Why does Srila Prabhupada add electricity in the translation of 15.6?

Why does Srila Prabhupada add electricity in the translation of 15.6 when there is no such word in the Sanskrit verse?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you Question In the Translation of Bhagavad Gita 15.7 15.6 Srila Prabhupada mentions The word electricity Although there is no Equivalent word In the Sanskrit original of the Bhagavad Gita How can we justify Srila Prabhupada’s Introducing into the translation Words that are not at all present in the Original text Answer A translator Has to always Balance between Precision and relevance Precision means to Accurately convey The meaning that was Intended in the original language And relevance Means to convey The Connectedness The practicality The pragmatic wisdom Inherent In the Original text That was obvious to the people In the culture In which that text was spoken So a translator Is not just The translator of the text He is also the translator of the Context When Computers started doing sophisticated Programming At that time Many AI researchers felt that In the near future We will be able to develop Machines which can easily Translate books from one language to another And when they tried to do that They found The computers And computer made programs often made Embarrassingly Large and Ludicrous mistakes Even now There is a program called Google Translate Which we can use to Translate meanings of words And find their equivalence in one Common language to another But if we use it to translate even one page Often There are Very strange and sometimes Silly Mistakes that come up Because The important point is that In language There are two aspects There is syntax and there is semantics Syntax refers to the way The language Is structured according to the Rules of grammar And semantics Refers to the meaning that is conveyed Through the language So because a computer has no sense Of the semantics The computer just tries to see Here is a verb, here is a noun Here is a pronoun, here is a preposition Ok let us take this What are the rules for arranging similar things In another language, put it in that language So because the computer Does not have a sense of semantics Just relying on syntax Fails to Convey the Meaning and often Ends up conveying an inaccurate Sometimes incorrect And sometimes entirely opposite meaning So that is why A translator Should not only Understand both the languages That is the first step Which actually computer does not do, computer only knows the structure But even a translator who Understands both the languages Unless he understands the context In which the original text was spoken He will not Be able to convey the original Meaning Now words Convey meaning not just in their Literal sense but the words Have denotations and words have connotations Denotations refers to What they directly immediately convey And connotations Refer to what Is implied by those words So therefore If we look at 15.6 With this background in mind The verse is saying विदानित्यगतं देजो जगत्भासयतेखिलं इच्छेंद्रमसियच्छाक्न तत्तेजो विद्धिमामकाम The verse is saying That That supreme abode Which is not illuminated by the sun Which is not illuminated by the moon Which is not illuminated by fire That is my abode Having attained that abode One will never come back again To this world So yes From a literal Sanskrit point of view The word is पावकः That is fire There is no विद्धितः Electricity in the translation Now in the ईशोपनिषद परपोर्चिल प्रवपात कोर्षन मुण्ड कुपनिषद 2.2.10-12 Where it says नतित्र सूर्यो भातेन चंद्रतारकम् नेमा विद्धितो भान्तीकुतो यमगनी तमेव भान्तमनु आर्थि सर्वम् तस्य भाषा सर्वमिदं विभाती So here that That abode, that realm Is not illuminated by the sun नतित्र सूर्यो भातेन चंद्रतारकम् Nor by the moon, nor by the stars नेमा विद्धितो भान्ती कुतो यमगनी Not even by युद्धितो, lightning or electricity What to speak of fire? That is the supreme abode So basically, Srila Prabhupada is giving us In the Bhagavad Gita translation What is Given in one of the Upanishads So it is not coming first of all from Srila Prabhupada’s Own imagination It is coming from another bona fide scripture And why is Srila Prabhupada giving it here? Because The essential message of the Gita In this verse is that The spiritual abode of Krishna is Self-luminous It is self-illuminating It doesn’t need any external Source of illumination So Normally for people Who live close to nature Even when they lived in urban Sophisticated places as they did In the Vedic times Especially the kings lived in sophisticated places But even then There the normal sources of Light were the sun The moon and fire So The point that Krishna is conveying by giving us These three examples is that You don’t need Any such external source of Illumination in the spiritual world Now in modern Times Most people So often live indoors And so often live based on Illuminating Their surroundings with Artificial illumination through electricity That They will not Be able to connect so quickly If We are told there is no sun, there is no moon There is no fire Most people’s house doesn’t have fire for illumination Many people live indoors For so long that they rarely see the sun or the moon also So If we want to understand something That is about darkness Generally we think about darkness The light goes off, the power goes off, the electricity goes off That time Everything is dark So often electricity goes off And we are trying to grope in the dark It is so difficult And if We keep that image in mind And then think A place that is self-luminous I want to go to the door and the door is self-luminous I want to lift something That thing is self-luminous My own body is self-luminous So for us to connect With the beauty of the spiritual world As is connected by As is conveyed by this verse That the abode is self-luminous For us to be able to understand it Saying that There is no sun, moon or Fire Will not convey it as poignantly As Saying that there is no electricity Because electricity Is the primary source of illumination That we depend on In our modern times, post-modern times Whatever So to summarize Srila Prabhupada Is not just focusing on Accuracy He is accurate, no doubt But what is the use of Translating a book accurately If people don’t feel it Irrelevant or applicable or appealing To their lives and their times A translator always Has to balance between accuracy And relevance So to make The import of this verse relevant To us Srila Prabhupada tells us That The spiritual world is not Illuminated even by electricity So making that Relevance doesn’t mean bringing something From one’s own imagination There is a Upanishadic verse which talks about this As I quoted In addition to that When one understands the original feel Original essence Of the message, then one can convey it In contemporary language And that is what Srila Prabhupada is doing For this verse, thank you