BOOKS of His Holiness Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami

Write And Die

Write And Die

He asked me if i would rather write or get headaches, write or die. I said of course I would rather stay alive, but earlier, on a checklist in a book A Writer on Writing, by Margaret Atwood, there was a list of why writers write. One reason writers had given was that they would die if they could not write, and I had underlined this sympathetically.

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Why Not Fiction

Why Not Fiction

The first book in our new “Books Among Friends” series, A Litany For The Gone, was intensely relevant to our concerns as guru and disciple in ISKCON. It was not necessary for me to explain why I was sharing with you on that topic. Why Not Fiction? is different. It is about my personal pre-occupation with my writing service, specifically, about whether I should write Krsna conscious fiction.

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Vraja-Mandala Lament – A Writer’s Parikrama

Vraja-Mandala Lament - A Writer's Parikrama

I wrote this book in January of 1993 while taking a writing retreat at Samik Rsi’s house in Stroudsburg, PA. Guided by all the parikrama books I could find, I imagined myself going from one lila-sthali to another. As I wrote, I lamented my lack of qualification to enter the rasa of the eternal devotees of Radha-Krsna.

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Visnu-rata Vijaya

Visnu-rata Vijaya

This story is inspired by a section in Lord Cai-tanya’s teachings to SanStana Gosvami, as found in Caitanya-caritSmrta. In the Madhya-llld chapter, “Explanation of the Atmarama Verse,” Lord Caitanya tells the story of Narada Muni’s conversion of the hunter, Mrgari, into a first-class Vaisnava.

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Under the Banyan Tree

Under the Banyan Tree

In the summer of 1966, in a small storefront on 26 Second Avenue on New York City’s Lower East Side, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada opened a temple for the worship of Radha and Krsna. A few young people stepped forward to become his disciples.

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Upstate – Room to Write

Upstate - Room to Write

I seek assurance that what I am doing is important. I just read in the ISKCON World Review of devotees chanting in Sarajevo and being attacked by a gang with knives. Certainly the devotees think it’s important to chant and give out food there. In the same IWR I read of the important one hour long TV show put on by ISKCON scientists and how they sold many books and stirred controversies against Darwin’s theory.

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The Voices of Surrender and Other Poems

The Voices of Surrender and Other Poems

The poems in this book rarely employ meter or rhyme, and other standard poetic devices are also lacking. Perhaps a sharp literary critic will say my work cannot be considered poetry. Even so, I think they are poetic writings, communications that will help readers to remember Krsna and become Krsna conscious. If the poems accomplish that, then I don’t care so much what literary critics consider. I am publishing them for my disciples.

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The Week Beofre Gaura Purnima

The Week Beofre Gaura Purnima

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Such strong emotions, such naked pain in the words of this spiritual song. It is a song not to be trifled with. Believers have to live in the world with non-believers who make fun of the most sacred things. One motivator made a slogan, “Sacred cows make good steaks.” They don’t know what they are doing, said Lord Christ to his father; please forgive them.

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