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EDITORIAL July 5, 1999 VNN4231 Comment on this story Footnoting Srila Prabhupada's 'Personal Ecstasies' BY MAHANANDA DASA  EDITORIAL, Jul 5 (VNN) — Dear Vaisnava Godbrothers, please accept my sincere obeisances.Nowadays, there is much talk by devotees as to how to deal with the parts of Srila Prabhupada's books that we do not like and should be changed. . One well known senior Vaisnava writes, for example... "One solution might be to keep Prabhupada's books exactly as they were published when he was present, but then to put in footnotes explaining what the editors think was really meant. In that way, everyone could be satisfied. What do you think of this?"Yes, everyone would be satisfied, except perhaps Srila Prabhupada. The words of our beloved guru are complete in themselves, and the ideas are being dictated by Lord Krsna, through the succession of pure devotees, though each link may explain the identical ideas through their own words. This unadulterated message is trickling down from the spiritual world and when it is attentively heard by the sincere and submissive devotee, that sound vibration acts to purify the heart. It is not an academic exercise like some are suggesting in various camps. If future generations are to qualify themselves to understand this great science as perfectly spoken by our beloved teacher, then the requirement is not that we try to change the message to suit them, but that they simply become submissive. Then the words as spoken by Srila Prabhupada will act on their hearts, and Krsna, being pleases within the hearts of such sincere inquirers, will bless him with genuine understanding, and he will progress on the path back to Godhead. Let the words of the pure devotee stand on their own transcendental merit and let others come up to their standard, rather than making a foolhardy attempt at smoothing the words over so as not to disturb anyone in the material world. In all due respect to the Vaisnavas, I suggest that this idea of disciples (still themselves struggling to understand this great science) interpreting Srila Prabhupada's text and explaining in footnotes what these editing disciples 'think was really meant' indicates that we are forgetting this real process of transcendental transmission of Krsna's message, or do not really believe it, or want to rely instead on academic scholarship, intellectual rational, or sometimes speculation. We want to add footnotes so that our organization can gradually become more politically correct, or compatible with current social thinking, or avoid embarrassing those who have invested too much of their time in promoting feminism, etc. These statement that Srila Prabhupada made concerning women, for instance, seem to the modern thinker to be sexist. But to the faithful disciple, there is no scope for daring to think about a pure devotee in terms that indicate that he is just another ordinary man. To make sexist statements means that the author is influenced by sexism, by material conditioning, or ignorance. Anyone that will characterize Srila Prabhupada in this light has never understood the meaning of being a cent percent unalloyed devotee of Krsna nor understood this process of receiving the perfect message of Krsna consciousness through submissive hearing. The pure devotee guru is nothing less than the external manifestation of Krsna(Paramatma)--as good as Krsna Himself. He cannot make mistakes, since his every act is empowered by and dictated by Krsna, to Whom he has completely surrendered. For such a devotee, the material influence has completely vanished, without a trace. But we CAN make mistakes, because we are always subject to the four defects. But Srila Prabhupada is not, and a disciple should always "present himself as a great fool when approaching the [pure devotee] guru". Better we act as menial servants and just distribute the books and leave the results to Krsna. With Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, empowering fully a completely surrendered devotee to write His message, there will be only success and victory. Our job is just to be his servants and distribute these perfect literatures. Certainly, menial servants and fools like ourselves cannot improve on these books, that are none different from Krsna Himself. If we want to be successful in our efforts to become Krsna consciousness, we must abandon all these notions that we change Srila Prabhupada's books, as if he was influenced by some conditioning from some Scottish College, or was materially sexist, etc. And, if it is not already too late, we have to abandon the association of anyone who would minimize the transcendental status of Srila Prabhupada., I remain the servant to the vaisnavas, Mahananda dasa About the Author | Other Stories by this Author Comment on this story | Contact VNN about this story | Send this story to a friend
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