Religious Integration of ISKCON by Academia
BY: GOPINATH DAS
Mar 22, 2011 — ITALY (SUN) —
Part Three: BBT and BBTi
In my first essay, entitled "Religious Integration of ISKCON by Academia", I was addressing the dangerous and treacherous subtle influence of
‘toning down' (in other words-watering down) pure teachings of our Acarya (Gaudiya Vaisnavism) with already imbedded, academically contrived religious pluralism by academia, in the name of uplifting ISKCON to a pseudo ‘Raganuga sadhana platform', that would allegedly ensure our acceptance and survival in the world of today.
In the "second part, I was addressing (already imbedded) unauthorized academically contrived secular educational system in ISKCON, which replaced the gurukula system that was established by Srila Prabhupada, and the subsequent creation of the CPO by the individuals who were the actual child abusers in order to protect themselves.
In the third part, I would like to address the illegitimate formation of BBT INTERNATIONAL (BBTi) that took over the publishing rights and finances as well as including members whose purpose is to incrementally change books that were written by Srila Prabhupada and previous Acaryas, in order to amend the Absolute Truth to their ‘politically correct' preferred religious homogenization/integration of ISKCON, via the academically contrived consortium called Interfaith.
The purpose for the creation of illegal BBTi is as follow. In order to legally shield themselves from these unauthorized changes, they devised a nefarious plan wherein Srila Prabhupada is legally termed as simply a mere hired author by the BBTi, consequently giving all the rights to the book that were written by Him to the individuals (Trust) who "hired" this simple author (Srila Prabhupada), hence giving them carte blanche to do with them as they please.
This scam is based on the same system that the GBC lucratively implemented (after Srila Prabhupada's departure) when they incorporated the unauthorized ISKCON of West Bengal Corporation, which has its own charter, Laws, and Bylaws that are diametrically opposed to the charter of the original incorporation of ISKCON by Srila Prabhupada in the USA. By incorporating this dummy "ISKCON of West Bengal Corporation", they were able to legalize their hijacking of Srila Prabhupada's original ISKCON.
Similarly, by formation of the unauthorized BBTi, they ensured that they have total control over Srila Prabhupada's books and they obtained complete legal protection for these atrocious systematic book changes.
For the purpose of history it has to be noted that "alcoholic/smoker/womanizer" Gopal Batta dasa is playing a key role in the formation of this unauthorized corporation called BBTi. He holds the position as Chairman of this fraudulent BBTi (despite his
inability to follow the four regulative principles), and he is one of the strongest supporters of the systematic homogenization of Srila Prabhupada's books via the avaricious hands of Jayadvaita swami.
We were all exposed to stealthy/incrementally, superfluous (unaccountable) book changes by the BBTi, in particular Jayadvaita Swami and his friend Dravida dasa, on the pretext that the books are being edited in the intent to satisfy the needs of academia. In the Bhagavat-gita As It Is alone there have been more than five thousand changes up to this day. That means that nearly every verse in the Bhagavat-gita has been in some way changed/altered by imbedding subtle undertones in the actual meanings of these verses and/or purports.
Recently, I came into a possession of the DVD that was created by the BBTi in the attempt to publicly rationalize/sanitize these unauthorized changes. In one interview, among others, one of the trustees of the BBT puts forward a rationale for these unnecessary changes; he posits that the purpose for these changes is the need to
conciliate the world of academia in order to facilitate the so-called acceptance of these books within the academic circles.
When the BBTi's "pleasing academia rationale" for the book changes did not achieve the desired bamboozlement of the rank and file devotees, by quieting them down, they devised the latest "rationalizing scam" of claims that they are changing the books back to the real original state.
Jayadvaita swami went as far as recreating an elaborate timetable scheme in an attempt to bewilder devotees with his false claim that Hayagriva prabhu never worked under the supervision and approval of Srila Prabhupada on the original edition of Bhagavat-gita. His "imaginary chronological" article, entitled "Book Changes: History Really Does Back the BBT" was briefly posted on the Sampradaya Sun.
However, this deceptive article backfired on Jayadvaita Swami, when his article was completely and chronologically refuted by Madhudvisa prabhu in an article entitled, "Jayadvaita's Smoke and Mirrors", which was a
response to what appears to be a planned, conscious and intentional lie on the side of Jayadvaita Swami.
Comically, after Jayadvaita Swami's lie was publicly exposed on the Sampradaya Sun by Madhudvisa prabhu, Jayadvaita Swami successfully petitioned the Sun editors to remove his deceptive article, in the attempt to minimize his exposed embarrassment. [Ed. Note: The article had been submitted to the Sun without the author's permission, and we had no recourse but to remove it on demand.]
Furthermore, in order to understand and analyze the actual character of this devotee in question, it is imperative to bring out to the attention of the community of Vaisnavas that Srila Prabhupada's books are not the only one that are being mutilated. The books from the previous Acaryas (Six Goswamis, etc.) are not exempt from the itchy hands of the BBTi.
The dark origins and history goes back to the early 1990's, when the BBT requested a Vrindavana resident, an Indian scholarly ISKCON devotee by the name of Satyanarayana prabhu, and Gopiparanadhana prabhu to work on the translation of the Sandharbas that were written in Sanskrit by the Goswamis, with the intent that the BBT would print the English translation.
Satyanarayana prabhu and Gopiparanadhana prabhu went ahead and started with the translations of the important works by the Goswamis for the benefit of an English speaking world. After they successfully translated Sat Sandharba by Srila Jiva Goswami, it became apparent that Srila Jiva Goswami's explanation in regards to the origins of the
soul (Jiva Tattva - jiva's fall from the spiritual world) differed from the understanding of some of ISKCON's leading academic devotees.
When this anomaly was brought forth to the attention of the BBT (Jayadvaita swami and others) and ISKCON leading academic devotees such as Hridayananda das Goswami, they made a seriously compromised decision. They instructed Satyanarayana prabhu and Gopiparanadhana prabhu to remove (in their eyes) the questionable explanation on Jiva
Tattva.
Satyanarayan prabu was shocked at their request and he expressed his unwillingness to change Srila Jiva Goswami's work. He explained that the works of the Previous Acaryas are sacred and it is inappropriate and highly offensive for anybody to change and alter their words. He insisted that the books should be presented and translated as they are. The BBT powers that be gave Satyanarayana prabu an ultimatum: you do as you are told or leave ISKCON. As a real brahmana he really did not have any choice but to leave, since the other option was that he has to dirty his hands in order to stay.
Once out of ISKCON he published the translated Sandharbas as they are, for the benefit of an English speaking Vaisnava community.
On the other hand, Gopiparanadhana prabhu kowtowed to the pressure by the BBT, since he was financially dependent and maintained by them. When the time came, he did exactly what he was told.
At that time Jayadvaita Swami stated that "The Previous Acharya's will say what we want them to say". Years after, Jayadvaita Swami came to (dis)honor and live up to his above mentioned words.
We are all familiar with the BBT (Gopiparanadhana prabhu) translating and publishing the book from Srila Sanatana Goswami entitled Brihad Bhagavatamrita. The important point that the rank and file devotees are totally unaware of is that the BBT, just as they demanded to remove the Jiva Tattva section of Sat Sandharba a decade earlier, again intentionally decided to omit a particular "in their eyes sensitive and controversial" section of the book, wherein Srila Sanatana Goswami is explaining the fall of the spirit soul (jiva).
The reason for this serious transgression of removal (in the name of responsible editing) of Srila Sanatana's Goswami's words form his own book is simple. His explanation of the fall of jiva (tattva) also went against the official GBC Resolution on this particular philosophical conclusion.
Unfortunately, humble brahamana Vaishnava Gopiparanadhana prabhu, being maintained by the BBTi, (just as Mahajana Bhisma due to accepting maintenance by Duryodana), became implicated in this offence to Sanatana Goswami.
Powers that be became pleased by Gopiparanadhana prabhu's loyalty to the institution and his choice of dirtying his hands, and rewarded Gopiparanadhana prabhu with the rubber-stamped approval by fraudulent ISKCON to become a full-fledged initiating spiritual master within the institution, as well as BBTI chief drunkard/smoker Gopal Bhatta even funding Gopiparanadhana's Sanskrit School located at Govardhana.
Similarly, the BBT also tried to meddle into the publication of Srila Bhaktivinoda's Jaiva Dharma. Again, just as in the above two incidences, when Jaiva Dharma was translated by Sarvabhauma prabhu and edited by Keshidhamana prabhu, the BBT did not want to publish the book after it came to their attention that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur's explanation on Jiva-fall from the spiritual world Tattva also differs from the official GBC Resolution. They were working on the removal of the controversial Jiva Tattva section.
Luckily the original editor of Jaiva Dharma, Keshidhamana prabhu, decided to proceed with the printing of the original book as it is, by himself. Despite the threats from the BBTi he was successful in printing the original book. We can safely assume that Keshidhamana prabhu will never have any opportunity to do service for the BBTi ever again. However we do offer him our warm and heartfelt gratitude for standing up to them and providing us with Jaiva DharmaAS IT IS.
The BBTi's dark history clearly characterizes that Jayadvaita Swami and his co-conspirators have absolutely no moral fiber whatsoever. They change, create, re-create and re-interpret their rationale for their capricious editing with such a remarkable sociopathic ease that is frightening.
If their objective is to appease the Secular Academic world, they would be better off providing a definitive work rather than a constantly changing ‘work in progress', which only displays their inconsistent and changeable state of mind.
B Radha-Govinda provided us with an excellent example of the above-mentioned characteristics of the BBTi in her article entitled Jayadvaita Swami: Is He on the mental platform?" In her article she writes:
"Regarding Jayadvaita Swami and the question, "Is he on the mental platform?", my question comes because not only does Jayadvaita Swami change certain things in Srila Prabhupada's books, but he makes changes to the changes he (JAS) has himself already made.
To give one example, over the years I saw a few different changed versions of Bhagavad-gita As It Is (Was), and there were different "renditions" to the BG 2.1 verse, although Srila Prabhupada's translation was already so clear and beautifully expressed that the reader has a very vivid, heartfelt understanding of Arjuna's feelings from the verse, which read:
"Sanjaya said: 'Seeing Arjuna full of compassion and very sorrowful, his eyes brimming with tears, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words'."
Despite the (pre-1978) word for word translation, krpaya - 'by compassion', avistam - 'overwhelmed', asru-purna - 'full of tears''; akula - depressed'; iksanam - 'eyes'; visidantam - 'lamenting', one of Jayadvaita Swami's edited (slaughtered) renditions of this verse read, "Sanjaya said: 'Seeing Arjuna his mind depressed, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words'".
One has to assume Jayadvaita Swami was, at a later point, dissatisfied with his own editing because he changed his own (edited, "subtracted") rendition of this verse to read more according to the original translation in Srila Prabhupada's pre-1978 edition of Bhagavad Gita As It Is. This updated/renewed/changed verse read, "Sanjaya said: 'Seeing Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words'."
That was again changed, the final, most current rendition reading, "Sanjaya said: 'Seeing Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, his eyes full of tears, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words'."
Although in the pre-1978 BG, in the word for word translation the word "depressed" is given as the translation for "akula," although Jayadvaita Swami uses the word "depressed" in his edited translation of this verse, in his editing of the word for word translation, there is no word "depressed" used there. (Please note the difference between the two word for word translations with asru-purna-akula given below to mean 'full of tears' and the pre-1978 BG's word for word translation, asru-purna - 'full of tears'; akula - 'depressed'.)
krpaya -' by compassion', avistam - 'overwhelmed', asru-purna-akula- ' full of tears'; iksanam - 'eyes'; visidantam - 'lamenting'.
So one may have to question whether it is a matter of mental platform being the reason for Jayadvaita Swami's (re)editing his own published editing of Srila Prabhupada's books, or whether he's doing so to keep a job for himself."
B. Radha-Govinda's article clearly establishes the fact that the latest rationale of the BBTi and Jayadvaita Swami (his apologist included) that they are changing Srila Prabhupada's book to its original version is just another sham. As we can see in the above-mentioned article (documented evidence), Jayadvaita Swami is continuously changing the books as he feels like it at the particular time, and that has absolutely nothing to do with Srila Prabhupada's ‘original' work.
Another perfect example of the cheating mentality of the BBTi can be seen in Rupanuga Prabhu's (ACBSP) exposé of the BBTi entitled, "Gita Cover-Up Alert or Buyer Beware". Rupanuga prabhu in his article writes:
"Interested parties should be made aware that the BBT editors of Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad-Gita As It Is have continued editing their own new (2010) paperback edition of their 1983 "revised and enlarged" version. They have removed the notice "Revised and Enlarged" from the face page and left only "Second Edition." The phrase "with the original Sanskrit text, Roman been omitted. So now, after all the omissions, the face page reads simply "Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, Second Edition, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada."
Consequently, there is no indication for the prospective buyer that the book is actually a revised version of the original; rather it is made to appear to be simply a re-printing of the original—by the same author! The BBT editors, remaining incognito, continue to plagiarize Srila Prabhupada's name and fame to lend credibility to their in fact re-written version of the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, originally designated as the "Complete Edition" by Srila Prabhupada himself."
After realizing that over the years, the rank and file devotees became well educated in regards to the unauthorized and exceedingly whimsical changes to Srila Prabhupada's books by the hands of BBTi's Jayadvaita Swami, BBTi in order to further bamboozle the devotees and buyers, deliberately removed the information (from the latest print of Gita)
that the book is REVISED-CHANGED. By doing that they hope to provide the impression that the latest printing is the actual original/unedited book. This is called CHEATING!!!!
CONCLUSION:
The foremost reason why the BBTi's rhetoric should be rejected is that Srila Prabhupada never gave them the authority to edit his books ‘after' he entered into Samadhi. Therefore they have no mandate! Jayadvaita Swami confirms this in his letter to Amogha Lila das, who was inquiring from Jayadvaita whether Srila Prabhupada gave specific instructions to him or anyone else to edit/change his books after his departure. The letter is available in the Srila Prabhupada Folio, wherein Jayadvaita Swami writes:
"First: To my knowledge, Srila Prabhupada never asked us to re-edit the book."
It is here that you can see that the devious mentality of Jayadvaita Swami and the BBTi is still prevalent, even after they admit that they have no mandate to make any changes after Srila Prabhupada's departure! This also shows the true duplicitous nature of Jayadvaita Swami, how he knows very well what Srila Prabhupada wanted but he impudently ignored his so-called Diksa Guru.
Over the past few years there were numerous attempts by Jayadvaita Swami's respected godbrothers/sisters and many other devotees within ISKCON to put a stop to these unauthorized books changes, to no avail. These so-called "troublemaking" devotees understand and realize the serious implications and future consequences if this systematic mutilation of the books of Srila Prabhupada and the previous Acaryas continue to go on. This is especially so when we understand the context -- that they are creating deviant and destructive precedent, that allows for changes to be made in the first place.
The other consideration is that Srila Prabhupada did, in fact, read from and give class from his original books for many years, and did not say that they needed editing then, nor did he instruct that editing should go on ‘ad infinitum' after his departure.
Therefore, once the ‘precedent' has been created that it is possible to change or edit Srila Prabhupada's work for whatever reason, then this opens up the possibility for not only others at some later date to edit/change his work, it also creates the ‘precedent' that if they can change/edit ISKCON's Founder/Acarya's work, it can also infer that any ‘title' that is in the possession of the BBTi can be changed/edited. That means they will have carte blanche to change/edit the works of the Goswamis and any other literature that
they deem fit to change/edit according to their whim.
Now that this precedent has been accepted by the institution, then henceforward - for all time, any piece of literature/audio or video work of any Gaudiya Vaisnavas that the BBTi has seized possession of can be changed/edited or be ‘Politically Corrected' to appease all and sundry for the duration of the Kali –yuga.
These deviously misinterpreted kala-desh-patra and yukta-vairagya
principles have been accepted without censure from the GBC or the institution at large to suit their own agenda, and not the duties prescribed by Srila Prabhupada and the intelligent words of advice from a great percentage of devotees within the general society.
History (constant changes) of the Old Testament and the Christian New Testament is a stark testimony to the confusion and schisms that follow once such precedent is allowed to take place.
The convoluted changes that have occurred under the leadership of Jayadvaita Swami are in a continual changing mode, as he adopts different rationales according to the main arguments against his wickedness. First there was the excuse that academics will laugh at us, hence we need to change, and then they used the ‘we are bringing the books to be more in line with what Srila Prabhupada originally wanted' routine. Where will this end?
Could it be that once a precedent is established, they will in future remove any reference to God being a male or perhaps He is gay, or maybe just maybe, he is not a Person, but a mere Light/Force or Love?
These are the real dangers, if such types of minds are in charge of such a precious thing as the words of the Spiritual Master and Acaryas.
The final conclusion needs to be that the BBT/BBTi or whatever trust/corporation they may add onto this, must be made to conform to the fact that they have no mandate from Srila Prabhupada to make any changes to his books whatsoever, after his departure.
The one striking mentality that is existing in the BBT and BBTi is that Srila Prabhupada and all the previous Acaryas are dead, so who cares anyway if some changes are made, and to do so creates a dangerous precedent for our Society and mankind at large.
After all, this is why Srila Prabhupada established ISKCON to preach to the world of man for the Kali–yuga, and his work will never be "As It Is" should these devious and unscrupulous individuals be allowed to change even one single word.
The only viable way which the purulent infection that has infected Srila Prabhupada's BBT can be corrected is to remove the infected minds that have conglomerated within the most precious gift that Srila Prabhupada has given to mankind – His literary works.
OM TAT SAT
Gopinath das
