Bhakti Vijnana Goswami

Until he was 17, Vadim lived under the care of his grandparents in Tashkent. His grandfather was an agricultural scientist – a chemist, professor, and head of department at the Agriculture Institute. Vadim was very close to his grandfather and followed in his footsteps to become a scientist.

Vaidyanatha was made member of the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON in 1996. He was the first admitted member who was not a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada. Two years later he took shelter of Radhanath Swami as his spiritual guru and on 4 August 2001 became the first Russian Vaishnava to receive monastic sannyasa (the renounced order of life) and the new spiritual name Bhakti Vijnana Goswami. In 2005, he accepted the responsibility as an initiating guru who guides disciples on their spiritual journey.

In 2001, Bhakti Vijnana Goswami published a Russian translation of Sharanagati, the collection of verses by Bhaktivinoda Thakura. This has been followed by several books in Russian that are currently being translated into English.

Vaidyanatha returned to Russia in 1995 to lead the Society. He soon became known for his lectures and seminars, which were characterized as deeply insightful and charismatic, and attracted large numbers of followers throughout the Russian-speaking region. Vaidyanatha also gave regular discourses on a radio station for several years.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, devotees could finally enter and exit Russia freely. Vaidyanatha visited Russia at the same time as the first ISKCON temple was established in Moscow, at Begovaya Street, near the metro station. Kirtiraja Dasa, the head of ISKCON Russia, urged him to take up headship of the temple but Vaidyanatha followed Harikesa Swami's advice to return to Sweden and complete translating and editing Srila Prabhupada's books.

In 1987 Vaidyanatha defended his thesis on the ‘Structure of nucleosomes’. Soon afterwards the KGB renewed their interested in him. They launched a new investigation that posed serious threat of arrest. Because of this, Vaidyanatha was fired from his research post. He left for Lithuania to continue his translating work, then moved to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and finally left the USSR for Sweden in 1988 on the pretext of a fictitious marriage.

Anatoly Pinyaev, (later named Ananta Shanti Dasa) the first Soviet Hare Krishna devotee would also come to preach at these meetings. He was the only source of spiritual information for new devotees as there were no translations of books written by the Society's founder Srila Prabhupada. In 1983, Vadim took first initiation from Harikesa Swami, the ISKCON leader in USSR and received his spiritual name Vaidyanatha Dasa.

Despite the prohibitions, Vaidyanatha continued to practice and even brought new acquaintances and friends to programs. From early 1983 the KGB began investigating him. A Colonel Belopotapov visited Vaidyanatha at his workplace and asked him to cooperate with the state security agency and spy on the religious Society. Vaidyanatha refused.

The KGB began persecuting Soviet Hare Krishna devotees in 1982, forcing them into hiding. Meetings were held in forests near Moscow. The two most active preachers Vishvamitra and Surya were arrested and imprisoned. The Soviet press launched a campaign denouncing ISKCON as an American anti-communist sect intended to ideologically sabotage and undermine the Soviet system.

A Bhakti Yoga practitioner and preacher since the 1980s, Bhakti Vijnana Goswami has been leader of ISKCON communities in Russia for two decades. He is a disciple of Radhanath Swami. Before joining the monastic order, Bhakti Vijnana Goswami was a chemical sciences scholar, with a PhD in molecular biology.

In 1978 Vadim was accepted into postgraduate studies at the Institute for Molecular Biology at the Russian Academy of Sciences with promising prospects of an accomplished career in scientific research. At the same time, he encountered Gaudiya Vaishnavism (a strand of Hinduism) after befriending Japa Dasa, a fellow student living next door in his university dormitory who was a Hare Krishna devotee.

In 1975, Vadim became close to a student Baptist who dared to declare his faith in God amid strict political enforcement of atheism. The Baptist was eventually thrown out of university but not before he gave Vadim the Gospel of John. Through his reading, Vadim's questions abounded though he had to wait a few years before he met with his answers.

Vadim graduated from school in 1973 and the same year entered Moscow University to study chemistry. He began as a dedicated student who was sociable, open and enjoyed popularity among friends. However, by the end of the first year, he was overtaken by a deep disappointment, feeling doubtful and uninspired “to live for the sake of the periodic system of Mendeleev and some chemical reactions...”

Bhakti Vijnana Goswami (born as Vadim Tuneev, 30 August 1956, Tashkent, Uzbekistan) is a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru and a leader for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

Vadim Tuneev was born on August 30, 1956 in Tashkent in a family of scientists who were staunch atheists. His mother was a philologist PhD at the Academy of Sciences in Tashkent and his father, a Finance Institute graduate, was department head of cybernetics at the Leningrad Agricultural Institute.