Radio Mayapur Podcasts

Harilila Das is Divisional Head of Mayapur Hospital and ISKCON Mayapur Development services Member of Masterplan Team. The Podcast thoroughly explains the history and future plans for the Sri Mayapur Community Hospital.

Jagadish Das is originally from Russia. But at a young age, his Jewish family moved to Israel, where he grew up and eventually was influenced by meeting Vaishnava devotees. Over time, Jagadish found his way to Mayapur, West Bengal, India, where he settled in with his wife and children. Prabhu is very active in the Mayapur Russian Hare Krishna community of devotees, which can be over six hundred Russian devotees during peak seasons. He can teach the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is and Srimad Bhagavatam in numerous languages, including Russian, Hebrew, English, and Bengali. Jagadish has been in Mayapur for many years. He is respected for his family and community leadership and his example of living a life of Vaishnava ideals.

Please visit skcswami.com, lok.studio, or padayatra.com to learn more about the programs with Sri Krishna Chaitanya Swami.Sri Krishna Chaitanya Swami was born in New York City, USA, in 1965, the same year that Srila Prabhupada came to New York (Haribol!). This year, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Swami is celebrating 31 years as a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). From 1991 to 1992, he traveled on a pilgrimage on Padayatra through Holland, Belgium, France, and Spain. In 1992, during a meeting in Spain with his spiritual master, His Holiness Lokanath Swami, he was instructed to go to India. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Swami traveled with Lokanath Swami as his secretary for twelve years. In 1996, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Swami was elected as an ISKCON General Body Commission Deputy. In 2006, he was appointed as secretary of the ISKCON Kirtan Ministry. In 2023, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Swami was elected as GBC Kirtan Minister and GBC Padayatra Minister. His services include coordinating ISKCON’s Annual International World Holy Name Festival for 25 years. He is one of the founding members of the Bhaktivedanta Band and performs at Youth Festivals worldwide. He is a well-known presenter and has traveled extensively to the USA, Canada, France, England, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Guyana, Trinidad, Mauritius, South Africa, Botswana, Russia, India, amongst other countries.

Jaya Krsna Das from a large family of ISKCON devotees originally from Kenya became an important producer and artist in the famous Bhaktivedanta Players at the Bhaktivedanta Manor outside of London. A family man, a lifetime of devotion to Krishna and Srila Prabhupada, Jaya Krsna has lectured on Krishna Consciousness all over the world.

Tamal Krishna Kripa Das, a local Mayapur graduate of the ISKCON gurukula and the Mayapur Institute with degrees in Bhakti-Sastri and Bhaktivaibhava, is a Vedic yajna priest and devotional leader. Ganga Das from Radio Mayapur discusses with Tamal Krishna Kripa his growing up both in Israel and here in Mayapur and the good times he had in gurukula.

Amedeo DeSantis is an acclaimed Italian mountain guide, world traveller, a visitor to Mayapur and an old friend of Ganga Das, our Radio Mayapur podcast manager. Amedeo and Ganga both speak fluent Italian, and to make this interview with Amedeo easier, we did the entire podcast in Italian.

Navina Nirada Dasa joined ISKCON in 1984 in Zurich, Switzerland, at the age of 15 and soon became one of the world's top book distributors. He is a spiritual entrepreneur. Navina Nirada travelled the globe more than twenty times and served as ISKCON Minister of Book Distribution. Since 1996, he has been part of a team who successfully taught thousands of devotees courses on outreach and leadership. He built and directs Vaishnava Academy, an adult education facility in Mayapur and earned his Bhaktivedanta degree from Mayapur Institute. He currently oversees a spiritual centre in the heart of San Francisco. Navina Nirada delivers seminars and guides individuals through his experience from nearly four decades of practice. He still regularly distributes books. Currently, he is on an appreciation tour, visiting friends and mentors.

Hari Sauri was born in England on November 17th 1950. In May 1971, he emigrated to Australia, where he met the members of the newly emerging Krishna Consciousness movement on the second day of his arrival. He was duly accepted as an initiated disciple by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in Sydney on April 9th, 1972.In August 1975, he moved to the newly opened ISKCON Krishna Balarama temple in Vrndavan, U.P. India, where he served as temple commander. In November of the same year, he joined A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada’s personal entourage, remaining as His Divine Grace’s servant for 16 months. In March of 1977, Srila Prabhupada appointed him ISKCON’s Governing Body Commissioner for Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, a service he performed for over 7 years. During that period, he oversaw the growth of the ISKCON society in the South Seas from 4 temples and ashrams to 17, including 4 farming communities, 2 schools and several restaurants. He was also instrumental in establishing branches of theBhaktivedanta Book Trust in Australia and Indonesia.In 1986, he began transforming the diary he kept while travelling with Srila Prabhupada into a book or a series of books. In 1990, he moved to America and worked for a year as a publisher for Back To Godhead magazine, the Krishna consciousness movement’s spiritual periodical.He lives at ISKCON World Head Quarters, in Mayapur W.B. India, near Kolkata, with his wife and daughter, where he continues to publish his memories of being with Srila Prabhupada. He is currently the director of the Bhaktivedanta Research Center in Kolkata, an academic resource of Gaudiya Vaisnavism and an ancient Vaisnava text archive library. These ancient texts are being both digitized and preserved in their original state.

Bhagavatamrita Das is originally from a conservative religious family in Brazil, South America. Somehow through divine intervention, he found his way to a path of Bhakti Yoga which his family embraced. This set him on a lifelong quest to serve his guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and be a responsible person within the devotee community. Today more than fifty years later, Bhagavatamrita has been one of the longest residences in Sri Mayapur West Bengal, the international headquarters for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Bhagavatamrita is a community social leader, teacher and counsellor to the local devotees and serves our devotee community with distinction and honour.

Tulasi Das is originally from Bulgaria. This is his story of how someone from an ordinary background develops a love of yoga, a desire for simple living, and high thinking. He has been a devotee of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness for twenty years. Tulasi liked being with the Hare Krishna devotees when he was a young man. He overcame his parents' doubts of being with the devotees and visiting the temple. Eventually, Tulasi forged a good relationship with his parents as he left home to become a full-time devotee of ISKCON. Tulasi would become an expert in the sales of the books of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, and he has studied Bhakti Yoga philosophy extensively at the Mayapur Institute. Tulasi is now a teacher and foremost exponent of Vaishnava teachings.

As a young man, Joe from Philadelphia met his best friend on the streets of Philly more than forty years ago. He was taken aback that his best friend had shaved his head and was giving him a book on reincarnation. Now coming up a half-century later, Joe has been Jivanath Das, a Vaishnava Brahman in ISKCON, for a long time. He is an exciting and inspirational leader here in Mayapur for kirtan, preaching, and the Harinam (public singing of the Hare Krishna mantra) team on the streets of Mayapur. Ganga Das sat with Jivanath for an hour of enlivening conversation in the Radio Mayapur studio.

Born in New Jersey, USA, in 1947, HH Candramauli Swami came in contact with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Denver, Colorado, at the age of 24. In 1973 he began practicing Krishna Consciousness in New York City and shortly thereafter began serving at the New Vrindavan farm comunity in West Virginia. That same year he received initiation from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.In 1986 HH Candramauli Swami accepted the sannyasa order and began preaching in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. In the early 1980's he became involved with the ISKCON Prison Ministry in the USA and began visiting prisoners and holding programs in jails, along with regularly writing letters to inmates and sending them Srila Prabhupada's books.HH Candramauli Swami is now the leader of the ISKCON Prison Ministry and has worked tirelessly to document the spiritual progression of the world-wide inmate community. His dedication to the welfare, growth and sustainable rehabilitation of these prisoners has culminated in the book "Holy Jail", a touching compilation of the activities of the ISKCON Prison Ministry (IPM). In over thirty years of operation, the lives of hundreds of inmates have changed due to the practice of Krishna consciousness and the support received by devotees.In 1995 he began serving as the resident sannyasi in Chicago where he was based until 2013 when he relocated to Karlovac, Croatia. At present HH Candramauli Swami offers spiritual guidance around Europe, USA and India.HH Candramauli Swami is a disciple of ISKCON Founder Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and an initiating spiritual master within the ISKCON movement.

NrsimhaCaitanya Das from Melbourne, Australia is a credentialed sound engineer with a great background in performance venue sound engineering. Now visiting Mayapur for his Vaishnava education at the Mayapur Institute, he sat down with our podcast host Ganga Das for an interesting review of how one becomes a Bhakti Yogi.

Visvambhar is the lead singer of the internationally acclaimed group The Mayapuris, a headlining Kirtan group that has rocked stages from India to Florida, Australia to South Africa. From age 5, Vish has spent his life leading Kirtans in the Vaisnava tradition. He is a multi-instrumentalist, a master of the Mridanga drum, and performs in traditional and fusion styles. Vish started performing in the modern yoga studio culture in 2007. Since then, he has performed at countless studio gatherings and well-known spiritual venues like Bhaktifest, Omega Institute, Wanderlust, Beloved Festival, Floyd Festival, and many others. In addition to being a master percussionist, Vish plays many instruments – harmonium, bamboo flute, guitar, sitar, and bass. Vish is also an in-demand sideman and has toured with Kirtan pioneer Jai Uttal and is also a performing and recording artist with the renowned world-beat ensemble, The Hanumen. Vish has mastered his art and has a rare capacity to invoke the ‘rasa’ or the essence of the transcendental energies that define the Kirtan path.

Ganga Das from Radio Mayapur interviews Fabio Giudice from Italy, the internationally famous classical mandolin teacher, and performer. Giudice's life has been dedicated to the study of plucked instruments and he acquired a diploma in Mandolin at the Conservatory of L’Aquila with M° Fabio Menditto. He specialized as an executor of Mandoloncello (Liuto cantabile) and attended specialized courses with M° Ugo Orlandi in ancient instruments. Fabio Giudice has been rewarded as a soloist in many international musical contests, including the quartet Arte Mandolinistica and with Quartetto a Plettro Italiano. He collaborated in the past and he is at present a guitar and mandolin soloist with many orchestras such as: Accademia of Santa Cecilia, Opera Theatre of Rome, Musici of Montreal (Canada), The Solist of ORM -Losanna, Opera Theatre of Neuchatel (Switzerland), The Ensemble Contrechamps (Ginevra, CH), etc. He has also performed as a soloist in various orchestral formations in many countries throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Singapore, Tunisia, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.