Sri Nama-cintamani--Kanupriya Goswami Prabhupada

[Nitaidas]

Here is where I will publish the major work on the Holy Names of the 20th century, Sri Nama-cintamani, Wish-jewel of the Holy Names, by Kanupriya Goswami. It is a much more in-depth treatment of the subject than Bhaktivinoda's work on the subject and of the same name. Don't get me wrong. I admire Bhaktivinoda Thakur and read many of his works when I was still part of IGM. Nevertheless, he did go astray and was ultimately rejected by his gurudeva. Who knows? Perhaps the works he produced before his apostasy are still authentic. One can never be sure, I am afraid, because those works have been edited and published by his son Bhaktisiddhanta and his followers. They may have corrupted them with apasiddhanta or they may not have done so. Anyway, I leave that up to individual choice. I personally think that there are far better representatives of the CV tradition than he, great Vaisnava acaryas like Syamlal Goswami, Haridas Goswami, Prangopal Goswami, Rasikamohana Vidyabhusana, Krsnakamal Goswami, Kanupriya Goswami, and eventually Puridas Goswami, Sundarananda Das Vidyavinoda, and even Manindranath Guha, who all came out of IGM, got properly initiated, and went on to do great things. There are many others besides like Bodo Baba and Ramdas Baba and Hrdayananda Das Baba and others. Next to them Bhaktivinoda pales in comparison, in my view. We have not even begun to plumb the depths of modern CV literature. It is an ocean! All I can do is a few little things. This work I hope will be one of them.

I will post updates every few weeks as the work progress. I will also provide a notification when an update is posted. So keep an eye out. The first installment is here.

This is a rough draft. Please excuse any gaffs and typos that you find in it. Let me know about them and I will correct them. There are two more short essays that make up the preliminary matter of the book and then the book itself begins with a series of verses on the Holy Names that are the unifying thread for the rest of the book. They are Rupa's Krsna-namastaka and a couple of others. Those will be coming next. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the next installment of Sundarananda's Mahamantra (another thread). I have been working on that, too. It gets quite interesting!

[Ed]

Thank you, Nitai, these are very exciting news. And Happy belated father's day, I hope it was a good one.

those works have been edited and published by his son Bhaktisiddhanta and his followers. They may have corrupted them with apasiddhanta or they may not have done so. Anyway, I leave that up to individual choice.

Reminded me of the case of Srila Gaurkishor Das Babaji, is it possible that someone could post somewhere around here, perhaps in the life of the siddhas thread, Dr. Kapoor's chapter on him from The Saints of Bengal? or even better, something from the writings of Sri Haridas Das Babaji? I've never seen any accounts of his life that weren't from IGM, where's that story of him hiding from BVT from?



 

[Nitaidas]

Hi Ed. I found the section of Haridas Das's Gaudiya-Vaisnava-Jivana on Gaurakisoradas Baba. I will post some translations from that when I get a chance. It seems to be based on Sundarananda Vidyavinoda's account. Bhaktivinoda is mentioned in one rather funny paragraph. He also writes briefly about Bhaktivinoda (pp. 288-290). It is a synopsis of Bhaktivinoda's own account of his life. Does everyone have access to that? I think I have a copy of it somewhere on my computer.

I just checked Dr Kapoor's account of Gaurakisoradas Baba's life in his Saints of Bengal. It is pretty much the same as Haridas Das's. Dr. Kapoor clearly took his account from Haridas Das Baba's. There might be a few things left out, but mostly it is the same. And Haridas Das seems to have relied on Sundarananda Das's (ie possibly IGM influenced).

[Ed]

Hi, Nitai

I read the file, and apart from being impressed and encouraged by its contents, I think the format looks great, and just found a couple of things:

1) In page xii
    2nd paragraph
    6th line goes: “it would not an exaggeration if one claimed that in this age…”. It seems to be missing “be”, as in: “it would not be an exaggeration…”.
2) In page xvii
    1st Paragraph
    1st line goes: “nondifference”, in the rest of the text you have “non-difference”.

The only other thing I noticed was that sometimes you have Gosvāmin, Gosvāmī and Goswami, and I don’t know how intentional that is:

In page xiii
2nd Paragraph
2nd line goes: Goswami (in the last paragraph, same page, it goes: Śrī Jīva Gosvāmin. The same goes for the author's name in the title)

As well as in page xv
2nd Paragraph
2nd line goes: Goswami

And finally, in the Foreword of Sri Kishora Rai Goswami

In page xvii
last paragraph
1st line goes: Gosvāmī

And this is the same case with Sundarananda Vidyavinoda’s dedication.

By the way, I don't mind it and I'm guessing it's probably just a placeholder for now, but just in case: you have the same picture for the cover of Siddha Baba's book, the same part of it, just Krsna fluting, without the two gopis looking at him and talking to each other.  

Hi Ed. I found the section of Haridas Das's Gaudiya-Vaisnava-Jivana on Gaurakisoradas Baba. I will post some translations from that when I get a chance. It seems to be based on Sundarananda Vidyavinoda's account. Bhaktivinoda is mentioned in one rather funny paragraph. He also writes briefly about Bhaktivinoda (pp. 288-290). It is a synopsis of Bhaktivinoda's own account of his life. Does everyone have access to that? I think I have a copy of it somewhere on my computer.

I just checked Dr Kapoor's account of Gaurakisoradas Baba's life in his Saints of Bengal. It is pretty much the same as Haridas Das's. Dr. Kapoor clearly took his account from Haridas Das Baba's. There might be a few things left out, but mostly it is the same. And Haridas Das seems to have relied on Sundarananda Das's (ie possibly IGM influenced).

That would be great, does that mean that Sundarananda Vidyavinoda knew him while still in GM? or that his account is mostly second hand from people there? 

I don't have the sva-likhita-jivani, I've just read some excerpts from it in Jagat's blog, nothing in relation to Gaurakisora Das Baba, although I never really thought about reading what he had to say about him there, I'll check that out, but it would be nice to have an account independent from IGM. I actually remember hearing from Sri Premgopal Goswami Prabhupad a story involving I think his grandfather Prabhupad Sri Yadugopal Goswami and Srila Gaurakisora Das Baba, so there might be some more stories coming down in that family about him, I'll see what I can find there and share it here. 

[Nitaidas]

Thanks, Ed, for catching those. I will correct them. About the Goswami issue. Generally if someone is still alive or not long dead one uses the title without diacritics (Goswami). If one is long dead then Gosvamin or Gosvami is used (with diacritics). I don't always adhere to this, but I try. So Sri Jiva Gosvamin, but Kisoraray Goswami.

I have in my possession an English translation of two articles that were apparently written by Bhaktisiddhanta and published in the Sajjana-tosani journal in 1917, shortly after Babaji died. One is on Gaurakisora Das Babaji and the other is on Jagannath Das Babaji. Just scanning them raises doubts in me that there is much truth in either of them. Naturally, Bhaktisiddhanta and Bhaktivinoda play much bigger roles in the lives of the Babas than are mentioned in either Dr. Kapoor's versions or Haridas Das's. The picture on the cover of the book is one that Jagadish informs me was taken after Gaurakisora's death. Apparently before the body was taken away he was set up in a certain position and a photo was taken. It is hard to tell that he is actually dead except one of his eyes looks quite sunken into his skull, as sometimes happens after a body has been dead. Can you imagine doing something like that to the body of a saint for some publicity. There is also a lot of moralizing in the articles which seems quite out of place. This is surely Bhaktisiddhanta imposing his own views on the poor dead babaji.

I don't know the details about Sundarananda Das's essay on Gaurakisora Das Baba which seems to be the source of Haridas Das's account in the Jivani.

[Ed]

About the Goswami issue. Generally if someone is still alive or not long dead one uses the title without diacritics (Goswami). If one is long dead then Gosvamin or Gosvami is used (with diacritics). I don't always adhere to this, but I try. So Sri Jiva Gosvamin, but Kisoraray Goswami.

This is very good to know, and it makes sense, thank you. 

I have in my possession an English translation of two articles that were apparently written by Bhaktisiddhanta and published in the Sajjana-tosani journal in 1917, shortly after Babaji died. One is on Gaurakisora Das Babaji and the other is on Jagannath Das Babaji. Just scanning them raises doubts in me that there is much truth in either of them. Naturally, Bhaktisiddhanta and Bhaktivinoda play much bigger roles in the lives of the Babas than are mentioned in either Dr. Kapoor's versions or Haridas Das's. The picture on the cover of the book is one that Jagadish informs me was taken after Gaurakisora's death. Apparently before the body was taken away he was set up in a certain position and a photo was taken. It is hard to tell that he is actually dead except one of his eyes looks quite sunken into his skull, as sometimes happens after a body has been dead. Can you imagine doing something like that to the body of a saint for some publicity. There is also a lot of moralizing in the articles which seems quite out of place. This is surely Bhaktisiddhanta imposing his own views on the poor dead babaji.

Well, this is sad to say the least, and aside from a historical interest I don't really feel encouraged to read those articles, I don't think I'm their target audience anyway. That's why I'd like to find some other accounts of him that are free from ties to those GM days, I may be swimming against the current here though, but who knows? I figure there might be some stories about him that are mostly inaccessible due to them being only in oral form and from rather unknown sources, someone might compile them some time in the future. 

 

[Nitaidas]

Yes, this is sad. The truth always takes a beating when the fanatics get involved and it has to slink off to some cave to hide. I would pursue some of those avenues you mentioned before, ie. approaching the descendants of Yadugopala Goswami and such. It may be that the best we have is Haridas Das's account. I have no idea where Sundarananda's account can be found. It was probably published in one of the GM journals since he was an important member of the GM before he came to his senses and left. But, who knows, perhaps he rewrote it and published it after he left in the 1950s. We really need to plumb all the Vaisnava journals that were in existence in the 19th and 20th cents. apart from those published by GM. They are a rich field of Vaisnava thought and culture. There may be articles on various sadhus and saints in them. One of my classmates in grad school compiled a bibliography of all of them during his graduate work. I wonder were that research is, now. I suspect it is at the University of Chicago in the library there. I will write to him. Or, perhaps he will fill us in. I think he occasionally reads this site. Anyway, I will put up what I can from Haridas Das's works.

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Jun 20, 2019 13:06:36 GMT -6 Nitaidas said:

Yes, this is sad. The truth always takes a beating when the fanatics get involved and it has to slink off to some cave to hide. I would pursue some of those avenues you mentioned before, ie. approaching the descendants of Yadugopala Goswami and such. It may be that the best we have is Haridas Das's account. I have no idea where Sundarananda's account can be found. It was probably published in one of the GM journals since he was an important member of the GM before he came to his senses and left. But, who knows, perhaps he rewrote it and published it after he left in the 1950s. We really need to plumb all the Vaisnava journals that were in existence in the 19th and 20th cents. apart from those published by GM. They are a rich field of Vaisnava thought and culture. There may be articles on various sadhus and saints in them. One of my classmates in grad school compiled a bibliography of all of them during his graduate work. I wonder were that research is, now. I suspect it is at the University of Chicago in the library there. I will write to him. Or, perhaps he will fill us in. I think he occasionally reads this site. Anyway, I will put up what I can from Haridas Das's works.

It would be great to get this bibliography of all Vaisnava journals from your colleague! It would make a fantastic addition to the CV booklist!

[Nitaidas]

I poked around on the U of C library site, but did not find anything available through the catalog. I will write to him directly. It may be that he sent me a copy years ago. It is lost somewhere in stacks of old papers from my graduate days. Hopefully, he will send me another.

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Jun 21, 2019 13:54:18 GMT -6 Nitaidas said:

I poked around on the U of C library site, but did not find anything available through the catalog. I will write to him directly. It may be that he sent me a copy years ago. It is lost somewhere in stacks of old papers from my graduate days. Hopefully, he will send me another.

Dear Nitai Dada,

Any chance you can pursue this? Or if you don't want to, I'm happy to if you think your friend wouldn't mind my reaching out to him. Please let me know. Thanks! Jai Sri Radhe!!! 

[Nitaidas]

An updated version of the শ্রী শ্রী নামচিন্তামণি . A few more pages added. More coming soon.

You can find it here.

[Nitaidas]

I have finished the first chapter of Prabhupada's text. It is naturally introductory in nature. Much is drawn from Sri Jiva's Tattva-sandarbha, but Goswamiji adds plenty of his own twists. You can find it here. As usual, please notify me of any typos and other abnormalities.

The next chapter is shorter and will begin to unfold his argument. I hope to finish that in about two weeks.

[Nitaidas]

Well, no one has commented on the first chapter. Has any one had a chance to go through it? It is mostly introductory and draws largely from Sri Jiva's Tattva-sandarbha. Still, some good points are made, though I think from our 21st century perspective we make some improvements on them. Looking for feedback and some proofing if anyone has time.

I have not started the 2nd chapter yet. It is short and gets into the traditional discussion of the powers of words to produce meaning in different ways which is an interesting prolegomenon to the discussion of rasa in most literary critical texts. Once I get settled out in Colorado, I will get back to work on the NC.

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Radhe Radhe! I'll give it a look today. Thanks for working on this one! I look forward to hearing more from Prabhupad Kanupriya Goswami by your grace!!