05/01/98 - 1779

Srila Prabhupada's Books Must Change?

USA (VNN) - by Madhudvisa dasa

A devotee called "Ananda" has posted an article to Chakra accusing me of being a "misguided devotee" for daring to question some of the changes ISKCON is making to Srila Prabhupada's books. He says boldly "Srila Prabhupada's Books MUST CHANGE..."

His mood seems to describe the attitude of a number of ISKCON leaders who find some difficult passages in Srila Prabhupada's books. Now, in the name of "making the English better", or "making them more attractive to the scholars" they can conveniently delete or change these difficult instructions from Srila Prabhupada... And they seem to think no one will notice...

However this mentality DOES NOT describe the mood of the "rank and file" members of ISKCON. I have received dozens of letters from devotees in ISKCON and they want to read Srila Prabhupada's books as he wrote them and personally read and approved of them himself. They don't like or trust the new "revised, enlarged and edited" versions now being produced by ISKCON...

In his article on Chakra Ananda has completely missed the point that we are not talking about bona fide editing for the purpose of correcting real typographical errors in the English or Sanskrit. If that's all the BBT did no one would complain at all. We are referring to the CHANGES ISKCON are making to THE MEANING OF THE TEXT in Srila Prabhupada's books as he well knows. <http://www.sudarsana.com/ISKCON/BookChanges>

Although most devotees want to see Srila Prabhupada's books printed EXACTLY as they were in his presence, personally I'm not against Hridayananda Maharaja's proposal of leaving Srila Prabhupada's books as he wrote them and simply adding some footnotes to keep the scholars [and nit-picking devotees] happy. I'm not opposed to the idea of footnotes, however they're not required as Srila Prabhupada's books are brilliant like the sun. They don't need to be changed at all. They're already perfect. Any devotee knows this...

And who is qualified to change Srila Prabhupada's books? What disciple would dare change and "correct" his spiritual masters books? It's a very strange philosophy indeed... And what if the disciple who changes Srila Prabhupada's books turns out not to be a maha-bhagvata himself? What if it comes to light in the future that he is an ordinary conditioned soul? Then what will be the use of all the books he has changed on the strength of his mental speculation and his vast understanding of the philosophy, the Sanskrit language and the commentaries of the previous acaryas?

When it's discovered an ISKCON "guru" is simply a conditioned soul in maya pretending to be a "liberated soul" his disciples [who must worship him as non-different from Krishna according to ISKCON law] are devastated and in many cases their spiritual life and their faith in Krishna consciousness is completely destroyed.

We can only imagine the devastation in ISKCON if it were discovered that the person who is busy changing and "correcting" Srila Prabhupada's books on the strength of his vast advancement in Krishna consciousness [as opposed to his simple editing in Srila Prabhupada's personal presence] falls down? It's not a very secure position at all... The entire future credibility of the organization depends on this one man!

Of course the general public can still understand the English that was spoken in 1972-1977!!! Even if in the future, some extra explanations are required that can be done by the devotees IN THEIR OWN BOOKS... NOT IN PRABHUPADA'S BOOKS... Otherwise how will they be Prabhupada's books if they're changed by ISKCON after Srila Prabhupada's physically leaving our presence?

It is not difficult to see what the BBT are doing. A quick look at some of the changes to Srila Prabhupada's "Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers" will clearly show these are not changes "to make the language more suitable for the scholars."

This is a clear attempt to remove and change certain aspects of the philosophy of Krishna consciousness as presented by Srila Prabhupada which are not liked by some "leaders" in ISKCON.

(p10)"Srila Prabhupada: Yes. OUR KNOWLEDGE IS PERFECT."

Deleted. The new edition does not state "Our knowledge is perfect"...

(p39) "Srila Prabhupada, I have one question. What is the status of service minus devotion? Srila Prabhupada: That is not service, that is business. For example, here in Mayapur, we have employed a contractor. That is not service--that is business...nobody is a qualified customer unless he pays. But service is not like that."

Deleted... Of course nowadays ISKCON pays so many "devotees" salaries. It's a little difficult to have something like this in Srila Prabhupada's books!!

(p42) "If you are serious, you can keep yourself pure anywhere. it doesn't matter whether you stay in America or India. But you must know how to keep yourself purified. That's all. Bob: YOU MEAN BY FOLLOWING THESE PRINCIPLES? Srila Prabhupada: YES

Deleted. "following the principles" is NOT in the new edition!!!

And they have completely deleted pages 89-92 which contain a wonderful explanation by Srila Prabhupada of the material world and that we are always controlled, either by Krishna or by Maya... The whole thing, more than 4 pages of ecstatic preaching by Srila Prabhupada, has been completely removed from the new edition...

So PQPA is only a 100 page book and these are just a few changes. There are many more... <http://www.sudarsana.com/ISKCON/BookChanges/pqpac.html>

Of course we are only dealing with the first set of changes now. What will "Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers" [which purports to be [and used to be] the transcript of a conversation between a Peace Corps worker and Srila Prabhupada in Mayapur] become after three or four more editors have changed it to their style and deleted the things they don't like and added a little of there own preaching in as well??

I will never forget a talk given by Jayadvaita Swami in Mayapur in 1991 where he described his vision for the BBT as one of continually reediting Srila Prabhupada's books and producing a new edition for each printing!! It was a great shock to me them and now I see it is actually happening. Of course if it is not stopped everything will be completely lost...

And Ananda calls me a "misguided devotee" for daring to say "They are changing Srila Prabhupada's books..."

Does Ananda also think Hridayananda Maharaja is a "misguided devotee", Pragosha Prabhu is a "misguided devotee"??? Every other devotee who wants to read Srila Prabhupada's books as opposed to books "revised, enlarged, improved and corrected" by ISKCON are all "misguided devotees"??? Perhaps, with all due respect, it may well be that Ananda is himself a "misguided devotee".

Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!

Madhudvisa dasa

Subject: Hridayananda Maharaja's Solution to the Book Changes Problem From: krishna@lis.net.au (Madhudvisa dasa) Date: 1998/03/28 Message-ID: <351c7194.20587725@news.lis.net.au> Newsgroups: alt.religion.vaisnava

> Dear Madhudvisa Prabhu, > Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank > you for your letter. I appreciate your intelligent arguments, and your > absolute dedication to Srila Prabhupada. I think you have made many good > points, and I am not against your viewpoint. My only hesitation is when it > becomes clear that Srila Prabhupada's original dictation has been changed. 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? > Hoping you are well, > Your servant, > > Hridayananda dasa Goswami >

Dear Hridayananda dasa Goswami Maharaja,

Haribol! Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Thank you very much for the reply. Although personally I don't think the footnotes are required, I wouldn't be against such an idea, and I don't think many devotees would be as there is no change to Srila Prabhupada's original, 100% approved and 100% potent books. We [and the rest of the world] could then still read Srila Prabhupada's original books as he originally wrote and approved of them. That is the main thing that concerns me.

Even if the editors do find some change from Srila Prabhupada's dictation tapes, that is not surprising, as Srila Prabhupada had Hayagriva Prabhu and others, including Jayadvaita Swami also, edit the books so the English would be clear. So naturally there will be some differences between the dictation tapes and the published books. However Srila Prabhupada accepted, approved of and personally used the edited published books himself, if there was some serious error with the editing he mentioned that also and it was corrected.

Srila Prabhupada definitely did not want the books edited again [and again, and again...] as this will mean in time everything will be changed, everything will be lost... Even if some argue the current editions the BBT are distributing are not too bad, what about the next version, and what about the books after they have been edited 5 or 6 times in the future, by a few more enthusiastic BBT editors, all with their own personal styles and opinions, what will be left of Srila Prabhupada's original work?

"First: To my knowledge, Srila Prabhupada never asked us to re-edit the book." (Jayadvaita Swami)

"Too much editing is not required. If Satsvarupa has already edited it, there is no need of further editing." (Letter to Rayarama 21-Dec-67)

Of course there are some real typographical and Sanskrit errors, particularly in the earlier books, and the footnote system you have proposed would be a good solution in these cases as then Srila Prabhupada's original books are not changed at all and at the same time the corrections are also there to keep the scholars, etc happy. In these cases it is a very good solution to the problem, in my opinion.

How to convince the BBT?

All glories to your service! Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!

Your servant

Madhudvisa dasa