Kailasa Candra dasa

Kailasa Candra dasa (J. K. Goodwin) (born 9 January 1951) is a spiritual and occult teacher, sidereal astrologer, and author guiding a small number of students. In 1972, he joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Madison, Wisconsin. After the disappearance of the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, he was one of the first reformers who battled against the "ISKCON" zonal acharyas in 1978 and 1979. He is co-founder of the Vaishnava Foundation, and, working out of the United States, remains an exponent of devotional teaching, opposing all the deviations that emerged within the Hare Krishna movement after the demise of its Founder-Acharya A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Born in early 1951, he was immediately put up for adoption and raised in Glenview, Illinois, as well as Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, by foster parents. He became sports editor of The Daily Cardinal while majoring in journalism at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the early 1970s.

Joining the Hare Krishna movement in February, 1972, he received Harer Nama initiation from his guru, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in September, 1972 at the rural ISKCON compound just outside Moundsville, West Virginia and was given the spiritual name of Kailasa Candra dasa (hereinafter, Kailasa). He secured brahminical initiation in July, 1974, while serving at the Evanston, Illinois temple. In the 1970s, Kailasa ran Midwest college preaching programs throughout Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.

After the disappearance of the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, he was one of the first reformers who had battled against the "ISKCON" zonal acharyas in Vrindaban, India, in 1978 and 1979. Asked by the leader of that reform group, Kailasa was the devotee who compiled a lengthy position paper against the zonal acharya system.He was one of the first members to be excommunicated from the now changed "ISKCON" movement, and, in the 1979 "ISKCON" GBC resolution, all the "ISKCON" centers were warned about his activities.

In the late spring of 1985, Kailasa was contacted by Sulochan dasa, who was in need of an editor for his tracts that were meant to be combined into an eventual book. Kailasa traveled with him throughout America in the fellow's converted van during the summer and early autumn of that year, completing editing that for his godbrother. In May 1986, atthe behalf of one of the“ISKCON” zonals, Kailasa's friend Sulochan was assassinated in Los Angeles whilein his van.

In January, 1988, Kailasa co-founded The Vaishnava Foundation in Sacramento, California. He is the author of over one hundredarticles published on the Vaishnava Foundation's websites, along withthirty video presentations.

In Western Vaishnava circles, Kailasa is known as a staunch critic of corruption that emerged after his spiritual master's departure. In the following quote, he depicts the importance of exposing such deviations: "Based in no small measure upon deductions rooted in Prabhupada's teachings, this document will work to concentrate the mind. The big lies will be broken down. Once you are awakened from their intoxicating influence, the dismantling of the bogus philosophies underpinning them will inexorably proceed via the domino effect. The psychic shackles will fall off, and you will experience a natural freedom of mind and intelligence conducive to the development of genuine Krishna consciousness."