Vanisource:About

What is Vanisource?

• A wonderful facility to read all of Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings online.

• An opportunity to greatly enhance your serious study of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books by taking advantage of the interlinking between the other petals of Vanipedia.

What is in Vanisource?

Vanisource will contain all of Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in text form.

• Books
• Lectures
• Letters
• Conversations
• Legal Documents
• Original Manuscripts

• Photos of Śrīla Prabhupāda on every page.
• The name of the speaker and the listener of each verse indicated at the bottom of each page of all the books.
• Links to other Vanipedia petals

Version 0.1

• Books
• Photos of Śrīla Prabhupāda populating each page of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
  • The name of the speaker and the listener of each verse indicated at the bottom of each page of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Original books (pre 1978 editions)

Edited Versions

Since Śrīla Prabhupāda's physical departure in November 1977, there have been some revised editions of his books printed by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT): notably the Bhagavad-gītā (1983), the Kṛṣṇa book, and the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. The publishers (BBT) summarized their reasons why these new editions were published in notes about the second editions. Here, for example, is A Note about the Second Edition, in the Bhagavad-gītā:

A Note About the Second Edition

For the benefit of readers who have become familiar with the first edition of the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, a few words about this second edition seem in order.

Although in most respects the two editions are the same, the editors of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust have gone back to the oldest manuscripts in their archives to make this second edition even more faithful to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s original work.

Śrīla Prabhupāda finished Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in 1967, two years after he came from India to America. The Macmillan Company published an abridged edition in 1968 and the first unabridged edition in 1972.

The new American disciples who helped Śrīla Prabhupāda ready the manuscript for publication struggled with several difficulties. Those who transcribed his taped dictation sometimes found his heavily accented English hard to follow and his Sanskrit quotations strange to their ears. The Sanskrit editors had to do their best with a manuscript spotted with gaps and phonetic approximations. Yet their effort to publish Śrīla Prabhupāda’s work was a success, and Bhagavad-gītā As It Is has become the standard edition for scholars and devotees around the world.

For this second edition, however, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples had the benefit of having worked with his books for fifteen years. The English editors were familiar with his philosophy and language, and the Sanskrit editors were by now accomplished scholars. And now they were able to see their way through perplexities in the manuscript by consulting the same Sanskrit commentaries Śrīla Prabhupāda consulted when writing Bhagavad-gītā As It Is.

The result is a work of even greater richness and authenticity. The word-for-word Sanskrit-English equivalents now follow more closely the standard of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s other books and are therefore more clear and precise. In places the translations, though already correct, have been revised to come closer to the original Sanskrit and to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s original dictation. In the Bhaktivedanta purports, many passages lost to the original edition have been restored to their places. And Sanskrit quotations whose sources were unnamed in the first edition now appear with full references to chapter and verse.

—The Publishers

Consistent research

• In order to have clear, consistant research (drawn from Vanisource into Vaniquotes and Vanibooks) we have chosen to use the original editions of the books.

The reason is as follows

• We first began using the 1983 version of the Bhagavad-gītā as the basis of our research, but many times we found that there were inconsistencies in the research because a translation or parts of a purport in the 1983 version of Bhagavad-gītā were different than those translations or parts of a purport quoted in purports of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, lectures given by Śrīla Prabhupāda, and in conversations where Śrīla Prabhupāda heard and discussed his books with his devotees.

• These inconsistencies have only become apparent over the last few months and as the inconsistencies create confusion on the research level, we have decided to research only from the original pre 1978 versions.

Changing back

• At the launching of version 0.1 of Vanisource we only have the 1983 edition of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is available and the new versions of Kṛṣṇa book and the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

At this time all the quotes already created in Vaniquotes are drawn from these newer editions.

• We will now have to enter into Vanisource the original versions and change the Vaniquotes back to the original versions in order to have consistency in our research. We will do this as time allows.

Contentions

• Since the printing of the second edition of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in 1983 there have arisen various concerns from many devotees if indeed it was needed or even correct to produce edited versions after the physical demise of Śrīla Prabhupāda. These concerns have been raised to the publishers at different times by different individuals and various arguments have been offered back and forth in defense of and against the changes.

No closure as yet

• To date, this remains a contentious issue for some devotees, and for them there seems to be no process to bring this to closure. Both parties in the argument continue to build their defenses. The issue developed into another polarization for some of Śrīla Prabhupāda's followers. There are now two editions of the same Bhagavad-gītā As It Is being distributed, and each party believes that their version is authoritative.

Vanipedia's approach

• Compile from the original versions in order to offer consistency in compilations.

• Make available in Vanisource both editions to serve both parties' interests.

• Compile distinct comparisons to both versions in order to easily assess which changes have been made from the pre 1978 and post 1978 editions.

• Pray incessantly that through informed dialogue and responsible administrative decisions there can again be only one Bhagavad-gītā As It Is relished by the devotees and distributed widely to the conditioned souls.

One scripture

• In many places Śrīla Prabhupāda has stated that there should be only one scripture Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Here is one reference from the introduction to the Bhagavad-gītā:

BG Introduction: In this present day, man is very eager to have one scripture, one God, one religion, and one occupation. So let there be one common scripture for the whole world—Bhagavad-gītā. And let there be one God only for the whole world—Śrī Kṛṣṇa. And one mantra only—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. And let there be one work only—the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

• Here is an important reference from the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, where Śrīla Prabhupāda delivers his vision for how the world should be when it is under the shelter of the great Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

CC Madhya 25.193, Purport: From early histories it appears that the entire earth was under one culture, Vedic culture, but gradually, due to religious and cultural divisions, the rule fragmented into many subdivisions. Now the earth is divided into many countries, religions and political parties. Despite these political and religious divisions, we advocate that everyone should unite again under one culture-Kṛṣṇa consciousness. People should accept one God, Kṛṣṇa; one scripture, Bhagavad-gītā; and one activity, devotional service to the Lord. Thus people may live happily upon this earth and combine to produce sufficient food. In such a society, there would be no question of scarcity, famine, or cultural or religious degradation. So-called caste systems and national divisions are artificial. According to our Vaiṣṇava philosophy, these are all external bodily designations. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not based upon bodily designations. It is a transcendental movement on the platform of spiritual understanding. If the people of the world understood that the basic principle of life is spiritual identification, they would understand that the business of the spirit soul is to serve the Supreme Spirit, Kṛṣṇa. As Lord Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā (15.7), mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ: "The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts." All living entities in different life forms are sons of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they are all meant to serve Kṛṣṇa, the original supreme father. If this philosophy is accepted, the failure of the United Nations to unite all nations will be sufficiently compensated all over the world by a great Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Recently we had talks with Christian leaders in Australia, including the Bishop of Australia, and everyone there was pleased with our philosophy of oneness in religious consciousness.

A question

• Did Śrīla Prabhupāda envision that his translations and commentaries on the Bhagavad-gītā become the one scripture with two editions, or did he envision that it becomes the one scripture, with one edition?

• If this question is answered with one scripture with one edition, then we hope there can be a serious process developed by the publishers of the two editions who are all direct followers of His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda to go back to the position of one scripture, with one edition.

Further information

You can find more information on each of the petal's pages, or you can read about the whole Vanipedia project here.