httpv://youtu.be/WdvO0jcuQ_M
video: Govinda dasi, ACBSP
Dear BTG Editors,
I always appreciate Back to Godhead, and when I receive a new issue, I read it cover to cover, and delight in the realizations, writings, and editorial skills of my many wonderful Godbrothers and Godsisters.
However, one article in your recent issue troubles me greatly. In “The Seven Wonders of Word”, the translation of the Siksastaka is quite different from Srila Prabhupada’s translation.
Instead of saying, “The sankirtan movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge…” it says “It is the life and soul of all education.”
The meaning is changed; it is not as Srila Prabhupada translated it. Education is a mundane concept; transcendental knowledge is not.
Lord Chaitanya’s Sikshastak is the sacred core of our entire Krishna Consciousness philosophy; it is at the very heart of everything Srila Prabhupada taught. His beautifully eloquent translation of Lord Chaitanya’s Sikshastak has appeared in his books, his lectures, conversations and writings numerous times. At no time did he ever translate “transcendental knowledge” as “education.” The meaning is quite different. The understanding is therefore quite different from what Srila Prabhupada expressed.
Srila Prabhupada started Back to Godhead magazine in 1944; it is his own magazine. It should remain faithful to his own way of teaching Krishna consciousness. If someone wants to change, alter, clarify, recreate, or otherwise “improve upon” Srila Prabhupada’s teachings, they should do so elsewhere.
They should not enter into the sacred territory of his own BTG– or the sacred territory of his books either. It is like the young impertinent student standing before his teacher and saying, “I know how to say this better than you do.” This intellectual leprosy is already eating away at the core of our movement in other areas. Please do not allow it to contaminate his much-loved Back to Godhead magazine.
Thank you for your understanding and consideration,
Your servant, Govinda dasi, ACBSP
The word “education” is indeed from Prabhupada’s original translation. Nothing was changed.
It is true that the 1975 edition of Caitanya Caritamrta translates the verse this way, including “life and soul of all education.”
Whether it is “original” or not is really irrelevant. Srila Prabhupada may have translated it as “the life of transcendental knowledge” before he translated it as “the life and soul of all education.” The point is, both are directly Srila Prabhupada’s translations. Govinda Dasi is once again mistaken on the facts.
Anti-intellectual leprosy may be as dangerous as “intellectual leprosy”. Srila Prabhupada gave us books. He gave us word-for-word translations. He gave us transcendental knowledge. He gave us education.
Yes, a meek and humble disciple should always feel himself a fool before his spiritual master. That does not mean he should actually be a fool. Srila Prabhupada wanted us to study his books, to learn the word meanings, to learn the verses in the original Sanskrt and Bengali languages as far as possible.
It is not that you have to know Sanskrt to be a pure devotee, but if we want to carry out Srila Prabhupada’s movement successfully some of us are going to have to be proficient in knowing his books thoroughly.
When I previously asked Govinda Dasi to direct the discussion of editing to specific changes and comparisons of not just earlier editions but also original manuscripts or transcripts to see whether the earlier editors had obscured Srila Prabhupada’s meaning, she declined, saying she neither had the time or energy nor the scholarly aptitude for such a pursuit.
But here we see the result. She once again goes off half-cocked and makes a factual error, not realizing that “education” is the way the verse was translated in the 1975 edition of Caitanya Caritamrta.
Those who have studied Srila Prabhupada’s books carefully and learned the verses by heart hear how he is regularly paraphrasing verses from Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam in different ways throughout his lectures and conversations. For those with such vision, it is not shocking to hear a verse translated in more than one way.
Here is another thing about this phrase in the first verse of Siksasthakam: the word “vadhu” is given in the word meanings as “wife”. “Vidya-vadhu-jivanam” includes the metaphor of comparing Sankirtan to a wife of vidya, but the actual verse translation does not bring out that meaning. Often the Sanskrt slokas are packed with so many metaphors and poetic images that they pose a challenge when translating them into English.
Here, Lord Caitanya has used the word “vadhu”, wife. It is not “over-intelligent” of us to note and appreciate this, even though Srila Prabhupada (as far as I know) did not elaborate on this. He gave it to us in the word-for-word. Bhaktivinoda Thakur has elaborated on it. We do not have to be ignorant of Sanskrt to be faithful to Srila Prabhupada (though we should never be puffed up).
Jayadvaita Swami did a tremendous service by editing the 1983 edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, correcting many mistakes to bring it much closer to Srila Prabhupada’s actual intention. It is a shame that anti-intellectuals who appeal to sentiments rather than facts and scholarship continue to malign this faithful, careful, intelligent and highly respectable senior godbrother.
As a matter of fact. Jayadvaita Swami is one of the main players in the selfmade line of bhogus gurus. Thus he is a liar and as such has no right to change anything. Any sane man in the world would not change a single word in those great living books of His Guru which allready in the 70’s have won the hearts of the readers all over the world, which were widely studied by scholars and students in excelent universities, and so on. No one except a fame hungry fool would do this. He himself admitted to not have any authorisation from Srila Prabhupada for doing this. Govinda dasi may be or not be wrong as to this particular wording in Sri Siksashtaka, but Jayadvaita should be known for the devil’s work he does, in this he may be certainly called the senior devil’s devotee and advocate.
bj
One would do well to read again , and again Akruranath prabhu’s excellent comment above , as he has delineated the true situation of the BBT Edits with superb scholarship and true clarity .
>>>Jayadvaita Swami did a tremendous service by editing the 1983 edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, correcting many mistakes to bring it much closer to Srila Prabhupada’s actual intention. It is a shame that anti-intellectuals who appeal to sentiments rather than facts and scholarship continue to malign this faithful, careful, intelligent and highly respectable senior godbrother.<<<
As for bhakta Jerek 's comment – I find it hard to believe he can have the gall to use terms like Matter of fact , sane , etc., as it is obvious that he has lost sight of anything close to that in his blasphemy of Jayadwaita Swami with words , such as liar and Devil's Work ; and , in his blasphemy of Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON, his GBC , and the Worldwide Assembled Vaishnavas. There is NO "Self-made , line of bogus gurus " , in ISKCON. Prabhupada's GBC is not perfect , but they are in fact sincerely doing their best , and with Srila Prabhupada's Given and historically recorded Authority, and trying sincerely to preserve and spread Srila Prabhupada's Movement ,even in the face of a constant attack , libel ,slander , and onslought , such as bhakta jerk's deluded comment above , which can only be described as vicious and wicked . He would do well to remember Lord Chaitanya's reaction to Vaishnava Aparadha , whenever He heard of it . Let's see ,…another 10 million births in this material world , may , just may put you back on earth in a human birth sometime in the middle of the next Kali Yuga ., If you are lucky !
You should feel ashamed , and you should seek – out and pray to receive forgiveness from the very devotees whom you so shamelessly slur . Hare Krishna !
I don’t know you prabhu with the name Sevananda das, I guess you are one of the so called disciples/ or Co. brothers in/of the bhogus FISKCON gurus line. I understand however your institutionally driven emotions. It is like to be in a cinema and watch a nice science fiction movie, you have your fun and sense of taking part in the wonderful adventure, but when the light turnes on the illusion vanish. Personally I have met JAS in about 1988 in Amsterdam, it was an unbearable experience to see and hear such an unbelivably puff up lunatic and impersonal type of person. My duty is to say the truth, and the truth is that changing books of the Acarya is a crime from any point of view(wake up we speak about 5000 changes in BG AsIt Is). I will never bow down to those rascals and demons! Never again! I ope Krishna forgives me sometime that I have worked hard like an ass and supported this rascal and his friends for so many years.
y.s. bj
Tremendous devotional, almost unhuman and unprecendented work done by Sriman Madhudvisa prabhu (must see and study under; http://bookchanges.com/ ) leaves no slightest doubt as to the criminal nature and intentions of the BBTI with full support of the gundas from GBC of West Bengal inc. of the changes to Srila Prabhupada monumental works. There is a plot going on since the year of 1970 when a great sinister society entered the sacred ISKCON movement to eradicate Srila Prabhupada personally and His divine teachings through a whole complexity of deviant demoniac activities of which the second (after poisoning SrilPrabhupada and force Him to leave)most important is the devaluation of His position and authority under different names and so called strategies of preaching. All of them are ignorant products of maya. Simple proof is that they are massively changing the words of the Acarya and thus creating doubts, fractions and schism, and finally completely disrupting the authority of those divine law books for the mankind.
y.s. bj
Bhakta Jerek says, “Govinda dasi may be or not be wrong as to this particular wording in Sri Siksashtaka…”
If you really care to know whether she is wrong, just look at the 1975 edition of Caitanya Caritamrta. Then you should admit, “Govinda dasi is definitely wrong as to this particular instance.”
But we can see in the rest of Bhakta Jerek’s comments, his interest is not really in responsible editing, but in guru parampara ideology, a completely separate issue. He is emotionally invested in rejecting the authority of ISKCON leadership, and those party politics motivate and cloud his assessment of the editing issue.
Therein lies the problem: He does not really care whether Govinda dasi is right in this case. The actual details of specific editorial revisions are completely irrelevant to him. Editing is just a tail that wags the dog of a greater political disaffection with ISKCON, its leadership, its parampara, its managers. As an ideologue, he is not willing to let facts get in the way of a good story.
The same is true of the ritvik Madhudvisa (not the American devotee who was directly initiated by Srila Prabhupada). While he makes a big show of identifying changes, his motivation is purely ideological. He does not want to engage in a scholarly analysis of the validity of specific revisions. He has already predetermined that every revision should be vilified. “Party spirit” and partisan advocacy are his modus operandi. He is emotionally committed to the view that ISKCON’s leadership is corrupt, and that sentiment interferes with any accurate assessment of whether the posthumous editing was done well or poorly. The fact that it was done at all serves his purpose of trying to demonstrate that those who condone it are actually disloyal to Srila Prabhupada. As an objective analyst of what revisions were made and why, he is useless. His analysis is abysmal and absurd.
In my experience, those who take a hard line against posthumous editing (including Govinda dasi) quickly admit that certain changes should have been made posthumously when they are confronted with specific instances of clear and egregious mistakes by previous editors.
It then should become a question of going through the specific revisions and deciding whether they were ones that Srila Prabhupada would or would not want the BBT to make.
All the rhetoric about how “a pure devotees work should never be edited” completely ignores the fact that Srila Prabhupada *insisted* that his work be edited, and edited well. When he found that his editors made mistakes or did not correct mistakes from the manuscripts, he frequently chastised them and insisted that the books have to be published to a very high standard.
All this “conspiracy theory” rhetoric that the editing was done somehow to justify deviations of a corrupt ISKCON leadership is ignorant and foolish and does not withstand scrutiny. No one should be taken in by such demagogues. Go to http://www.bbtedit.com and examine individual changes and you will see how silly and unrealistic such accusations are.
Preserving Srila Prabhupada’s literary legacy is an important question that should be addressed on its own merits by those with sufficient interest and scholarly attention to detail to at least understand the questions and specific judgments involved. It should not be a political football kicked around by ideological partisans on different sides of the “ritvik” v. “traditional parampara” debate, especially by those who are barely interested in actually studying Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Akruranath das is trying hard but the fact is none wants to read those over intelligently changed books, none want’s to sell or buy them neither. Your talk sounds smootly as if nothing happened since Prabhupada was poisoned by some of the imposters zonals and their supporters. Simple thing is there is no sense to make changes to something which works perfectly well, of course unless there is a conspiracy to stop this. Conspiracy is the word His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada uses most commonly when refering to hostile acts of atacking Krishna and His devotees at least in the pre 1977 printed books. Jayadvaita Swami and his friends logic is twisted and dubious exactly the opposit to what constitutes the simplicity and honesty in the behaviour of a devotee, therefore their actions should be immediately rejected. And by the way isn’t the whole JAS just a false voted in so called guru clown in the line of the false zonal acaryas? What authority may have such a fool even though dressed as a vaishnava??
y.s. bj
Sevananda das says
>>>Jayadvaita Swami did a tremendous service by editing the 1983 edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, correcting many mistakes to bring it much closer to Srila Prabhupada’s actual intention. It is a shame that anti-intellectuals who appeal to sentiments rather than facts and scholarship continue to malign this faithful, careful, intelligent and highly respectable senior godbrother.<<<
Akruranatha Das says,
All this “conspiracy theory” rhetoric that the editing was done somehow to justify deviations of a corrupt ISKCON leadership is ignorant and foolish and does not withstand scrutiny. No one should be taken in by such demagogues. Go to http://www.bbtedit.com and examine individual changes and you will see how silly and unrealistic such accusations are.
Okay then, Lets take one example of the changes made in the Bhagavat gita by this fellow Jayadvaita Swami.
Original verse –
"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from
him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can
impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth" – Chapter 4, verse 34
Changed to
"1) Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from
him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can
impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth."
– chapter 4, verse 34
To both Sevananda das and Akruranatha dasa, please enlighten us with your scholarly understanding, why the need to change the word self-realized soul to self-realized souls and the word he to they by this fellow Jayadvaita Swami. Are these words grammatical / spelling errors or this is not what Srila Prabhupada meant or intended to say in his original translation of the Bhagavat gita.
Hare Krsna.
Thank You o Lord for the miracle of internet, In the dark cold winter of 1986 I was serving for the first time in my life to Lord Krishna (was I?) on an (F)ISKCON farm project(at least we were told it was ISKCON, later on after also much of my own savings and work were put into the into it the whole thing disappeared,… familiar to you FISKCON-ities?) we were told that a great devotee Kirtanananda Swami was hit by a demon on head and almost died. We were told to pray regularly Narasimha prayer for saving him from death. So we did. Just imagine! After meating the greatest devotee ever in form of His books, after deciding to serve Him we were immediately caught and engaged by those GBC demons and our Hurry cash zonal demon to pray for another demon and child molester from West Viriginia. But how the hell would we ever expected all of this to be fraud and conspiracy behind the Iron curtain in communist country like Poland of 1986?! Some months later the GBC gangsters were forced by insiders due to pressure of bad publicity got rid of Keith King the Raper, Pimp and devotee killer. Now, today most of his friends and sycophants are enjoying guru posts or high economic and social status in the Fake ISKCON ! And such fools are changing the books of the Acarya. This is Kali Yuga ! No chance to escape! The rascals will get you everywhere, besides You allways chant and carefully hear HAre Krishna! Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
y.s.bj no ritvik
ALL GLORIES TO HIS DIVINE GRACE A.C.BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI SRILA PRABHUPADA! I agree 100% with Bhakta Jarek’s quote above ‘Any sane man in the world would not change a word in those great living books of his Guru which already in the ’70s have won the hearts of the readers all over the world,which were widely studied by scholars and students in excellent universities,and so on.’–In the real world-wide community of devotees,Jayadvaita Swami’s distorted editions of SRILA PRABHUPADA’s Books have been totally rejected as bogus.Some few within ISKCON may still prefer these books—but actual followers of HIS DIVINE GRACE reject them unconditionally.The changed books are not needed,not wanted,and not actually anything like SRILA PRABHUPADA’s Books.They are the product of a conditioned soul,with all the defects one would expect from mundane scholarship. LONG LIVE THE REAL UNCHANGED BOOKS OF HIS DIVINE GRACE A.C.BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI SRILA PRABHUPADA! JAI RADHE!
I think my comment is in the end not clear, instead of besides should be unless in the following sentence:The rascals will get you everywhere, unless You allways chant and carefully hear HAre Krishna! Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
y.s.bj no ritvik
The whole after change;Thank You o Lord for the miracle of internet, In the dark cold winter of 1986 I was serving for the first time in my life to Lord Krishna (was I?) on an (F)ISKCON farm project(at least we were told it was ISKCON, later on after also much of my own savings and work were put into the into it the whole thing disappeared,… familiar to you FISKCON-ities?) we were told that a great devotee Kirtanananda Swami was hit by a demon on head and almost died. We were told to pray regularly Narasimha prayer for saving him from death. So we did. Just imagine! After meeting the greatest devotee ever in form of His books, after deciding to serve Him we were immediately caught and engaged by those GBC demons and our Hurry cash zonal demon to pray for another demon and child molester from West Viriginia. But how the hell would we ever expect all of this to be fraud and conspiracy behind the Iron curtain in communist country like Poland of 1986?! Some months later the GBC gangsters were forced by insiders due to pressure of bad publicity got rid of Keith King the Raper, Pimp and devotee killer. Now, today most of his friends and sycophants are enjoying guru posts or high economic and social status in the Fake ISKCON ! And such fools are changing the books of the Acarya. This is Kali Yuga ! No chance to escape! The rascals will get you everywhere, unless You always chant and carefully hear Hare Krishna! Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
y.s.bj no ritvik
Akrurantha wrote:
“All this “conspiracy theory” rhetoric that the editing was done somehow to justify deviations of a corrupt ISKCON leadership is ignorant and foolish and does not withstand scrutiny.”
And then goes on to admonish…
“Therein lies the problem: He does not really care whether Govinda dasi is right in this case. The actual details of specific editorial revisions are completely irrelevant to him…. As an ideologue, he is not willing to let facts get in the way of a good story.”
My comment: a little effort and Akrurantha could have avoided the committing the same error he just accused G.dasi of. But, as an ideologue, what can we expect?
I reference the changes to CC Adi 1, (reproduced below) as well as Dravida das PUBLIC “explanation” provided to the Sampradaya Sun.
THE CHANGE UP
“Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura accepted Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji, who *initiated* Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, who in turn initiated Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji”
In the new BBT doctored 9-volume edition, the same passage reads:
“Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura accepted Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji, the spiritual master of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, who in turn accepted Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji”
THE EXCUSE:
(BBT Editor, Dravida Dasa’s submission to the Sampradaya Sun website)
“On the side of not changing the “initiated” phrases we have the strong bias against changing the books unless absolutely necessary and the fact that Srila Prabhupada did indeed say that Jagannatha das Babaji initiated Bhaktivinode….
…. Leaving one or both “initiated”s will strongly imply that the use of the phrases “direct disciple” and even “accepted [as his disciple]” indicate formal initiation as we know it in ISKCON, which is far from the truth…
… This last was the weightiest argument, in my view, for changing the passage.” END QUOTE.
For the “thinking impaired”, I provide the following link where they may find a perfectly good analysis of why this is particular change and excuse is completely unacceptable.
http://krishna.org/bbt-admits-books-changed-to-fit-gbc-philosophy/
AKRURANATH PRABHU, YOU SHOULD CEASE TO REPRESENT YOUR “SHADY” CLIENT AS SOON AS THEY STOP PAYING YOU.
I WAS HEAVILY INVOLVED WITH THE PRINTING, ILLUSTRATING, AND PUBLISHING SRILA PRABHUPADA’S BOOKS AS EARLY AS 1969, AND FROM 1975 TO 1980, I DESIGNED AND SUPERVISED EACH AND EVERY ILLUSTRATION FOR SRILA PRABHUPADA’S BOOKS.
IN ADDITION, I WAS NEVER A “BLIND FOLLOWER” OF SRILA PRABHUPADA, MEANING THAT I ALWAYS KEPT MY EYES AND EARS OPEN FOR THE LARGEST ISSUES AS WELL AS THE SMALLEST DETAIL. (BELIEVE ME, SOME OF THE “SMALLEST DETAILS” WERE MONIUMENTAL IN THEIR SIGNIFICANCE AND GRAVITAS).
SO I HAVE BEEN AWARE FROM THE BEGINNING WHO IT WAS WHICH IKCON “AUTHORITIES” ATTEMPTED “EVERY WHICH WAY” TO CHANGE SRILA PRABHUPADA’S BOOKS EVEN FROM THE BEGINNING, AND I WAS PERSONALLY PRESENT WHEN SP STATED MANY AND MANY A TIME THAT HOWEVER HAYAGRIVA EDITED HIS BOOKS CANNOT AND MUST NOT BE CHANGED.
THERE WERE MANY WHO FELT THAT THEY HAD SUPERIORITY OF “AUTHENTICITY” OVER SRILA PRABHUPADA, AND OF COURSE, THESE MEN PREVAILED AFTER SP’S UNTIMELY “DEATH”.
WHILE DESIGNING ILLUSTRATIONS FOR THE SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM, I WAS IN CONSTANT CONTACT WITH SRILA PRABHUPADA REGARDING EVERY DETAIL OF THE STRUCTURE APPEARANCE AND CONTENT OF HIS BOOKS. (AT THAT TIME, JAYADVAITA WAS DOING “SOMETHING ELSE”)
SO, AKRURANATH PRABHU,…YOU CAN FOOL YOURSELF, AND YOU CAN (AND HAVE) FOOLED OTHERS, BUT YOU CANNOT IN ANY WAY FOOL ME DUE TO THE SIMPLE FACT THAT I WAS THERE EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, AND IN ALL THE MAJOR CITIES OF THE WORLD, I WAS PRESENT FOR SRILA PRABHUPADA’S OUTRAGE AT HOW HIS BOOKS WERE CHANGED EVEN WHILE HE WAS ON THIS PLANET. AND HIS REPEATED REQUEST?…..”CHANGE IT BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS IN THE NEXT SPRINTING”……
SO, YOUR ARGUMENT IS ALL CONCOCTED “HORSE PUCKY”…BECAUSE YOU CANNOT FOOL ME BECAUSE I WAS THERE EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.
YOU, (BY CONTFAST) WERE NOT THERE AT ALL, SO ALL YOU KNOW OF THE “CRIME OF THE YUGA” IS WHAT YOU WERE PAID TO HEAR BY THE CRIMINAL BOOK CHANGERS THEMSELVES.
I AM SURE THAT YOU KNOW RIGHT WELL, THAT FOR EVERY “GRAMATICAL CHANGE” OR “TYPO”THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO DOZEN “CHANGES” THAT RADICALLY MODIFY THE MEANING AND CONTENT OF SRILA PRABHUPADA’S BOOKS.
AND AS AN ATTORNEY YOU ARE WITHOUT DOUBT AWARE THAT TO “CHANGE” A COPYRIGHTED WORK OF A GIVEN AUTHOR WITHOUT HIS WRITTEN CONSENT AS TO THE CHANGES, AND WORST OF ALL, THE CHANGES ARE MADE “BLINDLY” WITHOUT FOOTNOTES, ANNOTATIONS OR APPENDICES TO EXPLAIN WHAT WAS CHANGED AND WHY YOU AN ATTORNEY DEALING WITH A BOOK PUBLISHING DBA OF ISKCON, ARE PRESUMABLY WELL AWARE THAT CHANGING A BOOK WITHOUT MENTIONING THE NAME AND POSITION (WHAT STO SPEAK OF AUTHORITY) OF THE “EDITOR” COMPRISES A CLEAR CASE OF FRAUD ON THE PART O THE EDITOR AND PUBLISHER (BBTI).
THE RESULT OF THE “HAMHANDED” SO CALLED “EDITING” OF SRILA PRABHUPADA’S BOOKS IS THAT NO UNIVERSITIES WILL USE THEM FOR CLASSES ON INDIAN RELIGION AS YOU WELL KNOW, MANY STUDENTS PURCHASE USED BOOKS FOR CLASS WHILE SOME BUY FRESH NEW COPIES.
THE PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS FOUND THAT IN ONE BHAGAVAD GITA CLASS, THERE WERE AS MANY AS FIVE DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE SAME BOOK, WITH OUT THE SLIGHTEST ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN “WHY” AND MORE IMPORTANTLY “OW”.
A “CREEPY” IMPRESSION STARTED GOING AROUND THAT “SP SOMEHOW WAS CHANGING HIS BOOKS POSTHUMOUSLY” AND THAT THESE CHANGES WERE DIRECTLY MADE BY HIM FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE.
SO, THE CHARADE MUST STOP. THERE ARE ETHICAL WAYS TO EDIT BOOKS BY ORDINARY MUNDANE AUTHORS (SUCH AS JAMES JOYCE), BUT THE IKCON “CHANGES” IN THE NAME OF “EDITING” IS NOT AMONG THEM.
TO CLAIM TO HAVE THE POWER TO “OVERTURN” THE AUTHORIZED REQUEST OF THE PURE DEVOTEE OF THE LORD, AND TO WILLFULLY IMAGINE THAT ONE’S MLECCHA MENTALITY CAN SORT OUT WHAT THE PURE DEVOTEE OF THE LORD “APPARENTLY COULD NOT” IS A BLACK APARADH THAT WILL NOT ONLY DRAG SUCH ACCURSED EDITORS TO THE CORE OF THE TORMENS OF “HELL” BUT BY ASSOCIATION, THEIR ATTORNEY WILL BE DRAGGED “HELPLESS AND STRUGGLING” TO HELL RIGHT BEHIND THEM. (WITH NOT EVEN A CONTINGENCY FEE IN SIGHT!).
MAY YOU SLEEP WELL IN THIS LIFETIME. YOU UNDOUBTEDLY WILL NOT SLEEP VERY WELL AT ALL IN YOUR NEXT LIFE.
No one should have a slightest doubt unless being a rascal, first class lunatic or a fool , there was and still is a conspiracy going on to destroy the mission of Srila Prabhupada. The plan and actions of the person Kali are directed from a higher and stronger than the humans level and some mischevious individuals are mostly the blind tools in this crime here on Earth but there are certainly also some other kind of envious snakes here too, who but know perfectly well what they do and for whom. The result is visible to the wise, there is no Hare Krishna sankirtan! So called ISKCON with it’s so called kirtans (mostly mayavadi style or sahajiya style) has no meaning here since the leaders are apasampradayic rascals and apparadhis, the GM are the same kjnd and the ritviks are but advocating another cheating system in the name of religion, all speaking in general terms, since there are allways some rare individualls who are exception to the general rule, Everything starts and ends with Vaishnava seva, or Vaishnava apparadha accordingly.
There is no doubt about it. There are two different renditions of this verse from Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Siksastakam. The translation found in Antya-lila contains the phrase “the life and soul of all education.”
It is akin to the verse from Bhagavad-gita (9.2) which states that confidential or transcendental knowledge is the “king of education.”
I have not seen the issue of BTG referred to by Govinda Dasi. Is she saying that the two translations of the first verse of Siksastakam were somehow combined? That of course would be unacceptable, but if the translation was taken in its entirety from the verses of Antya-lila, we should not find fault where there is none.
It should be known that Jayadvaita Swami was very dear to Srila Prabhupada, and that Srila Prabhupada was always concerned about this disciple’s welfare. In a letter to Ramesvara dated 11-25-74, Srila Prabhupada wrote, “Regarding Jayadvaita, it is good for him to avoid controversy.” And in a room conversation on April 10, 1976 he again told Jayadvaita Swami, “As soon as there is some controversy, avoid it.”
If Jayadvaita Swami had limited himself to making the small number of corrections initially approved by the GBC, as related by Balavanta prabhu, and with proper annotation where necessary, our movement could have avoided this thirty year long controversy that has distracted every member of our society from engaging in the kind of preaching work recommended by Srila Prabhupada and previous acaryas to spread Krishna consciousness throughout the world.
As far as the opinion of scholars is concerned, hundreds of them praised the original works of His Divine Grace and Srila Prabhupada was very happy to hear them read aloud. However, since its program began to overhaul Srila Prabhupada’s books without his consent, the BBT has not received a single testimonial from any scholar (other than those who are devotees of ISKCON) in the last thirty years praising the changes they made to the original editions. The scholars of the world have withheld their approval of the revisions made by the BBT editors and this tells us we should have stuck with the tried and true original way the books were presented during Srila Prabhupada’s lifetime.
Let us always remember that as far as Srila Prabhupada was concerned, the books he published were “qualified to be distributed unlimitedly.” If you would have gone before Srila Prabhupada and said
his books were full of mistakes, I’m sure he would have said, “You are the mistake.”