Editing Srila Prabhupada's books

[Guest guest]

Dear Mother Hare Krsna dasi,

 

PAMHO. agtSP.

 

Thank you for joining the discussion.

 

To begin the discussion, I would like to ask you the following questions.

 

1. At what instance did you come to the realization that Srila PRabhupada's

books should be

footnoted? Is it your own realization, a sharing of ideas with others or what?

Do you think Srila Prabhupada's writings have been tainted by some sort of

conditioning and are therefore imperfect (if so, please elaborate)? Have you

researched Srila Prabhupada's opinion on editing his books?

 

2. Obviously, there must be some issue(s) which has sparked your/or others'

idea of footnoting. Could you inform us of what such issue(s) should be

footnoted? I think this would be important since we can understand the scope of

the exercise. Are others allowed to suggest topics in Prabhupada's books that

can be footnoted? How do you foresee the process of footnoting? Do we give

Jayadvaita Swami a list of topics to footnote, will there be a committee to

suggest topics and review revisions?

 

3. Could you be more specific in regards to which writing(s) of previous

acaryas has been footnoted? It is certainly a hallowed vaisnava tradition to

refer to authorities but your suggestion seems novel.

 

4. You have mentioned Jayadvaita Swami as being qualified to footnote Srila

Prabhupada's books. Has he been contacted or in fact is he the person behind

this whole editing effort? Frankly, I would be suprised to hear that knowing

the Maharaja somewhat. If he declines, is there a shortlist of other respected

vaisnavas who would want to footnote Srila Prabhupada's books. To continue this

thought, what do you feel are the qualifications of a "footnoter" to be. If you

could give me some direction perhaps I could suggest someone. Please forgive me

for not thinking that you and Mataji Madhusudani Radha are not qualified. I may

be wrong in this assumption and could likely identify my error when you inform

me of the proper qualifications and etiquette of footnoting the acarya's

writing are.

 

Looking forward to your response.

 

Respecfully,

 

Vyapaka dasa