across India, US, UK, South Africa, the Middle East and Australia, holding spiritual retreats and seminars.

He also inaugurated a chain of schools in London (currently 10+ schools) and across India known as Krishna Avanti schools.

Bhakti Charu Swami has on many occasions displayed his mastery and expertise in the field of leadership, community building, and strengthening relationships. He has delivered presentations as a key note speaker at top management and engineering institutes of the world i.e. MIT, IIM’s and IITs.

In 2016 Bhakti Charu Swami was invited as an honorary guest to speak on various topics concerning conscious and ethical leadership, building credible leaders, the art of successful relationships and communities, the science of understanding one’s soul, cow protection, the principles of simple living, higher thinking and other similar topics at corporate enterprises such as Ernst & Young, Accenture, HSBC Bank (UK), Veda London, Cow Cultural Conferences and at law firms comprising the Magic Circle in the UK, including House of Lord of the UK Parliament.

In Cape Town (South Africa), he was invited as guest speaker addressing a group of young, successful entrepreneurs on the topic of “Conscious leadership for the modern age” as well as a conference on “Unity in Diversity” at the eThekwini (local Multiracial, multicultural) Municipality in collaboration with the Head of Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture (Durban, South Africa).

And since 2018 had embarked on a new project, Veda Foundation and Cow Sanctuary, in Deland, Florida with the purpose of promoting Vedic culture, with a focus on simple living, and higher thinking in the United States.

Those who have met him, speak of his heartwarming and inspiring lectures, his personal anecdotes and experiences and his commitment and dedication to the service of his spiritual master and helping others find true meaning in their life by connecting them to God.

His Divine Departure

In June 2020, he left India for America, with great determination to continue preaching and supporting the food distribution program to Covid’s first responders, i.e. hospitals, police and firefighters, in Florida. Maharaja unfortunately contracted the Covid-19 virus and departed this earthly realm on July 4th, 2020. He was finally united with his divine master A.C Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada and entered into the eternal pastimes of Sri Radha Krishna on the most auspicious day of the disappearance of Sri Sanatana Goswami, one of the six most intimate associates of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 

He is eternally residing in his instructions to us, to remain fixed and united at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and continue his mission of spreading Krishna consciousness all over the world.