http://bookchanges.com/theyre-ruining-my-books-srila-prabhupada/
A very, very important document has just become public. It is a 300+
page transcript of a 1979 interview with Ramesvara Prabhu, the manager
of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, the person directly in charge of
printing Srila Prabhupada’s books. Ramesvara had unlimited direct
instructions from Srila Prabhupada in regard to printing his books. He
also gives an eye-witness account of many other important events that
occurred in ISKCON in the presence of Srila Prabhupada. The events were
very fresh in his mind at that time as this interview took place only
two years after Srila Prabhupada had disappeared from our material
vision.
In this interview he is giving a completely honest account of Srila
Prabhupada’s instructions to him in regard to not changing his books and
on many other points also.
This is perhaps the most important document that has come to light in ISKCON since 1977.
I request you to please read the whole 300+ pages of the interview
transcript. You will find it uplifting, encouraging, inspiring and also
very informative.
In today’s ISKCON almost everything has been changed and so many of
Srila Prabhupada’s orders have been disobeyed. This document is truly a
wake up call for the BBT and ISKCON, coming perhaps just at the right
moment.
You can download and read the PDF file of the interview by clicking on:
Please read it…
A few short quotes from the interview (these are about book
changes but the interview covers a very broad spectrum of interesting
topics so please read the transcript for yourself):
“Prabhupada got involved in many of the facets related to his books.
In 1974, for example, we had proposed to put a new picture on the cover
of
Isopanisad,
Krsna playing the flute on the rock. We mailed a copy of the picture to
Prabhupada and told him, “We’re planning to do this.” Prabhupada fired
back a letter, “
Don’t you dare change the picture on my book! I have deliberately chosen the picture of Visnu because I want this book to be attracting the Mayavadis and impersonalists.”
Prabhupada just explained how everyone’s a rascal for daring to touch anything in his books.
The greatest anxiety he has is that after he’s gone we will add things
to his books that are bogus, we will take things out that are bona fide,
we will make changes in his books and the whole work for 10,000 years, his plan Prabhupada was working on,
it will all be spoiled by us because of our tendency to change.
And Prabhupada gave an example that the disease to do things
differently is so inherent in the Americans that for the sake of doing
things differently we would walk on our hands rather than our feet.”
“The artists were always writing letters to Prabhupada asking him to
explain how he wants the transcendental lilas painted. How to paint the
spirit soul, how to paint Krsna, how to paint the spiritual world, what
it looks like, what the atmosphere is, what the ground should look like,
all kinds of detailed questions. And Prabhupada would write hundreds of
letters to his artists explaining to them the answers. Even though
these questions bothered him sometimes, they were like teasing him, but
still he took the time to always answer. He once had said that ISKCON
Press is the heart of ISKCON and the art department is the heart of the
Press. So to Prabhupada these paintings were windows to the spiritual
sky
.”
“Prabhupada actually wanted 50 paintings in every volume. That was
Prabhupada’s vision. Genius! No philosopher ever thought of such a
thing. And therefore their books never sell. These art paintings were
the basis of all the book distribution. Of course, it was our sincerity
and our drive and our desire to please Prabhupada. But the technique was
showing people the paintings, attracting their senses, getting them
curious and interested and attracted by the art. The more beautiful the
art the more you could tell people that this describes the most
beautiful, peaceful way of
life,
the most beautiful spiritual thing. You’d show the paintings and you’d
say things like, “This explains how to experience the highest happiness.
Just look at this painting. Wouldn’t you like to be there?” The
paintings were the basis for the book selling. And Prabhupada is the
genius who thought that up.”
“By 1974, Radhahallabha and I and the artists were talking about reprinting the
Krsna Book,
“Let’s update the paintings.” These paintings were done in 1969, 1968.
The artists have gotten much better. Their expertise was much better. So
the decision was made by myself and Radhaballabha, we were going to
upgrade all the paintings. The artists would get together with
Radhaballabha and pick out which ones they wanted and then we would work
it out together which ones to take out and which ones to put in. So
Prabhupada and Bali came to Los Angeles and I had a meeting with
Prabhupada upstairs in his room and I started showing him all of the
paintings that were corning out, page by page, and all the paintings
that were going in. This was one of the most astonishing meetings I ever
had with Prabhupada in my life.
Just before we started going over the
Krsna Book paintings, we went over these drawings that Pariksit had done for the
Teachings of Lord Caitanya.
He had worked for one year on about 24 or so black and white drawings
which would be going on the title page for each chapter of the
Teachings of Lord Caitanya.
This was his first major work at the BBT art department. And they had
sent them to me so I could show them to Prabhupada because we were
getting ready to print the TLC in Dai Nippon. So we went through drawing
after drawing after drawing and Prabhupada was becoming angrier and
angrier and more and more livid, and it was becoming a frightening
experience. He was condemning them, he was throwing them out, he was
rejecting them, he was blasting them, he was describing how they were
going to ruin his book, they’re off, they’re misrepresentative, they’re
not clear, they’re bogus, and “
If you put anything bogus in my
book, this is my greatest fear that you will ruin my book and the whole
book will be ruined because of you!” And on and on, it was
devastating! And I wrote a letter to the artists with the description of
Prabhupada’s comments like a blow by; blow because it was so impressed
in my mind. As soon as I got out of the room I ran downstairs and typed
out this letter, remembering all of the things Prabhupada said. So I’ll
be able to find that letter and you can refer to it and you’ll see
exactly how Prabhupada analyzed the drawings in relation to what they
were supposed to be illustrating very carefully and rejected them and
just with devastating critique. Prabhupada was so expert. So then after
going through that scene, then I took out the
Krsna Book and
said “Now, these are the paintings they want to take out and these are
the ones they want to put in, Srila Prabhupada.” And we started again
going page by page, color plate by color plate. And Prabhupada was
becoming more and more livid, and more and more angry. And it was just
the most terrifying experience that I have ever gone through. He was
screaming, “They’re ruining my books! They have no brain! They are
hippies! They are rascals!” Screaming, pounding his fist on the desk. At
one point they wanted to take out the old Putana, the dead Putana with
Krsna sucking the breast of Putana or playing on her lap, whatever it
was, and in the background you have the Vrndavana village. And they
wanted to put the new one in from the 2.2 which Prabhupada considered to
be an inferior painting because it did not show as much. “An ugly black
lump,” he said. But the worst was when we came to the
rasa-lila, this was one of Prabhupada’s favorite paintings, the original Devahuti painting of the
rasa-lila which we’ve made the poster of, which is now in the
Krsna Book and so on. They wanted to take it out and they wanted to put this painting of Krsna dancing with the
gopis from the first printing of the Third Canto, Volume 2. Now in the reprinting of the Third Canto, Volume 2 this
rasa-lila has been taken out and the original
Krsna Book rasa-lila has been put in. Because the
rasa-lila that they wanted to put in the
Krsna Book
was the final straw. Prabhupada just turned white! He looked into his
bedroom at the original painting which was hanging on his wall. From his
sitting room in Los Angeles he could look into his bedroom. He turned
white. He looked at that painting. Then he looked down at the painting
that they were proposing was better. Krsna’s hair was wild and long,
Radharani’s head was uncovered, the
gopis‘ hair was uncovered.
It was like a, Prabhupada said, “hippie dance, sex dance. Hippie seeds,
hippie contamination, hippie mentality, hippie, hippie, dirty! Rascals!”
On and on. Prabhupada was screaming, banging his fist on the desk.
There was nothing you could say, it was just an explosion that “
They’re ruining my books.”
With the BBT, the size of the books, the type of art in the books and so on,
on principle Prabhupada would not allow changes even if the change was an improvement. Just to teach that principle of
don’t change.
When the Dallas Gurukula was collapsing, I begged Prabhupada, “Let us
send money from the BBT.” He said, “No. It is not the business of the
BBT to support children, it is the business of parents.” The parents
didn’t have any money, how could they support the children? But on this
principle, Prabhupada wouldn’t let the BBT bail out the Dallas Gurukula
and it closed. I was ready to bail them out. I proposed it, I wanted to
bail it out, but it just didn’t happen.
I’ve had many experiences with Prabhupada literally drilling me, pounding it into my head that you’re never allowed to change anything in his books. He trained me so intensely on this point. Even when the changes make sense he wouldn’t let me change. Just to train me.
You can download and read the PDF file of the interview by clicking on:
Chant Hare
Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
http://bookchanges.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Ramesvara-interview-1979.pdf
