Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
Wonderful pictures! Really I have never seen how Prabhupada looked in his early days. Also some of those coloured pics like him with that small child, etc are quite rare. I've never seen them.
They are excellent! Thanks a lot.
Your servant
Venkat
Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna!
Dear Vaishnavas,
i found audio narration of Shri Navadvipa Dhaama Mahatmya. Here is the link: http://www.archive.org/details/Nabadwip-Dham-Mahatmya
Audio versions of the Holy Books is a very good and practical way to absorb oneself in the Holy Names and Pastimes of the Lord during the day. By now there are already many audio narrations of the most important Holy Books of Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharyas and for our good fortune Shri Navadvipa Dhaama Mahatmya counts amonst them 
i wish You a very nice listening to one of the most important books about the Glories of Nityananda Gauranga Naam Lila Tattva and Navadvipa Dhaama Tattva.
Your servant,
Matus
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krsna
Thank you so much dear Venkatji for sharing and posting such wonderfull nectar about Lord, His Pastimes and Abodes! Thank you very much. Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krsna
fallen, Igor
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
My obeisances to all of you!
The following are the pictures where Mahaprabhu stayed during his Caturmasya Vrata in Srirangam. The following photos where taken by my grandfather when he went on a tour there in March. Although Tiruchy, which is very near Srirangam had been his residence for many years including his chidhood he came to know that such a place existed in Srirangam only recently. Unfortunately he visited the temple at a time when it was closed in the afternoon so he could only get photos of the footprints of Mahaprabhu.
The first picture is the majestic gopuram of the Ranganatha temple in Srirangam. The shot is taken at a location very close to Venkata Bhatta's house. People say that from the top of this gopuram you can use binoculars and see Sri Lanka!
The board says the following in Tamil-- " A treasure that cannot be found. The source of the Hare Krishna Hare Rama mahamantra, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's (who is an Avatra of Sri Krishna) footprints is found here. All devotees are requested to chant this mahamantra and gain happiness." This is the extent to which I am able to translate the words into English. If there is any offence in what i have said please correct me. The board also contains a small picture of all the symbols found on Mahaprabhu's feet.
This is the place where Mahaprabhu stayed. You can see Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati's photo in the room too. Also this picture of Gauranga dancing with the doves flying in ecstasy is one of my favourite. Can anyone tell me where I can get this pic? Reflections of the closed grill has obscured the full view of the picture. In the reflection you can see my grandpa taking a snap.
And here are the footprints of Mahaprabhu. On the slab it is written -- "Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited the place in the year 1510 and stayed for four months at Srirangam."
However though this is the place (according to my grandfather) where Mahaprabhu stayed, some people claim that the location of the Sri Jagannatha Mutt is the original location of Venkata Bhatta's house. The following picture contains the Jagannatha deities carved by Gauranga Himself. These deities are found in the mutt at Srirangam. This picture is taken from the net.
Can anyone please clarify my doubt? Is the location of the Sri Jagannatha Mutt or the Sri Chaitanya Mutt (pics taken by my grandfather) the original location of Venkata Bhatta's house?
I will post the pics of the Jagannatha Mutt in another post.
Aspiring to always serve and please Vaishanavas,
Venkat.
Nityaananda! Gauraanga! Hare Krishna! I can understand what you are saying Damodara Svarupa dasa. But what if it does not stick to the truth? I don't want to go into the details but this published form of Sva Likhita Jivani does not stick to the truth only. It seems parts have been added which are fabrication and offensive to Shrila Sacchidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura. And in other cases, what if it is a mundane intepretation of the actions of a pure devotee by that author? That still would not be the truth. How can the author intepret the mind and heart of a pure devotee? na martya buddhayusyeta....It is said in the Shrimad Bhagavatam that an Acharya should not seen or understood with material vision or interpretation or understanding since he is the personification of all the demigods...vaishnavera vakya kriya mudra vigyeya na bujhaya...It is described in Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita that even the most learned and advanced person cannot comprehend the actions of a pure devotee, what to speak of trying to interpret them. Thus, ideally an Acharya's hagiographical biography should be written by another devotee on the same perfected platform. An Associate of the Lord is so perfect that it is never a stretch of his glories to glorify him extensively and hagiographically. An hagiographical biography is the minimum which could be done to properly present his glories.
This really is a pity, as it denies us from learning about the Acharyas on yet another level. All we now know is that they are saints. But we do not know nor learn how they became a saint. And this process could help many devotees on their way to God.
A factual and highly respectful hagiographical biography of an Acharya will certainly tell us how a great soul become a saint for our inspiration. But it will never try to interpret the saint's activities or impose wrong activities in his character. I hope this helps.
Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
Thank you so much Swamiji for writing your naam realisations. I never knew kirtana is so important. I now understand why Srila Prabhupada always used to insist on kirtana. I first thought it was mainly to attract devotees by the wonderful singing of the Lords names. But now I understand the importance. I will now try to participate more in kirtans. Your words will definitely bring some sense to us fool.
Thank you so much.
Aspiring to serve and please you,
Venkat.
All glores to Srilla Prabhupada!
Srilla Prabhupada in early days.( far right side of picture )
Srilla Prabhupada accepting sanyasa
Thinking about Krsna....
and chanting Holy Names with his disciples.
Nityananda, Gauranga, Hare Krishna.
This really is a pity, as it denies us from learning about the Acharyas on yet another level. All we now know is that they are saints. But we do not know nor learn how they became a saint. And this process could help many devotees on their way to God.
Damodara Svarupa dasa
"Simply by chanting or hearing the name of Lord Nityananda, the sinful inclinations in the hearts of all the living entities in the universe are permanently destroyed and their inherent purity is automatically awakened. On chanting or hearing the name of Lord Nityananda, even the merchants, degraded, fallen and foolish people are purified and immediately become realized in the Absolute Truth and great devotees of the Lord." (SBSSTP in Shri Chaitanya Bhagavata, Madhya-Khanda 3.134 purport)
Nityaananda! Gauraanga! Hare Krishna! Jaya Shrila Prabhupaada! Pranaams. Welcome to NITAAI.com, Aruna-lochana dasi. Thank you for the wonderful point about loneliness and the Name. Please do post more of such topics. The only way to really dissipate the loneliness of the soul is to directly associate with the Lord and His Pure Devotees by the chanting (japa and sankirtana) of His Holy Names. We can remove bodily loneliness by talking to other people but the loneliness of our soul cannot be removed by mundane talk with mundane people. Our soul is crying for association and the Naama Prabhu is our only hope in Kali Yuga to provide us that quality association of the Lord and His Pure Devotees.
For your kind information, normally, the word "devi" is used when the main initiation name is that of a female counterpart or associate of the Lord like Radha devi dasi, or Jahnava devi dasi or Ganga devi dasi. The word "devi" in the name applies to that female counterpart or associate of the Lord. Aruna-lochana is the most beautiful Holy Name of the Lord Himself, who posseses lotus eyes tinged with the color of rising sun at dawn. So it would be more appropriate to say Aruna-lochana dasi.
Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.
Nityaananda! Gauraanga! Hare Krishna! Welcome to NITAAI.com, Vaishnava dasa. Thank you for sharing the sweet nectar of Lord Krishna's Holy Names. Beautiful post. Please post more.
That same nectar is also available in Lord Gaura's Holy Names like...GAURA...... GAURAHARI....... NIMAAI...... SHACHINANDANA...... VISHVAMBHARA�... GAURAANGA...... NAVADVIPA-CHANDRA...... GAURACHANDRA...... NITAAI-JIVANA....... CHAITANYA..... KRISHNA-CHAITANYA..... GADAADHARA-PRAANANAATHA.�... ADVAITA-BAANDHAVA..... NILAACHALA-CHANDRA....... SHRIVAASA-SHARANA.... MAHAAPRABHU... etc. The 100 Names of Lord Gauraanga composed are the topmost Pastime (Lilaa) Names of Lord Gaura.
Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.
Nityaananda! Gauraanga! Hare Krishna! Thank you Igor and Damodara Svarupa dasa for sharing your practical and intimate realizations regarding chanting of the Holy Names. Such discussions are always useful since they pertain to the important topic of increasing the quality or quantity of our Naama Bhajana. Even if may not be able to reach the standard of chanting 100,000 Holy Names daily with quality (deep meditation) in this life, simply accepting that order of the Supreme Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu as our ultimate ideal for chanting, will please the Lord, since we will keep His order on our heads with great respect even though we may not be able to implement it due to practical considerations.
Regarding the Sva Likhita Jivani "autobiography" supposedly to be written Shrila Sacchidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura, I personally do not accept all it's contents as authentic. So do some of the Gurus in our line. It is supposed to originally be a 200-page prose letter written to his son, Lalita Prasad Datta, who requested the details of his father's personal life. As we know, Lalita Prasad had more of a conception of Shrila Sacchidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura as his family father than that of an Acharya and Pure Devotee unlike Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada who always considered Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura as an eternal associate of the Lord. This letter was later obtained from Lalita Prasad and was printed by the Gaudiya Mission after the disappearance of Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada so the letter itself and even the publishing of the letter was not directly authorized by Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada.
The nature of this letter is anti-hagiographical. Of course, it is possible that Shrila Sacchidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura being extremely humble can write like that about himself and may have wrote parts of this Sva Likhita Jivani letter but if devotees who are not very advanced in understanding Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's eternal constitutional position as Kamala Manjari, read this letter, then they may unwillingly or willingly commit grave offenses against this greatest Mahabhagavata devotee in modern times and put their spiritual lives at risk. For this reason, it is highly recommended that a devotee should never read anti-hagiographical articles or books about great devotees which display them as ordinary human beings with a mundane conception since they are eternal associates of the Lord. The authors of Vaishnava books and especially biographies should be very very careful not to present even a slightest conception of mundanism in the lives of the pure devotees because we cannot understand and thus should never try to interpret the elevated actions of the pure devotees. I am sure that even if Shrila Sacchidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura would have written parts of this letter, he would not have wanted the whole world to read it because it was sent only to his son only on the son's very specific request. Also, all parts of this letter in it's present form cannot be accepted as the bona-fide writings of Shrila Sacchidananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura as this letter was never authorized by Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada in it's entirety.
We cannot understand the spiritual actions of Pure Devotees so how can we ever understand those day-to-day practical actions by Pure Devotees which may externally look like our own karma-influenced actions which we perform while struggling in this material world. We may end up confusing the pure devotees on our same level. For this reason, the lives of the pure devotees have never been described in an anti-hagiographical manner if any of Gaudiya scriptures written by our Acharyas. I wanted to write about this issue for some time so I am glad it came up for discussion. Thank you.
Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.
Dear Venkat, Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Jaya Shri Guru Parampara! Pranams! 
We are so happy to receive your association on NITAAI.com. I have read your introduction and you are fortunate to chant the Nityaananda and Gauraanga Mantraraajas along with the Hare Krishna Mahaamantra at such an young age. I would like to thank Hadai Nityananda dasa prabhu for his personal and intimate preaching full of care and attention. He has always been very deligent and ready to give his best to help and guide others on the spiritual path. I am also very grateful to Srinath for introducing you to the chanting of the Holy Names of Nityaananda and Gauraanga. The chanting of These two Names will keep us steady in the chanting of the Hari Naama in spite of obstacles which we migh have to face.
Thank you for taking the time to write your introduction. It is very inspiring. I hope we can read your regular contributions and discuss them. Please let me know if I can serve you in any way at any time.
Daaso'smi, Swami Gaurangapada.
Chanting properly can take us to a different stages of realization, even when we have not achieved prema we can experience love while chanting.
Krsna is so merciful that He gives His personal association through His Holy Names and a chanter whose at the stage of namabhasa can feel Him, His presence, sometimes crying and also missing the Lord just like a child crying for the father - lost somewhere. Someone who takes the Holy Names as Krsna Himself will never feel loneliness and if this person feels it, this can be called separation, which is not different from real love.
Hare Krsna.
Aruna Locana dd
