The Śrīmad-Bhāgavata Vidyāpīṭham has been established to train devotional scholars for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
The Founder-Ācārya of ISKCON and the BBT, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, strove to help his students—men and women from every part of the world and every kind of background— become pure Vaiṣṇavas, devotees of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. And in his vision, proper devotees of the Supreme Lord are automatically intelligent and exemplary in their behavior, or in terms of the ancient varṇāśrama social system of India, well-qualified brāhmaṇas.
Still, there are certain brahminical activities which require special, extensive training. One group of these is the work of researching, translating, editing, and explaining the foundational texts of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Most of the important medieval and modern writings of Vaiṣṇavas in the line of Caitanya Mahāprabhu are based on the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the two main texts of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not only in ISKCON but in almost all denominations of Vaiṣṇavism. Besides these there are significant sources of Vaiṣṇava understanding in other Purāṇas and several of the Upaniṣads, and supportive skills taught in works of various philosophical schools including Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika and Mīmāṁ̇sā, and in the theory of poetry. A well-trained Vaiṣṇava scholar should also be acquainted with the arguments of opposing views from the treatises that originally presented them. Through most of the history of India, a large majority of these ranges of major books were written in Sanskrit.
Thus the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata Vidyāpīṭham has these as its main purposes:
• to promote the deep study and teaching of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
• to prepare Vaiṣṇavas for careers in Sanskrit translation and editing for the BBT
• to instill brahminical character in its participants
The one scripture Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the prime focus of our educational attempts. Rather than prescribing wide-ranging surveys of all kinds of texts, our intentional choice is this single focus, for coherence and direction. More than any other book in the world, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is destined to radically change modern civilization, with the help of those competent to present it faithfully and accurately.
The BBT, with its publishing divisions around the world, is in great need of new translators and editors to continue its mission into future generations. A translator of essential Vaiṣṇava scriptures, to do justice to the originals he works from, needs to be fit in a few ways. He needs to be throughouly trained in the grammar and usage of the classical Sanskrit language, and for some specialized work, also Prakrit dialects derived from Sanskrit and a few modern Indian vernacular languages like Bengali, Hindi, or Tamil. He needs to learn the skills of translation and publishing as specifically practiced by the BBT. And, last but far from least, he needs to think, feel, and act in the mode of goodness, as much as he can putting aside passion and ignorance.
To ensure a strong focus on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in our morning sādhana program there is a standard Bhāgavatam class, as in most other ISKCON āśramas. Then, during the school day of the Bhāgavata-śāstrī program, other classes also center around the Bhāgavatam; these currently include a daily seminar on Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s Six Sandarbhas and a workshop on analyzing verses of the Bhāgavatam together the major Sanskrit commentaries of the Gauḍīya sampradāya.
To give good competence in Sanskrit grammar, two years of the three-year Bhāgavata-śāstrī program involve thorough, systematic study and memorization of a shortened edition of the sūtras of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s grammar, Śrī Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa.
Translation, editing, and publishing skills in the style of the BBT will be touched on in the Bhāgavata-śāstrī program, but because of the intense concentration on Bhāgavatam study and language skills in that program, these additional abilities will be taught mostly in individual, specialized training after the initial three years. Opportunities will be available to directly take part in BBT book production.
To instill brahminical consciousness and behavior, our school’s āśrama is organized to be as sāttvika environment as we can make it, given our limitations. We retain the basic functions of an ISKCON āśrama, but add intense concentration on study of scripture and a brahminical life style, underpinned by eating habits and other personal disciplines that increase brahminical qualities.
In the time of his presence with us in the early years of ISKCON, Śrīla Prabhupāda did not much encourage study of Sanskrit among devotees who then had more crucial services to do, and he sometimes spoke disparagingly about attempts of ISKCON men and women to become paṇḍitas. But he did have a broader vision of the needs and possibilities of the future:
“In this age, devotional service of hearing and repeating the holy glories of the Lord is strongly recommended, and one who takes the vow of renunciation of family life need not imitate the parivrājakācārya like Nārada or Lord Caitanya, but may sit down at some holy place and devote his whole time and energy to hear and repeatedly chant the holy scriptures left by the great ācāryas like the six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana.” (purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.6.13)
“The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very eager to present Vedic literature in modern languages, especially Western languages such as English, French and German. The leaders of the Western world, the Americans and Europeans, have become the idols of modern civilization because the Western people are very sophisticated in temporary activities for the advancement of material civilization. A sane man, however, can see that all such grand activities, although perhaps very important for temporary life, have nothing to do with eternal life. The entire world is imitating the materialistic civilization of the West, and therefore the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very much interested in giving the Western people knowledge by translating the original Sanskrit Vedic literatures into Western languages.” (purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.5.18)
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