Garuda das's New Gita Translation
BY: LALITA MADHAVA DEVI DASI
Mar 29, UK (SUN) — In "Bhagavad-gita - Another New Translation", Krishna dasa writes of Garuda Prabhu's Bhagavad-gita: "I doubt there's mention of Srila Prabhupada in his work." Yet as early as page 4 (obviously indicating that Krishna dasa could not have gotten very far - what to speak of bothering to read the entire book - before jumping to conclusions and writing his thus uninformed commentary), Garuda writes:
"The Bhagavad Gita comes to us from this Vaishnava tradition, which is present throughout India and, in the second half of the twentieth century, around the globe."
On the same page, he offers the following content footnote to the above historical claim:
"A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977), as an elderly monk, along with his disciples, established the orthodox practice of the Chaitanya school of Vaishnavism (as the modern Krishna movement) in many major cities around the world, beginning with the United States
in 1965. His translation and traditional commentary on the Gita, Bhagavad-gita As It Is (The International Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1983, 1989), is by far the most widely read and distributed in the world."
In the above, Garuda Prabhu extols the importance and prominence of Srila Prabhupada's BBT Gita, which, as a professor, he has used as a
standard text in all of his college classes for more than 15 years and has thus "distributed" thousands of. Nowhere else in the book does he mention any other person, except in the Acknowledgements page, where he also expresses his indebtedness to Srila Prabhupada. These are relatively "dramatic" presentations of Srila Prabhupada and his Bhagavad-gita, given the task Garuda had, and that with one of the most prestigious and respected publishing houses in the world.
Furthermore, Srila Prabhupada himself states in a conversation with Radhavallabha that, "There are so many commentaries. We did a small part. Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, everyone has given a Gita commentary. We could do many Gitas, not just one." (From Memories: Anecdotes of a Modern-Day Saint.)
Thus there is clearly precedent and pramana supporting Garuda's sincere service of publishing a Bhagavad-gita translation that could function as a "bridge" for those many souls who are not yet able to appreciate Srila Prabhupada's translation, which is evidenced by the fact that approximately 45% of the reviews of Bhagavad-gita As It Is on Amazon.com are negative.
Beyond all of these considerations, however, I am deeply troubled by Krishna dasa's offensive and disparaging mood toward a saintly Vaisnava he does not even know, as he himself admits, but yet is so ready to judge. As practically innumerable devotees can attest, Garuda Prabhu is truly a wonderful, saintly Vaisnava who is wholly and solely dedicated to Srila Prabhupada. Thus I caution anyone who reads Krishna dasa's harsh remarks, which I and many others consider to be ignorant, ill-informed and quite offensive, and encourage them to get to know Garuda Prabhu for themselves and to in that way accurately understand his mood and intentions, before judging him by Krishna dasa's article.
