Karl Bergstreisser

  Whatever enthusiastic disciples and followers may say about A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, no matter how much they praise his activities, one thing is certain — one should evaluate the activities, words and level of knowledge of Prabhupada objectively, not succumbing to the enthusiastic sayings of his followers. In late 1969, ISKCON Press published a practical handbook to „Krishna Consciousness“ (whatever that means): On page 95, Prabhupada describes the wedding ceremony and its conduct. One of the key rituals is the ritual of purification — ācamana. Ācamana is performed with the right hand. The seventh paragraph of the description of the ceremony reads: “The priest shows how to take water with a spoon from a vessel (pañcapātra). Holding the spoon in his right hand, he pours water into his left palm three times. Then he takes a sip of water. Then he again scoops up water with a spoon into his left palm for purification and <…> Then the priest passes the vessel with wa...

  Continuing the theme of Vasudeva Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya (see the beginning in my book  On Some Dogmas of the Caitanya Cult in the Light of the Teachings of Madhva ). T he king of Orissa (then Kaliṅga) Pratāparudra from the Gajapati dynasty was in conflict and even fought with Kṛṣṇadevarāya, the king of Vijayanagara and Karnataka. Kṛṣṇadevarāya became king in 1510. In the process of the conflict between the two kings, Pratāparudra’s chief  paṇḍita , Lolla Lakṣmsīdhara, wrote the  Advaita-makaranda , which Pratāparudra sent to Kṛṣṇadevarāya as a philosophical weapon so that Kṛṣṇadevarāya would accept its concept or refute it. The work upholds the teachings of  advaita . The famous Advaitin logician Vāsudeva Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya took part in this philosophical conflict on the side of Pratāparudra. Bhaṭṭācārya wrote a commentary on the  Advaita-makaranda  at the request of Śrīkūrma Vidyādhara, a minister of Pratāparudra, to whom the commentary is de...

There are no major specialists in Madhva’s Dvaita Vedanta at the universities of Germany and Austria. If they relate to the teachings or the history of Madhva’s school, then only indirectly. Prof. Robert Zydenbos, for example, in his study of Jainism clearly showed that in the teachings of Madhva and the views of his early followers there is a whole layer of Jaina ideas, often misunderstood by Madhvaites, and sometimes even denying the existence of such in the teachings of Madhva. Prof. Zydenbos has been retired since the autumn of this year. In Vienna, however, there is Dr. Marcus Schmücker and Dr. Michael Williams. Madhva and Madhva-sampradāya are researched in the USA/Canada by Prof. Valerie Stoker. In Oxford, Kiyokatsu Okita, who focuses more on Chaitanya’s Gaudiya Vaishnavism, mentions Madhva from time to time. It seems to me that Okita is generally an adherent of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Okita’s articles are quite interesting. He makes themat...

Most likely, the lion was a totemic deity of local tribes, and the temple itself was built much later. The temple is located in the Nallamala hills, in southeastern India, in the state Andhra Pradesh, India. For a long time, the aboriginal Chenchu ​​people, hunter-gatherers, have lived in this area. The Chenchu ​​visit the Narasiṃha temple in large numbers. They sacrifice animals and birds to the deity. The worship of the lion-man, known to us today as the Hindu deity Narasiṃha, began in antiquity. The man-lion was a tribal, possibly totem deity of some tribes. Much later, he was worshiped as Narasiṃha, an avatāra of Viṣṇu.According to the inscriptions carved on the walls of the temple, it is possible to trace the history of the temple only until the 14th century. Prolaya Vema Reddy, the founder of the kingdom of Reddy Kondavidu (the eastern part of today’s Andhra Pradesh) built the steps to the temple. Prolaya Vema lived in 1325–1353. At this time, the temple was already a center of p...

To continue the theme of the “dancing Gopāla” ( nartaka-gopāla ) from   Chaitanya Charitamrita   2.9.245-246. “Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to Udupi, the town of Madhvacharya, where the Tattvavadi philosophers lived. On seeing Krishna’s Deity there, He became distraught with ecstasy” (2.9.245) “In the monastery at Udupi, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw a beautiful Deity who goes by the name of Nartaka Gopala [“dancing Gopala”]. This Deity appeared to Madhvacharya in a dream” (2.9.246) In the Bengali original, Krishnadasa Kaviraja does not speak of a “monastery”. The word “monastery” was added by Prabhupada and his followers, apparently translating the word sthāne (place, house, etc.) with it. A monastery is usually called ( vihāra , maṭha , āśrama ). In the sixteenth century there were nine “monasteries” ( maṭhas ) built around the Krishna-temple ( kṛṣṇa-maṭha ) in the centre of Udupi. In which particular Udupi monastery was Chaitanya, the Chaitanya-charitamrita does not say....