I first encountered the philosophy and practice of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas through Srila Prabhupada's books back in the early 1970s, but I was too young to join anything (not to mention geographically isolated), and by the time I was old enough to seriously consider "shaving up" and moving into a temple, I was living in Hamsaduta Swami's zone, so that put a kibosh on any thoughts of taking initiation. Watching the "Gang of Eleven" disintegrate further discouraged me and made me suspicious of devotees for years.

Still, I couldn't stay away from Gaudiya Vaishnava literature, and have besides managed to teach myself a fair amount of Sanskrit, Bengali, and Hindi. With my concerns over ISKCON's direction, I wanted to find something more authentic, more complete, and more open, and finally had those doors opened when I came into contact with some disciples of Haridas Shastri and realized that the BSST propaganda about genuine Vaisnavas was only so much vaisnava-aparadha -- that there were true Vaisnavas outside of ISKCON and that there always had been. Duh.

I'm not "attached" yet to any particular guru, but find myself more and more desirous of taking diksa and am "in the market" for a true guide with a genuine parampara. I'm really enjoying the association I am finding on this forum.

Since I've never been initiated (not in this life, anyway), I don't have a devotee name, so my GD handle "Lancer" comes about because over the years I used to do a lot of free-lance editing and writing -- I have about a million words of my own published somewhere, and have edited another couple million by other people. Unfortunately, it's all prajalpa. I love editing, and would like some day to dovetail this fault-finding propensity of mine in Krsna's service.

By the way, despite its faults, I know some very nice ISKCON devotees and I am a regular attender and participant at their local temple here.

Gary's interests

Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi
CATS (Computer-Aided Translation of Sanskrit)
ChandaH-kaustubhaH
HarinAmAmRta-vyAkaraNam
Sanskrit/Gaudiya commentaries (tradition and techniques)
Crossword puzzles (guilty pleasure)