Gopinath Dasa: In the first essay titled Religious Integration of ISKCON by Academia,

I was addressing the dangerous and treacherous subtle influence of ‘toning down’ (in other words-watering down) pure teachings of our Acharya (Gaudia Vaisnavism) with already imbedded, academically contrived religious pluralism by academia, in the name of uplifting ISKCON to pseudo ‘Raganuga sadhana platform’, that would allegedly ensure our acceptance and survival in the world of today.

In the second part,

I was addressing (already imbedded) unauthorized academically contrived secular educational system in ISKCON, which replaced the gurukula system that was established by Srila Prabhupada, and the subsequent creation of the CPO by the individuals who were the actual child abusers in order to protect themselves.

In the third part I would like to address the illegitimate formation of BBT INTERNATIONAL (BBTi) that took over the publishing rights and finance as well as including members whose purpose is to incrementally change books that were written by Srila Prabhupada and previous Acharya’s, in order to amend the Absolute Truth to their ‘politically correct’ preferred religious homogenization / integration of ISKCON, via Academically contrived consortium called Interfaith.

The purpose for the creation of illegal BBTi is as follow. In order to legally shield themselves from these unauthorized changes they devised a nefarious plan wherein Srila Prabhupada is legally termed as simply a mere hired author by the BBTi, consequently giving all the book rights that were written by Him to the individuals (Trust) who “hired” this simple author (Srila Prabhupada), hence giving them carte-blanche to do with them as they please.

This scam is based on the same system that the GBC lucratively implemented (after Srila Prabhupada`s departure) when they incorporated the unauthorized ISKCON of West Bengal Corporation, which has its own charter, Laws, and BY-Laws that are diametrically opposed to the charter of the original incorporation of ISKCON by Srila Prabhupda in the USA.

By incorporating this dummy “ISKCON of West Bengal Corporation”, they were able to legalize their hijacking of Srila Prabhupada original ISKCON.

Similarly, by formation of unauthorized BBTi they ensured that they have total control over Srila Prabhupada`s books and they obtained complete legal protection for these atrocious systematic book changes.

For the purpose of history it has to be noted that “alcoholic / smoker / womanizer” Gopal Batta dasa is playing a key role in the formation of this unauthorized corporation called BBTi. He holds the position as Chairman of this fraudulent BBTi (despite his inability to follow the four regulative principles), and he is one of the strongest supporters of the systematic homogenization of Srila Prabhupada`s books via avaricious hands of Jayadvaita swami.

We were all exposed to stealthy / incrementally, superfluous (unaccountable) book changes by BBTi, in particular Jayadvaita Swami and his friend Dravida dasa on the pretext that the books are being edited in the intent to satisfy the needs of Academia.

Only in the Bhagavat Gita alone there were more than five thousand changes up to this day. That means that nearly every verse in the Bhagavat Gita has been in some way changed / altered by imbedding subtle undertones in the actual meanings of these verses and/or purports.

Recently, I came into a possession of the DVD that was created by the BBTi in the attempt to publicly rationalize / sanitize these unauthorized changes. In the interview, among others, one of the trustees of the BBT puts forward rationale to these unnecessary changes; he posits that the purpose for these changes is the need to conciliate the world of Academia in order to facilitate the so called acceptance of these books within the academic circles.

When the BBTi`s “Pleasing Academia rationale” for the book changes did not achieve the desired bamboozlement of the rank and file devotees, by quieting them down, they devised the latest “rationalizing scam” of claims that they are changing the books back to the real original state.

Jayadvaita swami went as far as recreating an elaborate time table scheme in attempt to bewilder devotees with his false claim that Hayagriva prabhu never worked under the supervision and approval of Srila Prabhupada on the original edition of Bhagavat gita. His “imaginary chronological” article titled – “Book Changes: History Backs the BBT” was briefly posted on the Sampradaya sun.

However, this deceptive article backfired on Jayadvaita Swami, when his article was completely and chronologically refuted by Madhudvisa prabhu in article titled Jayadvaita’s Smoke and Mirrors which was a response to what appears to be a planned, conscious and intentional lie on the side of Jayadvaita swami.

Comically, after Jayadvaita swami`s lie was publicly exposed on Samp. Sun by Madhudvisa prabhu, Jayadvaita swami successfully petitioned Sampradaya Sun editors to remove his deceptive article, in the attempt to minimize his exposed embarrassment.

Furthermore, in order to understand and analyze the actual character of this devotees in question, it is imperative to bring out to the attention of the community of Vaisnavas, that Srila Prabhupada`s books are not the only one that are being mutilated. The books from the previous Acharyas (six Goswamis etc.) are not exempt from the itchy hands of BBTi.

Dark origins and history goes back into the early 90s when BBT requested Vrindavana resident, an Indian scholarly ISKCON devotee by the name of Satyanarayana prabhu, and Gopiparanadhana prabhu to work on the translation of the Sandharbas that were written in Sanskrit by goswamis, with the intent that BBT would print the English translation.

Satyanarayana prabhu and Gopiparanadana prabhu went ahead and started with the translations of the important works by the goswamis for the benefit of an English speaking world. After they successfully translated Sat Sandharba by Srila Jiva Goswami, it became apparent that Srila Jiva goswami`s explanation in regards to the origins of the soul (Jiva Tattva-jiva`s fall from the spiritual world) differed from the understanding of some ISKCON`s leading Academic devotees.

When this anomaly was brought forth to the attention of the BBT (Jayadvaita swami and others) and ISKCON leading Academic devotees such as Hridhayananda goswami they made a seriously compromised decision. They instructed Satyanarayana prabhu and Gopiparanadhana prabhu to remove (in their eyes) questionable explanation on Jiva Tattva.

Satyanarayan prabu was shocked at their request and he expressed his unwillingness to change Srila Jiva goswamis work. He explained that the works of the Previous Acharya’s are sacred and is inappropriate and highly offensive for anybody to change and alter their words. He insisted that the books should be presented and translated as they are. The BBT powers that be gave Satyanarayana prabu an ultimatum; you do as you are told or leave ISKCON. As a real brahmana he really did not have any choice but to leave, since the other option was that he has to dirty his hands in order to stay.

Once out of ISKCON he published the translated Sandharbas as they are, for the benefit of an English speaking Vaisnava community.

On the other hand Gopiparnadhana prabhu kowtowed to the pressure by the BBT, since he was financially dependent and maintained by them. Went the time came he did exactly what he was told.

At that time Jayadvaita Swami stated that “The Previous Acharya`s will say what we want them to say” Years after, Jayadvaita swami came to (dis)honor and live up to his above mention words.

We are all familiar when BBT (Gopiparanadhana prabhu) translated and published the book from Srila Sanatana Goswami titled Brihad Bhagavatamrita.

The important point that the rank and file devotees are totally unaware of is that the BBT just as they demanded to remove (Jiva Tattva) section of Sat Sandharba a decade earlier, again intentionally decided to omit a particular “in their eyes sensitive and controversial” section of the book, wherein Srila Sanatana Goswami is explaining the fall of the spirit soul (jiva).

The reason for this serious transgression of removal (in the name of responsible editing) of Srila Sanatana`s Goswami`s words form his own book is simple. His explanation of the fall of jiva (tattva) also went against the official GBC resolution on this particular philosophical conclusion.

Unfortunately, humble, brahamana vaishnava Gopiparanadhana prabhu being maintained by the BBTi, (just as Mahajana Bhisma due to accepting maintenance by Duryodana), become implicated in this offence to Sanatana goswami.

Powers that be become pleased by Gopiparanadhana`s prabhu loyalty to the institution and his choice of dirtying his hands and rewarded Gopiparanadhana prabhu with the rubberstamped approval by fraudulent ISKCON to become a full fledged initiating spiritual master within the institution as well as BBTI chief drunkard / smoker Gopal Bhatta even funds Gopiparanadhana’s Sanskrit School located at Govardhana.

Similarly, BBT also tried to meddle in to the publication of Srila Bhaktivinoda`s Jaiva Dharma. Again just as in the above two incidences, when Jaiva Dharama was translated by Sarvabhauma prabhu and edited by Keshidhamana prabhu, BBT did not wanted to publish the book after it came to their attention that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur`s explanation on Jiva-fall from the spiritual world- Tattva also differs from the official GBC resolution. They were working on the removal of the controversial Jiva Tattva section.

Luckily the original editor of Jaiva Dharma Keshidhamana prabhu decided to proceed with the printing of original book as it is, by himself. Despite the threats from the BBTi he was successful in printing the original book. We can safely assume that Keshidhamana prabhu will never have any opportunity to do the service for the BBTi ever again. However we do offer him our warm and heartfelt gratitude for standing up to them and providing us with Jaiva dharma AS IT IS.

BBTi`s dark history clearly characterizes that Jayadvaita swami and his co-conspirators have absolutely no moral fiber whatsoever. They change, create, re-create and re-interpret their rationale for their capricious editing with such a remarkable sociopathic ease that is frightening.

If their objective is to appease the Secular Academic world they would be better off providing a definitive work rather than a constantly changing ‘work in progress’ which only displays their inconsistent and changeable state of mind.

B Radha-Govinda provided us with an excellent example of above mentioned characteristics off BBTi in her article titled Jayadvaita Swami: Is He on the mental platform?

In her article she writes;

“Regarding Jayadvaita Swami and the question, “Is he on the mental platform?” my question comes because not only does Jayadvaita Swami change certain things in Srila Prabhupada’s books, but he makes changes to the changes he (JAS) has himself already made.

To give one example, over the years I saw a few different changed versions of Bhagavad-gita As It Is (Was), and there were different “renditions” to the BG 2.1 verse, although Srila Prabhupada’s translation was already so clear and beautifully expressed that the reader has a very vivid, heartfelt understanding of Arjuna’s feelings from the verse, which read:

“Sanjaya said: ‘Seeing Arjuna full of compassion and very sorrowful, his eyes brimming with tears, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words’.”

Despite the (pre-1978) word for word translation, krpaya – ‘by compassion’, avistam – ‘overwhelmed’, asru-purna – ‘full of tears”; akula – depressed’; iksanam – ‘eyes’; visidantam – ‘lamenting’, one of Jayadvaita Swami’s edited (slaughtered) renditions of this verse read,

“Sanjaya said: ‘Seeing Arjuna his mind depressed, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words'”.

One has to assume Jayadvaita Swami was, at a later point, dissatisfied with his own editing because he changed his own (edited, “subtracted”) rendition of this verse to read more according to the original translation in Srila Prabhupada’s pre-1978 edition of Bhagavad Gita As It Is. This updated/renewed/changed verse read,

“Sanjaya said: ‘Seeing Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words’.”

That was again changed, the final, most current rendition reading,

“Sanjaya said: ‘Seeing Arjuna full of compassion, his mind depressed, his eyes full of tears, Madhusudana, Krsna, spoke the following words’.”

Although in the pre-1978 BG, in the word for word translation the word “depressed” is given as the translation for “akula,” although Jayadvaita Swami uses the word “depressed” in his edited translation of this verse, in his editing of the word for word translation, there is no word “depressed” used there. (Please note the difference between the two word for word translations with asru-purna-akula given below to mean ‘full of tears’ and the pre-1978 BG’s word for word translation, asru-purna – ‘full of tears’; akula – ‘depressed’.)

krpaya -‘ by compassion’, avistam – ‘overwhelmed’, asru-purna-akula- ‘ full of tears’; iksanam – ‘eyes’; visidantam – ‘lamenting’.

So one may have to question whether it is a matter of mental platform being the reason for Jayadvaita Swami’s (re)editing his own published editing of Srila Prabhupada’s books, or whether he’s doing so to keep a job for himself.”

B.Radha-Govinda`s article clearly establishes the fact that the latest rationale of BBTi and Jayadvaita swami (his apologist included) that they are changing Srila Prabhupada`s book to its original version is just another sham. As we can see in the above mentioned article (documented evidence) that Jayadvaita swami is continuously changing the books as he feels like it at the particular time, and that has absolutely nothing to do with Srila Prabhupada`s ‘original’ work.

Another perfect example of the cheating mentality of BBTi can be seen in Rupanuga prabhu`s (acbsp) exposé of BBti titled Gita Cover-Up Alert or Buyer Beware

Rupanuga prabhu in his article writes:

“Interested parties should be made aware that the BBT editors of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-Gita As It Is have continued editing their own new (2010) paperback edition of their 1983 “revised and enlarged” version.

They have removed the notice “Revised and Enlarged” from the face page and left only “Second Edition.” The phrase “with the original Sanskrit text, Roman been omitted. So now, after all the omissions, the face page reads simply “Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, Second Edition, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.”

Consequently, there is no indication for the prospective buyer that the book is actually a revised version of the original; rather it is made to appear to be simply a re-printing of the original—by the same author!

The BBT editors, remaining incognito, continue to plagiarize Srila Prabhupada’s name and fame to lend credibility to their in fact re-written version of the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, originally designated as the “Complete Edition” by Srila Prabhupada himself.” …

After realizing that over the years the rank and file devotees became well educated in regards to the unauthorized and exceedingly whimsical changes of Srila Prabhupada`s books by the hands of BBTi-Jayadvaita swami, BBTi in order to further bamboozle the devotees and buyers, deliberately removed the information (from the latest print of Gita) that the book is REVISED-CHANGED. By doing that they hope to provide the impression that the latest print is the actual original/unedited book. This is called CHEATING!!!!

CONCLUSION:

The foremost reason why the BBTi’s rhetoric should be rejected is that Srila Prabhupada never gave them the authority to edit his books ‘after’ he entered into Samadhi. Therefore they have no mandate!

Jayadvaita swami confirms this in his letter to Amogha Lila das who was inquiring from JAS whether Srila Prabhupada gave specific instructions to him or anyone else to edit / change his books after his departure. (The letter is available on SP folio) wherein JAS writes:

“First: To my knowledge, Srila Prabhupada never asked us to re-edit the book.”

It is here that you can see the devious mentality of the JAS and the BBTi is still prevalent even after they admit that they have no mandate to make any changes after Srila Prabhupada’s departure! This also shows the true duplicitous nature of JAS how he knows very well what Srila Prabhupada wanted but he impudently ignored his so called Diksa Guru.

Over the past few years there were numerous attempts from Jayadvaita swami`s respected god brothers / sisters and many other devotees within ISKCON, to put a stop on these unauthorized books changes to no avail.

These so called “troublemaking” devotees understand and realize the serious implications and future consequences if this systematic mutilation of the books of Srila prabhupada and previous Acharyas continue to go on. This is especially so when we understand the context; – that they are creating deviant and destructive precedent, that allows for changes to be made in a first place.

 

The other consideration is that Srila Prabhupada did in fact read from and give class from his original books for many years and did not say that they needed editing then or did he instruct that editing should go on ‘ad infinitum’ after his departure.

PRECEDENT-DEFINITION

 

n [?pr?s?d?nt]

. an example ‘or’ instance used to justify later similar occurrences

Therefore once the ‘precedent’ has been created that it is possible to change or edit Srila Prabhupada’s work for whatever reason then this opens up the possibility for not only others at some later date to edit/change his work. This also creates the ‘precedent’ that if they can change / edit ISKCON’s Founder / Acharya’s work it can also infer that any ‘title’ that is in the possession of the BBTi can be changed / edited. That means they will have ‘carte blanche’ to change/edit the works of the Goswami’s and any other literature that they deem fit to change/edit according to their whim.

Now that this precedent has been accepted by the institution then “henceforward” – for all time, any piece of literature / audio or video work of any Gaudiya Vaisanava’s that the BBTi has seized possession of, can be changed / edited or be ‘Politically Corrected’ to appease all and sundry for the duration of the Kali –yuga.

These deviously misinterpreted kala-desh-patra and yukta-vairagya principles has been accepted without censure from the GBC or the institution at large to suit their own agenda and not the duties prescribed by Srila Prabhupada and the intelligent words of advice from a great percentage of devotees within the general society.

History (constant changes) of the Old Testament and the Christian New Testament is a stark testimony of the confusion and schisms that follows once such precedent is allowed to takes place.

The convoluted changes that have occurred under the leadership of Jayadvaita swami are in a continual changing mode as he adopts different rationales according to the main arguments against his wickedness. First there was the excuse that Academics will laugh at us hence we need to change, and then they used the ‘we are bringing the books to be more in line with what Srila Prabhupada originally wanted’ routine. Where will this end?

Could it be that once a precedent is established they will in future remove any reference to God being a male or perhaps He is gay, or maybe just maybe he is not a Person but a mere Light / Force or Love?

These are the real dangers, if such types of minds are in charge of such a precious thing as the words of the Spiritual Master and Acharya`s.

The final conclusion needs to be that the BBT/BBTi or whatever  (trust/corporation) they may add on to this, must be made to conform to the fact that they have no mandate from Srila Prabhupada to make any changes to his books whatsoever, after his departure.

The one striking mentality that is existing in the BBT and BBTi is that Srila Prabhupada and all the previous Acharys are dead so who cares anyway if some changes are made and that to do so creates a dangerous precedent of our Society and mankind at large.

After all this is why Srila Prabhupada established ISKCON to preach to the world of man for the Kali – yuga and his work will never be “As It Is” should these devious and unscrupulous individuals be allowed to change even one single word.

The only viable way which the purulent infection that has infected Srila Prabhupada’s BBT can be corrected is to remove the infected minds that have conglomerated within the most precious gift that Srila Prabhupada has given to mankind – His literary works.

OM TAT SAT

Gopinath Das

Originally published: March 2011