Page 23 - SBV (English)

Preface xxi

revealed dozens of stories about Çréla Sarasvaté Öhäkura. He told me, “You are like
a train, and I have the goods. You will take the goods to the destination. For many
years I was carrying these memories of my guru-mahäräja. Sometimes I recalled
them, yet being engaged in family affairs I was mostly forgetting them. But now
that you have come, these things will not be lost—they will be revealed to the
world.” Reflecting the love he had received from his gurudeva, Jati Çekhara Prabhu
was kind to me. He appreciated his godbrother A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami’s
contribution in spreading their guru’s mission, but as a lifelong supporter of Çré
Ananta Väsudeva Prabhu (later known as Çré Bhakti Prasäda Puré Gosvämé and
then as Çré Purédäsa) and Çrémad B. K. Auòulomi Mahäräja, both controversial
figures in Gauòéya Maöha history, he maintained distinct differences of opinion
regarding certain things that His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupäda had done. While Jati Çekhara Prabhu and I could not agree on
everything, we met on the happy ground of jointly glorifying Çréla Sarasvaté
Öhäkura to the world, and thus developed a relationship of mutual respect and
affection.
My original intention was simply to compile unpublished anecdotes
of Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté, but ultimately I decided to give a more
composite overview of his activities, achievements, and teachings. Hence I chose
to also present his biography and some of his philosophical explanations, essays,
and discourses, and to include already told vignettes well worth repeating.
This led me to consult available literature by and about Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta
Sarasvaté, especially the diverse biographical works in Bengali and English,
as well as his extant letters and abstracts of lectures and conversations. From
Sarasvaté-jayaçré, an anthology of disciples’ recollections that was first printed
in 1935, I culled dozens of anecdota never before published in English. Although
unsystematic and documenting only from 1911 to 1925, Sarasvaté-jayaçré is the
most authoritative contemporary work about Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté,
from which all subsequent biographies have directly or indirectly drawn much
information. And my previous failure to have interviewed Çrémad B. R. Çrédhara
*

* The presently available Sarasvaté-jayaçré is incomplete. Its first 25 chapters are
remembrances of four early disciples; the subsequent 11 chapters consist of historical and
philosophical details collated by Çrépäda Sundaränanda Vidyävinoda. It was to be the first
part of a “Vaibhava-parva,” but the intended remaining 72 chapters never manifested.
There was also to be a “Çré-parva” of 108 chapters, for which Sundaränanda Vidyävinoda
Prabhu spent much time interviewing Çréla Sarasvaté Öhäkura for information to be
included therein. Based on those interviews, the first volume of “Çré-parva,” which
included information of Çréla Sarasvaté Öhäkura’s early life, was almost ready to be