Sivarama Swami

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SIVARAMA SWAMI

“The inner journey is the real journey of life”

Sivarama Swami is an internationally acknowledged religious leader, theologian, author of 23 books and dozens of articles, and an environmental and human rights activist. His scholarship and writings, his extensive public activities, his continued efforts to stand up for human rights, and his regular involvement in interfaith dialogues have made Sivarama Swami one of the most prominent religious leaders in Europe.

Sivarama Swami was born in 1949 in Budapest, Hungary, to Pal and Magda, survivors of the Holocaust. His family’s trauma has largely contributed to Sivarama Swami’s sensitivity to human rights issues throughout his life. In 1956, after the failed Hungarian revolution, he and his family migrated to Canada. He studied engineering at McGill University in Montreal, but shortly before graduation turned his interest towards Eastern philosophy and religion.

In 1973, Sivarama Swami joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a dynamic organisation representing Vaishnavism, and became a disciple of ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Six years later, at age 29, he entered a life of renunciation and was awarded the order of sannyasa (celibate monk). In 1987 he was ordained as an initiating spiritual master in the Vaishnava denomination.

About

SIVARAMA SWAMI

“The inner journey is the real journey of life”

His Holiness Sivarama Swami is a senior monk and spiritual teacher of the devotional path (Bhaktiyoga), a 5000 year old spiritual tradition emerging from ancient India. He is the author of over 15 books which elucidate the teachings of Bhakti further and is the inspirer behind the world-renowned Krishna Valley community in Hungary; a self-sustained eco-village founded on the principles of ‘simple living & high thinking’.

Born Peter Letai, to an upper-class Jewish family in Budapest in 1949, his family emigrated to Canada during the failed Hungarian revolution. Despite attaining an Engineering degree with colourful prospects of a successful career, providence changed when he came in touch with the five thousand year old text, Bhagavad-Gita As it is, an ancient manual enlisting practical answers to the universal questions of life.

In 1973, Sivarama Swami found and accepted his guru A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Committing himself to the basic practises of the Bhagavad-Gita, Sivarama Swami renounced his former material ambitions with a dedicated venture for conscious living. He moved into the society’s temple in Montreal, shaved his head, adorned the robes of monk and committed to the sacred relationship of initiation (diksha), the eternal bond between student and teacher.