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“All the changes” soon online for the purports of Srila Prabhupada’s Gita

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Changes! Changes! Want to see all the changes made to the purports of Srila Prabhupada's 1972 Bhagavad-gita As It Is? The BBT will soon be putting them all online. When I made my revisions for the second edition, I did them directly on a copy of the book--that is, a copy of the first edition. After the second edition was published, for many years my first-edition copy was lost. But about three years ago, Dravida Dasa found it in a trunk in San Diego. More recently, that copy has been digitized. And soon the BBT will be putting it online. On that copy, you'll be able to see all the … [Read more...] about “All the changes” soon online for the purports of Srila Prabhupada’s Gita

Techie devotees: Help build the BBT digital repository

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The BBT has a lot of valuable stuff--books, manuscripts, letters, photos, paintings, audio, videos, and more, some of it in the Bhaktivedanta Archives, some of it elsewhere. A lot of it is in digital form, some of it not. Following the model for an Open Archival Information System, the BBT has begun a "Digital Repository" project. Among its purposes: To put all the BBT's stuff (as far as possible) into an up-to-date digital form, with suitable "metatags" to help in finding things. To archive all the stuff in one digital repository--one digital "box" (of course with backups). To … [Read more...] about Techie devotees: Help build the BBT digital repository

Psychology meets reality

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Enough of those cheery motivational slogans trying to psych us into believing "it's all in the mind" and whatever we wish will be ours if only we've got the right positive attitude. The blessed souls at Despair, Inc., have come out with a series of posters (oh, and T-shirts and mugs and whatnot) designed to deflate us and bring us down to earth (and make themselves a bit of money while they're at it). Deliciously depressing. www.despair.com. Enjoy. Thank you to my godsister Urmila Devi Dasi for letting me know about this site. … [Read more...] about Psychology meets reality

BBT publishes unauthorized changes in Vaishnava Calendar, concerned devotees say

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(Exclusive to the SAMPRAJALPA SUN) "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?" The Vaishnava Calendar has been the guide for ISKCON's holy days and festivals since the early 1970s, when Srila Prabhupada first asked for it to be published. And for nearly two decades the BBT has published an annual BBT Art Calendar with a beautiful picture of Krishna-lila for each month. But ISKCON has now been plunged into turmoil by the discovery that the BBT, unannounced, has made changes … [Read more...] about BBT publishes unauthorized changes in Vaishnava Calendar, concerned devotees say

“A man of his word”

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Class on vows and Integrity, March 2008, London (To download: right click, and save as...) This is a slimmed-down version of a class I gave in March 2008 at the ISKCON center at Soho Street in London. One mistake: I say that "some girls" who wanted Bhisma to marry them asked his guru to oblige him to do so. In fact there was only one such girl--Amba. The other girls, her two sisters, married Bhisma's half-brother Vicitravirya. In any case, my point concerning Bhisma's personal integrity remains the same, as do my points concerning our own. Full class - CC Madhya-lila 1.96 - 30 … [Read more...] about “A man of his word”

An obituary I don’t have to write

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On October 23, while I was stopping briefly at the ISKCON center in New Delhi on the way from Govardhana to Mumbai, an anguished disciple of my godbrother Jayapataka Swami told me that Jayapataka Swami had fallen unconscious while in Mumbai to attend a meeting and had been rushed to the hospital, where he lay still unconscious and in critical condition. When I reached Mumbai I got a fuller story. He had suffered a major stroke, with hemorrhaging in two locations in the brain, one of them in the brain stem, an area so neurologically delicate and so hard to reach that no direct intervention … [Read more...] about An obituary I don’t have to write

Don’t badmouth sadhus

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Here is a class I gave in India last January for a course at the Mayapur Institute for Higher Education. I spoke on this verse from the Bhagavad-gita (9.30): api cet su-duracaro bhajate mam ananya-bhak sadhur eva sa mantavyah samyag vyavasito hi sah "Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination." Cannot see the audio below? Click here... https://archive.org/download/JAS_Classes_2008/JAS_Dont-badmouth-sadhus_Jan-2008_MIHE_mayapur.mp3 The class was held on a lawn … [Read more...] about Don’t badmouth sadhus

A quantum loss

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On Thursday, six days ago, I'd been thinking of a book to send to a cousin, Bill, a semi-retired pediatrician. In response to some points I'd made in talking about the spiritual nature of consciousness, he had asked me if I'd ever read anything by Stephen J. Gould, the Harvard paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, historian of science, and author of popular scientific articles and books. The unstated message: I doubt whether your ideas about consciousness can stand up in the face of what we know from science. I haven't read more than a few brief essays by Gould, so I later wrote to ask … [Read more...] about A quantum loss