Prabhupada Disciple Profile (cont.)
Vidyananda das
While in New York, Vidyananda prabhu renewed his friendship with Jayananda das and helped him build the Rathayatra carts just as he had done in San Francisco in May and June 1975.In 1978, he transferred to Los Angeles, to work for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. One of his projects was taking pictures for the Prabhupada Lilamrita of all the places Prabhupada had visited in India and the U.S. In 1979, Vidyananda prabhu led the Matsya Project, which was an effort to preserve on microfilm the Goswami and Acarya literatures.Gopiparanadhana das, the late Sanskrit scholar, advised on the collection and finding of books, and the BBT funded the project. When more funds were needed, Vidyananda prabhu helped to secure agrant through the Smithsonian Institution.He was a founding member of the Institute for Vaishnava Studies, the entity separate from ISKCON that applied for the grant, along with Garuda das, Varutharupa das, Harischandra das, and Ravindra Svarupa das.Ultimately, requiring more substantial scholarly credentials, the grant was awarded through American University, with Dr. Charles White as the principal investigator. The project was successfully completed over the next few years.
In 1982, Vidyananda prabhu married Kirtida Kanyaka devi dasi, and a year later their daughter Sarasvati was born. In 1987, he entered his “work phase” and worked for Hewlett Packard for the next 15 years starting in Santa Clara, California. In 1996, their daughter began attending the Vaishnava Academy for Girls in Alachua, and within few months, HP moved Vidyananda prabhu to South Florida to join its national sales force, allowing their family to be nearertheir daughter. They joined their daughter in our community in 2000.
In 1998, Vidyananda prabhu and his wifeapproached the Temple president at New Raman Reti, Nanda devi dasi, about sponsoring the carving of Krishna Balarama Deities for the Temple.Sri Sri Krishna Balarama was eventually installed in 2010.
In Alachua, Vidyananda prabhu is involved in various projects. One of them is the Nectar Collector, which is an oral history project of Srila Prabhupada disciples that seeks to reveal the inner enthusiasm devotees feel for their favorite service, book, verse, pastime, etc. He is also collecting a library/archive in his home, which he hopes in the future will form the core library for the A.C. Bhaktivedanta College of the Americas. Vidyananda prabhu has also written children’s books for 4-8-year olds,which equip them with life tools to “understand and apply the Vaishnava philosophy by discovering it for themselves through stories.”He also likes to grow flowers for our Deities and videotapes many programs for the Temple.
by Sridevi dasi