PAMHO AGTSP??

In this short article, adapted from a talk given on May 15th, 2018, Swami B.G. Narasiṅgha asks, “Is it correct to reduce the guru’s name to a mere acronym?” He reflects on the loss of dignity that comes from casual abbreviations such as PAMHO AGTSP and urges devotees to preserve the sanctity of the Vaiṣṇava tradition. This article is from the forthcoming publication, Prabhupāda Vijaya, Volume 2.

About fifteen years ago, I was having an email exchange with a godbrother from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and at a point in the conversation, he wrote, “SP said…” I looked at that and thought, “Who is SP?” Even back in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s time, devotees’ names were sometimes abbreviated. For example, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmī became ‘TKG’; Jayapatāka Swami became ‘JPS’; my name, Jagat-Guru Swami, became ‘JG Swami,’ etc. Everybody’s names were reduced to some initials. But when this godbrother wrote to me, I was wondering, “Who is SP?” Then I asked a devotee from ISKCON who was with me at the time, “Who is SP?” He replied, “Oh, that means ‘Śrīla Prabhupāda.’” Hearing that, I almost fell out of my chair. This got under my skin so much that I have never forgotten it, even to this day!

However, it has become common nowadays for devotees in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement to reduce Śrīla Prabhupāda’s name to SP, and to use the acronym PAMHO for ‘Please Accept My Humble Obeisances,’ as well as AGTSP for ‘All Glories To Śrīla Prabhupāda.’ 
Along with this, we find devotees using ‘BVT’ for Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, ‘BSST’ for Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, ‘GM’ for Guru Mahārāja, and ‘KC’ for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, etc.

Have we become so lazy that we can’t even take the time to write Śrīla Prabhupāda’s name anymore? Do we have to reduce the name of His Divine Grace to an acronym? I would dissuade devotees from using this acronym for Prabhupāda, and there’s a spiritual reason why.

By chanting and speaking the names of great Vaiṣṇavas, one becomes purified. I don’t know how much purification comes by typing ‘SP,’ but if one writes or types ‘Śrīla Prabhupāda,’ then there is some purification, however small it may be.

I’m sure many people will think this is ridiculous and that we are splitting hairs. That may be, but this ‘hair-splitting’ is what is constantly going on in the ever-changing Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Śrīla Prabhupāda himself said that constantly changing things was our ‘Western disease.’

When devotees wanted to make changes to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s garden in Vṛndāvana, he became angry and said, “You Americans ruin everything! When one of you comes, you change everything that the other one did. Then you go away, and another one of you comes and changes everything the other one did. Then he goes away, and another one comes and changes everything he did. Don’t change it – save it!”

So what am I trying to say? I’m saying that we should save the dignity of the sampradāya! I don’t think it’s very dignified to reduce Śrīla Prabhupāda’s name to ‘SP.’Did he ever refer to his spiritual master as ‘BSST’?

Someone may argue that Prabhupāda referred to himself as ‘A.C.,’ meaning Abhaya Caraṇāravinda. However, that is not an acronym – it is an initialism.

How does the Pope write letters? Generally, the Pope will start a letter, “May the Peace of Jesus Christ Be With You.” Can you imagine the Pope writing, “MTPOFJCBWY”? When the Pope refers to Jesus Christ, he writes, “Our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Would he ever refer to Jesus as ‘JC’? Can you imagine the Pope writing, “The life of JC has been inspiring to us all”? Even amongst members of the Mafia, they would never reduce the name of their Lord to ‘JC.’ Would the Dalai Lama talk about Buddha as ‘The Big B’?

Of course, in conversation, devotees do have the dignity of referring to Śrīla Prabhupāda as Śrīla Prabhupāda; but in writing, they often refer to him as SP.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja once stated that, in one sense, writing is a deeper form of meditation than chanting. It takes more concentration. When one is chanting, the mind may wander. Therefore, to write the name of a pure devotee could be said to be more purifying and may also be said to be a demonstration of one’s sincerity. Simply writing ‘SP’ shows a subtle lack of earnestness.

We can be lackadaisical enough to just write ‘SP’ in place of Śrīla Prabhupāda, but simultaneously declare boldly how Śrīla Prabhupāda is the greatest devotee, the senāpati-bhakta, the yugācārya, etc. If all these things are true, then with folded hands, we humbly ask devotees to refrain from reducing such a great personality to the mere acronym “SP,” and to stop using PAMHO and AGTSP as the devotional exchange between one Vaiṣṇava and another.

If you don’t even have time to type the full thing, then don’t bother! Just go on saying what you have to say. This sort of reductionism simply diminishes the standard of dignity that should be upheld by Vaiṣṇavas.

Related Krishna Talk Articles

📖 Prabhupāda Vijaya (Book) Is Śrīla Prabhupāda the Standard? by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja My Guru is Rādhārāṇī by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja Become Guru! by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja Purport to Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlā Smaraṇa-Maṅgala Stotram by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja Mahāprabhu as Prabhupāda by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja How Great is Śrīla Prabhupāda? by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja A Few Words on the Rasa of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the ‘Suicide Squad’ by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja The Prākṛta and Aprākṛta-līlā of Śrī Guru by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja The Golden Age of the Saṅkīrtana Movement by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja Bhaktivedānta by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja The Disappearance of a Śaktyāveśa-avatāra by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja PAMHO AGTSP?? by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja Śrīla Prabhupāda – A Second Generation Devotee’s Perspective by Gaura Gopāla Dāsa