Steve Bohlert (Subal Das Goswami)
Steve Bohlert served as an international leader in the Krishna Movement for eight years (1967-74). In 1974, Lalita Prasad Thakur initiated him into the esoteric path of natural devotion to Radha-Krishna. He later was ordained and served as a pastor and teacher in the United Church of Christ for eleven years (1991-2002). He studied postmodern, Western intellectual and academic theological traditions at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, earning a Master of Divinity degree (1991).
Bohlert lived in India for three years as an itinerant monk and gained firsthand experience of Radha-Krishna devotion in its homeland as well as teaching extensively in the west. While staying in Vrindaban, he was befriended and mentored by O.B.L. Kapoor, who directed him to Lalita Prasad Thakur (1879-1980), the son and disciple of renowned nineteenth century reformer and Westernizer of Chaitanyaism, Bhaktivinode Thakur (1838-1914).
In 1974, Lalita Prasad initiated Bohlert into the esoteric practices of natural devotion. For a fortnight, he lived with Lalita Prasad and learned everything he needed to know. These teachings form the basis of Universalist Radha-Krishnaism. Although he planned to stay in India permanently, Lalita Prasad told him to preach in the West. He left the renounced life and reentered American society.
When he moved to Hawaii in 2005 and intensified the natural devotional practices learned from Lalita Prasad, Bohlert found he could no longer uncritically accept his former beliefs. He applied the interpretive techniques learned in seminary to Chaitanyaism. Bohlert reformed traditional Chaitanyaism using a progressive, Protestant method of interpretation to develop Universalist Radha-Krishnaism.
Steve Bohlert experienced life in a wide range of social, cultural, religious, and political contexts. He is conversant with the subject in its traditional setting and deeply in touch with Western culture and thought.
Steve Bohlert and his wife live an off-grid lifestyle of voluntary simplicity in the jungle on the Big Island of Hawaii not far from where the lava flows into the ocean. This lush, virgin land and sea provide an ideal environment for his writing and spiritual practices.
(5)
2