Manuscript Mission Update, February, 2017

BRC Manuscripts Mission team has recently finished their latest project in Chinsura Kisorpragatisangha Sahar Granthagar, a 100-year-old library in the Hoogli district of West Bengal. It is maintained by Kishor Prayati Sanga.

Head Librarian and her assistant at Chinsura Kisorpragatisangha Sahar Granthagar

It was an especially fruitful undertaking for our team as an extensive collection of Vaishnava manuscripts was uncovered, cataloged, and digitized. It was the first time they had found an entire manuscript collection solely related to Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy. 

"In all of West Bengal, we have not found anything else like this," said Smt. Bharati Roy, BRC's Archivist and Assistant Librarian.

Over 100 manuscripts were digitized there. These photos show the condition of the manuscripts collection there before we arrived and after:

The Manuscripts Mission Team has also recently taken up surveying the various collections at Chinsuraha District Central Library:

Prasenjit Purokayastha, Librarian at Chinsuraha District Central Library

Remembering Fakir Mohan Prabhu

We received the news of Fakir Mohan Prabhu's departure back in November with heavy hearts. It seemed as though no time had passed since he sat in our library. He had last stopped in to see how the Sundaranand Vidyabinode Collection was being cared for. He had a particular personal connection with Sundaranand Vidyabinode Prabhu as they had served together on Gaudiya Mission's writing and publications team at Bag Bazaar Gaudiya Math. 


Fakir Mohan Prabhu was a foremost scholar on the life of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and he re-discovered the family Deities of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Sri Sri Radha-Madhava. Read more about this here.


Fakir Mohan Prabhu was a not an exclusive member of a particular group or mission and never initiated any disciples. He was a naistaka  (lifelong) brahmachari and intimate friend of many revered Vaisnavas from both ISKCON and Gaudiya Math. He was one out of only 4 initiates of Srila Bhakti Prasad Puri Goswami Maharaj, a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura.


He was born in 1932 at midnight on Janmastami. His best friend from childhood was Srila Gour Govinda Swami, They once made a pact to run away from home and become a sadhus together. After Fakir Mohan Prabhu's parents sent the police after him, they locked him up in a room so he could not escape again. He later convinced his father to donate him to the nearby Gaudiya Math temple when he was aged 12. 


When the temple authorities ordered him to attend school, he was very disappointed because he was only interested in nam-bhajan. Everyone was astounded when he excelled in his studies far beyond the other students. This was the beginning of his life as a devotional scholar and sadhu professor, earning a PhD  in Sanskrit and subsequently taught at several universities in Orissa. He moved seamlessly between Vaisnava and academic circles. He independently published over 35 books, mostly in Oriya language, and traveled all over the world preaching
. 

It is truly a loss from this world to have him depart from our vision, but likely a great delight to those great souls welcoming him to their transcendental place.

Srila Gaur Govinda Swami Maharaj (left) and Fakir Mohan Prabhu (right) in Bhuvenesvar, 1991. (photo courtesy of www.gourgovindaswami.org.)

 Srila Gour Govinda Swami  appreciated Fakir Mohan Prabhu's scholarly research into Vaisnava topics a great deal. He once stated, "no one knows as much about Mahaprabhu as the respected Professor. "




BRC Head Librarian Attends International Seminar

We are proud to announce that Kalyani University recently invited out Head Librarian to attending their International Seminar on Library and Information Science that took place in mid-December, 2016.

We are happy to avail opportunities such as these so that we can stay up to date with the latest technical developments and expand networks related to our field of service.

Devotional Writer and Historian Thanks BRC for Assisting His Research

Author of the recently published Bengali book Kumat Kalal, Haripriya Prabhu, made a special visit to BRC Library recently to gather some research materials compiled for him by our staff.

Kumat Kalal describes the historical and philosophical aspects of the Gaudiya and Madhava sampradayas.

He was enthusiastic to share the evidence of his appreciation of our help and opened a copy of his book to a page in which his thanks to BRC staff appeared.