GU/Gujarati Main Page - Vanipedia's Manifesto: Difference between revisions
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IntroductionSrila Prabhupada placed much importance on his teachings, thus Vanipedia is dedicated exclusively to his body of work which comprises books, recorded lectures and conversations, letters, etc. When completed, Vanipedia will be the first-ever Vani-temple in the world offering a sacred space where millions of people seeking authentic spiritual guidance will find answers and inspiration from the illustrious teachings of Srila Prabhupada, presented in an encyclopedia format in as many languages as possible. Vanipedia's Vision StatementCollaborating to invoke and fully manifest Srila Prabhupada's multi-lingual Vani-presence, thus facilitating hundreds of millions of people to live the science of Krishna consciousness and assist Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's sankirtana movement to re-spiritualize human society. CollaboratingBuilding an encyclopedia to the degree that is evinced in Vanipedia is only possible by the mass collaborative effort of thousands of devotees congregationally compiling and diligently translating Srila Prabhupada's teachings. We want to complete the translation of all of Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations, and letters in at least 16 languages and reach at least 108 languages with some representation in Vanipedia by November 2027. As of October 2017 the full Bible has been translated into 670 languages, the New Testament has been translated into 1,521 languages and Bible portions or stories into 1,121 other languages. These statistics show that our aims while being a substantial increase in Srila Prabhupada's teachings, are not at all ambitious compared to the efforts that the Christians are making to spread their teachings globally. We invite all devotees to join us in this noble endeavor of invoking and making fully manifest Srila Prabhupada's multi-lingual Vani-presence on the web for the benefit of ALL humanity. InvokingIn 1965 Srila Prabhupada arrived uninvited in America. Even though the days of his glorious Vapu presence ended in 1977, he still exists in his Vani and it is this presence that we must now invoke. Only by calling on and begging Srila Prabhupada to appear will he do so. Our intense desire to have him among us is the key we hold for his appearance. Fully manifestingWe do not want the partial presence of Srila Prabhupada before us. We want his full Vani-presence. All of his recorded teachings should be completely compiled and translated into many languages. This is our offering to future generations of people of this planet - complete shelter (ashraya) of Srila Prabhupada's teachings. Vani-presenceSrila Prabhupada's full Vani-presence will appear in two phases. The first - and easy phase - is to compile and translate all of Srila Prabhupada's teachings in all languages. The second - and more difficult phase - is to have hundreds of millions of people fully living his teachings. Different Ways to Study
Ten Million Acaryas
CommentThis vision statement of Srila Prabhupada speaks for itself - the perfect plan for people to easily understand Krishna consciousness. Ten million empowered siksa-disciples of Srila Prabhupada humbly living our Founder-acarya's instructions and always endeavoring for perfection and maturity. Srila Prabhupada clearly states "make that organization." Vanipedia is enthusiastically helping to fulfill this vision. Science of Krishna ConsciousnessIn the Ninth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita this science of Krishna consciousness is called the king of all knowledge, the king of all confidential things, and the supreme science of transcendental realization. Krishna Consciousness is a transcendental science which can be revealed to a sincere devotee who is prepared to render service to God. Krishna Consciousness is not achieved by dry arguments or by academic qualifications. Krishna Consciousness is not a faith, such as the Hindu, Christian, Buddhist or Islam faith, but it is a science. If someone reads Srila Prabhupada's books carefully they will realize the topmost science of Krishna Consciousness and be more inspired to spread the same to all persons as their real welfare benefit. Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana MovementLord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the father and inaugurator of the sankirtana movement. One who worships Him by sacrificing his life, money, intelligence and words for the sankirtana movement is recognized by the Lord and endowed with His blessings. All others may be said to be foolish, for of all sacrifices in which a man may apply his energy, a sacrifice made for the sankirtana movement is the most glorious. The entire Krishna consciousness movement is based on the principles of the sankirtana movement inaugurated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Therefore one who tries to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the medium of the sankirtana movement knows everything perfectly. He is sumedhas, a person with substantial intelligence. Re-spiritualizing Human SocietyHuman society, at the present moment, is not in the darkness of oblivion. It has made rapid progress in the field of material comforts, education and economic development throughout the entire world. But there is a pinprick somewhere in the social body at large, and therefore there are large-scale quarrels, even over less important issues. There is a need for a clue as to how humanity can become one in peace, friendship, and prosperity with a common cause. Srimad-Bhagavatam fills this need, for it is a cultural presentation for the re-spiritualization of the entire human society. The mass of people, in general, are tools in the hands of the modern politicians and leaders of the people. If there is a change of heart of the leaders only, certainly there will be a radical change in the atmosphere of the world. The aim of real education should be self-realization, realization of the spiritual values of the soul. Everyone should help to spiritualize all the activities of the world. By such activities, both the performer and the work performed become surcharged with spirituality and transcend the modes of nature. Vanipedia's Mission Statement
What is Motivating Us to Build Vanipedia?
Thus, we are committed to creating a truly dynamic platform to facilitate the profuse distribution and proper understanding of the perfect knowledge and realizations found within Srila Prabhupada's teachings, so they may be joyfully acted upon. It is that simple. The only thing separating us from the completion of Vanipedia is time and the many sacred hours of vaniseva that is yet to be offered by the devotees who commit themselves to this vision. I thank you very much, all of you, for appreciating my humble service which I am trying to render as a matter of duty ordered by my Guru Maharaja. I request all my disciples to work cooperatively and I am sure our mission will advance without any doubt. – Srila Prabhupada Letter to Tamala Krishna das (GBC) - 14 August, 1971 Srila Prabhupada's Three Natural PositionsA culture of shelter at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada's teachings can only be realized when these three positions of Srila Prabhupada are awakened in the hearts of all his followers. Srila Prabhupada is our pre-eminent siksa-guru
Srila Prabhupada is the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON
Srila Prabhupada is the World-acharya
Vital to Establish Srila Prabhupada's Natural Position
CommentWe believe these obstacles can easily be overcome with the introduction of integral, structured educational and training programs aimed at nurturing our relationship with and increasing our knowledge of Srila Prabhupada's teachings. This will only succeed however if fueled by a serious leadership commitment to create a culture deeply rooted in Srila Prabhupada's Vani. Srila Prabhupada's natural position will thus automatically become, and remain, apparent to all generations of devotees. Devotees are his Limbs, ISKCON is his Body, and his Vani is his Soul
CommentWe are Srila Prabhupada's limbs. To successfully cooperate with him to his full satisfaction we must be united in consciousness with him. This loving unity develops from our becoming fully absorbed in, convinced by and practicing his Vani. Our holistic success strategy is for everyone to assimilate Srila Prabhupada's teachings and boldly place them at the heart of everything we do for his Krishna consciousness movement. In this way, Srila Prabhupada's devotees can flourish personally, and in their respective services to make ISKCON a solid body which can fulfill Srila Prabhupada's desire to save the world from complete disaster. The devotees win, the GBC wins, ISKCON wins, the world wins, Srila Prabhupada wins, and Lord Caitanya wins. There will be no losers. Distributing the Teachings of Parampara1486 Caitanya Mahaprabhu appears in order to teach the world Krishna consciousness – 533 years ago 1488 Sanatana Goswami appears in order to write books on Krishna consciousness – 531 years ago 1489 Rupa Gosvami appears in order to write books on Krishna consciousness – 530 years ago 1495 Raghunatha Gosvami appears in order to write books on Krishna consciousness – 524 years ago 1500 Mechanical printing presses begin to revolutionize the distribution of books throughout Europe – 520 years ago 1513 Jiva Gosvami appears in order to write books on Krishna consciousness – 506 years ago 1834 Bhaktivinoda Thakura appears in order to write books on Krishna consciousness – 185 years ago 1874 Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati appears in order to write books on Krishna consciousness – 145 years ago 1896 Srila Prabhupada appears in order to write books on Krishna consciousness – 123 years ago 1914 Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati coins the phrase "brhat-mrdanga" – 105 years ago 1922 Srila Prabhupada meets Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati for the first time and is immediately requested to preach in the English language - 97 years ago 1935 Srila Prabhupada receives the instruction to print books – 84 years ago 1944 Srila Prabhupada starts Back to Godhead magazine – 75 years ago 1956 Srila Prabhupada moves to Vrndavana to write books – 63 years ago 1962 Srila Prabhupada publishes his first volume of Srimad-Bhagavatam – 57 years ago 1965 Srila Prabhupada arrives in the West to distribute his books – 54 years ago 1968 Srila Prabhupada publishes his abridged Bhagavad-gita As-It-Is – 52 years ago 1972 Srila Prabhupada publishes his full version of Bhagavad-gita As-It-Is – 47 years ago 1972 Srila Prabhupada establishes the BBT to publish his books – 47 years ago 1974 Srila Prabhupada's disciples start the serious distribution of his books – 45 years ago 1975 Srila Prabhupada completes the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 44 years ago 1977 Srila Prabhupada stops speaking and leaves his Vani in our care – 42 years ago 1978 The Bhaktivedanta Archives is established – 41 years ago 1986 The world's digitally stored material amounts to 1 CD-ROM per person – 33 years ago 1991 The World Wide Web (brhat-brhat-brhat mrdanga) is established – 28 years ago 1992 The Bhaktivedanta VedaBase version 1.0 is created – 27 years ago 2002 The Digital Age arrives - worldwide digital storage overtakes analog – 17 years ago 2007 The world's digitally stored material amounts to 61 CD-ROMS per person – 12 years ago, that makes 427 billion CD-ROMs. (all full) 2007 Srila Prabhupada's Vani-temple, the Vanipedia begins construction in the web – 12 years ago 2010 Srila Prabhupada's Vapu-temple, the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium begins construction in Sridhama Mayapur – 9 years ago 2012 Vanipedia reaches 1,906,753 quotes, 108,971 pages and 13,946 categories – 7 years ago 2013 500,000,000 of Srila Prabhupada's books have been distributed by ISKCON devotees in 48 years – an average of 28,538 books every single day - 6 years ago 2019 21st March, Gaura Purnima day at 7.15 Central European Time, Vanipedia celebrates 11 years of inviting devotees to collaborate together to invoke and fully manifest Srila Prabhupada's Vani-presence. Vanipedia now offers 45,588 categories, 282,297 pages, 2,100,000 plus quotes presented in 93 languages. This has been achieved by over 1,220 devotees who have performed more than 295,000 hours of vaniseva. We still have a long way to go in order to complete Srila Prabhupada's Vani-temple thus we continue to invite devotees to participate in this glorious mission. CommentThe unfolding of the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu under the banner of the modern day Krishna consciousness movement is a very exciting time to be performing devotional service. Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-acarya of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness has brought onto the world scene a life-changing phenomenon in the form of his Translations, Bhaktivedanta Purports, Lectures, Conversations, and Letters. Here lies the key to the respiritualization of the whole human society. Vani, Personal Association and Service in Separation - Quotes
CommentSrila Prabhupada offers many revealing truths in this series of statements.
Using Media to Spread Krishna's Message
CommentFollowing in the footsteps of his Guru Maharaja Srila Prabhupada knew the art of engaging everything for Krishna's service.
Modern-media, modern opportunitiesFor Srila Prabhupada, in the 1970's, the terms modern-media and mass-media meant the printing press, radio, TV and movies. Since his departure, the landscape of mass media has dramatically transformed to include Android phones, cloud computing and storage, e-book readers, e-commerce, interactive TV and gaming, online publishing, podcasts and RSS feeds, social networking sites, streaming media services, touch-screen technologies, web-based communications & distribution services and wireless technologies. In line with Srila Prabhupada's example we are, since 2007, using modern mass media technologies to compile, index, categorize and distribute Srila Prabhupada's Vani.
CommentThere is still more to be done to make Srila Prabhupada's teachings accessible and prominent in the world today. Collaborative web technologies provide us the opportunity to surpass all our previous successes. Vaniseva – the Sacred Act of Serving Srila Prabhupada's VaniSrila Prabhupada stopped speaking on the 14th of November, 1977, but the Vani he gave us remains ever fresh. However, these teachings are not yet in their pristine condition, nor are all of them readily accessible to his devotees. Srila Prabhupada's followers have a sacred duty to preserve and to distribute his Vani to everyone. We are therefore inviting you to perform this vaniseva. Always remember that you are one of the few men I have appointed to carry on my work throughout the world and your mission before you is huge. Therefore, always pray to Krishna to give you strength for accomplishing this mission by doing what I am doing. My first business is to give the devotees the proper knowledge and engage them in devotional service, so that is not very difficult task for you, I have given you everything, so read and speak from the books and so many new lights will come out. We have got so many books, so if we go on preaching from them for the next 1,000 years, there is enough stock. – Srila Prabhupada Letter to Satsvarupa das (GBC), 16 June 1972 In June of 1972 Srila Prabhupada said that "we have got so many books" that we have "enough stock" to preach from for the "next 1,000 years." At that time, only 10 titles had been printed, so with all the extra books that Srila Prabhupada published from July 1972 to November 1977 the number of years of stock could easily be expanded to 5,000. If we add to this his oral instructions and letters, then the stock expands to 10,000 years. We need to expertly prepare all these teachings to be accessed and properly understood so that they can be "preached from" for this whole period of time. There is no doubt that Srila Prabhupada has unending enthusiasm and determination to preach the message of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It does not matter that his vapu has left us. He remains in his teachings, and via the digital platform, he can now preach even more widely than when he was physically present. With complete dependence on Lord Caitanya's mercy, let us embrace Srila Prabhupada's vani-mission, and with more resolve than ever before, expertly prepare his Vani for 10,000 years of preaching. Over the past ten years I have given the framework and now we have become more than the British Empire. Even the British Empire was not as expansive as we. They had only a portion of the world, and we have not completed expanding. We must expand more and more unlimitedly. But I must now remind you that I have to complete the translation of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. This is the greatest contribution; our books have given us a respectable position. People have no faith in this church or temple worship. Those days are gone. Of course, we have to maintain the temples as it is necessary to keep our spirits high. Simply intellectualism will not do, there must be practical purification. So I request you to relieve me of management responsibilities more and more so that I can complete the Srimad-Bhagavatam translation. If I am always having to manage, then I cannot do my work on the books. It is document, I have to choose each word very soberly and if I have to think of management then I cannot do this. I cannot be like these rascals who present something mental concoction to cheat the public. So this task will not be finished without the cooperation of my appointed assistants, the GBC, temple presidents, and sannyasis. I have chosen my best men to be GBC and I do not want that the GBC should be disrespectful to the temple presidents. You can naturally consult me, but if the basic principle is weak, how will things go on? So please assist me in the management so that I can be free to finish the Srimad-Bhagavatam which will be our lasting contribution to the world. – Srila Prabhupada Letter to All Governing Body Commissioners, 19 May 1976 Here Srila Prabhupada is stating "this task will not be finished without the cooperation of my appointed assistants" to help him make "our lasting contribution to the world." It is Srila Prabhupada's books that have "given us a respectable position" and they are "the greatest contribution to the world." Over the years, so much vaniseva has been performed by BBT devotees, book distributors, preachers who have held firmly to Srila Prabhupada's words, and by other devotees who have been dedicated to distribute and preserve his Vani in one way or another. But there is still much more to do. By working together via the technologies of the brhat-brhat-brhat mrdanga (the World Wide Web) we now have an opportunity to build an unparalleled manifestation of Srila Prabhupada's Vani in a very short period of time. Our proposal is to come together in vaniseva and build a Vani-temple to be completed by November 4th, 2027, at which time we will all be celebrating the final 50th anniversary. 50 years of serving Srila Prabhupada in separation. This will be a very appropriate and beautiful offering of love to Srila Prabhupada, and a glorious gift to all the future generations of his devotees. I am glad that you have named your printing press the Radha Press. It is very gratifying. May your Radha Press be enriched in publishing all our books and literatures in the German language. It is a very nice name. Radharani is the best, topmost servitor of Krishna, and the printing machine is the biggest medium at the present moment for serving Krishna. Therefore, it is really a representative of Srimati Radharani. I like the idea very much. – Srila Prabhupada Letter to Jaya Govinda das (Book production manager), 4 July 1969 For the better part of the 20th century, the printing press provided the tools for successful propaganda from so many groups of people. Srila Prabhupada stated how expert the communists were to spread their influence in India via the pamphlets and books they distributed. Srila Prabhupada used this example to express how he wanted to make a large propaganda program for Krishna consciousness by distributing his books all over the world. Now, in the 21st century, Srila Prabhupada's statement "the biggest medium at the present moment for serving Krishna" can undoubtedly be applied to the exponential and unparalleled power of internet publishing and distribution. In Vanipedia, we are preparing Srila Prabhupada's teachings for proper representation on this modern mass distribution platform. Srila Prabhupada stated that the Radha Press of his devotees in Germany was "really a representative of Srimati Radharani." We are therefore certain that he would consider Vanipedia to be a representative of Srimati Radharani as well. So many beautiful Vapu-temples have already been built by ISKCON devotees – let us now build at least one glorious Vani-temple. The Vapu-temples offer sacred darshans to the forms of the Lord, and a Vani-temple will offer the sacred darshan to the teachings of the Lord and His pure devotees, as presented by Srila Prabhupada. The work of ISKCON devotees will naturally be more successful when Srila Prabhupada's teachings are situated in their rightful, worshipable position. Now there is a wonderful opportunity for all his current "appointed assistants" to embrace the vani-mission of building his Vani-temple and to inspire the whole movement to participate. Just as the enormous and beautiful Vapu-temple rising from the banks of the Ganges in Sridham Mayapur is destined to help spread Lord Caitanya's mercy all over the world, so too can a Vani-temple of Srila Prabhupada's teachings strengthen his ISKCON mission to spread all over the world and establish Srila Prabhupada's natural position for thousands of years to come. Vaniseva – Taking Practical Action to Serve
Donating
Sponsor: A person donating any amount they desire Supporting Patron: An individual person or legal entity donating at least 81 euros Sustaining Patron: An individual person or legal entity donating at least 810 euros with the possibility to make 9 monthly payments of 90 euros Growth Patron: An individual person or legal entity donating 8,100 euros with the possibility to make 9 yearly payments of 900 euros Foundational Patron: An individual person or legal entity donating 81,000 euros with the possibility to make 9 yearly payments of 9,000 euros
We Are Grateful - PrayersWe Are Grateful
Thank you for considering these prayers CommentOnly by the empowering grace of Srila Prabhupada, Sri Sri Panca Tattva, and Sri Sri Radha Madhava can we ever hope to achieve this herculean task. Thus we incessantly pray for Their mercy. |