Sri Doug Kunin is the 974th Mahanta, the Living ECK Master and the worldwide spiritual leader of ECKANKAR, a global teaching focused on direct personal experience with Divine Spirit through dreams, creative contemplative practices, and Soul Travel. Kunin was named successor to ECK Master Harold Klemp on October 25, 2025, before more than 6,000 attendees at the ECK Worldwide Soul Adventure Seminar in Minneapolis. His leadership marks the beginning of ECKANKAR’s next 60-year cycle, known as The Days of Light and Hope.

A lifelong spiritual seeker, Kunin grew up on the West Coast in a family that encouraged spiritual curiosity. From an early age, he experienced the inner Sound Current and vivid spiritual dreams, and around age twelve he had an out-of-body experience during a yoga class. By his teen years, he had begun a personal contemplative practice, paired with a deep study of global religious and metaphysical teachings.

Kunin discovered ECKANKAR at nineteen while studying anthropology at UCLA. After completing his education, he began a career in law and joined ECKANKAR’s staff in 1989 as its in-house counsel. Over nearly four decades, he served as a senior advisor across many dimensions of the international organization, including administration, seminars, outreach, and youth and family programs. He and his wife, Sharon, have led numerous public workshops on spiritual living, and he is the founding host of the ECKANKAR Soul Adventure Podcast.

As the Living ECK Master, Kunin serves both as ECKANKAR’s outer spiritual leader and as an inner guide for students in more than 120 countries. He focuses on helping people cultivate a direct, personal relationship with Divine Spirit and realize their highest spiritual potential. He emphasizes that the highest truth is written in every person’s heart, and that the purpose of the ECK teachings is to awaken the God-Knowledge already within each Soul.

Today, Sri Doug Kunin leads ECKANKAR from its international headquarters at the Temple of ECK Campus in Chanhassen, Minnesota.