Why I Became a Hindu / A Krishna Devotee

From a Simple Seeker to a 2025 Padma Shri Award From the President of India

By: Stephen Knapp

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The most common question Stephen gets, whether after giving a lecture somewhere or traveling and meeting people, especially in India, is how did he ever take an interest in the Vedic culture and its path of spiritual development. People want to know. In most circumstances he has little time to give anything but a short summary of what happened. But now he finally presents all the details of his spiritual growth in this autobiography.
Herein he describes his first philosophical questions when he was a young boy, for which at the time most people around him did not have the answers. He wanted to know such things as how he got here, how did he get this body, where was he going in this existence, what is the purpose of life, and what was he supposed to do with it. Was there something higher and deeper to understand? Even the pastor at the church where he attended did not have any real or profound answers to these questions. So, where was he supposed to go to find the answers?
Then a number of years later, after going on with his life, having been a musician for a number of years, he put his guitar down to do some serious searching into why he was here in this life, and what was its purpose. Even then, most cultures and philosophies did not have the answers that would satisfy him. Only after deeply studying the different religions, did he finally come across the Vedic spiritual knowledge that gave him the answers so he could understand what he was meant to do in this life to achieve its real purpose.
This is his interesting and enlightening story on how he was first a simple seeker for higher spiritual knowledge, like many others, but then joined an ashrama and became initiated into the Gaudiya lineage of spiritual discipline, then decided to become a writer, publishing over 50 books to help explain this information to others who might be seeking the same kind of insightful knowledge, and then becoming a lecturer and teacher traveling all over India and parts of the world to speak in front of all kinds of audiences, even speaking at Madison Square Garden, all the while attaining deeper levels of spiritual insight and realizations. Then later even being one of the few westerners to be recognized and given the significant honor of the Padma Shri Award by the government of India for his distinguished service, their fourth highest civilian award which was for his work in the field of literature and education. His story of what happened to him can help anyone gain deeper spiritual insights and realizations about life and our purpose in it, and the value of the Vedic spiritual philosophy in reaching one’s highest potential.