Photo courtesy of: Braja Mandala Photography
Meet Dharmasetu Das
Dharmasetu dasa is a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In 1974 he began his formal studies of Vaishnava culture and philosophy in Boston.
In 1977 he moved to his spiritual master’s ashrama and temple in San Diego. He was an instructor at the seminary for eight years and held different administrative positions until the early 90’s. During this time he also held administrative and teaching positions at two Vaishnava primary schools – one in Southern California and the other in Mississippi.
Since 1987 he has been serving our Hindu community primarily as a purohita, performing weddings, funerals, rites of passage, and various religious ceremonies in peoples’ homes. He studied under Dr. Shukavak Dasa (Sri Sri Laksmi Narayan Mandir, Riverside, CA), Sriman Gaura Kesava Dasa (Sri Rangam/Hawaii), and Sriman Ramananda Raya Dasa (Three Rivers, CA).
Dharmasetu das performs pujas and Hindu weddings throughout California, the United States, as well as Mexico and Canada. He is available to travel to any domestic and international destination.
His warm and friendly demeanor, his ability to communicate the meaning of the ceremonies he is performing, and to involve the participants and audience have made him a sought after pandit.
He lives in San Diego, California with his wife, Jahnavi and they have two beautiful daughters, Cintamani and Tulasi-priya.
Recent Client Appreciation - May 2025
We had the pleasure of Dharmasetuji conducting our pujas for my daughter’s wedding three weeks ago.He performed Ganesh puja and Grah shanti puja at my home and the Hindu wedding ceremonies at the venue.
I cannot say enough about the beautiful vidhi’s he performed, especially as ours was a mixed cultural wedding we wanted those who could not understand have a good insight to what the aspect of such elaborate ceremonies means in English.
Not only was it our opinion that he was outstanding in this, but the fact that so many of my guests on both sides of the wedding parties came up to me after the events and praised his conducting of the ceremonies and the explanations and the calmness that he brings with him throughout it all.
I praise his ability to adapt if something is missing or time is delayed and more. I would give him a 10/10 for bringing so much spiritual grace to our events. Dharmasetuji also brought enough of his own supplies for when things were missing from my supply box and for that I am truly grateful.
Most noted comment apart from his lovely explanations of Vedic rituals was “everything was short and sweet” and included all the important elements of the vidhi’s to be performed.