Prabhupada Vani Research Academy

From Vanipedia

Prabhupada Vani Research Academy (PVRA) is a department of Bhaktivedanta Library Services a.s.b.l. (BLS), a non profit organization which is situated adjacent to the Radhadesh community in Belgium.

PVRA is dedicated to offer comprehensive research of excellent quality to greatly enhance the education of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s followers and the people in general into the essence of Krsna conscious siddhanta as found in the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

PVRA's first project is Vanipedia - an online comprehensive encyclopedia of compilations from the realized truths established in the teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda. We will make these predominantly available via the website vanipedia.org, and later on, if possible, as a series of books printed by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.

You can find out more about the Vanipedia project here.

PVRA’s Mission Statement

To offer a global platform for Śrīla Prabhupāda to profoundly inspire millions of human beings to awaken their dormant love for Kṛṣṇa by taking up the process of devotional service.
To offer a global platform for Śrīla Prabhupāda to clearly express his vision for the spiritual upliftment of human society via the establishment of daiva varnasrama and the sankirtana yajna.
To follow the Vaisnava-Brahminical principles of simple straightforwardness, mercy, truthfulness, and action from a non political platform.
To present in compiled form the multifarious Kṛṣṇa conscious truths established by Śrīla Prabhupāda in his teachings.
To facilitate the understanding of philosophical truths on essential & various subjects.
To facilitate the education & training of Śrīla Prabhupāda's followers to assist him as empowered servants of the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement.
To assist in identifying the essential principles from Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in concise form with the hope that one day they will be established as the guiding principles for the worldwide Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement, via a constitutional process, and other formats of implementation.

The time line of how we got to here

1987

July: Visnu Murti dasa begins a compilation from Śrīla Prabhupāda's letters, consisting of 200 (A4) pages divided into 17 subjects, all taken from the five-volume set Letters from Śrīla Prabhupāda, which had been recently published for the first time, in June 1987.

1988

January: We visit the Bhaktivedanta Archives in Los Angeles and learn that they are the publishers of the 5 volume set Letters from Śrīla Prabhupāda, and that the Archives have a lot more of Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings that have still not been released.

May: We finish the compilation from the letters, print 150 copies and distribute them to the devotees.

August: We again visit Ekanath dasa and Ranjit dasa at Bhaktivedanta Archives and team up with them to help with the production and distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda's remaining teachings to the devotees.

August: We arrive in England, start distribution and team up with Ajamila dasa who is working on a far superior compilation from Śrīla Prabhupāda's letters, named Śikṣāmṛta.

1988 thru 1995

We travel throughout Europe to assist in the publication and distribution of:

Books
- Conversations with Śrīla Prabhupāda (37 volumes)
- Collected Lectures on Bhagavad-gītā As It Is (7 volumes)
- Collected Lectures on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11 volumes)
- Collected Teachings of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda (7 volumes)
- Śrīla Prabhupāda Śikṣāmṛta (3 volumes)
- Back to Godhead 1944-1960 The Pioneer Years
- The Jaladuta Diary
- The Beginning
- Festivals with Śrīla Prabhupāda

Audio
- Sets of the lecture tapes of Śrīla Prabhupāda (711 cassettes)
- Sets of the new realized lecture tapes of Śrīla Prabhupāda (320 cassettes)
- Śrīla Prabhupāda's bhajans on CD (the first CD's in Iskcon)

Computer Program
- The VEDAbase

1995

September 14th: In a property adjacent to Radhadesh in Belgium, the non profit organization Bhaktivedanta Library Services a.s.b.l. is founded to facilitate the distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings to the devotees.

1995 thru 2005

BLS solidifies its distribution network by developing a mail order service, a shop, and wholesale customers.

2000 thru 2003

BLS starts to develop and manage the Bhaktivedanta College in Radhadesh, being convinced that systematic training and education in Śrīla Prabhupāda's books is a very good way to help the devotees imbibe his teachings.

We experienced that more resources are needed to be developed in order to facilitate the education in Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings.

2004

BLS stops it's involvement with the College.

2005

We ponder over the need for a serious research facility to assist comprehension and education in the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

We compile extensively from Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in excel and doc files.

We develop a comprehensive methodology for the compilations.

2006

June: We decide that the Web is the best platform for the research facility to develop.

September: Eivind Morland from Norway joins BLS in Radhadesh and with him we bounce things back and forth and take the decision to inaugurate the project.

October: We buy the domain brahmana.org thinking that we would develop a Website under that name.

November: We establish a department of BLS named Prabhupada Vani Research Academy

October thru December: Eivind starts researching for good Web-based software for the execution of the research.

2007

January thru April: Eivind concentrates fully on the development. He concludes that Wiki is the best software, and starts to familiarize himself with it.

January thru April: We share the vision with different devotees and get a lot of encouragement to perform the sacrifice.

January 15th: We decide on the name Vanipedia and buy the domain name.

May: Acyutananda Caitanya dasa from Colombia joins the team in Radhadesh and starts the process of building Vanisource by extracting the data from Vedabase

May: We present the project to the BBT Trustees at their annual meeting. Get very enthusiastic response and a license to develop the project.

August Lakshmi Parmar from India (Dubai) comes forward to assist with the compiling.

October: Siddha Rupa dasi from Mexico (Mexico city) comes forward to assist with the compiling.

October: We set the launch date of version 0.1 for Gaura Purnima on the 21st of March 2008.

November: Anasuya dasi from Belgium (Gent) comes forward to assist with the compiling.

November: We conduct a survey to find out the subjects in Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings that the devotees think need to be better understood.

December: Nayan Ruparelia from Kenya (London) joins the team as the systems architect to make sure that we do the necessary technical development in order for the project to be able to sustain it's natural growth.

December: Syamananda dasa from Ireland (based in Radhadesh) comes forward to assist with the compiling.
December: Valabhi Radha dasi from Uruguay (London) comes forward to assist with the compiling.

Throughout the year Visnu Murti continues to communicate the project to many devotees and receives good input for it's development.

2008

January - Arundhati Biswas from India (Montreal) comes forward to assist with the compiling.

January thru March - Intense service for everyone. The Vanipedia boat leaves the shore and we start our voyage onto the ocean of Vani. Aspirations high, a voyage into the unknown with Śrīla Prabhupāda as our captain. Start extensive exploration into the depths of the ocean. Lots of fine tuning the vision. Great team building.

February - Sahadeva dasa from England (Vrndavana) comes forward to assist with the compiling.

February - Pranab Kumar Paramban from India (London) comes forward to assist with the compiling.

February - We go to the dhamas of Mayapura and Vrndavana to pray for the mercy to be successful in this great task. Receive the blessings from many saints and sages, and a lot more encouragement from the assembled devotees.

March 21st - Gaura Purnima - Public launching of Vanipedia's first version 0.1 with 875 categories, 4,702 pages and 15,386 quotes.

April 9th - Reached 5,000 pages
May 2nd - Reached 6,000 pages
May 23rd - Reached 7,000 pages and 1,685 categories
June 9th - Reached 2,000 categories and 7,575 pages
June 12th - Jamuna Priya devi dasi (India) comes forward to assist with the compiling
June 14th - Vraj Kishori devi dasi (London) comes forward to assist with the compiling
June 15th - Reached 8,000 pages and 2,242 categories
June 20th - Matea Zajec (Croatia) comes forward to join the core team
July 7th - Reached 2,500 categories and 8,206 pages
Sept 10th - Eivind leaves the core team after two full years of wonderful service
Sept 12th - Reached 9,000 pages and 3,748 categories
Sept 15th - Archana devi dasi (Singapore) comes forward to assist with the compiling
Sept 22nd - Chris Fellingham (UK) comes forward to assist with the compiling
Sept 28th - Serene mataji (Singapore) comes forward to assist with the compiling
Oct 11th - Kanupriya Agarwal (India) comes forward to assist with the compiling
Oct 21st - Radha Kunda's appearance day - Public launching of version 0.2 Statistics - 3,939 categories, 9,516 pages, and 42,401 quotes
Oct 25th - Madhavananda dasa (Denmark) comes forward to assist with the compiling
Oct 27th - Reached 4000 categories, 9568 pages, and 43,463 quotes.
Nov 12th - Rati Jeppesen (Hungary - 14 years of age) comes forward to assist with the compiling.
Dec 1st - Labangalatika (USA) comes forward to assist in the compiling and joins the core team, quickly becoming an excellent Vanitutor.

2009

Jan 21st - Reached 4,503 categories, 10,001 pages, ( 5,562 pages finished & 4,432 pages in process), and 51,020 quotes

Feb 13th - Start construction to build 150 square meters dedicated for Vanpedia office and living facilities

February 16th - Namrata (India) comes forward to assist in the vanimission, and quickly becomes involved in serving in the core teams organization development.

March 10th - Gaura Purnima, first birthday of Vanipedia - Reached 4,748 categories, 10,517 pages (6,247 completed and 4,270 in process) and 56,629 quotes.

May 7th - Nrsimha Caturdasi - Reached 4,925 categories, 10,911 pages (6,808 completed and 4,115 in process) and 61,988 quotes.

June 4th - Reached 5,005 categories, 11,004 pages (7,003 completed and 4,001 in process) and 64,464 quotes.

August 14th - Madhu Gopala (Netherlands) moves to BLS to serve in the core team.

August 27th - Radhastami - Reached 5,273 categories, 11,781 pages (7,817 completed and 3,964 in process) and 72,427 quotes.

October 21st - Srila Prabhupada's Disappearance Day - Reached 5,481 categories, 12,693 pages (8,235 completed and 4,458 in process) and 76,642 quotes.

November 27th - On the eve of Gita Jayanti and our 2nd annual Srila Prabhupada vanimarathon - Reached 5,615 categories, 13,141 pages (9,086 completed and 4,055 in process) and 90,977 quotes.

December: Construction is completed

December 31st - At the end of our 2nd annual Srila Prabhupada vanimarathon - Reached 5,757 categories, 13,924 pages (11,632 completed and 2,292 in process) and 148,375 quotes.

2010

February 28th - Gaura Purnima, second birthday of Vanipedia - Reached 6,033 categories, 14,728 pages (12,556 completed and 2,172 in process) and 174,099 quotes.

March 21st - Vanipedia's second birthday according to solar calculations - Reached 6,193 categories, 15,331 pages (13,215 completed and 2,116 in process) and 193,193 quotes.

May 20th - Celebrations - Reached 6,540 categories, 17,114 pages (14,992 completed and 2,122 in process) and the ecstatic total of a quarter of a million quotes (250,614).

June 4th - Reached 6,634 categories, 17,678 pages (15,597 completed and 2,081 in process) and 272,190 quotes.

June 30th - Reached 6,807 categories, 18,436 pages (16,484 completed and 1,952 in process) and 300,451 quotes.