Page 12 - Ramayana - Eng
P. 12
Rāmāyaṇa
within India also about the pastimes of the Supreme
Lord. This bhakti revival has been brought about largely
due to the efforts of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda, the Founder-Ācārya of the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and
the prime exponent of bhakti in the modern age. Śrīla
Prabhupāda elaborately described the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa
in his writings, and also wished that the pastimes of Lord
Rāma be widely broadcast.
Regarding seeing your book on Lord Rāmacandra partly
translated into English, I am very much eager to see it. I
have to translate all the Purānas, Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābharata,
and many other theistic literatures left by the Gauḍīya
Vaiṣṇavas. I have a great desire to translate the Vālmīki
Rāmāyaṇa because that is authorized. It appears that in
the Western countries there is a great demand for real
knowledge of Vedic literature. So you are a learned
scholar both in English and Hindi, and you can do this
completely devoted to the service of Lord Rāmacandra.
(Letter from Śrīla Prabhupāda to Dinanatha N. Mishra,
26 July, 1975)
Rāmāyaṇa was originally composed in Sanskrit by the
great sage Vālmīki, and later many versions were composed
in the vernacular languages of India. Unfortunately, many
of the translators and commentators did not come in the
pure devotional lineage of Vālmīki, and introduced many
Introduction misconceptions and speculations about Lord
Rāma in their works. As a result, the pristine position of
Lord Rāma as the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of
Godhead remains hidden to the readers of such texts.