Kirtanananda Swami
Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada | |
|---|---|
Kirtanananda Swami in 1982 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Keith Gordon Ham September 6, 1937 |
| Died | October 24, 2011 (aged 74) Thane, India |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Denomination | Vaishnavism |
| Temple | New Vrindaban |
| Philosophy | Achintya Bheda Abheda |
| Lineage | Brahma-Madhva-Gauḍīya Sampradāya |
| Sect | Gaudiya Vaishnavism |
| Ordination | Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sannyasa as Kīrtanānanda Svāmī, by Bhaktivedanta Swami, 1967, India |
| Initiation | Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Diksa as Kīrtanānanda dāsa, by Bhaktivedanta Swami, 1966, New York |
| Religious career | |
| Post | Co-founder, New Vrindaban (1968); Guru-Acarya, ISKCON (1978–87) Founder-Acarya, New Vrindaban (1977–94); |
| Successor | Madhusudan Das ("Bapuji") |
Kirtanananda Swami (IAST: Kīrtanānanda Svāmī; September 6, 1937 – October 24, 2011), also known as Swami Bhaktipada, was a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru, the co-founder of New Vrindaban, a Hare Krishna community in Marshall County, West Virginia, where he served as spiritual leader from 1968 until 1994, and a convicted criminal.
The first sannyasi in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), he also served as an initiating guru in ISKCON from 1977 until his expulsion in 1987.