My Life
Born in Morristown, NJ, in 1953, I grew up in Boonton, New Jersey as the youngest son of Frank and Ruth Boyd. I have two older brothers, the Reverend Doctor Jeffrey Boyd, an Episcopalian Minister and Psychiatrist living with his wife Maureen and son Mathew in Connecticut and John Boyd, a Doctor's Assistant living with his wife Sonja overseas in Slovenia. My mother, Ruth Boyd, also now lives in Connecticut. My father, Frank Boyd, passed away in 1990.
I went to college at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas at the age of 18 majoring in Physics and Psychology, where I met my first wife. We married when I was beginning my the second semester of college. Soon, however, I dropped out and struggled to maintain a soon-to-be pregnant wife. For various reasons the marriage did not last very long, and soon after the birth of Christopher, she and I separated, and I moved back to Boonton, New Jersey.
I joined the Hare Krishna Movement at age 20 in Brooklyn, New York. During the first few years, I traveled extensively around the Eastern Seaboard selling Hare Krishna Books and winding up as the temple commander of the New York Hare Krishna temple. I accepted first initiation from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in New York in 1973 and became known as "Vipramukhya dasa", and Brahmin initiation in 1975 in Philadelphia.
Also in 1975, along with my friend Adarsi dasa (Edward Kelly), I helped found the first Hare Krishna temple on Long Island, and later that year traveled to India for the first time, where I was fortunate to have had some personal association and instructions from my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada.
Eventually I became head pujari and temple commander of the Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan India.
In 1976, with the blessings of Srila Prabhupada, I traveled overland with two dear devotee friends. We traveled across Northern India into Pakistan, Afganistan, Iran and Turkey, eventually returning to Tehran, Iran, where I stayed at the Hare Krishna temple and worked as an English teacher for about a year.
After some bouts with bad health, I eventually flew to London, England in 1977 to be treated for intestinal parasites. I remained in England until 1983.
During these years in England, from 1977 to 1983, I became the "Bhakta Director" and chief editor of the international "Bhakta Programme Newsletter." During this period I trained more new devotee recruits than any other person in the world at the time after learning from my good friend and Godbrother, Danavir dasa (now Goswami).
In 1982 I became the temple president of our ISKCON Soho Street temple in central London, where I served for about a year. During that year I accepted the sannyasa, renounced order of life, from His Holiness Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, and became an ISKCON "high priest," thereby going by the name "Vipramukha Swami."
In 1983 I returned to New York, where I established another new devotee training and recruiting center, which became so successful that within a year we helped double the devotee population of the Brooklyn, New York temple.
In 1985 I joined with Jagat Guru Swami and traveled in a motor home across the United States selling books and making ISKCON life members.
I settled in San Francisco and stayed at the Hare Krishna temple near Height/Ashbury later that year.
In 1986 I was given blessings by the ISKCON GBC to begin accepting disciples of my own, and thus became an ISKCON initiating spiritual master.
I moved to Berkely, California later in 1986, and by December 1986 I was living at ISKCON Seattle, Washington, where I became the ISKCON regional secretary for the state of Washington.
In 1989 I moved up to Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, where I became the ISKCON regional secretary for Western Canada and Washington.
I stayed in Canada until 1997, and during those years frequently traveled by car up and down the west coast from Vancouver to San Diego, and once or twice a year from Vancouver to New York, via Seattle, Walla Walla, Spanish Fork, Utah, Denver, Colorado, etc - all the way back to Brooklyn, often visiting my dear mother, Ruth Boyd, in Boonton, New Jersey.
In 1997 I spent a year traveling in England, and in 1998 when I became the temple president and CEO of Bhaktivedanta Manor, in England, ISKCON's European Headquarters.
I retired from the temple presidency in good terms in January, 2002, and spent six months traveling the world, where I visited many places, including Australia.
I met my wife, Shelly, over the Internet. For a sannyasi, intimate association with women is forbidden. It is kind of like being a Catholic Priest in that regard.
Thus I left my life as a Hare Krishna devotee behind. Some people were happy to see me go. Some were sad. Some were angered. Some were disappointed.
Life, however, goes on. I am now living in Amarillo, Texas with my very lovely and understanding wife, Shelly (aka Charlotte) Boyd, and my stepdaughter, Leanna Bluhm. We have some cats, some dogs, our own home and I work full time as a correctional officer for the State of Texas. One day I hope to retire and live comfortably until the end of my time in this life with my wife, and then move on to my next life.
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