Kailasa Candra Dasa

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Kailasa Candra Dasa, born Kevin R. Barber on January 9, 1951 in the United States, is an American Gaudiya Vaishnava teacher, astrologer, and author. He joined ISKCON in 1972 in Madison, Wisconsin, and received Harinama diksha from A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in September 1972, taking the name Kailāsa Candra dāsa, meaning “servant of Lord Shiva.” He later received Brahmin initiation in 1974 at Evanston.

Kailasa did preaching in the Midwest, moved to the Honolulu temple in 1975, and traveled in Europe before making his first pilgrimage to India in 1977. After Prabhupada’s death, he became critical of ISKCON’s direction and the zonal acharya system, helping draft a position paper against it and leaving ISKCON in 1978. He was among the early reformers opposing those changes.

In 1988, Kailasa co-founded The Vaishnava Foundation (initially formed as the Metamorphosis League for Monastic Studies). The foundation promotes Prabhupada’s Gaudiya Vaishnavism and opposes deviations in the Krishna consciousness movement. Kailasa has written many articles and produced numerous video presentations, and he remains a critic of corruption he sees in the movement.

In 2023, Kailasa appeared in an interview with The Hare Krishna Project. The Vaishnava Foundation summarizes its mission with the motto: “The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.”