Why does Prabhupada put in his translations references to Krishna that are not actually there in the Sanskrit verses of the Gita?

Transcript

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Question How can we appreciate The Vaishya Prabhupada’s presence His purports Because often He speaks things That are not directly there in the verses In the purports to those verses For example In the 15th chapter In the initial verses He talks about Surrender to Krishna Although there is no explicit mention of Krishna there We understand That Vaishya Prabhupada is giving the essence But still At a Philosophical and intellectual level How can we increase our faith In Prabhupada’s presentation of Shastra In general Yes, Vaishya Prabhupada seems to add Things that are not there in the Shloka in the translation Yes Actually regarding this Vaishya Prabhupada told In one conversation When Mayavadi came to him And Mayavadi said that Swami, there is no maam Mentioned in this verse And How are you putting Krishna over there? There is no mention of Krishna at all So Prabhupada replied That impersonalists You know where Krishna is Mentioning maam For example in 9.34 Where Krishna mentions maam six times So where Krishna is Mentioning maam so many times You are removing Krishna By saying that you have to surrender Unmoving Krishna So therefore to counter that I am putting Krishna where there is no Krishna also So now this is The Devotional mood of Shila Prabhupada Now if we look at it from Analytical point of view We will see that Shila Prabhupada is doing something very Bold He is putting in the verses What is not there in the He is putting in the translation What is not there in the verses I think he does that in 6.29 And several other verses In the Buddha Gita also So if Shila Prabhupada Had an intention of Forcing Krishna Down our throat Then he could Well have done it by Avoiding the Sanskrit And avoiding the word to word translation And there are many Commentators who have just given the English Translation in the English purport But Shila Prabhupada Uses the original Sanskrit He will use the Transliteration So people who cannot read Sanskrit still they can Read its English rendition And then he gives the word to word translation also And Shila Prabhupada very Boldly, fearlessly Gives a different word to word Translation, generally word to word Translations are Semantically Semantically means in terms of meaning Semantically in agreement with the Words of the Verse But then he gives a different translation So By this He is actually Forcing us to think He is not If the intention was to thrust Krishna Down our throat Then he could just have avoided the Sanskrit And the word to word translation But by doing two different Things And being Open about doing those things Shila Prabhupada forces us to think about What he is doing And What he essentially is doing is That he is giving us He is allowing us To understand the literal meaning Of the verse If that is what is our interest But he is also giving us The devotion The practical Application in terms of what is relevant To our context A translator Always has to Balance between Precision and relevance Precision means Being accurate In terms of meaning Of the original word And relevance means Making that word relevant To the audience So If This balancing is not done properly Then one may Make a very precisely Translated book But the audience doesn’t feel any connection with the book The audience doesn’t find it relevant at all What does it mean for me in my Current situation On the other hand if one tries to make it So relevant that It just concerns the people At their time and doesn’t at all Connect with the scripture at all That balance between relevance And precision is art And And Often Scripture is not understood Just by Linguistic precision Scripture is understood by Those who are learning the scripture And are Have understood the essence Have applied the essence in their lives And are sharing that essence with others So linguistic precision is important But linguistic precision Alone is not the key To Crack the mystery of scripture Because we never crack the mystery of scripture Because the word crack conveys the idea of We being superior and something we are inferior But we can say We never fathom the mystery of scripture Krishna also talks to Arjuna He doesn’t tell Arjuna you are a great scholar And that’s why you are able to understand me In 4.3 he says I am telling you this message because you are my devotee So Actually speaking A devotion Is the key for understanding scripture also So Shri Prabhupada gives us both The literal meaning in the Word to word translation For those who are Who are eager to study the Scripture scrutinizingly But most people are not In that Mood They are Mostly going to approach scripture From the perspective of what is in it for me So for them He makes things very relevant In terms of giving the conclusion Of the scripture Practically in every words So That Shri Prabhupada tells us more that People They don’t read books nowadays And if they take a book And they may just open it for a few minutes And say I gave some donation For this book Let me see what these rascals are saying And the person may open a book My goal is that Whichever page of my book a person opens He should get the essence of the Krishna conscious Philosophy in that page So this Is actually Shri Prabhupada’s Extraordinary compassion That he is So concerned that people get the attention And for those who Want to do scrutinizing study He also gives the word to word translations And He allows us to see What he is doing That is the most important aspect of his transparency He doesn’t conceal what he is doing He allows us to see it And if we look at So now This compassion is not Non-intellectual or anti-intellectual Not just simply devotional Because we will see that The Bhagavad Gita has its internal flow Which it does go to a Revotional conclusion So when Shri Prabhupada gives bhakti throughout The Gita, Prabhupada is doing Throughout the Gita what Krishna Is doing at the end of the Gita Krishna gives an elaborate Flow of the various yogic paths But then he concludes Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam Sharanam raja Just give up everything else and surrender to me So that conclusive message In the Bhagavad Gita, Prabhupada is giving Consistently throughout the Gita So in that sense He is not even violating the spirit of the Gita He is actually giving His conclusive spirit throughout And even if we look at the 15th chapter, the immediate context Of the Gita, we will see that Krishna He refers to himself In third person in 15.4 And immediately in 15.6 and 7 He refers to himself in the first person So in 15.6 In 15.3 He is describing how One should cut off the tree of material existence And then In 15.4 he says that Pratapadam tat parimar Gitavyam yas nirgatananivartan Tibhuyam tamevacharyam Purusham prapadyeta Pravrtti prasrutha purani So he is telling After one cuts off the One-inch angle when the tree of material existence Prasangashastrena drudhena chitva Then after that Pratapadam tat parimar Gitavyam Let go to that abode Pratapadam tat parimar Gitavyam yas nirgatananivartan Tibhuyam By going there one never comes back to this world Tamevacharyam purusham Prapadyeta And over there, surrendered to that purusha Who is that purusha? Pratapadam Pravrtti prasrutha purani From whom the whole universe is manifested The whole material nature is manifested Not just the universe Material nature comes from many many universes Prasruthi purani from ancient times So here Krishna is referring to Himself in the third person Surrendered to that person Who lives in the abode Due to two characteristics of that person One is that he Lives in that abode Attaining which one never comes back And second characteristic is That that person Is the source of all of material nature All of existence And if we see just a few verses later 15.5 is nirmanamoham 15.6 is mamayivamshojiyuloke And 15.7 Krishna immediately identifies That actually that is my abode 15.6 only 15.7 is mamayivamshojiyuloke Just after talking about surrender Immediately the next verse Krishna Talks about that abode more clearly And he says that is my abode So the characteristic of that dham is also My abode is That once you go there you will not come back And that was exactly what Krishna said In 15.4b And generally when we refer to verses In a more precise sense So first line we call it 15.4a Second line is e d and e So 15.4b was So having gone there one never comes back Here also In 15.6c he is saying the same thing So actually we can see From the description of abode The description is identical Going there one doesn’t come back So he is referring to the same thing So Krishna does refer to himself In the third person Often when he is talking about The parmatma As the controller of the material nature And he refers to himself in the first person In general When he is referring to himself in relationship with his devotees In relationship with his Spiritual abode And in relationship with his Self existential glory When he wants to talk about his own Supremacy directly That is the focus Then he refers to himself in the first person Now that 15.125 The focus there is not on himself The focus is on the Entanglement in material existence The 15.125 starts with The upside down tree of Material nature So Now there is an intricate flow Within the Tantra Gita Wherein we see that Krishna Alternates between Third person reference to himself Third person reference to him Although that is referring to him only And first person reference to himself The parmatma So we can go into that In my Bhagavad Gita classes I go into the intricate flows Why Krishna refers to himself Third person here and first person here But There is no ambiguity that the third person reference Is also for him only In the 15th chapter on it becomes most unambiguously clear In 15.17 and 18 In 15.17 He says that He is referring to himself as a third person And the characteristics that he would sell in 15.17 He describes again in 15.18 And then he refers to himself in the first person So That there is a third person and first person reference Are not two Two different persons That is very clear At several places in the Bhagavad Gita In 15.17 he says that Uttama Purusha is one In 15.17 he is talking about two kinds of Beings, Purushas One fallible, one infallible One bound and one liberated But then he says Uttama Purusha is beyond both of them He is called as And then He maintains all living beings He enters the world And maintains all the worlds And then he says That this is referring to me only He says that So he says because I am beyond the fallible And the infallible Now this is the characteristic which is described in 15.17 So you see That is referring to the supreme The supreme is the third person In 15.18 immediately he says I am known as Purusha Uttama The same thing happens in 6.29, 30 and 31 also 6.29 Krishna is referring to himself In the third person As a super soul 16.30 he refers to himself In the first person And 6.31 he makes it clear That one who understands That the being whom he referred to in 29 And the being whom he referred to in 30 Are the same Such a person is Such a person is Such a yogi is always well situated In fact he is situated in me So There is no ambiguity If you look at the internal flow of the Gita 6.29 is talking about Third person So one who sees The super soul situated in all beings He doesn’t mention the word super soul He says that One who is situated In all living beings In whom all living beings are situated So Such a person is well situated He sees everything equally And then he is described in the next 30 He says Such a person who sees me everywhere He sees everything in me Such a person is never lost to me So actually the describers Are same in 29 and 30 So it’s clear that he is referring to Third person, first person, third person are the same person But 30 when it makes it clear So One who is situated in all living beings That was talked about in 29 So one who worships Me Knowing that That being situated in all living beings And I are Such a person In all situations Situated in me So that way Prabhupada himself said that In future When he was asked what books He would like to comment on He said he would like to comment on the Bhagavad Gita So You know He would have gone into more technical details Of the Bhagavad Gita, the internal flow If he had commented If he had the opportunity to comment again on it So that’s why the Bhagavad Gita has its flow And if you look at the flow of the Bhagavad Gita You will see that Whatever conclusion Prabhupada gives Is not at all unwarranted It is Perfectly sustained By the Bhagavad Gita’s own conclusion But what Prabhupada is doing is He is giving us the conclusion Not at the end, but Throughout the Gita