Jayananda Dasa () was an influential religious figure in the

International Society for Krishna Consciousness The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu religious organization. ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktiv ...

(ISKCON) in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

between 1967–1977.Dasa, Vishoka. The Beautiful Life of Jayananada Thakur / Remembering An American Saint. Edited by Dasaratha-suta Dasa. ISKCON views Jayananda Dasa as a saint.
ISKCON.com Jayananda's guru, Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, said that he was proud that he had such a good disciple as Jayananda, and when Jayananda left his body (died), Prabhupada said: "Jayananda went back home to Godhead." Born Jim Kohr in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

, he graduated from

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

in 1962 with a degree in

industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information a ...

. Jayananda was employed as a

cab driver "Cab Driver" is a song written by Carson Parks and performed by The Mills Brothers featuring Sy Oliver and His Orchestra. It reached #3 on the Easy Listening chart, #21 on the '' Cashbox'' chart, and #23 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart i ...

in San Francisco when he first came into contact with Srila Prabhupada. Jayananda helped found an ISKCON center there in 1967 and later became the president of the temple. He was instrumental in organizing the first ISKCON

Ratha Yatra Ratha Yatra (), or Chariot festival, is any public procession in a chariot. The term particularly refers to the annual Ratha Yatra in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other East Indian states, particularly the Odia festival that involve a ...

festival, which is now held every summer in San Francisco and is a day of public holiday in the city.

References

External links

Jayananda Dasa Thakur - a biography
Converts to Hinduism International Society for Krishna Consciousness religious figures American Hare Krishnas Ohio State University College of Engineering alumni People from Dayton, Ohio Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{Hindu-bio-stub

See also

References

External links