FULFILLING THE PROPHECY
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In one informal darsana in Mathura [1994], Srila Gurudeva Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja made one prophecy, “A day will come when I will not be in this world and many will think that all the books [composed by him] are so valuable.” In that same darsana, he also expressed one desire, “There should be a group of very qualified devotees who can take all my lectures and they should organize them and publish them as books. Because I cannot organize, I can only speak.”
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Most of you may be aware that in the early days no one was officially recording Srila Gurudeva whenever he gave lectures, went on morning walks, spoke at darsanas, conferences, or interviews. As a result, on some occasions 2 or 3 devotees recorded the same lecture and at other times, only one would be recording. Depending on the circumstances, some recordings were good quality and most not.
After 2001, Sriman Isa Prabhu, a diksa disciple of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja and siksa disciple of Srila Gurudeva began to painstakingly collect these recordings from different sources. He also founded the PURE BHAKTI ARCHIVE INC. which is the legal parent entity for the Audio Seva Project. As the scale of Srila Gurudeva’s preaching grew, the number of duplicate files with different file names and different sound quality only kept shooting up. So although all the recordings were there, they were not practically accessible.
This was the basis to form the AUDIO SEVA TEAM in February 2018, wherein a core group of devotees came forward to dedicatedly work towards fulfilling Srila Gurudeva’s desire, by systematically compiling, restoring and organizing his recordings which will eventually serve as the foundation for publications and other preaching efforts for posterity. READ ABOUT THE CORE TEAM HERE.
After compiling and identifying the duplicates, the Audio Seva Team broke down the task into three different phases and the entire process was automated to make the coordination efficient and error free.
THREE PHASES OF THE SEVA:
Phase 1: CONTENT REPORTING
Listening to each lecture and making notes about the topics discussed.
Phase 2: SOUND EDITING
Enhancing the audibility of Srila Gurudeva’s voice, reducing background noise, and removing unwanted parts such as blank spaces.
Phase 3: ORGANIZING THE ARCHIVE AND UPLOADING ONLINE
Labelling, systematically organizing and uploading fully searchable [by topics spoken, date, location, language and sound quality] archive online.