For a bit more than the past year and a half, I have had the benefit of having Bhakta Brijesh serving as my personal assistant. He rendered a host of services—in particular, expertly managing the practical details of my life. Now he has returned home to London, where he’ll be connected with Bhaktivedanta Manor. (At the moment, he’s busy helping with the setup for this year’s annual Krishna conscious program in Glastonbury.) I thank him for his devoted personal assistance and wish him all the best in his Krishna conscious life. We plan to stay in touch.

from my disciple Pradyumna Dasa in the UK

Dear Maharajas, Prabhus, and Matajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

It’s starting this year: an annual Vyasa-puja book for Srila Prabhupada in which individual offerings from all of his disciples can be included. Though ISKCON’s official Vyasa-puja book began as just such a book, as the movement grew the book evolved in such a way that most of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples are no longer eligible to contribute.

For this new book, on the other hand, all of his disciples will be welcome to write their individual offerings.

Newly posted online for downloading is the most recent updated version of the BBT Style Sheet (February 2010).

It offers the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust’s latest standards on such matters as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and word choice.

This is a routine update. The download is 360 KB.

You can always find the latest version of the style sheet (and the fonts for it) on the permanent page of BBT editorial resources.

BBT Press release

The “changes” for chapter three of Bhagavad-Gita As It Is are now online at www.BBTedit.com/changes.

Perhaps the most notable feature of this chapter is that the revisions to the purports are so few. As in the rest of the book, when revisions are warranted they are made, and otherwise the text is left unchanged. In this chapter fewer revisions are needed, so fewer are made.

Still, there are several revisions worth seeing.

You’ll see:

• Four places where a typist has skipped from one occurrence of a word to the next—for example, from “teach” to “teach”—leaving out the text in between. The second edition restores the missing text.

This happens twice in the purport to text 20 and once each in the purports to texts 30 and 37.

You’ll also see:

• What Srila Prabhupada actually said about duties that “complement one’s psychophysical condition.” (purport to text 35)

The changes for the Preface, the Introduction, and the previous chapters are already online. See them all at www.BBTedit.com/changes.

The “changes” for chapter three of Bhagavad-Gita As It Is will soon be online at www.BBTedit.com/changes.

I’ve disabled the feature that lets users post comments on this site.

Most of the comments submitted were really just personal notes to me, notes the rest of the world doesn’t need to see.

If you want to send me a note, you can contact me directly. (There’s a persistent link for this in the right-hand column.)

If you have something substantial to say that you really want to share on this site, send it to me. I can post it.

I can always change the policy. But let’s see how this works.

Every year I make my personal finances public. Attached is an accounting of my finances for 2009.

BBT press release

The “changes” for chapter two of Bhagavad-Gita As It Is are now online at www.BBTedit.com/changes.

BBT press release

The “changes” for chapter two of Bhagavad-Gita As It Is will soon be online at www.BBTedit.com/changes.

Concerning philanthropy and relief work, I recently came upon these words from Srila Prabhupada, which I pass on without comment.

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.