JAYADVAITA SWAMI ADMITS THERE IS NO AUTHORIZATION TO MAKE CHANGES

JAYADVAITA SWAMI ADMITS THERE IS NO AUTHORIZATION

Vyapaka Dasa: “Do you have explicit instructions from Srila Prabhupada authorizing you to make post-samadhi changes to his books?”
Jayadvaita Swami: “No.” (Published e-mail correspondence between Jayadvaita Swami og Vyapaka Dasa)

Govinda Dasi: “…Jayadvaita Maharaja has said that Srila Prabhupada did not specifically give him the permission to…”
Jayadvaita Swami: “I never got an explicit word from Srila Prabhupada to do this work at an explicit time.” (Conversation between Govinda Dasi and Jayadvaita Swami about the posthumous changes to Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita, Honolulu on Jan 19, 2003)

“To my knowledge, Srila Prabhupada never asked us to re-edit the book.” (Jayadvaita Swami’s Letter to Amogha Lila 1986)

“Dear Yasodanandana Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

In answer to your questions, I don’t have any original tape recording of any kind of Srila Prabhupada authorizing the editorial changes in the Gita. And despite scouring the GBC resolutions from 1979-83, I found no reference to the Bhagavad-gita whatsover. It seems the assignment of Jayadvaita Swami to perform that task was unpublished–at least I couldn’t find it in the GBC resolutions made widely available.

Hoping this meets you well, I remain

Your servant,
Dravida dasa [Editor for the BBT(I)]“ (Letter from Dravida Dasa to Yasodanandana Dasa, Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 09:45:12 -0700)

So both Jayadvaita Swami and Dravida Dasa, who are the leading editors for the BBT International admits there is no instruction from Prabhupada to edit his Bhagavad-gita, As It Is (or any other of his books).

Jayadvaita Swami on why he edited Bhagavad-gita

The following is a 2 ½ hour class given yesterday at the Manor by Jayadvaita Swami on why he edited Bhagavad-gita:

http://www.sivaramaswami.com/en/2013/05/05/jaya-adwaita-swami-speaks-on-how-srila-prabhupadas-books-came-to-be/

 

The main challenger throughout is Bhajahari. One interesting challenge that was brought to JAS was Bhaja asking when the editing process would stop, i.e. when would the “definitive edition” of Bg be available.  JAS said it would stop when both he and Dravida leave their bodies.  Bhaja asked why didn’t the editing stop when SP left his body?   Funnily enough, on the back cover of the original Macmillan Gita, it says in large type at the top: “The Definitive English Edition of Bhagavad-gita”!

 

Another interesting point was JAS admitting he made a mistake in editing one of the purports, which Parasurama said introduced Mayavada philosophy into the book!  Bhaja then said that since JAS had publicly apologised via BTG for the big mistake of the zonal acarya system, how do we know he didn’t make mistakes in his editing as well?

 

At the end, JAS profusely thanked Bhaja for being brave enough to challenge him in public, as he didn’t want an audience of “yes men”! I’m not sure if this is on the above audio though as I haven’t gone through it.

 

The quality is audible but not pristine since it was recorded “unofficially”, but the “official” high quality digital recording of the classes are usually available online about a week or so after the class.