koti dandavat pranama
sri sri guru gaurangau jayatah

Thank you for sharing your article, which is both timely and highly instructive.

If you will indulge me, i would like to suggest that it could be helpful to look into other traditions for parallel developments, and thus contextualize Srila Bhakti Siddhanta’s reforms more broadly. In particular, the Buddhist Mahayana, known for its highly complex and multifarious upayas (84,000 methods), underwent a similar transformation, leading to Pure Land becoming the dominant Buddhist tradition in East Asia.

Honen and Shinran (12th and 13th centuries, respectively) in Japan, and Chu-hung and Tsung-pen (16th Century) in China, are outstanding exponents of this reform, centered on exclusive recitation of the Name of Amida (Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land). Importantly, they assert that recitation is not only the essential practice for this time of degradation, but that all other practices emanate from pure recitation. The Chinese exponents, in particular, take pains establishing how meditation practices (Ch’an, Zen) are non-different and included in recitation.

Similarly, St Gregory Palamas (14th century) gave sound theological basis for the recitation of the Name (Jesus Prayer) as the most important practice within Christian monasticism, and the Sufi practice of Zikr also comes to mind, although i confess gross ignorance about Islam in general and Zikr in particular.

Congratulations on this important publication.

Please accept my full obeisances, and my prayers that you will remember this servant with your accustomed kindness.

Your servant,
Nimai Nitaidas