Prākṛta-rasa Śata-dūṣaṇī
(100 Condemnations of Material Rasa)
Translator’s Note
In May 2008, while discussing the unfortunate state of affairs in the modern Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava world with our Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja, I broached the idea of a commentary to Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s Prākṛta-rasa Śata-dūṣaṇī. Upon hearing this humble suggestion, Śrīla Guru Mahārāja was most enthusiastic and felt that it was appropriate and necessary to re-publish Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s work in English, along with a brief commentary in order to clarify certain points of siddhānta. Śrīla Guru Mahārāja’s eagerness was such that he instructed me to immediately translate the Bengali. Thus, after three days, I presented him a translation of Prākṛta-rasa Śata-dūṣaṇī and sat with him as he wrote his commentary.
Later in 2017, while I was with Guru Mahārāja in Mexico, I re-read the book and felt that my translations were not as accurate as they should have been due to the limited time I had in 2008. While discussing the Upadeśāmṛta and other books, I brought this to Guru Mahārāja’s attention and he gave me permission to eventually change the translations as required and add word-meanings for the original Bengali.
It was only recently that our godbrother, Śrīman Sanātana Prabhu, reminded me about Prākṛta-rasa Śata-dūṣaṇī and we both went through the text once again. I am extremely grateful to Sanātana and his wife Parameśvarī Devī Dāsī for their service in this regard. Their suggestions and edits have certainly improved this edition of Prākṛta-rasa Śata-dūṣaṇī and I am sure that Śrīla Guru Mahāraja would be extremely happy with the results.
In the first printing of this book, we added an introduction, said to have been written by Sarasvatī Ṭhākura himself. However, recently we came across a copy of Prākṛta-rasa Śata-dūṣaṇi from 1919 and discovered that it was in fact penned by Śrī Jagadīśa Bhakti-pradīpa (who later became Śrīpāda Bhakti Pradīpa Tīrtha Mahārāja), the disciple of Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda and sannyāsa disciple of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. We have thus retained this original introduction as it was during the time of Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.
The original commentary of our Guru Mahārāja remains unchanged with the exception of the substitution of American English spelling with the more commonly used British English, as per his instructions.
Narasiṅgha-pāda-sevaka –
Swami Bhakti Vijñāna Giri
Śrī Govardhana Pūjā Mahotsava
26th October, 2022