Danavir Goswami
Danavir Goswami (Dr. Dane Holtzman) was born in Los Angeles in 1949. He studied sociology and economics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). While there he excelled in athletics and was selected the Most Valuable Player of 1970 (indoor volleyball) by the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and won the international 2-man beach volleyball tournament at Santa Cruz.
On June 11, 1970, he met His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and received initiation from him in February of 1971. Later that year, he was appointed temple president of the Portland, Oregon branch of ISKCON. Then he became the national sales manager for ISKCON’s Spiritual Sky Scented Products Company, until he was asked to institute the world’s first Bhakta Program in October of 1974 at the Los Angeles temple. Under the direction of Srila Prabhupada, Danavir Goswami proceeded to inaugurate Bhakta Programs elsewhere in America, Europe, Africa, India, etc. Presently this comprehensive educational system for new devotees is standard throughout ISKCON.
In 1980, Danavir Goswami inaugurated Friends of Lord Krishna (FOLK), a lay congregational network in the UK, likely the Society’s first. Thereafter he became director of ISKCON Scotland, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, Holland and Belgium. In 1987 he was elected to ISKCON’s thirty-man world Governing Body Commission and authorized as an initiating spiritual master.
In 1989 he returned to America to co-direct KrishnaFest, a national traveling Vedic cultural festival which included music, lectures and multimedia theater. In the 1990’s he commissioned the establishment of a permanent center in Osafia, Israel to teach Israeli Druze about Krishna consciousness. He has earned the Bhakti-sastri and Bhakti-vaibhava degrees from ISKCON and his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Vaisnava Philosophy and Vaisnava Administration in 1996 from the Florida Vedic College. Danavir Goswami has taught courses in five major universities, lectured at over 100 colleges and many diverse religious institutions, and appeared on numerous TV and radio talk shows.
Danavir Goswami is an extremely prolific writer and has contributed greatly to the cause of spreading Krishna Consciousness through the books he has both authored and edited.
He currently serves as inaugural president of Rupanuga Vedic College (RVC) in Kansas City, Missouri.