Brief Biography
HH Kavichandra Swami is a disciple of His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
Kavicandra Swami was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1947. He studied at Minnesota University and worked at several jobs. In 1967, in Tucson Arizona, he met devotees of Lord Krishna:
“It was when I pulled over at a red light that I saw a devotee singing alone with hand cymbals on the sidewalk. I was just attracted to his singing and didn’t notice that the light had turned to green until someone behind me beeped their horn. I wanted to see him again so badly that I drove back to the same spot, forgetting where I was heading for. And when I listened to the singing again and saw him filled with happiness, I just realized this was what I was looking for. My spiritual life began from a Harinama by just one devotee.”
Kavichandra Maharaja moved to Dallas, Texas, where there was a school in Krishna Consciousness for his three-year-old daughter. He also worked at the Spiritual Sky incense factory in Los Angeles. At nights he would go out and distribute books in addition to his work at the factory. He became more attached to Prabhupada’s books than to family life.
For some time he managed the Radha-Damodara group, a sankirtana group that was traveling by bus. By then he was known as a fanatic book distributor.
After that he went to Fiji for some time, where he preached with Upananda Das and performed Harinama, house programs and book distribution.
In November of 1981, he went to Japan and started book distribution and Harinama programs there. He did the first Christmas marathon by himself. He attracted many new devotees.
In 1982, Kavicandra Swami took sanyasa and was made the temple president of Tokyo.
In 1986, he went to Indonesia for the first time and was made GBC of Indonesia, and then of Singapore in 1989.
HH Kavicandra Swami has disciples all over the world and is the GBC of Cambodia, Cyprus, Greece, Japan, Laos, Vietnam and Israel, and is co-GBC of Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Rio Muni, Sierra Leone, Togo, Zaire, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.