About Sadaputa Prabhu

7/26/2019 About Sadaputa Prabhu

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Shyamasundara Dasa

Dear Maharajas, Prabhus and Matajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I am in profound shock on hearing of the demise of my friend Sadaputa Prabhu. This

month marked the !th year of our friendship. I had the good fortune of "orking

"ith Sadaputa Prabhu in the #I and li$ing "ith him and other original #I members

from %&'()'& in Atlanta and Philadelphia, and again later at his o"n branch of the

#I in %&&)&* in San Diego.

Though my o"n personal assignment in the #I in %&'()'& "as to study jyotish, at

that time I "as not $ery e+pert or kno"ledgeable in it, so in the mean time I "as

made Sadaputas assistant and he trained me as a researcher. -e in fact ga$e me

my rst mission, "hich I ha$e yet to complete, and "hich "e "ere to "ork on as a

team, he from the astronomical side and me from the astrological side. That mission

"as to pro$e that the assertion of scholars like Da$id Pingree that astronomy and

astrology "ere introduced into India by the /reeks in the 0nd and rd century AD

"as "rong. This assertion has far reaching implications for us, if the scholars are

right then te+ts such as the Srimad #haga$atam "hich has se$eral astrologicalscenes in it 1think of the $ipras "ho read Parikshits horoscope at his time of birth or

/argamunis reading 2rsnas chart at the behest of 3anda maharaja, and the 4th

cantos profuse use of astrological signs5 is not from the beginning of 2aliyuga %!0

#6 but rather a post 6hristian "ork. Since I "as just beginning my study of jyotish I

could not contribute much at that time 1but ha$e since done some serious

in$estigations but more "ork is re7uired5 so I helped Sadaputa Prabhu in other "ays

by gathering data for his multi)faceted research projects. 8ne that I clearly

remember "as his interest in certain geological phenomena that caused geological

strata to be re$ersed, that is, that by a natural process it "as found that in se$eral

parts of the "orld older geological formations "ould be at the top "hile the younger

ones at the bottom in re$erse chronological order, thus misleading any researcher"ho "as una"are of the shift. This "as a precursor to his book 9:orbidden

Archeology.;

I became a little frustrated "ith this "ork because my le$el of training in

mathematics "as far inferior to that of Sadaputas 1I had 7uit uni$ersity before



completing my undergraduate degree in pure math5 so I asked S"arupa Damodara

1then brahmacari5 if I could 7uit my study of jyotish and go back to school to nish

my math degree so I could be of better use to Sadaputa Prabhu. S"arupa Damodara

refused telling me that Srila Prabhupada "anted that the #I study jyotish and I "as

the man assigned to do it, so on that note I ga$e up my desire to be a

mathematician and continued "ith jyotish.

Speaking of mathematics, it "as Sadaputas natural genius and especially his

e+pertise in mathematics that ga$e him a big edge o$er others. Mathematics is

considered the 97ueen of the sciences; 1no king being declared 1)< 5 and it is the

language used by all other 9hard sciences.; In the reductionists "orld$ie"

e$erything is reduced to numbers thus for one "ho has mastered mathematics the

door to other sciences is "ide open. 8r, as Da$id -ilbert the famous /erman

mathematician once put it 9physics is much too di=cult for physicists; implying

they "ere $ery sloppy in their mathematical rigor and that only a mathematiciancould do it properly. -ence, because of Sadaputas mastery of mathematics and his

ability to apply it to a "ide range of subjects he could in$estigate areas from

astronomy and cosmology to 7uantum physics, consciousness, articial intelligence,

and re$erse speech. There "as practically no area that his curiosity did not do

serious in$estigation into. And e$en if the eld of interest did not ha$e a strong

mathematical component, such as archeology, indology or ancient history, the rigor

of his mathematical training ga$e him $ery sharp analytical abilities allo"ing him to

7uickly master the subject. Practically the only area "here he "as limited "as his

lack of training in classical languages such as Sanskrit, /reek, >atin, Arabic, ancient

Persian, Sumerian and such. -e told me that he once met Da$id Pingree of #ro"n

?ni$ersity, a mathematician and respected scholar of the history of science "ho did

ha$e a mastery of these languages. Pingree asked Sadaputa if he kne" Sanskrit,

"hen Sadaputa said 9no; then Pingree basically "rote him o@ and considered him

un"orthy for further discussion. Sadaputa "as mi@ed by this and al"ays "anted to

study Sanskrit but he could not nd the time to spend 0) years to learn it to his

satisfaction. 8f course this lack of Sanskrit kno"ledge did not stop Sadaputa Prabhu

from shooting se$eral gaping holes in Pingrees theories on the history of the

transmission of astronomical kno"ledge by "riting his book 9edic 6osmography

and Astronomy.; I had the pri$ilege of supplying Sadaputa Prabhu "ith se$eral

important te+ts from my pri$ate collection that he used to "rite that book, he also

let me proof read it.

The Sadaputa that I kne" and li$ed "ith "as an e+tremely hard "orker "ho could

focus his mind like a laser beam and not allo" himself to be distracted by anything.

The negati$e side of this "as that he "ould rarely if e$er ans"er letters and later

emails as he "ould be too busy. In the years that I "as "ith him his sadhana "as



impeccable and much better than mine. -e ne$er missed mangala arotika, al"ays

chanted his rounds, did Deity "orship and had a great appetite for 2rsna prasadam.

Dont let the fact that he "as skinny fool you he could really pack it a"ay and "ould

not refuse o@erings for second or third helpings. -e especially liked Italian food,

"hich I "ould cook on a regular basis. -is brain used up a lot of calories. To keep in

shape e$eryday, like clock "ork, just before lunch he "ould run se$eral miles.

-e "as $ery austere and just slept on the Boor, often times surrounded by a mass of

books that he had been studying. In San Diego "e shared the same house and his

room "as ne+t to mine. -is bedroom had many large sliding mirror)faced doors for

the closets, but Sadaputa co$ered o$er all the mirrors in his room "ith paper. I

asked him "hy he did thatC -e responded that he didnt "ant to become more

bodily conscious than he already "as.

Though he "as trained as a hard scientist and "as respected in that eld he "as

also a mystic. I remember one discussion "e had in Philadelphia, "ere he pointed

out that historically as religious faith among the people gets eroded then the

religious leaders lose their faith in the mystical aspects of life such as oracles, and

astrology. -e "as not superstitious but understood that there "ere other "ays of

kno"ing things besides the reductionist "orld$ie" of mechanistic science. -e

brought the topic up because he noted "ay back in %&'()'& that already among

certain leaders in IS2683 there "as a tendency not to ha$e faith in the sastras.

The Sadaputa that I kne" "as $ery loyal to Srila Prabhupada and dedicated his life

to him, and he had complete faith in the sastras. -e named his o"n publishing

house 9/o$ardhana Press; because he belie$ed that >ord 2rsna actually held up

/o$ardhana hill. And he "as $ery disturbed by trends in IS2683 "hich minimied

the sastric "orld$ie". T"o incidents in this regard from %&&)&* stand out in my

memory, one "as in regard to the publication of #hakti$inodes 92rsna Samhita;

and ho" se$eral de$otees "ere mis)interpreting the meaning of it. The second "as

his irritation and disenchantment "ith a popular IS2683 "riter, lets call him E,

"here E published a book of his inter$ie"s of "ell kno"n indologists. The episode

that really dre" the ire of Sadaputa "as "hen E inter$ie"ed a scholar on thesubject of the Famayana, the scholar made disparaging remarks about the

Famayana describing the 2ishkinda)khanda as a Disney)like episode "ith talking

animals and laughed at the foolishness of those "ho belie$ed this. Ghat really

upset Sadaputa to no end "as that E didnt defend our position 1after all he is

supposed to be a de$otee5 but instead joined the professor in laughing at the

Famayana. And "hat "as "orse "as that since it "as Es o"n book he could ha$e

just edited that part out but instead chose to publish this o@ensi$e subject and



present it to the members of IS2683 as his 9intellectual; contribution. I cannot fully

describe to you ho" much this bothered Sadaputa Prabhu.

Sadaputa already from the late '!s had a dim $ie" of those like the former

Subhananda Prabhu "ho tried to curry fa$or "ith the academics only to lose their

o"n 2rsna consciousness, and this o@ensi$e "ork by E only cemented his $ie".

Sadaputa made the follo"ing basic pointH in actuality "e do not really need the

support of the scholars at least not to the e+tent that "e should compromise our

philosophy to make them like us, but rather the scholars needed us because they

made their li$ing by studying us. -ence "e should be "ho "e are "ithout

compromise and stand on our o"n merit. This of course did not mean that "e

should go out of "ay to o@end them. -e coined the term 9academonic s7ualorship;

to describe the mundane scholars and those among us "ho tried to accommodate

them.

A related phenomena that disturbed him "as the beginning of the trend in the early

%&&!s of de$otees going back to uni$ersity specically to study Indology and

related elds for preaching. -is criticism "as that many de$otees "ere simply not

cut out for that kind of "ork in the current 9academonic; en$ironment of most

modern uni$ersities. -e sho"ed me te+ts from de$otees "ho had gone back to

school and "ho had no" become confused and "ere struggling "ith their faith.

These de$otees "ere in his $ie" being sent to the slaughter. The main di@erence

bet"een Sadaputa and them 1aside from the fact that he "as probably much more

intelligent than them5 "as that he had become a scientist #:8F becoming ade$otee and hence he "as no longer allured by the special kind of maya found in

academia, "hereas they "ere much easier prey. Also he "as $ery solid in his

understanding of sastra "here as many of those being pushed to go back to school

"ere junior de$otees some of "hom not ha$ing read of all of Srila Prabhupadas

books yet.

As one could tell from his humorous phrase 9academonic s7ualorship; Sadaputa

Prabhu also had a good sense of humor and the #I "ould often be the scene of "itty

e+changes and a lot of robust laughter.

Sadaputas dedication to Srila Prabhupadas mission "as clear from the e+amples

he set. After the #I broke up in 3o$ember %&'& I "as sent to India "hile Sadaputa

Prabhu e$entually settled in #inghamton, 3e" Jork "hich is "here I met him in

%&( on my return from India. Sadaputa had taken a teaching position at the State



?ni$ersity of 3e" Jork, opened and subsidied a preaching center "ith other

de$otees and utilied his time in continuing his research and "riting and published

his "ork 9Mechanistic and non)Mechanistic Science.; #ecause of his mathematical

and computational skill he could nd "ork any"here and utilie his "orkplace

conditions to carry on his research. -e told me that once he took some freelance

"ork "ith 3ASA as a computer programmer that allo"ed him access to data thatinterested him some of "hich "as used in 9Alien Identities.;

Speaking of 9Alien Identities; one may "onder on the "ide $ariety of topics that he

published on. Gas there any connectionC Jes there "as. -e once spent a fe" hours

discussing "ith me his master plan and ho" the present and future books "ere

interrelated. :or e+ample "hile 9:orbidden Archeology; "as being "ritten he sa"

that it "as not su=cient to simply trash Dar"inism but to also present an

alternati$e to that failed theory hence he "rote 9Alien Identities; to illustrate ho"

life came from a higher source. And our project of %&&)&* "as to "rite a se7uel to9Alien Identities; on the subject of the history of ancient edic 2ings "hich "ould

demonstrate the connection of the Indian regnal dynasties to their celestial origins. I

"as helping him research this book because of my kno"ledge of ancient history

especially /reek history that I had ac7uired as part of my mission to defeat

Professor Pingree. ?nfortunately 9The -istory of Ancient edic 2ings; project could

not be completed for $arious reasons but Sadaputa had gathered 7uite a bit of data

and probably had enough to publish a book on it. -e personally told me se$eral

times after the #I mo$ed to Alachua in %&&* that he had se$eral manuscripts that

had not been published yet. I am assuming that since then some of them like his

book on $irtual reality ha$e been published but others ha$e not. I sincerely hope

that all his manuscripts "ill be preser$ed as "ell as the contents of his computers.

And, that archi$es "ill be made and that learned members of IS2683 be gi$en

access to them by his family to continue his mission of ser$ing Srila Prabhupada

through scientic preaching. I specically "ould like to ha$e access to anything

related to astronomyKastrology, cosmology, ancient history and cross)cultural

phenomena.

-e also made of series of science lectures useful for preachers. These are treasures

of information that should be made "idely a$ailable to our preachers especially

those doing college preaching.

As one can see from the breadth of his published "orks that he touched on many

elds, articial intelligence, 7uantum mechanics, mathematics, ancient history,

psychology etc many of "hich he "as not specically trained in. The fact that he

"as not trained in many of these subjects raised the eyebro"s of some of his critics.



I remember once in San Diego shortly after the publication of 9:orbidden

Archeology; that a person came to the #I and started to criticie Sadaputa and

Drutakarma for "riting a book for "hich they had no academic 7ualication. -e

demanded to kno" "hat "as their 7ualicationC At this point Sadaputa Prabhu

picked up a copy of 9:orbidden Archeology,; a hefty book, and slammed it do"n on

the table "ith such force that it made a thunderous noise and shouted back to thecritic 9this is our 7ualication.; That "as the end of that. 8h did I mention that he

didnt su@er fools lightly. 1)H

A bit of tri$iaH the human prole of the front co$er of 9:orbidden Archeology; is

Sadaputas head.

8ne point of interest regarding Sadaputas strategy "as that he did not al"ays try

to destroy an opposing theory in e$ery respect, that "asnt al"ays possible and in

some cases people "ould not be accept e$en if he did. -e told me that his strategy

"as to present the edic $ersion as a plausible alternati$e to be seriously

entertained. This reduces the labor, as one is not re7uired to smash the opponent to

bits in e$ery respect. 6onsidering that e$en though he had some assistants in many

"ays Sadaputa "as a one)man)sho" thus this strategy ser$ed him "ell and allo"ed

him to co$er se$eral topics o$er the course of his most producti$e years.

In regards to the cryptic meaning of the 4th canto of the Srimad #haga$atam I once

consulted the #rghu 3adi 1type of astrological te+t5 and asked if the statements in

the 4th canto "ere trueC In response the #rghu 3adi rst mildly rebuked me for not

ha$ing faith in the statements of the 4th canto, and then it "ent on to say thatH yes

e$erything stated in the 4th canto is true, but just as ghee is present in co" milk

one can not get the benet of the ghee unless one kno"s ho" to e+tract the ghee

from the milk. Sadaputa Prabhu spent more than half of his life e+tracting the ghee

out of the milk of the 4th canto and did so "ith great success.

There are many more things that could be "ritten about Sadaputa Prabhu, I

apologie for not doing so, I am still in a state of deep shock and could not rest afterhearing of his death so I got up and put this together as best I could "ithout any

polishing.

I "ill deeply miss Sadaputa Prabhu, for e$en though "e "ere not in constant

contact just kno"ing that he "as there if I needed information on some arcane



subject "as a solace. -e "as on my $ery short list of people to $et any book I "ould

"rite regarding my attack on the modern history of edic astrology. 3o" "ho "ill I

go toC

I ha$e al"ays had the greatest respect and admiration for Sadaputas dedication

and ser$ice. The books he has "ritten ha$e most certainly pleased Srila

Prabhupada, especially his kicking Dar"in in the teeth. Ge are greatly saddened by

his departure but kno" that his re"ards for his ser$ice must be $ery great indeed.

-e "as also fortunate that his death "as sudden and that any discomfort "as of

short duration. There are after all "orse things than death.

The main impact of his death on me is the reminder that time is short< I can not

delay and must do something no". I do not at all fear death after "hat I "ent

through last year. #ut "hat I greatly fear is that I "ill die before I am able to

accomplish my mission. I therefore pray to /uru and /auranga that since they

spared me "hen I "as on the point of death last year that they be kind to me and

gi$e me enough time to accomplish my mission.

Jour humble ser$ant

Shyamasundara Dasa

PS for those of you "ho are "ondering Sadaputa "as born on :eb *, %&*', in

#inghamton, 3J. -e told me back in %&'()'& that he "as not sure of his time of

birth but "hen I just no" looked up his chart I had %4H!!hr as the time I entered, I

am not sure if this "as a later correction that he told me in %&&)&*, it is denitely

an appro+imation. Still /emini lagna "ith Mercury in the &th and other

congurations are 7uite tting. Ge also note that his passing took place during his

Moon)Lupiter period "hich as aicted lords of 0nd and 'th is a classical te+t book

e+ample of mrtyu kala N time of death. So it seems that it is likely that he "as born

around %4H!!.

Ghat is also marked is ha$ing e+alted Mars conjunct Sun in the (th indicating his

piercing into the mysteries and this opposite his Moon and Saturn sho"ed his

po"ers of laser)like ability to focus his mind. -e "as also a $ery emotionally

sensiti$e person 1Moon in 6ancer5 but he "as $ery careful of re$ealing his true



feelings as Moon is conjunct Saturn. I dont "ant to go into a more detailed analysis

as I am $ery tired and it may not be of much interest to non)astrologers.

About Sadaputa Prabhu

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