Robert Campagnola

Robert Campagnola (formerly known as Harikesa Swami, Vishnupada) was one of the leading disciples of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and formerly a guru within the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (commonly known as 'the Hare Krishnas' or ISKCON). He is continuing his spiritual service within the world-wide community of Harimedia.

Background

Early life

Robert Campagnola was born in New York in 1948. His primary interests in his early years were reading, music, and athletics. He graduated from State University of New York at Stony Brook with a teaching certificate from the State of N.Y. and engaged in social welfare activity by helping impoverished and less fortunate teenagers deal with their life situations through the Neighbourhood Youth Corps. He also worked as a volunteer fireman in East Williston, NY, for six years.

ISKCON

When Robert was about to embark on a music career, he became attracted to a spiritual movement, ISKCON, more commonly known as the "Hare Krishna Movement". He personally met the founder of ISKCON, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, in Brooklyn, while being involved in recording Prabhupada's music in July of 1971. Robert was later initiated by Prabhupada in New York [ [http://www.prabhupada.com/disciple.php?letter=H Disciple Database] ] and given the name "Harikesa dasa". Soon after this, he travelled throughout the US as part of the ISKCON "Road Show" where he played organ, guitar, and acted in theatrical skits. In March of 1972 he was sent to India at the request of Prabhupada where he assisted in the development of the projects there.

Harikesa spent a number of years as Prabhupada's personal servant and secretary. From 1974 onwards his time was spent with Prabhupada transcribing his books, cooking, arranging travel, answering letters, and a variety of other tasks. In February 1976 he took up the renounced order of life ("Sanyassa") and travelled throughout Europe, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, to introduce people to Prabhupada's teachings. After Bhaktivedanta Swami's death, Harikesa Swami was one of eleven disciples selected to become an initiating guru. During his time as a guru, he initiated over 3000 disciples.

After Prabhupada's Death

Harikesa Swami oversaw the development of ISKCON in the Soviet Union, the Eastern Block, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Scandinavia, and for some time was engaged in assisting in the activities in the Middle East, Argentina, and other South American countries. He expanded the book publishing under the Northern European Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) from an out of the pocket operation to a continentally significant publishing house that by 1998 had published more than 50,000,000 pieces of literature in 37 languages of the world, and over 450 different titles. From 1977 onwards, he was a member of the "Sri Mayapur Project Development Committee" and from 1991 onwards was its Project Director. During this time the project (in Mayapur, West Bengal, India) expanded greatly and was on its way towards designing and building a massive temple structure within a coordinated master plan.

In the mid 1990's, he saw a great need to assist the children of the Society who he saw as victims of an unbalanced social structure born of a misunderstanding of human values. He initiated the creation of a Ministry of Educational Development, funded this organization, and facilitated the writing and publication of relevant children's books. During this time he endeavoured to upgrade the educational requirements of the teachers, improve the local facilities for the students, and phase out schools not directly associated with the communities in which the parents of the children resided. He played a major role in the creation and funding of a Child Protection Office that set guidelines for schools and parents and prosecuted child abusers. He saw the widespread neglect of children as symptomatic of deeper social fragility within ISKCON and attempted to restore social health through speaking and writing about the need for social balance derived from healthy and balanced individuals. While trying to upgrade the educational structure, he attempted to awaken the member’s natural love for their spouses, children and families.

At the end of 1997, many forces were pulling at him from opposing directions. Due to his position within the Society, he was often one of the first to hear about the extremely disturbing events that occurred within the movement at that time. Reports from then respected individuals that Prabhupada had expressed he was being poisoned on his death-bed, the confession of one of the most respected leaders within the educational ministry of having engaged in child abuse, the suspicion that other respected personalities in India were also guilty of the same offense, the collapse of the financial support that fuelled the ongoing reforms he initiated, along with the general sense amongst leaders and members that the Society was in great difficulty, caused Robert to be pushed to the very limits of his human capacity. This was taking a great toll on his physical and emotional health for he felt personally responsible to transform the situation.

Problems in 1998

In 1988, Chitesvara dasa, a well-known tantric healer from Orissa, prescribed Harikesa Swami with daily doses of a therapeutic powder that he called "vibhuti", usually referencing the ash left from a fire sacrifice (yajna). In 1998, after Harikesa had stopped taking the "vibhuti" it was discovered by forensic examination that in fact the powder contained two commercially manufactured psychotropic drugs, Trifluoperazine and Trihexyphenidyl [ [http://www.vnn.org/europe/9808/09-1986/index.html Harikesa Took "Vibhuti" for 10 Years] ] .

Speaking on the issue, Robert said:

"Thinking it was an ayurvedic medicine, I unknowingly took a small quantity once at night. I felt it assisted in sleep. Those who worked with me saw me continue to function as normal. No one thought there was anything wrong. It was only after I left ISKCON that they suspected there had to be factors involved and looked to this substance for a clue. It was hard for them to accept my realization that all I had worked for and supported for so long was not only incorrect for me, but for everyone. After stopping the drug, my only reaction was that I had a hard time sleeping for 2-3 days. Some say my consequent observable increase in activity was due to being hyper due to withdrawal. I increased my activity because I saw the need to do something about the imminent collapse of all I had worked so hard for during most of my life, and since I did not sleep as much as before, I had more time to do it and more energy. As I became more aware of the deep problems within the society and the pain of the children, youth, women and families, I felt called to transform this as rapidly as possible."

Harikesa collapsed due to stress on June 2 1998, at the start of an intercontinental education, general management, and research conference he had organized and was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment [ [http://www.vnn.org/europe/9806/04-1845/index.html Harikesa Ill] ] . As part of his recovery, a pranic healer named Monika was brought in. Soon, a relationship started between Harikesa and Monika [ [http://www.vnn.org/europe/9808/13-2012/index.html Q & A about Harikesa Dasa - Question 26] ] .

In regards to his collapse, Harikesa said:

"When the financial basis of the reforms I initiated was taken away by the economic collapse in the stock exchange where our funds were invested, I could no longer find a way to support all those who depended on me. This burden became more than I could bear. I could not shake the stress that was crushing me and could no longer function in a manner appropriate to the demands placed upon me by my many positions, including being elected to chair the governing body for a three year period of time. My body collapsed and I ended up in the hospital. Due to my extremely weakened condition, a well-wisher sent a healer to help me. She gave me energy and assisted me to recover within a fraction of the time one would have expected under the circumstances. Being extremely grateful to her and also finding a kindred spirit, I grew to love her as a person. Although this relationship was fleeting, it assisted me to find a way to love myself and others in a personally meaningful manner. The negative reaction of those around me to my developing awareness and transformation increased the gap between us. As the leaders of ISKCON sought out a way to separate me from the movement to protect the devotees from what they felt was dangerous to their spiritual health, I internally and externally distanced myself from the fundamental value structures of the movement, from its philosophy, and especially the way in which it limited human relations, familial relations, and personal love. I found it amusing that the leaders took seriously a diagnosis by some doctor who only had a video tape to examine. One of the prominent psychiatrists within the German government asked me if I wanted to charge that doctor for there were grounds to have his license challenged, but I declined."

Resignation

Shortly after this, feeling unable to continue any relationship with ISKCON, at the request of the Executive Committee, Harikesa Swami submitted his resignation from ISKCON and his guru duties, to ISKCON's Governing Body Commission. His resignation was accepted at the GBC meetings in 1999. [ [http://www.vnn.org/world/WD9903/WD31-3455.html 1999 GBC Resolutions] ] Robert has been living in Florida U.S. since January, 2004, [ [http://www.harimedia.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=151#151 Transcript of Jashmuheen's Published Interview of Hari] ] and has since married Katarina Campagnola (Kamalasundari devi dasi), who was previously one of his disciples in Sweden [ [http://www.vnn.org/europe/EU9812/EU09-2638.html Letter from Harikesa Swami] ] .

New Beginnings

Robert is now known as 'Hari' and offers freely downloadable recordings of his lectures, meditations and some of his music on his website. He is officially the spiritual head of [http://www.gauranitai.info VODR] (Vedic Society For Krsna Consciousness), in St. Petersburg, Russia and he travels there regularly to speak and be of service to the members. He counsels and mentors the evolution of those who find his assistance valuable. His main concern is to facilitate the personal independent development of the individual while assisting their connection to the divine harmony of Radha and Krsna.

Technological Contribution

During his time in ISKCON, Robert initiated the development of the modernization of communication and information sharing, as well as expanding the book publishing technology.

Typesetting

Typesetting was usually done using Redactron electric typewriters with ball heads. However, since publishing was expanding in Eastern European and Cyrillic languages, all of which also required Sanskrit characters with diacritic marks, the cost of creating custom ball heads was enormous. Although photo typesetting became possible in the late 70's, creating fonts remained a costly and complex affair. Every small change required months of development time by the companies who supplied the typesetters.

After researching the field in various trade fairs, Robert discovered that very high end typesetting systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, would allow the manufacturer to program the keyboards to associate special characters with specific key combinations that controlled the typesetters. At this time, no one had linked one of the small, newly available personal computers to a typesetter. Due to operating on an extremely small budget, Robert felt the only solution available to him was to try to link a personal computer (Heathkit Z-80) with a phototypesetter (Itek ImageSetter). Although told that this was not possible, Robert engaged the help of two BBT workers, Prsnigarbha and Madhava Puri, who were programmers and computer wizards, and another programmer from Sodertalje, in Sweden. After weeks of working, the team was blocked when trying to build an interface between the two machines. Robert suggested using the IBM 740 floppy format on the Itek in the slight chance the format they used was not special. By chance, the floppy format was compatible and the research shifted to creating floppies that the Itek would recognize as being created in its own proprietary typesetter (that could not be programmed outside its limited format). This was soon accomplished and through trial and error the entire Itek programming code was reproduced and under the BBT's control. This achievement was so dramatic that it made the front page of one of Sweden's biggest newspapers, The Expressen, which showed a Z-80 sitting between the two robe clad monks in the temple near Stockholm under the headline, "The Monks Cracked the Code!".

Following this success book publishing in many languages blossomed as the BBT now had the means to typeset in any language with the native characters alongside the Sanskrit diacritical characters in the special layout and design characteristic of the books published by the BBT. To facilitate this, a text editor had to be developed that would display the characters being typeset as they would appear on the book page. To this end, the program WordStar was duplicated by the BBT programmers but now in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) format and with rudimentary layout. These two major innovative developments put the BBT at the forefront of the cutting edge of budget publishing and was a precursor to modern desk-top publishing. Later on, typesetting fonts were created by the BBT staff in languages were none existed.

COM System

As the publishing expanded, in the early 80's one of the BBT programmers, Prsni, suggested the creation of an internal conferencing system and a PDP-11-45 was purchased and a limited internal conferencing system called KOM was installed. Soon it became apparent that the capacity to discuss the publishing affairs in conference format greatly increased the capacity of the BBT. Considering that Robert was now travelling almost non-stop throughout an expanding area and engaging in publishing in dozens of languages, the system was rewritten to allow users to dial into the network from anywhere in the world. This system, renamed COM, connected all parts of ISKCON and the BBT in real-time, and was soon carrying hundreds of communications a day long before the creation of the www or the usage of the internet (then known as the usenet and only used by educational and government institutions). Robert was instrumental in facilitating and organizing this development from the first day. Later, as the system became larger with many thousands of users, programmers were brought in to create a user interface to allow desktop organization of the texts in the conferences and personal mail [ [http://pamho.net/history.htm History of COM] ] .

Digital technology in the music field was just starting in the early 80's. Under Robert's guidance and inspiration, BBT electronic engineers created digital processing, gates, compressors, and expanded the 18 track mixer board used to create the Rasa recordings into a 24 track board with high quality sound components.

ISKCON Interactive

In the early 90's, Robert took the help of Chuck Grandgent, who helped design and build Picturephone video conferencing systems for larger institutions, and installed video conferencing between Stockholm, Copenhagen and London, where work was going on to design the Mayapur master plan and temple. In Copenhagen, artists and programmers were hard at work creating the first interactive DVD in Europe, called the ISKCON interactive, a project conceived of by Robert to increase public awareness of ISKCON, the BBT and the Mayapur Project and originally based on a script he had written. This original idea was beautifully expanded and developed by Nitya-Trpta devi, Krsna-prema das, Govinda das and Balaram das. Robert was able to communicate regularly with all members of the London and Copenhagen teams without having to personally travel there. Although video conferencing was quite rare in those days, the possibilities seemed unlimited. This sowed a seed in Robert that is manifesting at present as the regular broadcast from Harimedia.

Webcast

From March of 2004, Robert has developed a unique method of global internet broadcasting. At its core is the Shoutcast streaming server that Robert broadcasts to using the nsv codecs. Although anyone can broadcast using Shoutcast, Robert has created a system of simultaneous translation where he can speak in English in Florida while being translated in real-time into Russian by a translator sitting in Moscow.

Recording Artist

Robert has been producing music that bridges the gap between Western music and Eastern Mantra since 1978. Robert has produced more than 28 albums (under the group names of RASA, BLISS, Sri Hari, and presently as Hari). Free downloads of some of his music are available through his website. He sometimes performs live in Florida, but regularly performs in Russia together with the group [http://www.northpolemusic.net "North Pole"] . He is educated in the art of recording and processing audio, and mixes, masters, and processes all his albums, lectures, and media.

Bibliography

* Harikesa Swami, "Varnasrama Manifesto for Social Sanity", 1981, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, ISBN 0-892-13042-3. Edited by Devamrita Swami.
* Harikesa Swami, "The Thirteenth Chapter", Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1985, ISBN 91-85580-46-5
* Harikesa Swami, "The Krsna Conscious Handbook", Underground Soviet Publication during the Cold War, 1986
* Harikesa Swami, "Basic Management Book for ISKCON Temples", ISKCON publication, 1989
* Harikesa Swami, "Essential Truths - The Questions and Answers Conference 1989-1994", 1996, Sentient Press, ISBN 91-7149-296-8
* Harikesa Swami, "All glories to the Sankirtana devotees", 1996, Sentient Press, ISBN 91-7149-298-4
* Harikesa Swami, "On Social Issues", 1998, Sentient Press,ISBN 91-7149-392-1
* Harikesa Swami, "The Leadership and Management Seminar", 1998, Sentient Press, Video and Audio Cassette Packs
* Robert Campagnola, "Essays in Hari's Corner," 2005-2007, Harimedia [ [http://www.harimedia.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=17 Essays by Hari] ]

Discography

:"See also: RASA Discography", "BLISS Discography", and "Sri Hari Discography" .

References

External links

* [http://www.harimedia.net/ Robert Campagnola (Hari) official website]