An Appeal
Babaji Satyanarayana Dasa appeals to anyone and everyone who understands the importance and urgency of preserving and protecting Vaishnava literature and tradition to please come forward and assist him.
Recently, Satyanarayana Dasa, Ph.D., was awarded the Sahitya Sammana for his extraordinary contribution to the spreading of Vedic culture through literature on a national and international level. Now is the time to continue spreading and preserving this important information, but your help is needed.
Jiva Institute is affiliated with the Sampurnananda Sanskrit University Banares. At present, 300 students are registered for graduate and post-postgraduate degrees in Sanskrit grammar, Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, Jyotish and Indian classical music. It is the first time in history that one can get a degree in Gaudiya Vaishnava theology from an Indian university.
Furthermore, Jiva Institute hosts the Gaudiya Grantha Mandir, a virtual repository mainly of Caitanya or Gaudiya Vaishnava literature. This repository of texts is an effort to collect, edit, and make available important and often rare Sanskrit and Bengali texts that belong to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. It is for the use of any and all scholars of Sanskrit and Bengali. It will eventually contain carefully edited and proofread editions of the whole corpus of Gaudiya Vaishnava texts and many other important Sanskrit texts from other traditions. By engaging and supporting scholars, Jiva Institute is progressively digitizing these books for Gaudiya Grantha Mandir.
While Jiva Institute works in various fields, the main stress is on translating the Gosvami literature from Sanskrit to English and commenting on them in the modern context. These books were written from a cultural, social and political background which is different from today. Even though their philosophical conclusions are eternal, they need to be studied and applied in the modern context.
With the support and contributions of those who understand the importance of preserving this literature, different book projects are currently in process and needing additional support.
The Sat Sandarbhas by Sri Jiva Gosvami are the backbone of the Gaudiya Vaishnava theology. Jiva Institute has therefore taken up the project of translation and commenting on the Sat Sandarbhas. It is the only place where these books can be studied in depth. Babaji Satyanarayana Dasa, who devotedly underwent austerities to gain this knowledge from his guru, Sri Haridas Sastri Maharaja, has taken it as his personal responsibility to preserve and present this knowledge, especially to a Western audience.
The task of publishing these works cannot be accomplished by only one person. Therefore, Satyanarayana Dasa is sending out an appeal to those who understand the importance and urgency of this project and who are capable of helping, to please come forward and assist him.
Help can be offered in the following ways:
- By studying the Gosvami literature. One can do this either by physically living at Jiva Institute Vrindavan or virtually, from the comfort of your home through cyber media.
- By helping to publish through giving one’s time for transcribing, editing and proofreading. For futher details please contact malati @ jiva.org.
- By contributing financially to support the book publication team, which includes authors, editors, layout designers, etc. This can be done either for a specific project or on a regular basis.
- By financial help for building much needed new classrooms to continue educating students to perpetuate the advancement of Vaishnava tradition.
- By helping to develop e-courses to establish a virtual university.
- By locating sponsors who are willing to support this important work financially.
- By distributing the published books internationally.
- By helping to preserve and digitize hand-written manuscripts for the library.
- By donating equipment such as computers, scanners, cameras and books for the library.
Your contributions, whether financial or as a volunteer, will have a huge impact in the crucial preservation of these important texts. Please let us know what you can do to support these worthwhile projects to preserve the Vaishnava heritage. Donations can be made directly on this website (through Paypal). For further inquiries or details for how you can assist, please contact us directly at contact @ jiva.org or through the contact form.
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