Back To Prabhupada, Issue 79, 2024
Welcome to Issue 79 of Back To Prabhupada (BTP).
We have been asked why – even in cases where the IRM and ISKCON are in agreement over the facts – should there still be a dispute? To understand, let us consider examples where there is no fundamental disagreement over the underlying facts.
1) In regard to ISKCON leader HH Hridayananda Dasa Goswami ("HD"), the following facts are admitted by himself and ISKCON's leadership:
a) HD freely admits that Srila Prabhupada forbade him to learn Sanskrit, with HD admitting that Srila Prabhupada told him that "Oh, don't waste your time learning Sanskrit." The full details are given in BTP 57, "Guru Hoaxer Confirms BTP Article".
b) ISKCON's official magazine, Back To Godhead, admits that ISKCON was in maya, or illusion, during the years 1978-1986, due to its guru system:
"by the influence of maya, illusion, a different idea soon evolved – that Srila Prabhupada had appointed eleven "pure devotees" to serve as the only gurus after him. [...] In 1986, ISKCON's Governing Body Commission formally dismantled the system."
(‘An Apology', Back To Godhead, #25-01, 1991)
One of these supposedly "eleven pure devotees", and thus an instrument of maya in creating this false guru system, was HD.
Thus, given these accepted facts, it is clear that HD's translation of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Cantos 10 (part), 11 and 12 – completed approximately within 1980-1986 – was born out of disobedience, as he was only able to translate it because he disobeyed Srila Prabhupada and later learnt Sanskrit. And, if that was not enough, it was translated whilst under the influence of maya. Hence, this activity is not spiritually blessed. Yet, his translation is promoted by many as being bona fide. The reasoning used is mechanical, i.e. HD has learned Sanskrit to a high standard, and thus his translation ability must be good. This can be deemed a mechanical paradigm.
The IRM's paradigm, however, is a spiritual one, based on realising that every activity requires Srila Prabhupada's blessings and benediction.
So, we have two widely differing worldviews. Under the mechanical paradigm, all one sees is mechanical ability – can one translate or not? And the need to "access" the untranslated cantos at any cost, regardless of how it is done. Under the spiritual paradigm, one's first and only concern will be – is Srila Prabhupada guiding and blessing the project? Which, if the project is based on having disobeyed him, cannot possibly be the case. (Some new admissions by HD regarding his disqualification for this translation project are given on the back page).
2) Another example of the mechanical paradigm is the books written by ISKCON leader HH Sivarama Swami ("SRS") regarding the pastimes of Lord Krsna, about which:
a) SRS has freely admitted that he has fabricated some pastimes attributed to Lord Krsna, Radha and the holy dhama, by inventing characters who interact with Them – i.e. he has simply created a fictional version of Lord Krsna's sacred pastimes. Full details are given in BTP 29, "Fiction Fever Grips ISKCON".
b) Srila Prabhupada has already given Lord Krsna's real pastimes in his KRSNA book, which, ironically, was written – as Srila Prabhupada states in the Preface – to wean people away from fiction. He also stated in a letter dated 20/7/74 that attempting to make a movie on Krsna's real pastimes would be considering Krsna to be a "plaything".
Facts a) and b) are not disputed. If Krsna can be rendered into a "plaything" even when his real pastimes are involved, then attributing fake pastimes to Him is definitely turning Him into a plaything. But the mechanical paradigm, by definition, cannot comprehend the concept of the sacred, where Lord Krsna cannot be considered a "plaything" to be used as a "literary device" to write fiction. To appreciate the sacred is only possible under a spiritual paradigm.
Thus, even when the facts are not in dispute, due to completely different consciousnesses the conclusions reached can still differ. Because we approach matters spiritually rather than mechanically.
Thank you and Hare Krsna.
In Srila Prabhupada's service,
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