Radhanath Swami

Radhanath Swami (born 7 December 1950) is an American Hindu Gaudiya Vaishnava guru, community-builder, activist, and author.

He has been a Bhakti Yoga practitioner and a spiritual teacher for more than 50 years.

He is the inspiration behind ISKCON's free midday meal for 1.2 million school kids across India, and he has been instrumental in founding the Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai.

He works largely from Mumbai and travels extensively throughout Europe and America.

In the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), he serves as a member of the Governing Body Commission.

Steven J. Rosen described Radhanath Swami as a "saintly person respected by the mass of ISKCON devotees today."

Richard Slavin (Yiddish: ריטשארד סלאווין) was born on 7 December 1950 in Chicago to Idelle and Gerald Slavin, children of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.

He is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

In 1955, he and his family moved to a suburb of Chicago – Highland Park.

In 1958, his father opened a dealership selling Edsel cars, which did not succeed; however, the car repair shop launched thereafter was quite successful.

Despite being well off, at age 15 Richard chose to work, hoping to contribute to his family.

As a child, Richard showed a tendency that he later called "the traces of my past lives".

He did not prefer eating at the table, but seated on the floor, as is customary in India.

When his parents forbade him to do so, he began to eat at the table standing.

He hated the sight of meat and eggs, nauseated at their sight, and often vomited after eating meat, something that took him several years to get accustomed to.

From an early age, Richard realized that the materialistic way of life would never satisfy him, and was attracted by poverty and simplicity.

Although his parents were not religious, Richard developed an interest in religion and spiritual themes from his early years.

At age 13, he passed the rite of bar mitzvah (a Jewish coming of age ritual) and received instructions from the local rabbi about how to pray.

In 1965, Richard entered Deerfield High School, where he excelled in his studies and made many friends.

He was passionate about wrestling, ending up on his school's team and won majority of fights.

However, on dislocating his shoulder in a major competition, he decided to quit the sport.

In his spare time, along with a couple of friends, he washed cars.

Dissatisfied with the conditions of African Americans and opposing the Vietnam War, he embraced the ideologies of Martin Luther King.

The death of one of his close friends (aged 16) in a car accident made Richard think seriously about the meaning of life.

At the same time, following the example of some of his peers, he plunged into the hippie counterculture.

Keen to understand the meaning of life, he grew his hair and started smoking.

In the summer of 1968, a sense of adventure led him to hitchhike journey to California., where he spent the nights on the beaches and visited the then-hippie mecca of Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco.

In 1969, Richard enrolled in Miami Dade College, where, in search of spiritual experience, he resorted to books on religion and philosophy.

Disillusioned with the materialistic values of Americans, Richard studied hard in college.

He questioned the "goodness of American life" in which he'd been taught to believe.

After reading several books on Eastern spirituality, he began to practice meditation.

On listening to a lecture on transcendental meditation, he chanted the sacred syllable "Om" with greater conviction.

While this practice did not satisfy him, it helped him realize the need to find a bona fide guru.

In the summer of 1970, after the end of his first year in college, Richard attended a rock festival on Randalls Island that included performances by Jimi Hendrix and other famous musicians and bands of the time.

There, Richard met the Hare Krishnas, who gave him a pamphlet with photos of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

That summer, Richard dropped out of college and along with a couple of friends, embarked on a trip to Europe.

Richard travelled to Europe with his childhood friend Gary Liss.

Penniless, they stayed with anyone who would take them in, and often survived on just bread and cheese.

On his 13th birthday, his elder brother Marty gifted him the debut album of folk-singing trio Peter, Paul and Mary.

who in their compositions opposed war and social injustice, but Richard was particularly impressed by their compositions about God.