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EDITORIAL August 15, 1999 VNN4507 Comment on this story Sri Gayatri Mantrartha Dip-ficult BY TARUN KRSNA DAS EDITORIAL, Aug 15 (VNN) — (see also VNN story# 4470) Sri Sri Guru Gaurangau Jayatah Dear Sripad Narasimha Mhrj, Please accept my humble dandavat pranams in remembrance of our divine masters. I never received any open letter from you to me. You began your open letter with the words: "Dear Tarun Krsna Prabhu." Instead I received it from other devotees who in turn relayed it from you through them to me. Is that what is meant by an open letter? Good health. Your godbrother, servant and friend, TKdas Dear gurus, sannyasis, prabhus, matajis and didis, Please accept my salutes, respects and dandavat pranams in remembrance of our divine masters. In July 1998, My dear godbrother, Sripad Bhaktigaurava Narasimha Mhrj, formerly known as Jagat Guru Svami, descended from his Vermont ashram and came to our Utopia, Queens home wherein he delivered an excellent speech on the meaning of the sannyas vesh - dress, tridanda, brahman's thread and also cane. Cane? Cane came to his mind perhaps partially because I had just undergone a foot operation and was hobbling around on a cane with my foot extended along the wall, away from the center, so as to harmoniously fit in the room, while simultaneously avoiding pointing my foot at the Deities, devotees and guests. Sripad Narasimha Mhrj spoke of how Prabhupad at first always carried his tridanda, but later on carried his cane instead, the sign of a paramahamsa. Maybe he was saying this partially to encourage me. It certainly was encouraging. Just a few days before I had been held under the knife, 6 hours unconscious, first intravenous or operation ever for this body. He stuck to the theme of gayatri, repeating over and over again how gayatri was the heart of our sampradaya and parampara, so much so that I thought: "He must be absorbed in writing some essay about gayatri." That was July. Months passed. In late November, Ujjval returned from India. A few days later we drove down to Miami, happy to follow Surya's course. In Late March, Sriman Atulananda Prabhu returned from India to Miami. He pulled out a book and placed it on my lap. I took a look. It appeared somewhat like Sri Prapanna-jivanamrta, but shaded darker. I read the title: "Sri Gayatri Mantrartha Dipika." Self explanatory. Radha - Radhika, Dipa - Dipika. Arto Artharthi Jijnasur, Dharmartha kama moksa prema. I began to turn the pages. I saw the names of several devotees I knew within. I noticed a few Sanskrt transliteration mistakes, nothing to serious. I began to read a bit, here and there. An inner feeling was coming, but I ignored it, suppressed. Next, Atulananda Prabhu came back into the room and asked me, "So Tarun, what do you think?" I said, "The book is very beautiful, but who shall distribute it to whom? That is the question." Recalling what Sripad Narasimha Mhrj had spoken in my home just 8 months before, how gayatri must be received directly through parampara from diksa-guru to sisya, different, sometimes opposing ideas emerged. Atulananda Prabhu added, " Yes, many godbrothers in India expressed their concern about the publication of this book." On May 9th, I wrote to Narasimha Mhrj expressing both my congratulations and concern. "Great book, but don't you think that by its distribution you're initiating, becoming diksa-guru to each and every person who reads it, regardless of whether you ever get to meet them or not?" He tried to assure me that this was not at all the case but he did not give any example. Hmm. Instead he said, "We do not expect that any non-initiated persons or devotees will start chanting gayatri after reading this book without first approaching a bonafide guru. Actually this book is not expected to be read by non-brahmanas." There are some major insurmountable problems with this attitude. Doesn't "do not expect" and "not expected to be read" sound like wishful thinking? What was his plan to control who would or would not get the book? It sounded shaky leaning toward flaky to me, but he didn't stop there. I wrote, "I do wish you all strength to carry all those soon to be known as well as those soon to remain unknown back home, BTG." My idea was that by distributing our most sacred gayatri mantra openly to anyone and everyone who flashed $10, he, they, the book compiler and seller would be revealing our most sacred possession, gayatri, for the first time to the eyes of so many, many of whom he would never meet face to face. This is the position and job of the diksa-guru. But in most cases he'd be initiating both unknowingly and by proxy. The diksa-guru should and must be the first person to reveal the gayatri mantra to his disciple, not some 3rd party compiler. It seemed to me something like a correspondence course for diksa initiation, exactly contrary to Gita (4.34). In that sloka Sri Krsna Bhagavan uses the instrumental case 3 times in a row to guard against watered down, bogus versions of gayatri mantra transmission. He failed to see this crystal clear explanation. His response detoured tangentially, including the following line: "At least you should understand that if one spends his life chasing after the pleasure of the genitals, as many of our godbrothers have done, then there is certainly no scope to enter deeper into the plane of Krsna consciousness." True, but the discussion was gayatri: should the public distribution of our most sacred sampradaya gayatri mantra occur or not, not genital. I hesitated to write him back for 2 weeks. I thought, "I have plenty more to say, because I adamantly disagree with this EASY proliferation and CHEAP purchase of our most hidden treasure, which formerly (at least before THIS book came out), was only attainable after months and even years of intense pranipat, pariprasna and seva. If I remain quiet, he'll think his response has shut me up. If I reply to his 'way out of context' mention of corporal private parts, I can also be faulted as over-reacting, lusty, greedy, whatever. Then, what to do? Next he mentioned that Srila Puri Gosai had called the book a "Gupta Ratna Prakash", a Revelation of the Hidden Wealth of Gaudiya Siddhanta." Gupta Ratna Prakash = hidden jewel manifest. To me this choice of words made it even clearer that Srila Puri Gosai's expression was all the more reason NOT to give the "family jewels" away so cheaply. Aaah! Maybe THAT's why Sripad Narasimha Mhrj introduced the word "genital" in a "gayatri" debate. Okay, now I get it. Srila Prabhupad did say: "In nyaya or logic, the more points of similarity, the better the analogy." Let's see now: both words contain seven letters, both begin with 'g', both have 3 syllables, family jewels... 4 points. Bravo! Get it? "Got it." Good. I'm slow but steady. I do eventually arrive at the scene of the crime. Adbhuta. Amazing just amazing. But as Srila Prabhupad said, "They've made so many atom bombs; now they have to use or drop them." Similarly, once you invest in something, you have to convince yourself you did the right thing, no matter how wrong you are. To be continued... ps. I've known Sripad Narasimha Mhrj since the summer of 1972 in Pittsburgh. He's the only surviving sannyasi from that famous 7 sannyasi initiation ceremony in Mayapur 1976, in which I also had the honor of participating. The other 6 are doing other things. I'll always wish him well. Always. He is my friend for life, at least from my side, but sometimes we do disagree, as in this gayatri case. 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