Sri Srila
Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja

His Divine Grace Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja Gurudeva appeared in this world on the 2nd of September 1929, in the town of Jagannatha-pura, in the state of Orissa, India. He appeared in a Vaisnava family and both his mother's and father's families were Vaisnavas for many hundreds of years dating back to the time of Syamananda Pandit. His divine appearance in this world is by no means the appearance of any ordinary being. He appeared in this world only to fulfil the order of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu "the golden avatar". He spent his whole life preaching the "Absolute consideratio tattva-vicara and uncompromisingly preached out against apahata-vicara the apparent consideration.

His Divine Grace Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja is a disciple of the Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. By Krsna's arrangement, they met in the transcendental land of Vrndavana in 1974.

His Divine Grace spent many years travelling the world preaching (acarya-lila). His travels took him to Europe. America, Canada, Africa, Mauritius, Australia, Asia and of course he preached vigorously in the sub-continent of India especially in the state of Orissa where he established very wonderful temples-the Sri Sri Krsna- Balarama temple, the Sri Sri Radha - Gopinatha temple and the Sri Sri Radha- Gopal Jiu temple.

His Divine Grace was expert in the sastras and he was able to dispel all the doubts of those who came to him for shelter and spiritual guidance. He would place great stress on the offenceless chanting of the holy name, encouraging all to achieve the pure state of chanting prema-nama - premanama-sankirtana. He would always say, "chant without offence, chant the pure name, get krsna-prema and get Krsna in this very life!"

One of the main aspects of His Divine Grace's preaching was that he revealed the inner most secrets of Puri - Bhubaneswar Dhama, of Lord Jagannatha and why Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu stayed in Puri. His Divine Grace gave the most subtle, lucid understanding of the Lord's pastimes in Jagannatha Puri.

His Divine Grace left this world on February 9th, 1996, in the holy land of Mahaprabhu's appearance, Mayapura dhama. That day was the holy appearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. His Divine Grace left behind a veritable storehouse of knowledge of the Absolute Truth. All his words have been recorded and are available on tape and also in video and book form.