Bhakti Charu Swami
Legal name not yet confirmed
Bhakti Caru SwamiBhakticaru SwamiBCS
Deceased — Jul 4, 2020
- Sannyasa from A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Vrindavan, 29 May 1977
- 1977
- GBC member
- 1987
- Initiating guru
- 1987
- GBC Chairman
- 1989
- Co-GBC, later co-zonal secretary, for Mayapur and Calcutta (most years 1989–2020)
- 1989–2020
- GBC Chairman
- 2017
Enabled / protected · 1
Lokanath SwamiReinstated
Record summary
1 entry — 1 allegation.
Last reviewedBio
Bhakti Charu Swami was born in Bengal in 1945 and grew up in Calcutta. In 1970 he went to Germany to study chemistry and returned to India in 1975 (ISKCON News). He joined ISKCON in Mayapur in late 1976 and was given first and second initiation together at the Gaura Purnima festival in Mayapur in 1977 (GBC biography). On 29 May 1977, in Vrindavan, Prabhupada gave him sannyasa and the name Bhakti Charu Swami (transcript). He translated Prabhupada’s books into Bengali and travelled with him in the last months of his life (ISKCON News).
He was elected to ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission (GBC) in 1987 and became an initiating guru the same year. He was GBC chairman in 1989 and again in 2017, and for most of the years from 1989 to 2020 one of the GBC members responsible for Mayapur and Calcutta. From 1998 he took a two-year leave from his zones to produce Abhay Charan, a television serial on Prabhupada’s life (GBC 1998). In 2001 the GBC pledged its support to him “in his endeavor to raise US$10,000 per month towards the legal defense of North American ISKCON temples” (GBC 2001, res. 605). The resolution does not name a case; at the same meeting the GBC appointed Ravindra Svarupa dasa to deal with the Turley lawsuit, brought in the United States by former gurukula students (res. 616). He founded the ISKCON temple in Ujjain. ISKCON News described Kamlesh Krishna Das, nominated in 2016 as director of ISKCON’s Child Protection Office, as his disciple.
He died in Florida on 4 July 2020 of complications from COVID-19 (ISKCON News) and was buried in Mayapur (ISKCON News, last rites).
His legal name is not confirmed in the sources reviewed.
Sources (10)
- [1]ISKCON Governing Body Commission, Bhakti Caru Swami — GBC member biography: "He was then given first and second initiation in Mayapur during the Gaura Purnima festival of 1977"
- [2]ISKCON News, Beloved ISKCON Guru and GBC Member Bhakti Charu Swami Passes Away (Madhava Smullen), Jul 4, 2020
- [3]ISKCON News, Bhakti Charu Swami Last Rites Held As Offerings of Love Continue From Around the World — "upcoming samadhi ceremony in Mayapur, West Bengal, India", Jul 10, 2020
- [4]Vanisource, 770529 - Conversation B - Vrndavana — transcript of the sannyasa ceremony: "Tomāra nāma habe . . . Bhakti-caru Swami", May 29, 1977
- [5]ISKCON GBC, GBC Resolutions 1987 — res. 28: "The following new GBC men were elected: … g) Bhakti Caru Maharaj", 1987 · copy on this site
- [6]ISKCON GBC, GBC Resolutions 1989 — officer elections: "Chairman – Bhakti Caru Swami", 1989 · copy on this site
- [7]ISKCON GBC, GBC Resolutions 1998 — zonal assignments: "Two year leave of absence from zonal assignments. Assignment is 'Abhay Charan' video production.", 1998 · copy on this site
- [8]ISKCON GBC, GBC Resolutions 2001 — res. 605 · copy on this site
- [9]ISKCON GBC, GBC Resolutions 2017 — res. 101(1): "His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami is elected GBC Chairman.", 2017 · copy on this site
- [10]ISKCON News, ISKCON GBC Nominates New Child Protection Director — Kamlesh Krishna Das: "He is a disciple of H H Bhakti Charu Swami.", Nov 30, 2016
Record
1 entry · most established firstBacking Lokanath Swami's return to initiating (2011–2012)
In 2010 the girl Lokanath Swami had touched in 1990, when she was eleven, posted a fuller account online, and the GBC reviewed the case again. At the GBC's October 2011 meeting, letters supporting Lokanath Swami were read, Bhakti Charu Swami's among them ("Bcs also"). In February 2012 he was the first-named sponsor of the proposal "Lokanath Swami Continuing to Initiate", which called the incident "the sole blemish over his career" and let him resume initiating, at first in the Indian subcontinent and "low key", "so as to not overly attract public attention". The GBC passed it as Resolution 502 and did not publish it. In 2017, the year he chaired the GBC, all its remaining requirements were lifted.
October 2011. The GBC’s notes of its October 2011 mid-term meeting (Appendix G of the case panel’s appendices, p. 37) record the Lokanath Swami discussion. After Sesa dasa read a proposal, the note reads: “srs’s letter of support read. Bcs also. Bvs also. Bvg.” The GBC’s own list of its members abbreviates Bhakti Charu Swami as “BCS” (gbc-2019-abbr). The note does not quote his letter.
February 2012. At the Annual General Meeting in Mayapur the GBC discussed a proposal titled “Lokanath Swami Continuing to Initiate”, proposed by the GBC Special Issues Committee. The text (Appendix K, pp. 58–59) lists as sponsors: “Bhakti Caru Swami, Bir Krishna Goswami, Kavicandra Swami, Anuttama das, Devakinandana das, Dina Sarana devi dasi, Malati devi dasi, Sesa das, Tamohara das, Virabahu das”. It says:
“Whereas, Lokanath Swami has otherwise maintained an exemplary record over the last 40 years, and has contributed substantially to ISKCON’s preaching effort and this incident has been the sole blemish over his career.”
It also records that Lokanath Swami had stopped giving prospective disciples the letter about the incident that the GBC had required. The proposal let him resume initiating after a moratorium to October 2012, only in the Indian subcontinent, with these among its conditions:
“3. Initiations held will be “low key” for some time period (a minimum of 3 years), so as to not overly attract public attention.”
The minutes record the vote as “Accepted by vote 17 in favour; 2 against; 3 abstaining”, after an amendment that “Maharaja is welcome to travel outside India on invitation”. The GBC did not publish the resolution (Resolution 502); its full text is known from the GBC’s 2017 statement lifting it (Appendix L, pp. 64–67).
2017. That statement declared that “all indications are that Lokanath Swami has complied diligently with all the terms and conditions of the said resolution”. The GBC’s 2022 case panel summarised: “In 2017, all mandatory requirements and restrictions from the International GBC were lifted.” Bhakti Charu Swami was GBC chairman that year. The sources reviewed do not record how individual members voted on the 2012 proposal or on the 2017 statement.
For the 1990 incident itself and the GBC’s later decisions, see Lokanath Swami’s record. Bhakti Charu Swami died in 2020, before the case was reopened in 2021; no public statement by him on the case has been found.
Sources (3)
- [1]Appendices to the Report of the Lokanath Swami Case Panel (A–Y), Mar 1, 2022 (document) original
- [2]ISKCON GBC, Report of the Lokanath Swami Case Panel — GBC-appointed panel; majority and minority opinions; PDF hosted by ISKCON News, Mar 1, 2022 originalcopy on this site
- [3]ISKCON GBC, GBC Resolutions 2019 — list of GBC members with their abbreviations: "Bhakti Charu Swami (BCS)", 2019 original
Timeline
Each status change in this record, on one axis, with the periods of the cases Bhakti Charu Swami is involved in.
- 2012
- Documented allegationFebruary 2012 Backing Lokanath Swami's return to initiating (2011–2012) The GBC's own minutes and proposal text, reproduced in the appendices of the GBC's 2022 Lokanath Swami case panel: his letter of support read at the October 2011 meeting, and his name first among the sponsors of the February 2012 proposal.