About

I was born in Finland in a good family and had a secured and happy childhood. From early on I was thinking about life a lot and that curiosity kept growing until in my early teens it erupted into a desperate search for meaning and truth. After testing out things like heart-breaks, punkrock, political activism, contemporary spirituality, atheism, writing embarrassing poems, playing “home” in a long term relationship and studying for a career, I stumbled across Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a theistic form of Hinduism, and found some interesting answers, but what’s better, I found some real, materially unmotivated feeling. I kept doing other things, but I was helplessly drawn towards dedicating my life for spiritual practice. After I met my teacher Swami B.V. Tripurari, my life changed completely. I quit my school, my bands and my relationship and moved to Northern California to his monastery to put my beliefs into practice.

My reason for starting this page is to give an idea of what it’s like to dedicate one’s life to a spiritual purpose and to give a different kind of example to my surroundings of what constitutes a fulfilling and meaningful life. There’s too much desperation, ignorance, gross materialism and just plain lack of integrity and truthfulness in this day and age. I don’t want to hit you on the head with some sectarian dogma, but just to put out another viewpoint of what existence can afford us, through the universal application of the truths I’ve found from the tradition I’m following.

The schedule at the monastery is pretty ridgid and we are constantly doing something, so don’t get upset if I don’t reply to your cudos/messages/IMs. Nothing personal.

Here’s a website of our ashram: www.swami.org