Theos-Talk Archives (November 2002 Message tt00180)

--- In theos-talk@y..., "Eldon B Tucker" <eldon@t...> wrote:
> My first thought when reading the post by Gowsami was that here
> was another fictional character made up by Brigitte, so I did a
> quick search of the Internet and see that there really is someone
> with that name. There is. He did not introduce himself very
> fully, so I found something about him at the following site.
> 
> <http://www.nine9.ukshells.co.uk/cgi-bin/galva-idx.pl?node=galva-
> bhaktiananda>


DEAR MR. TUCKER,

PLEASE ACCEPT MY OBEISANCES AND THANKS FOR YOUR KIND AND WELCOMING 
LETTER. 

BELOW IS A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MYSELF THAT IS MORE RELEVANT TO 
THEOSOPHISTS AND THE ISSUES AT HAND. THE BIO SKETCH ON THE GALVA SITE 
IS EXCERPTED FROM ONE MORE FOCUSED ON MY MEDICAL, SCIENTIFIC, GENDER-
STUDIES AND HUMAN SERVICES BACKGROUND. IT IS ALSO VOICED 
SPECIFICALLY TO THE VAISHNAVA COMMUNITY, IN WHICH I AM A RESPECTED 
GURU. 

PAX AND PREMA !

BHAKTI ANANDA GOSWAMI............SEE BIO NOTES BELOW

(PLEASE EXCUSE THE FORMATING, AS IT WAS TYPED BY SOME BEGINNING 
VOLUNTEERS) 


RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND PRACTICE

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF TRIDANDI SANNYASI HH BHAKTI ANANDA 
GOSWAMI MAHARAJA

Inter-religious and Interdisciplinary Study, Practice and Ministry

HH Tridandi Sannyasi Bhakti Ananda Goswami
Maharaja is a 'triune staffed' (Tridandi)
renunciate and siksha guru (instructing master)
in the ancient and venerable Madhva-Gaudiya
Sampradaya (lineage) of Vaishnavism. Raised
as a Protestant Christian, he began studying 
Old Testament History in the mid 1960s and 
discovered that the Jewish Deity Eli-Yahu was the
Egyptian Deity Heri-Vasu, Greek Deity Heli-Us
and Vaishnava Deity Hari-Vasu (Krishna-Vishnu).
Following Biblical evidence, he took up the study
of Vedic Related Bhakti Traditions, eventually
focusing his studies on Radha-Krishna centric Vaishnavism, 
because of its antiquity and central importance in all the 
related ancient Bridal Mysticism Revelatory Traditions.
Becoming a student of the Bridal Mysticism Gaudiya Tradition
Vaishnava Saint A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, all his questions 
regarding the connections he had observed between 'Bridal
Mysticism' in the Judeo-Catholic Traditions and
Vaishnavism were answered. Finding the authentic
Bhakti Scriptures of Vaishnavism an endless source
of both inspiration and HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
CONNECTIONS to other global Bhakti Traditions, he worked to
create a college curriculum for comparative global inter-bhakti
studies.

Thus, as a practioner of bhakti yoga, and as an historian
of religion and theologian, he has focused on the worship and
study of historically related, Nama-Rupa Bhakti Yoga
Traditions for nearly forty years now. In his own practice, he
took his first public solemn vows of religious life thirty years
ago. Continuing his sadhana as both a Catholic and a Vaishnava,
after his children were adults, he eventually he took the traditional
Vaishnava vows of vanaprastha (a retired hermit forest-dweller)
and finally the vows of a sannyasi. His traditional Vedic Agni Hotra 
fire sacrifice and sannyasi ordination ceremony was performed and 
his sannyasi name and titles confered upon him from the Madhva-
Gaudiya-Bhaktivedanta lineage of Vaishnavism, by His Holiness 
Tridandi Sannyasi Srila Radhanath Swami of Mumbai, India. Bhakti
Ananda Goswami has been a sannyasi for 10 years now, and
although he is connected by lineage to the Gaudiya Sampradaya,
he is not at present affiliated with any Gaudiya-related 
institutions, 
except the World Vaishnava Association of Vrindavana india. 

Rather that put his meager energies into the propagation of a single 
Vaishnava lineage, he has founded an ecumenical association, with 
the goal of fostering global inter-Vaishnava and inter-Bhakti mutual 
respect and ministerial cooperation. His long personal service in 
the social justice, human rights and human services fields has given 
him a great burden on his heart for the real sufferings of humanity. 
So he is not an ivory-tower academic, but instead, despite his 
disability, remains an activist involved in day-to day ministery to 
those in need. 

A MASTER OF NAMA-RUPA DIVINE LOVE TRADITIONS

Bhakti Ananda Goswami has contemplated
thousands of Names and Forms ( Nama-Rupa)
of Godhead and the Feminine Divine from hundreds 
of ancient religious cultures. During his
global pilgrimage into the past, he has immersed
himself in various cultures' worship of the ONE
SUPREME GOD / ESS of salvific grace and
divine love. Submitting himself humbly at the feet
of the saints of the various authentic ancient bhakti
traditions, Bhakti Ananda Goswami received the
Maha Mantra, The Gaudiya Gayatri, The Vedic
Hymns, The 108 Names of Krishna, The Thousand
Names of Vishnu, The 108 Names of Nara
Hari, The 108 Names of Radha Rani, various Sri (Laxmi)
Ganga Ma and Sarasvati Litanies, Namo Sada
Shivaya and various Shiva Murugan and Ganesha
Litanies, various Tara Durga Parvati Uma Kali and Shakti
Litanies, The Hebrew Names of Eli-Yahu and
Shekinah (Hari-Vasu and Shakti), The Greek
Names Dies-piter Polieus and Tyche (Helios Kouros and
Rhoda ie Krishna and Radha), The Roman Names of Jupiter
Juvenalis and Juno Juventas ( Krishna Yauvana
and Radha Yauvani), The Nilo-Saharan Egyptian
Names of Heri ( Hari) and Wasu-Theos (Vasu-
deva / Vishnu), The Nigerian Names of Olu
(The Orisha), The Avestan Names of Ahura
Mazda-Zervan / Hvarena and the later Names of Mithras,
The Nepalese Tibetan Chinese Korean and
Japanese Names of Pure Land Buddhism's
Tri Kaya ( Trinity), The 99 Names of Allah,
Catholic Names of God and Mary from African
Eastern and European Rites, various litanies of Christ,
and related Names and prayers of Asclepius-Serapis-Caraka,
and many other Names of the Lord and His Shakti from various
ancient traditions of both the East and West.

When possible B.A. Goswami actually received The Holy Name
through the traditional shiksha and diksha devotional means. For
example, in addition to his Catholic Baptism and
Confirmation and private vows, and Vaishnava vows of religious
life, he received initiation into the mysteries of the recitation of 
the
Japanese Pure Land Buddhist Nembutsu in the
inner sanctum of the High Altar of the Asakusa
Kannon Temple in Tokyo Japan. He received
the 99 Names of Allah from Sufi Master
Mohammad P. Casim in Sri Lanka. He received
the mantra of Amitabha Buddha as the Tibetan Chen Rei Zei at
Svayambhunath near Kathmandu Nepal, and
Namo Shivayah at the compound of the Temple of Pasupatinatha
in Kathmandu Nepal. He prayed for empowerment to study the Vedas 
in Pokhara Nepal, the traditional birth place of Srila Vyasadeva, and 
he
prayed for Kaviraja Hanuman's poetic empowerment to describe the
pastimes and glories of Lord Ramachandra at the Temple of Hanuman
in Ayodhya India.

Studying the sacred etymology of the Holy Name, and the revelatory 
symbology of the Rupa of the Lord and Shekinah / Shakti, he learned 
to read ancient scriptures and inscriptions, to trace the origins, 
uses and diffusion of religious words Deity Names,
theophoric personal names and symbols through world religious 
history. 

Vows of self sacrifice in Vrindavana

In Vrindavan India, he wept and lay in the dust
at the samadhi tomb of his beloved Diksha Guru Srila
Prabhupada, and prayed for the strength, despite his
life-threatening illness, to carry on the non-sectarian unifying 
bhaktiyoga mission of the great Vaishnava 
reformer and Bridal Mysticism Master Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu. There at Krishna-Balarama Mandir,
approaching Lord Balarama (the Vedic Purusha Yupa Dhvaja
and Biblical Yahu-Bal as the Cosmic Messiah), Who is 
the Second Person of the Godhead, and Savior of all
worlds, he begged for Sri Jesu-Balarama's limitless
compassion on all beings, and Lord Balarama's
own desire to protect and save all souls. He
prayed for Sri Balarama to burn up all his separate desiring
in the fire of HIS SELF-SACRIFICING DIVINE LOVE, so
that the ashes of HIS MERCY would be all that
was left.

Thus renouncing every other desire in this
world or the next, B. A. Goswami vowed to
realize in his own embodied life the words of the hymn
'His Mercy is all that i am made of'', and to become a reconciling 
intercessor and spiritual refuge of mercy for all fallen souls. Thus 
he confirmed himself in the service of Lord Balarama, the Original 
Spiritual Master, Who as the Rig Vedic Purusha Yupa Dhvaja is the 
Self-Sacrificed Redeemer of every cosmic manifestation.
Realizing that it is impossible to get the mercy of Sri Caitanya 
Mahaprabhu (or Sri Sri Radha-Govinda), without first getting the 
mercy of Sri Nityananda Balarama (or Lord Baladeva), he purposed to 
fix himself eternally at the feet of Sri Baladeva,
The Universal Messiah, Who is the Way, Truth and Life of all divine 
endeavor. Knowing Sri Baladeva to be the Second Person of the 
Mediterranean, African, Semitic, Indic,
Asian and Amerindian Transcendent-Incarnating-Immanent Godhead / 
Trinity, B.A. Goswami vowed to glorify Him in His infinite Nama and 
Rupa as the descending Savior of all vyuhas, lokas / worlds, beings 
and nations /'races'. 


Continuing pilgrimages and initiations

In Bhakti Ananda's continuing pilgrimages, in Sri Lanka he visited 
the traditional sites of Sita's
captivity, and the Temple of Perumal at Kataragama. With a very ill 
body, and no money or
prior contacts, he often traveled alone facing great hardship and 
danger, making pilgrimages to numerous
ancient Buddhist, Vaishnava, Shaivite and Shakti
temples, shrines and important archeological sites in Japan, Sri 
Lanka, India, and
Nepal. The many miraculous stories of his pilgrim-
ages cannot be told . He received the Chinese Pure
Land Invocation of AmitoFho from Taiwanese
Pure Land Buddhists. In Greece he learned the
invocation of 'Christe Anaste!' and received the
'Jesus Prayer' from Catholic Eastern Rite monks.
Everywhere he went he sought-out saintly persons and
submitted himself to them for instruction, service
and their blessings. 

Accepting Jesus Christ as Yahu-Bal Yupa Dhvaja Purusha 

Raised as a non-denominational Protestant Christian,
he studied the origins of Christianity in great depth, becoming an 
expert
on the proto-Catholic Heliopolitan Asyla Federations (Afro-Helleno-
Semitic
Vaishnava, Shaivite and Shakti temple alliances) in the ancient 
Mediterranean
Region. His deep understanding of these monotheistic bhakti yoga 
asyla federations,
their worship of the Seraphic Great Physician (Asclepius-Serapis-
YahuBal Nahustan and Balarama as Caraka), and their evolution into 
the Communion of Rites in Catholic Christianity, led him 
into a profound appreciation of the historical UNITY of the many 
Polieus and Tyche related Rites of the Catholic Apostolic 
traditions. Thus, as a 
Christian, he sought full communion with Jesus Purusha / Polieus in 
the present unity of His
Mystical Social Body, the Apostolic Catholic Communion of Rites. 
Initially following textual leads regarding the Great Physician and 
related Purusha / Polieus traditions, he tied numerous ancient 
Polieus city federations together and traced the worship of Purusha / 
Polieus as the Great Physician all the way to the Pure Land Buddhist 
cult of the Ayur-vedic related Medicine Buddha Incarnation of 
Lokeshvara as Yakushi ji at Nara in Japan. 


DISCIPLINE, RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC

In every case, as B. A. Goswami prayerfully sought to receive
the darshan and realization (vision and personal relationship with)
the Personality-Form (Rupa) of the Lord or Shakti revealed in / by /
through a particular authentic tradition of Their Revelatory Holy 
Name, 
he humbly submitted himself to the principle of Guru, Shastra and
Sadhu in his quest. Submitting himself to authentic authorities,
and with respect for both the rigorous disciplines of Eastern sadhana
and Western science, he studied the history, scriptures,
doctrines, rites / liturgies, sacraments, practices, coinage, sacred 
arts and
social order, religio-political alliances and many other things 
related to the Lord's or Shakti's
particular Nama and Rupa. His both faithful and conservative 
interdisciplinary scientific
approach to understanding the history of religion bore fruit in 
amazing
realizations and discoveries. Thus, by the grace of the Supreme Lord, 
and the Holy Mother, through exhaustive and rigorously disciplined 
interdisciplinary study,
he has been able to positively confirm some the important global 
INTER-RELIGIOUS 
IDENTITY of THEIR various related Names and Forms amongst Their 
children in the worlds'
great devotional (bhakti) traditions.

Work and vows in the service of reconciliation

Devoted to the cause of reconciliation
between the devotees of the related Bhakti Traditons of the world,
Bhakti Ananda Goswami has become a well-learned repository
and guardian of unifying truth and sacred traditions,
a vowed cosmic trash-burner / incinerator for bad karma /
sins, and a harbor of love and mercy and forgiving-ness for
all souls and repentant sinners who approach him. He does
not initiate disciples due to his vow to accept everyone 
unconditionally. 
Thus he is known as a Shiksha or Instructing Master in the ancient 
and venerable Bridal Mysticism
Brahma-Gaudiya Sampradaya (lineage) of Vaishnavism. In 2002 the 
World Vaishnava 
Association (Vrindavana India) requested him to organize and lead the 
first ever 
official Orthodox Vaishnava interfaith project. Despite his severe 
health problems, he has been 
attempting to serve in this demanding capacity. 

A GUARDIAN OF SACRED TRADITIONS

Always wary of ancient sources being redacted
and polluted with modern corruptions, he has sought
out the most ancient and authentic forms of each
tradition to learn from. Thus he has studied as much as 
possible in the ancient source-materials themselves, in both
non-controversial transliterations, translations
and even in the original languages when possible. As a 
result of this conservative approach, his discoveries on this
path of humility and discipline have led him to a
recognition of the universal validity of the religious
principle of 'Guru Shastra and Sadhu' (GSS). In other
words, authenticity in 'revealed' or bhakti religions
is preserved in any tradition by the checks-and-balances of some 
system of 1) GURU contemporary master, who exemplifies a tradition, 
and
teaches in the contemporary or understood
language of the student 2) SHASTRA the
written or oral tradition of history and theology
particular to the tradition, and 3) SADHU the lineage
of saint-exemplars and scholar-commentators in
the tradition. Together these three elements preserve the 
authenticity of 'revealed' devotional /
bhakti traditions. The principle of GSS also applies in the 
preservation,
generational communication and geographical diffusion of non-
religious traditions as well. 
This 'scriptural' and 'apostolic' system of checks-and-balances 
disciplines the methodology and language,
defines and expands the knowledge base, and preserves the integrity 
and continuity of
authentic real-world teaching traditions. Credibility and 
responsibility, integrity and mastery are all defined and 
assured in an authentic tradition via the observance of the checks 
and balances of GSS.
Real historical traditions have real-world traceable histories. 
Their adherents are honored to identify themselves with 
their real-world human heritage. Thus, in India for example, every 
major and most
minor theistic and non-theistic traditions have a pararmpara, or 
sampradaya, an apostolic lineage that is
authoritative for their tradition. Bhakti Ananda Goswami has become 
an expert on this subject,
and is concerned that persons studying eastern traditions through the 
filter of 'esoteric', neo-Gnostic and New Age
"master" fictitious traditions are being cheated. To the contrary of 
real historical traditions,
and their legitimately ancient literatures, spurious non-historical 
(fictional) 'traditions' cannot legitimately claim 
any real-world past GSS. These dishonest, fraudulent 
concocted 'lineages' of 'master' imposters appropriate things
of real value from real GSS historical traditions, and without 
properly respecting or crediting
their sources, or submitting to any discipline or standard of 
knowledge, realization or behavior / accountability, use and abuse 
what they have appropriated. Experiencing that many people have 
become victimized by such deception, with much suffering as a result, 
B.A. Goswami has 
helped many people to escape the web of illusions spun by the 
deceptive abusers of sacred tradition. 
As a real human (not imaginary) master of ancient GSS tradition, 
Bhakti Ananda Goswami has 
carried on a campaign to expose those guilty of appropriating, 
plagiarizing, corrupting, misrepresenting and 
otherwise abusing the classical literatures, iconography and language 
etc. of authentic historical GSS traditions. 
He has challenged the historicity of so-called ascended masters and 
the control of such 'master'-channeling 
individuals and organizations over the lives of their credulous 
believers. 


A life of respect for the real

Preferring real-world history to the fictional histories of imaginary 
masters, 
Bhakti Ananda Goswami has concerned himself with studying the lives 
and
teachings of real masters and saints in real-world ancient 
traditions. He has chosen to
identify himself not with incorporeal modern fictitious 'ascended 
masters', but with the
ancient lineages of real corporeal historical persons. 
Thus as a Christian, he is an initiated in one of the 
Catholic Rites, as a Vaishnava, he belongs to one of
the ancient orthodox lineages, as a Buddhist, he
is a 'Pure Land' practitioner in several traditions, as a devotee of 
Allah
(Ali in Aramaic is Hari), his association is with the
personalist pro-incarnational, proto-Koranic Sattvic,
Personalist form of Sufism. In the same way he identifies with the 
most authentic and ascetic / pious and devotional forms of
historically authentic Judaism, Shaivism, Shaktism, etc.
In every case he has sought to directly
study these traditions, and study IN these authentic traditions, and 
has thus avoided all the
distortions and compromises of these traditions found
in either earlier or modern syncretistic or so-called
'gnostic', esoteric and new age corruptions of authentic traditions.


MORALITY, HOLINESS AND SERVICE 

B. A. Goswami affirms that the universal moral ideal of the authentic 
Great Bhakti Traditions has always been sattvic
or pietistic and ascetic / holy. Thus he is personally
committed to the sattvic discipline of traditional
Vaishnava bhakti yoga, and primitive Catholic
asceticism, and observes the traditional vows of
ahimsa and no flesh eating, chastity, no intoxication
and no gambling, truthfulness, mercifulness, moral
cleanliness, voluntary simplicity, humility, maintaining a 
disciplined spirit, and willingness to accept
sacrifices and austerities in the service of souls and
Godhead. In addition, as in Pure Land Buddhist
and Catholic Tradition, many years ago he took
the bodhi-heart vow of compassion to offer all his
'karmic' merit and all his sufferings for the salvation of all
beings. Thus as a matter of vowed tapasya, he offers up at
least 6 hours of intercessory prayer a day, and all his other 
sacrifices for the well-being of others. 

Bhakti Ananda Goswami does not initiate disciples,
but unconditionally accepts any person he offers intercessory prayer 
for.
He lives an austere and simple life in an ancient forest, with 
centuries-old trees, lions, bear, deer and 
other wild creatures visiting his hermitage. As 
as a hermit, he spends most of his time in study,
personal counseling and ministry, teaching (via correspondence and 
phone) and
intercessory prayer. He has never been interested
in having followers, has no self-promoting organization, has never 
accepted any 
guru-puja, and has never solicited or personally accepted any monies 
for his services.
Any unsolicited offerings sent to him have either been sent back,
or used through a non-profit all-volunteer organization in the 
service of others.

Due to serious chronic illness, he is rarely able to receive guests, 
to travel
or make public appearances. In recent years due
to the late effects of childhood polio, he has been
cared for by his parents, son and daughter and their
spouses and children, or friends. Recently his daughter has
been trying to build an internet web site to make
his extensive research on the global history of
Salvific Bhakti (Divine Love and Grace) Traditons available to
people of good-will seeking unity world-wide. During his years of 
study, he accumulated over 150 
volumes worth of research on the ancient historical connections 
between 
the religious traditions of the East and West. However, due to his 
disability, because he was forced to do his 
degree and later work on tape and in nearly illegible handwritiing, 
this body of research remains unorganized, untyped, not computerized 
and unpublished. 

RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Before becoming more disabled by post-polio-syndrome, B.A.
Goswami lectured extensively in the USA and
overseas. He was the Mainland USA Delegate
to the 1982 academic and religious World Hindu Conference
co-sponsored by the Governments of Tamil Nadu
India and Sri Lanka, and held at the Summit of Non-Aligned Nations in 
Sri Lanka. 
There he was a guest of the Sri Lankan Government and the
Minister of Religion, and was given a tour of many of the most
important archeological sites in Sri Lanka. At the conference he 
was elevated from an academic delegate to a "Religious Dignitary" and 
seated with the 'popes' and heads of Indic religions, sampradayas and 
maths. This was done 
at the request of real masters in attendance, who recognized the
unique contribution of his knowledge and spirituality in the cause of 
reconciliation 
between their diverse traditions. He also received scores of 
invitations from scholars
to visit and teach in their countries and at their institutions.
Unfortunately due to his poor heath he was unable to continue 
traveling after the completion 
of his contracted college travel-study, which included his 
participation in the Sri Lankan Conference. 
As a result, he was unable to accept any of these invitations.

While still on his college-contracted independent study tour, he was 
invited
by the former Prime Minister of Nepal, the Right Honorable Nagendra 
Prasad Rijal, 
to sit on the Executive Committee of the World Hindu Organization, 
under the Patronage of His Majesty King
Birendra of Nepal. This he did, and worked on the Organization's 
Nepal International Zone of Peace and Nuclear Non-proliferation Non 
Governmental Organization platforms for the United Nations. In Nepal 
and India, he again received the blessings and honor of serving 
Vaishnava, Shaivite, Shakti, Sikh, Sufi
and Buddhist Gurus and Saints, including the respected
Vaishnava Leaders Dr. Rup Lal Batra, and Dr. Acharya Prabhakar 
Mishra, who
made him an Honorary International Coordinating Secretary of the 
Universal Sanatana Dharma
Foundation, and invited him to address the next Plenary Session of the
World Fellowship of Religions in India, as the Keynote Speaker. 

Regrettably due to illness B.A.Goswami was unable to accept these, or 
hundreds of other invitations or
opportunities for service. With great physical austerity, he did. 
however successfully complete his 
college independent field-study contract, which had the duo-focus of 
interdisciplinary field studies in the
history of religion, and in the applied theology of religious social 
organization, social justice, human rights and human services. 
This exhaustive project was undertaken for his B.A, degree, and it 
was recognized by the faculty of his college, that he was already 
doing graduate level work when he started his B.A. program. 
Considered intellectually gifted, he was in a special university 
program for geniuses,doing college-level research in his high school 
days. The son and part-time assistant to a research 
electrobiophysicist father and a mother with a M.A. degree in 
education, he was blessed with an excellent education, and a 
background in science and research.

After a unique and successful college career, during which he 
received a 4.0 grade average, scholarships and the respect and praise 
of faculty for designing and fulfilling an interdisciplinary 
curriculum contract in inter-bhakti studies, he successfully
completed the oral presentation of his interdisciplinary extended 
(two year)
master's degree in the history of religion, comparative religion and 
theology. 
However, he was hospitalized on a respirator before he could
complete the publication of his Thesis and obtain his Degree. 
Subsequently disabled and physically 
isolated by illness, Bhakti Ananda Goswami has not been able to 
publish his work, and has had few
practical opportunities to widely distribute his knowledge. On only 
several
occasions in the last ten years has he been able to speak publicly on 
his
discoveries. In 1993, as co-founder of the academic Arcadian 
Institute, he
was a Sponsor and Presenter at the Centennial World Parliament of
Religions in Chicago, USA. The next year he contributed a chapter on
asceticism in Catholic history to an important Catholic collection of 
essays
on Catholic moral theology and ecology ( EMBRACING EARTH, Orbis 
Press.) His
next major effort to get his historical discoveries out, took him to 
visit with
Vaishnava scholars in Berkley California USA, where he was blessed as 
a Vaishnava Master to serve
Sri Subhadra Devi on Her chariot, during the most holy festival of 
Ratha Yatra. After that trip, he
again became incommunicado for some years, due to continued severe 
health
problems. 

BHAKTI ANANDA GOSWAMI'S RARE PUBLIC LECTURE TOUR IN 2000

In 2000, Bhakti Ananda Goswami received the kind assistance of an
interfaith alliance of devotees, in giving a West Coast L.A. County 
Museum
Tour and Lecture series on Egyptian, Greek, Jewish and Vaishnava 
connections in the
pre-Christian Era. An expert on the devotional traditions of ancient 
Egypt, and the relationship of these to Judaism and the cult of Rhoda 
and Kouros Helios and Dionysus on the Island of Rhodes, he organized 
an exhibit tour for some of his students at the L.A. County 
Museum "Pharaohs of the Sun" Exhibit. For his tour lecture booklet, 
he received permission from the Exhibit organizer and copyright owner 
of the Akhenaten images collection and the world's premier Jewish 
miniature artifact collection, to use images from the "Pharaohs of 
the Sun " Exhibit , and the text "Gods. Goddesses and Images of God 
in Ancient Israel" for comparison in his lecture series. Thus he 
was able to show the relationship between Afro-Egyptian, Israelite 
and Jewish, Heliopolitan Greek, Vaishnava and Pure-Land Buddhist 
Deity Names, Symbols and Forms. As a result of this tour, he was 
invited to present two papers on the subject of ancient Vaishnava and 
Afro-Helleno-Semitic, Shaivite and Buddhist connections at the major 
World Association for Vedic Studies academic conference held at the 
Stevens Institute of Technology in late 2000. His presentations 
were made to a standing-room-only crowd in the largest lecture hall 
of the conference. he recieved and actual ovation after his 
presentation, and not a single scholar could challenge either his 
evidence or his conclusions. Hindu scholars stayed after his 
presentation and visited his dorm room over the weekend to ask him 
numerous questions about his discoveries. Following this major 
conference, there was a full-page article in the News-India Times 
about his work, and he was invited to give holy day homilies on the 
Bharat Darshan RBC South Asian Radio Network Show. Thus, as a 
result, he has given commercially uninterupted sermons up to a half-
hour long, on such High Holy Days and Festivals as Maha Kumba Mela, 
Durga Puja, and Gita Jayanti to hundreds of thousands of RBC Radio 
listeners. So, by the grace of the Lord and Our Lady, B.A. Goswami, 
a professed Catholic, has been able from his bed in his hermitage in 
the great forest, to speak over the phone through the radio to 
countless souls around the world, explaining things like the 
historical relationship between the Jewish Nazarites' ritual bathing, 
Catholic Baptism and the Vaishnava and Shaivite Traditions of bathing 
in the Ganges to wash away sin. Unfortunately he had to give up 
these regular radio sermons, due to post polio vocal muscle fatigue 
and failure. 

Due to polio muscle exhaustion, after his demanding two week West 
Coast Tour, he lost
his ability to produce a voice for several months, and after months of
physical therapy with a speech pathologist and voice therapist, only
miraculously regained some use of his vocal chords the very day that 
his
East Coast tour began at the World Association of Vedic Studies 
Conference
in New Jersey USA. He was invited there to present two of his papers 
at the
WAVES conference, one on the general East-West Bhakti connections, 
and one
more specifically focused on the Egyptian Heliopolitan-related Bridal 
Mysticism connections between
Radha-Krishna Vaishnavism and the Mediterranean indigenous Vaishnava 
origins
of Judeo-Catholic Tradition. Delivering his papers, he showed 
indisputable evidence of connections between the Bridal Mysticism 
tradition of Radha and Krishna, and the pre-historic inter-racial 
cult of Rhoda and Kouros on the Isle of Rhodes. 
Presenting his papers, he also showed abundant interdisciplinary 
proof of direct connections between the Biblical Song of
Songs Eli-Yahu and Shekinah Bridal Mysticism Tradition, the pre-
historic (emerging circa 3000 BC) worship
of Helios and Rhoda on the Mediterranean Isle of Rhodes, Egyptian 
Actis Heliopolitan Monotheism
and the Eastern Worship of Hari-Vasu (Krishna-Vishnu) and Radha-
Shakti. In addition to all
this, he gave further evidence of connection to both sattvic theistic 
Shaivism and
salvific Pure Land Buddhism.

After the conference, he visited with Vaishnava and other devotees in 
5 states. His body was so
exhausted after this two weeks, that when he was delayed in the air 
on the way home, unable to land for hours due to a severe storm, upon 
landing, he was removed from the plane by medics. He was kept in the 
airport first-aid station for
hours, while a decision was reached by the authorities, whether to 
let him get back on a plane,
or to send him to a hospital. By the Lord's Mercy, after several 
hours on oxygen monitoring, he recovered enough
to continue the journey home, where his daughter was waiting to
take care of him. Having suffered oxygen deprivation and serious 
circulatory problems on this trip, hich required months to recover 
from, B,A. Swami is now
reluctant to attempt any more trips. Therefore it is unlikely that 
he will
be able to attend the upcoming World Vaishnava Association, World 
Council of Elders, World Association for Vedic Studies, or any other 
scholastic or religious events. He is also no longer able to do 
radio programs, or much counseling over the phone. Due to 
intermittant oxyhen deprivation, he also suffers from failing 
eyesight and periodic central vision loss. This has recently 
necessitated his withdrawal from participation in various kinds of 
visual communication. However he does hope, by the grace of God Ess, 
and Their devotees, to continue to be of some personal service to 
the many individuals he counsels and prays for on a daily basis.