About 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.

He is the author of Fortunate Souls, His Divine Grace, Change of Heart, Vedic Cosmology, RVC
Prospectus, Vedic Cosmology, If Attacked, I'll Chant Hare Krishna, Bright Side - The Ultimate System of Self
Improvement, and co-author/editor of Vedic Paradigm, Diksa Diksa, Poison Antidote, Uttama Sloka, If Attacked
I'll Chant Hare Krishna, Pocket Temple Song Book, and seven volumes of Vaisnava Society Journal.

He currently serves as ISKCON's Global Director of Monastic Recruitment and Education as well as inaugural
president of Rupanuga Vedic College (RVC) in Kansas City, Missouri.