SP used to always sign his initial letters as Abhay Charan De. Was that his initiated name also or he used it for legal purposes in his letters( to Gandhi, nehru etc) before he became a sanyasi.
Abhay Caran is his given name. Upon receiving diksa he became Abhaya Caranaravinda dasa. Swami is his sannyasi name.
As far as Bhaktivedanta, I have a question myself. I know that Kesava Maharaja would preface the name of all his sannyasi disciples with Bhaktivedanta, but I also heard that Sridhara Maharaja suggested that title for SP. Which is it?
I asked about the reason SP signed as Abhay Caran De in his letters. Is it because of legal issues?
From the wording of your original post it was evident only to you that you were asking for the reason.
From the wording of your original post it was evident only to you that you were asking for the reason.
Yes I agree I made a mistake . So I rephrased the question and asked it again.
Abhay Caran is his given name. Upon receiving diksa he became Abhaya Caranaravinda dasa. Swami is his sannyasi name.As far as Bhaktivedanta, I have a question myself. I know that Kesava Maharaja would preface the name of all his sannyasi disciples with Bhaktivedanta, but I also heard that Sridhara Maharaja suggested that title for SP. Which is it?
I'd say probably both. My understanding is that some of the devotees wanted to give Prabhupada the title Bhaktisiddhanta. Some of them objected to his using their guru maharaja's name, and some controversy ensued. The issue was resolved by Srila Sridhara Maharaja, who suggested calling him Bhaktivedanta, which essentially means the same thing. Everyone agreed. Later, Keshava Maharaja apparently liked the name well enough that he used it as the title for all his tridandi sannyasa disciples. His disciples continue that practice today.
As for why Srila Prabhupada signed letters using his legal name, I'm not really sure. Perhaps it was just a generic convention for people he didn't personally know.
I just remembered that Narasimha Maharaja wrote about this in one of his Krsna Talk newsletters. Go to #25.
I just remembered that Narasimha Maharaja wrote about this in one of his Krsna Talk newsletters. Go to #25.
"After the establishment of our Guru Maharaja's mission, the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, in the western world, our Guru Maharaja stated in a letter to a senior disciple that he wanted all his qualified disciples to continue the title "Bhaktivedanta." However, this has only been done by one of our Guru Maharaja's senior disciples and that is Sripada Bhaktivedanta Tripurari Maharaja."
Gaura Haribol!
A number of BSST's disciples used their secular names when writing, especially if they had university degrees. I belive that the logic behind this was that it would bring more attention to the mission. This may have been the thinking behind Prabhupada' use of his family name--to show that real people of the world were involved in Gaudiya Vaisnavism, which at the time was thought of as being a casteless uneducated fringe of Hindu religious society.