Revelations of Hidden Vedik Culture
Insights into the research and writings of HH Bhakti Ananda Goswami
...last updated 1st March 2003
...last updated 1st March 2003
HH BHAKTI ANANDA GOSWAMI'S ARDUOUS SANKIRTAN ADVENTURES
SRI SRI GURU and GAURANGA ki jaya !
Dear Venerable Sisters, Brothers and Others,
Please accept by humble obeisances.
Due to my long chronic and sometimes severe illness, i have not gotten out much and have been very isolated for long periods of time during the last 20 years. However, once in a while i get such an important opportunity for service, that i can't resist the temptation to undertake some totally unreasonable apparent over-endeavour to do it. Such seeming over-endeavours were the two lecture tours which i undertook last year, speaking on my discoveries. The physical and financial challenges seemed overwhelming, but i was determined to do it. Of course Krishna is the Doer, so i reasoned that if He wanted it done, it could be done.
This amazing dedication of an entire newspaper page to the complex academic work of an unpublished researchist (myself), is one direct result of last year's effort. Krishna Did It !... and is now bringing the many sacrifices involved to fruition in various ways, to further the non-sectarian Sankirtan Movement of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga !
How It Happened
The Grace of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga
The News India-Times covered the major academic indology event last year, the WORLD ASSOCIATION FOR VEDIC STUDIES CONFERENCE in New Jersey, USA. Two of my research papers on ancient East - West Bhakti Tradition connections had been accepted for presentation at this conference. It was an honor for an unpublished researchist to have a paper accepted for presentation at such a prestigious conference. Two of my papers were accepted. How could i not go to present them ? In addition, another Vedic scholar was presenting a paper on a related subject which used some of my research, so i also wanted to attend in support of his efforts as well.
The result of the whole sacrificial journey, which involved great austerities due to my health and poverty, was that i delivered my two papers to a large standing-room-only packed lecture hall, and not a single scholar challenged either my evidence or my conclusions ! Instead a number of scholars stayed after my presentation, and even after the entire 3 day conference ended, to ask me numerous questions of intense academic and even personal interest to them. The other scholar's paper (related to my work) was also received very well, in fact we both received enthusiastic ovations after our presentations, something not often seen at dry academic conferences.
Subsequently. i was contacted by Mr. Shomik Chaudhuri of the News India-Times, who requested me to write an article on my discoveries for the Newspaper. The Editors approved an entire page for it ! It is now in the current Vol. 32 NO 30 August 24th 2001 hard copy edition on page 48, the Viewpoint Section. The online copy is not out yet, but will be soon at
http://www.newsindia-times.com
for the hard copy edition order it from
News India-Times
244 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
10001 USA
This publication is rather miraculous. One reason is that the lag-time for such specialized academic research getting out of the closed-circle of academia into the public sector is usually years, and complex matters of scholarly interest are not usually considered particularly 'newsworthy'. It is therefore rare to see such an article in a non-academic newspaper. A second reason is that such unsought non-academic publicity for a complex scholarly matter presented by an unpublished, unknown researchist is unheard of ! Because of the isolation imposed on me by my long illness and related poverty, my work is little known and remains unpublished. In addition i have had to pursue my studies and the communication of my findings against the strong opposition of some fundamentalist sectarian fanatics who have strongly opposed the inter-religious nature of my work. Thus the success of this endeavour is truely miraculous for these two and many other reasons.
So the whole sequence of events has been inconceivable. Please take advantage of it to read and distribute this article for the pleasure of the Lord and the service of His servants in the cause of divine reconciliation.
your aspiring servant, Bhakti Ananda Goswami
NEWS INDIA-TIMES DEVOTES FULL PAGE TO DISCOVERIES
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RADHA-KRISHNA AND SAMKARSHANA AT THE HEART OF WORLD MONOTHEISM
THEOSOPHICAL DOCTRINE REGARDING DELUSIONAL PERSONAL GOD AND DREAM HEAVEN
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Hidden Origins
Vedik World Heritage pages
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HH BHAKTI ANANDA GOSWAMI
Inter-religious and Interdisciplinary Study, Practice and Ministry
HH Tridandi Sannyasi Bhakti Ananda Goswami Maharaja is a 'triune staffed' (Tridandi) renunciate and siksha guru (instructing master) in the ancient and venerable Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya (lineage) of Vaishnavism. Raised as a Protestant Christian, he began studying Old Testament History in the mid 1960s and discovered that the Jewish Deity Eli-Yahu was the Egyptian Deity Heri-Vasu, Greek Deity Heli-Us and Vaishnava Deity Hari-Vasu (Krishna-Vishnu). Following Biblical evidence, he took up the study of Vedic Related Bhakti Traditions, eventually focusing his studies on Radha-Krishna centric Vaishnavism, because of its antiquity and central importance in all the related ancient Bridal Mysticism Revelatory Traditions. Becoming a student of the Bridal Mysticism Gaudiya Tradition Vaishnava Saint A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, all his questions regarding the connections he had observed between 'Bridal Mysticism' in the Judeo-Catholic Traditions and Vaishnavism were answered. Finding the authentic Bhakti Scriptures of Vaishnavism an endless source of both inspiration and HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL CONNECTIONS to other global Bhakti Traditions, he worked to create a college curriculum for comparative global inter-bhakti studies.
Thus, as a practioner of bhakti yoga, and as an historian of religion and theologian, he has focused on the worship and study of historically related, Nama-Rupa Bhakti Yoga Traditions for nearly forty years now. In his own practice, he took his first public solemn vows of religious life thirty years ago. Continuing his sadhana as both a Catholic and a Vaishnava, after his children were adults, he eventually he took the traditional Vaishnava vows of vanaprastha (a retired hermit forest-dweller) and finally the vows of a sannyasi. His traditional Vedic Agni Hotra fire sacrifice and sannyasi ordination ceremony was performed and his sannyasi name and titles confered upon him from the Madhva-Gaudiya-Bhaktivedanta lineage of Vaishnavism, by His Holiness Tridandi Sannyasi Srila Radhanath Swami of Mumbai, India. Bhakti Ananda Goswami has been a sannyasi for 10 years now, and although he is connected by lineage to the Gaudiya Sampradaya, he is not at present affiliated with any Gaudiya-related institutions, except the World Vaishnava Association of Vrindavana india.
Rather that put his meager energies into the propagation of a single Vaishnava lineage, he has founded an ecumenical association, with the goal of fostering global inter-Vaishnava and inter-Bhakti mutual respect and ministerial cooperation. His long personal service in the social justice, human rights and human services fields has given him a great burden on his heart for the real sufferings of humanity. So he is not an ivory-tower academic, but instead, despite his disability, remains an activist involved in day-to day ministery to those in need.
A MASTER OF NAMA-RUPA DIVINE LOVE TRADITIONS
Bhakti Ananda Goswami has contemplated thousands of Names and Forms ( Nama-Rupa) of Godhead and the Feminine Divine from hundreds of ancient religious cultures. During his global pilgrimage into the past, he has immersed himself in various cultures' worship of the ONE SUPREME GOD / ESS of salvific grace and divine love. Submitting himself humbly at the feet of the saints of the various authentic ancient bhakti traditions, Bhakti Ananda Goswami received the Maha Mantra, The Gaudiya Gayatri, The Vedic Hymns, The 108 Names of Krishna, The Thousand Names of Vishnu, The 108 Names of Nara Hari, The 108 Names of Radha Rani, various Sri (Laxmi) Ganga Ma and Sarasvati Litanies, Namo Sada Shivaya and various Shiva Murugan and Ganesha Litanies, various Tara Durga Parvati Uma Kali and Shakti Litanies, The Hebrew Names of Eli-Yahu and Shekinah (Hari-Vasu and Shakti), The Greek Names Dies-piter Polieus and Tyche (Helios Kouros and Rhoda ie Krishna and Radha), The Roman Names of Jupiter Juvenalis and Juno Juventas ( Krishna Yauvana and Radha Yauvani), The Nilo-Saharan Egyptian Names of Heri ( Hari) and Wasu-Theos (Vasudeva / Vishnu), The Nigerian Names of Olu (The Orisha), The Avestan Names of Ahura Mazda-Zervan / Hvarena and the later Names of Mithras, The Nepalese Tibetan Chinese Korean and Japanese Names of Pure Land Buddhism's Tri Kaya ( Trinity), The 99 Names of Allah, Catholic Names of God and Mary from African Eastern and European Rites, various litanies of Christ, and related Names and prayers of Asclepius-Serapis-Caraka, and many other Names of the Lord and His Shakti from various ancient traditions of both the East and West.
When possible B.A. Goswami actually received The Holy Name through the traditional shiksha and diksha devotional means. For example, in addition to his Catholic Baptism and Confirmation and private vows, and Vaishnava vows of religious life, he received initiation into the mysteries of the recitation of the Japanese Pure Land Buddhist Nembutsu in the inner sanctum of the High Altar of the Asakusa Kannon Temple in Tokyo Japan. He received the 99 Names of Allah from Sufi Master Mohammad P. Casim in Sri Lanka. He received the mantra of Amitabha Buddha as the Tibetan Chen Rei Zei at Svayambhunath near Kathmandu Nepal, and Namo Shivayah at the compound of the Temple of Pasupatinatha in Kathmandu Nepal. He prayed for empowerment to study the Vedas in Pokhara Nepal, the traditional birth place of Srila Vyasadeva, and he prayed for Kaviraja Hanuman's poetic empowerment to describe the pastimes and glories of Lord Ramachandra at the Temple of Hanuman in Ayodhya India.
Studying the sacred etymology of the Holy Name, and the revelatory symbology of the Rupa of the Lord and Shekinah / Shakti, he learned to read ancient scriptures and inscriptions, to trace the origins, uses and diffusion of religious words Deity Names, theophoric personal names and symbols through world religious history.
Vows of self sacrifice in Vrindavana
In Vrindavan India, he wept and lay in the dust at the samadhi tomb of his beloved Diksha Guru Srila Prabhupada, and prayed for the strength, despite his life-threatening illness, to carry on the non-sectarian unifying bhaktiyoga mission of the great Vaishnava reformer and Bridal Mysticism Master Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. There at Krishna-Balarama Mandir, approaching Lord Balarama (the Vedic Purusha Yupa Dhvaja and Biblical Yahu-Bal as the Cosmic Messiah), Who is the Second Person of the Godhead, and Savior of all worlds, he begged for Sri Jesu-Balarama's limitless compassion on all beings, and Lord Balarama's own desire to protect and save all souls. He prayed for Sri Balarama to burn up all his separate desiring in the fire of HIS SELF-SACRIFICING DIVINE LOVE, so that the ashes of HIS MERCY would be all that was left.
Thus renouncing every other desire in this world or the next, B. A. Goswami vowed to realize in his own embodied life the words of the hymn 'His Mercy is all that i am made of'', and to become a reconciling intercessor and spiritual refuge of mercy for all fallen souls. Thus he confirmed himself in the service of Lord Balarama, the Original Spiritual Master, Who as the Rig Vedic Purusha Yupa Dhvaja is the Self-Sacrificed Redeemer of every cosmic manifestation. Realizing that it is impossible to get the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (or Sri Sri Radha-Govinda), without first getting the mercy of Sri Nityananda Balarama ( or Lord Baladeva), he purposed to fix himself eternally at the feet of Sri Baladeva, The Universal Messiah, Who is the Way, Truth and Life of all divine endeavor. Knowing Sri Baladeva to be the Second Person of the Mediterranean, African, Semitic, Indic, Asian and Amerindian Transcendent-Incarnating-Immanent Godhead / Trinity, B.A. Goswami vowed to glorify Him in His infinite Nama and Rupa as the descending Savior of all vyuhas, lokas / worlds, beings and nations /'races'.
Continuing pilgrimages and initiations
In Bhakti Ananda's continuing pilgrimages, in Sri Lanka he visited the traditional sites of Sita's captivity, and the Temple of Perumal at Kataragama. With a very ill body, and no money or prior contacts, he often traveled alone facing great hardship and danger, making pilgrimages to numerous ancient Buddhist, Vaishnava, Shaivite and Shakti temples, shrines and important archeological sites in Japan, Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal. The many miraculous stories of his pilgrimages cannot be told . He received the Chinese Pure Land Invocation of AmitoFho from Taiwanese Pure Land Buddhists. In Greece he learned the invocation of 'Christe Anaste!' and received the 'Jesus Prayer' from Catholic Eastern Rite monks. Everywhere he went he sought-out saintly persons and submitted himself to them for instruction, service and their blessings.
Accepting Jesus Christ as Yahu-Bal Yupa Dhvaja Purusha
Raised as a non-denominational Protestant Christian, he studied the origins of Christianity in great depth, becoming an expert on the proto-Catholic Heliopolitan Asyla Federations (Afro-Helleno-Semitic Vaishnava, Shaivite and Shakti temple alliances) in the ancient Mediterranean Region. His deep understanding of these monotheistic bhakti yoga asyla federations, their worship of the Seraphic Great Physician (Asclepius-Serapis-YahuBal Nahustan and Balarama as Caraka), and their evolution into the Communion of Rites in Catholic Christianity, led him into a profound appreciation of the historical UNITY of the many Polieus and Tyche related Rites of the Catholic Apostolic traditions. Thus, as a Christian, he sought full communion with Jesus Purusha / Polieus in the present unity of His Mystical Social Body, the Apostolic Catholic Communion of Rites. Initially following textual leads regarding the Great Physician and related Purusha / Polieus traditions, he tied numerous ancient Polieus city federations together and traced the worship of Purusha / Polieus as the Great Physician all the way to the Pure Land Buddhist cult of the Ayur-vedic related Medicine Buddha Incarnation of Lokeshvara as Yakushi ji at Nara in Japan.
DISCIPLINE, RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC
In every case, as B. A. Goswami prayerfully sought to receive the darshan and realization (vision and personal relationship with) the Personality-Form (Rupa) of the Lord or Shakti revealed in / by / through a particular authentic tradition of Their Revelatory Holy Name, he humbly submitted himself to the principle of Guru, Shastra and Sadhu in his quest. Submitting himself to authentic authorities, and with respect for both the rigorous disciplines of Eastern sadhana and Western science, he studied the history, scriptures, doctrines, rites / liturgies, sacraments, practices, coinage, sacred arts and social order, religio-political alliances and many other things related to the Lord's or Shakti's particular Nama and Rupa. His both faithful and conservative interdisciplinary scientific approach to understanding the history of religion bore fruit in amazing realizations and discoveries. Thus, by the grace of the Supreme Lord, and the Holy Mother, through exhaustive and rigorously disciplined interdisciplinary study, he has been able to positively confirm some the important global INTER-RELIGIOUS IDENTITY of THEIR various related Names and Forms amongst Their children in the worlds' great devotional (bhakti) traditions.
Work and vows in the service of reconciliation
Devoted to the cause of reconciliation between the devotees of the related Bhakti Traditons of the world, Bhakti Ananda Goswami has become a well-learned repository and guardian of unifying truth and sacred traditions, a vowed cosmic trash-burner / incinerator for bad karma / sins, and a harbor of love and mercy and forgiving-ness for all souls and repentant sinners who approach him. He does not initiate disciples due to his vow to accept everyone unconditionally. Thus he is known as a Shiksha or Instructing Master in the ancient and venerable Bridal Mysticism Brahma-Gaudiya Sampradaya (lineage) of Vaishnavism. In 2002 the World Vaishnava Association (Vrindavana India) requested him to organize and lead the first ever official Orthodox Vaishnava interfaith project. Despite his severe health problems, he has been attempting to serve in this demanding capacity.
A GUARDIAN OF SACRED TRADITIONS
Always wary of ancient sources being redacted and polluted with modern corruptions, he has sought out the most ancient and authentic forms of each tradition to learn from. Thus he has studied as much as possible in the ancient source-materials themselves, in both non-controversial transliterations, translations and even in the original languages when possible. As a result of this conservative approach, his discoveries on this path of humility and discipline have led him to a recognition of the universal validity of the religious principle of 'Guru Shastra and Sadhu' (GSS). In other words, authenticity in 'revealed' or bhakti religions is preserved in any tradition by the checks-and-balances of some system of 1) GURU contemporary master, who exemplifies a tradition, and teaches in the contemporary or understood language of the student 2) SHASTRA the written or oral tradition of history and theology particular to the tradition, and 3) SADHU the lineage of saint-exemplars and scholar-commentators in the tradition. Together these three elements preserve the authenticity of 'revealed' devotional / bhakti traditions. The principle of GSS also applies in the preservation, generational communication and geographical diffusion of non-religious traditions as well. This 'scriptural' and 'apostolic' system of checks-and-balances disciplines the methodology and language, defines and expands the knowledge base, and preserves the integrity and continuity of authentic real-world teaching traditions. Credibility and responsibility, integrity and mastery are all defined and assured in an authentic tradition via the observance of the checks and balances of GSS. Real historical traditions have real-world traceable histories. Their adherents are honored to identify themselves with their real-world human heritage. Thus, in India for example, every major and most minor theistic and non-theistic traditions have a pararmpara, or sampradaya, an apostolic lineage that is authoritative for their tradition. Bhakti Ananda Goswami has become an expert on this subject, and is concerned that persons studying eastern traditions through the filter of 'esoteric', neo-Gnostic and New Age "master" fictitious traditions are being cheated. To the contrary of real historical traditions, and their legitimately ancient literatures, spurious non-historical (fictional) 'traditions' cannot legitimately claim any real-world past GSS. These dishonest, fraudulent concocted 'lineages' of 'master' imposters appropriate things of real value from real GSS historical traditions, and without properly respecting or crediting their sources, or submitting to any discipline or standard of knowledge, realization or behavior / accountability, use and abuse what they have appropriated. Experiencing that many people have become victimized by such deception, with much suffering as a result, B.A. Goswami has helped many people to escape the web of illusions spun by the deceptive abusers of sacred tradition. As a real human (not imaginary) master of ancient GSS tradition, Bhakti Ananda Goswami has carried on a campaign to expose those guilty of appropriating, plagiarizing, corrupting, misrepresenting and otherwise abusing the classical literatures, iconography and language etc. of authentic historical GSS traditions. He has challenged the historicity of so-called ascended masters and the control of such 'master'-channeling individuals and organizations over the lives of their credulous believers.
A life of respect for the real
Preferring real-world history to the fictional histories of imaginary masters, Bhakti Ananda Goswami has concerned himself with studying the lives and teachings of real masters and saints in real-world ancient traditions. He has chosen to identify himself not with incorporeal modern fictitious 'ascended masters', but with the ancient lineages of real corporeal historical persons. Thus as a Christian, he is an initiated in one of the Catholic Rites, as a Vaishnava, he belongs to one of the ancient orthodox lineages, as a Buddhist, he is a 'Pure Land' practitioner in several traditions, as a devotee of Allah (Ali in Aramaic is Hari), his association is with the personalist pro-incarnational, proto-Koranic Sattvic, Personalist form of Sufism. In the same way he identifies with the most authentic and ascetic / pious and devotional forms of historically authentic Judaism, Shaivism, Shaktism, etc. In every case he has sought to directly study these traditions, and study IN these authentic traditions, and has thus avoided all the distortions and compromises of these traditions found in either earlier or modern syncretistic or so-called 'gnostic', esoteric and new age corruptions of authentic traditions.
MORALITY, HOLINESS AND SERVICE
B. A. Goswami affirms that the universal moral ideal of the authentic Great Bhakti Traditions has always been sattvic or pietistic and ascetic / holy. Thus he is personally committed to the sattvic discipline of traditional Vaishnava bhakti yoga, and primitive Catholic asceticism, and observes the traditional vows of ahimsa and no flesh eating, chastity, no intoxication and no gambling, truthfulness, mercifulness, moral cleanliness, voluntary simplicity, humility, maintaining a disciplined spirit, and willingness to accept sacrifices and austerities in the service of souls and Godhead. In addition, as in Pure Land Buddhist and Catholic Tradition, many years ago he took the bodhi-heart vow of compassion to offer all his 'karmic' merit and all his sufferings for the salvation of all beings. Thus as a matter of vowed tapasya, he offers up at least 6 hours of intercessory prayer a day, and all his other sacrifices for the well-being of others.
Bhakti Ananda Goswami does not initiate disciples, but unconditionally accepts any person he offers intercessory prayer for. He lives an austere and simple life in an ancient forest, with centuries-old trees, lions, bear, deer and other wild creatures visiting his hermitage. As as a hermit, he spends most of his time in study, personal counseling and ministry, teaching (via correspondence and phone) and intercessory prayer. He has never been interested in having followers, has no self-promoting organization, has never accepted any guru-puja, and has never solicited or personally accepted any monies for his services. Any unsolicited offerings sent to him have either been sent back, or used through a non-profit all-volunteer organization in the service of others.
Due to serious chronic illness, he is rarely able to receive guests, to travel or make public appearances. In recent years due to the late effects of childhood polio, he has been cared for by his parents, son and daughter and their spouses and children, or friends. Recently his daughter has been trying to build an internet web site to make his extensive research on the global history of Salvific Bhakti (Divine Love and Grace) Traditons available to people of good-will seeking unity world-wide. During his years of study, he accumulated over 150 volumes worth of research on the ancient historical connections between the religious traditions of the East and West. However, due to his disability, because he was forced to do his degree and later work on tape and in nearly illegible handwritiing, this body of research remains unorganized, untyped, not computerized and unpublished.
RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Before becoming more disabled by post-polio-syndrome, B.A. Goswami lectured
extensively in the USA and overseas. He was the Mainland USA Delegate
to the 1982 academic and religious World Hindu Conference co-sponsored
by the Governments of Tamil Nadu India and Sri Lanka, and held at the Summit
of Non-Aligned Nations in Sri Lanka. There he was a guest of the
Sri Lankan Government and the Minister of Religion, and was given a tour
of many of the most important archeological sites in Sri Lanka.
At the conference he was elevated from an academic delegate to a
"Religious Dignitary" and seated with the 'popes' and heads of Indic
religions, sampradayas and maths. This was done at the request of
real masters in attendance, who recognized the unique contribution of his
knowledge and spirituality in the cause of reconciliation between
their diverse traditions. He also received scores of invitations from scholars
to visit and teach in their countries and at their institutions. Unfortunately
due to his poor heath he was unable to continue traveling after the completion
of his contracted college travel-study, which included his participation
in the Sri Lankan Conference.
As a result, he was unable to accept any of these invitations.
While still on his college-contracted independent study tour, he was
invited by the former Prime Minister of Nepal, the Right Honorable Nagendra
Prasad Rijal, to sit on the Executive Committee of the World Hindu
Organization, under the Patronage of His Majesty King Birendra of Nepal.
This he did, and worked on the Organization's Nepal International Zone
of Peace and Nuclear Non-proliferation Non Governmental Organization platforms
for the United Nations. In Nepal and India, he again received the
blessings and honor of serving Vaishnava, Shaivite, Shakti, Sikh, Sufi
and Buddhist Gurus and Saints, including the respected Vaishnava Leaders
Dr. Rup Lal Batra, and Dr. Acharya Prabhakar Mishra, who made him an Honorary
International Coordinating Secretary of the Universal Sanatana Dharma Foundation,
and invited him to address the next Plenary Session of the World Fellowship
of Religions in India, as the Keynote Speaker.
Regrettably due to illness B.A.Goswami was unable to accept these, or hundreds of other invitations or opportunities for service. With great physical austerity, he did. however successfully complete his college independent field-study contract, which had the duo-focus of interdisciplinary field studies in the history of religion, and in the applied theology of religious social organization, social justice, human rights and human services. This exhaustive project was undertaken for his B.A, degree, and it was recognized by the faculty of his college, that he was already doing graduate level work when he started his B.A. program. Considered intellectually gifted, he was in a special university program for geniuses,doing college-level research in his high school days. The son and part-time assistant to a research electrobiophysicist father and a mother with a M.A. degree in education, he was blessed with an excellent education, and a background in science and research.
After a unique and successful college career, during which he received a 4.0 grade average, scholarships and the respect and praise of faculty for designing and fulfilling an interdisciplinary curriculum contract in inter-bhakti studies, he successfully completed the oral presentation of his interdisciplinary extended (two year) master's degree in the history of religion, comparative religion and theology. However, he was hospitalized on a respirator before he could complete the publication of his Thesis and obtain his Degree. Subsequently disabled and physically isolated by illness, Bhakti Ananda Goswami has not been able to publish his work, and has had few practical opportunities to widely distribute his knowledge. On only several occasions in the last ten years has he been able to speak publicly on his discoveries. In 1993, as co-founder of the academic Arcadian Institute, he was a Sponsor and Presenter at the Centennial World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, USA. The next year he contributed a chapter on asceticism in Catholic history to an important Catholic collection of essays on Catholic moral theology and ecology ( EMBRACING EARTH, Orbis Press.) His next major effort to get his historical discoveries out, took him to visit with Vaishnava scholars in Berkley California USA, where he was blessed as a Vaishnava Master to serve Sri Subhadra Devi on Her chariot, during the most holy festival of Ratha Yatra. After that trip, he again became incommunicado for some years, due to continued severe health problems.
BHAKTI ANANDA GOSWAMI'S RARE PUBLIC LECTURE TOUR IN 2000
In 2000, Bhakti Ananda Goswami received the kind assistance of an interfaith alliance of devotees, in giving a West Coast L.A. County Museum Tour and Lecture series on Egyptian, Greek, Jewish and Vaishnava connections in the pre-Christian Era. An expert on the devotional traditions of ancient Egypt, and the relationship of these to Judaism and the cult of Rhoda and Kouros Helios and Dionysus on the Island of Rhodes, he organized an exhibit tour for some of his students at the L.A. County Museum "Pharaohs of the Sun" Exhibit. For his tour lecture booklet, he received permission from the Exhibit organizer and copyright owner of the Akhenaten images collection and the world's premier Jewish miniature artifact collection, to use images from the "Pharaohs of the Sun " Exhibit , and the text "Gods. Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel" for comparison in his lecture series. Thus he was able to show the relationship between Afro-Egyptian, Israelite and Jewish, Heliopolitan Greek, Vaishnava and Pure-Land Buddhist Deity Names, Symbols and Forms. As a result of this tour, he was invited to present two papers on the subject of ancient Vaishnava and Afro-Helleno-Semitic, Shaivite and Buddhist connections at the major World Association for Vedic Studies academic conference held at the Stevens Institute of Technology in late 2000. His presentations were made to a standing-room-only crowd in the largest lecture hall of the conference. he recieved and actual ovation after his presentation, and not a single scholar could challenge either his evidence or his conclusions. Hindu scholars stayed after his presentation and visited his dorm room over the weekend to ask him numerous questions about his discoveries. Following this major conference, there was a full-page article in the News-India Times about his work, and he was invited to give holy day homilies on the Bharat Darshan RBC South Asian Radio Network Show. Thus, as a result, he has given commercially uninterupted sermons up to a half-hour long, on such High Holy Days and Festivals as Maha Kumba Mela, Durga Puja, and Gita Jayanti to hundreds of thousands of RBC Radio listeners. So, by the grace of the Lord and Our Lady, B.A. Goswami, a professed Catholic, has been able from his bed in his hermitage in the great forest, to speak over the phone through the radio to countless souls around the world, explaining things like the historical relationship between the Jewish Nazarites' ritual bathing, Catholic Baptism and the Vaishnava and Shaivite Traditions of bathing in the Ganges to wash away sin. Unfortunately he had to give up these regular radio sermons, due to post polio vocal muscle fatigue and failure.
Due to polio muscle exhaustion, after his demanding two week West Coast Tour, he lost his ability to produce a voice for several months, and after months of physical therapy with a speech pathologist and voice therapist, only miraculously regained some use of his vocal chords the very day that his East Coast tour began at the World Association of Vedic Studies Conference in New Jersey USA. He was invited there to present two of his papers at the WAVES conference, one on the general East-West Bhakti connections, and one more specifically focused on the Egyptian Heliopolitan-related Bridal Mysticism connections between Radha-Krishna Vaishnavism and the Mediterranean indigenous Vaishnava origins of Judeo-Catholic Tradition. Delivering his papers, he showed indisputable evidence of connections between the Bridal Mysticism tradition of Radha and Krishna, and the pre-historic inter-racial cult of Rhoda and Kouros on the Isle of Rhodes. Presenting his papers, he also showed abundant interdisciplinary proof of direct connections between the Biblical Song of Songs Eli-Yahu and Shekinah Bridal Mysticism Tradition, the pre-historic (emerging circa 3000 BC) worship of Helios and Rhoda on the Mediterranean Isle of Rhodes, Egyptian Actis Heliopolitan Monotheism and the Eastern Worship of Hari-Vasu (Krishna-Vishnu) and Radha-Shakti. In addition to all this, he gave further evidence of connection to both sattvic theistic Shaivism and salvific Pure Land Buddhism.
After the conference, he visited with Vaishnava and other devotees in 5 states. His body was so exhausted after this two weeks, that when he was delayed in the air on the way home, unable to land for hours due to a severe storm, upon landing, he was removed from the plane by medics. He was kept in the airport first-aid station for hours, while a decision was reached by the authorities, whether to let him get back on a plane, or to send him to a hospital. By the Lord's Mercy, after several hours on oxygen monitoring, he recovered enough to continue the journey home, where his daughter was waiting to take care of him. Having suffered oxygen deprivation and serious circulatory problems on this trip, hich required months to recover from, B,A. Swami is now reluctant to attempt any more trips. Therefore it is unlikely that he will be able to attend the upcoming World Vaishnava Association, World Council of Elders, World Association for Vedic Studies, or any other scholastic or religious events. He is also no longer able to do radio programs, or much counseling over the phone. Due to intermittant oxyhen deprivation, he also suffers from failing eyesight and periodic central vision loss. This has recently necessitated his withdrawal from participation in various kinds of visual communication. However he does hope, by the grace of God Ess, and Their devotees, to continue to be of some personal service to the many individuals he counsels and prays for on a daily basis.
