- Romapada Swami
Infobox ReligiousBio
background = #AAA07A
name = "Romapada Swami"
religion =Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Title = Initiating Spiritual Master/ Diksa guru
location =USA
Period =1986 - current
previous_post =
present_post =Sannyasi
Assistant GBC
Temple president,
date of birth = Birth date and age|1948|12|27
place of birth =New York
website = [http://www.romapadaswami.com/ Romapada Swami]Romapada Swami (born Brian Howard Rumbaugh, December 27, 1948,
Utica, New York ) is a sannyasi, a religious renunciate, traveling preacher andguru in the Gaudiya Math lineage ofVaishnavism , which is a sect ofHinduism . [http://www.romapadaswami.com/?q=HHRPS_bio Biography] on Romapada's website] [http://www.iskcongbc.info/gbc_members/41 Biography on ISKCON GBC site] ] [ [http://indiapost.com/article/communitypost/2533/ Gaur Purnima celebrations at ISKCON]India Post , 04.13.2008, Retrieved on 2008-05-06]A scholar of Eastern and Western Philosophies, he has lectured at universities in the United States, India and Europe, including
Cornell University , Yale, Stanford, Brown,Bard College , the Universities of Maryland, Delaware, Champagne/Urbana, IIT, Heidelberg, and UW Madison. [http://www.clubs.psu.edu/up/vedicsociety/lectures/HHRPS.html Penn State Vedic Society] ]He is the advisor for [http://www.quintmag.com/| Quintessence Magazine] , a quarterly publication on Krishna consciousness put out especially for college students.
Early life
The youngest of five children, Romapada was raised in a Christian family in Utica, New York. He attended the State University of New York in Buffalo, where he was a pre-med student. It was here, in 1969, that he met
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada , Founder-Acharya of theInternational Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), an event that would change the course of his life.Role in ISKCON
Shortly after being accepted to Medical school, at age twenty-one, Romapada instead chose a life with ISKCON. Romapada became an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada in July 1971, and accepted the renounced order of
sannyasa in1983 (whence he was given the title of "Swami"). [http://www.iskcongbc.info/resolutions/gbc/iskcon-gbc-resolution-1983 GBC resolutions 1983] ] [ [http://www.iskcon.net.au/sannyasaministry/listing List of Sannyasis in ISKCON April 2008] ISKCON Sannyasa Ministry, Retrieved on 2008-05-05]Since
1978 , Romapada Swami has traveled worldwide, presenting the philosophy ofKrishna Consciousness . Currently he is based inNew York , and frequently travels toIndia andAsia on preaching missions. Since 1986, Romapada Swami has served as an ISKCON guru, with the power to initiate others into the lineage- in other words, an ISKCON diksa guru. He currently has a more than 150 initiated disciples.
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