A Living Theology of Krishna Bhakti: Essential Teachings of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

ISBN-13: 9780199796632 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 296 str.

Tamal Krishna Goswami; Graham M. Schweig

Opis

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhup?da (1896-1977), founder of the Hare Krishna Movement, traced his lineage to the fifteenth-century Indian saint Sri Chaitanya. He authored more than fifty volumes of English translation and commentaries on Sanskrit and Bengali texts, serving as a medium between these distant authorities and his modern Western readership and using his writings as blueprints for spiritual change and a revolution in consciousness. He had to speak the language of a people vastly disparate from the original recipients of his tradition's scriptures without compromising fidelity to the tradition.

Tamal Krishna Goswami claims that the social scientific, philosophical, and 'insider' forms of investigation previously applied have failed to explain the presence of a powerful interpretative device-a mahavakya or 'great utterance'-that governs and pervades Prabhupada's 'living theology' of devotion on bhakti. For Prabhupada, the wide range of 'vedic' subject matter is governed by the axiomatic truth: Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Goswami's academic training at the University of Cambridge, his thirty years' experience as a practitioner and teacher, and his extensive interactions with Prabhupada as both personal secretary and managerial representative, afforded him a unique opportunity to understand and illuminate the theological contribution of Prabhupada. In this work, Goswami proves that the voice of the scholar-practitioner can be intimately connected with his tradition while sustaining a mature critical stance relative to his subject. A Living Theology of Krishna Bhakti includes a critical introduction and conclusion by Graham M. Schweig.

Recenzje

This is a labor of love-by Julius Lipner and Graham Schweig in preparing an unfinished manuscript for publication, and by Goswami in bringing specifically the theological work of his guru, Prabhupada, into mainstream academic discourse. I remember discussing this project with Goswami; he worried that his treatment of Prabhupada might discomfit ISKCON devotees and yet delighted in highlighting Prabhupada's brilliant Vaishnava theologizing. I can see Goswami's sweet smile as he ponders this book-a book that now embodies his creative, amazing life.

O autorze

Tamal Krishna Goswami was a doctoral candidate, Divinity Faculty, Cambridge University (deceased); Graham M. Schweig is Professor of Philosophy & Religious Studies and Director of the Asian Studies Program at Christopher Newport University of Virginia.