Foolishness of the Worst Kind
BY: SURESH DASA
Oct 02, 2010 — LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (SUN) — I find this very disconcerting. I attended the weekly Bhagavad-gita class last night at the ISKCON Laguna Beach Temple. I noticed the temple president, who gives the class lecture each week, an erudite speaker and lecturer, does not read Srila Prabhupada's purports to "Bhagavad-gita As It Is", even though he is using the new BBT edited edition, authorized by ISKCON. He told me after the class that he usually reads 4-5 translations each week to his students, but no purports. Instead he gives his own commentary on the translations, based on his readings of various Vaisnava literature authorized by ISKCON.
He told me he very rarely reads or has the class read any of Srila Prabhupada's purports. He stated that Srila Prabhupada's purports tend to disrupt the "flow" of the class.
This seems to be one of the dangers in editing and changing Srila Prabhupada's books on the wholesale scale that has been done by the BBT. Perhaps in today's ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada's commentaries are no longer considered important, can be neglected, and ignored. Perhaps too, in the minds of many devotees, confusion has been created as to whether Srila Prabhupada is an authority worth listening to or not.
