Back To Prabhupada, Issue 57, Vol. 1 2018
n BTP 51, we documented that Srila Prabhupada had not authorized HH Hridayananda Dasa Goswami ("HD") to complete the 10th, 11th and 12th cantos of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. In a talk posted on 18/8/17, titled "How I Translated the Bhagavatam", HD himself confirms this was the case. All quotes in the shaded boxes below are taken from said talk. Emphases added.
HD was only able to complete the translation of the Bhagavatam because he learned Sanskrit. However, we know that Srila Prabhupada did not want HD to complete the translation of the Bhagavatam because he did not even want HD to learn Sanskrit, never mind do any translating — a fact HD himself confirms:
"I also received this grammar book by Macdonell, and sort of being a language buff, especially always being fascinated by Sanskrit, I began to study it. And I wrote a letter to Prabhupada telling him what I was doing. And Prabhupada said, "Oh, don't waste your time learning Sanskrit." [...] I remember that the letter was brought to me by a devotee in the Houston temple [...] so without even thinking, I took this beautiful little grammar book and just dropped it into the trash. [...] that was it. And I just started making it a point of honor not to study Sanskrit because Prabhupada had said that to me."
Below is the letter from Srila Prabhupada forbidding HD to learn Sanskrit, which HD states above he initially obeyed:
"You have studied the Sanskrit language for some years, that is sufficient of study, there is no more need. Now you read our books, not that lifelong you have to study Sanskrit. Simply read our Sanskrit wherever it appears in our books and teach these slokas to the devotees, do not waste time by studying Sanskrit independently of our books."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter to Hridayananda, 6/8/72)
However, HD confesses that just one year after Srila Prabhupada left the planet, he decided to do the exact opposite of what his spiritual master had ordered him, and began to learn Sanskrit:
"back in Brazil in 1978 in late November, and I saw that same book that I had thrown away [...] and in my heart I just heard Krishna telling me, "Okay, you passed the test. Now you need to learn Sanskrit and finish the Bhagavatam." [...] I just became immersed, just absorbed in the Sanskrit, I would study all day."
HD's confession also gives another confirmation that he was not authorised to translate the Bhagavatam by Srila Prabhupada. HD admits the idea to finish the Bhagavatam came to him 1 year after Srila Prabhupada left the planet, and arose because he believed he "heard Krishna" telling him this. Thus, it had nothing to do with any authorisation from Srila Prabhupada, but was based entirely on what he imagined he "heard" from Krishna. This incident was supposed to have happened in late 1978, which means whilst the bogus zonal-acarya system — of which HD was one of the founders, and which even the GBC admitted was unauthorised and a product of "maya" (illusion) — was in full swing. So while HD was engaged in mass deviation, we are to believe that:
a) Krishna specifically chose this mass deviant to give a personal message to;
b) And in such a message Krishna did not tell him to stop deviating, but rather only what he wanted to hear!
"somehow Krishna inspired me. I just understood that it was my duty, that I should do this, and the fact that it all went so well and so naturally, I believe confirms that it really was Krishna's plan."
HD claims that the fact he believes his Srimad-Bhagavatam project "went so well" is evidence that it was Krishna's plan. However:
a) He has also claimed that Krishna told him to disobey Srila Prabhupada and learn Sanskrit and thus finish the Bhagavatam. Therefore, in this context, "went so well" simply means that his disobedient project was successful. By this logic, any disobedient activity that was successfully disobedient would be evidence of Krishna's plan, and thus any disobedient activity could be justified.
b) In the BTP 51 article mentioned at the outset, we exposed the fact that whilst doing this project, HD wrote nonsensical glowing praise of his fellow zonal acarya deviants, which later had to be removed from his Bhagavatam "purports". This would not be an example of things going "so well"!
HD's action is condemned by Srila Prabhupada on two levels.
1) Srila Prabhupada warned about the danger of his Western disciples learning Sanskrit, where they believe they have become "more than guru":
"if any of our students artificially try to become scholars by associating with unwanted persons they become victimized, for a little learning is dangerous, especially for the Westerners. I am practically seeing that as soon as they begin to learn a little Sanskrit immediately they feel that they have become more than their guru and then the policy is kill guru and be killed himself."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, 18/9/76)
This actually came to pass with HD, as he became one of the 11 progenitors of the unauthorised zonal-acarya hoax, and thus tried to take Srila Prabhupada's position as a successor acarya.
2) Srila Prabhupada condemns HD's method of ignoring his guru's order and instead "imagining" what Krishna wanted him to do:
"Actually, any activities performed favorably for the satisfaction of the Lord, under the direction of the spiritual master, are spiritual. But for a person to disregard the order of the spiritual master and act by concoction, accepting his nonsensical activities to be spiritual, is maya."
(Cc., Adi-lila, 14.29)
HD confirms he was never authorised by Srila Prabhupada to learn Sanskrit or translate the Bhagavatam, and instead simply imagined that he had been told to disobey Srila Prabhupada. Thus, never mind being a good-as-God diksa guru, his behaviour is not even that of a disciple:
"The order of the spiritual master is the active principle in spiritual life. Anyone who disobeys the order of the spiritual master immediately becomes useless."
(Cc., Adi-lila, 12.10)
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