Bhakti Swarup Tirtha Maharaj

His Divine Grace Swami B.S.Tirtha Maharaj, the founder Acharya of Gaudiya Vaishnava Association hails from Tamil Nadu part of South-India. He was born in the year 1942, to parents who were devout Vaishnavas from the Vadgalai Iyengar sect attached to Ahobila Math. He was raised in the ambient of religious orthodoxy, doctrinal purity and blemish less Vaishnava etiquette.

From the early childhood, He was introduced to fundamental spiritual concepts and received a trained exposure to various theological expositions of contemporary schools of thought as He gradually grew up. He grasped the philosophical nuances of great Vaishnava Acharyas like Shri Ramanuja, Shri Nimbarka, Shri Vishnuswami and Shri Madhva. He also became familiar with the concepts of monist philosophers like Shripad Shankaracharya, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Chinmyananda, Dr. Radhakrishnan and J.Krishnamurthy.

In the year 1987, by divine arrangement, Shrila Maharaj happened to chance across the book ' Bhagavad Gita As It Is ' published by Iskcon, which brought a radical and instant transformation in Him and His life changed forever. Shrila Maharaj was totally overpowered and overawed by the teachings and personality of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder Acharya of Iskcon, under whose propagational efforts the movement had reached its very peak by then.

A genuine desire arose in Shrila Maharaj's heart to serve this great personality and He left all material engagements to wholeheartedly apply Himself to the service of Shri Guru and Shri Gauranga. Shrila Maharaj became so obsessed with the Gaudiya Vaishanava Philosophy that He spent eight months of continuous and rigorous self-imposed exile to thoroughly understand, deliberate and assimilate the Gaudiya Vaishnava teachings, which He calls as, The Ph.D. in Spiritual Science.

Maharaj can make even the atheistic people sit up and ponder over the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. The perfection and precision of Shrila Maharaj's answers to philosophical queries leave a logician stunned, a sincere seeker melting in his heart with joy and a devotee dancing in ecstasy. It was, therefore, not a totally unanticipated happening that Shrila Maharaj was invited to grace The World Parliament of Religions (held in Cape Town, South Africa,1999) with his presence and share his unfathomable knowledge and realizations with people assembled from all parts of the globe.

In the year 1989, Shrila Maharaj met his Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Srirupa Bhagavata Goswami Maharaj, the most exalted pure devotee of the Supreme Lord, Shri Krishna and a disciple of Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya Shrila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Srila Prabhupada, the Founder Acharya of Shri Chaitanya Math- Mayapur and other Gaudiya Maths all over India and abroad. In the year 1990, Shrila Maharaj was granted the renounced order of life (Sanyaas) by His Spiritual Master for the purpose of taking the message of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to every door and Shrila Maharaj has never rested ever since. He engages himself in the service of The Supreme Lord, Shri Krishna, 24 hours a day and His uncompromising attitude in the pursuance of the scriptural principles and the orders of His Spriritual Master, word by word, has won the heart of unlimited men & women alike.

Shrila Maharaj has been a celibate throughout his life, in scriptural terms- a 'Naishthik Bramhmachari'. The vibration of Shrila Maharaj's chanting has the power and the drive to 'rock and shock' the fallen souls out of their slumber of material consciousness and raise them to their true consciousness – that of being an eternal servant of the Divine Couple in Shri Goloka Vrindanavan. He is a class one spiritualist whose only motive is to completely end one's material existence by gifting the supreme loving servitude of The Supreme Lord – Shri Krishna in His Supreme Abode, Shri Goloka Vrindavan. To achieve this motive, Shrila Maharaj formed the GVA, in 1997.