“Nothing has changed since last week’s report.
“Hari Hari,
Baladeva”
I can’t imagine or appreciate what a great accomplishment or practice it is. Rupa Gosvami says, “I do not know how much nectar is contained in this word ‘Krs-na.’ If only I had thousands of heads, then I could chant Hare Krishna.” I try to think of the qualities of the holy names and the great praises made by the acaryas for the process. Sometimes I think of Krishna. It’s beyond my comprehension. It has the potential to bring me very close to Krishna because He’s nondifferent from His names. Thus, we say Krishna dances on your tongue when you chant.
******
When I was young, it used to be a physical act. I would move my jaw with exaggerated movements and chant out loud. I chanted in the temple with many devotees. Sometimes I got up on my feet and stomped and walked back and forth to drive out the mental distractions. I often chanted all my rounds at one go. I fear if I tried that today it would bring on an exertion headache. For a while I even used a hand mirror to make sure I was chanting the mantra accurately. Sometimes I squirted my face with a water bottle. I went all out.
******
You struggle at japa, but it is the most worthy effort. How wonderful are those devotees who are actually enthusiastic to chant. They have already conquered all the Vedic sacrifices and austerities.
******
I just did a ninth round because I wasn’t feeling sleepy. Now I’ll try to take a nap so that I won’t be drowsy during the period when we chant in the closed car. The chanting usually gets slower then. I chant at least four rounds, and then we go out for the walk, during which I chant maybe two and a half rounds, and then finish the quota when we return to the car, refreshed. I usually get my sixteenth round done as we’re driving back to the house or after breakfast.
******
Last night, my 5:00 to 6:30 P.M. chanting went quickly. It should never be a burdensome chore. I try to escape this by thinking of the famous qualities of the holy names, as described in the scriptures. I impress myself with the importance of what I am doing. “Of all the instructions of the spiritual master, the instruction to chant sixteen rounds is essential.”
******
You have said that what we think of at the time of death is very important, and it determines our next life. Prabhupada suggested the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra at that time and to practice it at all times during our normal condition of life. I pray that You will enable me to do this and to leave in an auspicious condition at death.
******
Can you write again after eight rounds? Yes, I can. Say how it went honestly and without fear. Write something nice about the holy names. They flow from your mouth and bring you to Krishna. It is the dharma for the age. There is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way to reach Krishna in Kali Yuga except by chanting the holy names.
******
I was feeling desirous of chanting in the early morning. I swam into it, like bathing in the Yamuna. I admit the quietness of my life. The loneliness of chanting Hare Krishna. My visiting Godbrother said it was important; he does it steadily every morning.
******
After over forty years of practice, my regulation has been ingrained. Raghunatha dasa Gosvami is said to have his regulative principles ingrained like lines in a rock. Do it out of duty, and my duty is strong. It has been getting stronger lately. Why do you like to chant alone? Because I can chant better without distraction from another person. I like to hear myself chanting clearly. What do you like best about chanting? I like the fact that I am chanting. Prabhupada used to say that chanting leads to more chanting. I like to build up the numerical strength and see it growing and growing.
******
Do you think you can improve your attitude? Certainly. I am bound to get better as I practice at it. I am not disappointed. I like my chanting, although I know it is very poor. I have hopes that Krishna will help me improve my attitude. I feel I am on an uprise. What about the whispering? I believe I don’t have the physical strength to chant louder. It is not the best, but it is all I can offer right now.
******
Are you becoming a bhajananandi? It depends on what you mean by that. I am just chanting my prescribed rounds. It is what Prabhupada wants us to do. I like the saying that the best gostyanandi is a bhajananandi who preaches. You have to chant well in order to become a preacher. Chanting well and talking about the chanting is one of the most important forms of preaching.
******
The karmis and the yogis and the jnanis do not attain the spiritual world but come back to this world to fulfill their desires. Only the devotees go back to Godhead. I was able to think of that. Were you restless and unwilling to chant? No, I pressed on, accumulating the strength of the rounds with willingness to do it. Did you like to chant? Yes, I like to chant. Was there a quality of prayer? Not so much. What did you pray for? I prayed to chant better.
******
Why do you want to write about japa, why is that important? Because I want to honestly report what I did each day. I want to connect to readers and tell them my honest performance. It is important for me to write down how the chanting went. What do the holy names really mean to you? They are the life and soul of my vaidhi bhakti. They are my main way to Krsna.
******
I’m sorry that I did not do better today. Where did your mind wander? It wandered to the fact that I have to go out to get an x-ray today. What were the corrective core things you did to keep attentive and on course? I brought the mind back to the sounds of the holy names, even though they were silent today. I was able to hear the syllables in my mind. Did you feel lonely? No, I did not. I did my business. Did you feel blissful? To some degree. I moved over the rounds smoothly and appreciated it. Did you think of Srila Prabhupada? Not so much. But he’s behind the whole thing. He is the reason I do it. How do you rate this session from one to ten? Today I would say it was seventy percent at best.
pp. 31-33
Like the snowflake, the kaleidoscope reveals distinct patterns, in this case patterns of shapes and colors, which themselves are unique and unrepeatable. With each tumble of this instrument, new shapes and colors appear, even if for just a moment in time. The kaleidoscopic character of Satsvarupa Maharaja’s poetry collected in this volume possesses the qualities of a snowflake, as well as shapes and colors, which can be glimpsed for but a moment in the mind’s eye of the writer.
(None better)
He went home he went home he went out past documenting his life
to what? Sixty men in these skivvies the long-johns the knickers of WWI the blood and stabbing in the trenches.
He had this to say:
I am a boy you are a girl
he prayed to God got a deep pain in his
abdomen
wanted his own to find
Prabhu
Prabhu
Krishna songs in India festival
He sang but felt too
warm
couldn’t find the pages
how to turn the phone book
then I said to
Orphan Annie
unconscious
you’re wilder
Max is making wax.
Within this poem, Satsvarupa Maharaja carries us from World War One to kirtana, to an explicit reference to the unconscious with the appearance of Broadway’s Orphan Annie with a rousing conclusion to jazz great Max Roach. And this is but an introduction to that which awaits the reader. These poems will overflow received boundaries as the writer holds nothing back from the free range of his everyday consciousness.
Batten down hatches
sleep over night is entering another
realm of consciousness,
we hope.
Charles Simic writes a lot
about insomniacs. You
can cure it.
Enter the realm of overnight and come up on the shore of 1 A.M. Even if you have multi-broken sleep, at least you stay in bed, in and out…dreams…
and finally agree to get up and
start the new cycle. Recall
you’re going to read a little
how much Mother Yasoda tried to
bind her son and what
I’ll say, what He’ll
let me.
Allow the change in pace to wash over you, move with themes themselves moving from a literary reference to the poet Charles Simic to Mother Yasoda herself. Relish the conclusion as Satsvarupa Maharaja considers the future, “the new cycle” and what Krishna Himself will move the writer to say. So, with every turn of the page, new shapes and colors will dazzle your eyes. Be prepared for something new. With open eyes, allow Satsvarupa Maharaja’s words draw you in. With open ears, listen to the sounds of his language. With an open heart, enter this imaginative world in which this writer draws you closer to himself as he points even beyond his ever-flowing consciousness toward the source of life and inspiration, Krishna the Supreme Person. Yes, He is to be found within every shape and color of this poetry’s kaleidoscope.
–Rev. John Endler
pp. 188-91
Srila Prabhupada’s orders from his spiritual master were to preach in the West. He was told that on his very first meeting when he was only twenty five years old, and he was emphatically told the same thing in the letter he received just before his spiritual master’s disappearance. Prabhupada so much modeled himself as a deliverer of the Western world that he put words in his pranama mantra, “He is so kindly delivering the Western world, which is filled with impersonalism and voidism.” Srila Prabhupada completed this task obediently and magnificently, opening centers throughout America and Europe. Almost all of his disciples were Americans and Europeans. But in 1971 he returned to India, taking some American disciples, and began vigorously preaching there. He expressed that his preaching in the Western world was the fulfillment of his spiritual master’s order, and his return for preaching in India was his own mission.
Here in this picture taken at a pandal in India we see Srila Prabhupada being honored by distinguished citizens as well as ordinary kinsmen and ladies of India. His Indian movement grew in momentum until it practically overtook his Western movement. He saw the two preaching fronts as working together. He gave a comparison of a blind man and a crippled man. The western people were spiritually blind, but they had material resources, money, which they were willing to spend for Srila Prabhupada’s books. The East (India) was materially crippled but spiritually pious. The lame man could ride on the back of the spiritually blind man and direct him how to walk. He united the two worlds. He built magnificent temples in India, especially in the holy dhamas Vrndavana and Mayapur so that his western disciples could come there and take shelter and learn spiritual culture. And he made a magnificent temple in Bombay to preach to the Indians, with the aid of western disciples and the money they collected from book distribution in the West. Now ISKCON has become very prestigious and strong in India, far beyond what Prabhupada originally saw.
pp. 149-51
Optimism and pessimism appear to be opposite terms, but both states of mind can be used in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Although everyone is familiar with the meaning of these two terms, I would like to present their dictionary definitions:
Optimism: A tendency to look on the more favorable side, or to expect the most favorable outcome of events or conditions, or the belief that good will ultimately triumph over evil and that virtue will be rewarded.
Pessimism: The tendency to see only what is disadvantageous or gloomy, or to anticipate the worst outcome, or the belief that the evil and pain in the world outweigh any goodness or happiness.
These meanings draw lines, and people tend to line themselves along these lines to become either optimists or pessimists, although some people can be found in between the two mentalities.
The Vedas’ stated purpose of human life is not to resign ourselves to a temporary and miserable world, either imagining it happy or understanding its misery, but to strive for permanent happiness. In the Vedic conception, a person negates life only when he identifies the illusory body with the self. Those who affirm the self, accept the opportunity offered in the Vedic teachings to become victorious over death. Anyone who aspires to be a devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is optimistic about the spiritual facts of life and pessimistic toward the opportunities offered by material life. To the degree that that is not true for us shows our lack of advancement is revealed.
I remember once walking with Śrīla Prabhupāda. At the end of the walk, he turned and said, “If you have any idea that material life is happy, you cannot become Kṛṣṇa conscious.” At other times he would say, “There is no happiness in the material world.”
We’re optimistic, but not about material life. Lord Caitanya once called for each devotee except Mukunda. When the devotees asked, “My Lord, are You going to call Mukunda?” the Lord replied, “Mukunda!? Don’t even mention his name. He’s a good-for-nothing. He’s a chameleon. Whoever he’s with, he’s like them. If he associates with Māyāvādīs, he becomes a Māyāvādī. If he comes here, he behaves like a devotee.” The devotees were shocked and tried to intercede on his behalf, but the Lord replied, “No! I will not see Mukunda for millions of lifetimes.” Upon hearing these words, Mukunda began to clap his hands and dance. “I will! I will! I will see the Lord again!” At that, Lord Caitanya laughed and immediately accepted him. Mukunda is an example of a true spiritual optimist;
Optimism means we see the silver lining in the circumstances of our lives, and understand that the silver lining is Kṛṣṇa’s mercy to bring us closer to Him. Mukunda could have thought, “Who knows if I will ever be accepted again? After all, where will I be in millions of lifetimes?” Rather, he was optimistic.
The Bhāgavatam hammers away at our material optimism in verse after verse. We cannot be happy in this world, and if we think we can, we are illusioned. Jaḍa Bharata explains this point concisely to Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa in the Fifth Canto chapter, “The Material World as the Great Forest of Enjoyment”:
“Sometimes, having no money, the conditioned soul does not get sufficient accommodations. Sometimes he doesn’t even have a place to sit, nor does he have the other necessities. In other words, he falls into scarcity, and at that time, when he is unable to secure the necessities by fair means, he decides to seize the property of others unfairly. When he cannot get the things he wants, he simply receives insults from others and thus becomes very morose.
“Although people may be enemies, in order to fulfill their desires again and again, they sometimes get married. Unfortunately, these marriages do not last very long, and the people involved are separated by divorce or other means” (Bhāg. 5.14.36–37).
In the purport Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, “Due to the cheating propensity, people remain envious. Even in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, separation and enmity take place due to the prominence of material propensities” (Bhāg. 5.14.37, purport). In the next verse, Jaḍa Bharata firmly states, “The conclusion is that no one can be happy in material life. One must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness” (Bhāg. 5.14.38).
This basic understanding of optimism and pessimism must be there in any devotee wishing to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We may, however, express individual attitudes according to our psychophysical natures. Some of us may appear more optimistic or pessimistic than others. But the basis for real optimism is in the life of the spirit. There is no happiness in material life.
—Among Friends, Volume 6 #9 (2000)
—Back to Godhead, 35(4) (July 2001)
pp. 229-231
Dreams are a lingering, a delaying. You oversleep because of them. They are an attachment to this world. It may be some foolish activity or even horrible detention—but whatever it is, it keeps you asleep. This gives you a glimpse of the fact that due to attachments, you linger in this world of birth and death. They have to be rooted out. Simultaneously, you want to become more absorbed in the activities of Radha and Krishna. This cannot happen by your own endeavor. Mercy has to descend before the spiritual participation becomes the root of your being, and for the other connections to wither and fall away.
Devotees who preach against all opposition, with faith in the guru’s order, gain his blessings. They get lifted out. I think of them, and I hope I am doing something to attract his mercy. Otherwise, I know I can’t develop a spiritual mind and body just by reading books and chanting.
O best of mantras, You withhold Yourself from me in Your inner form. I am an outer person when it comes to chanting. I seek the inner form of truth.
By rising early, we may pray and deliberate. Is the body fit today? Can I welcome the opportunities? We ask for grace and protection.
“. . . one can neither see, hear, understand nor perceive the Supreme Lord, Krishna, by the material senses. But if one is engaged in loving transcendental service to the Lord from the be¬ginning, then one can see the Lord by revelation” (Bg. 11.4, purport).
“Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend” (Bg. 18.65).
Everyone is dear to Krishna. If we follow Arjuna’s path, we too can attain perfection. “Don’t hesitate, don’t worry,” Krishna says. “Give up all religious activities and surrender to Me.”
“Do it today,” as the advertisers say. “Don’t delay.” You chant His holy names, but it takes more than putting a dollar in the mail. Do it today, all day, all night, all day tomorrow. Be prepared to go on chanting and praying for many lifetimes. Pray for the greed; prove your sincerity. Don’t think, “I’ve done enough. Krishna should fully reveal Himself to me and take me out of this world to safety in the supreme abode.” That thinking is tinged with salvationism. Krishna can purify it. We need to show Him we simply want to serve His devotees, either in this world or in the spiritual world.
But if we cling to life here, using delay tactics as in the dreams our minds create, then what? Krishna, please break the bonds. I cannot break them on my own. Let my devotion flow to You unobstructed, the way the Ganga flows to the sea.
We don’t eat the right things and then we complain of indigestion. Foolish humans. We can love people despite their weaknesses, but our own weaknesses detain us. We say we want devotion to God, but we act in a way to prevent it from happening as fully as possible right now. We act as if it’s not urgent, as if it is something that can be tended to later. It’s a fact, we say, that we can practice God consciousness later, when we have more time. More time? That last stage is filled with disease and bewilderment and death.
I, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, hereby declare myself in need of Sri Krsna’s profound grace. I ask Him to help me. What do I need? I need contrition. I am afraid to become too emotional, and yet . . . Why am I not sorry that I haven’t attained Your attention more? Why don’t You reveal Yourself to me so that I care for You? Your name, just a drop of its essence, would flood me with awareness of You. I would crave the chanting day and night.
pp. 99-101
I believe the Vedas are right because Prabhupada convinced me. He gave me the Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Hare Krsna mantra, prasadam and his way—his way. I can explain this to an audience the next time I go to 26 Second Avenue. I’d like to—how Swamiji taught us and convinced us. I’ll plan for it.
Back to my dream of art. I’ve lived long enough in ISKCON, and seen and read enough, and now I want to process the “data” and come out with it in “paintings.” In my dream last night, I was an art teacher assessing the students’ paintings. I was looking not only at the symbols, images, colors, and designs, but encouraging them to go deeper within themselves and come out with more.
Of course, I am not a painter, but a writer. We all want to see explicit Krsna conscious imagery: Krsna with His flute, Radha and Krsna together, temples, devotees. We don’t want to leave any of it out. But we want what is implicit too—the heart of our own Krsna consciousness should come through.
Who could express the freshness and well-wishing of that morning? And me in our van, living another moment of auspiciousness, driving off as a preacher to visit the next place, full of freedom and hope in Krsna consciousness. If you take away all the nice things in this material life, you could not take away what is nicest, and that is our Krsna consciousness, our allegiance to and endurance in the chanting of the holy names.
As an artist, can I describe that morning? Can I capture the sun rising over the farm in June in Eastern Europe? I can’t do it fully. All I can say is that the fields were green with wheat and grass. There were cows. Not many modern amenities. Czech Republic is a backward, simple country, with less crime and extravagance. The Krsna consciousness at that farm is simple and hard-working. The temple room has unvarnished wood floors. They worship Gaura-Nitai simply. The women are the pujaris while the men tend the cows. Two bull calves arrived from somewhere in Europe while I was there. The devotees sit under the tree in the yard for prasadam, which like most ISKCON temples, is distributed from buckets. The president, Turiya Prabhu, works as hard as the rest. The devotees appear to be in good health, although Turiya warned me to watch out for the sun’s rays. He says they can be harmful.
(So much of my writing seems to be the deflecting of blows from the material nature. I broadcast the news of a private life and say we are staving off the three-fold miseries, but some of them attack us in this way and that. I write of life in this world from a transcendental perspective. We read of Goloka and see before us the material world, but we don’t see as a karmi sees. We see attractive women as dangerous to our spiritual commitment. We see flowers as God’s creation, although we know the flowers in the spiritual world are a million times more beautiful. We see our mind as the enemy, although we try to engage it in Krsna’s service.
I will chant, and I will pray to concentrate on the holy names.
Dear Lord Krsna, please have mercy on this sinner. My dear Lord Krsna, please have mercy on this sinner. That’s the Jesus prayer. We mean, “Please engage me in Your service.” That prayer comprehends and includes all. Mercy for the sinner is included in the gift of service. “Please engage me in Your service,” includes, “Please make me strong to preach,” “Please let me have faith,” “Please don’t let me fall down,” “Please let me do right,” etc. Please engage me in Your service—hear the mantra and reflect on it.
pp. 48-50
I asked Madhu how he felt while he read Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He said he was hooked. He was challenged. It churned up his emotions. He accepted the story as reality—”It didn’t matter if it was true or not. I don’t care whether such a boat ever existed. Marlowe’s thoughts were true.”
It roused in Madhu feelings of anger toward pseudo-righteousness and the insensitivity greed produces. “All these things are true now just as they were true a hundred years ago.”
I asked him how I might use this book in my own writing. He said that my big obstacle in writing fiction seems to be that I don’t want to be caught up in fabrication, but when he read how Conrad began the story and quickly handed it over to Marlowe, Madhu thought this was the answer to my dilemma. He meant that it was like my style to stay near a fictional character, just as Marlowe actually speaks for Conrad.
Madhu suggested I write on the theme of darkness in society, but he added that I would probably have to be more involved in the world to do it. He mentioned Thomas Merton, who didn’t find it incompatible to be a monk and yet be involved in the anti-nuclear and civil rights movements in America. I could write about darkness. He mentioned some examples of the world’s “darkness”: Hitler’s death camps, England’s enforced famine on India, the Mafia’s killing and protection racket, how America controls its interests and how people get killed when they go against them.
The Vedas state, tamasi ma, jyotir gamah: “Come out of the darkness into the light.” “This Bhagavata Purana is as brilliant as the sun . . . Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the age of Kali shall get light from this Purana.” Gaura-Nitai rise like the simultaneous appearance of the sun and moon to drive out the dense darkness within people’s hearts. Om ajnana-timirandhasya: “I was standing in darkness with my eyes shut, but my spiritual master has opened my eyes by the torch light of knowledge.” Krsna-surya-sama, “Krsna is light.” Where there is light, there cannot be nescience.
Devotees have already climbed out of the darkness at least to some degree. We’re already enlightened with transcendental knowledge, thanks to Srila Prabhupada. We’re no longer engaged in our lower natures and being dragged to hell. Yes, we’re enlightened— as long as we stay as the servant of the servant of the Lord. That is our eternal svarupa. To recognize that is liberation. Then, having received the light by which we can see ourselves and the world, we are obliged to give it to others.
It’s when a devotee goes to preach that he encounters darkness. It can be frightening. Some transcendentalists prefer not to confront the ignorance of the bewildered and evil-prone conditioned souls. If we take the risk to enlighten them, however, we become dearmost servants of Krsna.
The dirtiness, the horror is material life. Vyasadeva saw it in a vision where he saw the material miseries of the living beings. He also saw their deliverance by the linking process of devotional service. Therefore, he com-piled the Srimad-Bheigavatam, which is in relation to the Supreme Truth. Our spiritual master wants us to distribute that knowledge in the mood of humble servants to the previous acaryas. Srila Prabhupada did this on a grand scale and I must always serve him as he desires.
pp. 297-299
If I don’t fall asleep or
fall off the chair, and if I
don’t forget to be who I am and
be guided by Krsna always
(alert but not mad enough to
cut my own throat or someone else’s—) If I write with Seymour’s Miss Overman in mind
and Yadupriya dasi and Krsna-Balarama dasa but wait!
I better forget them while writing this poem or it will be derailed by the compassion
of a priest listening to confession.
Dear disciples, the best thing I can do for you is to remember the nice feeling I had while hearing
krsna-katha and to sneak in
teachings when neither of us are looking—Oh! let it land
right between our eyes—
that same talk about transmigration through the eight million species, or any
drop from the ocean of bhakti.
My lecture on the gopis as teachers for all
humanity got
rave reviews from Madhumangala dasa. Our saffron
cloth flutters on
the clothes line.
Birds with Italian names chirp—
it’s 7 P.M.—are they still working on that house, those builders?
I don’t feel myself enough filled with
Prabhupada’s teachings (although my belly
is full of hot, honeyed milk).
But I’m not full, not profound, not devoted enough. When I collect thoughts it’s about things
like how my dentures pinch my gums or how suddenly
the daisies, like tulips, close at night, and Italy has
rich
grass.
O Prabhupada, let me hear!
Just yesterday I heard you say,
“Someone asked me, ‘Have you seen Krsna?’ I replied, Who has not seen Krsna?
Everyone sees Krsna,”
I heard you say this, Prabhupada, but then my attention faded and I was lost.
Just that much—that everyone sees Krsna all the time
came back in a flash. What was that? What
else did I miss? It’s on the tip of my pen.
Let me keep hearing
his sustaining voice, his expressions worth meditating upon:
“When I say Krsna, I mean God.”
My God is everywhere—in the air, in the pillar, under the fan,
in the whir-whir session, in the perfect book Srimad-Bhagavatam.
His smiling face
is seen in Chapters 29 to 34
and His flute in 21. My God is yours but you know Him only as August Preceptor, White-bearded Sistine, Rage of Almighty,
God at Death.
I know Him
only as I’ve heard
from my spiritual master—as Krsna the Supreme, who plays with His dearest devotees
but I can’t tell you ’cause you’re faithless.
in Vrndavana
Back and forth he walks the long roof
I hope he can pay attention to the names. Or more honestly, I’m curious whether he can pay attention. I know I can’t.
Six enemies: lust, anger, intoxication, illusion, envy, and fear attack me,and plan-making. Maybe other devotees are doing better.
Radhe-Krsna, Radhe-Krsna, Ra-dhe!
Another asrama, this singer an oldish
man. There’s no place in the world like this.
American poets—
too raunchy, too sophisticated, don’t value Krsna consciousness, pure souls, or the mode of goodness. I can’t understand half their
poems and some I wouldn’t want to.
Strange to think of them in Vrndavana and then to blink, hear again that asrama, and
turn to this page.
To Śrīla Prabhupāda, who encouraged his devotees (including me) To write articles and books about Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.
I wrote him personally and asked if it was alright for his disciples to write books, Since he, our spiritual master, was already doing that. He wrote back and said that it was certainly alright For us to produce books.
I have a personal story to tell. It is a about a time (January–July 1974) I spent as a personal servant and secretary of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, founder-äcärya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Although I have written extensively about Çréla Prabhupäda, I’ve hesitated to give this account, for fear it would expose me as a poor disciple. But now I’m going ahead, confident that the truth will purify both my readers and myself.
First published by The Gītā-nāgarī Press/GN Press in serialized form in the magazine Among Friends between 1996 and 2001, Best Use of a Bad Bargain is collected here for the first time in this new edition. This volume also contains essays written by Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami for the occasional periodical, Hope This Meets You in Good Health, between 1994 and 2002, published by the ISKCON Health and Welfare Ministry.
This book has two purposes: to arouse our transcendental feelings of separation from a great personality, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and to encourage all sincere seekers of the Absolute Truth to go forward like an army under the banner of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
A single volume collection of the Nimai novels.
Śrīla Prabhupāda was in the disciplic succession from the Brahmā-Mādhva-Gauḍīya sampradāya, the Vaiṣṇavas who advocate pure devotion to God and who understand Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He always described himself as simply a messenger who carried the paramparā teachings of his spiritual master and Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Dear Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept this or it’s worse than useless.
You have given me spiritual life
and so my time is yours.
You want me to be happy in Krishna consciousness
You want me to spread Krishna consciousness,
This collection of Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami’s writings is comprised of essays that were originally published in Back to Godhead magazine between 1966 and 1978, and compiled in 1979 by Gita Nagari Press as the volume A Handbook for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.
This second volume of Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami’s Back to Godhead essays encompasses the last 11 years of his 20-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Back to Godhead magazine. The essays in this book consist mostly of SDG’s ‘Notes from the Editor’ column, which was typically featured towards the end of each issue starting in 1978 and running until Mahārāja retired from his duties as editor in 1989.
This collection of Satsvarupa dasa Goswami’s writings is comprised of essays that were originally published in Back to Godhead magazine between 1991 and 2002, picking up where Volume 2 leaves off. The volume is supplemented by essays about devotional service from issues of Satsvarupa dasa Goswami’s magazine, Among Friends, published in the 1990s.
“This is a different kind of book, written in my old age, observing Kṛṣṇa consciousness and assessing myself. I believe it fits under the category of ‘Literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.’ It is autobiography, from a Western-raised man, who has been transformed into a devotee of Kṛṣṇa by Śrīla Prabhupāda.”
The Best I Could DoI want to study this evolution of my art, my writing. I want to see what changed from the book In Search of the Grand Metaphor to the next book, The Last Days of the Year.
a Hare Krishna ManIt’s world enlightenment day
And devotees are giving out books
By milk of kindness, read one page
And your life can become perfect.
Calling Out to Srila Prabhupada: Poems and PrayersO Prabhupāda, whose purports are wonderfully clear, having been gathered from what was taught by the previous ācāryas and made all new; O Prabhupāda, who is always sober to expose the material illusion and blissful in knowledge of Kṛṣṇa, may we carefully read your Bhaktivedanta purports.
I use free-writing in my devotional service as part of my sādhana. It is a way for me to enter those realms of myself where only honesty matters; free-writing enables me to reach deeper levels of realization by my repeated attempt to “tell the truth quickly.” Free-writing takes me past polished prose. It takes me past literary effect. It takes me past the need to present something and allows me to just get down and say it. From the viewpoint of a writer, this dropping of all pretense is desirable.
Geaglum Free WriteThis edition of Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami’s 1996 timed book, Geaglum Free Write Diary, is published as part of a legacy project to restore Satsvarūpa Mahārāja’s writings to ‘in print’ status and make them globally available for current and future readers.