GUIDELINES

The book will be a printed volume.

Thanks to generous sponsorship by generous devotees, every disciple who sends an offering will receive a book, free of charge.

Extra copies for temples and individuals will be available for a small charge if ordered in advance. Please see the orders page.

We will also publish the book in pdf format. It will be available for download at www.sptributes.com and at Krishna.com.

We sometimes find that the books we send out are not delivered – this can often be down to a change in address details that we are not aware of, or that the books somehow go missing in transit. Unfortunately, this is beyond our control – we apologise for these occurrences.

The book is meant for glorifying Srila Prabhupada. And we encourage you to do that in your own way.

Certain kinds of content, however, we ask that you kindly avoid:

• Venting grievances
  Please reserve that for some other place.
• Taking stands on internal philosophical controversies
  Let the jiva fall or not fall in some other book.
• Promoting institutions other than the ones Srila Prabhupada founded and other contemporary spiritual guides.
  We respect that you may have received spiritual knowledge or inspiration from contemporary spiritual guides other than Srila Prabhupada and the members of the Society he founded. But we ask that you express your gratitude to them elsewhere. Similarly, we respect that they too may have their own relationship with Srila Prabhupada, but we ask that you refrain from highlighting that relationship as part of your offering.
• Criticizing devotees of the Lord
• Exploring Srila Prabhupada’s personal rasa with Krsna.
  Although in 2012 we published a couple of articles offering thoughts about what is Srila Prabhupada’s eternal rasa with Krsna — is it sakhya or is it madhurya? — for future books, we ask that this topic be left aside. The topic has “been done.” Let us go forward.

We reserve the right to exclude any offering that to us seems inappropriate, or to ask for a rewrite.

By respecting these guidelines, you’ll make the work of our editors easier. And you’ll still have wide scope for glorifying His Divine Grace.

That said, if these guidelines seem too stringent for you, please don’t give up. We do try to work with you, and we’ve been known to bend.

We discourage what we call “platforming” — that is, using the book as a platform to speak out about
issues related to Srila Prabhupada only distantly (if at all). A remark or two about world events is unlikely
to present an editorial issue. But the Tributes book is not the place for extended discussions of particular
world events, political controversies, and so on.
If you feel a compelling need to alert, inform, or persuade devotees about some particular current issue,
that’s fine. But for that please turn to another venue — a blog, a newsletter, social media, or what have
you.
Which side of any particular issue you might stand for is beside the point. The point is that the Tributes
book is meant for direct glorification of Srila Prabhupada. Content only distantly connected with that
purpose is better published elsewhere.
Perhaps a comment on an ISKCON controversy of the day might deserve some words, but extended
discussions may likely be out of place. Again, the Tributes book is a place to glorify Srila Prabhupada, not
to take stands on organizational issues.
We will not silently censor any content. If we think your offering goes too far in platforming, our editors
will get in touch with you about it, and we will try to work out with you a suitable solution.

Here are some suggestions—just some ideas—for ways to write your offering to Srila Prabhupada. This list is not exhaustive.

1. Write directly about Srila Prabhupada’s qualities and accomplishments.
2. Write about philosophical conclusions concerning the spiritual master.
3. Express gratitude for the good fortune of Srila Prabhupada’s association.
4. Write about his personal pastimes.
5. Offer realizations about service to Srila Prabhupada.
6. Share realizations from verses or purports from Srila Prabhupada’s books that inspire or impress you in some way.
7. Share reflections on personal instructions you have received.

These are just a few ideas. Feel free to take other approaches.

The preferred language for the book is English, but we can also accept offerings in Spanish, French, German, or Italian. If you send your offering in one of those languages, we’d be grateful if you’d also send a translation as well, so that your offering can be read both by our editors and by the other readers of the book.

Also: If you do send your offering in a language other than English, we’d be grateful if you’d send it early.

Please make your offering no longer than 1,500 words. (Conciseness is a virtue. Shorter offerings are fine.

Please omit all diacritics on words that can be found in the VedaBase. It’s easier for us to put them in. If you quote a verse from outside the VedaBase or compose original Sanskrit, please include diacritics.

Always leave a double space between paragraphs. If you want some special formatting, please ensure the intended formatting can be seen in the Microsoft Word that you submit via the online submission form.

Please upload your offering using our online form. This approach is preferred as it will allow us to serve you better. Each Tributee should have a unique email address. If you don’t have an e-mail account, please send your offering with the help of a friend who does.

Files composed with Microsoft Word will be fine, with extension *.docx or *.doc. If need be, other non-Word files such as *.rtf or *.txt can be submitted, though not ideal.

A very helpful naming convention to consider for your file submission is:

Year_of_Initiation–Month_of_Initiation–Day_of_Initiation–Spiritual_Name–Place_of_Initiation–Current_Year_Of_Offering.docx

For example:

1968–07–XX–Jayapataka_Swami–Montreal–2020.docx

The above naming convention helps to ensure we always know who the file belongs to on the editing side.

For your reference, you can kindly refer to the Srila Prabhupada Disciple Database for all known details on initiation dates. If any initiation details are unknown – please add XXXX or XX in its place.

When we receive your offering, we will send you an automatic confirmation email that lists the details of your submission. Please do check your spam folder or your Promotions tab first. If you are sure that you didn’t receive this confirmation email, it is quite possible we didn’t receive your offering either. In that case, please drop us a note so we can sort things out for you.

As a last resort, you can email your offering to sptributes@gmail.com.

If you are late to submit your offering after the deadline, it would be incredibly helpful if you would kindly:

1. submit via the online form (rather than emailing it into us) and
2. upload a *.docx Word file (rather than copying and pasting your offering on the online form)

An online submission with a file upload considerably reduces the time taken for us to process your offering (compared to one that is emailed in).

If the deadline has passed – there is no guarantee that we will be able to include your offering in the printed volume. However, it is more likely if it is submitted via the online form.

We thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

If you need to speak to someone personally, you can call Pradyumna on +44 116-2542074 or Nimai +44 7812-586-790 – they both are in England, UK.

If you have any questions or comments, please write to Pradyumna Dasa:

 sptributes@gmail.com