Gour Govinda Swami

Gour Govinda Swami (; 2 September 1929 - 9 February 1996) was a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious leader. He was a leading ISKCON guru, sannyasi, governing body commissioner within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (commonly known as the Hare Krishnas or ISKCON) and the main inspirational force behind Gopal Jiu Publications.
He was born in the village of Jagannathpur, District Jagatsinghpur Orissa, India as Braja-bandhu Manik. By the age of eight, Braja-bandhu had read the entire Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavata Purana and Sri Caitanya-caritamrta and could also explain their meanings. He was an author of many research papers and translated his guru's books into the Oriya language. Gour Govinda Maharaja has several sannyasa disciples in his line. Already at least one of them has become an initiating spiritual master himself, and others are said to be on the way. He had all of the potency of a pure devotee of the Lord. He worked steadily for guru, sadhu and sastra. Not only did he build one of the largest temples in the movement at the time by himself, he also brought other temples into the movement. He accepted hundreds of disciples, and thousands more wished to take initiation from him around the world. His classes are considered to be some of the highest and most realized within the movement, and devotees around the world still listen to them to this day.
He left his body in 1996 in Mayapur during a discussion on Lord Jagannath and is remembered in annual ISKCON festivals.

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