II Gaur Aarti ||at ISKCON London || By HH Lokanath Swami

Born in 1949, in the village of Aravade in Maharashtra India, HH Lokanath Swami (born Raghunath Patil) always had an ambition to dedicate his life to serving people, his country and humanity. Bereft of resources, he did not know where to begin. It was while studying Chemistry in Bombay that his life was irrevocably changed. He daily attended the first 10 day Cross Maidan Pandal Festival in 1971 organised by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and his Western disciples. Although Lokanath Swami did not personally meet Srila Prabhupada at this festival, His Divine Grace’s spiritually elevating discourses and the energetic kirtana by the devotees stole his heart. He could not afford much, but managed to buy some small Srimad-Bhagavatam booklets and several Back to Godhead magazines. These purchases were what kept him connected to Srila Prabhupada and the devotees during the time that he could not locate them. It seemed that this e