I forgot to complete my thought with a "Quote":
"Vani and vapu"
So I looked this up:
Today, Sunday, November 10, 1974—corresponding to the 10th of Kärttika, Caitanya Era 488, the eleventh day of the dark fortnight, the Räma-ekädaçé—we have now finished the English translation of Çré Kåñëadäsa Kaviräja Gosvämé’s Çré Caitanya-caritämåta in accordance with the authorized order of His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura Gosvämé Mahäräja, my beloved eternal spiritual master, guide and friend. Although according to material vision His Divine Grace Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura Prabhupäda passed away from this material world on the last day of December, 1936, I still consider His Divine Grace to be always present with me by his Väëé, his words.
There are two ways of association—by Väëé and by vapuù. Väëé means words, and vapuù means physical presence. Physical presence is sometimes appreciable and sometimes not, but Väëé continues to exist eternally. Therefore we must take advantage of the Väëé, not the physical presence.
The Bhagavad-gétä, for example, is the Väëé of Lord Kåñëa. Although Kåñëa was personally present five thousand years ago and is no longer physically present from the materialistic point of view, the Bhagavad-gétä continues.
In this connection we may call to memory the time when I was fortunate enough to meet His Divine Grace Çréla Prabhupäda, sometime in the year 1922. Çréla Prabhupäda had come to Calcutta from Çrédhäma Mäyäpur to start the missionary activities of the Gauòéya Maöha. He was sitting in a house at Ulta Danga when through the inducement of an intimate friend, the late Çrémän Narendranath Mullik, I had the opportunity to meet His Divine Grace for the first time. I do not remember the actual date of the meeting, but at that time I was one of the managers of Dr. Bose’s laboratory in Calcutta. I was a newly married young man, addicted to Gandhi’s movement and dressed in khadi. Fortunately, even at our first meeting His Divine Grace advised me to preach the cult of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu in English in the Western countries.
Because at that time I was a complete nationalist, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s, I submitted to His Divine Grace that unless our country were freed from foreign subjugation, no one would hear the message of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu seriously. Of course, we had some argument on this subject, but at last I was defeated and convinced that Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s message is the only panacea for suffering humanity. I was also convinced that the message of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu was then in the hands of a very expert devotee and that surely the message of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu would spread all over the world. I could not, however, immediately take up his instructions to preach, but I took his words very seriously and was always thinking of how to execute his order, although I was quite unfit to do so.
In this way I passed my life as a householder until 1950, when I retired from family life as a vänaprastha. With no companion, I loitered here and there until 1958, when I took sannyäsa. Then I was completely ready to discharge the order of my spiritual master. Previously, in 1936, just before His Divine Grace passed away at Jagannätha Puré, I wrote him a letter asking what I could do to serve him. In reply, he wrote me a letter, dated 13 December 1936, ordering me, in the same way, to preach in English the cult of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu as I had heard it from him.
After he passed away, I started the fortnightly magazine Back to Godhead sometime in 1944 and tried to spread the cult of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu through this magazine. After I took sannyäsa, a well-wishing friend suggested that I write books instead of magazines. Magazines, he said, might be thrown away, but books remain perpetually. Then I attempted to write Çrémad-Bhägavatam. Before that, when I was a householder, I had written on Çrémad Bhagavad-gétä and had completed about eleven hundred pages, but somehow or other the manuscript was stolen.
In any case, when I had published Çrémad-Bhägavatam, First Canto, in three volumes in India, I thought of going to the U.S.A. By the mercy of His Divine Grace, I was able to come to New York on September 17, 1965. Since then, I have translated many books, including Çrémad-Bhägavatam, the Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu, Teachings of Lord Caitanya (a summary) and many others.
In the meantime, I was induced to translate Çré Caitanya-caritämåta and publish it in an elaborate version. In his leisure time in later life, His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura would simply read Çré Caitanya-caritämåta. It was his favorite book. He used to say that there would be a time when foreigners would learn the Bengali language to read the Caitanya-caritämåta.
The work on this translation began about eighteen months ago. Now, by the grace of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu and His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura, it is finished. In this connection I have to thank my American disciples, especially Çrémän Pradyumna däsa Adhikäré, Çrémän Nitäi däsa Adhikäré, Çrémän Jayädvaita däsa Brahmacäré and many other boys and girls who are sincerely helping me in writing, editing and publishing all these literatures.
I think that His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura is always seeing my activities and guiding me within my heart by his words.
As it is said in Çrémad-Bhägavatam, tene brahma hådä ya ädi-kavaye. Spiritual inspiration comes from within the heart, wherein the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in His Paramätmä feature, is always sitting with all His devotees and associates. It is to be admitted that whatever translation work I have done is through the inspiration of my spiritual master, because personally I am most insignificant and incompetent to do this materially impossible work. I do not think myself a very learned scholar, but I have full faith in the service of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura.
If there is any credit to my activities of translating, it is all due to His Divine Grace. Certainly if His Divine Grace were physically present at this time, it would have been a great occasion for jubilation, but even though he is not physically present, I am confident that he is very much pleased by this work of translation. He was very fond of seeing many books published to spread the Kåñëa consciousness movement. Therefore our society, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, has been formed to execute the order of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu and His Divine Grace Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura.
It is my wish that devotees of Lord Caitanya all over the world enjoy this translation, and I am glad to express my gratitude to the learned men in the Western countries who are so pleased with my work that they are ordering in advance all my books that will be published in the future. On this occasion, therefore, I request my disciples who are determined to help me in this work to continue their cooperation fully, so that philosophers, scholars, religionists and people in general all over the world will benefit by reading our transcendental literatures, such as Çrémad-Bhägavatam and Çré Caitanya-caritämåta.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports to Çré Caitanya-caritämåta, dated November 10, 1974, at the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Hare Krishna Land, Juhu, Bombay.
