KRISHNA DEVI DASI: If any devotee brings these original books onto temple property, the devotee will be banned from coming to the temple.
BY: KRISHNA DEVI DASI
Dec 19, 2010 — ALACHUA, FLORIDA, USA (SUN) — I – like Anon dasa and his wife – was also misled by the poster in the Alachua temple room into thinking that when I made my purchase of a case of Bhagavad-gitas, I was sponsoring Srila Prabhupada’s original books. It was only some days after I made my purchase that I found out that I had instead sponsored Jayadvaita Swami’s edited Gitas.
Other devotees informed me that they were also misled for the very same reasons: the way the poster has been designed for advertising sponsorship of the books, along with the fact that every time another case gets purchased, a picture of the cover of the unchanged Bhagavad-gita gets glued onto the board to indicate the purchase of another case. The whole presentation makes devotees believe the misrepresentation that it is these original books that we are purchasing.
One is left to conclude that that the person who designed this poster for advertising the sponsorship has purposely designed it to be misleading so devotees making purchases will think they are buying the unchanged books.
There is a sort of ‘humorous’ side to this poster though. Its designer forgot to put something in:
In large stenciled letters the slogans ‘Books are the basis, Utility is the principle, and Preaching is the essence’ were put on the poster. What the poster’s designer forgot to put in was ‘Purity is the force’. This was laughingly pointed out to several of us by one devotee who, considering all the factors, stated the appropriateness of this forgetfulness.
More than two weeks after the poster’s appearance in the temple room, along with our temple president’s many announcements for sponsoring cases of Bhagavad-gitas, some devotee wrote in by hand in magic marker, ‘Purity is the force’.
When I realized that I had been misled into purchasing Jayadvaita Swami’s editions of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita instead of the original Bhagavad-gitas, whose pictures were being shown on the poster, I was very upset to find that I had been duped. I should have known something was wrong because the policy of the Alachua temple authorities is that Srila Prabhupada’s original books are not to be brought on the premises. If any devotee brings these original books onto temple property, the devotee will be banned from coming to the temple.
I got duped by the poster. In seeing the pictures of the original Bhagavad-gita on the poster I thought that this policy got changed, but it hasn’t. I was wrong. As I’m sure was the intention, like other devotees, I got duped by the presentation. Hopefully all the purchasers of the 108 or more cases being bought will not be duped like those of us who were.
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