Now online: “Gita changes” for Chapter Ten

BBT Press release

The “annotated scans” for Chapter Ten of Bhagavad-gita As It Is are now online at BBTedit.com/changes.

The scans for this chapter are the latest in a series that shows all the revisions done for the transliterations, word meanings, and purports of the second edition. Nearly every revision also has a note explaining why it was done, along with an image from the BBT’s oldest manuscripts, allowing you to verify the history for yourself.

Jayadvaita Swami did his revisions for the second edition on a physical copy of the first edition. The scans show that copy. (Revisions to the translations aren’t shown, because he edited them separately, not in the book itself.) Each chapter forms one downloadable pdf file.

The revisions to this chapter were extensive, so the scans for this chapter give you much to see.

• You’ll see twelve Sanskrit quotations and several lost passages in English now recovered.
  

• You’ll see various mishearings corrected. For example, in the purport to text 27 the demigods and the demons no longer take a “sea journey” in which nectar and poison are produced. In the manuscript the “sea journey” was a “journey of the sea,” which of course should have been “churning of the sea.” And in the purport to text 29 you’ll see that Aryama no longer mistakenly presides over a “planet of trees.”

• You’ll see several places where the original editor misunderstood what the manuscript intended and the 1983 edition has recovered the correct sense.

• In texts 28 and 29, you’ll see – from the original manuscript – why Krsna says He is Vasuki among serpents but Ananta among snakes.

• You’ll see restored to the purport of text 36 a biting comment about an “unfortunate commentator who wants to cheat Kṛṣṇa and the public by saying that there is something greater than Kṛṣṇa.”

Apart from images for specific changes, the scans for this chapter include six complete sample pages from the original manuscripts.

Whether you’re for “the changes,” against them, or neutral, here’s another opportunity to see what the changes actually are.

For devotees who have been critical of the second edition but are thoughtful and open-minded, the scans for this chapter provide ample food for thought.

See for yourself in the annotated scans for Chapter Ten, now online at BBTedit.com/changes.

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