By Karanodakasayi Visnu Dasa Adhikari
Srila Prabhupada said “whatever little success we have had in our Movement is because of our books.” In order to appeal to the minds of the people in the coming age, Srila Vyasadeva thought it wise to have what he had to say committed to writing. This, indeed, was his means of conquest. So when Sukanti Radha Devi Dasi asked me to write an article on the importance of writing and what Srila Prabhupada has said about writing, I thought of two particular quotes that Srila Prabhupada had said: “Writing is the real business.”and one other.
Of the three things Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Sanatana Gosvami to do, namely, to go to Vrndavana and excavate the pastimes of Lord Krsna there, to form a band of devotees and train them up in the science of devotional service and lastly, to write Krsna conscious literature for the whole of mankind, this latter instruction seems the most important, because we, today, remember Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Santana Gosvami for so many things, but most of all for their wonderful transcendental writings that have spread all over the world, together with the writings of the other Gosvamis of Vrnadavana. It is their writings and through their writings that we remember them the most.
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that “He reasons ill that says Vaisnavas die, when still in sound they try to spread the Holy Name around.” This “still in sound” is their vani, and that, for all practical purposes, means “by their writings”. All other forms of media may dwindle and die, but their writings will live on. This has been proven by Srila Vyasadeva many thousands of years ago and by all our acaryas coming down in parampara down to the present time. It is Srila Prabhupada’s books that will remain on the Earth for 9,465 years. Nothing else, perhaps. And when you are sitting under a tree in the shade of the hot sun, the most wonderful thing you can possibly do for posterity is simply to write. This is the Six Gosvamis of Vrndavana. This was their actual life and sharing what they had written with others. Nothing much else, it seems, stands up to scrutiny. Our vani over our vapu is well understood.
So, of all the many activities that we may perform in Krsna consciousness, the one that will last the longest is our writing. ” The faintest writing is more powerful than the most powerful memory.” Indeed, if we have the slightest notion of conquering the world and so on and so forth, the one thing that will go before us is our writing: “the organ of our Movement” as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura so aptly said, and the one thing that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura trained his son up in, so well.
So with that in mind in April 2018, I signed up to learning how to write a book through Vishal Morjaria’s WOW Bookcamp and over three days in August and September 2019, I attended the Bookcamp and two days later I completed the rudiments of my entire book. September was taken up in transcription, October in editing and formatting and by November I had my first proof copy for proof-reading. By December I got my second proof copy and on 7th January 2020 I had my first book published. This month has been taken up in distribution and now we are preparing for our second volume.
Sukanti Radha joined the Bookcamp in August last year also and produced her own book in that time and now we would like to encourage all devotees in the Krsna consciousness Movement to do the same. Kindly read our books that we have produced and get inspired to produce your own.
“Books are our family business”.
The second quote that I had, incidentally, on Srila Prabhupada about writing was,”It is the business of every devotee to see how he is understanding the philosophy of Krsna consciousness by trying to put something into writing”. Paraphrased. Also, I recall Srila Prabhupada saying to Jaya Advaita Svami to “edit for force” and secondly, “only a fool takes himself to be his own editor”. There will be many wonderful realisations that devotees will have about writing and Srila Prabhupada’s books and we would like to encourage everyone to put pen to paper and commit to writing even a little bit each day for there to be a real change of heart in the world.
Sukanti Radha Devi Dasi’s book is called “Conscious Well-being” by Sonitra Sue Singh and my book is called “Our Vaikuntha Planet: How To Eliminate Anxiety For 8 Billion People” by Karanodakasayi Visnu Dasa Adhikari aka Man Mohan Gupta, M. A.(Oxon). Both are now available on Amazon. Please get a copy now. My website is www.daivalimited.com. Whereas cyberspace is good for speed, printspace is good for permanence and solidity.