His Holiness Mahavishnu
Goswami Maharaj was born in the outskirts of Mumbai in 1920 on the
auspicious day of Dattatreya Purnima in the month of Marga Sirsha.
He appeared in a family of Vaishnavas since 8 generations. Aged 84,
he is the most elderly sannyasi in ISCKON today. Highly educated,
with M.A degrees in both English and Sanskrit, Maharaj is
effectively multilingual in Marathi, Hindi, Gujerati (his native
tongue), Urdu, Sanskrit and English. Since childhood, Maharaj was
always filled with a burning desire to understand the Vaishnava
traditions and practices he grew up with in his village. Lord
Krishna responded to Maharaj's devotional service when one morning
along Oxford Street London, Maharaj, as a householder chanced upon
a group of Hare Krishna devotees chanting and dancing in the busy
street intersection. Maharaj first took darshan of Prabhupada in
1973 when, as President of the London Gujerati Community Society,
he invited Prabhupada to be guest-of-honour at the society's annual
function. Maharaj enshrined Srila Prabhupada's instructions in his
heart, fulfilled all his family affairs very responsibly and the
Lord made all the arrangements for him to enter retired
(vanaprastha) life in 1980, where he took up residence in ISKCON
Soho Street Temple, London, and received initiation in 1981, as
"Mahavishnu Das Vanachari". In 1991, Maharaj accepted his second
initiation and the renounced order of life (sannyasa) on the
auspicious appearance day of Lord Narasimha from H.H Sivaram Swami.
In 1996, Maharaj took another significant step in his preaching
efforts when he arrived in the Holy Dham of Dwaraka and in 2003,
ISKCON's 1st temple made completely in stone and in accordance with
our ancient Vedic heritage was completed amidst great celebrations.
Despite his advanced age, his frail health, and his hectic
preaching tours and powerful and pure preaching, Maharaj is still
accessible to everyone. To many devotees around the world, whether
they are his disciples or not, Maharaj is still the kind loving
spiritual father that we all can turn to inspire us in our moments
of spiritual struggle, and guide us in this age of quarrel and
strife.
Visit Website
