01/14/98 - 1504

No "Poison" On The Tapes

Sweden (VNN) - by Harikesa Swami

After hearing that the whispers said what everyone thinks they said, and especially the latest which was not a whisper but a spoken statement by Tamal Krsna Maharaja ("Put poison in different containers" or something like that) Brahma Muhurta dasa and I decided that we were going to do our own investigation into what the tapes actually said.

Of course, no one has yet explained why Prabhupada said he was being poisoned. I am still interested in what this actually meant. This remains the most important piece of evidence in the whole affair. Indeed, it may be the only piece of evidence there is.

As far as the original whisper is concerned, the one that supposedly said, "Let's not poison him and go," we have listened to that one the most. We cannot hear the word "poison," nor the words "him and go." I cannot make out what this is saying even after putting enormous amounts of equalization and noise filtering (we did this in our studio in Korsnas where they process my tapes), but if there is anything that comes close to what is said, it is "That's not part of the treat...milk." Of course, this makes little sense. But definitely there is no mention of poison, as was originally ascertained. Further, it is clear that this statement is being whispered to Prabhupada himself (!), who is acknowledging what is told to him with two "uh-huhs" or whatever it is he said.

Concerning the VNN statement that "the poison is going down (giggle) the poison is going down," we found that there is again, no mention of poison. All we could get out of that section was "ishvarya going down, ishvarya doing down." At least that is what is sounds like. Again, no "poison" there, and how they can hear the word poison is beyond us. We have no idea what "ishvarya" is. Maybe it is some medicine?

As far as the statement made by Tamal Krsna Maharaja the one behind the Hindi statements of the Kaviraj which supposedly say something about "poison in different containers," we have got the definitive explanation of what is said, and it makes perfect sense in the context. The context is that Hansadutta has been saying that Prabhupada is a pure devotee, and if he wants to go on parikrama then they should arrange it. Tamal Krsna Goswami then says, "We're placing different opinions, that's all right," or "We're posing different opinions . . . ." (An extraneous noise makes it difficult to decide between "placing" or "posing.") Either way, this makes perfect sense. He is simply saying that it is not maya to have a different opinion, considering the weight of the situation. Please listen to this section carefully, and you will hear this or something very close to this.

Again: no poison.

The other sections which were highlighted by VNN were not on the tape we had.

By doing this exercise I have seen that when one has an idea in his head as to what is being said, the ears and the mind oblige us to and make us hear that very thing. One can completely reprogram his hearing by just wanting to hear something else. It is extremely hard to understand what is being said if one has a preconception. And hearing it again and again simply solidifies that conception unless one is very liberal.

We finally gave up with this exercise, but we're glad we did it. In any case it is very subjective and boils down to what you think you are hearing on a tape. I doubt that the so-called labs will do a better job. It seems to be a complete waste of money. There are only just so many things you can do to process audio sound and after this is done one simply sits there and listens. The processing of the sound is the easy part, the hearing is the hard part. I doubt that a non-devotee lab can do it properly. But this is just my opinion.

Hope this helps.