Issue
The newsletter exclusively for Disciples and Followers of HDG Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja
https://iskconbhubaneswar.in/ Iskcon Bhubaneswar on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxEVM4LJdiBj43PyWfcuRdg Chandan yatra 2020 Bhubaneswar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVGaD9yePMw&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0ZBkmm4dKUrtH D3I7v7-ZMQrlbcIg6DQMiysR9CUTxdXZOsN06KET1tm4
Currently, the Temple is under the strict lockdown enforced by the Government of India. No one is allowed to enter the Temple premises. So, the local devotees are spending their time In Temple seva, no outside preaching or book distribution, of course. And no one can come to the Temple or the Restaurant, which is naturally affecting the Temple finances. (I am just adding that the latest information is that some restrictions are being relaxed in India, now). The Temple is currently managed by Sri Satwatpati prabhu and Sri Upendra Misra prabhu, with help from Sri Madan Mohan prabhu and others (Sri Premananda prabhu lives outside). Daily Bhagavatam class is nowadays a Srila Prabhupada video twice a week, a Guru Maharaja video, also twice a week, and once a week Sri Atmarama and Sri Ramabhadra Bhadra prabhus give class.
The situation at the Temple prior to the lockdown was looking very good. Much preaching going on. Currently 85 to 90 devotees live at the Temple, with a congregation of 300 more devotees coming on Sundays (plus the usual visitors). There is also a healthy Nama hatta program, and the local Bhakti-Vriksha program - congregational development where often on a weekly basis programs are held in a family’s home, with some other locals invited to attend. The Temple sankirtan party now has a new bus, which will be ready to go by mid-June.
At Srila Gurudeva’s samadhi the devotees have applied for planning permission to renovate (upgrade?) the original Smriti Mandir building. The plan is also to make nice arrangement for Srila Prabhupada permanently there as well, after the destruction of his bhajan kutir. Also a planning application has gone in for the possible construction of a three or four story complex next to The Samadhi, to house a Guru Maharaja museum and perhaps some commercial enterprises as well.
The Brahmacaris finally moved into their new ashram on Ramnavami, as things are mostly finished now. Construction has been going on a little during lockdown, as 5 or 6 labourers have been staying on site. Currently the focus is the guest house, Bhakta Nivas. They are also working to complete a three-story building at the back where Guru Gouranga Press used to be, that will have the kitchen on first floor, with two further floors dedicated to preaching - youth preaching, seminars and so on - on the floors above.
Room Sponsorship Sri Satwatpati prabhuji informed me that the opportunity is there for devotees to sponsor rooms in the guest house. Another possibility is a similar sponsorship at the Atala Farm. The sponsorship would give the sponsor rights to use the room for some weeks or months, for life. If you are interested, contact Satwatpati prabhu at the Temple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYTb6TqgTgw&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR27wCsAeNmdyQ15 MniBZrrEdRFWTb9vMsJENtlGVbaguXf39NVd4evx2k4
https://www.facebook.com/dassatwapati.das/videos/539897193631811
https://www.radhagopaljiutempel.com/ You Tube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRzQZjB9hxnhILSTtLTOVUw
Jagannath Misra’s astonishing discovery. Sri Jagannath Misra dasaji writes - I was most surprised and delighted to discover that the Oriya Bhagavatam by Atibadi Jagannath Das, written in the early 1500’s in Puri Dhama, is a faithful and true translation of the original Srimad Bhagavatam. I say surprised, because like most of us who spent time in our ISKCON Sri Sri Krsna-Balarama Bhubaneswar Mandir, the understanding was that the Oriya Bhagavatam was basically mayavad nonsense. In December 2018 I eventually got hold of a copy of the Oriya Bhagavatam and began to read it alongside the original Sanskrit Bhagavatam, so I could compare the Oriya translation to Vyasa’s original work. I was, as you would imagine, half expecting to find a load of additions and omissions. I was really happy to discover that it is a true and faithful translation. Having read the Oriya Bhagavatam five times now from the first canto to the twelfth canto, comparing it with the original Sanskrit, I can honestly say that it is absolutely brilliant. This is indeed good news. Something for us to be deeply proud of, and a cause of celebration. It highlights Orissa as the Lila-Bhumi of Gauranga Mahaprubhu. During the time of Mahaprabhu, Jagannath Das’s Bhagavatam went viral all over Orissa. Our Gurudeva was not raised by his uncles in Gadiagiri reading a bogus mayavad Bhagavatam. Lord Jagannath did not allow a mayavad tinted version of the Bhagavatam to flood the holy land of Orissa, as we were all somehow thinking. Srila Gurudeva himself, whilst on Padayatra, during every lecture (and I mean every lecture), would mention the fact that there used to be a Bhagavad Tungi (a special small temple-like hut wherein the Bhagavatam was kept) in every village and would personally lament that the Tungi has been replaced by clubs wherein the boys and girls are dancing to mundane music instead of hearing the Bhagavatam. If the Oriya Bhagavatam had been bogus, Gurudeva would not have said as he did in the villages in front of crowds of thousands of people, rather he would have discouraged them from reading it at all. Our dear godbrother Svayambhu Prabhu, was always reading and quoting from the Oriya Bhagavatam, and he was one of the main preachers on our Namahatta programme. Guru Maharaj knew, as we all did, that he was singing verses from the Oriya Bhagavatam and never objected, even when Svayambhu would quote from the Oriya Bhagavatam in His presence, as he did many times. I have read Fakir Mohan Prabhu’s Phd thesis, and he devotes a whole chapter to the Pancasakhas and speaks very highly and favourably of Jagannath Das’s Bhagavatam translation. What Srila Prabhupada did by translating the Bhagavatam into English for the benefit of the world in the 1960’s and 70’s, Jagannath Das did for the people of Orissa in the early 1500’s. Yet the other books of Jagannath Das, although I haven’t read them, do sound to be mixed with mayavad and tantric concepts. This is not reflected in his Bhagavatam, which, my dear godbrothers and sisters, is, as I have said, a most praiseworthy translation. This is my discovery, and confirms for me that Orissa is indeed the Land of Lord Jagannath.
Sripad Madhavananda prabhuji, writing from lockdown in Sri Mayapur Dham, has filled us in on his latest wondrous endeavours in the service of Sri Sri Guru and Gouranga. We just finished printing an expanded version of Pariprasna with an extra chapter from Guru Maharaja and three new appendixes. So far it has been well received. We are currently working on new expanded and deluxe edition of Embankment with full pictures. That should be ready within a few weeks. Although, who knows when the printer will be working again. I recently finished a long article for the Journal of Vaishnava Studies we titled, "The Reluctant Academic" about Fakir Mohan Prabhu's life and contribution. We have been increasing our library and have been collecting a number of rare books in Bengali and Odiya. We currently have over 4,000 volumes and are constantly expanding that. Several scholars visited our ashram (before the lockdown) to see the books, and speak to the devotees in the ashram. They have included Krishna Ksetra Swami and Radhikaraman Das, both devotee academic professors. Both of them are giving us a lot of encouragement for our research and library work. Bindu now has nearly 10,000 official subscribers and we conservatively estimate at least 3 or four times that number of regular readers (based on the fact that there are
many temples that subscribe using one email address, but it goes to 500 or 1,000 of their congregation). Other than that, I've been giving online classes pretty much every day. By Guru Maharaja's blessing that's been going well. Somehow devotees are being appreciative. In the last couple of years, we have gone through classes on the entire Embankment of Separation, Pariprasna, various commentaries on the maha-mantra, and we are about to start a series on Guru Maharaja's mangalacarana prayers.
(Gopaljiu Publications currently is waiting for its new website to be up and running. They can still be followed on Facebook, of course)
The new volume one of the Biography, 700 pages, is ready and hopefully released for Srila Gurudeva's Vyasa Puja 2020. Volume three, 1989-1990, is almost ready 650 pages, in fact writing is finished and proofing is going on. Now I will begin writing Volume 4 1991-1992. Tattva Vichar Publications (Sripad Nimai Pandit prabhuji and HG Manjumedha devi dasi) is continuing to publish Guru Maharaja’s lectures - see advert on next page. These publications may be found at www.issuu.com/tvpbooks
When I first met Haladhar Maharaja in Vrindavan I was deeply moved and inspired by his authenticity and deep spiritual realisations and so I took shelter from him and offered to help him. Since then he has asked me to help with Gurudev's lectures in various ways. At the Smriti Sanga he announced that he would like me to help with the tape ministry here, taking care of all of Gurudev's recordings and making them ready for uploading online so that everyone in the world can access all of Gurudev's teachings. On Rama Navami I moved everything out of the old tape ministry room, which was cluttered, dirty and neglected for years, and relocated it all to my office/room in the new brahmacari ashram that has recently been constructed here. I cleaned everything and set up an office here for Gurudev's Archives. Since Rama Navami I have edited and remastered over 100 audio recordings, which are ready to be uploaded online. My mother (Anuradha dasi) has transcribed over 10 lectures and several other devotees have been helping with editing and so on. The objective of this project is to preserve and present all of Gurudev's materials freely to the whole world. We have thousands of lectures and hundreds of videos, and relatively very few of these have been made available online yet, so my goal is to share it all freely with as many people as possible so that everyone can benefit from Gurudev's teachings and so that many more people will realise what an amazing Sadhu Vaisnava our Gurudev is. I am working closely with Madhavananda Prabhu, who has been kind enough to share hundreds of transcriptions and various other materials with me. There is a mutual benefit for all the Godfamily to help with this project, because we will share everything with everyone at no cost, so everyone will benefit. We really need help and support and I humbly beg everyone to please consider helping me if possible, this is a really huge task and, honestly, I feel a little overwhelmed by the scale of what I need to accomplish. The plan for the future is to continue editing and remastering audio, and then also do the same with video, and upload all the materials online and share it with the world. We need as many lectures as possible to also be transcribed and for transcriptions and subtitles be available to the audience because it makes it so much easier to understand and relish Gurudev's lectures. I really need help with this project so if anyone wants to get in touch please give them my email. The Archives will be based here in Bhubaneswar and this is the main office for the Archives so anyone who has original recordings can please get in touch with us as soon as possible because we need to preserve and duplicate those recordings so that back-ups are kept and so that we can present a complete collection. It is imperative that we back up everything here because originals will deteriorate. The main base is here in Bhubaneswar which is Gurudev's home and so I encourage all devotees to please contact me in regards to preserving and presenting the complete
collection of Gurudev's materials here in Bhubaneswar. We absolutely need to have the complete collection based here, for many reasons. Obviously, everyone from around the world will benefit from this also because we will be putting everything online for free. The project and ongoing website costs and so on will be maintained by donations only, and people will not need to pay to access Gurudev's teachings. We want his complete teachings to reach as many people as possible. I hope this all makes sense and is helpful to you. I've tried to keep it short, but there's more if you need more specifics just let me know. Thank you prabhuji. Your humble servant, Abhirama Dasa (Please subscribe and share our new Gour Govinda Swami Archives SoundCloud page. We have thousands of lectures and these will be released gradually online, so subscribe and share to keep updated and to inform others. https://soundcloud.com/gourgovindaswami)
(Information and photos HG Purna Purusha prabhu) There are two Iskcon Temples in Berhampur, now known as Brahmapura. The Temple established by Srila Gurudeva is the Sri Sri Rama-Govinda Temple, and is an extension project of the Gadei giri Temple. Eleven devotees are currently based there. (The other Iskcon Temple is run by HG Pancaratna prabhu, who was at the Juhu Beach temple for many years, and would always come to see Guru Maharaja whenever he was in Mumbai. HG Prataparudra prabhu (used to run the Guru Gouranga Press at Bhubaneswar) also spends time here.)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4IEe3gMst3nTRVWKJfd8Ng Sri Sri Radha Madhava’s Chandan yatra https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=288993475591691&id=100034431232439?sf nsn=scwspmo&extid=mHN2Mhfv8aLi8VOE&d=n&vh=i
The Ashram website is http://www.dandabhanga.com/ https://www.youtube.com/user/DandabhangaDham Many of us may have already seen this book commemorating our dear departed gurubhai Sripad Sacinandana Maharaja, but if you haven’t, click on the link below to download it. The English language section starts on page 102 (just after the photographs) starting with Sacinandana Maharaja’s biography. http://www.dandabhanga.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Smaranika_2018_corrected_June15.pdf
Maha-Bhava Prakash Srimad Kanhai Khunthia/ Kaniya Kuntiya, one of Sriman Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Oriya associates composed a work called ‘Maha-Bhava Prakash’, which is a very rare work, and until now, not available in the English language. Dr Fakir Mohan Das prabhu discovered parts of this work and published those as a book in the local language. Our revered Guru Maharaja would sometimes quote stories from this book. Now Sri Jagannath Misra prabhu has translated the full text into English (including the Professor’s introduction) and hopes that it will soon be published and available for all devotees to read. For the pleasure of our esteemed readers, here are a few verses from chapters two and three.
sri-prataparudra-jehu-surjavamsa-jata visnu-amsa-avatara-ehuja-vidita (3.1) Sri Prataparudra was a descendant of the Surja Vamsa and was reputed to be an amsa-avatar of Visnu.
And ‌.
tahara-je-tiniputra-athe-dhanurdhara nrupaku-sevile-sehu-ativa-catura (2.6) Bhavananda had three sons who were proficient in their occupation and ingeniously assisted the king.
sakalsa-sastramanankre-je-vidita prataprudra-tule-heleatajata (2.7) They were well acquainted with all the sastras and were like unto the king in all manners.
sana-suta-dharanidhara-je-bada-kopi gramara-sakala-bhedi-rakhile-bahupi (2.8) His youngest son was named Dharanidhara and he guarded the village with his strength and courage.
tara-bhai-gopinath-je-pattnayaka rajavidhayare-kathani-nela-tamaluku (2.9) One of his brothers was called Gopinath Pattnayika who was occupied in Vidyanagar in the Tamal district.
emantaka-tara-sabhabada-bhaijana ramananda-pattnayaka-je-nama-puna (2.10) In this assembly (in Vidyanagar) his elder brother Ramanada Pattnayaka was present.
se-je-gahana-kariki-melina-boile vidyanagariku-sehu-abori-rakhile (2.11) It is said that Ramanada’s entourage permeated and guarded the city of Vidyanagar.
emanta-nrupara-tule-kaleka-bhiana emantabujile-rajya-khande-karibadapana (2.12) Like a king in his own right, Ramanada would raise taxes and govern the kingdom with his illustriousness.
ramanada-raya-pada-paileka-sehu paramamitra-nrupara-athantiti-sehu (2.13) Acknowledging his eminence, the title of Raya was bestowed upon him and he maintained a close friendship with the king.
sarvada-krusna-rasare-majjthai-mana sarvada-krusna-carane-rata-thae-mana (2.14) With his mind always engrossed in Krsna-rasa he was ever preoccupied with Krsna’s feet.
emanta-krusna-rasare-bai-sehu-hela rajyara-gahana-sehu-chali-na-parila (2.15) He was so enthralled by Krsna-rasa that he could no longer remain in the king’s society.
rajamahendri-gramare-setiri-namedwija tahatule-sanapila-apanara-rajya (2.16) It so happened that in a village called Rajamahendri there was a Brahmin who Ramanada Raya treated as if he were his youngest son.
khalikota-gada-vipra-rajibaku-nei sethave-godavarire-badukala-sehi (2.17) He (the aforementioned Brahmin) commanded a fortress in Khalikota and from there did administer the realm up to the Godavari river as an attendant of the king.
se-thabe-rajiva-se-gahana-karila tirthalamanku-sehu-vakhyamana-dela (2.18)
Abiding in his fortress he commandeered the province through mandates directed to a governing body of personnel known as the Tirthalas.
emanta-sriramananda-krusna-rase-mati nrupa-gahana-mananku-pasorile-ati (2.19) Meanwhile Ramananda Raya was so exhilarated by Krsna rasa that he had forgot all about the king’s assembly.
emanta-bhakta-srestha-rahi-na-parile srikshetra-gauranga-radha-rasaku-sunile (2.20) How could he continue after having been informed that in Sri Kshetra Gauranga was relishing Radharasa.
radha-radha-nama-sarvada-ta-japuthai prataprudraku-sehu-dela-samujai (2.21) Submitting all his obligations to Prataprudra he had taken to incessantly uttering japa of Radha’s name.
tejila-nrupa-gahana-caitanya-milila gurugovinda-padare-mana-majjaila (2.22) Having forsaken the king’s court, he united with Caitanya and his mind was immersed in Gurugovinda’s feet.
(And a beautiful verse from the end of the 3rd chapter…)
radha-nama-jahin-tahin-uccarana-hoi krsna-nisce-pravesive-asi-sighra-tahin (3.206) Wherever Radha-nama happens to be heard then Krsna swiftly appears at that place.
Our Thanks‌ I just wanted to thank everyone who has supplied us with information, photographs or encouragement for this issue of Ananda Sambada. This includes Sripad Haladhar Swami, Sripad Caitanya Candra Maharaja, Sri Jagannath Misra prabhu, Srimati Anuradha dasi and Sri Abhirama prabhu, Sri Purna Purusha prabhu, Sri Satwatpati prabhu, Sri Atmarama prabhu, Sri Madhavananda prabhu, Sri Nimai Pandit prabhu and Sri Govinda Prashad Gopal Embleton.
If you would like to contact janeshwar das, the editor of Ananda Sambada, about anything, please use jembleton108@hotmail.com
Jaya Srila Gurudeva!!
