06/26/98 - 1887

Arsha Prayoga

USA (VNN) - Locanananda Das

Dear Prabhus, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupad.

In the sixth volume of the Srila Prabhupad Lilamrita, a conversation with Srila Prabhupad is cited during which His Divine Grace expresses serious concern over changes that were being made in his written word. "Even if the authorized acaryas would make a mistake, it would not be changed", he said. "This is 'arsha prayoga'. In this way the acaryas are honored." Implied here is that, conversely, to make changes in his books is to dishonor the Lord's pure devotee.

This principle of "arsa prayoga" should have been discussed before changing anything written by our spiritual master. It is admitted that he never instructed anyone to reedit the Bhagavad-gita, and if it were ever to be done, His Divine Grace would have given that instruction before printing 500,000 copies in 1976, or in anticipation of the 1978 printing of 1,500,000 copies.

Srila Prabhupad was always apprehensive about what would happen to his movement after his physical departure. It is more than likely that in the BBT trust documents, there is some admonition against making such changes in his books. Does anyone have access to these documents? His Divine Grace used to say, "If even one word of what I have given you is changed, everyone will become confused", warning us not to alter his instructions. If the trustees of the BBT have breached their fiduciary duty to protect Srila Prabhupad's estate, they are punishable in court. If they cannot grasp the principle of "arsha prayoga", of honoring the acarya, at least they should be able to grasp the principle of staying out of jail.

The active principle of spiritual life is to please the spiritual master. To please the spiritual master, one has to act on his order. When was specific permission to make posthumous changes in Srila Prabhupad's books given to anyone? If it was correct to do so, why have they not printed on the cover of the Bhagavad-gita that it is the second edition? Instead, they have hidden an explanation on page 866. Obviously, this public belittling of the spiritual master by changing his written word is nothing to be proud of.

What is most shocking to me is that no ISKCON leader has the nerve to stand up and say "This is wrong", or "We made a mistake". We were trained by Srila Prabhupad to fight to defend religious principles, not to accept everything blindly without argument. When His Divine Grace was informed of the changes made to the Sri Isopanisad, his reply was that we should go back to the "original way". He considered it a very serious transgression of "arsha prayoga" that the potency had been sacrificed to improve the English. So why is it considered a sin to voice opposition to such policies adopted by ISKCON or the BBT? And who are these scholars that we must try to impress, anyway? It is much more urgent for ISKCON leaders to convince the world-wide community of devotees of their integrity than it is to satisfy the whims of some mundane scholars if ISKCON is to survive as a unified movement.

In 1989, I came across an article in the New York Times describing the changes that Reconstructionist Jews were planning to make in their prayer book, some time after the demise of their spiritual preceptor, Rabbi Kaufman. A committee of lay people and rabbis, both men and women, worked for two years on the modifications which were then evaluated by the sixty-five Reconstructionist congregations around the country. The circumstances were comparable, but, unlike ISKCON, they never considered the project to be a one-man job. Neither is their prayer book expected to be around for 10,000 years.

Much more time and consideration should have gone into the decision to alter Srila Prabhupad's books, and approval should have come from the entire community of devotees, especially from those who will, or ever have, distributed those books.

If you need more reason for alarm, just consider these figures:

Printings of the revised edition of the Bhagavad-gita:

1983: 250,000 copies
1985: 200,000 copies
1986: 120,000 copies
1990: 80,000 copies
1991: 70,000 copies
1994: 50,000 copies

Notice any trend? There are, of course, many factors contributing to this decline in distribution of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, but having to sell what many consider to be an adulterated version of Srila Prabhupad's Gita may not be enlivening to a full-time book distributor.

When I was in Amsterdam, Srila Prabhupad wrote to me that the translation work we were doing on the Bhagavad-gita in Dutch was very important and should be done with the utmost care. What then to speak of the English version, which is the basis of translating the Gita into all of the languages of the world? What boggles the mind is that the editors, knowing that changes made in the Gita created turmoil within our society, have simply gone ahead and made changes in other books as well. Who is authorizing this, and why do they show no concern for the opinions of the assembled vaisnavas?

Srila Prabhupad was also very concerned with the illustrations in his books. He did not appreciate the suggestion to omit an illustration (window into the spiritual world) unless it could be replaced by another which was an improvement upon the original. The abridged edition of the Bhagavad- gita printed in 1979 had fifty-six color plates while the current revised and "enlarged" complete edition has only sixteen. In defense of the BBT, I should mention that there is also a deluxe edition of the new Gita, but you would be shocked to see which of the original illustrations the BBT thought were not worth including.

The editors and trustees are very defensive of their actions. They feel that they have to "win" this debate. But is that the way of the humble vaisnava? In the face of opposition from one's very godbrothers, should a devotee attempt to establish his own superiority while totally disregarding the opinion of others? Or should an attempt be made to reconcile their differences, especially when all parties are trying to please the same supreme master?

If the reader of this editorial thinks that appropriate action has not been taken to resolve this issue, please write to your local GBC representative.

Hoping to be of service to all of you in pushing forward the sankirtan movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, I beg to remain

Your humble servant,

Locanananda Das