BBT press release

Now you can see “the changes” for chapter one of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, at www.BBTedit.com/changes. You’ll see the revisions Jayadvaita Swami made to the purports, in the actual book where he made them. You’ll also see the revisions made to the word-for-word meanings. (The translations were done separately.)

BBT press release

The annotated scans for chapter one of Bhagavad-gita As It Is should be posted online at www.BBTedit.com within the next few days. The scans show Jayadvaita Swami’s personal copy of the first edition of the book, with the revisions made to the word-for-word meanings and the purports. (The translations were done separately.)

“Of snakes I am Vasuki,” Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (10.28). And then, in the next verse, “Of serpents I am Ananta.”

Hey, what’s the difference between a serpent and a snake?

What did Srila Prabhupada say about this? How did what he said get lost? And how did it get restored?

You can find out here: How to tell one snake from another.

It’s another instructive video from BBTedit.com.

In a new video posted on BBTedit.com, I discuss the source texts Srila Prabhupada drew upon when writing Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

Here’s the link: Srila Prabhupada’s Sources.

The 15-minute video, informative rather than polemic, includes several examples. Serious students of Bhagavad-gita As It Is may find it of value.

What are the “original manuscripts” for Bhagavad-gita As It Is? The second and third of the three videos in which I answer that question are now online at BBTedit.com.

These last two videos tell especially about the manuscripts for the middle six and last six chapters (and show what those manuscripts look like).

The videos are informative, rather than argumentative. Hare Krishna devotees interested in the integrity of Srila Prabhupada’s books may find these video worth watching.

Also very much worth seeing are the annotated Gita scans that show the changes I made for the Introduction to the book. (Included: Nearly forty audio clips of Srila Prabhupada speaking for the Introduction.)

The release of these scans has sparked an e-mail blitz and new online efforts to badmouth the second edition. These efforts wouldn’t be aimed at distracting you from looking at the scans, would they? You’d think those scans—showing all those evil changes, right before your eyes—would be something critics would want you to see. Unless, of course, the changes seem sensible, reasonable, and compliant with what Srila Prabhupada said he wanted.

Want to see for yourself? You can click here to see the scans for the Introduction to the Gita. The chapters will follow soon, one after another.

Today marks one year since the passing of Sadaputa
Dasa (Dr. Richard L. Thompson). To honor this occasion, Caranu Renu Dasi, a Krishna devotee with a doctorate in astrophysics, has decided to share some of her memories of him.

She has posted them on her blog, and you can read them (and see some photos) here:

   Carana Renu’s remembrances of Sadaputa

She writes in her concluding sentence:

What are the “original manuscripts” for Bhagavad-gita As It Is? The first of three videos in which I answer that question is now online at BBTedit.com.

This first video, sixteen minutes long, tells especially about the manuscripts for the first six chapters (and shows what they look like).

The video is informative, rather than argumentative. Hare Krishna devotees interested in the integrity of Srila Prabhupada’s books may find the video worth watching.

BBT press release:

The BBT has launched a new website, BBTedit.com, full of information about the editing of Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Among the features:

• More than 80 video clips: BBT editors and other senior devotees offer facts and perspectives on editorial history, myths, and controversies.
• A collection of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions about editing.
• First time ever: Annotated scans of Jayadvaita Swami’s copy of the 1972 Gita show his editing for the second edition.

The scans show practically all the revisions and restorations done for the word-for-word meanings and purports. (The translations were revised separately.) The annotations let you see what the original manuscripts said and tell the reasons for changes made.

On Janmastami I had the pleasure of reading with other devotees from Srila Prabhupada’s “Krishna Book” about Lord Krishna’s advent in this world. In the course of reading, we heard that when the goddess Durga appeared before Kamsa, “in her eight hands she held a bow, lancet, arrows, bell, conchshell, disc, club and shield.”

Wait a second. Lancet? Surely that couldn’t be right.

Changes! Changes! Want to see all the changes made to the purports of Srila Prabhupada’s 1972 Bhagavad-gita As It Is? The BBT will soon be putting them all online.

When I made my revisions for the second edition, I did them directly on a copy of the book—that is, a copy of the first edition. After the second edition was published, for many years my first-edition copy was lost. But about three years ago, Dravida Dasa found it in a trunk in San Diego. More recently, that copy has been digitized. And soon the BBT will be putting it online.

The BBT has a lot of valuable stuff—books, manuscripts, letters, photos, paintings, audio, videos, and more, some of it in the Bhaktivedanta Archives, some of it elsewhere. A lot of it is in digital form, some of it not.

Following the model for an Open Archival Information System, the BBT has begun a “Digital Repository” project.

Among its purposes:

• To put all the BBT’s stuff (as far as possible) into an up-to-date digital form, with suitable “metatags” to help in finding things.
• To archive all the stuff in one digital repository—one digital “box” (of course with backups).
• To keep all of Srila Prabhupada’s books in digital files we can supply to printers for publishing or use for ebooks and other formats.
• To provide a free, open-source, up-to-date replacement for the Folio VedaBase, both online and for personal computers (Windows, Mac, Linux, and so on).

“When your best just isn’t good enough”Enough of those cheery motivational slogans trying to psych us into believing “it’s all in the mind” and whatever we wish will be ours if only we’ve got the right positive attitude. The blessed souls at Despair, Inc., have come out with a series of posters (oh, and T-shirts and mugs and whatnot) designed to deflate us and bring us down to earth (and make themselves a bit of money while they’re at it). Deliciously depressing.

www.despair.com. Enjoy.

Thank you to my godsister Urmila Devi Dasi
for letting me know about this site.

“At first I couldn’t believe it,” said Rijidatma Dasa. “The books, yes. But who would ever think the BBT would start monkeying with the Vaishnava Calendar?”

This is a slimmed-down version of a class I gave in March 2008 at the ISKCON center at Soho Street in London. One mistake: I say that “some girls” who wanted Bhisma to marry them asked his guru to oblige him to do so. In fact there was only one such girl—Amba. The other girls, her two sisters, married Bhisma’s half-brother Vicitravirya. In any case, my point concerning Bhisma’s personal integrity remains the same, as do my points concerning our own.