By Madhava Smullen
This year, as we celebrate the 125th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s appearance in 1896, an excellent way to become absorbed in the pastimes and teachings of the ISKCON Founder-Acharya is the latest, fifth volume of Memories: Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint.
The series all began back in 1991 when Siddhanta Das, the devotee behind the project, was working with ISKCON Television (ITV) and tested out some new video cameras by taping Srutakirti Das, who had served as Srila Prabhupada’s servant, telling Prabhupada stories.
Inspired, Siddhanta began traveling around the world filming interviews with Prabhupada disciples. Over the past thirty-one years, he has amassed over 400 interviews, featuring over 2,500 separate unique stories about Srila Prabhupada. These were first presented on VHS, then on DVDs; today, Siddhanta has made 85 videos, each one-and-a-half hour long, available on one 512GB flash drive, for 140 hours worth of transcendental viewing pleasure.
“Krishna also gave me the thought that it might be beneficial to archive these videos in the form of books – for those who don’t have the ability to plug in at a particular time, at least they’ll have the opportunity to read the stories,” he says.
Taking time to faithfully transcribe and edit the stories for publication, Siddhanta has released five volumes of Prabhupada Memories books, each of which cover fifteen videos. which are also available for Kindle, iPad or iPhone.
The latest book, Volume 5, was five years in the making and is the longest and most packed with nectar yet. Covering twenty videos in the Memories series, it runs 520 pages, and contains over 700 anecdotes from 109 disciples.
Included in the book are stories about Srila Prabhupada from Mukunda Goswami, Srutakirti Das, Gopal Krsna Goswami, Bhakti Caitanya Swami, Cinmayi Dasi, Jananivas Das, Bhaktimarga Swami, Manjuali Dasi, Mohanasini Dasi, Swarup Das, Ranchor Das, Sripati Das, Mondakini Dasi, Bhurijana Das, Janaki Dasi, Janananda Swami, Bhakta Das, Jagannathesvari Dasi, Krsna Bhamini Dasi, Sikhi Mahiti Das, Keshava Bharati Das Goswami, and many, many more.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/fifth-prabhupada-memories-book-packed-with-inspirational-and-educational-anecdotes,7887/
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