Comments on: Preaching in Gaudiya Vaishnavism

By: deshika

deshika — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:48:58 +0000

Thank you for these important suggestions Rob. The history of successful preaching is also the history of powerful people who either tolerated the preaching, or actively supported it with funds, resources, buildings, manpower.
I’m not, of course, saying that preaching can be done without saintly people – it can’t. If you try to preach your message just with money and political power – but without spiritual purity – it becomes mere propaganda and changes no hearts.
But it is certainly true that we often hear about the saints because of powerful men who support them. We all got to hear about Buddha because of Emperor Ashoka; Jesus because of Emperor Constantine; and in our own Vaishnava line there were many kings who gave great wealth and built many temples.
I have written something about the need for organisation in preaching and will post it here too. Best of luck with your Pedalyatra!

By: rob

rob — Sat, 10 May 2008 09:01:28 +0000

Dear Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

This is really cool. I liked it a lot. I guess one thing I would add is that the acaryas made organised efforts to secure resources for their preaching by “transcendental means” which in turn became a part of the preaching work. In fact it’s often a feature of the acaryas that they were very expert organisers and “fundraisers”, which was crucial to their later work, although equally crucially, they were happy to preach in situations initially where they had no resources. Both these points might be worth mentioning perhaps.

Your servant
Rob, Pedalyatra

By: deshika

deshika — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:36:09 +0000

Thank you for this Gauranga Kishore Prabhu. The pieces I’m writing are for a short handbook for devotees in small groups. Brevity is part of the requirement. But in my attempt to keep the list of historical preaching innovations as brief as possible I omitted the ‘Prabhu-trayi’ and Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s own preaching. But you are right, they need to be there, and I’ll include them.

By: gaurangakishore

gaurangakishore — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:58:18 +0000

Kripamoya Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhuapada.

As always thank you for the nice post, since you asked here are two things which I think would be considered important when considering the history of preaching in Gaudiya Vaisnavism.

The first would be Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself, who descended to innaugurate the yuga dharma, he began inducing people to chant from his very birth by appearing during a lunar eclipse, not only did he preach as a grhasta in navadvipa but went on a six year tour preaching tour all over of India. It would take a whole book to properly describe His preaching activities, in fact the book already exists, it is called Caitanya Caritamrta. I know you know this, but I guess it was just too obvious.

The second thing you may have overlooked was a team of preachers, Srinivas, Narottama, and Syamananda who were dispatched back to Bengal by Jiva Goswami with all the books of the Goswamis. They spread Gaudiya Vaisnavism all over Bengal and Orissa, converting many thousands, and even entire kingdoms including the modern country of Manipur which to this day is a Vaisnava state.

Just a couple of thoughts off the top my head.

Your Servant,
Gauranga Kishore Das