His Holiness Prahladananda Swami is a Vaishnava swami and a religious leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He is an initiating spiritual master (diksha guru) and a member of the Governing Body Commission. Prahladananda Swami was born as Philip Burbank in 1949, in Buffalo, New York. In January 1969, while studying at the University of Buffalo, he joined ISKCON and the same year was initiated by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, receiving the name Prahladananda Dasa. In 1975 he joined the Radha-Damodara preaching bus tour, organized by Tamal Krishna Goswami and Vishnujana Swami. In 1982 he took sannyasa and in 1986 he became one of the initiating gurus in ISKCON. In 1989 he became a member the VIHE, Vaishnava Institute for Higher Education, in Vrindavana. In 1990 he was appointed to head the Governing Body Commission’s committee of Health and Welfare. In 1991, the GBC also made him the head of sannyasa ministry.