| Dr. Satyanarayana dasa | |
| Religion: | Vaishnavism |
| Philosophy: | Achintya Bheda Abheda |
| Sect: | Gaudiya Vaishnavism |
| Lineage: | Gadadhara parivara |
| Temple: | Gaur-Gadadhara temple |
| Other Name: | Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Birth Date: | 9 June 1954 |
| Birth Place: | Faridabad, Haryana |
| Location: | Vrindavan, India |
| Babaji | |
| Predecessor: | Haridas Shastri |
| Teacher: | Haridas Shastri |
| Works: | Sat Sandarbhas, Bhagavad Gita |
| Post: | Director of Jiva Institute |
| Website: | Official Website of Jiva Institute |
| Background: |
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Dr. Satyanarayana Dasa (born 9 June 1954[1]) is an Indian Gaudiya Vaisnava scholar and practitioner. Dasa is a polymath, holding a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Agra University, a degree in Indian law from Agra University, a Bachelors of Technology in Mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and a Masters of Technology in Industrial Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.[2] Currently based in India at the Jiva Institute, which he founded, Dasa has published numerous books and original papers in the field of Gaudiya Vaisnavism including translations and commentaries on the Sat Sandarbhas. His honors include an award from the President of India in 2012.[3] Dasa has been called a leading living practitioner-scholar of Jīva Gosvāmin.[4]
Satyanarayana Dasa grew up in a village named Palla near Faridabad, Haryana in India.[5] His primary education happened in the village school, and secondary education in the Government school of Malviya Nagar, Delhi. During his IIT years, he was also an avid sportsman who represented IIT Delhi in hockey and weightlifting.[5] After working for a few years for a company in Miami, he returned to India to study Sanskrit. It is in Vrindavan, while still a member of ISKCON (he was previously an initiated disciple of ISKCON guru Bhaktisvarupa Damodar Swami), that he met Shri Haridas Sastri Maharaja, one of the eminent scholars and saints of India. From him he studied the entire range of Gaudiya Vaisnava literature. He also learned the six systems of Indian philosophy under Swami Shyama Sharana Maharaja and various other traditional gurus with a special focus on Nyaya (Indian logic). In 1994, while translating and commenting on Jiva Gosvami's Sad Sandarbhas,[6] a philosophical controversy arose about the falldown of the jiva from Vaikuntha, which culminated in the publication of Satyanarayana's book, "In Vaikuntha not even the Leaves Fall",[7] co-authored with Kundali Das.[8] When ISKCON authorities refused to accept his presentation of traditional Vaisnava teaching regarding the origin and nature of the soul, he officially separated himself from that organization and took diksa (formal initiation) and babaji vesa (Vaishnava sannyas) in the traditional Gaudiya Vaishnava line of Sri Gadadhara Pandita, the Gadadhara parivara, from his guru Sri Haridas Sastri.[9]
Dr. Dasa has been bestowed with the "Grateful to Gurus 2023" award by Indica, an institute for Indian knowledge systems[10] and has been called a living legend of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.[11]
Dr. Dasa's research is in the philosophy and theology of the Caitanya School of Vaisnavism. He has published more than 20 books including original translations and commentaries of the Sat-sandarbhas by Jiva Goswami. He has contributed to different research journals with other academics. He teaches Indian scripture to scholars.[12]
His doctoral research focused on Jiva Goswami’s Bhakti Sandarbha.
In a book review of Dasa's translation of the Bhagavat Sandarbha, Aleksandar Uskokov from the University of Chicago called it "the first serious translation of the second Sandarbha, Bhagavat, in any European language".[13] Uskokov suggests that Dasa "clearly knows Jiva's works in and out and is at home with this high point of Sanskrit learning in the sixteenth century and the traditions from which Jiva draws ideas, such as Vedic hermeneutics, Sanskrit grammar, Indian epistemology and poetics, and so on". Overall, Uskokov considers the book "an important event in our attempts to understand Gaudiya Vaishnavism", and that the translation is "precise and reliable, the arguments accurately understood, and the comments well informed by their intellectual background".[13]
Jonathan Edelmann at the University of Florida calls the translation "readable and generally accurate and true to the original text". Noting that the "translator’s commentary brings to the discussion a breadth of learning from Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā, Pāṇini, Advaita-Vedānta, as well as other Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava thinkers such as Viśvanātha Cakravartin, Rūpa Gosvāmin, etc.", he concludes that the book "offers a wealth of theological content and insight".
Edwin Bryant at Rutgers University commented that Dasa's Bhagavat Sandarbha "combines superb Sanskrit and hermeneutical skills rendered in accordance with academic standards of scholarship".[14]
Dr. Dasa has lectured or taught at various universities, such as Universite Terre de Ciel, France, Heidelberg University and University of Tübingen, Germany, Zürich University, Switzerland, Mississippi State University, State University of New Jersey, Rutgers, and University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. Currently he is a visiting Faculty at Rutgers and an Adjunct Faculty member at the Hindu University of America.[15]
He regularly teaches scholars from different universities on personal request. He travels to different countries and delivers lectures on Indian scriptures (Kripalu Yoga Center, Yoga Vida, Iyengar, NY).
Dr. Dasa has developed a new subject, Jiva Vedic Psychology, based on his studies and experience of Indian scriptures. He is currently training psychotherapists of Sandy Pines hospital, Florida and Fort Lauderdale Hospital in new techniques of treating patients through Vedic Psychology. He also lectures to different audiences in various countries such as US,[16] Poland, Lithuania, France,[17] Japan.
Under the guidance of Haridas Shastri Maharaj and with the assistance of his brothers Rishi and Dr. Partap Chauhan, Satyanarayana Dasa founded the Jiva Institute in 1992. The Jiva Institute has three divisions: education, health and culture. Satyanarayana Dasa is the director of the cultural division, located at Sheetal Chaya in Vrindavan, India. Students from India and abroad come there to study Sanskrit, and the six systems of Indian thought, called Sad-darshana.[18] [19] [20] Specialization in the study of Gaudiya Vaishnava literature is the unique feature of Jiva Institute. Scholars come to consult with Satyanarayana Dasa and to access books in the library, which has a collection of printed as well as rare handwritten manuscripts. The other two divisions of education and Ayurveda are located at Faridabad. The education division runs a high school and has about 1800 students. The Ayurveda division has 70 clinics all over India and three tele-medicine centers that receive about 6000 calls per day and offers free consultation to patients.[21]
In 2016, Dasa started a five-year course in Indian schools of philosophy running each year from Oct. to end of April at the Jiva Institute, co-taught by Dr. Jan Brzezinski, and visiting professors, such as Prof. Matthew Dasti, Prof. Edwin Bryant and Prof. Jack Hawley, Koenraad Elst, and Dr. Mans Broo.[22]
Jiva Institute runs a Sanskrit school that is affiliated with Sampoornananda Sanskrit University Benares.[23] There is also a branch of the school at Radhakunda.