About
Danavir Goswami

Danavir Goswami
(Dr. Dane Holtzman) was born in Los Angeles in 1949. He studied
sociology and economics at the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA). While there he excelled in athletics and was selected the
Most Valuable Player of 1970 (indoor volleyball) by the National
Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and won the international
2-man beach volleyball tournament at Santa Cruz.
On
June 11, 1970, he met His Divine Grace A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and received initiation from
him in February of 1971. Later that year, he was appointed temple
president of the Portland, Oregon branch of ISKCON. Then he became
the national sales manager for ISKCON's Spiritual Sky Scented Products
Company, until he was asked to institute the world's first Bhakta
Program in October of 1974 at the Los Angeles temple. Under the
direction of Srila Prabhupada, Danavir Goswami proceeded to inaugurate
Bhakta Programs elsewhere in America, Europe, Africa, India, etc.
Presently this comprehensive educational system for new devotees
is standard throughout ISKCON.
In 1980, Danavir
Goswami inaugurated Friends of Lord Krishna (FOLK), a lay congregational
network in the UK, likely the Society's first. Thereafter he became
director of ISKCON Scotland, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Holland and
Belgium. In 1987 he was elected to ISKCON's thirty-man world Governing
Body Commission and authorized as an initiating spiritual master.
In
1989 he returned to America to co-direct KrishnaFest, a national
traveling Vedic cultural festival which included music, lectures
and multimedia theater. In the 1990's he commissioned the establishment
of a permanent center in Osafia, Israel to teach Israeli Druze about
Krishna consciousness. He has earned the Bhakti-sastri and Bhakti-vaibhava
degrees from ISKCON and his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Vaisnava
Philosophy and Vaisnava Administration in 1996 from the Florida
Vedic College. Danavir Goswami has taught courses in five major
universities, lectured at over 100 colleges and many diverse religious
institutions, and appeared on numerous TV and radio talk shows.
He is the author
of Fortunate Souls, His Divine Grace, Change of Heart, Vedic Cosmology,
RVC Prospectus, Vedic Cosmology, If Attacked, I'll Chant Hare Krishna,
Bright Side - The Ultimate System of Self Improvement, and co-author/editor
of Vedic Paradigm, Diksa Diksa, Poison Antidote, Uttama Sloka, If
Attacked I'll Chant Hare Krishna, Pocket Temple Song Book, and seven
volumes of Vaisnava Society Journal.
He currently
serves as ISKCON's Global Director of Monastic Recruitment and Education
as well as inaugural president of Rupanuga Vedic College (RVC) in
Kansas City, Missouri.
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