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Babaji Bob Kindler (b. 1950) is the Spiritual Director of SRV Associations, and guide and Guru to its body of devotees and students. A prolific author with many books on religion and philosophy, he is also a professional musician, recording artist, and editor in Chief for SRV's journal titled, Nectar of Nondual Truth.

Biography
Babaji Bob Kindler was born in 1950 near the city of Portland, Oregon. In the 1960's he attended grade school and high school in Portland, took up the cello with a famous teacher, Beverly LeBeck, and soon became the principle cellist of the prodigious Portland Youth Philharmonic. Winning scholarships and competitions took him to the East Coast and the classical music scene in Massachusetts, the Berkshires, and the Boston Symphony and then to Hawaii to perform with the Honalulu Symphony there under the direction of Robert LaMarchina. Prior to and during this period, around 1970, he read The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and began engaging in sadhana, and later, in Hawaii, met Lex Hixon who was a disciple of Swami Nikhilananda of the Vedanta Society of New York.

Lex acquainted Babaji with Swami Aseshananda of the Vedanta Society of Portland, and when Babaji returned to Portland to meet the swami, he received initiation, Mantra-diksha, from him. Both aforementioned swamis were initiated by Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, wife and spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna. While practicing and studying Vedanta and many of the darshanas of India, he and Lex Hixon were graced by His Holiness, the Karmapa, with personal initiation into the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, receiving both White and Green Tara mantras and practices.

Jai Ma Music
Babaji's emergence as an instructor of Indian philosophy (Sanatana Dharma) and spiritual guide for aspirants and seekers, occurred from 1980 onwards. An important part of this development was connected with his creation of Jai Ma Music in 1980, which he envisioned as a vehicle for introducing and transmitting Indian dharma, bhakti, and jnanam to the West. Jai Ma Music produced an extensive series of devotional wisdom music offerings on cassette and CD, and toured both the United States and parts of India through the 80's and 90's offering spiritual arts programs, sometimes accompanied by Lex Hixon reading from his new books, such as Great Swan. These inspiring programs consisted of the singing of bhajans, Sanskrit chanting, instrumental music in both Indian raga and Western classical styles, recitation of inspirational poetry from India, and even incorporated classical Indian dance into many appearances. Discourses on the inner meaning of Indian scripture and chanting were also given regularly by Babaji, evolving into the many discourses and lectures which today can be found on SRV's websites and on YouTube.

SRV Associations
In the late 1980's and early 1990's, Lex Hixon gathered together a group of American Vedantists from both the East and West Coasts to help formulate the Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda Association of America. The group acquired land with a temple in New York. With permission of the Association’s Board, Babaji started three independent SRV Associations on the West Coast and one in Hawaii, with the help of Bhavatarini Ma (Jocelyn Nielsen), Annapurna Sarada (Leigh Anne Gurtov), and his wife, Sarvamangala (Roseria Loke Cabanlit Kindler). Many students and seekers came forth to join this endeavor, taking initiation into the SRV fold and family. In this way did Jai Ma Music and the SRV Associations of the West fuse into a service oriented movement (SRV, serve) that today, three decades later, is still growing and opening the way for aspirants to find that rare peace of mind leading to enlightenment.

As Spiritual Director of the SRV Associations, founded in 1993, Babaji teaches Vedanta, the Four Yogas, Yoga Patanjala, Sankhya, Tantra, Buddhism and schools of Advaitic or non-dual standpoint via satsang, in-person and online classes, retreats and group pilgrimages to India. Of his many articles on spirituality and sadhana, several have appeared in the Ramakrishna Order's magazines, Prabuddha Bharata and Vedanta Kesari, and in SRV's own Nectar of Nondual Truth journal . For several decades, SRV's outreach has been dedicated to the service of God in mankind via spiritual knowledge including 20 years of teaching Vedanta and Yoga Psychology to inmates in Correctional Institutions.

The SRV work in general, based upon the lives of Sri Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi as the Ideals, on Swami Vivekananda as the superlative guide, and on the Ramakrishna Order as the best model for positive transformation on earth — all based in the highest thinking of Vedanta philosophy and the Universality of all religions — is, as SRV's motto states, "Setting the feet of humanity on the path of Universal Truth."

Discography
Recorded CD Discourse Sets