Tamala Krishna Goswami
Encyclopedia
Tamal Krishna Goswami born as Thomas G. Herzig in New York City, NY United States
served on International Society for Krishna Consciousness
's Governing Body Commission
since its inception in 1970. In January 1972, he accepted the renounced order of life sannyasa
in Jaipur
. He served as GBC Secretary for India from 1970–74 and was appointed trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, responsible for sales in the USA. He completed a bachelor's degree in religious studies
at Southern Methodist University
.
New York, he began his association with the Krishna Consciousness movement in 1968 where he was soon accepted as a disciple by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. From 1975 until 1979, Tamal Krishna Goswami headed the "Radha-Damodara Party," a series of buses carrying disciples of Swami Prabhupada, who traveled around America distributing Prabhupada's books.
Governing Body Commission
(GBC) is the name for the managerial authority of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. ISKCON's founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, created the GBC in 1972 and since that time it has met on an annual basis. Tamal Krishna Goswami was a member of this body since its beginnings.
Tamal Krishna Goswami died in a vehicular accident in March 2002, at Phuliya in West Bengal
, India. He had been attending the Hare Krishna festival/meeting yearly but due to pressure of his academic pursuits, Goswami Maharaja
attended the meetings in 2002 for the first time in six years . Speculation has it that Tamal Krishna Goswami was such a beloved servant of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada that he was not allowed to leave the Mayapur
area and thus there was the vehicular accident. His samadhi
is placed beside Srila Prabhupada's samadhi in ISKCON Sri Mayapur Dhama, West Bengal, India.
Tamal Krishna Goswami was the author of several books on various religious subjects, including two classical Vedic dramas. He was also doctoral student at the University of Cambridge
, Clare Hall, under Dr. Julius J. Lipner
where his thesis was on the theology of ISKCON's founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. At the time of his death, he had completed all but the conclusion. Dr. Lipner's intention is to publish this dissertation in Tamal Krishna Goswami's name. He also studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and received a bachelor's degree in religious studies.
commentary by Tamal Krishna Goswami on the Goddess
Mohini
.
This commentary on the Hindu
Goddess
Mohini
was produced by Tamal Krishna Goswami during the Fall of 1993. Mohini-lila plays an important role on the periphery of Vaishnavism
. There are two popular lilas of Mohini which can be found in Canto Eight (chapters 9 and 12) of the Bhagavata Purana
. Mohini also plays a prominent role in the popular Hindu myth known as The churning of the ocean of milk, and her role in this story is mentioned in numerous Hindu text such as the two Epics, most of the Puranas
and numerous vernacular literature
. The Mysterious Pastimes of Mohini-murti covers two chapters of Prabhupada's translation
and commentary on the Eight Canto of the Bhagavata Purana
, Chapter 9 The Lord Incarnates as Mohini-murti and chapter 12 The Mohini-murti Incarnation Bewilders Lord Shiva.
During this commentary, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's discussions of Mohini-lila especially as they relate to gender roles in verse 8.9.9 are analyzed and considered. This includes the notable passage from Prabhupada's commentary
.
This commentary was released as a vinyl album in 1993. On the cover of the vinyl album, there is an artistic rendering of an episode of Mohini-lila from the Bhagavata Purana
. This depiction on the album cover
, is used to illustrate the puranic mythology
under discussion. The audio files are available online.
theological commentary made in 1993 by Tamal Krishna Goswami in regards to the Goddess
Aditi
as detailed in the eighth canto of the Bhagavata Purana
. This commentary discusses Aditi
's vow, Payovrata
, which she undertakes for the benefit of her children the Adityas
.
In the narrative, Mahabali
Maharaja, king of the demons, had conquered the heavenly planets and driven out their rulers the Adityas, Aditi's children. The commentary by Tamal Krishna Goswami centers on Aditi's mythology in which she undertook a vow of importance (the vow which is referenced is Payovrata
) and discusses why Aditi undertook this vow
or vrata
in order to bring her children back to the heavenly planets.
This commentary was released as a vinyl album in 1993. The audio files are available online.
Papers and Books by Tamal Krishna Goswami
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
served on International Society for Krishna Consciousness
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness , known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. It was founded in 1966 in New York City by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...
's Governing Body Commission
Governing Body Commission
The Governing Body Commission is the managerial authority of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness . ISKCON's founder, A.C...
since its inception in 1970. In January 1972, he accepted the renounced order of life sannyasa
Sannyasa
Sannyasa is the order of life of the renouncer within the Hindu scheme of āśramas, or life stages. It is considered the topmost and final stage of the ashram systems and is traditionally taken by men or women at or beyond the age of fifty years old or by young monks who wish to renounce worldly...
in Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
. He served as GBC Secretary for India from 1970–74 and was appointed trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, responsible for sales in the USA. He completed a bachelor's degree in religious studies
Religious studies
Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...
at Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
.
Biography
Born in HarlemHarlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
New York, he began his association with the Krishna Consciousness movement in 1968 where he was soon accepted as a disciple by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. From 1975 until 1979, Tamal Krishna Goswami headed the "Radha-Damodara Party," a series of buses carrying disciples of Swami Prabhupada, who traveled around America distributing Prabhupada's books.
Governing Body Commission
Governing Body Commission
The Governing Body Commission is the managerial authority of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness . ISKCON's founder, A.C...
(GBC) is the name for the managerial authority of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. ISKCON's founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, created the GBC in 1972 and since that time it has met on an annual basis. Tamal Krishna Goswami was a member of this body since its beginnings.
Tamal Krishna Goswami died in a vehicular accident in March 2002, at Phuliya in West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, India. He had been attending the Hare Krishna festival/meeting yearly but due to pressure of his academic pursuits, Goswami Maharaja
attended the meetings in 2002 for the first time in six years . Speculation has it that Tamal Krishna Goswami was such a beloved servant of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada that he was not allowed to leave the Mayapur
Mayapur
Mayapur is located on the banks of the Ganges river, at the point of its confluence with the Jalangi, near Navadvip, West Bengal, India, 130 km north of Kolkata...
area and thus there was the vehicular accident. His samadhi
Samadhi
Samadhi in Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools is a higher level of concentrated meditation, or dhyāna. In the yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali....
is placed beside Srila Prabhupada's samadhi in ISKCON Sri Mayapur Dhama, West Bengal, India.
Tamal Krishna Goswami was the author of several books on various religious subjects, including two classical Vedic dramas. He was also doctoral student at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, Clare Hall, under Dr. Julius J. Lipner
Julius J. Lipner
, who is of Indo-Czech origin, is at the .He was born and brought up in India, for the most part in West Bengal. After his schooling in India, he obtained a Licentiate in Theology in the Pontifical Athenaeum in Poona, and then spent two years studying for an M.A. in Indian and Western philosophy...
where his thesis was on the theology of ISKCON's founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. At the time of his death, he had completed all but the conclusion. Dr. Lipner's intention is to publish this dissertation in Tamal Krishna Goswami's name. He also studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and received a bachelor's degree in religious studies.
The Mysterious Pastimes of Mohini-murti
The Mysterious Pastimes of Mohini-murti is a 20th century HinduHindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
commentary by Tamal Krishna Goswami on the Goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
Mohini
Mohini
Mohini , in Hindu mythology, is the name of the only female Avatar of the god Vishnu. She is portrayed as a femme fatale, an enchantress, who maddens lovers, sometimes leading them to their doom. Mohini is introduced into the Hindu mythos in the narrative epic of the Mahabharata...
.
This commentary on the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
Goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
Mohini
Mohini
Mohini , in Hindu mythology, is the name of the only female Avatar of the god Vishnu. She is portrayed as a femme fatale, an enchantress, who maddens lovers, sometimes leading them to their doom. Mohini is introduced into the Hindu mythos in the narrative epic of the Mahabharata...
was produced by Tamal Krishna Goswami during the Fall of 1993. Mohini-lila plays an important role on the periphery of Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu, or his associated Avatars such as Rama and Krishna, as the original and supreme God....
. There are two popular lilas of Mohini which can be found in Canto Eight (chapters 9 and 12) of the Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
. Mohini also plays a prominent role in the popular Hindu myth known as The churning of the ocean of milk, and her role in this story is mentioned in numerous Hindu text such as the two Epics, most of the Puranas
Puranas
The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...
and numerous vernacular literature
Vernacular literature
Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people".In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin...
. The Mysterious Pastimes of Mohini-murti covers two chapters of Prabhupada's translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
and commentary on the Eight Canto of the Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
, Chapter 9 The Lord Incarnates as Mohini-murti and chapter 12 The Mohini-murti Incarnation Bewilders Lord Shiva.
During this commentary, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's discussions of Mohini-lila especially as they relate to gender roles in verse 8.9.9 are analyzed and considered. This includes the notable passage from Prabhupada's commentary
Close reading
Close reading describes, in literary criticism, the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. Such a reading places great emphasis on the particular over the general, paying close attention to individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold as they...
.
This commentary was released as a vinyl album in 1993. On the cover of the vinyl album, there is an artistic rendering of an episode of Mohini-lila from the Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
. This depiction on the album cover
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
, is used to illustrate the puranic mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
under discussion. The audio files are available online.
Happiness is a Science - Aditi's Vow
Happiness is a Science - Aditi's Vow is a 20th century HinduHindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
theological commentary made in 1993 by Tamal Krishna Goswami in regards to the Goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
Aditi
Aditi
Aditi in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. In the Vedas Aditi is mother of the gods from whose cosmic matrix the heavenly bodies were born...
as detailed in the eighth canto of the Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
. This commentary discusses Aditi
Aditi
Aditi in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. In the Vedas Aditi is mother of the gods from whose cosmic matrix the heavenly bodies were born...
's vow, Payovrata
Payovrata
Payovrata is the vrata or penance observed by Goddess Aditi to propitiate Lord Vishnu.-Ritual Activity:It is usually observed for 12 days, and during that time the devotee subsists on a diet of milk alone...
, which she undertakes for the benefit of her children the Adityas
Ādityas
In Hinduism, Āditya , meaning "of or related to Aditi", refers to the offsprings of Aditi. Adityas are solar class deities. In later Hinduism, Aditya is used in the singular to mean the sun.-Vedas:...
.
In the narrative, Mahabali
Mahabali
Mahabali , also known as Bali or Māveli was a benevolent Asura King, and the grandson of Prahlada. The festival of Onam commemorates his yearly homecoming after being sent down to the underworld by Vamana, the fifth avatar of Vishnu.-Conquest of the Universe and banishment:Bali, an asura, was the...
Maharaja, king of the demons, had conquered the heavenly planets and driven out their rulers the Adityas, Aditi's children. The commentary by Tamal Krishna Goswami centers on Aditi's mythology in which she undertook a vow of importance (the vow which is referenced is Payovrata
Payovrata
Payovrata is the vrata or penance observed by Goddess Aditi to propitiate Lord Vishnu.-Ritual Activity:It is usually observed for 12 days, and during that time the devotee subsists on a diet of milk alone...
) and discusses why Aditi undertook this vow
Vow
A vow is a promise or oath.-Marriage vows:Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony. Marriage customs have developed over history and keep changing as human society develops...
or vrata
Vrata
In the context of Hinduism and Hindu mythology, the term vrata denotes a religious practice to carry out certain obligations with a view to achieve divine blessing for fulfillment of one or several desires. Etymologically, vrata, a Sanskrit word , means to vow or to promise...
in order to bring her children back to the heavenly planets.
This commentary was released as a vinyl album in 1993. The audio files are available online.
External links
- Official Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami Website
- Tamal Krishna Goswami Tape Ministry
- ISKCON Website
- "Obituary: Tamal Krishna Goswami" by Dr. Julius J. Lipner
Papers and Books by Tamal Krishna Goswami