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.

“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?”

Today the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust released this statement.

The ISKCON Governing Body Commission has recommended to the BBT trustees that we insert endnotes or appendices into Srila Prabhupada’s books to explain statements Srila Prabhupada makes in Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.25.41, 4.25.42, and 4.26.26 concerning a woman’s attitude towards the aggressive advances of a man who is “expert at rape.” The GBC has also recommended that the endnotes or appendices explain “other such statements.”

The BBT directors, at their annual meeting in June of 2008, considered these recommendations and decided to turn them down.

An overview of the editorial history of the books of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

by Jayadvaita Swami

Reprinted from ISKCON Communications Journal, Volume 11 (2005)

by Jayadvaita Swami

This item was first posted on the web in May of 2003

The story, posted some time back, of how Hayagriva Prabhu painstakingly sat with Srila Prabhupada for two years to fine tune the text of Bhagavad-gita As It Is is only just one more internet myth. Who says? Hayagriva.

Criticism and insults I can tolerate. Fictitious history is harder to bear. So let’s set things straight, shall we?

by Jayadvaita Swami

What does “adi vani” mean?

The words adi vani are Sanskrit. According to the Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary, adi means “beginning” or “first,” and vani means “sound,” “voice,” “words,” “literary composition,” and so on.

So adi vani can be taken to mean “original words.”

Sometime around 2003, a group of “Hare Krishna” people began using the term to promote their editorial views about the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

The term never appears in Srila Prabhupada’s books, and we have no evidence he ever used it.

Want to learn more about the editing of BBT books?

These resources might interest you.
(To access a resource, just click on its title.)

Bhagavatam Revisions Examined

The First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam appeared in its first American edition in 1972. A second edition (still current) came out in 1976. Especially for the first two chapters, the translations were extensively revised.

How do the two editions differ? And how do they compare to the original Indian edition? See side-by-side comparisons online at BBT.info.

Responsible Publishing (PDF file. 221 KB)

Because Srila Prabhupada’s books are sacred works, his followers may sometimes wonder: Is it proper to edit them? Is it proper to revise them?

In this paper, Srila Prabhupada’s publisher, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, answers these and related questions. Though the paper especially focuses on Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the questions and answers illuminate the BBT’s editorial policies for all of Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Editorial Policies

How does the BBT decide what to publish? How does it edit? Does the BBT intend to revise Srila Prabhupada's books to trim the pronoun he? Find the answers at BBT.info.

The BBT Style Sheet (MS Word file, zipped, 360 KB)

What are the BBT’s rules for spelling? For capitalization? For hyphenation? For the use of diacritical marks? Find out in the BBT Style Sheet.

Updated February 2010.

• If the diacritical fonts for the Style Sheet don’t show up properly, install these fonts.

Gita Revisions Explained

In case you didn’t come to this page from the “Gita Revisions Explained” page, the link above will take you there.

What is “Adi-vani”?

Adi-vani—the original words—of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. How can his editors dare change them?

Interested in the editing of Bhagavad-gita As It Is?

How the first and second editions differ?

You can see more than 175 examples online,
each showing you the text of

• the first edition
• the second edition
• the original manuscript

To see them, you can follow the links below to BBT.info.

Gita Revisions Explained

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3