Here’s six magazines that I read. I may have highlighted them before, but they are worthy of repetition.
(1) First up is the Back to Godhead magazine, ISKCON’s flagship, started by Srila Prabhupada in 1944 and still a rewarding read. Delivered to your door through subscription at your local Krishna centre or from krishna.com. I particularly like the July edition because it has our dear Queen Elizabeth visiting the new Krishna school in London.
(2) Second is the street newspaper and online version of 16 Rounds to Samadhi which is produced and distributed in San Diego, California. Good writing on issues of the day and a refreshing and relevant way of presenting the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita. You’ll find it right here.
(3) Here’s one I hadn’t seen before: Gaudiya Touchstone, an online only but downloadable pdf magazine with some great, scripturally-based articles and photography of India that showcases their vast photo stock shop. To have a look click here
(4) Then, a free Vaishnava newsletter titled Krishna Kathamrita Bindhu from Gopal Jiu publications based in Orissa (now re-named as Odisha) in eastern India. This is delivered to your in-box every few weeks. Its a short but rewarding read and you can subscribe by clicking here and filling out the box at the top of the page.
(5) Here’s one that’s not strictly a magazine but it looks like one. This is a Sri Vaishnava news portal which carries interesting articles for followers of Sri Vaishnavism. Its named Anudinam. If you can tolerate the writers using the commonly-used but pejorative Victorian-Christian-English word for archa-vigraha (worshipable image) - the horrible word ‘idol’ – then there are some interesting pieces available here.
(6) Finally, I have been subscribing to the monthly Nrisimhapriya magazine for more than three years. Its published by the Ahobila Math, headquartered in Chennai (Madras) and Ahobilam in Andhra Pradesh. They are a congregation about one million strong and there main deity is Sri Narasimha. Their monthly mag has lots of deeper, philosophical articles of interest to the Vaishnava with an enquiring mind. Despite being located in the south of India, where IT seems to be as common as coconuts, they do not seem to have an online version. I have personally visited their offices and they are very nice gentlemen. You can subscribe, with difficulty, by contacting them here:
Sri Nrisimha Priya, Sri Desika Bhavanam, 30,Venkatesa Agraharam, Mylapore, Chennai 60004, Tamil Nadu, India. Phone:2 4611540, Fax:2 4611540, Email: nrisimhapriya@gmail.com
I look forward to subscribing to at least a couple of these. Thanks!
Om, Shanti!
Thank you Treadmarkz. Have you suspended your website? I could not find it.
Great links, thanku!
As for the Anudinam writers, i dont think they understand the implications of the word, they most probably see it as a virtual translation of arca vigraha.
Its not just them, of course, everybody in India seems to use that word, not appreciating that when the English language was taught in India it was imbued with Christian bias. The word ‘idol’ is akin to the expression ‘graven image’ which is outlawed by all the Abrahamic faiths.
India was ruled first by the idol-smashers, then the idol-haters. That’s 1000 years of bias. We Vaishnavas have a long way to go to move conceptions – and language – along a bit.
Prabhu, just a detail, 16Rounds magazine, of which I am the editor, is produced and distributed in San Diego, California.
Thank you! Corrected!
Thanks for mentioning about Anudinam.org, I am the editor of the portal. We have taken your point about the ‘Idol’ and has replaced it in the published articles. Thanks. we have published an article about it from a reader: http://anudinam.org/2012/06/25/archa-vigraha-not-to-be-called-as-idol-%E2%80%93-a-common-mistake/
Thank you Swami Srinivasan! I much appreciate the ‘idol’ change. Your portal is a good service to the Vaishnava community. Adiyen.
Regarding usage of the word ‘idol’. We should understand that language is a mere carrier of thoughts or feelings. Therefore, one can not expect every language to convey all and so translations further limit the meanings. But we should see whether the thought or feeling was conveyed or not. When someone says idol, I fully understand and so where is the necessity to make it complicated by using the sanskrit original word? In my own mother tongue, Tamil, we call idol as ‘silai’, a derivative of sila in sanskrit,and which is not same as archa vigraha; but the meaning is conveyed and people understand it. So my humble request is every language has limitations and translations further limit the meaning. But if the meaning can be conveyed there is no need to despise the words or the user.
Dear Swami Saranathan, my pranams and respectful greetings to you. Jai Sriman Narayana.
You are right when you suggest that there is no good English translation for ‘archa-vigraha,but the word ‘idol’ is not a neutral English word. As an English-speaking native myself, and as a Vaishnava, I must tell you that when an English person reads the word ‘idol’ it does not mean something respectful to them. The word has a meaning of an image that is fantastic, something invented, something material made to merely symbolise God. And that is nothing like the understanding which Vaishnavas would want conveyed to those who do not understand the process of archana. So I respectfully beg to differ, and I would suggest that we all move away from English words that have been given to us by Christians. Here is the dictionary definiton of the word ‘idol,’ none of which is complimentary:
an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed.
2.
Bible .
a.
an image of a deity other than God.
b.
the deity itself.
3.
any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion: Madame Curie had been her childhood idol.
4.
a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance, as a phantom.
5.
a figment of the mind; fantasy.