The printing press is the representative of Radharani
by Visnu Murti das
On Srimati Radharani's appearance day, I was doing a little
compiling about Her in Vaniquotes. I came across this quote which I found
very profound:
Letter to Jayagovinda — Los Angeles 4 July, 1969:
"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."
I want to share with you my realizations:
Here Śrīla Prabhupāda is stating that Radharani is the topmost
servitor of Krsna and the printing press is the representative of Radharani,
as it is the biggest medium at the present moment for serving Krsna.
I note that he says at the present moment. This was written in
1969, and we know that Śrīla Prabhupāda did not ever change his
understanding of the power of the printing press in distributing Krsna
consciousness for all the time he was physically with us. He imbibed this
spirit from his spiritual master Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja, who in
the 1930's had stated many times that the printing press was the "brhat
mrdanga" as it could be heard far more further a field than a mrdanga,
which is audible only around the neighborhood where it is played.
In May I introduced Radhika Raman prabhu to the vision of
Vanipedia. He embraced the vision quickly and could easily understand
what we were trying to do. He made two very enthused and clear
statements which I could immediately identify with.
"There is no doubt in my mind that Vanipedia will become the
standard for how we approach Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings, because it is
presented via themes and it is on the Web." He also said "Bhaktisiddanta
Sasavati said that the printing press was the brhat mrdanga, and
Prabhupāda understood it as such. I think that Vanipedia is the brhat brhat
mrdanga"
It is this second statement that I want to explore a little. For the
best part of the 20th century the printing press and the products that it
produced were the tools that resulted in so much successful propaganda by
so many groups of people. Prabhupāda stated how expert the communists
were to spread their influence in India via the pamphlets and books they
distributed. Prabhupāda 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 the power of influence has shifted to the
Internet. In the last 20 years it has started to slowly influence how we do
things in so many ways. And its influence is not waning. It is on the
increase.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's statement of "at the present moment" was
made long before the Internet started to have any influence on people's
lives.
In 1970 Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote this letter to one of his leading
disciples of the time: "Krishna has said in Bhagavad-gita that "whoever
explains my transcendental glories to others is most dear to me in this world
and never will there be one more dear to me than he". So go on with your
organization for distribution of my books through press and other modern
media and Krishna will certainly be pleased upon you. We can use
everything—television, radio, movies, or whatever there may be—to tell
about Krishna and outside of devotional service all these modern
paraphernalia are just so much rubbish."
Notice that Prabhupāda directly says "go on with your
organization for distribution of my books through press and other modern
media" so this is indeed what we trying to do with Vanipedia. We are
trying to give Śrīla Prabhupāda an unparalleled platform in an
unparalleled modern media.
Let us rise to whatever challenges we face and create this
significant platform for Śrīla Prabhupāda books. There is no doubt it is the
"biggest medium at the present moment for serving Krishna." If Radha's
Press can be stated by Śrīla Prabhupāda to be "really a representative of
Srimati Radharani" then we can be sure that Vanipedia is also "really a
representative of Srimati Radharani."
May Radharani bless you all in your aspirations to assist Her
in making Krsna happy.
1 year to prepare - 12 years to perform
In 1 year, on the 4th of October 2015, there will be many
festivities around the world celebrating a very important event. It will be the
50th anniversary of Śrīla Prabhupāda first placing his lotus feet on western
shores. And then for a period of 12 years there will be many more 50th
anniversary festivities celebrating the glorious activities and great
achievements of Śrīla Prabhupāda throughout the globe. This will all
culminate on the 2nd of November 2027 when the last 50th anniversary of
Śrīla Prabhupāda will be celebrated - him physically leaving this world.
Vanipedia takes these dates very seriously. Within this year we
would like to complete the compiling in Vaniquotes, link the Vanisource,
build the Vanictionary, populate the Vanimedia with Śrīla Prabhupāda's
audio, video and photos, make the compendiums in Vanibooks, write all the
introductory articles in Vanipedia, and create all the educational courses in
Vaniversity.
Once we succeed to achieve all this then for the next 12 years of
celebrations we will be free to actively serve with all the devotees to truly
establish the vaniculture of deep dependency on Śrīla Prabhupāda's "vani",
so that the second 50 years of the world-wide Krsna consciousness
movement will be gloriously successful under Śrīla Prabhupāda's and Lord
Krsna's direct guidance.