Garuda Dasa / Ramesvara Dasa RE: Book Changes

PADA: This seems to be a problem. 

The original guys who approved the book changes are not on the BBT board anymore. 

The original guys who approved of keeping Lokanath are not on the board anymore. 

The original guys who created the Sridhar Maharaja mess, Narayan Maharaj mess, and this mess and that mess -- resigned and left. And the original guys who made so many other messes are gone. Problem is -- their messes were never cleaned up properly. 

Well yup. That means allowing problems and / or changes to go on without any correcting now, makes it harder and harder to fix their mess later on -- as time goes on. The karmis call this "running out the clock," i.e. after awhile it is almost impossible to fix the original problem -- because the original participants who created the problem, and the original people who wanted to fix the problem -- have all vanished over time. 

Fixing the books changes is perhaps the most crucial change that needs to be fixed, the damage will be immense and it is very much harder to fix as time goes on. ys pd

Garuda dasa:

SOME QUICK HOPEFUL UPDATES

My Dear Vaishnava Sisters and Brothers,

I offer all of you my heartfelt praṇāmas. Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda!

First, I want to point out to all of you that the leading devotees now running the BBTI, with the exception of Naresvaraji, were not present and thus responsible for the editing of Jayadvaita Swami. For the most part, these devotees in the BBTI have been fully dedicated to producing vast numbers of books that are spread around the world by the selfless book distributors in ISKCON, for which they are all to be commended! 

And I also want to say that I give the early editors of the BBT the benefit of the doubt . . . they did the best that they could, given their circumstances, and taking into consideration how little they and the rest of us knew back in the day.

Second, I want to say that over the past few years, I have seen the leading BBTI devotees give attention to the problem of the editing that is unprecedented, for which, I feel, they are to be commended. There has never been an advisory panel of scholarly devotees (in a few cases they actually have doctorates) that devote their focus solely on the editing of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. 

How effective this "Revisions Review Panel" (RRP) will be has yet to be seen, and how seriously the BBTI devotees can incorporate their assessments, again, has yet to be seen. Nonetheless, this is unprecedented.

Third, I want to let all of you know that I have made two complete detailed passes through Śrīla Prabhupāda's Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. The first pass was to fully analyze Jayadvaita's editing, examining it against Śrīla Prabhupāda's instructions on editing, as found in his letters, his dialogues, and in his example of treating his own spiritual master's work. In the process, I have culled and distilled Śrīla Prabhupāda's desires for editing, and personally, I find it absolutely brilliant on many levels, which I will discuss at another time.

The second pass through Śrīla Prabhupāda's Bhagavad-gītā As It Is was to see exactly how I, as a disciple of fifty years and as a published scholar with doctoral training in textual studies, would apply Śrīla Prabhupāda's exact instructions to editing and preserving his work, how to establish the ārṣa-prayoga principle of editing as foundational, and building on top of that any professional and scholarly expectations and conventions. I have found that there is a way to edit and preserve Śrīla Prabhupāda's work by not eliminating anything from the original MAC72 and yet also making sure that there are no mistakes.

OUR TASK IS NOT TO ELIMINATE BUT TO ILLUMINATE! 

I have found that there was never any need whatsoever for a so-called "Second Edition" or "Complete Edition: Revised and Enlarged." Perhaps one day we can, altogether, see how to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda's books by following his instructions, fulfilling his desire for his published work, while making his original work shine by our devotional and scholarly treatment of it. 

I am utterly certain that his kind of treatment of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books will garner a lot of attention and endorsements from scholars, without having to unethically misapply those endorsements for the MAC72 to the BBT83 Jayadvaita revised second edition.

My hope is that one day the BBTI will see the light of this very solid but delicately applied approach that embraces everything that was in Śrīla Prabhupāda's original MAC72. It could happen!!!

Dāso 'smi premni nityam,
Garuḍa Dāsa

RAMESVARA DASA: Dear Venerable Devotees,

Hare Krsna. Pamho. AGTSP!

As I had not see this very important quote from Srila Prabhupada about not making unauthorized changes to his books, I’m am copying the entire post for you to read. I beg to remain your aspiring BBT servant, Ramesvara dasa

“My Dear Vaishnava Sisters and Brothers,

I offer all of you my affectionate and respectful praṇāmas! Jaya Guru and Gaurāṅga!

In case the following marvelous Śrīla Prabhupāda quote has never been presented in this private group, I'm posting it below:

"In the scriptures . . . just like the Christians, they are changing the words. But you cannot do that. Then where is the authority? If you change the word of the scripture, then where is the authority of the scripture? Just like in law books, there is some law made already. Whimsically you cannot, I mean to say, erase the words and put something that, 'It should be changed like this.' 

That will not be accepted. Law, if there is change . . . actually, there is no change. There cannot be change. Real law means there is no change. Just like day and night, it is coming. The fortnight, the dark period and the light period, it is coming for millions and millions and time immemorial. The same law is going, going on. You cannot change. So as soon as you change, that means it is imperfect. You change. " (720920 - Lecture SB 01.03.15 - Los Angeles) 

In my view, there has never been any matter on which Śrīla Prabhupāda has been so concerned as the preservation of his vāni in the form of his books.
I pray that this announcement meets all of you in thriving and inspired bhajan and sevā.

Dāso 'smi premni,
Garuḍa Dāsa “