Bhakti Tirtha Swami

in

 ISKCON gurus and Swamis

Bhakti Tirtha Swami was

born John Edwin Favors on February 25, 1950 into a poor Christian family living in
Cleveland, Ohio. His parents instilled in him the values of self-confidence, religiosity
and a spirit of generosity demonstrated by giving to persons less fortunate than others.
As a child, John Favors appeared on television to preach Christianity. He excelled in his
academic achievements while attending East Technical High School in Cleveland and
received ascholarship to attend the prestigious Hawken School, where he spent an
additional year of college preparation in philosophy and political science.

While at Hawken, he was a member of the football andwrestling teams. In 1968 he

came to Princeton University. While at Princeton, he was a leader in Martin Luther
King's civil rights movement being "at the forefront of political activism on campus, a
leader of the Association of Black Collegians (ABC) and a founder of the Third World
Center". He also served as a president of the student council. In 1972, he earned a B.A.
in psychology and African American studies. After Princeton, he joined the Hare
Krishna Movement and "began a career of worldwide travel, study, teaching, lecturing,
and writing".

On February 16, 1973 in Los Angeles he was initiated into the Gaudiya Vaishnava
tradition by ISKCON's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, whereupon he
was given the name Ghanashyam Dasa (meaning servant of Krishna). In the 1970s,
Ghanashyam Dasa preached Gaudiya Vaishnavism in Eastern Europe by distributing
religious books and working with scholars. On March 13, 1979 during Gaura-purnima
festival at New Vrindaban, he was initiated into the Vaishnava sannyasa order of
renunciation by Kirtanananda Swami and given the name Bhakti Tirtha Swami. In the
same year, he became the first devotee of the Hare Krishna Movement to visit Nigeria
and preach there. Later he went on to become a senior leader and one of the most
prominent preachers within ISKCON and a member of its management body known as
the Governing Body Commission.

He was the first person of African descent to become an initiating guru in the disciplic
succession of the ancient Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya. As a religious leader,
Bhakti-tirtha Swami made a friendship with celebrities and served as a spiritual
consultant, specializing in international relations and conflict resolution to high ranking
members of the United Nations and world leaders, including former President of South
Africa Nelson Mandela. In 1990 Bhakti Tirtha Swami was coronated High Chief in
Warri, Nigeria, West Africa in recognition of his reputable work performed there.
Bhakti Tirtha Swami died June 27, 2005, of complications frommelanoma, at Gita
Nagari, the Gaudiya Vaishnava community in central Pennsylvania.