“Tact, Foresight, and Insight”

BY: GADADHARA DAS

Aug 23, 2010 — BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, USA (SUN) — I wonder why Srila Prabhupada did not appoint Jayadvaita to be a BBT trustee? After all, he was there all along as the 1970’s went by. Why did Srila Prabhupada pick Hansadutta to be a trustee of the BBT later on?

Why did he not pick Jayadvaita? After all, he was there at the time of this editing and he even edited some parts of Prabhupada’s books. Srila Prabhupada even let him lightly revise the 1972 edition of the Gita. Did He not trust Jayadvaita enough to make him a trustee?

Now that 30 plus years have gone by, we can see that Srila Prabhupada made certain decisions with an incredible foresight and precise keen tact. Just one example of many is: that he made an uninitiated elder Indian man the Headmaster of the Gurukula in Vrindavan. Some Gurukula teachers and students wondered why Srila Prabhupada did this… this man even revered Mayavadis. And of coarse, this was a brilliant move on Srila Prabhupada’s part! Look what happened when Bhavananda took over the Gurukula and kicked the elderly Indian man out of his job — that was the beginning of the now famous child abuse that has plagued ISKCON ever since.

Srila Prabhupada did what he did because he has tact, foresight, and insight. It is stated in the Srimad Bhagavatam that a confidential associate of Krishna is tri-kala-jnas – because he is the confidant of the Lord he also knows past, present and future.

“Those who have reached the highest perfectional stage of mystic power and can see everything in the past, present and future are called tri-kala-jnas. Similarly, the devotees of the Lord can see everything clearly that is in the revealed scriptures. The devotees of Lord Sri Krishna can very easily understand the science of Krishna, as well as the situation of the material and spiritual creations, without difficulty. Devotees do not have to endeavor for any yoga-siddhi, or perfection in mystic powers. They are competent to understand everything by the grace of the Lord, who is sitting in everyone’s heart.”
(Srimad Bhagavatam 3.11.17 Purport)

Prabhupada: “God can be realized through bhakti, surrender. Otherwise even it is realized, it is partial, not complete.[…] Bhakti… Just like I have got some official servant, and I have got very confidential servant. So to my confidential servant everything is disclosed. He knows everything. But official servant, he may not know everything. Therefore bhakti is the confidential part of understanding God. Otherwise they understand vaguely, impartially, not sufficiently. In the Bhagavad-gita there is a verse, mayy asakta-mana partha yoga yunjan mad-asraya…”
(October 21, 1975, Johannesburg)

“Nobody can understand Krishna without going through His most confidential servant. This is the meaning of this Vyasa-puja. You cannot surpass. If you think that you have become very learned and very advanced, now you can avoid the spiritual master and you understand Krishna, that is the bogus.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Atlanta, March 2, 1975)

So there may be some arguments about the editing being technically right or wrong, but Srila Prabhupada tactfully appointed Hansadutta as a lifetime BBT Trustee. Srila Prabhupada also tactfully wanted the BBT as a separate entity from ISKCON.

“This trust shall exist independently of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Trustees’ functions and duties stated herein shall be separate and not dependent on the Governing Body Commission of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.”
[Founding Document for the BBT, Purpose of Trust]

Yet historical facts prove that Jayadvaita does not care for Srila Prabhupada’s legal BBT Trust document. For years ISKCON has been operating the BBT as a DBA (BBTI) of an ISKCON organization based in LA, which is a highly illegal maneuver. The BBTI has taken the assets of the BBT (the license to print the books and right to use the profits) and are using them to print unauthorized editions of Srila Prabhupada’s books, Jayadvaita’s editions. Lets just face it, Jayadvaita has no proof that Srila Prabhupada wanted him to continue editing His books. He just has one quote wherein Srila Prabhupada writes that whatever Jayadvaita is doing [at that time!] is “approved”. There is no proof that Jayadvaita is “approved” to continue editing after 1977.

Another fact that proves that Jayadvaita doesn’t care for Srila Prabhupada’s instructions: In the out of court settlement for the BBTI vs. Hansadutta, Jayadvaita stationed himself as a trustee of the BBTI and therefore a trustee of the BBT. But the reality is that Srila Prabhupada appointed Hansadutta as a lifetime trustee for specific tactful reasons, just as He did not appoint Jayadvaita for tactful reasons. And we can see why He did not make Jayadvaita a Trustee, we end up with needless changes, or as Jayadvaita himself says “insignificant” changes.

[Ed. Note: Regarding Hansadutta’s dedication to the position Srila Prabhupada gave him as ‘lifetime’ trustee, on November 13, 1998, Hansadutta agreed to a court settlement that effectively terminated any claims he might have had to being a trustee of the BBT, conditional upon his receipt of an undisclosed cash settlement and license to publish the original, unrevised books of Srila Prabhupada. That license now rests with Krishna Books, Inc., where it is fortunately safeguarded from Hansadutta’s unsavory association.]

A confidential servant of the Lord knows everything; past, present, and future. Whatever He does is saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair, “as Good as God”. It is perfect and the method He uses to write books is also perfect.

Writing books is a multi sept art. The author writes and then the editor does his work. It inevitably ends up different then the original draft that the author writes or sometimes speaks into a dictaphone. Stephen King says that he owes it all to his editor because the editor brings out the things he wants to say even better than he could himself. Even after the editor edits, there is still another person who will go over it and look for small time spelling mistakes.

But supposing that another small time spell checker that Mr. King had go over the editor’s work for spelling errors, supposing he decided to take over the job of the chief editor and re-edit all his work? Mr. King would flip out! And if he was dead, he would roll over in his grave, as the old saying goes. This would obviously be ridiculous and never happen. But believe it or not, these ridiculous types of things happen in ISKCON.

In the case of Srila Prabhupada’s books, Jayadvaita was a small time spell checker who went over the chief editor’s work for small time mistakes, and at that time was authorized to do so. Unfortunately he was not very good at finding them because now he uses these 5 or 6 little typos that he missed as an excuse to re-edit the entire Bhagavad-gita book, so much so that 70 percent is not the same.

“On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world’s misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.”
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.11)

Hari-sauri: Sometimes there’s some discrepancy, two parties, that may both want to serve but they have different ways, different ideas how to execute the same order, so there may be some disagreement.
Srila Prabhupada: Service means you must take order from the master. Otherwise, it is mental concoction. Actually the servant requests, “How can I serve you?” So when the master orders, “You serve me like this,” then you do that, that is service. And if you manufacture your service, that is not service. That is your sense gratification. Yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasadah. You have to see how he is pleased. Now if he wants a glass of water and if you bring a nice glass of milk, you can say, “Milk is better than water. You take it.” That is not service. He wants water, you give him water. Don’t manufacture better thing.
(Paris, France on August 5, 1976)

“We have to do things now very dexterously, simply we have to see that in our book there is no spelling or grammatical mistake. We do not mind for any good style, our style is Hare Krishna, but still, we should not present a shabby thing. Although Krishna literatures are so nice that, even if they are presented in broken and irregular ways, such literatures are welcomed, read and respected by bona fide devotees.”
(Letter to Satsvarupa dated January 9, 1970)

According to the rule of Arsa Prayoga, one cannot see any defect in the writings of the spiritual master or the method used to create them, or make them more politically correct to suit the people. Jayadvaita certainly has violated this principle by meddling in Srila Prabhupada’s creation of the most precious books of knowledge known to mankind.