–The Australian Society for Krishna Culture. AUSKCULTURE, operation start 1984 — ABN 65 231 425 870.

People, there is a great bluff and hoax going on.

There are two different books calling themselves Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

But neither of them is really Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

That is the first illegality.

How can two different books carry the same name?

Just like there is only one Supreme Personality of Godhead, whether we call Him Allah, Jehovah or Krishna. He is ONE. Similarly, there can only be ONE Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

At best, at least one of them must be counterfeit. IMHO they both are!

The amount of disrespect and disdain, unfaithfulness, betrayal, falsity, breach of trust shown by the successive editors to the original author or translator His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is abysmal and millions of miles away of what could be categorized as innocent mistakes and may even denote a hidden personal agenda. This offensive attitude is magnified enormously by the actual position of Srila Prabupada, as an emissary of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and will not remain un-dealt with by Krishna Himself personally.

To this point of time I, myself, have been calling them Bhagavad-gita As It Is Version One and Bhagavad-gita As It Is Version Two.

That also is incorrect!

These are not Bhagavad-gita As It Is at all!

In all honesty, the first one should be called HAYAGRIVA BHAGAVAD GITA and the second one should be called JAYADVAITA BHAGAVAD GITA, as per the respective disciples-perhaps should I say so-called disciples- of Srila Prabhupada who edited them, the first so-called disciple being intermittently a drug addict, in short he was a drug addict and some say he was a homosexual as well.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is supposed to be based on the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Bhagavad-gita As It Is is their ABC teaching, the glorious Srimad Bhagavatam, being the next step. But no one will be honest enough to tell you about these things. It is all clad in total silence. It is a conspiracy of silence. The editor of the official Back to Godhead magazine, Nagaraja Dasa in USA, literally “The King of Snakes”, being a very first-class conspirator. Business must go on after all. And as per my experience, silence is, unfortunately, the preferred method of solving things at The International Society for Krishna Consciousness or ISKCON. But the great saint and teacher, Founder-Acarya of ISKCON, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada clearly writes in His publication The Nectar of Instruction, text one, purport: “SILENCE MAY APPEAR HELPFUL FOR SOME TIME, BUT ULTIMATELY IT PROVES A FAILURE.” So the question will be: ”Is ISKCON heading toward a spectacular failure at the current rate of management?”

There is no question at all to add the nomenclature AS IT IS to any of these two Bhagavad-gitas, because IT IS NOT Bhagavad-gita!

The appellation “BHAGAVAD GITA AS IT IS NOT” is, therefore, most appropriate.

So we have here in fact:

1) HAYAGRIVA BHAGAVAD-GITA AS IT IS NOT

and

2) JAYADVAITA BHAGAVAD-GITA AS IT IS NOT

Henceforward, let us please be honest and adopt these two true and appropriate designations.

Neither of them are Bhagavad-gita As It Is, even though they call themselves Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is is a different production altogether by Srila Prabhupada Himself, the original translator and author. And the closest we get to BHAGAVAD-GITA AS IT IS is the Original Transcript of Bhagavad-gita (OT)!

The worst of all is that the followers of the two camps are antagonistically opposed to each other and each claims falsely to represent Bhagavad-gita As It Is! A mad situation really, as is the custom in the material world, where the black and the white, the democrats and the republicans, the day and the night, and Hayagriva Bhagavad-gita As It Is Not and Jayadvaita Bhagavad-gita As It Is Not always conflict.

Or is ISKCON perhaps progressively becoming a professional institution whose members AND leaders will accept any compromise whatsoever FOR THE MONEY AND ASSOCIATED MATERIAL ADVANTAGES. That also represents a flagrant failure!

Expert lawyers, if you read me, please tell me what are the possible technical names for this type of illegality. Falsification, breach of trust, etc … naturally come to mind. Thank you very much.

Let me just give one example only and I shall call it:

The epitome of stupidity and arrogance. BGAII 2.4

In the Original Transcript (OT), smart Srila Pabhupada ignored “ishubhih” or “with arrows” on purpose. He did not overlook it. But His two stupid disciples Hayagriva and Jayadvaita, proud of their little understanding of Sanskrit, arrogantly decide to correct their super-qualified Spiritual Master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and decided this counterproductive detail must be added. “Hey, Prabhupada is a bit of a senile old man and we are here to correct all mistakes He has committed in His senility.” It’s a bit like the deaf husband, who chastises his wife for being so-called deaf because he is unable to hear her replies to his calls. 

Now the whole thing sounds so primitive! Just see!

“Why should we take lessons from people who fight with arrows? This Bhagavad-gita is so primitive hahahahahaha!” thinks the proud and ignorant modern person. And the editors are contributing to it by adding “with arrows.”

This is a psychological fact! We enjoy reading Bhagavad-gita As It Is but when we arrive at this passage our estimation for Bhagavad-gita drops several notched. We are abruptly lead to believe that this was a kind of stone age. No fancy, electronic airplanes and drones. No guns shooting around corners. No hydrogen and atomic bombs. Just arrows. How primitive they were at the time and why should we take lessons on life from them? This is the counterproductive result of this stupid addition by Hayagriva and Jayadvaita!

These single two words and mantra “with arrows” throw us abruptly into the antiquated mundane, while we have just been flying high in transcendence by studying the most fascinating book on the planet earth, the Bhagavad-gita. Srila Prabhupada carefully avoided this mistake but his two stupid disciples fall mechanically into the trap. That is the difference between Srila Prabhupada’s, the Guru’s tactfulness and foresight and Hayagriva and Jayadvaita thick headedness. The intelligent person, book distributor and preacher knows very well that everything we say is a mantra, that every word and sentence we vibrate is a mantra and immediately shapes things around us.

There is at least one other major instance, where I felt that my thinking was being perverted in association with ISKCON and I was risking becoming stupid and making stupid decisions as well. No need to mention the details again. As a  consequence and to enable me to truly follow in Srila Prabhupada’s footsteps, I had no choice but to create my own organization, The Australian Society for Krishna Culture. ALL GLORIES TO SRILA PRABHUPADA!

For foot-massage purposes and skin hydration and softening, I used Vaseline for some time, also called petroleum jelly because someone patented the word Vaseline. All day Sankirtan and the contact with the air seems to dry out my feet’s skin.  Multiple cracks may appear and if the bare flesh is exposed, it can be painful. Even walking becomes painful. Remedy is required. But I noticed that Vaseline caused some blisters on the skin. Vaseline is a mineral product (petroleum jelly) and is actually not really compatible with human skin. Srila Prabhupada Himself used mustard seed oil for general massage and sandalwood oil for head massage. In India, mustard seed oil is more easily available than in Australia. Near ISKCON Chandigarh, India, there is a shop that sells only mustard seed oil. That’s all they sell. It must be related directly to the producer. They sell small quantities and wholesale quantities as well.

After some consideration, I decided to settle for olive oil instead, at AU$ 6 per liter and quite easily available. During the virus crisis, income became scarce and I replaced it with rice bran oil, which is three times cheaper. HG Krishna Gana Prabhu of New Govardhana catering recommends rice bran oil even for cooking as a cheap replacement for ghee, the preferred cooking medium. However, rice brand oil is not quite as good as olive oil for my purposes and I decided to purchase more olive oil. Now comes the punch line. When I arrived at the supermarket   I found to my delight that olive oil was discounted not 10%, not 20%, not even 30 or 40 but a massive 50%. I could not believe my luck. The product was not out of date, neither was this offer available anywhere else. I do not know the actual reason for this massive discount, but I stocked up indeed.

This instance is like the testing of one grain of rice to get an indication of the state of the cooking. It means to me that for big or small things Australia remains the land of tremendous opportunities and of nice people as well, who amply deserve Lord Caitanya’s and Srila Prabhupada’s matchless gift of Krishna consciousness. Hare Krishna!

1 ) Cairns Esplanade. Skate park. 4 am. June 12th, 2020. By Krishna’s arrangement, I sold one set of beads and two bead bags to Narayana Das around 04.00 this morning. Krishna just sent him out of nowhere. He asked for a skateboard. That was his first question.  On his request and on youtube, we also attended together Tulasi Aratik by HG Saci Kumar of ISKCON Mayapur. Narayana Das lives like a yogi and seems to be very attached to Tulasi Devi and he tells me that some five minutes drive away, he cultivates a full field of Tulasi plants, which he wants me to visit at all costs. He is also captivated by  Ajamila’s story in the Srimad Bhagavatam. He has had extensive contact with ISKCON New Govardhana, where he knows some devotees personally. He also promised to help me distribute books. Attachment to Tulasi Devi, the mother of devotion, is a top-most-excellent devotional qualification. We should never forget the wording of what the imperfect and speculating compilers of the “Songs of the Vaishnava Acaryas, Hymns and Mantras for the glorification of Radha and Krishna” call the “Sri Tulasi Pradaksina Mantra” reproduced hereunder with permission of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust:

yäni käni ca päpäni
brahma-hatyädikäni ca
täni täni pranashyanti
pradaksinah pade pade

SYNONYMS
yäni käni—whatever; ca—and; päpäni—sins; brahma-hatya—killing of a brähmaëa; ädikäni—and so on; ca—also; täni täni—all of them; praëaçyanti—are destroyed; pradakñiëaù—(by) the circumambulation (of Tulasé Devé); pade pade—at every step.

TRANSLATION
Those who circumambulate Srimati Tulasi Devi step by step destroy whatever sins they have committed, even the killing of a brähmana.

Rascal demons will say: “Ok, let us therefore kill all Brahmanas and circumambulate Srimatee Tulasi Devi for atonement.”

I say “the imperfect and speculating compilers of the “Songs of the Vaishnava Acaryas” because out of sentiment or otherwise, they replaced “Vishnu” with “Krishna” in the Tulasi pranam mantra, thus creating confusion and misleading the whole world. Such changes are not to effected without proper authority. The Acarya is the proper authority.

I call this area of Queensland “turmeric land”, because whenever I come here the ayurvedic turmeric is available in abundance at reasonable prices, and indeed I then use it in my own cooking. My fingers become yellow, just like a nicotine addict and rascals may accuse me of breaking the regulative principles and point out my yellow fingers as evidence, similar to the figure in Caitanya Lila, who used to encourage the devotees to eat as much as possible and then double-dealingly accuse them of sense gratification. When I get a chance, I shall have to research the matter and the name of this individual. My respected readers may also give me a helpful hint and I beg to thank them very much in advance for this potential support. Perhaps the name is Ramacandra. The town of Innisfail, 80 km south of Cairns, seems to be the center of the cultivation of this turmeric and it grows quite easily. Sometimes in summer, Innisfail is subjected to cyclones category 5, quite a frightening and possibly deadly event, which I may have to face in the future.  The water supply is always very profuse throughout the year.

The ubiquitous and constant price rise is felt though, but the cultivator says that the real profit lies in ginger of which the price is currently above AU$ 30 a kilo. Turmeric renders the whole content of the cooking pot yellow and this is absolutely Krishna’s color, as He is known as pita-vasa.

When Sita Thakurani, Advaita Acarya’s wife, a very rich man at the time, come to the house of Jaganatha Mishra, accompanied by her maidservants, to pay her respects to the newborn Nimai and Supreme Personality of Godhead, she carried many auspicious articles such as fresh grass, paddy, gorocana, kunkuma and sandalwood. Another auspicious article was turmeric or in Bengali “haridra”. CC Adi 13.114.

2 ) As I came back from the ablution block, there was a middle-aged lady with her left arm in a sling. I enquire about her wellbeing and the state of her left arm. After I got her to chant the full Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, her first exclamation was. “This is George Harrison’s!” We note here that long after his departure, himself, along with his glorious Hare Krishna preaching, is still remembered. George Harrison is a member of the Hare Krishna family and has done some very significant service for Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan movement. Against the advice and intrigue of his own lawyer, he donated US $20.000 toward the printing of Srila Prabhupada’s Krishna Book. He also donated what is called today The Bhaktivedanta Manor in England. All glories to Sriman George Harrison, who by his service to the Hare Krishna cause has certainly improved his existential position. Please visit: https://krishnatemple.com/home/

3 ) In BGAII 2.61, purport, JDS unhesitatingly and point-blank replaced Srila Prabhupada “false prestige” with his own “pride”. Please smile. We have here a welcome double meaning. Is Jayadvaita so much possessed by false prestige that he cannot even tolerate its designation just as water will not tolerate fire?

The unspoken truth here is “Srila Prabhupada, I, His Absolute Divine Grace Jayadvaita Swami in my unfathomable wisdom, know much better than you, who (with absolutely no capital “Y” or “W”) pretends to be my guru. You are, in fact, a total philosophical ignoramus and “pride” it is because I decide so. Neither do you have any idea of the real meaning of false prestige! So please give way to MY OWN (in capital letters of course) superior power and authority.” As confirmed in shastra or spiritual law books, at least spiritually, if not materially, such cheap and low-class behavior is the mark of a fatal mentality. The best medication for the total dissolution of false prestige is regular and sustained book distribution.

4 ) additional.

Cairns, 12 June 2020. 11.00 hours.

In order to engage the fallen souls in His loving service, Krishna can be most tricky.

1 ) He jams the photocopier at the last second at the personal service desk to take advantage of the self-help desk and save AU$ 0.70

2 ) He prints a faulty print at the self-help desk.

3 ) As a result, the personal service desk reprints a courtesy copy of the document and we may ask what is the meaning of all this?

First of all, this demonstrates that Krishna does not like impersonalism and the impersonalists.

Second, it means that the courteous and bright-faced lady at the personal service desk was earmarked to get an extra devotional benefit / credit. She does not know a thing about it. She thinks she has never performed any service for Krishna. But in fact, she has. The company also had contributed an additional AU$ 0.70 and 35 pages of drafting paper to the sankirtan movement. This company has previously contributed office equipment as well. But such is Krishna’s mercy, His kind concern for the fallen conditioned souls and His grand plan to engage the whole world in service to His, Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan Movement. In any and every sense, there are no limits what so ever. Param Vijayate Sri Krishna Caitanya Sankirtanam!!!

Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 2.40

nehäbhikrama-näsho ‘sti
pratyaväyo na vidyate
sv-alpam apy asya dharmasya
träyate mahato bhayät

Word for word rendition

na—there is not; iha—in this yoga; abhikrama—in endeavoring; näshaù—loss; asti—there is; pratyaväyah—diminution; na—never; vidyate—there is; su—alpam—a little; api—although; asya—of this; dharmasya—occupation; träyate—releases; mahatah—from very great; bhayät—danger.

TRANSLATION

In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.

Madame Celine Dion, thank you very much for your first class rendition of “The Power of Love.” Please do check out “Tulasi Arati | ISKCON Arati kirtan” by His Grace Saci Kumar Das: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJbSLrIhoFs.

Your conviction, strength, tactfulness and majesty of interpretation are all superb! The electric guitar is galvanizing.

And to top it all up, the wonderful lyrics denote the philosophy and attitude of the brave and the winners. Just what it takes to become Krishna conscious. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is (BGAII)12.16:

“My devotee who is not dependent on the ordinary course of activities, who is pure, expert, without cares, free from all pains, and not striving for some personal result, is very dear to Me.”

Here is what the lyrics express in that respect:

“We’re heading for something

Somewhere I’ve never been

Sometimes I am frightened

But I’m ready to learn

Of the power of love”

As in ordinary loving dealings, fear is a factor, Lord Krishna also encourages us in BGAII 18.66 to overcome our fears and dare experience His divine love, called in Sanskrit language “Krishna Prema.”:

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.”

Why be satisfied with any less love than Krishna Prema, love of God, love of Krishna, why?

There is also Radha-Prema, the love of His consort Srimati Radharani for Him. According to the late His Holiness Gour Govinda Maharaja, this Radha-Prema makes Krishna literally mad. Originally Radha and Krishna are one. But for the purpose of pastimes, They have become two.

“The loving affairs of Sri Rädhä and Krishna are transcendental manifestations of the Lord’s internal pleasure-giving potency. Although Rädhä and Krishna are one in Their identity, previously They separated Themselves. Now, these two transcendental identities have again united, in the form of Sri Krishna Caitanya. I bow down to Him, who has manifested Himself with the sentiment and complexion of Srimati Rädhäräni, although He is Krishna Himself.” Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.5.

Madame Celine Dion, please accept the expression of my high esteem and respects.  I   o w e   y o u!   You may cash in my check of Krishna consciousness to you any time you like. When Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON, in 1966 moved into the storefront in New York City, the previous owner’s sign was left and it said: “The Matchless Gift”. That’s what Krishna consciousness really is: An absolutely Matchless Gift!

Let us snap it up while we can. Time is always running madly and every single minute of time passed cannot be bought back even for one million dollars. This is the wise reminder of Canakya Pandit, the great Indian philosopher and politician. Thank you very much!

ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT by Srila Prabhupada.

Thus by being engaged in devotional service of the Lord great sages or devotees are able to get free from the resultant actions of work in the material world and thus become (free) from the cycle of birth and death and go back to Godhead where there is no more any miseries.

BGAII V1:

The wise, engaged in devotional service, take refuge in the Lord, and free themselves from the cycle of birth and death by renouncing the fruits of action in the material world. In this way they can attain the state beyond all miseries.

BGAII V2:

By thus engaging in devotional service to the Lord, great sages or devotees free themselves from the results of work in the material world. In this way they become free from the cycle of birth and death and attain the state beyond all miseries [by going back to Godhead].

Proposed final version 3 or BGAII V3, 2.51, verse only:

By being thus engaged in devotional service of the Lord, great sages or devotees are able to get free from the resultant actions of work in the material world and thus become free from the cycle of birth and death as well and go back to Godhead, where there are no more miseries.

As far as BGAII 2.52 is concerned, the arrogant and offensive know-better-than-Guru team of Jayadvaita Swami have replaced with great obstinacy and systematic approach five times Srila Prabhupada’s original “callous” with the “moderated” “indifferent.” There is no doubt about it, such a consistently defiant attitude toward Guru will lead these criminal third class vaishya brains, with their false intellectualism, to their own destruction. It is only a matter of time. Such defiance of Guru is suicidal policy. This has been illustrated in Shastra on many occasions, perhaps the most famous example being when King Indra neglects / insults his own Guru, the priest Brihaspati, also known as Angirasa, the son of Maharishi Angira. “Because of his disrespectful behavior toward his spiritual master, Indra lost all his opulence and was conquered by the demons, who defeated the demigods in a great fight and occupied Indra’s throne. ” SB 6.7 Intro. Srila Prabhupada mentions also in SB 1.9.6-7 that the sage Gritsamada was as great as Brihaspati. Additionally “Once he (Brihaspati) cursed Indra, who thus had to become a hog on the earth and was unwilling to return to heaven.” SB 1.9.8.

Proposed final version BGAII V3, 2.52

Translation

When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become callous to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard.

to be continued…..

New Delhi
2 December, 1975
75-12-02

My Dear Tusta Krishna Swami,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 21 November, 1975.

Every student is expected to become Acarya. Acarya means one who knows the scriptural injunctions and follows them practically in life, and teaches them to his disciples. I have given you sannyasa with the great hope that in my absence you will preach the cult thruout the world and thus become recognized by Krishna as the most sincere servant of the Lord. So I’m very pleased that you have not deviated from the principles I have taught, and thus with power of attorney go on preaching Krishna consciousness, that will make me very happy as it is confirmed in the Guru vastakam yasya prasadat bhagavata prasadah just by satisfying your Spiritual Master who is accepted as the bona fide representative of the Lord you satisfy Krishna immediately without any doubt.

I am very glad to inform you that Sudama Vipra Maharaja is also now following my principles. So I am very very happy to receive all this news. Thank you very very much.

Keep trained up very rigidly and then you are bona fide Guru, and you can accept disciples on the same principle. But as a matter of etiquette it is the custom that during the lifetime of your Spiritual master you bring the prospective disciples to him, and in his absence or disappearance you can accept disciples without any limitation. This is the law of disciplic succession. I want to see my disciples become bona fide Spiritual Master and spread Krishna consciousness very widely, that will make me and Krishna very happy.

I hope this letter finds you well,

Your ever well wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
ACBS/hda

Copyright BBT

WHY THE RITVIK INTERPRETATION IS OFFENSIVE TO GURU and therefore to be rejected outright.

Recently I had an exchange with one of my Godbrothers, an inveterate and incorrigible “ritvik”. For our particular purpose, there is no need to mention his name. From that exchange, I had a very important and practical realisation. And I must thank him very much for his inadvertent assistance in that respect.

Ritvik is offensive to Guru because it also implies that Guru is such an apasampradaya, un-parampara, ignorant, foolish and reactionary individual that He wants the pararampara system to stop with Him. He wants to be the last chain in the disciplic succession. He wants to hold up the flow of time. What a farcical individual that would have to be! 

Anyone who espouse such a twisted and artificial philosophy, especially in relationship to Srila Prabhupada, the Initiator of the Sankirtan movement in the modern age, Founder-Acarya of ISKCON, Institutor of the BBT and BTG magazine, had better reform himself very urgently for he finds himself in a awkwardly wrong position. Hare Krishna. 

It is similar to the communist reasoning that everyone is situated on the lowest commun denominator platform. It is a fact that Shastra says: Kalau shüdra sambhava. In Kali-yuga, everyone is born a shüdra. But Krishna also says in Bhagavad-Gita As It Is 4.13:

“In terms of the divisions of the different modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society are created by me. And although I am the engineer of this system, still you may know that I am the non-doer of the same, being unchangeable.”

Under the training of the bona fide spiritual master, one can elevate oneself to the platform of a Brahmin or even better, to the platfom of a Vaishnava or servant of God. The tendency and often strenuous endeavor towards progress and improvement is found everywhere and it gives spice to life itself. Just examine the life of a triathlon athlete, such as the Swiss Mrs. Nicola Spirig Hug, or the brothers Alister and Jonathan Brownlee of UK. Krishna resides in their numerous victories over all others as well as in the individual strength of all these oustanding athletes as He states in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is 10.36:

“Of cheating processes I am gambling, of the spendid I am the splendor, among the industrialists I am adventure, I am victory and I am the strength of the strong.  

I must admit folks, I am getting tired of having to knock HH Jayadvaita Swami so hard most of the time.  And here is his undisputable revenge on the opposing party, and that would have to be the Bhagavad-gita As It Is version 1 party. It really looks like this humble self is becoming here some sort of an umpire in some major global contest game of Vedanta devotional philosophy and English expression as well, even though and I repeat it again and again, English is not at all my first language. The business of the umpire is to be fair to all parties. Let me try to be fair.

“What’s happening to the world?” one may ask. Is this another effect of the poor CoronaVirus, who gets blamed for so many ills it is not responsible for at all? Probably not, even though we may attribute to the devotional Coronavirus a marked increase in Bhagavad-gita As It Is sale. This fact at least is indisputable. At least in my part of the world, the fever temperature of the world has decreased. Things are settling. And sale of Bhagavad-gita As It Is is markedly up. Thinking people are beginning to emerge. I mean to say people thinking self-realization. That is wonderful indeed.

IMHO, the outstanding , most humanely touching and characteristic qualities of the Australian People and Nation are the sought after fairness in their dealings, as well as their ubiquitous courtesy. To that I should perhaps add their remarkable and unwavering generosity. I have ben allowed to adopt this wonderful country as my own home nation, and feel therefore that I have an obligation to follow in the traditions mentioned above. I sometimes feel that Australia is really on the way to the heavenly planets, especially compared to the European countries and remembering well that Srila Prabhupada says that the standard of enjoyment in the heavenly planets is one or many thousand times superior to the standards of enjoyment on planet earth. I also feel sometimes that Australia should be renamed Nava Bharata or New India, as the climatic conditions are extremely favorable for the business of self-realisation, the most important thing in life being not only to keep one’s Krishna Consciousness intact but to increase it as far as is possible. We love you Australia!

But after this brief digression, let us get back to the real point of this article.

HH Jayadvaita Swami has really done an excellent and squeaky clean job on BGAII V2, verse 2.50.

BGAII V1, verse 2.50 presents two misrepresentations of Sri Krishna’s actual words.

Please guess what they are. Can you guess?

The first mistake is very apparent. In BGAII V1 translation you will find the apostrophe “O Arjuna.” Because there is no antecedent in the Sanskrit, we may comfortably conclude that this “O Arjuna” is a pure invention and concoction of the relevant editor. Therefore we strike it out, just as HH Jayadvaita Swami has rightly done in his editor’s wisdom.

I have to go now to attend to some other matters and I am calling for submissions and comments on the second mistake and incorrectness. Here is an opportunity to show your Krishna conscious jnana and vijnana. Please come forward. Thank you very much.

After 24 hours hours no submissions have been received and here is the answer.

The second and more serious misrepresentation of BGAII V1, verse 2.50 is the proposal that “A man engaged in devotional service rids himself of both good and bad actions even in this life.” 

In itself, the statement is true because devotional service being transcendental has nothing to do with good and bad actions. Additionally in the previous BGAII 2.49 verse, Krishna enjoins Arjuna to “keep all abominable activities far distant by devotional service…” So BGAII V1, verse 2.50 seems to make sense.

However, there is plenty of evidence that Krishna actually says in Sanskrit the equivalent of “A man engaged in devotional service rids himself of both good and bad reactions even in this life” And from that perspective V 1 is a misrepresentation of Krishna actual words. The evidence is as follows:

1 ) In the word for word: sukrita-duskrite-good and bad results. Result represents the reaction of our work, not the work itself.

2 ) In the purport, Srila Prabhupada immediately, in the first sentence, talks about “ the various reactions of his good and bad work.” and He means to comment on the truths enunciated in the verse.

3) In the purport again an equivalent of “reaction” is given as “resultant action” and the meaning of the verse is confirmed in the very last sentence.

4 ) Finally the proposal is confirmed in the next verse, 2.51. 

All glories to HH Jayadvaita Maharaja for rightly spotting and correcting these two faults of BGAII V1, verse 2.50! 

Copyrights by His Grace Vaiyasaki Dasa, Radha Damodara Vilasa II, Eleventh wave. No grand opening, Vrndavan India August 1974

Vrindavan, India, August 1974

Living in India in the ‘70s is very difficult because there are no modern facilities for western devotees. They all struggle to survive, and they all get sick. The illnesses are usually jaundice, malaria, dysentery, and rashes over the body. On top of the physical discomfort of building temples for Srila Prabhupada and having to sleep in very austere conditions, devotees are too focused on their own survival to be gracious and understanding in their interpersonal relationships. They are under tremendous strain and hardly anyone reveals their minds in confidence. They never tell each other, “I’ve got a problem.”
Yamuna is dealing with the oppressive Vrindavan summer heat while trying to meet a deadline to open the Krishna-Balarama temple. She’s feeling overwhelming pressure. She used to think that there’s no reason to live if I can’t serve Krishna, but now she thinking there’s no reason to live even if I can serve Krishna! She tries to confide in her husband, Gurudas, about her crisis and he is able to enliven her and save her from complete depression. But then he goes to Prabhupada to disclose the situation.
Srila Prabhupada immediately says, “I want to see her.”
Yamuna dd: I remember walking from our place in Raman Reti to the temple and chanting one round of Hare Krishna. When I walked in the door Prabhupada said, “You look so beautiful chanting Hare Krishna.” That just stunned me. Immediately he said, “Do you think it is not difficult for me?” I didn’t say anything.
“Do you hear that noise on the roof?” Of course I did. I was involved in Vrindavan’s construction from the beginning. There were 25 brick masons carving stone – chink chink chink, chink chink chink – 24 hours a day. There were 25 of them on his roof.
“The offenses of my disciples are as loud as this pounding on the roof. All day long it is pounding on my head.” Those were his words.
“All day long it is pounding on my head, but I must tolerate.”
After a moment’s pause, Prabhupada says, “Suicide is not an option.” Yamuna is shocked to hear Prabhupada address this subject. “No one has the right to take their life. Do you know why?”
“No,” she responds meekly.
“Because there are so many living entities inside of us who are dependent on us, and for our Krishna consciousness. We would be killing them as well.” This statement completely blows Yamuna’s mind. She takes it that many micro-organisms, little cells, and all kinds of things, are dependent on the heart’s functioning. The words sink deep into her consciousness.
The whole perspective of Prabhupada’s talk is really profound for Yamuna. He explains that when we surrender to the Lord, it means surrendering our body, mind, and words for His service. Some people may think of suicide as an option to relieve undue stress, but Prabhupada wants to prevent this kind of thinking. He knows how traumatic it is for his young disciples to cope with the hardships of rural India in the early ‘70s. His compassion for his disciples and for other living entities is paramount.
Yamuna dd: It was a difficult time in India. Prabhupada said to Saurabha and Gurudas, “Don’t you know your fighting is killing me?” We were doing Prabhupada’s work, but the fighting between us was so severe and that’s why the temple didn’t open. We were stopping Prabhupada’s service by this insanity that was covering us at the time. That was the mood and that’s why I couldn’t take it anymore. I wasn’t a man and I was supposed to take it. At a certain point I snapped. I saw the futility of it in its entirety, and I thought, Maybe it’s better to die. There’s nothing else but the service, and if you can’t do the service, why live?
Gurudas: It’s very important for devotees to find someone to reveal their mind to if they have something to talk about. There’s usually only one or two special devotees that you feel comfortable with that you’re able to do that with. But it got less and less as we got people more and more into judging behavior.
In the lives of the acharyas, even pure devotees sometimes feel that life is no longer worth living.
“After the passing away of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Svarupa Damodara, Raghunatha Das, unable to bear the pain of separation from these objects of his complete devotion, traveled to Vrindavan intending to commit suicide by jumping from Govardhana Hill. In Vrindavan, however, he encountered Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatana Goswami, two of the most confidential disciples of Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu. They convinced him to give up his planned suicide and impelled him to reveal to them the spiritually inspiring events of Sri Chaitanya’s later life.” [CC, Madhya-lila 6.169, purport]
In this example, Ragunatha Das is given a reason for living. Moreover, Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami was also living in Vrindavan at the time and Raghunatha Das spent a lot of time providing him with a complete conception of the transcendental life of Sriman Mahaprabhu. By rendering further service to his beloved Lord, all of Raghunatha’s reasons for giving up his life vanished.
In another incident, Srila Sanatana Goswami developed a disease due to bathing in bad water and getting insufficient food while traveling in the Jharikhanda Forest. His body began to itch and he was suffering from itching sores. So he resolved to throw himself under the wheels of Lord Jagannath’s chariot in the presence of Lord Chaitanya, and in this way commit suicide. But one day out of the blue, Sri Chaitanya challenged Sanatana Goswami.
“Your decision to commit suicide is the result of the mode of ignorance. One cannot get love of God simply by committing suicide. You have already dedicated your life and body to My service; therefore your body does not belong to you, nor do you have any right to commit suicide. I have to execute many devotional services through your body. I want you to preach the culture of devotional service and go to Vrindavan to excavate the lost holy places.” [CC, Antya-lila, Chapter 4, Introduction]
From this example we can understand that when we surrender our lives to the Supreme Lord, then the body can no longer be used erratically. It belongs to the Lord and the Lord has every intention to use our body for spreading His mission on earth.

Copyrights by His Grace Vaiyasaki Dasa, Radha Damodara Vilasa II, Eleventh wave. No grand opening, Vrndavan India August 1974