Acaryavilasa dasa: Dec 26, Los Angeles, California, USA: A reply to Jayadvaita Swami.
In his recent article, “The Reluctantly Given License“, Jayadvaita Swami states, “Srila Prabhupada’s desire, as he clearly wrote to every temple in ISKCON, was to have the BBT serve as his exclusive publisher.” And Jayadvaita has published a letter on the web to back that up. Hmmm. Yes, Srila Prabhupada wanted the BBT to publish and distribute his books. But the BBT is not doing that – the BBTI is doing that.
BBT Made Defunct
In fact, the BBT is practically defunct. So who made it defunct? Why, that was Jayadvaita and his trustee clan. So it is quite farcical for Jayadvaita to posture faithfulness to Srila Prabhupada instructions and Srila Prabhupada’s BBT when he and his clan are the people who have destroyed the BBT, with the creation of the BBTI.
Let the devotees be quite sure that the BBT and BBTI are completely different legal entities. The BBTI is not the BBT that Srila Prabhupada created. So if Jayadvaita wants us to buy Srila Prabhupada’s books from the Srila Prabhupada’s BBT, well yes we’d like to, but that means we should not buy from Jayadvaita’s BBTI. The BBTI is not Srila Prabhupada’s BBT.
The Real Issue
But the real issue is, where are Srila Prabhupada’s books? Are they with the BBT, the BBTI, or the KBI? Therein lays the rub. Where are Srila Prabhupada’s books? Suffice to say that Jayadvaita and his merry band of expense account editors have been trawling Srila Prabhupada’s books not just anxious to find a small grammatical or spelling mistake or two, as per Srila Prabhupada’s irrefutably clear instructions, but rather they have been trawling Srila Prabhupada’s books looking to change the Vaisnava philosophy therein to suit their own ideas. That unauthorised alteration is then combined with wholesale unnecessary changes of style and syntax that are generally grammatically needless and often grammatically incorrect due to the editors’ lack of proficiency.
Back to the Original
“Unauthorised alteration” you say? Well, we all know of the “back to the original” justifying argument of Jayadvaita. Haven’t we heard that one enough? But what we have never heard is where Srila Prabhupada told Jayadvaita to do wholesale editing on that basis. Any minimal research in the Vedavase quickly reveals that Srila Prabhupada’s great concern was that his “changing-disease-ridden” disciples would do exactly what Jayadvaita, Dravida, et al. have done: whimsically change his books without need or authorisation. In fact, Srila Prabhupada intimated this fear of his so clearly that it is hardly presumptuous to assume that Srila Prabhupada foresaw exactly this rascal behavior of the present BBTI editors. “Rascal Editors”, indeed.
Where are the Originals
So when Jayadvaita says “Srila Prabhupada’s books”, we must agree. Yes, that’s what we want, ultimately from any source. But there is a clear argument that “Srila Prabhupada’s books” are actually the original books that were published before Jayadvaita and his editorial clan went to work on them with hyperactive zeal, blind to Srila Prabhupada’s editorial directions. And those original books are the ones that KBI, Krishna Books Inc. publish, not the BBTI. So when Jayadvaita directs us to Srila Prabhupada’s “back to the original” books we must end up looking towards the KBI, rather than the BBTI.
Jayadvaita’s BBT Exploits
Instead of pointing the finger at Hansadutta personally, perhaps Jayadvaita should look at the man in the mirror. And is that a person preferable to Hansdutta that Jayadvaita will find in the mirror? At least Hansadutta now admits that the GBC diksa-guru rubber-stamping is bogus. Jayadvaita complies with that aberrant system of GBC rubber-stamp apasampradaya. Jayadvaita continued to spend untold millions of dollars of Srila Prabhupada’s BBT on the courtcase, even though he had been advised early on that defeat was assured. Jayadvaita et al. in the public court record declared that Srila Prabhupada had not the copyright to his own books because Srila Prabhupada was a “writer for hire of ISKCON” – ISKCON being in the position of financially supporting and facilitating Srila Prabhupada. Yes folks, that is now part of the public court record: “Srila Prabhupada was hired by his own disciples of ISKCON to translate the books; thus Srila Prabhupada was actually an employee of his disciples” – such being the statements of the BBTI trustees. Let Jayadvaita say that offensive nonsense directly to Srila Prabhupada’s face and take the response.
And of course Srila Prabhupada’s actual BBT has been made defunct with the illicit concoction of the BBTI. Shall we move on now to the illicit editing that Jayadvaita and Dravida have done to Srila Prabhupada’s original books, completely ignoring the directions of Srila Prabhupada? Shall we mention how the BBTI has tacitly ignored Srila Prabhupada’s directions to expand into the publication of all the literatures of the Brahma-Madhava Gaudiya Sampradaya? Jayadvaita and clan only want to publish the tortoise speed translations of one man – Gopiparanadhana dasa. And what did Gopiparanadhana do with the Bhagavatamrta of Srila Sanatana Goswami? Why, he mixed his comments in with the commentary of Sanatana Goswami and put his name on the cover of the book, bigger than the Goswami! Actually on the spine of the book, Srila Sanatana Goswami’s name has been omitted and replaced with that of Gopiparanadhana, giving the appearance to the world that Gopi actually wrote the Brhat Bhagavatamrta! Now there’s a humble Vaisnava for you, working for the BBTI.
If one looks around an ISKCON book shop these days, one will find that practically all the new publications are from devotees independent of the BBTI. Under the management of Jayadvaita and his merry band of trustees, the BBTI has being going downhill fast, devoid of new translations and new ideas. Under Jayadvaita, book and magazine printing has plummeted. Perhaps Jayadvaita will explain to us the story of how literally millions of Russian translations of Srila Prabhupada’s books stored in a giant warehouse were shredded. Yes, destroyed, because the storage cost was too high and it was considered that to give them out free or free to Russian devotees to distribute would not profit the BBTI, and would destroy the market for new printings of the books in the future. Yes, try to figure out the logic in that one.
Time to Resign
Actually in any properly run publishing house, Jayadvaita and his clan would have been sacked for incompetency long, long ago. But this is ISKCON and in ISKCON, if you carry around bamboo, then you are faultless and absolute and anyone who dares to question gets the almighty boot up the backside for being “envious”. In fact, in ISKCON nowadays things are so bad that if you dare to quote Srila Prabhupada’s directions for the management of the BBT and ISKCON, then you may be quickly labelled as “envious”. Yes, we have come to that: quoting Srila Prabhupada can quickly make one “envious” in the eyes of the dedicated managers of the BBTI and ISKCON.
Whistleblowers
And after calling the whistleblower “envious”, what’s the next line of these managers? Usually it is the “What have you done for Srila Prabhupada compared to us glorious souls of management?” Well the answer to that is quite simple. What we have done is actually keep in mind the instructions of our glorious spiritual master, even though the managers of the GBC and the BBTI have spent the last thirty years doing their best to ignore those directions and have simply become a disturbance to the ISKCON society as a result of their offenses and concoctions.
To Inspire Your Sadhana
What ISKCON and the BBT need now is new managers who are actually faithful, rather than show-bottle imitations. But let us not waste time hoping for that. Better to get the original books of Srila Prabhupada from wherever, become absorbed in them, chant Hare Krsna, and go Back to Godhead. Don’t worry, when you go Back to Godhead, the GBC and the BBTI managers won’t be there holding meetings to invent concoctions. Now that should act as inspiration in your sadhana.
PADA: This has been going on for quite some time now. Big scholars like Hrdayanananda, Ravindra swarupa, Jayadvaita, Bhakti marga and others have been saying that Srila Prabhupada’s book’s purports are “offending” the masses, so they need to re – write and edit all the books. Then Vaisesika, Gopal Bhatta and others join in the choir to change the books. Hrdayananada went to far as to say the originals needed his added “footnotes” on sidebars in the books to re-explain the siddhanta.
In other words, instead of blaming themselves for all the exploitation of women and humble devotees, and the mass child abuses that occured post-1977, they are blaming Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. This same group of folks fought tooth and nail to keep their homosexual and pedophile infrastructure messiah pals in power, and fought tooth and nail to keep in power marriage breaking molesters who are orchestrating beatings and murders, like Kirtanananda, in office as their messiah.
Then they have the audacity to say, all this abuse is the result of reading the books! No, this is the result of NOT reading the books. Yet this is in one sense good news. Now, no one can say they are for the GBC gurus, without also admitting they are in favor of open and public criticism of Krishna, the acharyas, and their writings. There is simply no more fence sitting allowed, you are either in favor of the open challenge to the authority of the Vedas, or you are are with us, this attack on the Vedas is bogus.
This is always going on, the false gurus write their own versions of the Vedas to mislead people. Notice that Ameyatma says that this desire to kick out Srila Prabhupada may also be further proof that he was poisoned. Yes, they desire to kick out Srila Prabhupada and that is why they kicked out all of his sincere followers right away after 1977. We have said this all along, their desire is to kick out Srila Prabhupada and his teachings and make some sort of hotch potch concocted philosophy that has no connection to Srila Prabhupada, including their idea that messiahs are engaged in illicit sex with men, women and children.
At the same time, who is even buying their books at this point anyway? The distribution is down to almost nil, Bhakti Marga’s Toronto thinks they are doing a massive job by getting 3,000 books out in one month, we used to get 3,000 books out in two minutes when the un-edited books were being sold. At the same time, why is the GBC going to Christian interfaith council meetings? Because they have no credibility in the vaishava world, thats why. They are being rejected by the vaishnavas so they are trying to get some sort of rubber stamp of approval from the outsiders, but that will not save them.
Lets face it, they are going to be doomed now that people know they want to re-write the Vedas. Another wave of people will reject their authority, and they barely have a spare wave to lose. They are “skeleton crew,” as Lokanatha swami says. This is always the work of the asuras, they get their own brahmanas to edit and teach bogus versions of the Vedas, like Prahlad’s teachers, they re-write the Vedas. That means, they are chopping off the last leg of their authority, its now common knowledge they want to modify the Vedas, they think they are superior to the Vedas.
They have become to the anti-Christs of ISKCON, and the good news is, now everyone knows that. When Bhagavan was kicking out all the women and children the other leaders were cheering him on, now they say, this abuse was the fault of their guru Srila Prabhupada? Guru mara vidya, one gets knowledge from guru, then kills guru. Anyway I am glad, this is now official, they are veda vada ratas. I’m glad, and not really worried about their changing the books, they are barely printing any books anyway, they do not have the funds to re-edit and re-print all the books. And when this news gets out, they will have less supporters and less money. In sum, they are officially announcing they are kicking Srila Prabhupada out of ISKCON. I’m glad: we now know exactly where they are coming from, and so does the whole world. thanks pd
ALL GLORIES TO HIS DIVINE GRACE A.C.BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI SRILA PRABHUPADA! I just wanted to say that I just now (Nov.2012) discovered this article.Very informative.I want to thank you all at PRABHUPADANUGUS-EU…Prabhus,I read your website almost every single day because the quality of your writers is so good and I am sure that SRILA PRABHUPADA is pleased by your sincere service.Please keep up the great work you are doing.—JAI RADHE!
Jayadvaita, Dravida and company is not afraid of Krsna – because they do NOT believe in Krsna as God. Wear devotee clothes nice saffron dhoti, Tilak on forehead just play the game make money AND MORE MONEY – enjoy now: pay later. Krsna is NOT going to stop being God just because they do not believe in Him. The RESULT of USURPING Srila Prabhupada’s BBT and screwing/changing Srila Prabhupada’s books by Jayadvaita,Dravida and associates is going to be a nasty experience AFTER their death:
KB 64 The Story of King Nrga
At this time, Lord Krsna was present among His relatives who were members of the ksatriya class. To teach them through the exemplary character of King Nrga, He said: “Even though a ksatriya king may be as powerful as fire, it is not possible for him to usurp the property of a brahmana and utilize it for his own purpose. If this is so, how can ordinary kings, who falsely think of themselves the most powerful beings within the material world, usurp a brahmana’s property? I do not think that taking poison is as dangerous as taking a brahmana’s property. For ordinary poison there is treatment–one can be relieved from its effects; BUT IF ONE DRINKS THE POISON OF TAKING A BRAHMANA’S PROPERTY, THERE IS NO REMEDY FOR THE MISTAKE. The perfect example was King Nrga. He was very powerful and very pious, but due to the small mistake of unknowingly usurping a brahmana’s cow, he was condemned to the abominable life of a lizard. Ordinary poison affects only those who drink it, and ordinary fire can be extinguished simply by pouring water on it; but the arani fire ignited by the spiritual potency of a brahmana can burn to ashes the whole family of a person who provokes such a brahmana.” (Formerly, the brahmanas used to ignite the fire of sacrifice not with matches or any other external fire but with their powerful mantras, called arani.) “IF SOMEONE EVEN TOUCHES A BRAHMANA’S PROPERTY, HE IS RUINED FOR THREE GENERATIONS. HOWEVER, IF A BRAHMANA’S PROPERTY IS FORCIBLY TAKEN AWAY, THE TAKER’S FAMILY FOR TEN GENERATIONS BEFORE HIM AND FOR TEN GENERATIONS AFTER HIM WILL BE SUBJECT TO RUINATION. On the other hand, if someone becomes a Vaisnava or devotee of the Lord, ten generations of his family before his birth and ten generations after will become liberated.”
Lord Krsna continued: “IF SOME FOOLISH KING WHO IS PUFFED UP BY HIS WEALTH, PRESTIGE AND POWER WANTS TO USURP A BRAHMANA’S PROPERTY, IT SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD THAT SUCH A KING IS CLEARING HIS PATH TO HELL; HE DOES NOT KNOW HOW MUCH HE HAS TO SUFFER FOR SUCH UNWISE ACTION. IF SOMEONE TAKES AWAY THE PROPERTY OF A VERY LIBERAL BRAHMANA WHO IS ENCUMBERED BY A LARGE DEPENDENT FAMILY, THEN SUCH A USURPER IS PUT INTO THE HELL KNOWN AS KUMBHIPAKA; NOT ONLY IS HE PUT INTO THIS HELL, BUT HIS FAMILY MEMBERS ALSO HAVE TO ACCEPT SUCH A MISERABLE CONDITION OF LIFE. A PERSON WHO TAKES AWAY PROPERTY WHICH HAS EITHER BEEN AWARDED TO A BRAHMANA OR GIVEN AWAY BY HIM IS CONDEMNED TO LIVE FOR AT LEAST 60,000 YEARS AS MISERABLY AS AN INSECT IN STOOL. THEREFORE I INSTRUCT YOU, ALL MY BOYS AND RELATIVES PRESENT HERE, DO NOT, EVEN BY MISTAKE, TAKE THE POSSESSION OF A BRAHMANA AND THEREBY POLLUTE YOUR WHOLE FAMILY. IF SOMEONE EVEN WISHES TO POSSESS SUCH PROPERTY, LET ALONE ATTEMPTS TO TAKE IT AWAY BY FORCE, THE DURATION OF HIS LIFE WILL BE REDUCED. HE WILL BE DEFEATED BY HIS ENEMIES, AND AFTER BEING BEREFT OF HIS ROYAL POSITION, WHEN HE GIVES UP HIS BODY HE WILL BECOME A SERPENT. A serpant gives trouble to all other living entities. My dear boys and relatives, I therefore advise you that even if a brahmana becomes angry with you and calls you by ill names or cuts you, still you should not retaliate. On the contrary, you should smile, tolerate him and offer your respects to the brahmana. You know very well that even I Myself offer My obeisances to the brahmanas with great respect three times daily. You should therefore follow My instruction and example. I shall not forgive anyone who does not follow them, and I shall punish him. You should learn from the example of King Nrga that even if someone unknowingly usurps the property of a brahmana, he is put into a miserable condition of life.”
Thus Lord Krsna, who is always engaged in purifying the conditioned living entities, gave instruction not only to His family members and the inhabitants of Dvaraka, but to all the members of human society.