Born in early 1951, he was immediately put up for
adoption and raised in Glenview, Illinois, as well as Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. His
conservative,
middle-class foster parents, Robert and Gladys Barber, named him Kevin R. Barber. As a child, he suffered from health problems (i.e. severe
asthma and undiagnosed
autism) and
bullying from classmates. Raised Catholic, he embraced
Darwinism and
atheism in high school. He became sports editor of
The Daily Cardinal, while majoring in journalism at the
University of Wisconsin in Madison, in the early 1970s. Experiencing an increase in psycho-physical distress, a waning interest in materialism, and a deepening commitment to “Truth or Bust”, he dropped out of college in November 1971. At that time, he became a vegetarian and began studying
occult science. In late 1971, he distanced himself from his family. This was after experiencing
domestic violence from his angered step-father. The welder, employed in Defense Department shipbuilding, disapproved of his step-son's opposition to the
Vietnam War. Reading
Be Here Now (book) and encountering Rudra dās in
Madison, Wisconsin led Kevin to the Hare Krishna movement, which he joined in February, 1972. In September 1972, he received Harer Nama
diksha initiation from his
guru, A. C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmi Prabhupāda at the rural ISKCON compound just outside
Moundsville, West Virginia. The spiritual name bestowed on him,
Kailāsa Candra dāsa (hereinafter, Kailāsa), identified him as a
dāsa/servant of Lord
Shiva, The Eminence of
Kailāsa, the greatest
Vaishnava. In the 1970s, Kailāsa ran Midwest college preaching programs throughout
Wisconsin,
Illinois, and
Indiana. In 1973, Kailāsa's skill and dedication were formally recognized: His guru sent a congratulatory letter to the
Evanston, Illinois temple president for the success of its college preaching campaign. It was also in 1973 that Kailāsa became one of the first devotees to distribute Krishna Consciousness publications at
O’Hare Airport. Kailāsa secured Brahminical initiation from, and private darshan with, his spiritual master in July, 1974; this was while serving at the Evanston temple. Kailāsa relocated to the Honolulu temple in the spring of 1975. Here he was able to accompany his spiritual master on morning walks and perform percussion accompaniment at guru-pūjas. He helped organize a dialogue between Srila Prabhupāda and
Yogi Bhajan. Later, he was appointed temple president of the movement's rural
ashram near
Mauna Kea. He traveled throughout Europe propagating Krishna Consciousness in mid-1976. During 1977, he made his first of three pilgrimages to India. After the disappearance of the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A. C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmi Prabhupāda, in November 1977, through controversial circumstances, Kailāsa became alarmed by the movement's trajectory. He was ordered by the Southern U.S. zone governing commissioner of ISKCON to sell drug paraphernalia in 1978 as a fund-raising initiative. This, along with other deviations from his spiritual master's guiding principles, led him to sever connections with the “ISKCON” establishment in the summer of 1978. He was one of the early reformers entering the battle against the "ISKCON" zonal acharyas in
Vrindaban, India, in 1978 and 1979. Asked by a leader of that reform group, Kailāsa was the devotee who compiled a lengthy position paper against the zonal acharya system. He was one of the first members to be
ostracized from the now changed "ISKCON" movement. A 1979 resolution statement issued by the new “ISKCON” Governing Body Commission warned all "ISKCON" centers about Kailasa's activities. In the late spring of 1985, Kailāsa was contacted by Sulocana Dāsa, who was in need of an editor for his tracts that were meant to be combined into an eventual book. Kailasa traveled with him throughout America, in his godbrother's converted van, during the summer and early autumn of that year, finalizing the edited work. In January, 1988, Kailāsa co-founded The Vaishnava Foundation. The foundation was first formed as an unincorporated association in Lake County, CA, in December 1986. It was later incorporated, in
Sacramento, California on Jan. 20, 1988. Kailāsa is the author of over one hundred articles, published on the Vaishnava Foundation's websites, along with more than thirty video presentations. In July 2023, Kailasa appeared in an interview by Nathan Hartley from The Hare Krishna Project. ==Philosophy / Thought==