New Books at Nitai's Bookstore - Notice of new offerings at Nitai's Books

Greetings All,

Just a quick note to let those of you who are interested know that there are some new books from the trans-ISKCON/GM Vaisnava community at (Nitai's Bookstore. Of particular note is the edition of Shree Krishna by Premananda Bharati that was edited and abbreviated by Mahanambrata Brahmachari. Premananda Bharati was probably the first Caitanya Vaisnava to come to the USA. He arrived in 1902 and published his classic presentation of Krishnaite philosophy Shree Krishna in 1904. He established a Krishna temple (the Krishna House in Los Angeles) and made a number of American disciples. He also established and ran a journal, the Light of India, which was published until his return to India in about 1912. His work Shree Krishna is a classic work in the history of the presentation of Krsna-bhakti in the West. It is altogether fitting that the second great Vaisnava to come to the USA, Mahanambrata Brahmachari, should be the editor and republisher of Baba Premananda's book. You can also find some of the writings of Mahanambrata Brahmachari at Nitai's Bookstore, including his reworked PhD thesis from the University of Chicago (1937), Vaisnava Vedanta: the Philosophy of Sri Jiva Goswami. This last work is a must for anyone who wants to understand Caitanya Vaisnava Vedanta.

More rare titles are on their way.

Come have a look.

Jaya Radhe!

Nitai Das

WOW! there was someone here before BhaktiVedanta Svami!?! I want to get those books and mabe read them.

Yep. You'll find links to some related discussions here.

Well, I can't compete with Braja and his Loi Bazaar either in breadth of holdings or electronic efficiency or probably even in price, but it is satisfying to see that most of what is available at Nitai's Bookstore is not found at Loi Bazaar. For instance, we have Mahanambrata Brahmachari's publication in honor of Mahaprabhu's fifth birth-centennial Mahaprabhu Sri Sri Krishan-Chaitanya: His Unparalleled Personality and Philosophy. This is a wonderful reflection on Mahaprabhu by one of the 20th century's great Vaisnava thinkers. Check at out here.

Nitai's Bookstore is the selling agent for a new printing initiative aimed at making good translations of classic Caitanyite texts and writers and new, original works on the Caitanya tradition available to intelligent readers of English (and other Western languages). The printing initiative is called the Blazing Sapphire (Ujjvala-nilamani) Press. Please help support this effort by buying books from Nitai's Bookstore whenever possible. All the profits go to bringing out new works from Blazing Sapphire Press, a subdivision of the Caitanya Sanskrit Tol Publications. Our first work is currently in preparation, the Namamrta-sindhu-bindu, Drop from the Ocean of the Nectar of the Holy Name, by Manindranath Guha. We are hoping to have this available sometime in December of this year.

It is our belief that the only way to undo the many and deep misconceptions about Caitanya Vaisnavism fostered on us by IGM is to read deeply the works produced and depended upon by the trans-IGM Vaisnava community.

Jaya Radhe!

Nitai das,

Sounds like you have nice things to sell. When you say “our belief”, are you speaking of yourself or are you the spokesperson for a group of some sort?

If someone does not feel fostered on by IGM’s alleged misconceptions about Caitanya Vaisnavism, do you still recommend those books to such individual? In other words, can one read the books you recommend while maintaining an emotional connection with IGM?

Is there a warrantor that these books are misconception-free? Are they all-conclusive and bhakti-guaranteed?

Hi Anand,

Thanks for your questions. Yes, I guess I am a spokesperson, wittingly or unwittingly, for a small group of members of the Caitanya tradition who feel the way I do about IGM. Nothing formal though. Someone who doesn't feel he or she has been misled by IGM is still likely to benefit from reading the books offered in the Bookshop. It seems unlikely to me, however, that such a person will be interested in the books I sell, because that person is sure to think that the whole truth has already been put in his or her hands by Pure Devotee Number One. Besides PDNO has forbidden his followers from reading anything by other Vaisnavas.

No, I cannot guarantee that the books in my bookstore are misconception-free. But I can guarrantee that the books in the store will provide a broader perspective of the multifaceted tradition inspired by Sri Caitanya.

Two more books have been added to Nitai's Bookstore on the life and teachings of Bodo Baba.

Jai Netai by Ajit Kumar Ghosh

and

Life of Love by N. N. Chatterjee. This one is the classic 1926 version of the Carita-sudha that Dr. Kapoor built on in his own version of Life of Love. These may be the last copies available.

Jaya Radhe!

Nitai's Bookstore

Nitai das,

Thank you for your answers. I appreciate your honesty regarding no warranty on the contents of the books you sell. And the guarantee you present sounds appealing and thus welcomed. May I suggest however that you might like to revise your apparently conclusive judgment of the state of the hearts of some who don’t necessarily feel they have been mislead by IGM. Given the complexity of such things, an all-conclusive judgment such as yours might be a misleading element itself. May I also point out that there isn’t such thing as “the whole truth”, and that Pure Devotee Number One is just a position which allows for Number Two, Three, and so on. I believe it can be a consideration that we all take a number or, alternatively, give up counting.

That's quite the selection of interesting works you have amassed there. And though without a guarantee of misconceptions, I trust you have ensured that they are free of miskconceptions.

My two cents worth in making it more accessible: With all images included, the total size of the page is 3.20 MB, which translates into a loading time of a bit over a minute on a 512kbps DSL connection, or between ten and fifteen minutes on a decent 56K modem connection. I would suggest (1) breaking it up over several pages, and (2) optimizing the graphics. Take, for example, the first image, of Kanupriya Goswami's Jiver Swarup O Swadharma. The image on the page is set to display at 334x461px dimensions, but in truth the image there is 994x1421px, a whooping 137KB in size. If you resized it to just the size you need to display it in and saved it as JPEG quality 50, it would shrink to around a quarter of that. Many pics there are still much bigger, like Kapoor's Sri Chaitanya and Raganuga-bhakti, which is 250KB and would shrink to one fifth of it. Still, that would be quite a load of graphics.

The way we handled this in a recent e-commerce application I coded together is we had smaller thumbnails, around 150-200px in height, of each item, of which you could view a bigger image on a separate page with a more detailed product description. This, of course, translates into a lot of work unless you have the site database-driven. However with the setup, a page of 15 titles comes to just under 100KB, which is considerably more consumer friendly.

Thanks, Madhava. I will work on it, though I doubt I can optimize it as well as you suggest. It will be better at any rate.

Warning: After reviewing the book Jai Netai in more detail I have come to the conclusion that it is just a random collection of stray thoughts mostly about Bodo Baba, but not necessarily. There is even a genealogical chart in the back giving the family connections of the characters in the Mahabharata. A letter in the appendix addressed to the authorities of Jagannatha Puri asking that ISKCON devotees be allowed in the temple brought a smile to my face. The book can be used as evidence of the primal Chaos underlying the order of the universe. I think the primary purpose for the book is to collect money for the support of old Vaisnava temples and the worship of the deities in them. That is, of course, a noble aim. If any one wants to participate in that, please purchase a copy. Otherwise, the book will not contribute much to one's understanding of Bodo Baba or of the Mahabharata, for that matter.

Two new books have just arrived.

They are the Madhurya-kadambini of Visvanath Cakravartin with Pandit Ananta Das Baba's commentary. This is, of course, Advaita Das's translation, not the reworked version that Jagat is working on. This is now a hard-bound book. The earlier edition was in a spiral binding.

I also have the Prema-bhakti-candrika of Narottama Das with the commentary of Pandit Ananta Das Babaji. Again Advaita's translation and again hard bound.

I will have them up on the site a little later today.

Nitai's Bookstore

Oh, I may as well announce it here since I have gotten several puzzled emails asking about it. Nitai's Bhajan Kutir is gone. I removed it entirely a few days ago. Now everyone can sleep well, I hope.

So bhajankutir.net has entered the state of Nirvana?

What are you planning next?

Nitai has inspired me via his recently disappeared bhajankutir.net site to write down some of my own autobiographical accounts. Here is what I have jotted down so far:

My Autobiographical Essay #1

Greetings All,

It has been a long time since I posted anything. I hope everyone is well. Just wanted to let you booklovers know that there are some new offereings at Nitai's Bookstore. Apart from that, I have been busy working on my translation of Manindra Nath Guha's book which will be called Nectar of the Holy Name. It is in the final stages of editing at present and should be available in about a month. It is a fine introduction to the theology of the Holy Name and a kind of call for a return to the fundamentals of Hari-nama Sankirtana. He quotes profusely from the works of the Goswamins to support his arguments. Interestingly, he relies heavily on Sri Sanatana Goswami who often gets passed over in favor of his younger brother. Rupa. One might say it is something of an attempt to revive Sanatananuga bhakti. Even Rupa was a Sanatananugi. Sanatana is the very root of the Caitanya tradition. I will try to post some excepts of Mani Babu's book once it is closer to completion.

This is the first of a series of books to be published by Blazing Sapphire Press on the theology of the Holy Name. Kanupriya Goswami's wonderful Nama cintamani will be next.

best wishes to all,

ys

Nitai Das

As always, I'm a supporter on the sidelines, Nitaiji.

Please do keep doing what you are doing. I also lament the demise of your kutir site.

Great stuff!

Yes, i certainly miss his site too....witty and funny, but at the same time very serious.
Nitai Das was one of people to bring me here where i am.This can't be forgotten.
It is nice to see him posting here.