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The Principle is No Change – Srila Prabhupada
“One should accept the instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by bowing down at the lotus feet of the Lord. This means that anything spoken by the Personality of Godhead should be taken as it is, with great care and attention and with great respect. It is not our business to amend the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or make additions or alterations, as it has become a custom for many so-called scholars and swamis who comment on the words of Bhagavad-gita. Here the practical example of how to accept the instruction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is shown by Prthu Maharaja. This is the way to receive knowledge through the parampara system.” (SB 4.20.17 P Lord Visnu’ s Appearance in the Sacrificial Arena of Maharaja Prthu)
Regarding your editing, I would very much like it. I am sending my lecture copies to you. I think my other copies are lying on the left side of my seat in a cardboard box which please find out. Please be careful not to change the ideas. (Letter to Kirtananda, Feb 10, 1967)
“Brahmananda & others cannot change the style. They want to see if there is any grammatical discrepancy.“( Letter to Satsvarupa, Jan 22, 1968)
I have dictated the missing purports from Chapter IX and they are set enclosed herewith. So far changing the working of verse or purport of 12:12 discussed before, it may remain as it is. (Letter to Jayadvaita Mar 17, 1971) [This order from Srila Prabhupada was ignored and the purport was changed]
I am very glad to learn that you are translating the Bhagavad-gita As It Is into Portuguese. Be careful not to change anything but present it exactly as it is. This is how we receive Bhagavad-gita through the disciplic succession as stated in the Fourth Chapter. By this translating work you will learn our philosophy very nicely. It is very important to broadcast Krishna consciousness all over the world. This is the great need of modern civilization. (Letter to Frederico, Oct 24, 1974)
No, the printing of the Gitar-gan cover this fashion is not at all approved by me. You have done most nonsensically. Why change the cover? When people look to see the Bhagavad-gita they expect to see Krishna and Arjuna, not the picture of Krishna with cow. You have done a great mistake by changing the front picture and it will hamper the sale. In future you don’t do any changes without asking me first.
Simply because there is no stock of books, we can do anything whimsically??? Is this logic? Gita is not spoken in Vrindaban, it is spoken on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, but this is Vrindaban picture. That chariot driven by 4 horses, that is the real Kuruksetra picture. It is not that because there is no stock we can do whimsically as we like and lose the idea, that is rasa-bhasa. Because there is no bread, you take stone to eat? There is no stock of bread so you will take stone??? The front picture is most important thing and you have changed it. It must remain standard, and not change. Also, the lettering is not nice on the cover. You could have taken a color picture of Krishna and Arjuna and used it black and white (one color) on the front cover. Just as you did with the inside back cover of the Bhagavat darsana, the original picture of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in color but you have printed it in black and white. You could have done this on the front cover with Krishna and Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra, but the cover must not be changed. (Letter: Bhargava, May 29, 1976)
You may title this book, Teachings of Lord Kapila, but it must be subtitled, “The Son of Devahuti”. That will remain, do not try to change it. The Americans may like it or not like it, but we must make the distinction between devahuti putra kapila, and the atheistic Kapila. Do not try to change anything without my permission. (Letter to Radhavallabha, Aug 26, 1976)
Titling of the Ninth Canto as Liberation is good, and the Tenth Canto should be called “The Summum Bonum”. As far as the 11th and 12th Cantos are concerned they shall be named when they are presented. The title which you have given to the Eighth Canto was a little hard to understand at first but if it refers to pralaya, then it is alright. You must consult with me on such matters. Do not manufacture anything. (Letter to Radhavallabha, Oct 7, 1976)
Please accept my blessings. With reference to your letter to Harikesa dated 21st inst., regarding the purport, 2nd paragraph to Bhagavatam 2.2.38, it is clear. Do not try to change anything. (Letter to Gopiparanadhana, Sep 28, 1976)
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About the Author
Madhudvisa dasa My first contact with a Hare Krishna was a most merciful Mataji in Oxford Street, London who sold me a "Higher Taste" cook book in 1984 while I was on holidays there. I started seriously reading Srila Prabhupada's books in Australia 1985 and by 1986 Srila Prabhupada had convinced me "Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead" and "we should surrender to Krishna." I joined the Hare Krishnas in Perth, Western Australia in 1986. Since then I have been chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books and preaching as much as I can. That's my life and full-time occupation now really. I like it more than anything I've ever experienced before. Srila Prabhupada's books are so amazing... Even after reading them all many times they're still fresh and new. They are truly transcendental! That's it really. Now I'm just hankering to once again see the world chant Hare Krishna, dance and feast and float away in the ecstasy of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana movement as it did in Srila Prabhupada's physical presence. Let the whole world drown in the ecstatic flood of love of Krishna!
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Hare Krishna Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I am very sad to say that even ISKCON Bangalore whose very foundation was following Srila Prabhupada has deviated to such an extent that it has become non-different from mainstream ISKCON. Apart from the concoctions I mentioned in 2018 like Akshaya Patra, concoctions in Deity worship like Pushpa Abhisheka etc., I was in total shock when I recently saw them selling books not only edited but also completely written by Hridayananda and his party.
There is a branch of ISKCON Bangalore in the place I live i.e. Assam(India), where they are distributing the 11th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam which was never translated by Srila Prabhupada. If I start writing about other deviations I have noticed it will be many paragraphs but this was the prominent one which in my opinion makes ISKCON Bangalore non different from ISKCON now.
Perhaps an article on ISKCON Bangalore also needs to be included on the website so that people can be aware of it.
Yours sincerely,
Hrishikesh
Hare Krishna Hrishikesh Prabhu
ISKCON Bangalore is mainly a very successful business. Their business plan is to requit the managers and qualified staff they need and would normally have to pay high salaries for as brahmacaris from IIT, etc, and that way they get their managers and what would be their highly paid staff for free.
So they have made a good system to manage their business for free like this. And they have so many businesses. Biggest business is of course real estate development. After building ISKCON Bangalore temple they got some prominence as temple builders, so now they have gone to dozens of other cities and shown the city managers their grand ISKCON Bangalore scheme, and they get the cities to give them huge amounts of free lands, and they build a temple of course, but they also build thousands of apartments and make an up market housing village, not really a temple.
It is a fabulous business and they are making so much money from it.
Of course there are so many businesses at the temples: marriage business, maha-prasadam [that never goes anywhere near the deities because it is cooked by karmis..] business, guesthouse business, book selling business, etc.
So you have to give ISKCON Bangalore the credit of being good managers and businessmen. And they are using their business and management skills to run temples.
But, you know, everything is run by karmis, by the staff. Devotees are the managers but staff are karmis. So book selling manager for example, he has no idea what is Prabhupada book and what is some other book or what is original book and what is changed book. They have no idea.
And ISKCON Bangalore, they have no interest in Prabhupada’s original books. We are printing now for so many years, but ISKCON Bangalore don’t purchase Prabhupada’s original books. They buy the cheaper changed books from INDIAN BBT.
Of course ISKCON Bangalore is only for Hindus. That is perhaps the greatest difference between ISKCON Bangalore and Prabhupada’s ISKCON. ISKCON Bangalore are staunch South Indian Brahmanas who believe that Westerners can never become brahmanas for example. So the ISKCON Bangalore philosophy, that Krishna is for Hindus, that brahmanas are born in brahmana families, etc, it is radically different from what we learn from Srila Prabhupada!
So I would not say that ISKCON Bangalore is non-different from ISKCON. They are quite different from ISKCON. But ISKCON Bangalore is as different from Prabhupada’s ISKCON as today’s so-called ISKCON is from Prabhupada’s ISKCON…
So both ISKCON and ISKCON Bangalore are different disconnected branches of the Caitanya tree.
No one wants to surrender to Prabhupada, no one wants to follow Prabhupada, we all have our own ideas, and in the name of “Prabhupada says” twist everything to push on our own objectives.
ISKCON Bangalore has been very successful in making enormous amounts of money and amassing a huge property portfolio and building and selling so many apartments. But they are not successful in printing and distributing Prabhupada’s original books. So it is a case of misused intelligence. ISKCON Bangalore devotees are very intelligent, but they focus their intelligence on making as much money as possible, without any real preaching purpose for the money.
Kali-yuga is not the time for temple building. Kali-yuga is the time for printing and distributing Prabhupada’s original books and for Lord Caitanya’s sankirtan movement….
ISKCON Bangalore is building the biggest temple in Vrindavan surrounded by one of the biggest deluxe housing developments in India and are poised to make so much money there. But no one comes to their temple? All around the temples are flooded with people, but ISKCON Bangalore is empty.
Anyhow even if they do get a lot of people to come to their biggest temple in India, Krishna consciousness is a different thing. At least according to Srila Prabhupada.
This is very true Prabhu. ISKCON Bangalore(Hare Krishna Movement) is quite different from ISKCON both deviated in their ”own wonderful ways”
They first came to our state as Akshaya Patra which already I was not a big fan of, and then constructed a temple(Hare Krishna Movement, Guwahati) in 2021 and now expanding little by little in such a deviated manner that even our local villagers don’t like the attitude of the temple residents, they are not at all welcoming to the general public and only interested with prospective donaters and IIT students. Interestingly they have strategically built the temple near IIT Guwahati(around 500 meters from the campus) and 80% of their programs are organized inside the IIT campus although they have a big area in and around the temple itself. So their so-called ‘preaching’ is clearly for creating a copy of the business model of what they started in Bangalore.
I am also more concerned now because as I was talking with one of the temple managers in the temple back in 2022, they said they are going to build a school along with the temple; not a gurukul but a regular school. The temple manager was also initially pushing me for donations and was very welcoming but when I came to know about their Karmi plan, I resented, and the next moment you know you are an insignificant person there. I was questioned ‘ How do you think this temple is running, the place you are standing on, the workers’ salary for working here, the Akshaya Patra program, etc.’ That day I saw a very different kind of temple, a temple that is only concerned with money. I usually donate to Lord Krishna’s temples whatever I can and have been a regular donator at our village Gopala Mandir which has been there for generations but I would not donate in a place who are seriously misrepresenting what Srila Prabhupada wanted his movement to be.
Here are a few more things I observed at least in and around where I live. They are distributing karmi food in the name of Prasadam through Akshaya Patra, organizing cleanliness drives, tree plantation drives, shoe distribution drives (I really don’t know why), health check-up drives, etc. The list goes on and on. They are doing practically everything except book distribution and Sankirtan. It is just like any other materialistic organization would do to get the attention of society so that they can get more and more donations from big players in a particular locality and it worked pretty well when I saw big banners regarding their sponsors during festivals. They are using Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada’s name to create a money-making business.
Hare Krishna Prabhu
Yes. ISKCON Bangalore is a business and they do the things that they can get funding from the government for like Akasaya Patra, but because they take funding from the government they can not distribute prasadam… So they distribute karmi food to the students. And yes. They are not interested really in the general public. They are interested in scooping up the IIT graduates to work as free managers in their businesses. Otherwise in India labor is cheap, but for good managers they would have to pay a lot, but they get them free once they join as brahmacaris from IIT.
Hare Krishna,
Please accept my obeisance.
Where can we find original books of Srila Prabhupada online?
I read online from the website https://prabhupadabooks.com/books
Are the books there edited or original?
Please guide, thank you.
Books on PrabhupadaBooks.com are pre-1977 versions of Prabhupada’s books and quite OK to read. Not necessarily the first edition. For first editions we have them all in print and available at KrishnaStore.com
We are focusing on real physical printed books at the moment so I suggest you get Srila Prabhupada’s real physical original first edition books at:
https://krishnastore.com/books-srila-prabhupada-om-21_38.html
Digital books online, you know, internet is not a very permanent thing. You need to real physical books so please get them!