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Post by Nitaidas on Aug 13, 2019 13:03:17 GMT -6
Greetings Everyone,
Sorry for my absence over the last few days. We have been busy closing up the house in Crestone and moving back to Kirksville for the academic year. The house in Crestone is fully functional now, though there are still a thousand small things to do or fix. Betsy and I spent a wonderful month and a half there this summer and expect to return sometime this fall. We had fresh air, beautiful mountains, and interesting people. Where else can one go to the laundromat and hear discussions of non-dualism, ufos, energy fairs, starting schools in Boston, and design flaws in airplane parts by ex-airplane manufacturing employees? An amazing variety people show up in Crestone. Sadly, while we were there two expert climbers lost their lives trying to climb Mount Crestone solo. It took searchers a week each time to find their broken bodies. Visited the Haidakhandi Universal Ashram several times and the sat-sanga at the Sri Aurobindo Center twice. The shrine room of Vajra Vidya Retreat Center is amazing and a great place to meditate from 9 to 10 in the morning. The only thing missing is a Radha-Krishna mandira.
It was hard to keep up the translation work out there, but I did manage to get some in, mostly on Kanupriya G.'s Hari-nama Cintamani. I am still in the front matter, however. I will post what I have done in a few days.
More on Sundarananda Das' Mahamantra, too. We are getting to the argument there finally. Mostly so far it has been scriptural citations demonstrating how early bhaktas always counted while they chanted the Mahamantra and did kirtan with other songs, but not the Mahamantra. Conclusion? Bhaja Nitai-Gaur Radhe Shyam/ japa Hare Krishna Hare Ram.
More later.
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Post by Nityānanda dāsa on Aug 13, 2019 21:26:18 GMT -6
Greetings Everyone, Sorry for my absence over the last few days. We have been busy closing up the house in Crestone and moving back to Kirksville for the academic year. The house in Crestone is fully functional now, though there are still a thousand small things to do or fix. Betsy and I spent a wonderful month and a half there this summer and expect to return sometime this fall. We had fresh air, beautiful mountains, and interesting people. Where else can one go to the laundromat and hear discussions of non-dualism, ufos, energy fairs, starting schools in Boston, and design flaws in airplane parts by ex-airplane manufacturing employees? An amazing variety people show up in Crestone. Sadly, while we were there two expert climbers lost their lives trying to climb Mount Crestone solo. It took searchers a week each time to find their broken bodies. Visited the Haidakhandi Universal Ashram several times and the sat-sanga at the Sri Aurobindo Center twice. The shrine room of Vajra Vidya Retreat Center is amazing and a great place to meditate from 9 to 10 in the morning. The only thing missing is a Radha-Krishna mandira. It was hard to keep up the translation work out there, but I did manage to get some in, mostly on Kanupriya G.'s Hari-nama Cintamani. I am still in the front matter, however. I will post what I have done in a few days. More on Sundarananda Das' Mahamantra, too. We are getting to the argument there finally. Mostly so far it has been scriptural citations demonstrating how early bhaktas always counted while they chanted the Mahamantra and did kirtan with other songs, but not the Mahamantra. Conclusion? Bhaja Nitai-Gaur Radhe Shyam/ japa Hare Krishna Hare Ram.More later. Jai Nitai Das-ji! Great to hear from you again! And thanks for the description of Crestone. My wife and I will be taking a vacation sometime in October it's looking like. Maybe a road trip? We were thinking Colorado or Montana (Glacier National Park) or California (Big Sur, Yosemite, Redwoods, etc.) and it looks like California is where we'll head to. But I digress... I'm excited to read more of Prabhupada Kanupriya Goswami's work you're translating! And regarding the Mahamantra by Sundarananda Das, have you posted any of that here already? Sounds like another great read. I'm planning to pick up as many books as possible on this next trip to India. Specifically Bengali books and specifically old, rare ones if I can find any. Any recommendations? Jai Nitai Gaur!!
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Post by Nitaidas on Aug 14, 2019 0:04:53 GMT -6
I found some of my greatest jewels from the Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar on College Street in Kolkata. It is probably now managed by the children of the people I once dealt with. They used to buy the entire libraries of deceased Bengali Bhadralok and there were inevitably many old and rare books in those collections. Their prices might be high, though. We tend to get overcharged because we are foreigners. Try to bargain a little, but don't push it too far. Any of the Murshidabad editions of Gaudiya Vaisnava texts. Anything edited by Nityasvarup Brahmacari (if the pages are not crumbling). Puridas, Shyamlal Goswami, Prangopal Goswami, Haridas Goswami, any of these authors are pure gold. Radhagovinda Nath is another fine producer of Bengali (Caitanya-caritamrta, for instance) and Sanskrit works. Also, anything by Sundarananda Das (Vidyavinoda), especially after he left GM. He has a work on Rupa Gosvami that I have never seen. Anyway, happy hunting. I hope you connect with some rare and beautiful books.
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Post by Nityānanda dāsa on Aug 14, 2019 4:57:35 GMT -6
I found some of my greatest jewels from the Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar on College Street in Kolkata. It is probably now managed by the children of the people I once dealt with. They used to buy the entire libraries of deceased Bengali Bhadralok and there were inevitably many old and rare books in those collections. Their prices might be high, though. We tend to get overcharged because we are foreigners. Try to bargain a little, but don't push it too far. Any of the Murshidabad editions of Gaudiya Vaisnava texts. Anything edited by Nityasvarup Brahmacari (if the pages are not crumbling). Puridas, Shyamlal Goswami, Prangopal Goswami, Haridas Goswami, any of these authors are pure gold. Radhagovinda Nath is another fine producer of Bengali (Caitanya-caritamrta, for instance) and Sanskrit works. Also, anything by Sundarananda Das (Vidyavinoda), especially after he left GM. He has a work on Rupa Gosvami that I have never seen. Anyway, happy hunting. I hope you connect with some rare and beautiful books. What was the year that Sundarananda left GM?
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Post by Ed on Aug 14, 2019 8:11:28 GMT -6
I found some of my greatest jewels from the Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar on College Street in Kolkata. It is probably now managed by the children of the people I once dealt with. They used to buy the entire libraries of deceased Bengali Bhadralok and there were inevitably many old and rare books in those collections. Their prices might be high, though. We tend to get overcharged because we are foreigners. Try to bargain a little, but don't push it too far. Any of the Murshidabad editions of Gaudiya Vaisnava texts. Anything edited by Nityasvarup Brahmacari (if the pages are not crumbling). Puridas, Shyamlal Goswami, Prangopal Goswami, Haridas Goswami, any of these authors are pure gold. Radhagovinda Nath is another fine producer of Bengali (Caitanya-caritamrta, for instance) and Sanskrit works. Also, anything by Sundarananda Das (Vidyavinoda), especially after he left GM. He has a work on Rupa Gosvami that I have never seen. Anyway, happy hunting. I hope you connect with some rare and beautiful books. What was the year that Sundarananda left GM? Anything post 1950 I guess, btw you did find the text here, right? I saw you liked the thread where it's posted (the year given by Nitai for his departure from GM is there too) but anyway here it is: caitanyasympos.proboards.com/thread/581/sundarananda-das-vidyavinodaLooking forward to your next instalment of his text on the Mahamantra as well, Nitai.
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Post by Nitaidas on Aug 14, 2019 12:15:45 GMT -6
What was the year that Sundarananda left GM? Anything post 1950 I guess, btw you did find the text here, right? I saw you liked the thread where it's posted (the year given by Nitai for his departure from GM is there too) but anyway here it is: caitanyasympos.proboards.com/thread/581/sundarananda-das-vidyavinodaLooking forward to your next instalment of his text on the Mahamantra as well, Nitai. Looking through my copies of his books, the earliest date on his post-GM works is 1961. On the other hand the latest date on his books written while still in GM is 1954 ( Gaudiya Darsaner Itihasa o Baishishtya, The History and Distinctiveness of Gaudiya Vaisnava Philosophy). So at some point between 1954 and 1961 he abandoned GM, much later than Anantavasudeva (Puridas, 1950?). The thing about it is all of his books are worth reading. He was vastly learned on CV history and philosophy. So, even though this last book has a picture of Bhaktivinoda in it, it is well worth readying and translating. In his dedication to his book on the Guru in CV ( Vaisnava-siddhante Sri Guru-svarup) he recognizes Sri Krsnakamal Goswami as his parama-gurudev. So by then (1964) he had received initiation by Kanupriya Goswami. Interestingly, on the title page of his Guru book he lists many of the books he produced while in the GM.
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Post by Nitaidas on Aug 14, 2019 12:37:53 GMT -6
I should add to the list of names I gave before the names of Haridas Das Baba. He published tons of things. I think his ashram (Haribol Kutir) is still there in Navadvip. They might have copies of the works he has published. Don't forget Rasikamohan Vidyabhusana. He was amazingly learned and sensitive to bhakti-rasa. He wrote many delightful works. It is huge shopping list and it is likely that many of these gems have already passed through the bellies of white ants, but with some luck and a lot of grace, you might find some blazing sapphires. Try to meet my gurudev's grandson there in Navadvip. His name is Navadvip Chandra Goswami. Pass along my greetings. He lives at or near Baba's ashram in Navadvip. He has a friend named Bhagavat-kisor Goswami who is developing a big reputation as a speaker and reader in Bengal. Jagadish knows them better than I do. I might have seen Navadvip Chandra once when he was just a boy. Anyway, you will never know whose sanga infects you with bhakti. So get as much sanga as you can.
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Post by Nitaidas on Aug 29, 2019 12:48:30 GMT -6
I finally found it! Amazing, astonishing, incredible! I have been searching for Vipinavihari Goswami's Dasamularasam for years and finally found it last night. It was hiding on archive.org all this time, or at least part of it. I spent hours at the site looking for CV texts that have been scanned and are available for download (for a collection I am putting together for Joseph) and somehow I stumbled across it. I used the simple search term "Goswami" and then scrolled through tons of results. After several hours, it came up. Of course it was misspelled. That was part of the problem. Many of the texts' titles are misspelled or butchered making it hard to tell what a text is about. Anyway, it is there and that makes the site an amazing resource for those of us interested in the works of CV, both modern and ancient. I came across several Goswamis I had never heard of before. I even found a work by Surendranath Goswami published by his son "Kaviraja" Kanupriya Goswami! There are several summaries of CV philosophy and teachings and advice on practice in Bengali by other Goswamis and many of the books by Krsnadas Babaji and Nityasvarupa Brahmacari, not to mention the works by Haridas Sastri, are available. There are even some rare works there published by Puridas. Whoever has been putting them up has done us a great service. True, some are smeared and poorly scanned, but with some careful examination and some good guessing, one can still read them. Now that I have a copy of Dasamularasam I can die happily.
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Post by Nityānanda dāsa on Aug 29, 2019 18:30:20 GMT -6
Radhe Radhe Nitai Dada!
That's great news! I love archive.org! Do you happen to have an account there where all these finds would be in your 'favorites' perhaps? Please let us know so we can download and/or favorite them as well. Jai Nitai Gaur!
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Post by Nitaidas on Aug 30, 2019 9:04:19 GMT -6
Radhe Radhe Nitai Dada! That's great news! I love archive.org! Do you happen to have an account there where all these finds would be in your 'favorites' perhaps? Please let us know so we can download and/or favorite them as well. Jai Nitai Gaur! I am afraid I don't have an account. I feel like I should, considering all the delightful texts that someone has placed there. It is a service that deserves support. I will see about membership.
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Post by Nityānanda dāsa on Aug 30, 2019 9:08:21 GMT -6
Membership is free. You can look my account up there (nsteinert). I also searched 'Goswami' and favorited a lot of those books. Radhe Radhe!
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Post by Nitaidas on Nov 9, 2019 10:49:06 GMT -6
Hi All, I have a request. I had occasion to refer Malati Dasi to my old site www.bhajankutir.net. She was looking for the old archived issues of Nitai-zine. She said it did not come up for her. It comes up for me. I will like someone else to visit the site and see if it is working. My own computer may be sending me to the directory where I keep the files. Thanks.
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Post by Ed on Nov 9, 2019 14:06:04 GMT -6
Hi All, I have a request. I had occasion to refer Malati Dasi to my old site www.bhajankutir.net. She was looking for the old archived issues of Nitai-zine. She said it did not come up for her. It comes up for me. I will like someone else to visit the site and see if it is working. My own computer may be sending me to the directory where I keep the files. Thanks. I’m out of Caracas at the moment, but I tried on my phone just now and it seems to work fine, though I haven’t tried to download anything (I have a limited amount of megas for now)
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Post by Nitaidas on Nov 9, 2019 23:58:25 GMT -6
Hi All, I have a request. I had occasion to refer Malati Dasi to my old site www.bhajankutir.net. She was looking for the old archived issues of Nitai-zine. She said it did not come up for her. It comes up for me. I will like someone else to visit the site and see if it is working. My own computer may be sending me to the directory where I keep the files. Thanks. I’m out of Caracas at the moment, but I tried on my phone just now and it seems to work fine, though I haven’t tried to download anything (I have a limited amount of megas for now) Thanks Eduardo. I appreciate it. I wonder why Malati could get to the site. I will ask her to try again.
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Post by Nityānanda dāsa on Nov 10, 2019 18:18:01 GMT -6
Hi All, I have a request. I had occasion to refer Malati Dasi to my old site www.bhajankutir.net. She was looking for the old archived issues of Nitai-zine. She said it did not come up for her. It comes up for me. I will like someone else to visit the site and see if it is working. My own computer may be sending me to the directory where I keep the files. Thanks. If I recall correctly, not all the issues are posted there. I did some hunting around the internet a while back and I was able to get all the zines from #s 1-8 I believe. Let me check... Yes. 1-8. So if anyone needs them, I have copies. Jai Sri Radhe!
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