Devamrita Swami was born 16 October 1950 in New York City. At the age of thirteen, he received a scholarship to prep school in the mountains of New Hampshire, where he studied until, at seventeen, he received a scholarship to Yale University.

 In 1972, Devamrita Swami graduated from Yale University. At this time he came in contact with the books of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder-acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He discovered that the knowledge presented in these books was the beginning of his real education. His attraction to this transcendental information was immediate - and the effect profound. Devamrita Swami decided to abandon a corporate career in order to concentrate fully on his spiritual development.