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sitproperly on Mar 25th 2008 at 8:11 am Gaudia Vaisnava,New Vrndavana

East Meets West: Bhaktipada’s naming of names

Bhaktipada, the guru of New Vrndavana until 1993/94, who seems to have been getting some mention as of late, named many devotees some pretty freaky names (among other freaky things).

In Krishna consciousness, when devotees take initiation, they receive a new name, a name of Krishna with the suffix “das” or “devi dasi” (male or female) which signifies them as a servant of Krishna, God.

So here are a bunch of names that Bhaktipada and his era came up with. These were done after his 1987 expulsion from ISKCON.

This is, of course, not to lessen the horrible and insane evil perpetrated by Bhaktipada while inside and outside of ISKCON. Things like molesting small boys, forcing pre-pubescent girls to marry older men in their 30′s, arranging murders and generally being, well, Bhaktipada.

Keep in mind that many of these devotees are great people. None of the kids had a choice of their names (obviously). This is in no way poking fun at the devotees who received these names.

Please also keep in mind that these lists are not definitive. Names are missing and possibly some other details are incorrect. If you find errors, please leave a message in the comments. Thanks!

Look into his crazy eyes and get your crazy name!At first, like any ISKCON guru, he gave normal names like
Braja Kumari devi dasi
Lokanatha das
Jagannatha das
Remuna devi dasi
Cintamani devi dasi
Daya devi dasi
Yamuna devi dasi
Krsna das

However, he often couldn’t be bothered with the troublesome task of actually picking out his own disciples names, so the older boys in the ashrama (and others) helped pick out the names for him. So if it was someone they didn’t like, they’d pick a typically undesirable name.

At any rate, as the older boys left, the names went downhill.

Kid’s named after food:
Kitri
Jalebi (whose father, long before she was born, was married off by Bhaktipada -while still a “pure devotee” and guru in good standing in ISKCON- to an 11 year old. Bhaktipada’s youngest arranged child marriage was to a 9 year old, again, while still a “pure devotee” and guru in ISKCON.)
Halava
Puri (not the town)
Yogi Bar (there was a Yogi Bar energy bar factory in Gita Nagari)
He also threatened to name Kaladri’s twins “Rice” and “Oatwater”

Sanskrit/English initiation names:
Up until this point, there were varying degrees of normal Hare Krishna names. For some reason, Bhaktipada thought it would be cute to mix East and West. Many of these happened on Christmas Day, 1988, when they installed the Jesus murti next to Srila Prabhupada.

jebus.jpgDutiful Rama
Sita Love
Bhakti Joy
Shanti Peace
Laxmi Honest
Radha Grace
Sachi Hope
Arjun Surrenders
Jesusananda

Kid’s English names
During the Summer of 1988, Bhaktipada began giving newborn children English names.

Joyful
Peaceful
Sweet Sound (a boy whose nickname became “Sweetie”)
Mercy (he may not have named either Mercy’s – there were two – but it was definitely due to his wacky influence)
Zeal
Krishna’s Marathon (seriously, they just called him Marathon for short, but now they call him Martin. He was born and named in 1985 after his mother did really well on the Christmas marathon)
Pious
Harmony

Full English names from initiations
At the next initiation, roughly half a year later, Bhaktipada went full swing with the English names. These continued, interspersed with sanskrit names, through 1994.

Equanimity devi dasi(mother of Zeal)
Gentle Love devi dasi
Faithful Love das
True Love devi dasi
All Love das
Wonderful Love das
Merciful devi dasi
Serene Heart devi dasi
Nectar devi dasi
Spirit Soul das
Truthful das
Serenity devi dasi
Good Hope das
Strong Faith das
Pure Bliss devi dasi
True Peace das
Sister Piety devi dasi
Kind Heart devi dasi
Christian Charity devi dasi
Lasting Peace devi dasi
Joyous devi dasi
Patience das
Faithful das
Careful Love das
Sincere Heart devi dasi
Sincere Praise devi dasi
Humble Heart das (he technically wasn’t given this name at initiation, he already had a nice sanskrit name, but there were confessions at New Vrndavana and he was given this name because his confession was humble. The name didn’t really stick, most devotees went back to calling him by his original sanskrit name.)

Sannyasa English names (anyone know if there were more?)
Peaceful Swami (or Brother Peaceful)
Purity Swami
Devotion Swami

Sannyasini English names (sometimes called “Smommy” hehe – Bhaktipada was initiating women sannyasis as early as 1987)
Eternal Love Swami (the mother of Gentle, Faithful and True Loves)
Holyname Swami
Supreme Truth Swami
Compassionate Swami
Surrender Swami
Steady Swami
Joy Divine Swami

And that’s about all I could come up with (after talking to five or six devotees). If anyone has any other info about initiations or even rumored ritvik initiations, I’d love to hear it.

18 responses so far

18 Responses to “East Meets West: Bhaktipada’s naming of names”

  1. brianNo Gravatar says:
    March 25, 2008 at 11:06 am

    Is this kirtanananda dasa whose christian name is keith ham, if so,we understand ham to mean both dead pig and amateur actor.

  2. RatiNo Gravatar says:
    March 25, 2008 at 3:01 pm

    Ahhhh, now there’s a little stroll down memory lane…

    A bit of useless info- Arjun Surrenders and I were co-wives briefly. Yep, I was given the choice to take sannyasa, or be a co-wife. Guess who’s idea THAT was?

  3. dasNo Gravatar says:
    March 25, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    I think this has nothing to do with Krsna or serving Krsna. Prabhu, don’t waste your time with this and concentrate on studying SB or Krsna seva, please.
    You are not funny, not polemical. This is just boring.

    ericNo Gravatar Reply:
    March 25th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

    I really wasn’t trying to be funny. It’s *not* funny. However, it *is* part of our history and it’s important that we not forget the stupid and horrible things all done in the name of “serving Krishna.”

    Besides, if it’s so boring, why did you even bother to comment?

    NitaiNo Gravatar Reply:
    March 26th, 2008 at 3:10 am

    I am glad that das is always engaged full time in Krishna Seva, and not reading blogs :)

  4. sevaNo Gravatar says:
    March 25, 2008 at 7:49 pm

    I also cant see the sense in such an article. History it may be but of what use is it to keep such things in the public eye ?
    We shouldnt forget the stupidity but we need to move forward too. Of course it’s not boring, it’s more pathetic. I personally just want to see elevating topics on this kind of site and dont think this helpful at all to being KC. Actually I even think why comment also ?!?

  5. CalderNo Gravatar says:
    March 25, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    Sidenote: I saw some overlap between the names on your list and some of the unfortunate “English” names that overzealous parents, teachers, and grandparents saddle their kids with in China.

  6. KateNo Gravatar says:
    March 26, 2008 at 1:26 am

    Are there any “rules” saying that the names must be in Sanskrit?

    While the kids names are actually quite odd, the others only sound really odd as devotee names because they aren’t in Sanskrit, right? I am pretty sure there are devotional names in Sanskrit containing normal words.

    I find this entry to be very interesting, Eric. I’m not bored at all.

    Kate

  7. DwijaNo Gravatar says:
    March 26, 2008 at 8:23 am

    Bad Eric! Naughty, wicked Eric! How dare you say what you want on your own blog!
    Seriously though, it’s amazing, Eric talks about all kinds of frivolous things and no-one complains but as soon as you poke fun at The Multinational Business formally known as Iskcon, people get all righteous and preach about how you shouldn’t be wasting time, only talk about Krishna, etc. What a bunch of hypocrites.
    Well I say, hey Eric, thanks for taking the time to remind us of just how ridiculous New Vrindaban was and continues to be. Some of the NV leaders of that time are now high ranking GBC’s and Guru’s. Now that’s really funny.

    Dwija

    PS. Kate, in Gaudia Vaisnava tradition, the names are supposed to be directly related to Krishna or His associates. Das or dasi means servant so Krishna dasi means servant of God. Servant of Equanimity, now that’s just silly.

    KateNo Gravatar Reply:
    March 26th, 2008 at 8:45 am

    Thanks Dwija. Yes that would be a silly one, but something like Nectar devi dasi seems to be related to Krishna. I am not say that many of those names don’t appear to have a link, but some seem to work.

    Kate

    sevaNo Gravatar Reply:
    March 26th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    Haribol Dwija of course your right. I never complain about a lot of the junk that I see on here, I think Im just attached to Eric entertaining me in the way that I like and nothing else. I dont read a lot of things that I find boring or wasteful, Im selfish and dont want him writing stuff that slips down that rocky road so I am complaining.

  8. PraveenNo Gravatar says:
    March 26, 2008 at 10:50 am

    Haribol Eric Prabhu!
    Thanks for the interesting post! I’ve always wondered about the weird Bhaktipad names. I think we might have had a little discussion about it on LJ once.

    oh and you forgot someone!

    Fryer Tuck Swami aka Devamrita Maharaj

  9. PanduNo Gravatar says:
    March 27, 2008 at 3:07 pm

    I found it quite interesting. Sometimes devotees object to publicizing such embarrassing facts. I disagree. In 1997 I moved to NV with my wife and baby daughter, knowing the philosophy in Srila Prabhupada’s books but none of the history. That we learned in whispers from ex-kulis. We left scared, hastily, at night. I would have much preferred a warning before we arrived. It wouldn’t have seemed so cult-like, if someone “important” had asked if we were aware of historical events and informed us.

  10. urukramaNo Gravatar says:
    March 28, 2008 at 8:09 am

    This is interesting. Thank you for posting this. What happened to the English named sannyasis and sannyasinis, actually? Did they leave ISKCON, or were they (re-)Sanskritised after Bhaktipada left?

    Some of the above names are very silly and obnoxious, though. Someo f the kid’s english names are not so uncommon as you may think — I know several non-devotees that have similar names, given by their (then) hippy parents.

    It is interesting that so many devotees object to English names, even though many ISKCON gurus freely give Bengali, Hindi or Tamil names to their disciples and no one complains about those. Is it just because there is a slightly longer history of such a names (only a few hundred years in the case of Bengali and Hindi) when Vaisnavism was practiced by people that spoke those languages? If those names are fine, why could English names then not be used in principle?

    I am not at all advocating the use of English names. I’m just offering some food for thought.

    I’ve always liked the name ‘Dutiful Rama’. It sounds nice.

  11. RatiNo Gravatar says:
    March 28, 2008 at 9:55 am

    What happened to the English named sannyasis and sannyasinis, actually? Did they leave ISKCON, or were they (re-)Sanskritised after Bhaktipada left?

    Most went back to their pre-sannyasa names. Some sanskritized their english names (for example Nectar started going by Amrita). Some got married and went back to their pre-sannyasa names. Some continued using their english name after they were married, and just dropped the swami. Some left. Most of them were/are pretty cool.

  12. PanduNo Gravatar says:
    March 28, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Actually all names originally belong to Krishna. For example, my birth name, Paul, means “small.” Krishna is smaller than the smallest. Then there’s my devotee name, Pandu das. “Pandu” is typically thought of as the father of the Pandavas, but the word also means “bright” or “effulgent,” and that primarily means Krishna.

  13. LilashukaNo Gravatar says:
    March 29, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    I find your humor, Eric to be quite entertaining. I do find laughter is the best medicine. I think we need to be able to laugh at some of the insanity that we used to support. It’s important to laugh not only at ourselves but at our crazy pasts. Sure, we were “brainwashed”!! But, thank Krishna, Srila Prabhupada was committed enough to us to wash our brains in the right way, and so here we are..survivors!!

  14. MudakariNo Gravatar says:
    October 9, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Yogi’s name is “Yogi Vara (or Bara),” meaning “the best of the yogis.”
    I believe (the female) Puri’s full name is “Purikshetre.” The male “Puri” received his name long long before this turn to prasadam-themed names.