Rūpānuga Dāsa (ACBSP) YouTube Interview 2026
FOURTH PART
Host: Let us, if we can, move on to some other controversial subjects.
Host: There are some very important subjects that you have written on and commented on, and a lot of devotees have appreciated your wisdom on these matters. For instance, the editing of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Yes.
PADA: Yep. After Rupanuga empowered the GBC guys to be gurus, they started writing all sorts of bogus books of their own, and started to do hatchet jobs on Srila Prabhupada's books. Rupanuga had no authority to empower this group as acharyas in the first place -- which resulted in all this editing.
Host: Perhaps you could give us your analysis of that situation. You are a senior Prabhupāda man. You were around during the formative times of his mission and his translations.
So right now we have this back-and-forth debate, and the people who are for the changes, for not leaving it as it is, seem to be pretty dug in. It seems like the only way it is going to be resolved is in the courts in India. So what is your— And, you know, we have had Garuḍa on our show. We had a very long episode, which is actually our most viewed episode thus far. On this, we dissected it.
But I am curious to get your opinion of the book edits — you could say, the controversy.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Very unfortunate. I do not think that Śrīla Prabhupāda would have approved. For him, editing was grammatical: periods and commas, maybe some wording, but not changing the format or the philosophy. Not to change the philosophy, but simply grammatical. That was my understanding of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s editing work.
Punctuation and spelling, like that. Not ideology. And that is what has happened. The changes that were made — and I have been examining some of them — do not leave the philosophy alone. They make changes in the philosophy.
It does not spoil the whole book, in my opinion. The whole book is not spoiled, but basic concepts are made very unclear, whereas Bhagavad-gītā is very clear.
Host: Can you give us an example?
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Two editions of the Bhagavad-gītā compared — one that was original, 1972, and the later revised edition, or edited edition. I made a comparison here, and it is not something that I have been able to memorize, but I will give you an example. So, two editions of the Bhagavad-gītā were compared. This method of “count and analyze” was applied to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s 1972 first edition and the revised 1983 edition. Only the verse translations were examined.
Out of 700 verses, 74%, or 521 verses, had words changed by deletions, insertions, or rearrangement.
Out of 700 verses, 74%, or 521 verses, had words changed by deletions, insertions, or rearrangement.
In three chapters, over 90% of the verses were changed in this way. Chapter 6 had 43 verses changed out of 47 total. Chapter 11 had 50 out of 55, and Chapter 17 had 26 out of 28.
These numbers do not include verses that were changed only for spelling, punctuation, or capitalization. Only 21 verses, or 3% of the total, are in that category of grammatical changes.
For example, analysis of the deleted, inserted, or rearranged words in the revised edition revealed philosophical interpolations — that is, the insertion of different ideas.
For example, regarding sense control, “control the lower self by the higher self,” from the 1972 edition, was interpolated to “steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence.”
Host: That is completely different.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Completely different. Completely.
In the 1983 Bhagavad-gītā, 3.43, “he who controls the senses” was interpolated in the next edition to “a sincere person who tries to control the active senses.” It is a completely softening of the whole concept.
Host: What was Prabhupāda’s letter to— I think it was Hamsadūta? “Our editing is for grammar and punctuation only, not for interpolation of philosophy or style.”
Rūpānuga Dāsa: I did not bring it?
Mādhavī: No.
Host: But I have it pretty much memorized: “Our editing is for grammar and punctuation only, not for interpolation of philosophy or style.”
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Right.
Host: That is pretty clear.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: But all these comparisons I gave you now were philosophical.
Host: Thank God you brought your secretary with you.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: She studies my work.
Host: So in conclusion—
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Behind every great man is a great woman. “The count and analyze method produced evidence that conclusively proves that the revised editions of the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and Teachings of Lord Caitanya are not editorially equivalent to the first editions in philosophy, style, or content.
These revised editions contain an undetermined number of interpolations of philosophy and style. Some examples have been demonstrated herein. These revised editions mix Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings with different ideas, without separating or identifying one from the other.
Thus, for the general reading, it is difficult to identify the interpolations of philosophy and style within the revised editions. For this reason alone, the revised editions of the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and Teachings of Lord Caitanya are unreliable for the study of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings.”
Host: Wow, that is pretty heavy.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: That is my last sentence.
Host: That is very unreliable. That is heavy because what was Prabhupāda’s main mission? You say he came here for what purpose?
Rūpānuga Dāsa: To translate these books.
Host: Yes. Present them to the Western world.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Yes. And his books, he said on numerous occasions — at least three — would be the law books for the next ten thousand years.
Host: Yes.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: A lot of devotees worked very hard to supply the money to publish these books. And they distributed them because they believed in the contents. And they were not informed about these changes. And they kept distributing books without knowledge. I tell you, they would not have done that had they read this paper.
Host: And it is interesting to note, in the 1983 edition, that the statement — I think it was on the back cover, or maybe on the inside — “Śrīla Prabhupāda, the greatest exponent of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the Western world” — that was taken out of the 1983 edition.
Very, very telling.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Yes.
Host: Very telling.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: I think there is too much enviousness — too much enviousness of Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was so perfect, and some people cannot tolerate perfection.
PADA: Most of the extensive editing was going on after Srila Prabhupada departed, although a few edits were made in 1976 -- which he was upset to find out. He said no more changes. Rupanuga's guru regime was responsible for making all these extensive edits, and empowering Jayadvaita to do a hatchet job on the books.
After all this hatcheting has been going on for decades, Rupanuga finally says it is a problem. It was a problem right out of the gate, and he failed to bring attention to it early on -- until way after the fact -- after we had been mentioning in our newsletters etc. and we helped the BBTI lawsuit in 1997. As a leader, he should have raised the alarm way earlier -- before it got to this extent. Saying, there is an iceberg here, after we hit the iceberg already, is not entirely helpful.
Host: Let us speak about that more, and how you saw that in your experience. Are you speaking of some of his disciples?
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Uh-huh. Yes. Because initiation is an encouragement. It is not proof of one’s understanding. It is an impetus. It is a beginning. It is an empowerment to understand. But it has to be used regularly, or it gets weak. It has to be used over and over, just like muscles for an athlete. He has to keep himself up.
He cannot slip off. So I think that is what has happened, in my humble opinion. It is not so much simply living the work, but being constantly reminded of the truth, being reminded of the ideal. Automatically, if one reads the ideal over and over again, one begins to live it. You get influenced. It is an educational process. Śrīla Prabhupāda was, first of all, above everything, an educator. And he trained up educators to go out and educate other people in the contribution India made to the world.
PADA: The ideal is to worship Krishna via media His pure devotee. Rupanuga completely lost track of the ideal, and he thought we need to promote his lusty and intoxicated dog gurus as Krishna's successors, and that is a severe deviation from which ISKCON never recovered.
Host: You mentioned that you noticed, or you see, the tendency toward envy, which is pretty much concomitant in the jīva soul. That is why we left the association of the Supreme Lord, or rejected His association, due to that tendency to want to become little gods. So how did you see that manifest? Or how did you see that manifest in relation, say, to the book changes, and perhaps in other ways?
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Well, I mean, if you can get away with changing the Absolute Truth, you are a pretty well-accomplished atheist. And I think some persons who are not fully purified enough, not fully developed enough in their own realizations, make errors because of that.
And some are envious, because where do we hear the truth anyway? I mean, who speaks the truth? And when someone hears it and they do not want to hear it, it might require them to change their ways. And they react, “Oh, this is too much.”
PADA: OK so the gurus Rupanuga empowered as gurus are maybe atheists and envious. How did they become gurus then? This means Rupanuga and his guru club never studied the qualities of an acharya, so they rubber stamped all sorts of disqualified if not atheistic folks as acharyas, including the book changer club. Vipramukha was one of the gurus Rupanugas guru reformers voted in as acharya, and he openly admits he is an atheist. That means they took no precautions when voting in these messiahs.
Rupanuga Dasa: Just like the two who committed suicide back in— I thought it was too much for them. Yes, I knew them. They were very intelligent. Both of them were intelligent. But they had to make a choice, and their intelligence could not do it.
I talked to the parents of one of them. They knew I was sort of in charge of him, and they were not angry with me. They did not blame me. They understood it was his choice.
Host: I am just thinking it must have been a very difficult situation to be in, you know, when you had these two students and they somehow decided, of their own volition, to end their lives. A lot of times, in the Bhagavad-gītā, it is mentioned that we should not resent the principles. We should not resent them. And so instead of taking a humble position — “I am not up to snuff,” or “I am falling” — we try to change the philosophy so we do not look like we are falling short, or something. And I think a lot of times that false pride is what makes us want to change the philosophy, so we are not wrong, but we want to continue trying to lord it over, trying to do our own thing. So those are the things that I was thinking about while—
PADA: A number of ISKCON kids took their own lives. It might look like "it was their choice" but there are many combined contributing elements found in a society that produces a number of children feeling hopeless and suicidal. There are powerful external forces that change the children's internal feelings, emotions, religious framework, moral compass, life direction, feelings of isolation and depression and etc.
In fact PADA was calling this a suicide epidemic in 1997. To have such a large number of distraught -- if not suicidal kids -- all at once -- points to a much larger issue -- i.e. a society that is applying extreme pressure to these kids. And those kids are evidently feeling suicide is the only way out. What kind of society creates this nihilistic / death cult mentality in its children?
For starters a number of these kids reported being starved, beaten and sexually molested. That means the GBC / Rupanuga management body has not been looking out for the welfare of these kids. Or worse, has been actively helping and enabling the predators program and not the kids program.
The GBC has had an endless amount emergency meetings. The so-called "fire brigade," like Rupanuga, Mukunda swami, Ravindra swarupa, Satsvarupa and others -- who would come to a zone to fix and repair a falling down guru and repress his scandals, but there seems to be no record of a flood of emergency meetings, or any meaningful meetings, to discuss the major problems being experienced by the ISKCON children. "We were being neglected, and neglect leads to negligence."
I read numerous GBC reports being made in the 1980s, and the reports of the bad situation with the kids was conspicuous by its absence. Thus, many of these kids told me: "no one cared about us" "we were on our own" "we were in Auschwitz for kids" "the gurukulas were like North Korea, the elites have had big feasts -- and we ate rotten oatmeal" "the leaders are now saying it is our karma" "the leaders kept Dhanurdar and Bhaktividya Purna -- even after it was known they are evil severe child abusers" and so on and so forth. Actually one LA kid killed himself after seeing Los Angeles temple giving a hero's welcome to Dhanurdar.
These kids did not feel protected, and maybe, not even wanted. "We are a burden, our parents can not do their service when they have to care for us." OK the Rupanuga management body was writing tons and tons and tons of material on how to keep their molester messiah's guru's system afloat, but what was happening to the children -- did not warrant hardly honorable mention. Still doesn't mind you, he is still not going over the issue threadbare.
The children simply were not the priority, while keeping the worship of the illicit sex with men, women and children guru process maintained was clearly the main objective and issue, and still is for that matter. So the children felt neglected, if not exploited, if not used as cannon fodder on the GBC / Rupanuga pedophile guru experiment.
Now as for me personally, if I was born in an evil kingdom where I was ordered by the government "you will have to promote and worship the GBC's / Rupanuga's homosexual / pedophile / illicit sex with men women children / and maybe cats / "God's heavenly messiah's project," or die in the pedophile king's firing squad, I would immediately choose dying.
It would not even be a second thought or hesitation, or worthy of lengthy contemplation, death is vastly superior to being forced to worship deviants as God's successors. God will never be happy with me promoting such an odious deviation, for certain. Thus! Death is more honorable in that case, whereas living in that situation is -- maybe worse than death.
So I clearly understand why a number of the ISKCON kids choose death, they want out of this situation -- and no one should blame or condemn them. They did what they thought was best: being born into a society that worships the evil regime's and Rupanuga's homosexuals and pedophiles deviants as God's messiahs is purely evil, and is called "killers of the soul" in shastra.
The victims thus feel they are trapped in an evil society, and they are. Rupanuga never answered the point, someone or some group killed the spirit and thus the souls of these children. Sri Isopanisad says "killers of the soul," but who was it? Santa Claus, the Tooth fairy, or Rupanuga's regime? Killers of the soul dwell always in darkness, no small wonder then -- they want to drag others to darkness with them, misery loves company.
And thus maybe death is the most honorable way to cleanse the victims of the evil karma of being associated with that process. At least that might become what some victims feel is their best way out. I also know a number of devotee adults who died of alcohol, drugs, just plain drowning themselves, and a LARGE number of them got cancer due to depression and so on, so they could leave this situation. Many more kids and adults leave prematurely every day. Even the great kirtaneer Madhuvisa swami was drinking himself to death when I was his neighbor. Vodka. He actually started to go blind.
But I said this is a problem right away in 1979. We cannot force our children to worship an intoxicated predator like Jayatirtha. It will harm their spiritual direction and contaminate them. And it did. Worshiping a pedophile or de facto pedophile is evil and will have an evil effect on the society. Did I forget to mention that after Jayatirtha kicked me out, the chloroform child molester gang was taking over Croome Court?
So Rupanuga is not at fault, the GBC is not at fault, does that mean the children are at fault? I forgot, then the GBC ilk began to say the children just got bad karma, which alienates and depresses them all the more. It is called kicking a man when he is already down. Blame the victim!
In short, when Rupanuga ilk says the parents did not blame him for their kids committing suicide, then who ends up being blamed? It is -- ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada, or Krishna. Which is why a number of these ex-kids hate Hare Krishna. They blame the Krishna society, and -- I have no good counter argument to give them.
Someone is to blame for all these suffering and dead kids, but it is never the people who made their environment? So then the Krishna religion is blamed, and not too surprising, none of the leaders and parents who made this mess is ever charged with the crime of orchestrating their homosexual and pedophile worship process for these children.
Which infuriates and alienates and depresses the victims even more. We were victimized, and the people in the regime that victimized us got away scot free. And their gurus live like millionaires. While a number of these kids ended up homeless, sleeping in cars, and struggling to survive. Some of them could barely read and write, they did not even get an education.
Who is to blame for that, these kids? So when Rupanuga says, he was not blamed, that is great news, someone else is to blame. Who is it?
“The GBC Body offers the following apology to the members and friends of ISKCON:
As humble followers of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, it is the GBC Body’s duty to execute his will to the best of our ability as we collectively understand it. During Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence, he simultaneously empowered the GBC Body and guided us when we erred. We continue to pray for his guidance and feel it is his will that we now correct the misunderstandings of the past.
Thus, the GBC Body, both individually and collectively, wishes to express its deepest apologies to, and beg the forgiveness of, the followers of Srila Prabhupada who were offended or hurt by our past decisions resulting in the excesses and abuses of the zonal acarya system and its ongoing ramifications.”
GP: It is good the gbc admitted mistakes were made by them. Now today regarding vishnava eticate, some personal action representing these words are normally required, such as all those who made these mistakes and offences, personaly visit those who the gbc now understand they offended, and apologise in person face to face, man to man or woman. This gbc resolution was passed in 1999 we are still wating, Can we take the gbc seriously if no action folllows there words after so many years!
PADA: That is because the court ordered them to apologize when they were being sued for $400,000,000.
GP: Yes not backed up by action, dead givaway, lets hope some positive changes come soon before we end up with a new age king james style bhagavad gita.
PADA: Yes, they apologized, and thanks to the court, offered to make a $1,000,000 fund to help the children. But then the $1,000,000 was siphoned over to spending on suing Bangalore and the kids money vanished. Then they were asking for donations to buy shoes for the Mayapur kids. ys pd
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