July 1, 2024: Kailasa Chandra dasa, ACBSP (Mark Goodwin), is a Vaishnava intellectual, astrologer, and author of numerous position papers and articles about Krishna consciousness, especially regarding the office of guru in ISKCON; he is a co-founder and leader of The Vaishnava Foundation, his book Beyond Institutional Gurus, Initiations, and Party Men is available on Amazon. He has reviewed Henry’s book Eleven Naked Emperors in a series of videos. Following are some excerpts from his review of chapters one and two. (Links to all the reviews are at the bottom of this page.) Kailasa Chandra says:

Doktorski has given us valuable information and historical facts. . . . Is he a great writer? Possibly. However, even if you disagree with that, he is certainly a very good writer. He is extremely well-organized in his chapter selection in E.N.E. It is loaded with references to establish his points, and such meticulous, painstaking effort puts him in a special category in and of itself. The book has 931 Endnotes! That kind of meticulous attention to detail is outstanding. . . .

Yet, that is not the crown jewel of his effort here. That accolade belongs to the tremendous research he put into the creating the work. Frankly, he is the best researcher of any person or devotee connected—either favorably or unfavorably—to Prabhupada’s Hare Krishna movement. That is my opinion. I can only think of one other man who compares to him [Nityananda Prabhu]. He is fantastic as a researcher. Still, he [Nityananda] is second best when compared to Doktorski relative to painstaking, organizational gum-shoe detective work. . . .

Real research produces real results, which dovetail well in the matter of putting the pieces of a complex puzzle together in a cohesive, consistent, and, most importantly, right way . . . right way as in THE right way . . . although Doktorski falls short of that. The Vaishnava Foundation does not fall short in this connection and is grateful to E.N.E.’s research in assisting us. It is possible that someone up the road may surpass him [Doktorski], but at this point, nobody has done so. The information he has dug up from multifarious sources—including remote sources—deserves heaps of praise. My review will praise him in every chapter reviewed. . . .

Chapter One has no flaws and is constructed in a superb way. It is well organized. It gives a significant amount of knowledge and information. It features important quotes. It deserves an A-plus grade. . . .

Allow me to also mention a side note: I myself am quoted extensively throughout E.N.E. By my rough calculation (and I am not going to put in extensive time to verify this calculation, obviously) only Prabhupada is quoted more than myself in E.N.E. This factored into my decision to produce this multi-part series. . . .

You can consider that an egotistical factor, but it is not so: The author has helped your host speaker’s mission by quoting and referencing me (in this particular work) as extensively as he has. As such, you could say, in part, that this multi-part series is an effort to show my appreciation to him for that seva. There is no doubt that my message has reached more devotees because of his first two books and my being quoted in them as extensively as I have been. As a reminder: E.N.E. is Doktorski’s second book. . . .

For the record, he excerpts twenty-two e-mails that he received from me between 2014-2019. I shall be reproducing some of those as we proceed, although the first of them is not published in the book until Chapter Three. He also culled out eight excerpts from my book Beyond Institutional Gurus, Initiations, and Party Men. . . .

In E.N.E., he included a biographical note early in the text. An excerpt from one of my prominent articles on a Vaishnava Foundation website is also brought forth. Aside from these, there is a description of who I am and what I do, along with a photo, at the end of the book; it is included along with other players in the saga in alphabetical order. . . .

You can slag this review if you so choose, but that will not make any such slime justified. E.N.E. is much more helpful than it is harmful. We can eliminate the lesser chaff and take advantage of all of the wheat that it offers.

To listen to Kailasa Chandra’s review of Chapters 1 and 2 from Eleven Naked Emperors, go to On and For the Record (Part 1 of the Review of Doktorski’s Eleven Naked Emperors)

To listen to Kailasa Chandra’s review of Chapter 3 from Eleven Naked Emperors, go to On and For the Record (Part 2 of the Review of Eleven Naked Emperors)

To listen to Kailasa Chandra’s review of Chapter 4 from Eleven Naked Emperors, go to On and For the Record (Part 3 of the Review of Eleven Naked Emperors)

To listen to Kailasa Chandra’s review of Chapter 5 from Eleven Naked Emperors, go to On and For the Record (Part 4 of the Review of Eleven Naked Emperors)

To listen to Kailasa Chandra’s review of Chapter 6 from Eleven Naked Emperors, go to On and For the Record (Part 5 of the Review of Eleven Naked Emperors)

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