Summer 2007
Please compare the following text from the dust jacket cover of three
editions of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, which describes who Srila Prabhupada
is
| 1972 Original
Edition "He is a fully self-realized devotee of Lord Krishna and is the latest disciple in a succession that originally began with Krishna Himself." |
| 1983 Edition "He is the world's foremost Vedic scholar and teacher, and he is also the current representative of an unbroken chain of fully self-realized spiritual masters beginning with Lord Krishna Himself." |
| 1996 Edition "He is the world's most distinguished Vedic scholar and teacher, and foremost recent representative of an unbroken chain of fully self-realized spiritual masters beginning with Lord Krishna Himself." |
Please note that in 1972 and 1983, Srila
Prabhupada was "the latest disciple" and "the current representative" in
the disciplic succession from Lord Krishna. However, in 1996 the BBT
(Bhaktivedanta Book Trust) decided that Srila Prabhupada was actually
just the "foremost recent representative", or in other words, the best
of a "recent" bunch of gurus in the disciplic succession, whose actual
"latest" or "current" members are the GBC-elected gurus themselves!
Maybe this downgrading in Srila Prabhupada's status from "current" to "recent" was the result of a meeting in the previous year between BTP's
editors and BBT director HH Jayadvaita Swami, where we pointed out to
His Holiness that on the dust jacket he himself was promoting the IRM's
philosophy that Srila Prabhupada is the current link from whom we must
take initiation!