BY: SUN STAFF

Jul 24, CANADA (SUN) — A comparative view of text changes made to Srila Prabhupada's books.

"The abodes of Godhead in the material world, such as Dvaraka, Mathura and Goloka, are facsimiles representing the abodes of Godhead in the kingdom of God, Vaikuntha-dhama."
Original Original Edition of Caitanya- caritamrta, 1975, Adi lila 5.18 Purport

"The abodes of Godhead in the material world, such as Dvaraka, Mathura and Gokula, are facsimiles representing the abodes of Godhead in the kingdom of God, Vaikuntha-dhama."
New BBT Revised Edition of Caitanya- caritamrta, 1975, Adi lila 5.14 Purport

Following are brief comments on what appear to be the grammatical, rhetorical or contextual issues raised with respect to the changes (in English), as follows:

In today's example of book changes, we find that the BBT's editorial revisions in the Adi lila 5.14 Purport, covered in our last segment of Changes, are carried forward to this purport in Adi 5.18.

In Adi 5.14, the BBT revised Srila Prabhupada's purport by adding the term "or Gokula":

"In the highest region of the spiritual sky is the planet called Krsnaloka, which has three divisions, namely Dvaraka, Mathura and Goloka, or Gokula."
New BBT Revised Edition of Caitanya- caritamrta, 1975, Adi lila 5.14 Purport

As we come to the purport for Adi 5.18, we find the likely cause of their earlier revision. Here, Srila Prabhupada makes reference in his purport to Srila Jiva Gosvami's reference to a passage in the Skanda Purana, which states:

ya yatha bhuvi vartante
puryo bhagavatah priyah
tas tatha santi vaikunthe
tat-tal-lilartham adrtah

Srila Prabhupada's original purport goes on to state:

"The abodes of Godhead in the material world, such as Dvaraka, Mathura and Goloka, are facsimiles representing the abodes of Godhead in the kingdom of God, Vaikuntha-dhama." The unlimited spiritual atmosphere of that Vaikuntha-dhama is far above and beyond the material cosmos. This is confirmed in the Svayambhuva-tantra in a discussion between Lord Siva and Parvati regarding the effect of chanting the mantra of fourteen syllables.

While the revised purport states:

"The abodes of Godhead in the material world, such as Dvaraka, Mathura and Gokula, are facsimiles representing the abodes of Godhead in the kingdom of God, Vaikuntha-dhama." The unlimited spiritual atmosphere of that Vaikuntha-dhama is far above and beyond the material cosmos. This is confirmed in the Svayambhuva-tantra, in a discussion between Lord Siva and Parvati regarding the effect of chanting the mantra of fourteen syllables.

Given the text from Skanda Purana, we find that the apparently correct term here would be "Gokula" rather than "Goloka", given that "Gokula" fits the set of three: Dvaraka, Mathura and Gokula". We can speculate that while transcribing Srila Prabhupada's original audio of the purport, an error was made, and "Goloka" was typed in place of "Gokula".

If that is actually the case, this might stand as an example of a sensible BBT editorial revision, IF -- and only if -- a proper footnote was included that annotated the precise reason for the change, that being a clear error of transcription from the original audio. In the absence of that, it appears that what we have is a pair, if not a series, of changes that fall out of this revision to the Adi 5.18 purport.

However, even if this revision does correct a transcription error, what can be said about the change the BBT made to Srila Prabhupada's purport on Adi 5.14, shown above, where they added the phrase "or Gokula". Was this done to preempt their revision to Adi 5.18? If so, it may be indicative of a dangerous precedent in support of 'cascading revisions'.

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