BY: SUN STAFF


Jul 11, CANADA (SUN) — A comparative view of text changes made to Srila Prabhupada's books.

"In the highest region of the spiritual sky is the planet called Krsnaloka, which has three divisions, namely Dvaraka, Mathura and Goloka."
Original Original Edition of Caitanya- caritamrta, 1975, Adi lila 5.14 Purport

"In the highest region of the spiritual sky is the planet called Krsnaloka, which has three divisions, namely Dvaraka, Mathura and Goloka, or Gokula."
New BBT Revised Edition of Caitanya- caritamrta, 1975, Adi lila 5.14 Purport


Following are brief comments on what appear to be the grammatical, rhetorical or contextual issues raised with respect to the changes, as follows:

In today's look at BBT editorial changes to Srila Prabhupada's books, we have an instance where the editors chose to add words to Srila Prabhupada's purport. This, of course, is the written equivalent of putting words into one's mouth.

For whatever reason, Srila Prabhupada did not add the two extra words, "or Gokula". It is pointless to speculate as to why he didn't add these words - why didn't he add any number of words, phrases, ideas, or points of clarification to this or any other sentence? We cannot speculate. The point is, he did not, and we must assume that the pure devotee has given us precisely what he intended to convey in this particular purport.

We are also left to speculate as to why the BBT editors did chose to add these two particular words. We note that this purport revision follows significant alterations to a previous section of the same purport, dealt with in the last segment of Changes. Whether or not this revision is a continuation of that strategy or not, we can't be sure.

Aside from the fact that by including "or Gokula", the BBT editors offensively insinuate that Srila Prabhupada forgot it, or neglected to add it, we can assume that they had a reason for making the revision.

We know that there's some disagreement and debate amongst the Gaudiya Vaisnava community as to the difference between Goloka and Gokula, their relative importance, the timing of their appearance, and their position in the overall picture of the Lord's transcendental manifestation. We can guess that the BBT editors made this addition in an attempt to clarify the point, thus hoping to influence future discussion. Unfortunately, the editors were not satisfied to simply let Srila Prabhupada's words on the matter stand, although his words provide the most perfect instruction possible on the matter for the present and future generations reading his books.


[Note: There was a typo in the last segment of "Changes", wherein the edited version should have shown a word in plural, but the 's' was dropped. It has now been corrected.]



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