Mahavishnu Goswami

His Holiness Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj was born in the outskirts of Mumbai in 1920.  Highly educated, with M.A degrees in both English and Sanskrit, Maharaj is effectively multilingual in Marathi, Hindi, Gujerati, Urdu, Sanskrit and English. Since childhood, Maharaj was always filled with a burning desire to understand the Vaishnava traditions and practices he grew up with in his village. Lord Krishna responded to Maharaj's devotional service when one morning along Oxford Street London, Maharaj, as a householder chanced upon a group of Hare Krishna devotees chanting and dancing. Maharaj first took darshan of Prabhupada in 1973 when, as President of the London Gujerati Community Society. Maharaja enter in to vanaprastha life in 1980, where he took up residence in ISKCON Soho Street Temple, London, and received initiation in 1981, as "Mahavishnu Das Vanachari". In 1991, Maharaj accepted his second initiation and the renounced order of life (sannyasa) from H.H Sivaram Swami.