Jahnava Nitai Das

Go to the Gita revisions explained site: http://www.krishna.com/main.php?id=288 They offer you 30 or 40 examples that no one can argue against (the kind where they actually fixed an error in the transcription) and then make the claim "see we're giving you more prabhupada". But for every one of those that they highlight there are hundreds of lowlights that they don't even let you know exist. Till today they have not released a change log to the public documenting all of the changes that have been made. Only by the hard work of devotees scrutinizing both versions have some of the changes been noticed. Even most of ISKCON's leaders don't have access to the list of changes.

There are two types of changes that are occuring, the first is simple obvious errors made in the original transcription process - and these corrections are bringing it closer to how Prabhupada's original dictations were. But then there is another category of changes that Jayadvaita Swami doesn't like to discuss, and those are changes of context and meaning "I think Prabhupada really meant this..." Two such examples have recently been cited on www.harekrsna.com/sun. These types of changes are where they completely change what Prabhupada said to fit his words into their institutional agenda. To cover up these changes, they keep pushing forward the explanations for the first category of corrections - "look, we're giving you more Prabhupada." Let's look at the two exampls given on the site I mentioned above: "...Discharging one's specific duty in any field of action in accordance with varnasrama-dharma serves to elevate one to a higher status of life." Original Bhagavad-gita As It Is 2.31 "...Discharging one's specific duty in any field of action in accordance with the orders of higher authorities serves to elevate one to a higher status of life.." - Revised & Enlarged Bhagavad-gita 2.31 The original told us to act in accordance with the scriptures (i.e. varnashrama dharma), whereas the new version tells us to to act under the guidance of our temple president, Guru and GBC. And here is a second example: Current Version: "Even if one thinks that there are many pseudo devotees or nondevotees in the Krishna Consciousness Society, still one should stick to the Society; if one thinks the Society's members are not purey devotees, one can keep direct company with the spiritual master, and if there is any doubt, one should consult the spiritual master." CC madhya 19.157 Original Version: "If one thinks that there are many pseudo devotees or nondevotees in the Krsna Consciousness Society, one can keep direct company with the spiritual master, and if there is any doubt, one should consult the spiritual master." CC madhya 19.157

I've seen literally thousands of people like this. Just take a trip to haridwar and observer the babas and sadhus. Tourists are fooled by their vibhuti and jata, but observe them long enough and the liquor bottle will invariably come out from their hidden compartment. The real sadhus and babas don't sit where the public are. Ask yourself why a real sadhu would be sitting on the main walkway in Haridwar begging for money? And go in off season, and the same babas are engaged in other occupations, some selling things, some collecting coins from the Ganga. Most of them are known criminals, who prey on the innocent tourists. That's why there are so many posters around haridwar and rishikesh reporting missing people (literally hundreds of people). The missing people didn't amazingly attain mukti and vanish into thin air when they went on pilgrimage to rishikesh, they were likely murdered and dumped in the ganga. Every month there is an average of 10 murders in haridwar committed by sadhus, many times against their fellow sadhus to steal their hoarded money. You should ask yourself why the government paints the following in Hindi on all of the walls: "Never take any food from a sadhu, it will be deadly." Unfortunately the public are fooled by "public displays" of meditation by fake sadhus. Real sadhus have nothing to display publicly and don't like to be around the public. If you are fortunate you will find them in the forest in isolated places. The fake sadhus usually stay in a place for a few months to steal money from the foolish public, and then when they feel pressure on their activities they disappear and move to another city where the public is unsuspecting.

Prabhupada also mentions this in first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam:

Krishna performed a very special pastime known as maushala lila whereby a hunter had mistaken His redish foot for an animal and shot Him in the foot with an arrow. Lord Krishna then manifested a false body to delude and satisfy the atheistic class of men who believe Bhagavan to be an ordinary mortal. The arrowhead that was used on the arrow was the iron remnants of an iron ball that was cursed to destroy the Yadu dynasty. It is a long intertwining story, but after the ball was "born" from the womb of samba it was taken by king Ugrasena and ground to dust (as he was told this iron ball would destroy the Yadu dynasty). When filing it down there was a small piece left over (like when you grate cheese, there is always a little lump at the end that you can't grate). The dust and iron lump were thrown in the ocean and the dust washed ashore near dwaraka. Each piece of iron dust grew into an iron bamboo shoot, and an entire forest of iron bamboo trees was formed. The lump that was left over was eaten by a fish. A fisherman later caught that fish and gave the iron lump to the hunter who made it into the arrowhead that was used on the arrow that shot Lord Krishna in the foot. The rest of the Yadu dynasty had gone for a picnic to the bamboo forest, and after becoming intoxicated they began to fight amongst themselves. They all grabbed the iron bamboo sticks and began to kill each other in battle. This is how Krishna destroyed his dynasty as he had promised to mother earth (Bhumi Devi). You can read about this story in the eleventh canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Prabhupada mentions it briefly in Caitanya Caritamrita:

I guess they made enough money and closed the shop.

I will work on this and you will have an option to select it in your user control panel. Give me a couple days.

Maybe we shouldn't worry how others are chanting and focus on improving our personal bhajan. Imperfection is there in everyone's service. Finding the defects in others service is the easiest thing you can do in this world, but its useless. Finding the defects in our own service is the hardest thing to do in the world, but it will benefit us immeasurably.

Just to clarify, we are in the 51st year of Brahma's life, (not 51st day of Brahma).

Just from memory, Prabhupada cites Manusamhita as follows: 1) one who steals one's land 2) one who plunders riches 3) one who steals another's wife 4) one who administers poison 5) one who attacks with deadly weapons 6) one who sets fire to someone's house It isn't clear if killing these people is recommended in self defense as the attack is occuring, or if they should be put to death after found guilty of these crimes. In modern society, some of these crimes wouldn't be considered serious enough for the death penalty.

There is a new feature of this software called the karma rating system. (I didn't make up this name, the software developers did. ) In each post, under their author's name, there is a blue button with "Karma" written on it. When you click on this button, you are taken to a place to specify whether you felt the person's post was helpful or bad. This will adjust people's reputation level. Good karma is also built up by the number of posts a user makes, and by how long you have been a registered user (so every post you make will increase your karma and every day you are a registered user will also increase your karma). This is an internal rating system so users can express their opinions of other users. If someone is being too offensive or too argumentative, the overall body of users can let their opinions be known. Later certain private forums will only be accessible to those with a high rating - which will result in a peaceful environment for those who want to have friendly discussions. How to use it: When you read a post, if you feel the person has been exceptionally helpful in his post, or if you feel the person has been offensive, click the karma button and give your judgement. The weight of your judgement is connected to how good your own karma rating is.

There is a new feature of this software called the karma rating system. (I didn't make up this name, the software developers did. ) In each post, under their author's name, there is a blue button with "Karma" written on it. When you click on this button, you are taken to a place to specify whether you felt the person's post was helpful or bad. This will adjust people's reputation level. Good karma is also built up by the number of posts a user makes, and by how long you have been a registered user (so every post you make will increase your karma and every day you are a registered user will also increase your karma). This is an internal rating system so users can express their opinions of other users. If someone is being too offensive or too argumentative, the overall body of users can let their opinions be known. Later certain private forums will only be accessible to those with a high rating - which will result in a peaceful environment for those who want to have friendly discussions. How to use it: When you read a post, if you feel the person has been exceptionally helpful in his post, or if you feel the person has been offensive, click the karma button and give your judgement. The weight of your judgement is connected to how good your own karma rating is.

There is a new feature of this software called the karma rating system. (I didn't make up this name, the software developers did. ) In each post, under their author's name, there is a blue button with "Karma" written on it. When you click on this button, you are taken to a place to specify whether you felt the person's post was helpful or bad. This will adjust people's reputation level. Good karma is also built up by the number of posts a user makes, and by how long you have been a registered user (so every post you make will increase your karma and every day you are a registered user will also increase your karma). This is an internal rating system so users can express their opinions of other users. If someone is being too offensive or too argumentative, the overall body of users can let their opinions be known. Later certain private forums will only be accessible to those with a high rating - which will result in a peaceful environment for those who want to have friendly discussions. How to use it: When you read a post, if you feel the person has been exceptionally helpful in his post, or if you feel the person has been offensive, click the karma button and give your judgement. The weight of your judgement is connected to how good your own karma rating is.

Signatures did not get imported from the old system. So if you used to use a signature, please add it in your profile by going to the User Control Panel (at the top left of screen).

Those pictures really add life to the names. Now I want to go on pilgrimage as well. And Joseph, make sure you see the Akshar Dham swaminarayan temple in Delhi. It's the most amazing thing I have seen in India.

This has been fixed.

All avatars are eternal. When we seen them it is just their manifestation within the material world. It's like the rising and setting of the sun. When the sun rises, it doesn't come into existence, it just comes into view. Lord Krishna appearing recent has no connection to His length of existence, He is eternal and beyond time, as are all avatars.

I think there can be no official position because there are too many variables: what governement is running the country, whether the justice system is fair and honest, which crimes are punishable by death, how the sentence is carried out, etc. If you look at the scriptures they speak of a death penalty, but that takes into consideration the king being a pious upholder of dharma. Over all, if the country is just and the crimes are severe, the scriptures would tend to support the death penalty.

No BBT editor has suggested this, but people have actually suggested it, for example one of the editors of Chakra. She also has suggested removing a number of statements she finds derogatory to women. We can be happy that no one has taken her serious yet.

I'm sure others will give you more advice, but in short you can go to the following places near to Delhi: Vrindavan/Mathura (Birth place of Lord Krishna) 4 hours from Delhi Jaipur (Govinda-ji Temple and some palaces) 6 hours from Delhi Haridwar/Rishikesh (Holy Ganga and foothills of Himalayas) 7 hours from Delhi Kurukshetra (Place where Lord Krishna spoke Bhagavad Gita) 6 hours from Delhi

Try this: jayadvaita.swami@pamho.net

Your reply is foolish. When a sanskrit text is translated into English, English sentence structure and punctuation must be followed. By your logic we should not capitalize the first word of a sentence since there are no capital letters in sanskrit, and likewise we shouldn't put commas and periods because they also don't exist in the same form in sanskrit. In English, proper names are capitalized; that's for everyone including you and me. Adding a capital 'H' for God to show Him respect is something that has a tradition in the English language (whether or not it is a majority tradition is a different topic). Your idea to reject everything simply because sanskrit punctuation and writing are different is about as foolish a thing one could do. You will end up with unreadable run-on sentences that make no sense what so ever, add to that there will be no punctuation, and then no capitals anywhere. Then you really don't have a translation, do you? That's just word for word meanings. Translation means to perfectly convey the meaning and message in another language, utilizing and following the rules and customs of that language. I think you probably wandered here from the other forum. Maybe you should go back and join the thread about "who is greater, Hindus or Muslims".

Since this thread has been revived, I will just make one clarification regarding what one of the guests has said: In the Vedas there is no such thing as untouchable or harijan. Actually all living entities are children of God, and a sage with equal vision respects them all equally (pandita sama darshanah).

Please read this article: http://www.indiadivine.org/hinduism/articles/35/1/The-Origin-of-Ekadashi

Some people are getting problems when copying and posting form Microsoft Word into the WYSIWYG editor. They are getting lines like this: ffice:office" /> If you are having this trouble, I need you to save a text in Microsoft Word, and send it as an attachemnt by PM. If I can see the original file I can fix the problem from reoccuring.