Mahanamabrata Brahmachari

Vaisnava-vedanta.  2nd edition.  20, 302 pages.  1994.

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This is a revised version of Dr. Brahmachari's PhD thesis at the University of Chicago (1937).  It is a wonderful introduction to the thought of Sri Jiva Goswami in comparision to that of Sri Sankara and Sri Ramanuja.  This is a genuine classic of Vaisnava philosophy.  From the introduction:

"When Professor Whitehead says that the "general characteristic of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato," he, of course, uses the word "footnote" as a metaphor, since we all know that there are a good many European philosophers, dead and alive, from the great Stagyrite to Bertrand Russell who are fundamentally in disagreement with Plato.  But when it is said that all Indian philosophies are but a series of footnotes to the Upanisads, the term "footnotes" need not be taken in a metaphorical sense. since what is stated is a fact literally true, which no philosopher of India would ever deny.  One can say, and very justly, that the philosophy of India has been written once and for all by the seers of the Upanisads.  And this is so because of the fact that the Upanisads are the spontaneous expressions of the deepest intuitions of the ancient sages and not dry fabrications of purely discursive intellect.  Like the expressions of profound aesthetic and mystic intuitions, the texts of the Upanisads embody experiences which are flexible, free, and broad.  Thus they have remained the inexhaustible source of information and inspiration, profoundly rich in their suggestiveness and implications, for the use of the philosophers throughout the ages."

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$16 plus shipping and handling (USA, Canada, Mexico)
$21 plus shipping and handling (elsewhere).

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Lord's Grace in My Race, Dr. Mahanamabrata Brahmachari. (6), 71 pp.  (1987) (Softbound) 



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This is the fascinating story of Dr. Brahmachari's trip to the USA in 1933 and his stay in the USA until 1939.  During his stay he met many seminal thinkers and completed a dissertation (Vaisnava Vedanta) at the University of Chicago.  His journey and experience represents an important and often forgotten stage in the movement of Caitanya Vaisnavism from India to the West.

Excerpt:

"What?" said an acquaintance as I was about to sail from Bombay, "going to America and that without friends.  You are going to die there. I am sure."

"Why, what do you mean?" I asked.

"My dear poor monk," he said.  "Do you imagine that America is like India where people are hospitable every where?  Far from that; the people of America, you should know, are not human beings.  They are so many machines or parts of machines which are manipulated twenty-four hours each day.  A man treats his fellow man as part of the  machine.  If you ask an American in the street for your direction, he will have no time to reply.  You will find the people there swallowing their breakfasts in the morning and hurrying off to factories to work fourteeen hours a day and then eating in restaurants and sleeping in hotels.  That is American life.  No homes, no families, no domestic virtues.  You must not even expect human treatment from an American.  You are going to a country not of men and women but of machines and mechanists."   These were not strictly true, however.

With these sombre warnings from my so-called well-wisher and possessing very little money, I set sail from Bombay for the United States on an Italian ship Cente Rossee in August, 1933.


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Mahaprabhu Sri Sri Krishna-Chaitanya: His Unparalleled Personality and Philosophy by Dr. Mahanamabrata Brahmachari.  iii, 235 pp. (1986, Softbound)


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Excerpt:

Precisely five hundred years ago Mahaprabhu came down from his celestial abode and brought about a heavenly unification of mankind, irrespective of caste, creed, and race, irrespective of the highly luxuriant or the poverty-stricken and irrespective of the "haves" and the "have-nots." He was God but in the disguise of a lover of God.  He loved God profoundly and recognised keenly and truly the sparks of God in each and every created being.  He ushered in a spiritual regeneration under the banner of "Para-" (higher) love and tranquility.  He was the hero of Nabadwip and enlightened the world by the exquisite beauty of his person.  He attracted large crowds wherever he went by the all-soothing appeal of his unique gospel of transcendental love,  Only two arms he had, yet they were all-embracing and with their charming  embrace he drew all people towards him under one roof of Universal Brotherhood.  His teachings and preachings can be said to consist of only one phrase "Love God and Love Man." To illustrate the power of his philosophy of love, we would like to sketch an outline of the time of his descent on this earth. ...


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