Bhakti Caitanya Swami

Bhakti Chaitanya Swami (born 14 August 1951 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a Gaudiya Vaishnava Swami and a religious leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (also known as the Hare Krishna movement or ISKCON). He is a member of the Governing Body Commission and is the leader of ISKCON in South Africa, the Baltic states and Russia. Bhakti Chaitanya Swami was born as Richard Naismith on 14 August 1951 in Auckland, New Zealand.

In 1972 he first met ISKCON's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in Auckland University. A year later he joined ISKCON in London and received initiation from Swami Prabhupada, who gave him a sanskrit name Raghubhir Dasa. Bhakti Caitanya Swami is closely associated with the educational programs of ISKCON and teaches courses at the Vaisnava Institute for Higher Education in Vrindavana. In 1994, during the Gaura Purnima Festival, he took the renounced order of sannyasa from Giriraja Swami and received the name Bhakti Caitanya Swami. Later he became a member of the Governing Body Commission and ISKCON Guru.
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