Suhotra Swami

__NOTOC__ Suhotra Swami or Suhotra Dasa, (born Roger Terrence Crowley, December 11, 1950, Holyoke, Massachusetts - April 8, 2007, Mayapur, India) was a Hindu Vaishnava author, philosopher and a leading guru in the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He was a governing body commissioner (GBC), an initiating spiritual master (diksa guru) and a sannyasi in ISKCON. He also served as a chairman of the GBC. Since joining ISKCON Suhotra Swami has spent much of his time lecturing and teaching in Europe, especially in Germany and Eastern European contries. Suhotra Swami authored several books on Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy and Vedanta.

Biography

Suhotra Swami was born as Roger Terrence Crowley in Holyoke, Massachusetts. In his youth, he joined the Hippie movement in Detroit and later the Hare Krishna movement. In 1972 he became a disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, receiving the name Suhotra Dasa. In the 1970s he was a part of a travelling troupe of Hare Krishnas, who were preaching all over the United States, performing kirtans on the streets and distributing spiritual literature. In 1974 Suhotra Dasa was interviewed in Huston by a reporter of the Texas Monthly magazine, who visited the local ISKCON Radha Krishna temple. When asked AbOUT an Indian guru Maharaj Ji, who was visiting Huston at the time, Suhotra Dasa said that Maharaj Ji's methods were not authorized in the Bhagavad Gita, the basic Hindu spiritual text,

In 1983 Suhotra Dasa accepted the order of sannyasa. In 1991 he became a member of ISKCON's Governing Body Commission (GBC). For the next decade, he was a leader of ISKCON in several European contries: Norway, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. In 1996 he was elected GBC Chairman. Since March 2003 he was also a member of Shastric Advisory Council (SAC), formed by GBC.

In 1991 Suhotra Swami wrote his first book Apasampradayas - Deviant Vaisnava Sects. It was about Gaudiya Vaishnava Apasampradayas that developed in between the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Bhaktivinoda Thakur. In the book he also explained how Bhaktivinoda was preaching against them. Suhotra Swami was also a contributer to the ISKCON Communications Journal.

Suhotra Swami passed away on April 7, 2007, in Mayapur, West Bengal. Kimmo Ketola, one of the most prominent scholars in Finland in the field of comparative religion, said of him:

Bibliography

  • Suhotra Swami Apasampradāyas: Deviant Vaiṣṇava Sects. — 1st ed. — 1991.
  • Suhotra Swami Substance and Shadow: The Vedic Method of Knowledge. — 1st ed. — Zürich: Govinda-Verlag, 1996. — 351 p. — ISBN 3906347354
  • Suhotra Swami Substance and Shadow: The Vedic Method of Knowledge. — 2nd ed. — Zürich: Govinda-Verlag, 1998. — 309 p. — ISBN 3906347370
  • Suhotra Swami & Hridayananda Dasa Goswami Our Original Position: Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Vaiṣṇava Siddhānta. — 1st ed. — The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1996. — 275 p.
  • Suhotra Swami Ṣaḍ-darśanam: The Six Systems of Vedic Philosophies. — 1st ed. — Bhaktivedanta Academy, 1997. — 210 p.
  • Suhotra Swami Transcendental Personalism: Vedic Answers for the Human Situation. — 1st ed. — Zürich: Govinda-Verlag, 1998. — 172 p. — ISBN 3906347389
  • Suhotra Swami Dimension of Good and Evil: The Moral Universe and Vaiṣṇava Philosophy. — 1st ed. — Helsinki: Jani Koivuniemi, 2000. — 336 p. — ISBN 9529118317
  • Suhotra Swami Vedānta Psychology: India's Ancient Wisdom of the Mind. — 1st ed. — Bhaktivedanta Academy, 2007. — 156 p. — ISBN 9529210930
  • Suhotra Swami Gaudiya Cosmotheism // Danavir Goswami Bhu-gola Tattva: Science of the Round Earth. — BPR Publishers, 2007. — pp. 189–326. — ISBN 1934405035

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