Govinda Devi Dasi was a senior at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 when she and her husband went to San Francisco in search of a spiritual teacher. She explains, “My yoga books said that when the chela is ready, the Guru will appear. So I was trying to make myself ready with many hours of meditation and purificatory disciplines. One day I went to a book shop and happened to read the description of Srila Prabhupada in Hayagriva’s “Back to Godhead” article. Upon reading this description, I saw him in my mind’s eye, as if a window had been suddenly opened, and began to weep, ‘I’ve found him, I’ve found him at last!” I went immediately to the newly opened San Francisco storefront temple, and have never left Srila Prabhupada since that day.” In 1969, Srila Prabhupada sent Govinda dasi and her husband to Hawaii to open Krishna temples in the Hawaiian Islands. Srila Prabhupada then came to Hawaii to join them, and lived with them for several weeks in a beachhouse in Kaawa, on the windward coast of Oahu. He later made many visits to the Islands, which he named “New Navadwip.” Govinda dasi has been a disciple of Srila Prabhupada since 1966. She is also the author and illustrator of numerous children’s books, including Gopal, Nimai, Jagannath, Krishna, and Damodar. She resides in Hawaii and Vrindaban. |