TRIBUTE TO GOPIPARANADHANA DASA
The following was written by His Holiness Kesava Bharati Dasa Goswami and was published in the Front Matter of Gopiparanadhana Dasa’s translation and commentary of Srila Jiva Goswami’s “Sri Tattva-Sandarbha”.
TRIBUTE FROM THE
BHAKTIVEDANTA BOOK TRUST
Since Gopiparanadhana Dasa, the translator and commentator for this book, passed away before he could see his work published, we at the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust wish to offer a tribute to the unique personal legacy he left to the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and the Krishna Consciousness Movement.
A natural linguist, Gopi, as he was affectionately called, graduated from New York City's Columbia University in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in linguistics. Soon after, he met his spiritual master. His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and began serving in devotional life. His entire devotional career, in fact, was dedicated to serving Srila Prabhupada’s Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
Srila Prabhupada desired that the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust serve the world by publishing high quality translations and commentaries for many authoritative works of Vaishnava literature. To this end, toward the end of his time with us he spoke of the need for the work of translating and commenting to continue in his absence, but he also cautioned his leaders that not everyone could do it. Gopi, was one of the few.
About Gopi’s expertise at translating and commenting on the work of our Vaishnava acaryas, Professor Joseph O'Connell, a leading authority on Gaudiya Vaishnavism, wrote in his foreword to Gopi’s translation and commentary for Srila Sanatana Goswami's Brhad Bhagavatamrta: “I would like to think that Srila Sanatana Goswami would welcome his modern prose translator, as a kindred spirit, and an enable expositor of his work.”
Those of us who served closely with Gopi remember him not only for his professional expertise - his genius in extracting the elaborate meanings of Sanskrit texts and presenting them in clear, accessible English - but also for his qualities of extreme humility unfailing kindness and absolute loyalty to Srila Prabhupada’s teachings.
Gopi left this world in Govardhana, his home, as he was passing through from one speaking engagement in Russia to another in China. Certainly his verve for spreading Krishna consciousness, a verve that comes through in his translating, writing, and discourses, was the sort of spirit that greatly pleased Srila Prabhupada. And to please Srila Prabhupada is the goal of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
To perpetuate this goal, Gopiparanadhana established a Sanskrit school to train qualified devotees in the philosophy and spiritual science of Srimad-Bhagavatam so that future translators, editors, and knowledgeable teachers would succeed him in fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s lofty goals.
We offer our humble thanks to this humble Vaisnava, begging his blessings that Srila Prabhupada’s goals can be fulfilled.
Kesava Bharati Dasa Goswami
Editor
The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust