Message To Disciples - Sri Haridas Sastriji Maharaja

Message To Disciples

This English booklet was put out for followers of Sri Haridas Sastriji Maharaja. It elucidates "their responsibilities and obligations toward [their guru] and...the codes of conduct for a disciple." The book begins with a brief outline of guru-tattva followed by a short biography of Haridas Sastriji Maharaja. It then explains practical topics such as morning worship, acamana, tilaka, offering food and so on. After an essay on education, the book finishes up with a Question and Answer section.

As a succinct outline for new disciples, this book sets a great example. It intelligently mixes philosophy and practical matters, without becoming too detailed. Although the book is clearly intended for disciples, the general principles covered are often straight from standard Vaisnava sadacara, Hari Bhakti Vilasa, etc., so the book will likely be of interest to many others.

A few excerpts:

Dandavats. All glories to the Vaisnavas.

This sounds like a very interesting book and probably a very important one for disciples of Srila Haridas Satsri. I was telling Madhava a while back that I would love to see something similar for Baba as it would be great for disciples but also good for all of those looking for a somewhat in-depth, yet manageable, look into what is required by a disciple of Baba. Even outside of that paradignm it would give an interesting look at what is involved in the various practices encouraged by Baba.

Maybe Madhava can look to do something similar for Baba?

Aspiring to serve the Vaisnavas,
Rasaraja dasa

I picked up some new video material from Yugal that we will be carrying in the store soon. (Proceeds going to Yugal's archival efforts, machine upgrades, etc., but more on that another day). He has taken a similar approach with the Question and Answer format, asking topical questions. Some of that could be transcribed and included.

Of course, he is working with a standard digital camera, i.e. a still camera, and his memory stick is limited to six minutes of video so sometimes the answers get cut off in mid sente

On which kind of media are you gonna put those materials? Cd roms or DVD's?

Prema Bhakti Chandrika you are mentioning, that you have brought with you, is that the one with commentaries by Sri Ananta Das Babaji Maharaja?If it is which edition is that?

Thanks in advance,

Braja, that'd be A4-size, right? Could you give us a sampler of the way it looks inside? Wondering if it's the same old look that has been around for ages. Considering that they probably don't have the source files, I suppose it's the same thing in a new package.

At one point, people were asking if the books could be available in smaller size, so Yugal just shrank the size in the copyshop by 100%. Hence, the original font size, probably 12 or so, became 6, and thus the need for the microscope.

The cover and binding look pretty good. Kudos for Yugal for the job.

Yugal was selling them for only 50 rupees more, which is ridiculously cheap considering the labor he has to put into them--taking them to Delhi and then photocopying, binding, and laminating them at different places. I suggested that he raise the price...so blame me if they suddenly become more expensive. Prema Bhakti Candrika, for instance, was listed at Rs 350. My copy however is priceless, as it was the first that was presented to Babaji Maharaja.

The books are all back to A4 now. Yugal went into Delhi with me and was using an advance I gave him for printing more copies of everything so whoever visits should be able to find the new versions. I took the remainder of all the spiral-bound books back with me so from here in this is probably--hopefully--the only format we'll see till the books make it into print.

Internally the texts are the same as the earlier versions--nothing was added, not even front matter.