Question on Brahma-Vaivarta Puraana verse

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Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila

Prabhupada!

 

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. One comment below:

 

On 23 Nov 1998, Jayapataka Swami wrote:

 

> > Furthermore, the verse mentions that acceptance of sannyaasa is also

> > forbidden in Kali Yuga. Of course, we do not know the context of this

> > verse, and the fact that it was quoted in Srila Prabhupada's books without

> > a verse number leads me to believe that it is probably not to be found in

> > any extant version of this Puraana.

>

> This is a quite uncomplimentary assumption. Most readers don't require the

> verse numbers of the Puranas and also various editions of Puranas use

> different forms of numbering their verses. I cannot accept that just

> because the BBT didn't publish the verse number it means that "it is

> probably not to be found in any extant version of this Puraana". Unless you

> have looked and didn't find it and mentioned that I don't appreciate your

> diminishing the value of ISKCON's sacred literatures.

 

My apologies if I came across as diminishing the value of ISKCON's

literatures. Such was not my intention. Many, many works by Vaishnava

aacharyas quote from Puraanas without always being able to supply verse

numbers. As far as I am concerned, this does not diminish them in any way. But

yes, I have attempted in the past to look up quoted verses in Srila

Prabhupada's books. In practically all cases, I have only been able to find

those verses for which verse numbers were provided. In spite of the fact that

many Puraanas have a verse index, I could not find verses for which verse

numbers were not provided. Examples include the four sampradaayas verse,

verses describing the Bhaagavatam as a commentary on the Vedaanta, and almost

any verse which explicitly describes the descent of Lord Chaitanya. I had

assumed that these represented verses that were passed down in oral tradition,

for which the original source texts were lost over the ages. I don't see that

as uncomplimentary, just unfortunate. It is unfortunate because we do not have

the context against which to study the verse, which might be helpful if

misunderstandings such as mine arise. No offense was intended towards the BBT,

which does a great job publishing Srila Prabhupada's books!

 

yours,

 

-- Krishna Susarla