User:Bindumadhava/Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Sankarshan Das Adhikari, was born on Nov. 7, 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a notable religious leader and initiating guru within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He received initiation in the tradition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism from A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada on the 12th of August in 1971.

History
Sankarshan Das Adhikari received instruction from Vishnujana Swami, also a disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He served ISKCON in various capacities from 1972 to 1982, including as an assistant to Tamal Krishna Goswami. He worked as a Computer Programmer from 1986-1990, was an award winning salesperson for MCI Telecom from 1991-1993. He started and maintained the ISKCON centre in Norman, Oklahoma, USA, in 1982-1984, reopened ISKCON Austin in 1991, and ran a successful home-based part-time travel business to support ISKCON Austin. He worked to bring the Back to Godhead magazine to print, and was #1 in the worldwide distribution of BTG magazine subscriptions. He was the Sales Manager for BTG magazine from 1991 to 1994. In December 2000, on Gita Jayanti day, the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON gave its blessings for Sankarshan Das to begin initiating disciples. In January 2004, he retired from business to become a full time preacher. .

The name Sankarshana is another name of Balarama brother of Krishna, literally means "one who attracts away unhappiness or illness and guides one to the level of equanimity". The name is a combination of the Sanskrit words "Samyak" and "Karshan". Sankarshan Das Adhikari is a servant of that personality of Vishnu. According to the Vaishnava Calendar, Sankarshan Das Adhikari was born on the tenth day of the sacred month of Kartik. Sankarshan Das Adhikari was formally initiated into Krishna Consciousness in 1971, and was a Brahmachari until 1985, Grihastha, or householder, married to Vishnupriya Devi Dasi in 1985. His present status is Vanaprastha or retirement from married life, even though his wife travels with him on his world travels.

Internet preaching
Sankarshan Das Adhikari runs a popular e-course on Bhagavad Gita and a daily Thought for the day email newsletter featuring realizations, scriptural references, and a candid Q&A, written on the road or from various places around the world with over 9,000 subscribers worldwide from over 100 countries. He travels year-round to places in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, making many stopovers and detours along the way as is necessary for preaching. His home base is the ISKCON Austin Centre, which he returns to between world preaching tours. With over 50 initiated disciples worldwide, Sankarshan Das Adhikari continues to provide spiritual guidance and practical advice on becoming fully God conscious.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari is well-known in the Krishna Consciousness and other communities worldwide for being an "Internet Guru", meaning that he has innovated a way of attracting, cultivating, maintaining, guiding, counseling, and communicating regularly with his formally initiated disciples, informal students, and other seekers of knowledge around the world in a very personal manner, but relying very heavily on the Internet. This is in line with a basic principle that a spiritual master must present the original teachings of Krishna in an unadulterated fashion and taking into account time, place, circumstance, and that everything used in connection with and in the service of Krishna becomes non-material and ceases to be a cause for bondage.

Music career
Before joining ISKCON, he was a counter-cultural singer-songwriter searching for spiritual enlightenment and a message that could deliver the world from chaos. In the past, Sankarshan Das has produced an album "From Hare Krishna with Love". In 1969, he performed at the a Golden Gate Park concert along with the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airline, two very influential rock band of the counter-cultural era. As a songwriter, he wrote over 300 songs that were described as Dylanesque (after the style of Bob Dylan) minus the cynicism.

Vishnupriya Dasi
On October 3, 2008, Vishnupriya Dasi, a notable ISKCON religious leader and wife of Sankarshan Das Adhikaria, had a brain hemorrhage while leading religious services at the ISKCON temple in Copenhagen, Denmark. As of July 2009, Vishnupriya Devi Dasi has recovered and is enthusiastically engaged in her service to Sri-Sri Radha-Damodar, traveling and preaching with her husband Sankarshan Das Adhikari.