Hare Krsna to all
Pranams
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
If you dont want to be shocked-then don’t read any further….
I would suspect there are literally hundreds of thousands of devotees all over this planet that consider
the brutish mentality of changing even one word of Srila Prabhupadas book a gross offense, or hati mata, the mad elephant offense.
What to speak of the wholesale change to thousands of passages in the Bhagavad gita , Srimad Bhagavatam and Caitanya Caritamrta.
Now dear readers please hear what the author himself of these same books says about anybody who dares to touch his translations and purports.
Hare Krsna
Damaghosa das
740704BG.HON Lectures 207301/530501 Prabhupada: Then so siksa and diksa-guru… A siksa-guru who instructs against the instruction of spiritual, he is not a siksa guru. He is a demon. Siksa-guru, diksa-guru means… Sometimes a diksa-guru is not present always. Therefore one can take learning, instruction, from an advanced devotee. That is called the siksa-guru. Siksa-guru does not mean he is speaking something against the teachings of the diksa-guru. He is not a siksa-guru. He is a rascal. … Because that is offense. Guror avajna. First offense is guror avajna, defying the authority of guru. This is the first offense. So one who is offensive, how he can make advance in chanting? He cannot make. Then everything is finished in the beginning. Guror avajna. Everything is there. If one is disobeying the spiritual master, he cannot remain in the pure status of life. He cannot be siksa-guru or anything else. He is finished, immediately. Guror avajna sruti-sastra-nindanam, namno balad yasya hi… You do not study all these things. You become initiated. There are ten kinds of offenses. Do you have any regard for these things or not? You must avoid these ten kinds of offenses. The first offense is to disobey the orders of guru. That is first offense. So if you are offensive, how
you can become advanced by chanting? That is also not possible.
Does this picture (and its probably one of the ones they took out of the revised BG)
of the 4 kinds of people who NEVER surrender to Krsna remind us of
anyone in particular?? It does to me !! Notice the guy on the left who is holding the
scripture and pointing upwards as if he knows “everything”. Striking similarity, isnt it?
680610SB.MON Lectures If you have to learn Bhagavad-gita, then you have to learn Bhagavad-gita as Krsna speaks or as Arjuna understands. Just like if you take a medicine bottle. The direction, as it is stated in the bottle, you have to take medicine in that way. You cannot make your own direction, interpretation. (break) Nonsense. We don’t accept. (break) We are publishing one book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is. It has been taken by one great publisher, Macmillan Company, and we’ll have it by the month of October. Don’t interpret. We explain things as they are. That should be the attitude. Why? Why interpretation? By interpretation, there are 664 editions of Bhagavad-gita.
(And now add another by Jayadvaita swami and Dravida das—-665)
Simply by…One medical man he has interpreted Bhagavad-gita, Krsna is a physician and Arjuna is a patient. And he has tried to explain through Bhagavad-gita all anatomic physiology, not this. Gandhi, he wanted to prove nonviolence from Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita is being spoken in the battlefield, full of violence, and he is trying to prove that the Bhagavad-gita is nonviolent. These are all artificial attempts.
These explanations will never give you the real light from Bhagavad-gita. You try to understand Bhagavad-gita as it is. (break)
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Atreya Rsi: Hussain Prabhu says that his goal in life is to translate your Bhagavad-gita. Prabhupada: Oh, very good. Atreya Rsi: Yes, he’s a very, very sincere boy. Prabhupada: So do it immediately. Somebody, some Arabian student made some translation? Atreya Rsi: Yes, there was some translations of Isopanisad. Prabhupada: Where he is, that boy? Atreya Rsi: Into Arabic. He’s in Europe. He is a Palestinian boy. Hussain is asking how should this translation be done, what is your recommendation, if you have any suggestion. Prabhupada: Of course, I am not well versed in your language, but you simply, if you understand that English and translate it into Parsi, that will do. As it is, you translate. Don’t make any change. Then it will be all right. And when there is difficulty, you can ask Atreya Rsi. Harikesa.
So in this conversation Srila Prabhupada is telling this person to go ahead and translate his Bhagavad Gita into (Parsi) Arabic language simply using his already existing English translation published by the Macmillan Co. This is the same book that we distributed in the millions all over the world. But he warned him–“don’t make any changes and then it will be alright.”
It is very clear, that this BG that was published by Macmillan Co, and daily read by Srila Prabhupada,
was to be printed in as many languages as possible-but all without change!
This is NOT at all what we have today with Jaya Advaita, and Dravida’s version.
Here is what Srila Prabhupada himself has to say about the principle of no-change (arsa- prayoga)
“If one is too big, there is no mistake. Arsa-prayoga means there may be discrepancies but it is all right. Just like Shakespeare, sometimes there are odd usages of language, but he is accepted as authority. I have explained all these things in my Preface to First Canto.” (Letter to Mandali Bhadra, Jaipur 20 January, 1972)
Prabhupada: That is his tendency,[the BBT editors-Jayadvaita and Dravida] to correct. That’s very bad. He should not do that. Radha-vallabha: So I’ll just forget this, then. Prabhupada: The system is: whatever authority has done, even there is mistake, it should be accepted. Radha-vallabha: Oh. Prabhupada: Arsa-prayoga. That is ha… He should not become more learned than the authority. That is very bad habit…. (Room Conversation 27 February, 1977)
750509rc.per Conversations
Prabhupada: So, when you change, then the authority is lost. Just like in our society, sometimes they do something nonsense and they say, “Prabhupada said.” (laughter) They are doing that. We know that. It is deteriorated like that.
Ganesa: Srila Prabhupada, if the knowledge was handed down by the saintly kings, evam parampara-praptam, how is it that the knowledge was lost? Prabhupada:
When it was not handed down. Simply understood by speculation. Or if it is not handed down as it is. They might have made some changes. Or they did not hand it down. Suppose I handed it
down to you, but if you do not do that, then it is lost. Now the Krsna consciousness movement is going on in my presence. Now after my deparature, if you do not do this, then it is lost. If you go on as you are doing now, then it will go on. But if you stop… (end)
