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Post by Nitaidas on May 18, 2009 22:41:19 GMT -6
I see a need for a new book on rasa. The one we have (The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments) stinks. To be more exact it is poorly translated. Instead, I have decided to translate a short book by Sri Kunjabihari Das Babaji called Bhakti-rasa Prasanga (On the topic of Sacred Rapture). The date of the original publication of this book is not known. Sri Kunjabihari Das Babaji was the guru of Sri Anantadas Babaji. He was encouraged to write the book by Dr. Bimanbihari Majumdar who wanted a short introduction to bhakti-rasa for general readers and for use in curricula for students. At some point I have managed to collect a copy and will post it here as progress is made on it. Those of our members who want to discuss it as it emerges are encouraged and welcome to do so. Bhakti-rasa Prasanga |
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Post by Sakhicharan Das on May 19, 2009 11:31:15 GMT -6
Jai Nitai! This is great news Nitai! I would love to have a new book on rasa, especially one translated by you.  Due to the poor translation of The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments I never felt I could accurately follow the text and gain a good understanding of the topics discussed. How does the book by Kunjabihari Das Babaji differ from The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments? I assume you judge it to be a better book since you are not simply retranslating The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments instead. How many pages is it and when can we expect to see the sucipatra? |
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Post by Nitaidas on May 19, 2009 21:12:38 GMT -6
Jai Nitai! This is great news Nitai! I would love to have a new book on rasa, especially one translated by you. Due to the poor translation of The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments I never felt I could accurately follow the text and gain a good understanding of the topics discussed. How does the book by Kunjabihari Das Babaji differ from The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments? I assume you judge it to be a better book since you are not simply retranslating The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments instead. How many pages is it and when can we expect to see the sucipatra? Thanks for the kinds words, Sakhi. The other book should be retranslated too at some point. This book has the advantage of being short and sweet. It can be done without too big an investment of time. Plus it accomplishes much of what Pandita Babaji does in his. The other book I would translate before retranslating Pandita Baba's is Sundarananda Vidyavinode's book on Rupa and Rasa ( SriRupapader Rasa-prasthana). That book is proving hard to find, however. If anyone has a copy and can make a copy for me that would be great. Rasa is a difficult topic to understand properly. We need all the help we can get. |
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Post by Sakhicharan Das on May 19, 2009 23:17:34 GMT -6
Do you have any suggestions of where to look in Braja for a copy of SriRupapader Rasa-prasthana? I would be more than happy to search around for it. I will be in Kolkata for a few days at the end of this month. If you can think of any place to look for it there, let me know as well. Actually, if you can give me a list of books you are looking for I will carry it around with me and anytime I find an interesting book stall I will look for the books you want. |
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Post by Nitaidas on May 21, 2009 14:01:03 GMT -6
Thanks for the offer, Sakhi. The only place I can think of is Sundarananda's house which is somewhere up there in North Kolkatta not too far from Pathbari, I believe. If you are going to Pathbari, maybe it would not be too much of a hassle to visit Sundarananda's son and pick up whatever you can from him.
The address in his books (the ones that I have) is: Sri Path Parag, 168/2, South Sinthi Road, Kolkatta, 50
Books I would like copies of are:
Sri Rupapader Rasaprathaner Bhumika
Sri Sri Gauranger asamorddhva Avadana
Sri Prarthana o Sri Premabhakticandrika
Sri Brahma-samhita
Sri Sri Anandavrndavanacampu
Sri Anangamanjari-samputika
Acintya-bhedabheda-vada
In short, anything that they have and are willing to part with. I will reimburse you for the cost of the books and shipping.
Sundarananda was a great scholar of the tradition from within the tradition. His works are invaluable and should be available in English.
Anyway, whatever you can get will be a great help.
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Post by Sakhicharan Das on May 22, 2009 0:57:43 GMT -6
Nitai, I will be staying at Path Bari, so I will try to arrange for a Bengali speaking person to accompany me and I will go looking for his son's residence. Hopefully Subrata Ji will have the time and we both can go. I really don't know too much about Sundarananda Vidyavinod. Can you direct me to any biographical information or perhaps any of his writings that are available online?
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Post by Nitaidas on May 22, 2009 13:12:47 GMT -6
Sundarananda was important in the GM until after the passing of Bhaktisiddhanta. He wrote many fine books and was considered one of the most learned of BS's disciples. Later, when Anantavasudeva (Puridas) discovered the anomaly in the initiation of BS, Sundarananda left too and received proper initiation from Kanupriya Goswami. Many of his later works have introductions by Kanupriya Goswami. That is all of what I know about him. He has written numerous authoritative works. Naturally, the ones he wrote when he was in GM had some flaws which he later fixed after he left GM. After he left GM they would often plagiarize his books.
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Post by Sakhicharan Das on May 25, 2009 11:25:51 GMT -6
Nitai, I was speaking with Subrata Ji and we will definitely be able to go to the house of Sundarananda's son. One thing that would help us is having the name of his son. I imagine that if you knew it you would have mentioned it. I saw in an old GD threat that Mina said he has been to the house before. Maybe you could contact him for some information.
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Post by Nitaidas on May 25, 2009 14:53:06 GMT -6
I will try to get a hold of Mina. I think he is out of town for the next week or so. Yes, I think he did visit Sundarananda's house. He may be some of the books I am looking for as well. He is usually generous in loaning books out.
I have looked through the books of Sundarananda that I have, but no where do I see a name for his son. When will you be at Path Bari?
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Post by Sakhicharan Das on May 25, 2009 19:59:11 GMT -6
Leaving this morning. We will be at Path Bari from the 27th - 31st. We are going there for the disappearance utsav of our gurudeva. His date of departure falls on the 30th of this month...it's been two years since he left.
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Post by Nitaidas on May 26, 2009 12:35:28 GMT -6
Leaving this morning. We will be at Path Bari from the 27th - 31st. We are going there for the disappearance utsav of our gurudeva. His date of departure falls on the 30th of this month...it's been two years since he left. Wow! Has it been that long? It seems like such a short time ago. I've been reading some of his books. He was really extraordinary. I wish I had been able to get to know him better. I want to work on some of his books, but vaguely recall that you and Bishakha were doing something on them. Where does that stand? I have already do some on the Nama-yajna, but I was also looking at his Sri Sri Bisver Gauranga. It looks delightful. Have a sage journey. |
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Post by madanmohandas on May 27, 2009 3:54:14 GMT -6
Greetings all. I have the book Bhakti Rasa Prasanga and like other similar books it seems to present the analasys on the lines of Rupa's BhRS and Uj.N.M., also providing the relevant couplets from Kaviraja Gosai's C.C. Looking forward to reading your translation Nitai Mahsoy. An interesting sub heading on Rasotpattir sAdhana or How to develop a sense of humour.  . There lies the difficulty I think for a Rasa Bodha appears as something quite intangable. |
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Post by Nitaidas on May 27, 2009 17:33:14 GMT -6
Greetings all. I have the book Bhakti Rasa Prasanga and like other similar books it seems to present the analasys on the lines of Rupa's BhRS and Uj.N.M., also providing the relevant couplets from Kaviraja Gosai's C.C. Looking forward to reading your translation Nitai Mahsoy. An interesting sub heading on Rasotpattir sAdhana or How to develop a sense of humour. . There lies the difficulty I think for a Rasa Bodha appears as something quite intangable. Thanks Madanamohandas. It is good to hear from you. Hope all is well with you. I will begin posting more of this text soon. I want to get some substantial part of it done before I post it. With any luck in a few days, I will have something to show. Glad to here that you have the book. You can check my work and raise questions when something looks odd to you. |
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Post by madanmohandas on May 29, 2009 9:52:11 GMT -6
My pleasure and honour. I'm just emerging from intensive reading of the Ramayan, which I'm very happy about, but now it's back to the Bhagavat and now I'm going through the 9th Skandha. This time it's the Gita Press edition. Anyway although I haven't been contributing much to any discussions, I have been looking in regularly, espesially for new translations and the like.
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Post by Nitaidas on May 29, 2009 10:21:24 GMT -6
My pleasure and honour. I'm just emerging from intensive reading of the Ramayan, which I'm very happy about, but now it's back to the Bhagavat and now I'm going through the 9th Skandha. This time it's the Gita Press edition. Anyway although I haven't been contributing much to any discussions, I have been looking in regularly, espesially for new translations and the like. Glad to hear that you are still studying. You may turn out to be our first Mahabhagavata if you keep it up. |
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Due to the poor translation of The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments I never felt I could accurately follow the text and gain a good understanding of the topics discussed. How does the book by Kunjabihari Das Babaji differ from The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments? I assume you judge it to be a better book since you are not simply retranslating The Philosophy of Divine Sentiments instead. How many pages is it and when can we expect to see the sucipatra?
. There lies the difficulty I think for a Rasa Bodha appears as something quite intangable.