Can Gita verses be translated differently from Prabhupada’s translations?
So can can the translation of the words that Prabhupada has given be changed actually Prabhupada himself gave different translations Prabhupada gave one translation of the Bhagavata as it is but if you look at Prabhupada's Bhagavata lectures on the same words when Prabhupada is giving lectures he is translating the words in different ways so many places so common Prabhupada does it so and Prabhupada himself said the same words can be translated in different ways now Prabhupada gave us commentary on the Bhagavata but he also said that we should, in the Bhagavata serious students should try the commentary on the Priyazacharyas and the Priyazacharyas if you see the same Bhagavata was here translated differently so it's quite likely that the translation can be different and there is nothing wrong in that because the Bhagavad Gita it's no minimization of the Prabhupada to say that you know one book will not encompass the unlimited possible meanings that are there as long as those meanings are according to Siddhanta that is true now for example one Prabhupada disciple I'll just translate it so Prabhupada writes a reference to the soul in the second chapter he is using masculine he is imperishable he cannot be killed now today the culture says that you cannot just use this gender bias language so you cannot just use he so then what can we do then we have to first of all the point is he when Prabhupada learnt his English and when Prabhupada wrote his books he was inclusive of when he referred to human beings like man proposes God disposes so then man refers to man and woman isn't it but now time has changed so when we have a present moment we just present the soul as masculine you know that is that is from the context also it's not correct and from the philosophical point of view also he is not exactly correct the soul is not of any material gender so like that there can be a distinction which can be made and then we contact present instance for example Prabhupada uses the word cult many times now he is confused with the word cult because at that time the word cult just meant one group but then afterwards there were many people there were several gurus or spiritual teachers who had their own cults especially there was one cult of one so called reverend he got all his people and several thousands of people under his guidance he cut himself off from the rest of the world and they committed mass suicide he said all those who have faith in me all of you should kill yourself and by killing yourself all of you will get liberation so they cut themselves off they accept only him as authority and then what happens so afterwards the opposition to cults came along so now he is using the word cult similarly there can be other words also for example nowadays the word preaching itself is considered to be quite aggressive word back to what I told you the word preaching it just indicates that we are putting ourselves on a high moral platform and we are going to preach to someone so we generally use the word outreach for sharing Krishna Consciousness so there according to temple circumstances we will have to present appropriately and Prabhupada himself was quite accommodating about that he told his editors to edit he said for clarity edit for clarity edit for force so that things become clear and there is no infighting that sort of thing will happen the message will not change but the message will have to be presented.