Happy Birthday BTG

[Guest guest]

Dear devotees and temple leaders,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

 

Next Tuesday, February 10, is Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's appearance day. On this

same day, exactly 60 years ago, Srila Prabhupada launched Back to Godhead

magazine.

 

We have composed a short history of BTG, highlighting how Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

requested Srila Prabhupada to publish this magazine, as well as other

little-known facts. For example, did you know that the cover of the first ever

BTG magazine bore the title: "Back-to-Godhead, An instrument for training the

mind and educating human nature to rise up to the plane of the soul spirit,

First appearance on the Vyas Puja Day 1944, edited and founded under direct

order of His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami

Prabhupada, by Abhay Charan De"? Sixty years later, BTG still strives for this

same goal.

 

We are asking that you please print our message below for the devotee giving

Srimad Bhagavatam class next Tuesday. We hope he or she will read it to

supplement the special class on that day.

 

The 60th anniversary of BTG marks a tremendous milestone for ISKCON ­-

certainly one of our society's oldest achievements. The instrument Srila

Prabhupada first used to preach in English is still going strong after all

these years. Please give us your good wishes and assistance by arranging for

the class speaker to read our remarks. With your blessings BTG will continue

for the next 60 years and more!

 

 

 

If you have any questions, please call Ganga dasi at 386-462-7794 or

800-800-3284 or email ganga (AT) krishna (DOT) com.

 

 

Thanking you in advance for your help.

 

Sincerely,

Your servants at Back to Godhead magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, Tuesday, February 10, 2004, is the appearance day of Srila

Bhaktisiddhanta Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada's spiritual master. On this

auspicious day, Srila Prabhupada launched his first issue of Back to Godhead

magazine. The title ran: "Back-to-Godhead, An instrument for training the mind

and educating human nature to rise up to the plane of the soul spirit, First

appearance on the Vyas Puja Day 1944, edited and founded under direct order of

His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada, by

Abhay Charan De." That was 60 years ago. This information is available from the

book Back to Godhead: 1944 -­ 1960, The Pioneer Years.

 

To give you more of an idea how BTG was first started, one year on Janmastami,

in Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's room, Abhay was sitting near his

guru maharaja, who told him to start a magazine, giving him the idea `Back To

Godhead' as a title. He also quoted the sloka: na tad bhasayate suryo, na

sasanko na pavakah, yad gatva nanuvartante, tad dhama paramam mama: That

supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or

electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world. (Gita

15.6) Then he said, "This idea of going back to Godhead is the basis of the

Gaudiya Math."

 

Srila Prabhupada remembers fondly: "At our first meeting, he ordered me to

preach Krishna consciousness in the West. I was then twenty-five years old, a

married man with two children. I tried my best to carry out his orders and

started Back to Godhead magazine in 1944, when I was still in household life."

 

Working at home in Calcutta on his first issue Srila Prabhupada conceived,

wrote, edited, and typed the manuscript for a magazine. The first issues of the

magazine offered translations and explanations of ancient Vedic texts,

alongside political and sociological commentaries and spiritual views on

current events. Srila Prabhupada wrote about subjects ranging from the war to

Theosophy to life on other planets.

 

Between 1944 and 1960 Srila Prabhupada struggled to publish most of the issues

almost single-handedly. The magazine then was a tabloid ­ one sheet folded in

half, making four pages of type. Srila Prabhupada wrote nearly all the

articles, oversaw the printing, and sold or gave out every copy (one thousand

per issue), mostly by approaching people on the street.

 

Prabhakar Misra, one of the first to help Srila Prabhupada publish Back to

Godhead, became his first disciple, receiving the name Acharya Prabhakar.

 

In 1965, Srila Prabhupada traveled to the United States to fully realize the

mission of his spiritual master. In October of 1966, soon after opening his

first center, in New York City, Prabhupada re-launched Back to Godhead. He gave

the job of writing and publishing BTG to his first American disciples. The

early issues were printed on a mimeograph machine Prabhupada bought secondhand

from a country club in Queens.

 

Today, the magazine is a beautiful 68-page color publication published 6 times

a year out of BTG's Alachua, Florida office. Each issue includes a Srila

Prabhupada lecture and conversation, as well as several pages of Bhagavatam

verses and purports - a feature Prabhupada himself requested. Every year,

articles by at least twenty authors appear in the magazine, with titles like "A

Personal Look at the Nature of God" and "Early Miracles of Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu."

 

The first tool Srila Prabhupada used to spread Krishna consciousness to the

English-speaking world is still going strong 60 years later. Many members of

the Krishna consciousness movement point to Back to Godhead as the initial

inspiration for their spiritual life. This trend will continue - last year,

over 93,000 BTG's were distributed all over the world.

 

BTG asks all of you for your blessings on their 60th birthday. Please give your

prayers that BTG will continue to grow for another 60 years. With your help, we

can reach the goal Srila Prabhupada gave his disciples - to make BTG as popular

as Time, Life, or Reader's Digest.