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Jayapataka Swami

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His Holiness
Jayapataka Swami
Acāryapāda
Svāmī in 2006
TitleĀcharyapāda
Personal life
BornGordon John Erdman II
(1949-04-09) April 9, 1949 (age 77)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Religious life
ReligionHinduism
PhilosophyAchintya Bheda Abheda
SchoolVaiṣṇavism
LineageBrahma-Madhva-Gauḍīya Sampradāya
SectGauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism
Monastic nameJaya-patākā Svāmī
OrdinationGauḍīya Sannyāsa, 1970, Calcutta, by Bhaktivedānta Swāmī
InitiationGauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Dīkṣā
1968
Montreal, Canada
by Bhaktivedānta Swāmī
Religious career
TeacherA. C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī
PostISKCON Sannyasin, ISKCON Guru-Ācārya, ISKCON Governing Body Commissioner
PredecessorA. C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī

Jayapataka Swami (IAST: Jaya-patākā Svāmī); born on April 9, 1949) is a Vaishnava swami[1] and a religious leader for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).[2][3][4][5][6] He is a senior disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.[7] In 2004, he was one of the initiating spiritual masters, (ISKCON Gurus),[6] a member of the Governing Body Commission (GBC),[5][6] and a divisional trustee for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT).[citation needed] He is one of the senior-most sannyasis in the Hare Krishna movement.[8][9]

Biography

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Jayapataka Swami was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as Gordon John Erdman II to Gordon John Erdman and Lorraine Erdman (Golich).[6] He attended St. John's Northwestern Military Academy and Brown University.[6] There, as a fresh enrollee, he was influenced by a guest lecture on the life of Buddha, which caused him to lose interest in his studies and begin searching for a spiritual teacher.[6] After some time of searching, Erdman concluded that he would have to go to India to find his teacher.[citation needed]

Before leaving for India, Erdman came across some Hare Krishna devotees, doing kirtan and distributing Back To Godhead magazine. Shortly after, he visited the San Francisco ISKCON center and met Jayananda das, who introduced him to the Ratha Yatra festival. His first service in ISKCON was to help build the Ratha Cart. From there, Erdman traveled to Montreal, where he met Srila Prabhupada. Erdman took first initiation in Montreal and was given the name 'Jayapataka dasa'.[6] Soon after he was awarded 2nd initiation in New York.[citation needed]

While in Montreal, Jayapataka dasa was engaged in the service of printing books and dispatching them to other ISKCON temples around the world. Later, on the instruction of Srila Prabhupada, Jayapataka went to Toronto to open a temple there.[6] When Jayapataka dasa took over the Toronto center as president, he wrote to Srila Prabhupada enquiring about his service and was told by him to go to India.[10]

References

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  1. ↑ List of Sannyasis in ISKCON April 2008 Archived 21 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine ISKCON Sannyasa Ministry, Retrieved on 5 May 2008
  2. ↑ White 1994, p. 166
  3. ↑ Mukherjee 2002, pp. 115–118
  4. ↑ Haribol, Thomas (16 June 2025). "From Nigeria to Vrindavan: Outreach, Healing, and Hope Through the Holy Name | ISKCON News". इस्कॉन समाचार.
  5. 1 2 Police chief flags off Jagannath rath yatra "The Hindu", Saturday, 14 January 2006
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Eternal odyssey through people’s hearts[link removed] The Telegraph, Calcutta, 16 February 2004
  7. ↑ Muster 2001, p. 30
  8. ↑ Rosen, Steven J. (12 April 2022). From Milwaukee to Mayapur. Clever Fox Publishing.
  9. ↑ "From Milwaukee to Mayapur - Clever Fox Publishing". 9 April 2022. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  10. ↑ Rosen, Steven J. (12 April 2022). From Milwaukee to Mayapur. Clever Fox Publishing.

Works cited

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