Śivarāma Swami was born in Budapest in a Jewish middle-class family to Holocaust survivor parents. His mother, Magda Létai, worked at UVATERV, a road and railway constructing company as a department supervisor. His father, Pál Létai, was a textile chemist. Although they raised their son protectively and conservatively, they did not introduce him to religious teachings. In December 1956, after his first year of primary school in Hungary, his family emigrated to Canada during the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution. In Montreal he continued his primary education and was introduced to religion at the Hungarian Protestant church he attended on Sundays. As a child he loved to read, and wrote many poems and stories. In 1966, inspired by his parents—especially his mother—Péter Létai was accepted by McGill University in Montreal, where he studied metallurgical engineering. Due to his conservative upbringing, he was taken aback by the behavior of students and teachers alike, and felt that real values and character training were lacking. Education was focused only on getting a career and enjoying the world. His disappointment made him open to alternative ways of thinking. In 1967, he first saw members of ISKCON, representatives of the Indian bhakti tradition, chanting and dancing at the university campus and at the Montreal World's Fair.