I find it interesting that the older I get, the easier it is to pray. Its not hard, and I kinda enjoy it. It tones down my passionate nature, calms my mind, and makes me feel safe. It is one of my favorite books in our temple room, “The Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas”. (click on link to download)
Foward to The Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas
by His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness was established in New York in the year 1966. After my arrival in the United States in September of 1965, I personally underwent a difficult struggle, and in 1966 I rented a storefront and apartment at 26 Second Avenue. When ISKCON was incorporated, a boy named Chuck Barnett joined me, along with a few others, to form the nucleus for the institution’s future development. At this time I used to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra underneath a tree in Tompkin’s Square Park in New York. Śrīmān Barnett and another boy, Bruce, were the first to begin dancing in front of me, and others in the audience joined them. The New York Times published a report of this, with our picture and a headline declaring that I was attracting the younger generation to the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
Later both Chuck and Bruce, along with others, became my initiated disciples, and still later, in 1970, both took sannyāsa, receiving the names Acyutānanda Svāmī and Brahmānanda Svāmī. Now Brahmānanda is preaching in Africa, and Acyutānanda is preaching in India.
When I became sick in 1967, I left the United States and returned to India. Śrīmān Acyutānanda could not remain separated from me, and therefore he joined me in Vṛndāvana when I was staying there. Since then, Acyutānanda Svāmī has worked very hard in India. He has preached extensively in Calcutta and other parts of Bengal, he has learned how to sing in Bengali and play mṛdaṅga like an expert professional, and now he has compiled this book of Bengali songs with English explanations.
I am greatly pleased to see this collection of songs composed by Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda, Narottama dāsa, and other great ācāryas of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community (sampradāya). Songs composed by the ācāryas are not ordinary songs. When chanted by pure Vaiṣṇavas who follow the rules and regulations of Vaiṣṇava character, they are actually effective in awakening the Kṛṣṇa consciousness dormant in every living entity. I have advised Srīmān Acyutānanda Svāmī to sing more songs of the Vaiṣṇava padāvalī and record them in books so that my disciples and others in the Western countries may take advantage of this chanting and thus advance in Krsṇa consciousness more and more.
I confer all my blessings upon Acyutānanda Svāmī for his genuine attempt to advance in Krsṇa consciousness. I hope he will thus advance more and more and never be hampered by māyā. We should always remember the danger of māyā’s influence and endeavor to save ourselves from her great power. We must therefore always merge in the transcendental mellow of kīrtana-rasa, for kīrtana-rasa is the safest situation within this material world. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
1974
The Hare Krishna Movement 