What it has : It has integrated a lot of information scattered in various places in one package. Contains more than 100 books and 4500 separate pages and articles. So enjoy reading. While it is not the prettiest looking spiritual ebook around, it is still one of the best you can ever get, instead of scooting around and spending a lot of valuable time and energy searching for these books.

At first I was surprised by the format of only text without any pictures, but then this is a CHM file and fitting so much data into only 70 MB is really impossible otherwise. But as I read on I realized that what really matters is the text after all, it is totally complete. For whatever it does not have, it gives online links where you can get it which really gives it huge coverage…did I forget that you can browse within the CHM itself?

However there are categories, subcategories and more sub-categories within them till you land on an article or a book so sometimes you’ll have to really dig through this book in some places using the tree in order to excavate an item. However it has roll over menus and contents lists which help greatly. I find myself using them rather than the tree.

But overall the categorization scheme is very precise and well sorted. It is as it says, meant for sequential reading as it starts from things like Modern Science and Intelligent design, finally going to things like Vedanta, Bhagavatam and spiritual pracitces.

The superb search facility (Google style) and index of all items means no waiting all day to scan 5000 items. Most of the time you can get the page you want bang on target.

So let’s Start with the zip. First the fonts package is well thought of and provided. Thank God. It is simple extraction and then all diacritic characters can be read. Works on all platforms, even MAC. They also picked up a font converter program from somewhere that can convert between Balaram, Harvard Kyoto, Unicode, Itrans, Raaga, and plain English…Copyrights acknowledged.

Also the troubleshooting package provided in the zip for what happens when CHM doesn’t open properly is well done with pictures and detailed descriptions of the issue. CHM does have some blocking problems with my Vista system and I had to search the net up and down before finding a fix. The unblock option is sometimes not available which can really kill reader interest if they don’t know how to fix it. The FAT32 fix disabling the Archive and then copying back to NTFS was very helpful. But one need not write as if the users have no idea how to work with a computer guiding every step. The pictures are very clear in explaining. Thanks for the fix. Now I hope users won’t complain their download didn’t work.

Now the book itself. First the pronunciation guide: It is excellent in that it literally walks you through the pronunciation and eventually even if you don’t know native Indian languages (I don’t know Bengali, you can be pretty well at ease with verses).

Very comprehensive introductory section from basic to advanced philosophy and siddhanta. Yes as it says, it really can turn a dummy into a devotee.I learnt a ton of stuff from it. We often take a lot of stuff for granted and it is quite a job when we meet someone who is new and needs everything explained. I say with this even new guy can now have a nice conversation with devotees without feeling lost. Over 1000 items (a page is a single item and so can be AS LONG AS A BOOK – indeed some pages ARE entire books) are exclusively devoted to this part. Contains many books here which are well known and popular –

Vedic Cosmography Your Best Friend Grhasta Manual Cookbooks (Yummy…) Brahmacharya Section (Can’t miss this one…many original articles and some shocking revelations on lust and some sweet words on the mercy of Godhead in eradicating these sins. Also has 2 fantastic books.)

And many other books are there ….you read and find out what else is there. (My incentive :-) …)I don’t have sufficient space to fit them all, but there are many books on Consciousness, Soul, Reincarnation, Spiritual Science, etc…

And many articles … almost all articles are from this section. The philosophical analysis and mention of whatever pure spiritual teachings available in all the religions of the world are really a revelation and a welcome addition. They include.

Modern Science (starter) Anthropology and History (Hmmm…very interesting. It has some real revealing facts that support the Puranic conclusion and we see a lot of lies exposed in the name of writing history) Astronomy and Cosmography (Vedic Cosomology is a very great science alright…) Modern Scientific theories exposed (Prabhupada was fond of bashing these speculations on evolution, universe) Introduction to Vedic Science (Baby Feeding…Karma, Soul, etc…good sources). Also nice magazine articles. Important Lessons for devotees (Really important as it says) Advanced Philosophy (You should read this in real detail very carefully … it’s quite involved with so much analysis of every major faith and philosophy in the world and it is a minefield of pure devotional revelations. Now-a-days we see so much hate and other problems, and this loving approach to appreciate everything good in others is characteristic of our paramahamsa acharyas.

Other books available: These are sorted into most important scriptures and other books. That Nityananda Gauranga and Hare Krishna section in the book has many scriptures which would be better noticed if some of them were in the important scriptures parent category itself. It kind of “hides” a lot of books in it. But open it and you see it has real spiritual treasure.

So anyway, getting to the book list, it has :

All Prabhupada Books (by browsing links to Vedabase, Vanipedia, etc… These books are not available in this ebook. Includes links to Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavatam, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Nectar of Devotion, Books on Reincarnation, Life comes from life etc…) [Note : It has links to where you can download all Prabhupada's books posted by others on websites and even Internet Archive -- Sacred texts, so that is consolation for those who want to read offline]

Books directly available in this database are :

Special mention is needed as this is the Only place where you can download the full Chaitanya Bhagavatam.

Krishna Chaitanya Charita Mahakavya — this is rare. I have yet to find this anywhere else. Chaitanya Charita (Kavi Karnapura — rare) Shrimad Bhagavad Gita By Acharyas (Vishvanatha Chakravarthi Thakura commentary (this HAS to be read, we haven’t seen Gita in this flavour + Srila Prabhupada (only links to The BBT Vedabase) Glories of Lord Nityananda Prabhu Nityananda Charitamrita Compilation of The Pastimes of Lord Nityananda

Chaitanya Bhagavata (Full 7 volumes — verses patchy, perhaps CHM botched up the diacritics, but the English is perfect. It is Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s Commentary. For consolation, a separate book of only verses is available and it is perfectly done.)

Shrimad Bhagavatam (Links To Vedabase Given) Chaitanya Charitamrta (Links To Vedabase) Shri Chaitanya Chandramrita Jaiva Dharma Brahma Samhita Navadvipa Dhama Mahatmya Shikshashtaka with Commentaries

The Holy Names of Nityanaanda and Gauraanga (A LOT of info from so many scriptures. I say this changed my spiritual life totally along with the Hare Krisha maha mantra. I have sworn allegiance to them)

Maha Mantra Yoga (Hare Krishna Mahamantra MUST READ) Hari Naam Chintamani (By the Naamacharya Himself) Divine Name Haridasa Shri Namaamrita Levels of Nityananda Gauranga and Hare Krishna Chanting Nityananda Gauranga in Vedas, Puranas, Smritis and Shrutis Additional Important Scriptures Songs on Nityananda Gauranga Bhaktivinoda Vani Vaibhava (All 3 volumes — Sambandha, Abhideya, Prayojana … All his writings in one book) Glories of Lord Balarama Glories of Lord Krishna Glories of Shri Radha Chaitanya Mangala In Search of the Ultimate Goal of Life (A very rare unpublished book of Prabhupada — very advanced) Life of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Gaudiya Kanthahara (Essence of the Siddhanta) Other books also include : Tattva Muktavali (Mayavada Shata Dushani – Madhva smashes imposters who claim to be Supreme) Madhurya Kadambini (For the science of spiritual advancement) Prakrita Rasa Shata Dushani Unauthorized and Deviant sects Hari Bhakti Kalpa Latika Brihad Bhagavatamrita (Sooo sweet….) The Path of Dedication Tulasi Worship Ekadashi Glories Krishna Bhajanamrita Sri Gayatri Mantrartha Dipika Vaishnava Song Books (Infinite Bhajans for the Soul. Also contains poems — Sharanagati & Kalyana Kalpataru) Ramayana Mahabharata (Pure Devotional translation. No devotee’s collection is complete without these 2 greatest and most well known books.) Ananda Vrindavana Champu Vaishnava Siddhanta Mala QA Six Sandarbhas (Most advanced, for the real serious. These are really advanced) Vedanta Sutra (Govinda Bhashya — the Ultimate Commentary on Vedanta. This is the only English translation made by pure devotees and is almost fully complete, except for some few odd verses and a smalls subsection. No one has fully translated it as of yet…)

1000 Questions and Answers (Mixed bag. Some of them are not answered – deals with various topics at random but some of them have some really good realizations. Very fitting replies given too.) But there was this one set of 30-40 odd questions that was really botched up with questions and answers randomly scattered with no continuity. Hope they fix that.

Some Beautiful Realizations of devotees (I’ve seen this one before, taken from well known sources). Beautiful and inspiring — but if you’re really serious, then read, or it might be too much to swallow.

Web Links : Tons of links available. It isn’t complete though. Many great links to popular websites, even Hare Krishna stores were you can get anything and everything spiritual. But some sites like ISKCON media, ISKCON desire tree, etc…can be there. They have great content.

Some patchy areas : I found that a couple of books had some typos and the verses were messy with the special characters although it is readable. I’d love it if they can fix thes up when they release their next version. Also it would be better if the overall presentation and fonts are improved. The overall look for the book is still quite raw and Jaiva Dharma needs to be checked for its right margin so that it goes all the way to the end.

Also I wonder why the last few chapters on Jaiva Dharma (from Chapter 26 onwards) are bundled with the rest of the book and were not postponed to the end of the book … they deal with advanced realizations and it is not to be simply read through. That part about rasa-tattva is deep and only for advanced devotees and neophytes can be put into misunderstanding, so I suggest that in the next version whenever it comes out, chapter 25 onwards should be shifted to the end of the book. They have done this with Bhaktivinode Vani Vaibhava, but not for Jaiva Dharma.

I also wish a couple of other books like Rasika Mangala were also available which deal with devotee pastimes. But as claimed, this isn’t meant to break records, but that book can be there. Though this book doesn’t really need that much updation, only one more update will do. As it says, it is the essence and so that’s there, what more is needed? So I hope the creators will read this review and consider my comments and I hope I get to see this in the next version.

But considering the resources available, this is really the best one can do in the circumstances and it did go through quite a few refinements as said in the book itself. REALLY ONE OF THE BEST EBOOKS OUT THERE.

There’s lots more I can say about this book…but this is more than enough! PHEW! Just want to conclude that it’s an irreplaceable jewel for the devotee’s book collection. Great Job!