HH Bhakti Ananda Goswami: Inter-Religious and Interdisciplinary Study, Practice and Ministry
HH Bhakti Ananda Goswami: Inter-Religious and Interdisciplinary Study, Practice and Ministry
HH Bhakti Ananda Goswami: Inter-Religious and Interdisciplinary Study, Practice and Ministry
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Thus, as a practitioner of bhakti yoga, and as an historian of religion and theologian, he has focused on the worship
and study of historically related, Nama-Rupa Bhakti Yoga Traditions for nearly forty years now. In his own
practice, he took his first public solemn vows of religious life thirty years ago. Continuing his sadhana as both a
Catholic and a Vaishnava, after his children were adults, he eventually he took the traditional Vaishnava vows of
vanaprastha (a retired hermit forest-dweller) and finally the vows of a sannyasi. His traditional Vedic Agni Hotra
fire sacrifice and sannyasi ordination ceremony was performed and his sannyasi name and titles confered upon him
from the Madhva-Gaudiya-Bhaktivedanta lineage of Vaishnavism, by His Holiness Tridandi Sannyasi Srila
Radhanatha Swami of Mumbai, India. Bhakti Ananda Goswami has been a sannyasi for 10 years now, and although
he is connected by lineage to the Gaudiya Sampradaya, he is not at present affiliated with any Gaudiya-related
institutions, except the World Vaishnava Association of Vrindavana India.
Rather that put his meager energies into the propagation of a single Vaishnava lineage, he has founded an
ecumenical association, with the goal of fostering global inter-Vaishnava and inter-Bhakti mutual respect and
ministerial cooperation. His long personal service in the social justice, human rights and human services fields has
given him a great burden on his heart for the real sufferings of humanity. So he is not an ivory-tower academic, but
instead, despite his disability, remains an activist involved in day-to day ministry to those in need.
When possible B.A. Goswami actually received The Holy Name through the traditional shiksha and diksha
devotional means. For example, in addition to his Catholic Baptism and Confirmation and private vows, and
Vaishnava vows of religious life, he received initiation into the mysteries of the recitation of the Japanese Pure Land
Buddhist Nembutsu in the inner sanctum of the High Altar of the Asakusa Kannon Temple in Tokyo Japan. He
received the 99 Names of Allah from Sufi Master Mohammad P. Casim in Sri Lanka. He received the mantra of
Amitabha Buddha as the Tibetan Chen Rei Zei at Svayambhunatha near Kathmandu Nepal, and Namo Shivayah at
the compound of the Temple of Pashupatinatha in Kathmandu Nepal. He prayed for empowerment to study the
Vedas in Pokhara Nepal, the traditional birth place of Srila Vyasadeva, and he prayed for Kaviraja Hanuman’s
poetic empowerment to describe the pastimes and glories of Lord Ramachandra at the Temple of Hanuman in
Ayodhya India.
Studying the sacred etymology of the Holy Name, and the revelatory symbology of the Rupa of the Lord and
Shekinah / Shakti, he learned to read ancient scriptures and inscriptions, to trace the origins, uses and diffusion of
religious words Deity Names, theophoric personal names and symbols through world religious history.
Thus renouncing every other desire in this world or the next, B. A. Goswami vowed to realize in his own embodied
life the words of the hymn ‘His Mercy is all that I am made of”, and to become a reconciling intercessor and
spiritual refuge of mercy for all fallen souls. Thus he confirmed himself in the service of Lord Balarama, the
Original Spiritual Master, Who as the Rig Vedic Purusha Yupa Dhvaja is the Self-Sacrificed Redeemer of every
cosmic manifestation. Realizing that it is impossible to get the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (or Sri Sri
Radha-Govinda), without first getting the mercy of Sri Nityananda Balarama ( or Lord Baladeva), he purposed to fix
himself eternally at the feet of Sri Baladeva, The Universal Messiah, Who is the Way, Truth and Life of all divine
endeavor. Knowing Sri Baladeva to be the Second Person of the Mediterranean, African, Semitic, Indic, Asian and
Amerindian Transcendent-Incarnating-Immanent Godhead / Trinity, B.A. Goswami vowed to glorify Him in His
infinite Nama and Rupa as the descending Savior of all vyuhas, lokas / worlds, beings and nations /’races’.
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Accepting Jesus Christ as Yahu-Bal Yupa Dhvaja Purusha
Raised as a non-denominational Protestant Christian, he studied the origins of Christianity in great depth, becoming
an expert on the proto-Catholic Heliopolitan Asyla Federations (Afro-Helleno-Semitic Vaishnava, Shaivite and
Shakti temple alliances) in the ancient Mediterranean Region. His deep understanding of these monotheistic bhakti
yoga asyla federations, their worship of the Seraphic Great Physician (Asclepius-Serapis-YahuBal Nahustan and
Balarama as Charaka), and their evolution into the Communion of Rites in Catholic Christianity, led him into a
profound appreciation of the historical UNITY of the many Polieus and Tyche related Rites of the Catholic
Apostolic traditions. Thus, as a Christian, he sought full communion with Jesus Purusha / Polieus in the present
unity of His Mystical Social Body, the Apostolic Catholic Communion of Rites. Initially following textual leads
regarding the Great Physician and related Purusha / Polieus traditions, he tied numerous ancient Polieus city
federations together and traced the worship of Purusha / Polieus as the Great Physician all the way to the Pure Land
Buddhist cult of the Ayur-vedic related Medicine Buddha Incarnation of Lokeshvara as Yakushi ji at Nara in Japan.
Bhakti Ananda Goswami does not initiate disciples, but unconditionally accepts any person he offers intercessory
prayer for. He lives an austere and simple life in an ancient forest, with centuries-old trees, lions, bear, deer and
other wild creatures visiting his hermitage. As a hermit, he spends most of his time in study, personal counseling
and ministry, teaching (via correspondence and phone) and intercessory prayer. He has never been interested in
having followers, has no self-promoting organization, has never accepted any guru-puja, and has never solicited or
personally accepted any monies for his services. Any unsolicited offerings sent to him have either been sent back, or
used through a non-profit all-volunteer organization in the service of others.
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Due to serious chronic illness, he is rarely able to receive guests, to travel or make public appearances. In recent
years due to the late effects of childhood polio, he has been cared for by his parents, son and daughter and their
spouses and children, or friends. Recently his daughter has been trying to build an internet web site to make his
extensive research on the global history of Salvific Bhakti (Divine Love and Grace) Traditions available to people of
good-will seeking unity world-wide. During his years of study, he accumulated over 150 volumes worth of research
on the ancient historical connections between the religious traditions of the East and West. However, due to his
disability, because he was forced to do his degree and later work on tape and in nearly illegible handwriting, this
body of research remains unorganized, untyped, not computerized and unpublished.
While still on his college-contracted independent study tour, he was invited by the former Prime Minister of Nepal,
the Right Honorable Nagendra Prasad Rijal, to sit on the Executive Committee of the World Hindu Organization,
under the Patronage of His Majesty King Birendra of Nepal. This he did, and worked on the Organization’s Nepal
International Zone of Peace and Nuclear Non-proliferation Non Governmental Organization platforms for the
United Nations. In Nepal and India, he again received the blessings and honor of serving Vaishnava, Shaivite,
Shakti, Sikh, Sufi and Buddhist Gurus and Saints, including the respected Vaishnava Leaders Dr. Rup Lal Batra,
and Dr. Acharya Prabhakar Mishra, who made him an Honorary International Coordinating Secretary of the
Universal Sanatana Dharma Foundation, and invited him to address the next Plenary Session of the World
Fellowship of Religions in India, as the Keynote Speaker.
Regrettably due to illness B. A.Goswami was unable to accept these, or hundreds of other invitations or
opportunities for service. With great physical austerity, he did. however successfully complete his college
independent field-study contract, which had the duo-focus of interdisciplinary field studies in the history of religion,
and in the applied theology of religious social organization, social justice, human rights and human services. This
exhaustive project was undertaken for his B.A. degree, and it was recognized by the faculty of his college, that he
was already doing graduate level work when he started his B.A. program. Considered intellectually gifted, he was
in a special university program for geniuses, doing college-level research in his high school days. The son and part-
time assistant to a research electrobiophysicist father and a mother with a M.A. degree in education, he was blessed
with an excellent education, and a background in science and research.
After a unique and successful college career, during which he received a 4.0 grade average, scholarships and the
respect and praise of faculty for designing and fulfilling an interdisciplinary curriculum contract in inter-bhakti
studies, he successfully completed the oral presentation of his interdisciplinary extended (two year) master’s degree
in the history of religion, comparative religion and theology. However, he was hospitalized on a respirator before
he could complete the publication of his thesis and obtain his degree. Subsequently disabled and physically isolated
by illness, Bhakti Ananda Goswami has not been able to publish his work, and has had few practical opportunities to
widely distribute his knowledge. On only several occasions in the last ten years has he been able to speak publicly
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on his discoveries. In 1993, as co-founder of the academic Arcadian Institute, he was a Sponsor and Presenter at the
Centennial World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, USA. The next year he contributed a chapter on asceticism
in Catholic history to an important Catholic collection of essays on Catholic moral theology and ecology
( EMBRACING EARTH, Orbis Press.) His next major effort to get his historical discoveries out, took him to visit
with Vaishnava scholars in Berkeley California USA, where he was blessed as a Vaishnava Master to serve Sri
Subhadra Devi on Her chariot, during the most holy festival of Ratha Yatra. After that trip, he again became
incommunicado for some years, due to continued severe health problems.
Due to polio muscle exhaustion, after his demanding two week West Coast Tour, he lost his ability to produce a
voice for several months, and after months of physical therapy with a speech pathologist and voice therapist, only
miraculously regained some use of his vocal chords the very day that his East Coast tour began at the World
Association of Vedic Studies Conference in New Jersey USA. He was invited there to present two of his papers at
the WAVES conference, one on the general East-West Bhakti connections, and one more specifically focused on the
Egyptian Heliopolitan-related Bridal Mysticism connections between Radha-Krishna Vaishnavism and the
Mediterranean indigenous Vaishnava origins of Judeo-Catholic Tradition. Delivering his papers, he showed
indisputable evidence of connections between the Bridal Mysticism tradition of Radha and Krishna, and the pre-
historic inter-racial cult of Rhoda and Kouros on the Isle of Rhodes. Presenting his papers, he also showed abundant
interdisciplinary proof of direct connections between the Biblical Song of Songs Eli-Yahu and Shekinah Bridal
Mysticism Tradition, the pre-historic (emerging circa 3000 BC) worship of Helios and Rhoda on the Mediterranean
Isle of Rhodes, Egyptian Actis Heliopolitan Monotheism and the Eastern Worship of Hari-Vasu (Krishna-Vishnu)
and Radha-Shakti. In addition to all this, he gave further evidence of connection to both sattvic theistic Shaivism
and salvific Pure Land Buddhism.
After the conference, he visited with Vaishnava and other devotees in 5 states. His body was so exhausted after this
two weeks, that when he was delayed in the air on the way home, unable to land for hours due to a severe storm,
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upon landing, he was removed from the plane by medics. He was kept in the airport first-aid station for hours, while
a decision was reached by the authorities, whether to let him get back on a plane, or to send him to a hospital. By
the Lord’s Mercy, after several hours on oxygen monitoring, he recovered enough to continue the journey home,
where his daughter was waiting to take care of him. Having suffered oxygen deprivation and serious circulatory
problems on this trip, which required months to recover from, B. A. Swami is now reluctant to attempt any more
trips. Therefore it is unlikely that he will be able to attend the upcoming World Vaishnava Association, World
Council of Elders, World Association for Vedic Studies, or any other scholastic or religious events. He is also no
longer able to do radio programs, or much counseling over the phone. Due to intermittent oxygen deprivation, he
also suffers from failing eyesight and periodic central vision loss. This has recently necessitated his withdrawal
from participation in various kinds of visual communication on the internet. However he does hope, by the grace of
God Ess, and Their devotees, to continue to be of some personal service to the many individuals he counsels and
prays for on a daily basis.