Let Bhakti Vikas Maharaja Sell 1 Billion Books
BY: PATITA PAVANA (UDDHARANA) DAS
Dec 02, 2011 — BLAGOEVGRAD, BULGARIA (SUN) — By the grace of the Vaishnavas, I beg the mercy of each of you in this humble attempt at replying to the article by Shriman Gauranga das Prabhu that appeared in [and disappeared from] yesterday's edition of the Sampradaya Sun. I am responding because I do not concur with Gauranga das Prabhu's conclusion, which to my mind is ill-considered.
While appreciating Gauranga Prabhu's staunch attitude towards Shrila Prabhupada's books, I think he has missed the point. As I have some experience with the subject matter I humbly beg him to examine with me the issue as I try to share what I have learned.
To paraphrase his statement, he has alleged that HH Bhakti Vikas is merely "promoting himself and his own books" and is "stealing Prabhupada's resources." If that were true, it could be alleged that Gauranga das Prabhu has stolen countless collective hours because his headline article must have been read by thousands of devotees who could have been reading Shrimad Bhagavatam instead. This is his first contradiction.
But indeed Shrila Prabhupada wanted us, indeed ordered us, to write. Whereas the hundreds of mostly illiterate bogus Indian yogis who have arrived in America over the decades with their palms outstretched could not themselves write two words of commentary on shastras, many of Shrila Prabhupada's disciples have actually become empowered. Disciples of His Divine Grace and the great parampara have actually presented genuine and insightful commentaries on transcendental subject matters. For example, Shriman Kushakratha das, an unsung hero of ISKCON, translated, wrote and printed some 300 titles which must be some sort of world record. To my mind many of the books produced by Shrila Prabhupada's disciples have been inspiring and enlightening, though some others have careened off track due to not understanding Prabhupada's message properly. So our primary concern is not the act of publishing books and distributing them, but whether such books boldly carry the torchlight of the World Acharya. We are concerned with the dissemination of bona fide Gaudiya literature that has the blessings of ISKCON's Founder-Acharya.
Thus, Gauranga Prabhu, your point would well taken if we are to concern ourselves with those books that are out of kilter with the verdict of our previous acharyas. It is our commitment that what should righteously be brought into question is whether or not the books of His Holiness Shri Bhakti Vikas Swami are in line with Shrila Prabhupada and the great Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya. The issue at hand should be whether the pure message of Gaudiya Vaishnavism has been diluted or is presented as it is in the printed matter.
Let us take the example of Shrila Prabhupada himself. Had Shrila Prabhupada simply presented the English books of his Guru Maharaja His Divine Grace Shri Shrimad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, few of us would have understood his message due to the overpowering intellect and lofty style of the Founder-Acharya of Shri Gaudiya Math. In fact, it was a necessity that the writings of the Shrila Prabhupada of our Shrila Prabhupada be "translated" from the intellectual English of the scholars of the early 20th century to simple American English. Those who are familiar with the transcendental literary contributions of both Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati (and indeed Shrila Bhaktivinoda) and Shrila Prabhupada are amazed at how exacting the message has been delivered unchanged despite the use of a more modern form of the language. Though the English is somewhat different, the message is absolutely unchanged. That is because Shrila Prabhupada saw a need and filled it; and he did so by the order of his own Guru Maharaja to "print and distribute books."
Of course the situation with Shri Bhakti Vikas Maharaja is a little different from the one described above, but nonetheless the point still stands. No doubt the language that Shrila Prabhupada used in writing his Bhaktivedanta Purports is easily understood by Indians since English is a strong second language in that country. So there is no need to "translate" them. Yet still there is a need for foreign bhaktas to present literature in India and the one million mark which His Holiness has achieved is proof that there is a market for these books. No one was "forced" to sell these books as you have alleged. The need for disciples to write and distribute parampara literature in pursuance of the message of ISKCON's beloved Founder Acharya still stands because that is Prabhupada's divine order. Let us examine why that is.
Shrila Prabhupada brought Americans and Europeans to India in the early 1970's to show the Indian people what they were losing when "like crows and beggars" (as he called them) they were flying off to the West to savor the leftovers of the Western mlecchas. His example was that if the Indians would export their ancient culture abroad as per his example there would be many customers. That is why there was a necessity for Westerners wearing tilak, dhotis and saris to come to India. I'm proud to say that I, too, heard the call and arrived in India in 1972. We faced many ordeals in the early days of ISKCON India. For me these include a trumped-up murder trial and languishing beside an abandoned garbage dump for a week with malaria. I am recounting these events here to demonstrate to you that I have indeed put myself on the line in service to ISKCON and have some familiarity with what I am presenting to you. Talking to you is an odometer with a huge mileage.
Try to understand that there is a certain attraction in India for foreign devotees in India who have produced shastric commentaries. The English ruled India with an iron glove for centuries and none ever appreciated the culture they were subverting. So is it not the glory of Shrila Prabhupada that here Shri Bhakti Vikas Maharaja, an Englishman by birth, comes along, learns several Indian languages and sells these people back their own culture. Is this not the glory of Shrila Prabhupada? The fact is, Gauranga Prabhu, that when white sadhus express a bona fide realization of Krishna consciousness through the media of the printed word, India's allurement becomes amplified to the point of enchantment. By such aggressive preaching and writing the people of India have recognized that ISKCON's Western devotees have truly been transformed into Vaishnavas by the chintamani gem that is Shrila Prabhupada. Therefore, as long as the parampara message is maintained, this writing should be continued because it is the glory of Guru Maharaja. Now I humble submit to you, Gauranga Prabhu, that you please do not think me ostentatious if try to offer a little proof of my conviction from my own fortunate experience at the lotus feet of my spiritual master.
Again let me emphasize that the fact is that Shrila Prabhupada encouraged writers. There are devotees who would want your to believe that this order was meant for a certain chosen few, but no, that is not a fact. This order was meant for all disciples who understood the message of Guru Maharaja. He wanted us to write for Krishna, to please Krishna with our compositions.
Now for the personal stuff, Gauranga Prabhu: In Dec of 1968 I hitch hiked from Santa Fe, where I had been initiated, to meet Shrila Prabhupada in Los Angeles. There His Divine Grace gave me the job of book binder for the planned ISKCON Press. Therefore, I hitch hiked back across country with no money and in the snow and a week later I was in New York. I spent nearly a year working in factories in Hell's Kitchen or Brooklyn learning the trade, and also joining Brahmananda's sankirtan party at night marching a hundred blocks to Times Square and back to the East Village. It was wonderful.
As I learned bookbinding, Shrila Prabhupada became pleased and wrote to me, "I am sending along with Chandanacharya some old editions of our Back To Godhead Magazine for you to bind. I wish to have bound each year's editions of BTG. Thus, there should be one book with all the 1966 issues, one book with the 1967 issues, and one book with the 1968 issues. If possible, please have these books sent along with Brahmananda when he comes here to see me in New Vrindaban. I understand that you have bound two of my Srimad Bhagavatams, but there is no necessity of sending them here immediately. When I need them I will call for them." (I delivered these to his lotus hands in the Spring of ‘69. His Divine Grace was so pleased that he pointed at me and declared, "You are qualified.") He said of my binding that "These are books any man would be proud to own."
Next step was to set up ISKCON Press in Boston. As a book binder in 1969-70, I was alone in the basement of the ex-mortuary on Beacon Street for maybe a dozen hours straight 6 days a week. The cassette player had just been invented and my uncle sent me a Radio Shack cassette player so that I could listen to Shrila Prabhupada's Golden Avatar cassettes over and over again. I remember the tape wherein His Divine Grace said, "Lord Chaitanya encouraged His disciples to write books, a process that those who follow Him continue to carry out to the present day." Since I was hand binding books, folding Back to Godheads and hand cutting those early numbers, those words about writing really hit home. Nowadays as we look back on the early Back to Godheads that we distributed for fifty cents, we can see that many of the devotees' articles were amateurish, but nonetheless Shrila Prabhupada encouraged his disciples to write.
Even though Shrila Prabhupada would later in no uncertain terms inform me that I was (am) a "rascal" and "fool" and even a "demon," nonetheless--amazingly--His Divine Grace still encouraged me to write. The conclusion is that whoever can follow the parampara should be a writer. This job is open to anybody, even a fool like me, as long as he simply agrees to maintain the original message and import. The book may sell, it may not sell. But the act of writing is important for self purification.
And this is the important point, one that Shrila Prabhupada directly instructed me personally and which I would like to share with you Gauranga Prabhu. On14 Oct.73 while I was at the Amsterdam temple, then a hole in the wall in the red light district, I received a letter from His Divine Grace in which he instructed me,
"Regarding writing I may quote from the Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi lila Ninth chapter, the blueprint which I have just received today
esaba prasade likhi caitanya-lila-guna
jani va na jani kari apana-sodhana
‘It is by the mercy of all these Vaishnavas and gurus that I attempt to write bout the pastimes and qualities of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Whether I know or know not it is for self-purification that I write this book.' (CC Adi 9.5)
The purport is that for transcendental writing one must be an authorized Vaishnava and should write to purify oneself, not for credit. It may or may not be published, but one who is actually sincere in writing all his ambitions will be fulfilled."
Shrila Prabhupada had encouraged me, a complete neophyte then as now, to write from as early as 1969 with these words to Gargamuni in a letter:
"Please convey my appreciation to Patita Uddharana for his nice letter of January 1, 1969, and for his poem which he has sent to me via Rayarama. I have very much appreciated his poetic skills which he has shown in writing this poem, and thus I have requested Rayarama to print it in Back to Godhead as soon as possible. Encourage Patita Uddharana to compose more of such poetries. He is a good boy, and I am pleased that he is doing so nicely."
The fact is that Shrila Prabhupada used Back to Godhead as a training ground for Vaishnava writers. He wrote in a letter of 19 Mar 1970, "I am specifically drawing the attention of Patita Uddharana that you may write articles whenever you find time and hand them over to Satsvarupa for publishing in our BTG." In fact I was able to get a few articles and poems into the magazine such as the article "Achyuta Drive My Chariot" which appeared around 1973.
In Oct 1971 I sent several poems to His Divine Grace including Lord Chaitanya's Moon is Rising (which I wrote with Mangalananda). Shrila Prabhupada wrote back "Please continue in your writing of songs and poems for Krishna because singing Krishna's praises is the highest type of spiritual activity and will give Him great enjoyment. I would be pleased if you could send me a tape of some of your compositions."
It was around that time that I proposed to our spiritual master to put together some of Shrila Prabhupada's arguments against impersonalism. To this idea Shrila Prabhupada wrote, "Your idea to publish arguments against impersonalists is a very good proposal. Do it nicely with mutual consultation with your learned elder Godbrothers and Godsisters, and if you like I can provide answers to questions that impersonalists frequently ask." (8 Dec. 1971). In fact, this project later blossomed into the book Shri Pushpanjali, a collection of over 800 of Prabhupada's analogies for establishing Krishna consciousness (and defeating mayavada). Authorized by Shrila Prabhupada, Shri Pushpanjali book was subsequently published by the Bombay BBT by His Grace Shriman Bhima Prabhu. It did not sell a million copies, though I would be grateful if it did.
In the mid-70's in London I began writing Krishna conscious articles and getting them published in local Indian newspapers under the guidance of PR master HH Mukunda Swami. At that time His Divine Grace wrote to me, "I have seen your column from the Gujarati newspaper and I am very pleased. Somebody must speak and you have taken up the task. I offer you my thanks. You are an elder disciple and you have heard what I am speaking, so you should just speak what you have heard and it will have potent effect. This is the power of parampara, disciplic succession. So you must be prepared to meet all opposition because practically everyone is mayavadi. They do not have faith in Krishna's words in Bhagavad Gita. Therefore we have a great responsibility to present Krishna's words without change. Please do the needful." (14 Nov. 1974)
Shrila Guru Maharaja continued to encourage Vaishnava literary engagement in a subsequent letter, "Your column in the Gujarat Samachar is a great way to preach Krishna consciousness to the Indians there in London. They will become very much familiar with our ideas and goals by reading it regularly. Please continue it nicely." (3 Feb. 1975)
Therefore, Gauranga das Prabhu, let me conclude that from what I have experienced in Krishna consciousness, it is Shrila Prabhupada's direct order that this publishing and distribution of sampradayic literature should be continued. Sampradayic means that whatever you or I say or write should lead back to the lotus feet of the spiritual master. Then there is no harm, rather it is a glorious endeavor. In your article you have failed to show that His Holiness Bhakti Vikas has in any way presented something other than pure Gaudiya Vaishnava discourse. That is the crux of the matter.
In fact, had Shri Bhakti Vikas Maharaja not collected huge amounts of information in his stupendous literary achievement entitled Shri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, then much scattered information he salvaged would have gone to the samadhis with many of Shrila Prabhupada's Godbrothers. Let me add that if it were a fact that Shri Bhakti Vikas were doing something other than spreading Krishna consciousness, then I would be the first to jump on the podium and share it with you. But there is no such self-promoting book produced by Shri Bhakti Vikas Maharaja that in any way confounds the position of our beloved Guru Maharaja. There is no "Eternal Wisdom of Bhakti Vikas" or "Swamiji's Nectareous Sayings for World Peace." Nothing of the sort, Prabhu. Only pure parampara--and unless and until you can prove me wrong, I'm hanging onto my opinion just as surely as I will continue to hang onto Shrila Prabhupada's twin lotus feet.
Bhakti Vikas Maharaja, truth be told, is a fearless fighter for the cause of Krishna conscious purity both within ISKCON and without ISKCON. Like Arjuna poised on the chariot with his Gandiva bow aimed against the Kauravas, he stands as the greatest enemy of mayavada and voidism. His disciples are fixed up; they are as good as the best of us. In these days when so many of our brethren have forgotten the essence of the message--a message that we are all eternal servants of the servants of the servants of Krishna's servant--the writings of His Holiness Bhakti Vikas Maharaja deserve to be distributed far and wide.
I know Bhakti Vikas Swami today and have known him since he was a new bhakta back in London when I was writing "Krishna's Column" for the Gujarat Samachar. He has remained steadfast and within the fire of genuine bhakti for the nearly forty years I have known him. In my heart I know that Shrila Prabhupada is very, very pleased with his speaking and writing. I am proud that I have personally assisted in distributing his parampara literature here in Bulgaria where (through his disciples) his influence has been a blessing.
Rabble-rousing verbiage, as gutsy as it sounds, remains hollow and unimpressive without a genuine philosophical character and backbone. Therefore, Gauranga das Prabhu, I repeat my challenge to you to prove to me that HH Bhakti Vikas' books have deviated from the parampara in any way big or small. Until then I will only conclude that you are uselessly blowing smoke on a windy day.
