Prabhupada Antya-Lila – English

Foreword
For millennia, drama has been a universal, powerful means of communicating the beliefs, truths, and experiences shared within a culture. It has been a channel through which the depths of the religious heart could find expression. The ancient Sanskrit dramatic tradition of India preserves, to this day, a very rich and sophisticated art form, wherein the religious subject continues to be illuminated.

The author of the present work, Tamal Krishna Goswami, who is a voice of the Vaisnava tradition to which he belongs, is the first to write dramas in the English language that conform, in every detail, to the conventions of Sanskrit dramaturgy. In his first drama, Jagannatha-priya Natakam: The Drama of Lord Jagannatha (with a Foreword by Gary Tubb, Harvard University), Tamal Krishna Goswami supplements his text with a thorough analysis of the application of Sanskrit dramatic theory. Prabhupada Antya- lila: The Final Pastimes of Srila Prabhupada represents the author’s second work which adheres to the laws and conventions of Sanskrit drama. By aligning himself with the Sanskrit tradition, Tamal Krishna Goswami has made the contribution of bringing this ancient art form to the West.

Vaisnavism, originating in ancient India, is one of the most highly theistic and devotional traditions in the history of religion wherein the mystical intimacy between the Supreme Lord and the devotee has been realized and extensively developed. The Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition, founded in medieval India by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, produced many skilled dramatists, of whom Rupa Goswami is especially notable, because he developed the use of drama for revealing the deeper mysteries of the intimacy between Radha and Krsna and Their devotee associates.