Sri Gaudiya Kanthahara: A Necklace of Vaisnava Verse

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In explaining the importance of Krsna conscious preachers studying the philosophy, and specifically stressing the need to memorize verse, Srila Prabhupada gave this example. He said that in the courtroom an expert lawyer knows how to immediately back up his points by citing from the lawbooks and relevant precedent-setting cases. The expert preacher must be like the courtroom lawyer. He must have at his command all the scriptural references to support his preaching. “We do not manufacture anything,” His Divine Grace would often say. “Our knowledge is coming in parampara and it is based on the sastra, we simply repeat the message as it is.”

Hence devotees eager to emulate Srila Prabhupada’s preaching spirit are duty bound to have at their fingertips a wide range of verse to show that Krsna consciousness is not an amalgam of whimsical ideas; rather it is parampara knowledge and citing verses can dynamically underscore fails to be impressed when a devotee speak the philosophy with strong logic and reason and back up his statements with appropriate scriptural references.

Here in Sri Gaudiya Kanthahara verse lovers will find many of the verses that Srila Prabhupada made familiar to us by his regularly quoting them in his books, lectures, and conversations. They will also find many verses that are not so familiar, but were often alluded to by Srila Prabhupada. The discovery of these verses will surely give added pleasure to verse lovers. These verses were all favorites of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada.

This book is a preacher’s companion in two ways. As a collection of key verse – over a thousand – it is wonderful in its scope and therefore an excellent companion. But it is more than a verse book. Because of the way the verses are organized this collection doubles as a wonderful summer of the Gaudiya Vaisnava philosophy, which is the crème de la crème of all systems of philosophy. Even a casual reading therefore has immense value for instructing one in the lenghth, breadth, and depth of the Krsna consciousness philosophy.