changing Prabhupada's books

[Guest guest]

The whole thing is really this simple. Anyone who thinks that Srila Prabhupada's books are filled with mistakes and require editing thinks himself to be perfect and Srila Prabhupada to be imperfect. This is an epic mistake and such a person is a colossal fool.

[Guest guest]

Then why did Prabhupada have his own version?

He shud have his guru's version instead right?

 

I do not know wher from you get all this funny ideas.

This sort of tradition is not encouraged in any other systems.

 

Srila Prabhupada was a Human being with limitations. It does not mean, he is wrong, it means, he may not be right always. So why dont you do the thinking on your own?

 

Is it like downloading files to a computer?

 

[Guest guest]

Either you believe that a pure devotee of God is perfect like God is, or you don't. If you don't, then you are simply commiting spiritual suicide, because your only hope of approaching God, attaining the perfection of life, getting out of this miserable world and returning to the spiritual world rests on acceptance of the fact that there is such a thing as the perfection of life. Obviously, it doesn't exist in this world. In the kingdom of God, though, exists the perfection of life, and everyone there lives the perfection of life eternally. The sole purpose of the pure devotee of God in coming to this material world is to help fallen souls like ourselves to go back there. If you can't believe this, then what hope is there for you?

[Guest guest]

I am not against any particular guru.

Srila Prabhupada, as a guru must have set an example, by quoting in Verbatim, his guru and his guru shud have done the same thing...so on .

But Srila Prabhupada, used his version ( Not his master's version). Do you mean to say, Srila Prabhupada's masters were not perfect?

Tangential answers are OK. but I want a serious direct to the point answer.

[govardangiri 0]

Come on Rasikananda prabhu, we are waiting for a direct answer.....

 

 

[Guest guest]

Haribol. The key to understanding this issue may be found in St John the divine and the book of Prophecy (revelations). At the end of this book, St John mentions the destruction by plagues and all types of calamities for anyone who changes the meaning of the book. Many take this to be an admonishment against any type of change, including translations etc. But he clearly states "Changes the MEANING of this book".

 

The book changes are no big deal, and the meaning of Srila Prabhupada is fully intact. The person who has undertaken this task is doing so as service to Srila Prabhupada, who entrusted him with such work, even while he was physically present.

 

Those who insist on such strict "keeping these books the way they were" must also think that Srila Prabhupada did not want any more of His books translated into other languages after His physical departure.

 

The person who has done this work is aware of the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada in this regard. Some may think that no one can be advised by Srila Prabhupada now that he is dead and gone, but Srila Prabhupada clearly stated that His personal guidance is there even after His departure. If one insists on denying this fact does a great disservice to the disciples of Srila Prabhupada. If one thinks that they can slam the service of the devotees and be pleasing to Srila Prabhupada better think again, because it is not possible. The person you refer to has probably spent hundreds of hours personally discussing the book publishing endeavor directly with Srila Prabhupada. Other senior devotees who were very talented in editing, publishing, translating, etc, continued their work at his direction even after the books were published by BBT. I knew one such devotee, who continued to work on Chaitanya Charitamrta after it was published. Why would Srila Prabhupada engage this devotee in such work after the book was published?

 

Barkin at the moon, that is all it is. The folks who continually make this issue are not even into his books, they never even read them, they are more interested in documents and personal letters of dubious authenticity, they make religion out of all these wills, memoes, minutes of business meetings, and they dont even know guru tattwa. And the really revealing thing about these folks are the way they edit these personal letters and memoes to prove their points, adding their own purports to these letters, etc. So, the book changes are not as serious a problem than the revisionist who believes that Prabhupada started a new eccliastic religion with a guru "system" not even hinted at in his books.

 

Go figure, eh!

 

Hare Krsna, ys, mahaksadasa

 

 

[Guest guest]

as long as meaning is identical the changing can go ahead...

 

for example, Prabhupada would give his texts for editing to his disciples (who were perhaps more journalistic in nature) and accept whatever editing they did, unless there was some big diversion from his intent...

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna!

 

All glories to Srila Prabhupada! I offer my humble obeisances unto HIm!

 

I do not know how you assumed the fact that Srila Prabhupada was writing something else different from His Guru's teachings.

 

Srila Prabhupada wrote exactly what His Guru had taught Him. Because Prabhupada wrote His books based on His Guru's teachings and also based on Baladev Vidya Bushan's commentary who is in the Guru/disciple lineage before Prabhupada's Guru.

 

Also, Srila Prabhupada wrote books because he was specifically instructed to do so by his Guru.

 

He was asked to write books in english that were authentic and followed the disciplic succession.

 

For your information, there were no books written in english that Prabhupada's guru or for that matter his lineage had. There were only some books written in english by Bhaktivinod Takur. Thats it. Otherwise there were no extensive books written on english based on the teachings of his guru and his Sampradya. There were books in sanskrit but not in english.

 

That is why Prabhupada wrote these books as there were NO BOOKS AT ALL IN ENGLISH FOLLOWING THE CHAITANYA LINE and books(in english) written by any devotee in that Sampradya. So Prabhupada's Guru did not write any book or had any book in english and so it was Prabhupada's instructions to write the books that he did. So Prabhupda did not create any book of his own version but merely followed his Guru's instructions in translating whatever there was in sanskrit to english.

 

That is why if you see, Prabhupada had a tape where he had the source book in sankrit and the translated that into english. He did not write anything trangressing the disciplic order and absolutely followed his Guru's instructions.

 

Haribol!

 

anand