Wednesday 7 December 2011

Srila Prabhupada on Changing His Books -2

Yasodanandan:  “But
sometimes to make better English, I think they were making
philosophical mistakes also. There is not so much need of making so
much better English. Your English is sufficient. It is very clear, very
simple. We have caught over 125 changes. They’re changing so many
things. We are wondering if this is necessary. I will show you today. I
have kept the book.”
Srila Prabhupada:  “I know that these rascals are doing. What can be done? How can they be relied on?”
Svarupa Damodara:  “It’s not the responsibility of the BBT trustee, to see these things don’t change without Prabhupada’s sanction.”
Srila Prabhupada:  “So how to check this? How to stop this?
 But they are doing without any authority.”
Svarupa Damodara:  “I
think we should make whole survey, all books already printed, before
printing the next batch and check any mistakes so that it should be
corrected. Otherwise, if the scholars find out that there are so many
mistakes in the books, then the quality and the appreciation will be
reduced....Yes, we find so far that they are appreciating so much
within the scholarly circle, and we want to maintain that actually.”
Srila Prabhupada:  “Very serious feature. It is not possible for me to check, and they are doing all nonsense, freedom.”
Devotee:  “Jaya Srila Prabhupada.”
Srila Prabhupada:  “What to do?”
Tamala Krsna:  “I
think Svarupa Damodara’s point, that all the books should be checked
before they’re reprinted again... And they have to be checked not by
some so-called learned Sanskrit man but by a learned devotee.”
Srila Prabhupada:  “It is a very serious situation. R.... is in direct...
Svarupa Damodara:  “I think they’re working too independently without consulting properly.”
Yasodanandan:  “Sometimes they appeal that ‘We can make better English’, so they change like that, just like in the case of Isopanisad.
There are over a hundred changes. So where is the need? Your words are
sufficient. The potency is there. When they change, it is something
else.” 
Svarupa Damodara:  “That’s actually a very dangerous mentality.”
Yasodanandan:  “What is it going to be in five years? It’s going to be a different  book.”
Srila Prabhupada:  “So
you...What are you going... it is a very serious situation. You write
one letter that ‘Why you have made so many changes?’ And whom to write?  Who will care?  All rascals are there? Write to   Satsvarupa that, ‘This is the position. They are doing anything and everything at their whim.’  The next printing should be again the original way.”
 
Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, June 22, 1977, Vrindabana
 
Later on in the conversation Srila Prabhupada summarizes the whole mentality of changing his words.
 
Srila Prabhupada: “So you bring this to Satsvarupa. They cannot change anything...”
 
Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, June 22, 1977, Vrindavana
 
“You can tell them [the GBC] that if they change one word from my books, it will spoil everything I have done.”
 
Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, June 23, 1977, Vrindavana

Paramahansa:  “People...
I’ve talked to professors who know the original Hebrew and the original
tongues that the Bible was written in. They say that it has changed so
much that you can hardly...”
Srila Prabhupada:  “Yes, they are changing.  Just like he said, ‘Thou shall not kill.’  They are now changing, ‘Thou shall not commit murder.’  They are doing that.”
Paramahamsa:  “Yes. They have a modern Bible, using all modern terminology.”
Srila 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’...  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?”
Srila 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 Krishna Consciousness movement is
going on in my presence. Now after my departure, if you do not do this,
then it is lost. If you go as you are doing now, then it will go on.  But if you stop...”

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