We received this wonderful letter from Kalakanthi today which we would like to share with all of you on the occasion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s appearance day. I have an original German copy of this wonderful book of Walther Eidlitz and can confirm that it is very special especially for German readers, because of the direct translations from Bengali and Sanskrit to German, but I’m sure that the English translation will be also a good read. So here’s the letter:
Dear Sadhu Maharaja!
My deep-felt dandavats!
Shri Krishna Samkirtanam param vijayate!
On the occasion of Mahaprabhu’s Avirbhava I would like to present to you the English translation of Walther Eidlitz’ book “Krishna Caitanya – The Hidden Treasure of India: His Life and Teachings”. The book is with the printer now and as soon as we have the first books I will send you one, if you wish.
There is a real miracle that happened around this seva-project.
So far we had translated the book but actually didn’t have any money for printing and no experience in book distribution either.
Then a friend of ours, whom we had told about our wish to print this English edition, was contacted by a Russian friend in Jagannatha Puri.
He has lived there with his wife for 13 years and is printing shastras according to his guru’s order –
and he had saved quite some money over the years for printing the Hari-katha of Sadananda das, following the explicit wish of his gurudeva, Shrila Shridhara Maharaja!
I would like to share his amazing story with you in order to celebrate Mahaprabhu’s abundant Grace today:
He wrote to us:
“…first time I heard about Sripad Sadananda Prabhu from my Sri Gurudev was when I was living with him in 1994.
He was choosing diksha names for my friends and explaining the meaning of each name.
Among those name was “Sadananda” and, instead of telling Sanskrit meaning of this name, he said that this name was of one of his dear God brother with whom he spend lot of time in one room living in Gaudiya Math.
I will not be able to express in this small letter all details of what I’ve heard from him, but from that time onwards name of Sripad Sadananda Prabhu became significant for me.
During 6 years of staying with my Gurudev I’ve heard many memories from his leaps about Sadananda Prabhu.
They were touching, but I never got chance to read his Hari-katha. That time there was no internet 🙂
…but many times my Gurudev told me to try to find chance to read Sadananda’s Hari-katha, because he could understand Teachings of Prabhupad Siddhanta Saraswati better than any one else and that he (my Guru) didn’t see anyone around, who was more dedicated to Prabhupada’s Hari-katha than Sadananda Prabhu.
They were sharing one room and Gurudev used to witness how Sadananda all night was translating into Germany language each word of His Guru he noted during day time in English and Bengali. Gurudev said that sometime he could see that Prabhupad was speaking directly to Sadananda Prabhu, like if there was nobody else in the room… Like if only he (Sadananda) could understand each word of Prabhupad…
Gurudev told me to find Harikatha of Sri Sadananda Prabhu and do seva to Her…
Nowadays Harikatha of Sri Sadanada Prabhu is only Katha I read for my soul to survive ..and it is what I recommend to my friends and other sincere people I meet.”
Walther Eidlitz’/Vamandas’ book is in fact THE joint venture of Sadananda and himself.
Vamandas’ name is on the cover, but all the translations inside are by his gurudeva, Sadananda.
I think this seva-lila is quite amazing.
This IS Gauranga “in action”!
Shri Krishna Samkirtanam param vijayate!
Aspiring to please guru and Gauranga and all Vaishnavas!
Warmest regards,
Kalakanthidasi
Radhe! Radhe!
5 Comments
Vishwambhara Priya · March 16, 2014 at 7:45 pm
I would love to buy this book. Please let me know how to do so. Dandavat pranams
Kalakanthidasi · March 17, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Dear bhaktas!
The letter above was shared so quickly that I couldn’t correct an important fact. 😉
Here the correction: it was PURI MAHARAJA – not Shridhara Maharaja – who inspired this wonderful devotee quoted above to do seva to the Harikatha of Sadananda Dasa!
Warm regards!
Kalakanthidasi
Radhe! Radhe!
Nanda Kishor das · March 23, 2014 at 10:24 pm
Please get in touch with Kalakanthidasi, she will certainly know.
Madhavendra Puri das · April 8, 2014 at 8:47 am
Was it Srila Bhakti Promote Puri maharaja? Or some other Puri Maharaja?
Kalakanthidasi · June 18, 2014 at 9:40 am
THE ENGLISH EDITION IS OUT NOW!
Krishna-Caitanya, the Hidden Treasure of India, His Life and His Teachings, 2014.
This book of 585 pages is a translation of Walther Eidlitz’ main work, Sein Leben und Seine Lehre, Stockholm University, 1968.
It has the format 18 x 68 cm. and weighs 1.5 kilos.
In order to get an idea of its content it can be downloaded under DOWNLOAD.
The book costs 30 € plus shipping 10 € within Sweden and 20 € to countries outside of Sweden.
Please send your order to: info[at]sadananda.com to get the bank details.
http://sadananda.com/index.php?action=text_downloads_vamandas_0_04_en_o