Editorial Sevā

Our magazines, Gauḍīya Patrikā and Bhāgavata Patrikā, were started in 1953. At that time, Gurudeva requested Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Prabhu, “I want to establish publications in Bengali and other languages, and I would especially like you to write articles for them.” Earlier he had written articles for the Harmonist, and now he continued to write many wonderful essays, Gītā purports, etc. He wrote so marvelously that everyone praised him. He challenged all who were opposed to pure bhakti at that time, especially the ‘Mūrgī Mission’. He called the Rāmakrishna Mission ‘the Mūrgī Mission’, because the members ate chicken. In fact, they ate flesh, eggs and many other abominable things.

Vivekananda and his Rāmakrishna Mission were very prominent in those days. They were renowned by the public, who thought, “Oh, these are such high-class devotees. In all of India, only they are following the Vedas, and all others are not. The Gauḍīya Mission and others are not Vedāntic.” Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Prabhu wrote a two-part article about the Mūrgīs. He began with the first part; and when the second part was also printed, all but the Mūrgīs were astonished and convinced. Many requested him to write more articles like these, which called for the reform of religious institutions.

At that time the president of India was Dr. Rādhākrishnan. He was very scholarly and his English was quite erudite, but he was world-famous as a very bold māyāvādī. He wrote an article in English saying that the soul in Kṛṣṇa’s body was God, but Kṛṣṇa’s body was not God. He said that, as with our body and soul, there was also a difference between Kṛṣṇa’s body and soul.

Guru Mahārāja was not here then, but Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Prabhu was and wrote a very powerful article in response. He quoted many strong examples from śāstra and declared to the President, “Those who speak like this are rascals. In Kṛṣṇa there is no difference between deha and dehī, the body and its possessor. All His qualities, pastimes and names are transcendental. If one does not have a very pure and realized guru, he cannot understand this idea. You have no guru; you are reading śāstra yourself. Just as Gautama Buddha became śūnyavādī, so you are also just like that. At some time in South India you met with the very renowned Śaṅkar ācārya’s teachings, but you have not read Śrī Rāmānuja, Śrī Mādhv ācārya, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī; and you have never read Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa. You should try to know what is acintyabhedābheda. Do not be sectarian. You are authority in India, the President, but you are not an authority in religion. You will have to learn something from us.” Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Mahārāja appointed Śrīpād Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Prabhu to be the editor-in-chief of the Bengali Gauḍīya Patrikā, and I was also in the editorial board for the Hindi Bhāgavata Patrikā. He usually submitted his articles in Bengali, and sometimes, if he wrote an article in Hindi, I would edit and then submit it. This is because his mother language was not Hindi. Mostly he wrote his articles for our Gauḍīya Patrikā in Bengali. I then translated these into Hindi and printed them in the Bhāgavata Patrikā.

This was before the time of tape machines, and Prabhu was expert in the skill of stenography. During lectures of my gurudeva and other senior Vaiṣṇavas, he took shorthand perfectly and recorded those talks in his notebooks. His accurate transcriptions were also used for articles in the Gauḍīya Patrikā magazine. Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Prabhu continued writing for our magazines occasionally for many years, and some of those original editions are still preserved at our māṭha.