Welcome New Members

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Sorry I'm a bit delayed on this as we've had five new members to The Caitanya Symposium since May.

Welcome to: biswadeep , @vrajavilasadas , krodharaja, kd91 (Krishnadas), and @pheasant ! Thanks for joining us and/or rejoining us if that's the case!

If you like (and haven't done so already), please tell us more about yourselves on this thread: caitanyasympos.proboards.com/thread/7/introduce-group

Jai Sri Radhe!

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Radhe Radhe and good morning from New Jersey, USA!

We have number of new members since I posted back in July and I wanted to welcome them all (and please see below)...

We're happy to have the following join us:

satyabauli (Satya Didi)

madhusudan

angliese - I apologize as I've forgotten your initiated name, please see below.

surat

krishnadas108

Jon

minu322  

and

108108

Obviously I don't know everyone on this list, but I encourage you all to please introduce yourselves on our thread 'Please Introduce Yourself to the Group' here: caitanyasympos.proboards.com/thread/7/introduce-group

(In that thread) Please tell us a bit about yourself, where you're located, your history practicing Bhakti, what brings you here to the Caitanya Symposium, and anything else you'd like to add or ask.

This Symposium was started and is managed primarily by Sri Nitai Das-ji (Dr. Neal Delmonico) Nitaidas . A disciple of Srila Prabhupad Tinkodi Babaji Maharaja, Nitai is a Sanskrit and Bengali scholar who has done and continues to do immense translation/publishing work of the traditional Caitanya Vaishnava canon. You will find all kinds of hidden gems here! Translations of various texts, discussions of various philosophical points, questions and answers, updates/announcements for the Blazing Sapphire Press, and some heated debates too! (Please don't be discouraged or dissuaded by those, the benefits to be found here far outweigh the negatives in my opinion.) I want to say 'we're all human' but more accurate to say we're all having this human experience - learning our way through the imperfections to the holy dust of Vraj! The more good company the better!

I'm looking forward to hearing from you all and getting to know you. Thanks again for joining us.

Sadhu sanga ki jaya!

Jaya Radhe Jaya Shaym!

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Radhe Radhe and good morning from New Jersey, USA!

Looks like I'm on a quarterly schedule for welcoming new members. My apologies for the delay in those of you who've been here a while. That said...

Welcome to the Caitanya Symposium!! We're happy to have you here!

Specifically I'd like to welcome the following new members:

asimak1991

jadug

@deepvaranasi

tarun (from Canada I believe)

and last but not least

rdev1008

All of you please introduce yourself on the following thread and let us know something about you, where you're from, your experience(s) with Caitanya Vaishnavism, and anything else you'd like to share:

caitanyasympos.proboards.com/thread/7/introduce-group

Also, please peruse there for introductions by other members and certainly if you would like to know anything about anyone, you can always ask.

As an FYI, this forum is dedicated primarily to those who are interested in pursuing Caitanya Vaishnavism per the traditional, authentic parivaras descending in unbroken succession from the time of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That is to say, this is not a place to discuss issues related to ISKCON/Gaudiya Math (IGM). Of course, most of us have gone through IGM to get here. I think it's safe to say we have gratitude to IGM for pointing us in the right direction. However, in going through IGM, we've picked up some unwanted baggage and misunderstandings. Some of the forums here you will find us trying to shed that baggage. So you will find some IGM-related discussion here and there, but it is with the aim to get rid of IGM conditioning and to develop prema bhakti as per how Sri Caitanya and the Gosvamins taught it.

Any questions, discussions, and debate are also welcome. For that is how we sort things out and refine our understanding, realization, and practice. But again, please keep it civil. You will find some heated debates here that have taken place from time to time. You may even find some of it distasteful. However, myself and most of us here feel that the benefit of sanga from this forum far outweighs any negatives.

Again, happy to have you here. Jai Sri Radhe!!!

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Radhe Radhe!

I'd like to welcome the following new members to the Caitanya Symposium...

vrk

paysee

babajishyamsundardas - Is this the disciple of Muraridas Babaji??

kcp108 (Krishna Caitanya Dasa) from Canada

If each of you would kindly introduce yourself on this thread --> caitanyasympos.proboards.com/thread/7/introduce-group that would be great and would let everyone know a little about you and what brings you to the Caitanya Symposium. Also in that thread you will find a lot of the introductions of other members here and where you don't find one, I would encourage you to contact anyone for their introduction.

This Symposium is dedicated to and for the use of those who are interested in pursuing Caitanya Vaishnavism per the traditional, authentic parivaras descending in unbroken succession from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That is to say, this is not a place to discuss issues related to ISKCON/Gaudiya Math (IGM). Of course, most of us have gone through IGM to get here. It's safe to say we have gratitude to IGM for pointing us in the right direction. However, in going through IGM, we've picked up unwanted baggage and misunderstandings. Some of the forums here you will find us trying to shed that baggage. So you will find some IGM-related discussion here and there, but it is with the aim to get rid of IGM conditioning and to develop prema bhakti as per how Sri Caitanya and the Gosvamins taught it.

Any questions, discussions, and debate are also welcome, for that is how we sort things out and refine our understanding, realization, and practice. But again, please keep it civil. You will find some heated debates here that have taken place from time to time. You may even find some of it distasteful. However, myself and most of us here feel that the benefit of sanga from this forum far outweighs any negatives.

Again, happy to have you here. We look forward to hearing from you.

Jai Sri Radhe!!!

[Nitaidas]

Welcome to two new members of the forum:

jaigopal

and

chandrabindu

Please introduce yourselves to the other members of the forum in the thread for that purpose (under Announcements) and make yourselves at home. This forum has been around for years and there are many paths down which to tread. It is like a maze. Please explore, comment, ask questions, and reinvigorate some of the old threads if you find them of interest.

जय राधे !

[meeno8]

স্বাগত

[meeno8]

Please share as much about yourself as your care to here.

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Radhe Radhe!

It's been a while since new members have been welcomed and we've had a bunch of new members! Twenty six to be exact!! 

Welcome to you all:

spakot , dharmadas , dharma , tarunkrishnadas , balaramnitai , crishakti , helios , jaya108 , jayananda , kumar , omarali50 , piriti , gani , abhijoy , k , anantadev , ksw , muhamad , ing , shrikrishna84 , sevakam , gerald , prisni , jainitai , 
starys , and pankajalochana !!

If you like, please tell us a little about yourselves on this page (Please introduce yourself to the group). I'm sure that if you would like to know about others here and you can't find an intro to them that they would be happy to introduce themselves to you as well. Some of course aren't so active these days and might not be active at all. 

We don't have any rules per se on this symposium. Mainly please be nice, kind, and respectful to all, treat others how you would like to be treated. Disagreement and debate are welcome for that is how we refine our understanding of things. But please don't pick fights or start debates if you are unwilling to modify your opinion of things. What is the point of that? 

All that said, you will find MANY gems on this site. Countless! Nitai Das (Nitaidas ), Neal Delmonico, PhD., is the one who started this site decades ago and has contributed endless translations of sacred texts as well as insightful articles and more. 

You will find some heated debates that have taken place as well. You'll also find some ideas that challenge the normal way of thinking about Chaitanya Vaishnavism. This is not an ISKCON/Gaudiya Math (IGM) site, so please refrain from sharing IGM content here. Unless you are trying to make your way out of those organizations and are seeking some assistance in understanding the teachings of Sri Chaitanya and his followers without the influence of institutionalization/misunderstanding/etc.

Presently in our online community we're offering the following video meetings (all times listed are per the east coast, USA): 

Sunday evening - Chaitanya Vaishnava Book Club: Presently reading Vilapa Kusumanjali by Raghunath Das Goswami with the commentary of Anantadas Babaji. 
Tuesday evening - Tattva Sandarbha by Jiva Goswami. 
Wednesday evening - Bhakti Sandarbha by Jiva Goswami. 
Thursday evening - Brihad Bhagavatamrita by Sanatan Goswami. 
Saturday morning - Prema Bhakti Chandrika by Narottama Das Thakur with the commentary of Anantadas Babaji. We're almost finished with this book and will be switching to a new one soon!

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to be invited to any of these video calls. All are welcome! 

Jai Sri Radhe!