Srila Prabhupada and his transcendental books

Srila Prabhupada and his transcendental books

 

                                                                                                                             Veerendra Ekbote

 

        A person throughout his entire lifetime acquires 2 types of knowledges, one that he acquires for his survival in the material world is known as material knowledge and the other for his own personal elevation from material existence is known as spiritual knowledge.

        A person in his childhood by first going to school and learning the various subjects then further attends college in his adolescence to get himself the necessary educational and professional qualification which eventually helps him to earn wealth during his entire lifetime in the material world. Thus the knowledge used for performing material activities and to acquire material wealth to sustain oneself in the material world is known as material knowledge. A person also acquires material knowledge from his everyday life while staying in the material world.

        However, the material knowledge acquired by a person in his entire lifetime is temporary and diminishing as it is completely forgotten and lost when a person dies at the end of his lifetime. It thus proves to be useless for a person who is reborn in his next birth as he has to once again acquire the entire material knowledge from the very beginning due to being forgetful of his previous births because of the illusory effects of Maya or material nature.

         A person then feels the necessity to acquire spiritual knowledge from a bonafide spiritual source and starts giving it primary importance in his lifetime as it serves a higher purpose and he starts realizing the ever-changing, diminishing and temporary nature of material knowledge.

         As compared to material knowledge a person realizes the eternal and transcendental nature of spiritual knowledge which is not affected by the modes of material nature. Since spiritual knowledge is situated on a transcendental platform it is God-centric in creation and is revealed by God himself to self-realized souls like the sages, Acharyas, saints and spiritual Gurus in the material world who then compose the acquired spiritual knowledge from God in the form of transcendental revealed scriptures or literatures for the betterment of mankind that are in search of spiritual knowledge.

         In order to give spiritual knowledge to mankind the Supreme Lord either incarnates in various forms in the material world to establish the principles of religion by destroying evil and demoniac beings or he sends his representatives who act as his direct messengers in spreading eternal divine transcendental knowledge to save mankind from irreligion and ignorance. Thus many saints and prophets sent by God reduce atheism around the world and try to revive God consciousness amongst people who are ignorant about spiritual truths and reestablish theistic principles for the survival of God-centric civilization. Hence some civilizations worship God in monotheistic form while some civilizations are polytheistic or pantheistic in nature. Some consider God to be personal while other consider the Supreme Lord to be impersonal based on their spiritual realizations. All these paths of worshipping the Supreme God are explained by the Supreme Lord himself in Bhagvad Gita or the Song of God. A RigVedic verse also confirms this statement, that the Supreme Lord though one is called by many names by different people according to their spiritual realizations and is approached in that form – Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda vadanti.

        However the highest form of God realization is achieved by the Vaishnavas or the worshippers of Lord Krishna or its Vishnu incarnations who perform devotional service and finally attain the spiritual world (Vaikuntha) from the repeated cycle of birth and death which is situated beyond the material sky and associate eternally with the Supreme Lord by his grace and mercy in the spiritual world. The Supreme Lord Vishnu in order to deliver the fallen souls appear in various forms from the spiritual world in his Lilavatar, Purushavatar, Manvantar avatar, Yugavatar and Saktyavesh avatar incarnations in the material world to save mankind from irreligion by reviving God consciousness and establishing the principles of religion and devotional service unto him.

       In the present world a seeker who is in search of liberation in order to achieve the mercy of the Supreme Lord Krishna or Vishnu must take shelter of a spiritual master in one of the 4 bonafide Vaishnav sects which impart transcendental knowledge for attaining the mercy of the Supreme God through the process of devotional service (Bhakti). These 4 bonafide Vaishnav orders are transcendental in origin and refutes the impersonal philosophy of Shankaracharya (Advaita) that of worshipping the Supreme Lord in its impersonal feature.

       The 4 bonafide Vaishnav philosophies are based on Srila Vyasdeva’s Vedanta sutra which is the culmination or the conclusive truth of all the Vedic knowledges. The Vedic knowledges which were composed during the previous Yugas (ages) were revealed to various Sages in deep meditation by the Supreme Lord himself for the betterment of mankind. Srila Vyasdeva being the literary incarnation of Lord Krishna composed the golden ripen fruit of all Vedic literatures – SrimadBhagvat Purana in his maturity which is considered as the running commentary of his Vedanta sutra at the insistence of his spiritual master sage Narada who is known throughout the entire universe for spreading the glories of Lord Narayan or Krishna by establishing the principles of Bhakti. Thus the 4 bonafide Vaishnav sects promote Bhagvatism and consider the revealed scriptures of Bhagvad Gita and SrimadBhagvatam in spreading the Vaishnav philosophy based on the theistic Vedanta sutra of Vyasdeva.

       The 4 bonafide Vaishnav sects are Sri sampradaya based on Ramanujacharya’s philosophy of Vishitadvaita which trace its lineage from Lord Vishnu’s consort Laxmidevi.

Bramha sampradaya based on Madhvacharya’s philosophy of Dwaita which trace its lineage from Lord Bramha.

Kumar sampradaya based on Nimbarkacharya’s philosophy of Dwaitadwaita which trace its lineage from the 4 Kumaras and

Rudra sampradaya based on Vishnuswami’s philosophy of Sudhadwaita which trace its lineage from Lord Shiva.

       Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted his spiritual master belonging to the Bramha Madhva sect and since he appeared in Gaudadesh (Bengal) as the golden incarnation of Krishna in the form of his devotee to spread and revive Krishna consciousness (Bhakti) amongst the people by introducing the Sankirtan movement or congregational chanting of the holy names. The Vaishnav sect established by him is known as the Bramha Madhva Gaudiya sect and is part of the Bramha sampradaya which is also recognized as one of the 4 bonafide Vaishnav sects and is based on the Vedanta philosophy of Achintya bhedhabheda tattva or simultaneous oneness and difference as propounded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on his commentary of Vedanta Sutra. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also preached that the chanting of the holy names of Lord Hari (Krishna) is the only Yugadharma of Kaliyuga for attaining liberation.

        The disciplic succession established by Lord Chaitanya was unknown to Indians during the British period and the Western world at large. It was known to very few Indians especially in Bengal where Lord Chaitanya established his Sankirtan movement. The modern day Krishna conscious movement based on the teachings of Lord Chaitanya was revived by Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur’s father Srila Bhativinoda Thakura who discovered the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Sridhama Mayapur and wrote many Krishna conscious literature to make aware the general masses about the teachings and preachings of Lord Chaitanya. His son Bhaktisiddhanta Goswami Thakura established 64 Gaudiya Maths all throughout India and attracted many followers to the Krishna conscious movement.

          Srila Abhay Charanarvinda who was born in Calcutta in AD 1896 was one of the ardent followers of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and was attracted to the Krishna conscious movement established by his spiritual master. He was initiated by his spiritual master in the Krishna conscious movement and was given the name A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada when he was initiated into the Sanyasa Diksha by his God-brothers to spread the Krishna conscious message to the western world as ordained by his spiritual master.

         Srila Prabhupada was chosen by his spiritual master to spread Krishna consciousness based on the teachings of Lord Chaitanya and the Bramha Madhva Gaudiya sect amongst the westerners and to Indians alike. In order to attract maximum followers to the Krishna conscious movement Srila Prabhupada wrote many Krishna conscious books in English which were readable and understandable by majority people throughout the world and were instrumental in the rapid spread of the transcendental, eternal and spiritual Krishna conscious philosophy which was established by Lord Krishna himself 5000 years ago and was passed from him through disciplic order of spiritual masters until the present age.

         Since Srila Prabhupada was the spiritual master of the present age as ordained by his spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarawati to spread and establish Krishna consciousness amongst the masses he first took the task of translating the major Sanskrit Vaishnav literatures written by VedVyas such as the BhagvadGita, the voluminous SrimadBhagvatam into the English language. He also translated the Sanskrit and Bengali literatures composed by the 6 Goswamis of Vrindavan who were the disciples of Lord Chaitanya and also translated the voluminous  Bengali literature namely Chaitanya Charitamrita into the English language. His main aim in translating spiritual and transcendental Vaishnav literatures into English was to give ordinary people easy access to great Sanskrit literatures as there were very few people who could understand and interpret the Sanskrit language and translate its spiritual content with the same meaning and spirit.

         Since Srila Prabhupada was an Acharya or bonafide spiritual master belonging to Bramha Madhva Gaudiya sect he could easily interpret and understand the transcendental literatures in Sanskrit in their real sense and nature and convey its divine message to the general masses in the same spirit as they were passed in the disciplic succession since time immemorial for the healthy growth and well being of a God-centric civilization.

          In the year 1965 Srila Prabhupada traveled to the western world by ship after completing the translation of his major Sanskrit books into English language such as Bhagvad Gita and few cantos of SrimadBhagvatam in order to spread the Krishna conscious movement and primarily chose the United States of America to first transmit the message of Lord Chaitanya and inundate the western world with the Sankirtan movement of Lord Chaitanya.

           At that time the western world, especially U.S.A. was unaware of the transcendental and spiritual wealth of India hidden in its Krishna conscious literature. Srila Prabhupada after seeing the material advancement of the western countries recognized that they were all spiritually weak in their God realization and gave them the greatest medicine of Harinaam or chanting of the holy names of the Supreme Lord which acted as a relief from their miserable conditioned hippy lifestyle. Many hippies who were materialistically very rich and advanced had become atheists in their outlook. Srila Prabhupada transformed all these hippies and non-believers into Vaishnavas or followers of Krishna through his preachings and enlightened them through his Krishna conscious philosophy. Soon many people in the western world got attracted to Krishna consciousness primarily through the transcendental books written by Srila Prabhupada and his enlightening lectures. In order to spread Krishna consciousness and make it a bonafide movement Srila Prabhupada established the International Society for Krishna consciousness in the western world in New York in the year 1966. In order to spread Krishna conscious philosophy throughout the world many beautiful temples were constructed by the followers of Srila Prabhupada in major cities which helped in rapid spread of the ISKCON movement and garner maximum support and following throughout the world.

            Srila Prabhupada also returned to India with his western devotees where his followers established beautiful temples, distributed Krishna conscious books written by him and revived Krishna consciouness amongst the masses. During his lifespan of 11 years after the establishment of ISKCON movement, the founder Acharya himself initated many followers to the Krishna conscious movement by traveling 4 times in his old age all throughout the world until he left the material world in the year 1977. The spiritual books written by Srila Prabhupada are the major source of inspiration in the rapid spread of the Krishna conscious movement throughout the world. Especially the translation of Bhagvad Gita As it is written in English by his divine grace Swami Prabhupada is the most famous Krishna conscious literature and one of the highly distributed books in the world is now available in almost 80 languages. The rapid spread of the Krishna conscious philosophy carried on by ISKCON followers throughout the world is based on the book distribution of Krishna conscious books written by Srila Prabhupada.

             The ISKCON movement established by Srila Prabhupada even today primarily relies on the distribution of his transcendental books which are a source of inspiration to many people who want eternal happiness and who wish to transcend the modes of material nature. Thus during feast days and every morning classes held in various ISKCON temples throughout the world, Srila Prabhupada’s translations and purports of the Bhagvad Gita and Bhagvatam are read and discussed amongst devotees and to the general masses that are assembled by the followers and senior devotees of the ISKCON movement.

            Srila Prabhupada used to often say to his followers that the books written by him will be the basis of the ISKCON movement and will act as a spiritual guide for all of humanity in the future which will establish a golden age of Krishna conscious civilization for the next 10000 years. The whole world is indebted to Srila Prabhupada  for the spiritual wealth that he gave us in the form of his transcendental books and for the spiritual knowledge it contains. Srila Prabhupada became instrumental in establishing Krishna consciousness in the modern day world which was ignorant about self-realization and the principles of devotional service whereby we can go to home, back to Godhead.

                                                    || Hari Bol ||

 

 

 

 

 

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