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.”

Srila Bhaktikavi Atulananda Acharya Swami (1952-), disciple of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) has devoted himself entirely to propagating the mission of his master, for which he founded in Chile, together with his collaborators, the Sarasvat Gaudiya Seva Congregation, with 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 is 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 yoga in Belgium. Today he is a regular practitioner of yoga and director of A.Y.A, his Adhyatma Yoga Association, which trains instructors, worldwide, on the path of recovering the original practice of yoga as a path towards Bhakti yoga, whose cultivation is the primary goal of his mission Sarasvat Gaudiya Seva.

Bhaktikavi Atulānanda Atulananda Acharya Swami favors a presentation of the Vedas in verse to direct his audience toward this transcendental knowledge and motivate them to deepen their studies through reading the masterpieces of his gurus, in particular H.D.G. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his spiritual brother, H.D.G. Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaja.

It was in 1976 that Prabhuji met His Divine Grace Bhaktikavi Atulānanda Ācārya Swami, at that time he was the temple president in Puente Alto, Santiago, Chile. From the first moment he saw him, Prabhuji accepted him in the heart as his eternal spiritual master. Years later, he was officially accepted as disciple and received first initiation and brāhmaṇa initiation. Finally, he initiated him into the sacred renounced order called sanyāsa within the line of disciplic succession Brahma Gauḍīya Saṁpradāya.