Swami BG Narasingha: Writings

The main drift of this article is to recall to memory the establishing of the Deities of Sri Sri Gaura Radha-Madhava at Mayapura by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada during his manifest lila, and to draw attention to how the present institution of ISCON has unfortunately gone astray from the proper Gaudiya conception.

Srila Puri Maharaja's appearance in this world was in 1898. Then his disappearance was 102 years later at the end of Karttika while he was residing at Jagannatha Puri. Jagannatha Puri is known as 'Vipralambha-dhama,' the place where the Lord and His devotees feel intense separation.

Question: We have heard that Bhaktivinoda Thakura instructed Srila Bhaktisiddhanta to establish the system of daiva-varnasrama. My question is, what is daiva-varnasrama? Is it something different from varnasrama as we generally know it? Answer: Yes, daiva-varnasrama is significantly different from what is generally conceived as varnasrama, the four social and spiritual orders of life designed to maintain human society.

During my many travels in India I have visited certain temples where it is claimed that the Deity of Visnu or Krishna was self-manifest. So my question is, whether it is possible that God self-manifests His Deity form or is it always necessary that an acarya or representative of God be instrumental in establishing a Deity?

I read a recent article on the internet by a leading ISKCON sannyasi/GBC/guru wherein he says, "We cannot even extend this family [ISKCON] to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. We cannot even take one step forward because the problem is if we put too much emphasis on Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, then we will miss out on our focus. We will lose the focus on ISKCON." So my question is: Is there really a conflict between the interests [focus] of ISKCON and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta?

Preaching means fighting - fighting with illusion and misconception. Our weapons are philosophical arguments backed by sastra and the opinions of previous acaryas. Preaching means speaking the truth and the nature of truth is that it wants to be found and it wants to fight with ignorance and misconception.

There have been some recent discussions about techniques for meditation and controlling the mind while chanting japa [the Holy Name]. It is often said that we are doing mantra meditation, so I was wondering if our acaryas or the sastra have recommended any particular techniques that we can use while doing mantra meditation?

Wasn't there perhaps sincerity in some of these religions at the time when they emerged? God is omnipresent and, after all, a man in the desert who had some desire to know truth would experience an aspect of God's beauty, power, love etc. He could feel that to be God and not yet know about Sri Krishna, due to his unfortunate karma of not being near a pure devotee. Does it mean that he has no realization just because he doesn't yet know about Krishna?

During a recent visit to Europe I had some informal discussions about religious conceptions with other Gaudiya Vaisnavas and I was surprised to hear some devotees speak about such groups as the Sufis, Whirling Dervishes, Jews, Christians, Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Muslims as being deeply 'surrendered' souls. Of course, generally speaking this may be true – but surrendered to what?

Devavision Productions is pleased to announce the release of the long awaited video THE UNIVERSAL TEACHER [a documentary on the life and teachings of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura].

Bhaktivinoda Thakura was not staying in Godrumadvipa when he had his vision of the Adbhuta Mandira. In fact Bhaktivinoda's house at Godruma was not built until two years later.

So far as the Gita-govinda is concerned, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta did not allow his disciples to read Gita-govinda nor did he ever write a forward to that book.