![\"\"](\"http:\/\/dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads4\/2014-09-20_13-20-35.jpg\")
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I wish to generate some awareness of a monumental project HG Satyaraja pr. (Steven Rosen) has undertaken. Please see the letter below.<\/p>\n
I am doing my bit to help him and raise funding for this important project.<\/p>\n
I wish you can put it up on your website to raise awareness of this all important project for the pleasure of Vaishnavas and to fulfill the desire of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur<\/p>\n
Your servant<\/p>\n
Premvilas das<\/p>\n
Dear devotees and well-wishers of Vaishnava Dharma —
\n This letter is to inform the world wide body of devotees of a very important and scholarly project undertaken by HG Satyaraja prabhu aka Steven Rosen. Steven Rosen is the author of more than 30 books on Krishna Consciousness, founding editor of Journal of Vaishnava studies and associate editor of Back to Godhead Magazine. His books have been translated into more than 10 languages and he has contributed scholarly articles to various books and magazines on Vaishnavism. He is one of the leading Vaishnava voices in the world today.<\/p>\n
Satyaraja das has been working for the last several years on a project called The Concise Vaishnava Encyclopedia (‘Vaisnava Manjusha’). This encyclopedia will explain many terms and concepts related to Vaishnavism and will be used by devotees and scholars all over the world. Anyone researching any subject pertaining to Vaishnavism will benefit from it and all the libraries in this world will benefit from such an encyclopedia.<\/p>\n
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati started this project and it was so dear to him — so much so that he commented that he will take birth again if he is unable to finish it. He said, “If I cannot complete ‘Vaisnava Manjusha’ in this lifetime, then for this reason only, I will come to this planet again to complete this vow.” [For original quote see Vidy\u0101vinoda, Sundar\u0101nanda (ed.). Sarasvat\u012b Jayasr\u012b: Vaibhava Parva. Calcutta: Sr\u012b Gaudiya Math, 1934. (Bengali) Page 82.]\n
A brief history of the project follows:<\/p>\n
Pages 79-81 of Bhakti Vaikasa Swami’s three-volume masterpiece, Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, talks about an encyclopedia that Srila Prabhupada’s guru wanted to have published. He called it the Vaishnava Manjusa Samahriti (“the Concise Vaishnava Encyclopedia”)!<\/p>\n
Apparently, in 1920, Srila Sarasvati Thakur was visited by an important king named Maharaja Manindra-chandra Nandi. Upon meeting him, he told the king of an urgent need for an encyclopedia. He said that people had many misunderstandings of Vaishnava sadhus, places, texts, and concepts, and that this could all be rectified by a concise encyclopedia. The king offered funding, and Sarasvati Thakur, the only person capable of doing the work, commenced working on the project.<\/p>\n
On October 20 of that year , Sarasvati Thakur journeyed to Kashimbazar to ask the king for more funding — three lakhs rupees — which at that time was considerable. This is what he needed, he told the king, to research, compile, and publish the encyclopedia. The King gave him a monthly stipend and he purchased Sarasvati Thakur’s beach house in Puri, where he was to work on this encyclopedia until it was finished.<\/p>\n
Due to a complex series of events, the project remained incomplete — but it was dear to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s heart.<\/p>\n
The point is this: it was one of Bhaktisiddhanta’s most important projects, so much so that he published his findings as four unfinished Bengali volumes between 1922 and 1925, with a fifth volume that never saw the light of day. It is said that Srila Sarasvati Thakur passed on before the work could be properly completed, but that he eventually gave his initial research to Sundarananda Vidyavinoda, asking him to complete it. The Gaudiya Math split up, and it was never finished. Eventually, much of the material was given to Haridas Das, and some of it ended up in his Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana, published in 1957. Both the Vaishnava Manjusa and the Abhidhana were done in Bengali only.<\/p>\n
Satyaraja Prabhu (Steven Rosen) is carrying on this important work today in the all-important English language as a service to his Guru Maharaja! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!<\/p>\n
All he needs is appropriate funding to complete the task. He is half finished with this glorious project, but he had to set it aside for lack of funding. It will take him another two years to finish this project but he cannot move forward without funding and he is requesting for help.<\/p>\n
If anyone will like to donate for this monumental Vaishnava project which will further the cause of Vaishnavism all over the world, please contact me at premvilasdas.rns@gmail.com<\/p>\n
Your servant<\/p>\n
Premvilas das<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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