H.D.G. Bhaktikavi Atulananda Acharya Swami (Gurudeva)

vande ‘ham atulanandam-
acaryam bhakti-bhushitam
vinatm hi mano-yasya
prajna-yuktam virajate

“I respectfully bow down to His Divine Grace Atulananda Acarya, who is adorned with devotion, and whose heart endowed with wisdom and shines with humbleness.”

radha-krishnarpitam tena
mano dattam supavanam
guruna prabhupadena
bhaktivedanta-svamina

“He gave his surrendered and well purified mind and heart to Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa through his spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda.”

Śrīla Bhaktikavi Atulānanda Ācārya Swami (1952-), disciple of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) has devoted his entire life to spreading the teachings of his guru. He is an initiated disciple of Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda and of his spiritual brother, Śrīla Bhakti-rakṣaka Śrīdhara Goswami Mahārāja.

He founded the Sarasvat Gaudiya Seva Congregation in Chile, with several branches inside and outside the country. Since the early 1990s, he has published his books, essays on bhakti-yoga, devotional poems, and poetic translations into Spanish of essential Vaishnavism books and songs. One of his main books in English is Bhagavad Gita: A Poem for the Soul (2018).

Being the son of a diplomat, he was born in Santiago de Chile but grew up in different countries. At age 15, he embraced haṭha-yoga while being in Belgium. Today he is a regular practitioner of yoga and the director of A.Y.A, the Adhyatma Yoga Association, which trains instructors, worldwide, on the path of recovering the original practice of haṭha-yoga as a path toward bhakti-yoga, whose cultivation is the primary goal of his mission Sarasvat Gaudiya Seva.

It was in 1976 when Prabhuji met in Chile his first master, H.D.G. Bhaktikavi Atulānanda Ācārya Swami, with whom he began the initial stage of his involutionary process. In those days, Gurudeva Atulānanda was a young brahmacārī who held the position of president of the ISKCON temple at Eyzaguirre 2404, Puente Alto, Santiago, Chile.

From the first moment he saw him, Prabhuji accepted him as his eternal spiritual master. When he told the devotees that he had the intention of asking initiation from Atulānanda, they informed him that the guru of the organization was Śrīla Prabhupāda. Even so, deep devotion and admiration for Atulānanda always remained in Prabhuji’s heart.

Years later, Prabhuji was accepted by him officially as his disciple and received first initiation and brāhmaṇa initiation. Finally, he was initiated by him into the sacred order of renunciation called sannyāsa within the Brahma Gauḍīya Saṁpradāya. Being his first master, Gurudeva Atulānanda accompanied Prabhuji from his very adolescence and guided him in the initial stage of his retroprogressive process. line of disciplic succession. Prabhuji’s relationship with Gurudeva Atulānanda is very deep. From him he received the connection to Śrī Śrī Rādha and Kṛṣṇa, as well as to bhakti-yoga.