Śrī Kṛṣṇa Bhajanāmṛtam

translated by Swami Bhaktivijñāna Giri

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Bhajanāmṛtam was composed by Śrīla Narahari Sarakāra Ṭhākura, an intimate associate of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and deals with various philosophical controversies — in particular the nature of the guru-disciple relationship. In 1899 Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura published this work in Sajjana Toṣaṇī (Vol. 11, Issues 1–4), accompanied by his own Bengali commentary entitled Āsvāda-vistāriṇī Bhāṣya (“The Commentary that Expands Transcendental Relish”), which constitutes an expanded translation of Narahari’s original text.

During Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s time the Bhajanāmṛtam was an exceedingly rare work, and he searched extensively before obtaining a copy. The manuscript that came to him contains several grammatical irregularities in the Sanskrit. Other versions of the Kṛṣṇa Bhajanāmṛtam exist with additional passages, however the translation presented here follows the edition used by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura himself.