Tattva-viveka
Srila BV Narayana Maharaja?
Margaret Dale - April 6, 2007 9:24 am
While looking for definitions of sanskrit terms and spellings of names, I keep running across purebhakti.com by the Srila BV Narayana Maharaja group. What I've read so far appears legit. Since my discrimination is pretty poorly developed, I was hoping GM or a senior devotee could tell me if the practice and writings of this swami are beneficial. Thank you.
BTW - I keep running across sanga and Sridar Maharaja websites too! 
Nitai Joseph - April 7, 2007 1:41 am
Well Margaret, I certainly am not the senior devotee your looking for, but I'll add my two cents anyway, because I think I'm advanced
All I know is that Narayan Maharaja makes some literatures very easily available to the public which are meant for the highest readers. He also has a tendency to discuss intimate lila to large audiences. There are other things he does differently then others coming in the line of Bhaktisiddhanta. I've decided to keep away form his teachings.
as far as sanskrit definitions, at this site http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/tamil/ you can type in the sanskrit word and can search up to four sanskrit dictionaries simultaneously, great resource.
I'm interested to see what more credible sources say about Narayana Maharaja....
Swami - April 7, 2007 4:31 pm
I have known B.V. Narayana Maharaja for some time, before he became a world acarya. My dealings with him have always been cordial but reserved. When he came to the US for the first time, Swami B.G. Narasingha Maharaja and I hosted him. We were the only institution to offer him Vaisnava hospitality in the West. He and his followers stayed with us for three days and we took very good care of the entire group of 40 devotees that came, even though we had asked them to bring no more than 5. A few of his devotees arrived early to set things up for Maharaja, which in their mind meant taking over the temple and ashrama facilities. I told them to back off and assured them that I did not need to be educated by junior devotees in the area of Vaisnava decorum. Maharaja was very happy with our hosting, but things only went down hill from this point on.
His leading devotees attacted me on the internet, accusing me of faulty siddhanta in two areas. Although I responded and clearly demomstrated their own misunderstanding of siddhanta in these two areas, and although objective readers from all Gaudiya sects supported my conclusions, which in fact were the siddhanta of the most revered B.R. Sridhara Deva Goswami, I received only an indirect, hollow apology from one of Narayana Maharaja's leading devotees. Meanwhile his leading followers canvassed my disciples at every opportunity to leave me and join Narayana Maharaja. Needless to say I became fed up with this and eventually wrote to Narayana Maharaja asking him to tell his followers to leave me and my students alone. He agreed and apologized on behalf of his students, while offering the excuse that it was not always possible for him to control all of his disciples. The experience of Narasingha Maharaja was similar.
Meanwhile even before NM traveled abroad I had some doubts concerning his preacing emphasis, and I made this clear to those who were going to see him--those that had come to tell me about their experience. My doubts have not abated after all of these years. Add to this the fact that NM offended Srila B.R. Sridhara Maharaja in writing many years ago and that this, in the opinion of SM, was never rectified. NM has also reached certain conclusions about the policies of Srila Prabhupada and the standing of SM that I strongly object to.
At the same time NM seems to have helped a number of devotees. He is very learned and fixed in bhakti, for which he has a taste. People are complex and sadhus are hardly the exception.
Conclusion: I respect him from a distance and do not instruct my students to read his books.
Margaret Dale - April 7, 2007 7:25 pm
Guru Maharaja,
Thank you for answering my question!
Margaret Dale - November 9, 2009 4:31 am
Today I ran into Manju dasi at the mall because I needed to have a picture reframed. She says that she and her husband are friends of Agni and Rati from a while back. She's the first devotee I've met since being in Fresno. How do I handle this? It would seem that association with her and her family would be better than association with most other people here.
Vinode-bihari Dasa - February 16, 2014 6:33 am
Margaret, thank you for your nice question.
Nitaisundara, thank you for your helpful post.
Guru Maharaja, thank you for your candid answer. I ran into a similar situation recently by listening to lectures from purebhakti.com and it generated some red flags in my mind. Lectures were charming but very different and I don't have the qualification to hear such high rasa topics. Honestly it even triggered my mundane desires. I was not bold enough to ask this question as my emotions clouded my objectivity. I'm glad I TVed (instead of googled :-). Now things are clear.