Early life and education

Robert Edwin Svoboda was born in 1953 in Texas, United States. He grew up in Texas near an oil camp, before moving to Oklahoma where he did his schooling.

Svoboda graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1972 with a B.S. (major in Chemistry, minor in French). In 1973, he moved to India and stayed on for another 10 years. During this time he met his guru Vimalananda and joined Tilak Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, an ayuvedic college in Pune. In 1980, he graduated from Pune University with a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS), receiving the title Ayurvedacharya. Author and ayurvedic physician Dr. Vasant Lad was one of his teachers there.

During and after his formal ayurvedic training he was tutored in ayurveda, yoga, jyotish, tantra and allied subjects by his mentor, Vimalananda. Svoboda also served as Vimalananda's "Authorized Racing Agent" (thoroughbred horses) at the Royal Western India Turf Club in Mumbai and Pune between 1975 and 1985. He lived in India between 1973 and 1980 and again between 1982 and 1986.

Grants and awards

Svoboda received both the National Merit Scholarship and University of Oklahoma Merit Scholarship in 1970; the U.S. Office of Education Scholarship in 1973; National Endowment for the Humanities Youthgrant in 1975; and the Marsden Foundation Grant in 1978.

Between 1975 and 1980 he won all but one of the University of Pune awards for academic excellence in ayurveda, including the Ram Narayan Sharma Gold Medal.

Svoboda was ritually initiated into the Pokot tribe of northern Kenya in June 1973 as its first white member.

Professional experience

Since 1985, Svoboda travels the world lecturing, consulting, teaching and writing. He serves as adjunct faculty at the Ayurvedic Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bastyr University, Kenmore, Washington. Svoboda authored the new entry on ayurveda for Encyclopedia Britannica, 2000.