By Madhava Smullen, ISKCON News, on 16 Sep 2011
Devotees in Tomsk, Siberia, are currently in court fighting an attempt by the Russian government’s Federal Security Service (FSB) to prove that Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is is an extremist literature that should be banned.
It all began in May 2010, when an officer of the Tomsk FSB division approached Sergey S. Avanesov, the dean of the philosophy department at Tomsk University, and asked him for his “expert assessment” of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
Interestingly, Avanesov also teaches at the Russian Orthodox Church’s Tomsk Seminary. And in 2009, when the new patriarch was elected, he was one of the four representatives of the Tomsk diocese at the Church’s Council.
“It’s clear that the attempt to ban Bhagavad-gita is an effort to establish the religious monopoly of the Russian Orthodox Church,” comments Vackresvari Dzyubenko, a concerned Russian devotee living in Mayapur, India.
From May until October 2010, Avanesov and two other professors at Tomsk University worked on their assessment of the Bhagavad-gita.
Then in June 2011 a public prosecutor named Viktor Fedotov—once again on the request of the FSB—sent an application to the Leninskiy district court in Tomsk, asking to declare the third Russian edition of Bhagavad Gita As It Is an extremist literature.
During the hearings that followed, it became clear that the prosecutors had no objective proof for their case.
“Fedotov failed to answer the simple question, ‘Who will become inimical, and towards whom, after reading Bhagavad-gita As It Is?’” says Akincana Vitta Dasa of the North European BBT, publishers of the Gita. “And when two Orthodox Christian scholars were interviewed in court, even they answered explicitly that there were no extremist ideas in Bhagavad-gita As It Is.”
After three hearings, on August 12th, August 18th, and August 29th to 30th of this year, the court found Avanesov’s team unqualified and the results of their examinations inconclusive.
Sergey S. Avanesov (on the far right) failed to provide objective proof that the Bhagavad-gita As It Is was extremist literature
“However, the FSB—who had a representative present at all the hearings—as well as the anti-cultists from the Russian Orthodox Church are trying to attain their goal by all means,” says Akincana Vitta. “So the court has now called for three other “experts” from the University of Kemerovo, another Siberian city, to make their own psychological, religious, and linguistic assessment of the Gita.”
It’s not encouraging that this group previously deemed other religious groups’ spiritual literatures to be extremist, including the Jehovah’s Witnesses’, and succeeded in getting them banned.
In response, ISKCON’s legal team, including ISKCON Tomsk’s lawyer Alexander Shahov, and ISKCON Russia’s head lawyer Maha-Balarama Dasa, suggested that the assessment be carried out by more qualified professors in Moscow or Ekaterinburg. Their request, however, was denied.
The University of Kemerovo professors will have three months to carry out their assessment, and the next hearing will take place in Tomsk in early December.
Meanwhile, ISKCON’s defense has contacted independent experts who will also present their own assessment.
If ISKCON loses the case, devotees will be forbidden to publish, distribute and keep the third Russian edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. On the positive side, the BBT would be free to simply publish a new Russian edition of the book that would not be subject to the court-ordered prohibition. However, ISKCON devotees and all other followers of Hinduism would still be labeled “extremists,” which is a serious concern.
“Recently a court in Russia declared the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ literatures to be extremist, on the recommendation of the same Kemerovo University professors that are currently assessing the Bhagavad-gita,” Akincana explains. “And as a result, police are now raiding the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses all over the country, and criminally prosecuting them when they find the ‘offending’ literatures. In a town called Taganrog, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ local religious organization has been officially banned, and their temple building confiscated by the State.”
While such prosecution of devotees by the government is a very real concern should the Bhagavad-gita be declared extremist literature, the court case has elicited the support of the media and of local and international politicians.
News articles with headings along the lines of “Court Case Over Indian Holy Book Has Dishonored Tomsk to the Whole World” abound, even on Tomsk’s official news site. Various democratic freedom fighters have written in favor of ISKCON and the Bhagavad-gita, including Former World Chess Champion and current political activist Garry Kasparov.
At the recent Janmastami celebrations at ISKCON Moscow, Mr. Ajai Malhotra, the new Indian Ambassador to the Russian Federation, called the Bhagavad-gita “Perhaps the most important scripture that you can find in the world,” and said that through Lord Krishna’s message to Arjuna it teaches us selfless service to God and humanity.
He added, “The translation by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, is, I believe, one of the best that you can find, because he gives you the words, the meanings, and the options to understand it as it was written—not through any intermediaries.”
This statement was met with rapturous applause from the devotees, as well as from the Nepali and Mauritian ambassadors, who attend the Moscow Janmastami every year.
Public support of ISKCON is also at an all-time high as a result of the court case.
“People are disgusted with the Orthodox Church attacking all other religious groups,” Akincana says. “They say that having a court case against a book is crazy and shameful and brings us back to the Middle Ages—especially since the case is against a book that is accepted as a holy scripture by hundreds of millions.”
He adds: “Another interesting twist is that all this commotion around the Bhagavad-gita As It Is has been a great advertisement for it! Many people who were not interested in it before, are going out and buying it because they are intrigued and want to see what all the fuss is about.”
Still, the future of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is and those who follow its teachings in Russia is now uncertain.
“We request everyone to please sincerely pray to Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, Sri Sri Pancha-tattva and Lord Nrisimhadeva,” says Vackresvari Dasi, “To protect Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita and the Russian Vaishnava Community.”
If it is a bogus translation, then banning it might not be so tragic.
Read the following to find out the sort of tricks the Russian translators use.
(From, IRM NEWSLETTER No.58, 12TH DECEMBER 2002.)
In late 1996, a book that exposed the ISKCON GBC Guru hoax was published. “The Final Order” (henceforward referred to as ‘TFO’) included signed legal documentation from Srila Prabhupada which had up to that point been suppressed from many devotees. The evidence presented in TFO established beyond doubt that Srila Prabhupada intended to remain the sole Diksa (Initiating) Guru for all future generations of ISKCON devotees. In her Foreword to TFO, ISKCON academic and Head of Religious Studies at the University of Leeds in the UK, Professor Kim Knott, recommended that the book should be
“read carefully and discussed widely…because the profound issues it raises demand consideration at all levels. Every devotee has a real stake in the matter.”
Needless to say, TFO created a storm in the ISKCON world and after unsuccessful attempts at censoring its distribution (contrary to the advice of Prof. Knott), the GBC was forced to publish a response. The result was the GBC paper “Disciple of My Disciple” (henceforward referred to as ‘DOMD’).
So replete was DOMD with contradictions, false claims and ‘straw man’ arguments that it was embarrassingly easily to defeat on every level. Indeed, this is exactly what the “The Final Order Still Stands”, the rebuttal to DOMD, achieved; the rebuttal can be read at the following website address: http://www.iskconirm.com/final_order_still_stands.htm or by accessing the ‘GBC Body’ section of the matrix on our homepage. Here is one example of DOMD’s creative interpretation of an extract from the famous May 28th, 1977 conversation:
Satsvarupa das Goswami: So they may also be considered your disciples.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, they are disciples. Why consider? Who?
In its analysis of this extract, the GBC authors of DOMD (Umapati Swami et al.) stated:
“Satsvarupa Maharaja again suggests the possibility of proxy initiation. Srila Prabhupada could say yes, but he does not.” (DOMD, p.7)
Although Srila Prabhupada clearly does say “yes” in response to Satsvarupa’s question, the authors pretend he says “no”, and hope no one would notice!
While the GBC was thus struggling to offer an intelligent response to TFO, TFO itself was breaking new ground and making converts all over the world to the IRM’s mission of restoring Srila Prabhupada as the Diksa Guru of ISKCON. Indeed, TFO was printed as a paperback book in Russian and began to be widely distributed all over the former Soviet Union. To counter this threat the GBC decided to also translate DOMD into Russian. But having seen how the English version was hopeless in countering TFO, this time they decided to give it some help, by deliberately manufacturing new versions of the most crucial pieces of evidence regarding Srila Prabhupada’s desire for a ritvik system in ISKCON:
a) the July 9th 1977 institutional directive personally signed by Srila Prabhupada,
b) the July 7th 1977 garden conversation which precedes it;
c) and the May 28th 1977 conversation.
We give below examples of this falsifying of evidence, with the correct English versions of these pieces of evidence, which even the GBC’s official papers agree with, followed by the doctored versions presented in the Russian translation of DOMD, with the changes highlighted in CAPITALS:
July 7th Conversation
REAL VERSION:
“Five, six men … they divide who is nearest.”
GBC VERSION:
“Five, six men … they need to *CHOOSE* who is nearest.”
Here Srila Prabhupada talks about the Ritviks being divided up around the world to cover the geographical areas nearest to them. The GBC translation however changes this to the idea that the Ritviks have to be specifically chosen by others, rather like a disciple specifically chooses a spiritual master, rather than just accepting any ritvik whoever happens to be nearest, which was what was actually intended by Srila Prabhupada.
REAL VERSION:
“So there’s no need for devotees to write to you for first and second initiation. They can write to the man nearest them.”
GBC VERSION:
“So there’s no need for devotees to write to you in order to get first and second initiation. They can write to the *SENIOR DEVOTEE* nearest them.”
The word ‘man’ has unnecessarily been changed to ‘senior devotee’ to give an extra boost to the status of the ritvik.
REAL VERSION:
“But all these persons are still your disciples.”
GBC VERSION:
ABOVE PHRASE COMPLETELY OMITTED!!
This of course is the most shocking change of all. In the conversation the above key question is asked by Tamal Krishna Goswami to Srila Prabhupada, to which Srila Prabhupada replies “yes”, making it clear that those who are given names by the ritviks are still SRILA PRABHUPADA’S initiated disciples. By deliberately omitting this phrase, the GBC are trying their best to cover up this key fact.
REAL VERSION:
“Is there someone else in India that you want to do this?”
GBC VERSION:
“Is there someone else in India that you want to *INITIATE*?”
The phrase ‘do this’ has been changed to ‘initiate’ to again give the impression that we are dealing more with ‘guru’ type figures than mere functionaries.
July 9th Directive
REAL VERSION:
“His Divine Grace has *SO FAR* given a list…”
GBC VERSION:
“His Divine Grace has given a list…”
In referring to the list of ritviks the phrase ‘so far’ has been omitted so as to not convey the fact that it was intended to increase the number of ritviks, and thus the initial list of eleven devotees were not some specially selected ‘exclusive few’.
REAL VERSION:
“…soon He would appoint some of His senior disciples to act as ‘ritvik’ – representative of the acarya, *FOR THE PURPOSE OF* performing initiations…”
GBC VERSION:
“…soon He would appoint some of His senior disciples as ‘ritviks’ – representatives of the acarya, who will perform initiations…”
The phrase “for the purpose of” has been replaced with “who will”, again a subtle shift to give the Ritviks more of a direct ‘Guru’ type role rather than their actual FUNCTIONAL role.
May 28th Conversation
REAL VERSION:
“I shall recommend some of you. After this is settled up”
GBC VERSION
“I *AM* recommending some of you, After this is settled up”
Here the future selection of ritviks referred to is changed to a selection that is happening right there and then on the May 28th tape. This is because only one future selection ever takes place, which is in the July 9th directive, and which is of Ritviks only.
By implying this selection is happening on the tape itself, the impression is being given that Gurus are being selected because Srila Prabhupada mentions the ‘Guru’ word later on in the tape.
The Russian DOMD also contains deliberately mistranslated portions of TFO which are originally quoted verbatim in the English version of DOMD.
As anyone who reads the changes above will conclude, the above subtle and some not so subtle changes are all designed to give the impression that the Ritvks are actually more akin to ‘Guru’ figures than mere officiators. And remember the “REAL VERSION” quotes are agreed on by the GBC in their original ENGLISH language papers, so their is no dispute that the above represents blatant cheating on the part of the GBC.
Clearly the GBC thought that since they were translating the documents into a foreign language they would escape the attention of our eagle eyes, and thus they could engage in this mass deception of the innocent Russian devotees! [..]
So what we are dealing with is a blatant case of the worst kind of GBC cheating; namely, changing the sacred instructions of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the current GBC is sometimes referred to as the KGBC. Like the infamous Russian Secret Police force, they think nothing of distorting the truth through false propaganda and historical revisionism if it suits their own purposes.