Born as David John Thompson on April 4th, 1951 in Plymouth, England. I first saw the devotees in 1968 on a TV programme called “Top of the Pops.” They were number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the popular music chart, singing the Hare Krishna mantra, produced at the London Apple studios by George Harrison. Little did I know at the time, that a seed was being planted in my heart which would completely change the course of my life.  

 

I joined the London Radha-Krishna Temple in the spring of 1972, two months later I received initiation from Srila Prabhupada at the London Rathayatra festival and the following year I received 2nd initiation in Scotland. During the period of 1972 to 1973 I received my basic training at the London Temple (Bury Place), Bhaktivedanta Manor and at our Edinburgh centre at Forest Road. During this period my main service was Harinama and book distribution.  

 

In 1974 there was an interesting turn of events when I was asked to go to Sweden to help two local grihasta couples and a brahmacari set in motion the Swedish Yatra. Apart from a period of time in India from 1976 to 1978, Scandinavia became my preaching ground for the next 14 years. I arrived the same day Srila Prabhupada was to spend a week in Stockholm. Through his mercy within the next 7 years a downtown restaurant/preaching centre and two large rural properties (Korsnas Gard and Almviks Gard) were established. From the preaching centre many people became devotees, who then received further training at one of the Gard’s.    

 

In 1982 while engaged at outdoor summer festival programmes in Sweden, I decided to take some devotees with me to Finland for a weekend to distribute prasadam at a popular jazz festival. It was so successful that the national newspaper ran an article and pictures with the headlines, “Hare Krishna comes to Finland”. That evening instead of returning back to Stockholm, I decided to stay and begin making arrangements for preaching in Helsinki and establishing a Finnish Yatra. Within one year our society became registered as a religion and some years later Finland became known as one of the leading book distribution Yatras throughout the ISKCON world. From Helsinki we also discovered many opportunities to distribute the Russian translation of the Bhagavad-gita to Russian tourists, sailors, lorry drivers and art performers. It became the gateway for Russian devotees to escape to the West from the East.    

 

In 1990 I returned to England with my former Finnish wife Ananga Manjari devi dasi. We settled in my home town Plymouth, where we began outreach preaching activities – namahatta, school presentations, interfaith, cultivation and training new devotees. In 2002 we also started a farm project in Cornwall, based on sustainable farming, environmental conservation, community development and revival of forgotten rural skills. We ran workshops involving activities such as bee keeping, candle making, soap making and production of winter preserves. During this period we conceived a son whom we named Govinda. He has now taken initiation and his name is Govinda Kishor dasa.            

 

From 2008 to 2011 my main service was to act as a travelling preacher - Visiting ISKCON centres and namahattas in the United Kingdom, North West Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. I am still invited to conventional schools as a freelance teacher offering presentations and workshops on Hinduism throughout England. Whenever the opportunity arises I assist devotee children in their Krishna Consciousness by offering different workshops.   In 2012 my former wife gave her approval for me to take sannyasa. It was Srila Prabhupada’s wish that after raising a family and then spending some years in the retired stage of varnaprastha, one should take sannyasa. The sannyasa Ministry than put me on a three year waiting list and I became a sannyasa candidate. In February 2015 I took sannyasa.