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Appreciation of Devotees
By Kavicandra Swami

"One should see that because of the meeting of material nature and the living entity, the universe is acting uniformly. Thus one should neither praise nor criticize the characteristics or activities of others." REF. Antya 8.78

"Of the two rules, Ramacandra Puri obeys the first by abandoning praise, but although he knows that the second is more prominent, he neglects it by criticizing others." REF. Antya 8.79

"Between the former rule and the latter rule, the latter is more important."

Purport: "This is a verse from the nyaya literatures." REF. Antya 8.80

"Even where there are hundreds of good qualities, a critic does not consider them. Rather, he attempts by some trick to point out a fault in those attributes." REF. Antya 8.81

I have been thinking that it is very easy to criticize or to ignore devotees. That seems to be a basic function of the false ego. So I propose that on CHAKRA we have a page for writing appreciations of devotees who have been and are doing outstanding service, even though many may never hear about them.

I will start by mentioning my godbrother Satyanarayana Prabhu. He joined long ago in Buffalo, New York, a place that produced many of our senior devotees. I don’t know all of his history, but in the early days he served on the BBT Library Party, getting Srila Prabhupada’s books into hundreds of university libraries around the world. Then he spent a lot of time in Mayapura managing the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust (BSCT), renovating many of the hidden and lost temples of the associates of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Gaudadesh. During these years he also produced the beautiful Sri Mayapura Magazine, which was distributed worldwide.

Inspired by the Holy Dham and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he returned to the USA and started a printing business. He wanted to help with Srila Prabhupada’s books, especially as Srila Prabhupada directly requested him in Calcutta to work with his books. Since then, the BBT in Los Angeles has depended on him to arrange for and oversee every detail of the printing of millions of Prabhupada’s English (and Spanish) books in America.

Some years ago, he also developed a pioneering business of online investing, and he wrote and published a best-selling book and software on the subject. With his profits he started a trust, The Saraswati Charitable Trust (TSCT), just for the purpose of helping remote ISKCON projects, and we hope that his generosity will inspire others.

He has given to many book-printing projects, including those in West Africa and Ukraine. He funded the printing of the first Bhagavad-Gita As It Is in the Urdu language, for the preaching work in Pakistan. Prasadam-distribution projects have been funded in the holy dhamas.

And most recently, he generously donated all the funds for building a temple in Bali, Indonesia (Garudadesh). On Rama Navami this year, the new and beautiful Radha Madhava Mandir opened there with elaborate Vedic rituals. I am including several photos of this wonderful temple, the festive ceremonies, and the devotees.

There are many very sincere devotees in this world whose service should be recognized. I invite anyone to contribute.