09/05/1998 - 2144

Copyrights of Transcendental Literature and Other Important Topics

(VNN) - Answer of Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti to Sri Ram Prabhu

Dear Sri Ram Prabhu:
Dandavats. Thank you for your bold attempt to defeat my paper aboutcopyrights of transcendental literature.

 SRd: Recently VVN published an article by Swami B. A.Paramadvaiti (VNN story #2005). Since it contains some factual errors andappears to be motivated to create more discord and confusion among thedevotees, I thought a reply was in order.

BAP 1 reply: This paper was written by me when BBTI in Sweden wrote to methat they would make a court case against me for publishing a picture ofSrila Prabhupada on a book which we had made from the teachings of ourbeloved spiritual master Srila Prabhupada.

 BAP: This letter is trying to give some suggestions on howVaisnava Siddhanta views copyrights of transcendental literature.

 SRd: Siddhanta means final conclusion. There are manyVaisnava Siddhanta on all kinds of. topics, depending on who you talk to. Whose siddhanta do you suggest we follow instead of Srila Prabhupada's?

BAP 2 reply: This is a popular Iskcon fallacy. There is not such a thingas Srila Prabhupada's siddhanta. Every person may try to interpretsiddhanta but finally only Guru, Sadhu, Shastra and cittete the jiva can,after joint consideration, accept something as universal siddhanata. Andeven that conclusion is to be reviewed again if other senior Vaisnavasdisagree with the outcome. Thus it is a living thing which only livingpeople can develop and serve. In the absence of Srila Prabhupada's vaputhat means you and me. And now we are discussing the issue. We have aright to disagree. But siddhanta is aloof of that . Siddhanta is the truthand it is our business to see in the service of our spiritual master thatthe truth is upheld. Therefore I welcome your bold reply much more thenthe silence of the BBTI or the GBC which never ever dared to answer any ofmy proposals to save the dignity of Srila Prabhupada's movement.

 SRd: What is more important: public opinion, or the orderof our guru?

BAP 3 reply: My opinion is not public opinion. Why? Because I managedmany BBT divisions during Srila Prabhupada's presence and after until 1984. I challenged the BBT managers and the GBC to stop creating private empireswith BBT funds. Ramesvara, Bhagavan and Harikesh as well as others, neverpublished their auditing reports in front of the contributing temples. They enhanced their own prestige by making loans; mainly to themselves, andnever accepted transparent management. You know only too well that BBTmoney has been the cause of great zonal disputes amongst the GBCs.

When I left the Swedish BBT in 1976, I turned over to the management ofHarikesh the approximate amount of $500.000 (US). This was the fruit ofhard work on the street. Every penny was accounted for. The BBT wasfounded by our spiritual master to enhance the preaching of KrishnaConsciousness. There was a great plan for the impartial participation ofall serious devotees. But the trustees just like zonal gurus abused theirpower. They avoided all kinds of accounting. Book distribution stopped andthe so-called book points of the BBT newsletter were never sold. Thosereported books were sold under the table to poor countries for discountprices who were not allowed to report them as book points to not diminishthe prestige of Ramesvara and his competition of the "who was the bestdevotee of Srila Prabhupada" game. Finally it appeared that Harikesh waswinning that game, but alas, Krishna showed us otherwise.

If you consider my opinion public, I would rather self-style myself as areminder of the consciousness of what this printing and distribution oftranscendental literature was really all about; a transparenttranscendental transmission, not a self-promoting, obscure businessventure.

 SRd.: Or is there some special Vaishnava on the planet whodictates what the siddhanta is?

BAP 4 REPLY: DICTATING. That is precisely what I object in the BBT and GBCprocedures. Local devotees are never taken into consideration. We candiscuss siddhanta and if we have humility, we may even come very close tounderstand siddhanta. GBC and BBT trustees wildly interpret siddhanta andthen dictate their orders regardless how much damage that may cause. Harikesh did send away all the senior devotees in his zone who allrecognized even years ago that he was not acting normally. He was pendinghis conclusions even in 1979 but, all those who could have helped to avoidthe disaster were send away and called envious demons.Now face it brother: Is this the truth or not? And he and all hiscolleagues offended and still offends any Vaisnava who is not under theircontrol. Therefore, it will be just a question of time and they will allfall down. I pray that I am wrong, but it surely looks that way. But they,as well as you, insist by saying: We know what Srila Prabhupada meant tosay. Then why have so many fallen away to some madness?

Srila Bhakti Vaibhav Puri Maharaj was visiting our temple in Berlin in themonth of August '98. He was also visited and respected by our spiritualmaster, Srila Prabhupada. We called the Iskcon temple to offer his help toIskcon. However, Rohini Suta Swami told us he means nothing to him and theydo not need him here. He was not even invited to visit the temple. That isthe vision of Iskcon when there is some danger or problem. You wantto manage the book rights of Srila Prabhupada and the lives of so manypeople. When will you become humble enough to realize that you did aterrible job in that respect? When will you start to becomeself-critical and open your doors for real discussions and not thisabsolute suppression of any opinion without "Commander Harikesh Swami's"approval?

 SRd: Most of Prabhupada's books are translations andcommentaries. Both the translation and purports are entitled to copyright. Prabhupada not only had his books copyrighted, but he was very specificabout who printed and published them. Aren't you familiar with the letterthat prohibits any entity, including the temples, from printing andpublishing any of his works?

BAP 5 reply: I am aware of all letters regarding BBT and books. LettingSrila Prabhupada's books become public domain is only good to save themfrom the abuse of your current management. Details to prove that you canfind in previous writings of mine, describing the abuse of the Spanish BBTand other divisions as well. At this point you may conclude that there isNO danger for the BBT anyway. The books printed will not harm any readerand the persons distributing them will also be highly benefited. I wouldreally admire that person who would actually get non-devotees to distributebig amounts of books of Srila Prabhupada, even if they would make money bydoing so. And also we have always tried to put our books in bookstoreswhere the salespeople make money on the sale. What is your real problem? Do you fear that you will not be allowed to sell any books of yourspiritual master? Are you still doing Sankirtan? Do you actually publishbooks? After I left the official Iskcon GBC and stayed working with theISKCON Colombia which we build up over the years with the help of manywonderful Vaisnavas, we have in Colombia alone thirty temples. We havepublished at least 40 different books and magazines in four differentlanguages. Unfortunately, we could not publish many books of our belovedSrila Prabhupada because I am not going to waste my heart and time instupid North American-styled court cases litigated solely to foster theircorporate status. Thus, I published books of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, SrilaB. Pramod Puri Maharaj, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur and several others. Tripurari Maharaj has himself published and written many nice books andmagazines. He was a book distributor, wasn't he?. And Srila B.A. NarayanMaharaj from Hungary published many books and magazines in Hungary. Do youremember how the GBC of northern Europe dealt with him? His disciples weretold that killing him would bring no sinful reaction. Every attempt wasmade to turn him over to the KGB and Hungarian secret service. He couldnot visit his preaching project for years. Do you think such activities ofthese great trustees would go by without any reaction? Now you doubt thatwe have anything to say in this respect. We are the public.

"Who will succeed you?", Srila Prabhupada was asked. He replied, "I willnot nominate anyone. Whoever follows my instructions, he will succeed me."Do not simplify the issue. You have to deal with the whole issue or be quiet. I do not expect any answer to all these points, but I want totell you and all your friends that it is you alone who force onto thepublic some less happy events in the wonderful mission of Srila Prabhupadaby keeping this narrow-minded approach to Vaisnavism. This is not thetruth. This is only politics.

 BAP: "Copyrights" means, that someone claims to own therights of some creative contribution, and are as such incompatible withthe nature of a divine descend of knowledge to this world. The spiritualmaster isthe transparent medium of God to deliver his teachings to the world.

 SRd: Prabhupada choose to copyright his works as part ofhis plan for spreading Krishna consciousness though out the world. Are yousaying Srila Prabhupada was ignorant of what is compatible withdistributing transcendental knowledge? Are you saying our guru was not atransparent via-media of Krishna?

BAP 6 reply: Now will you please stop this! Do you want to blame all thestupid things done in Iskcon after Srila Prabhupada left the physical worldon Srila Prabhupada? This is comparable to Christians rejecting Jesus forthe history of the Churches. No. He is transparent via-media of Krishna. But, it seems obvious that Krishna wants us to suffer in order to make allof us grow up. This is a childish argument because you could also apply itto the spiritual master of Srila Prabhupada and ask why did he have tostart a different movement? You can intimidate little children with thistype of argument, but the real challenge today is to satisfy your equalgodbrothers who have rejected your previous conclusions and activities. Only if you can pass by their observations and get their approval will yoube able to claim that you have advanced on the issues. Otherwise, you arelike a Doctorate who defeats only first grade students and avoids allothers who might see his deficiencies.

 BAP: A disciple receives the mantra and teachings from hisGuru. He promises to remain faithful to his Gurus teaching. There is noother formal condition made to be accepted as a disciple. This clearlyshows that each disciple has the right and duty to distribute the teachingsof his Guru in the way he considers the most appropriate.

 SRd: What about fulfilling all the orders of the guru? DidPrabhupada create ISKCON so "each disciple has the right and duty todistribute the teachings of his Guru in anyway he considers theappropriate?" Where did you find that in Prabhupada's books? So we shouldpick and choose which orders we agree with and reject those that don'tappeal to us?

BAP 7 reply: Yes my friend. This is not a quote. This is a realization. Unless you believe what you are doing, you cannot distribute the teachingsof your Guru at all. Whenever you give a class you also have to speak asyou are realizing the topic as you are happy to convince others of it. Notjust one quote after the other and later no personal practice. I ampreaching because I believe in that order of my Guru. And if you areconvinced that I am wrong and you are a merciful Vaisnava, why do you nottry to teach me where my mistakes are to be found so that I can rectifythem? I have to even reject a recommendation of Srila Prabhupada if I amunable to fulfill it properly. For example: I have opened many little farmcommunities, but I have not started the project of Cow Protection because Isaw almost all Iskcon farms go bankrupt due to having more cows then theycould feed. Every order may have the time and circumstance to befulfilled, but you cannot fulfill all orders under all circumstances. Sothat is why true Sadhu Sanga is necessary. Not one man imposing againstthe convictions of others, then later after all others are gone, it turnsout the one monopolizer was wrong himself and the whole project becomesspoiled. That is not the transcendental democracy Srila Prabhupadaintroduced in our life with the Temple boards, accounting systems andistagosties. Iskcon needs constant istagostis with all constructivecritiques to salvage what is left, or just wait what will happen by othersurprising interventions from above.

 BAP: The only real proprietor of the rights is the SupremeLord Sri Krishna himself.

 SRd: The only real proprietor of anything is Krishna. Theacarya teaches us how use everything in Krishna's service.

 BAP: Therefore all the attempts by any person or institution to claim the exclusive rights to their Acaryas contributions isnot according to the transcendental law.

 SRd: Again, who should we obey, you or Srila Prabhupada? Prabhupada created the BBT to hold the copyrights and publish the books. Hedictated the pricing of the books and the disposition of the funds. Besides, who is stopping you from buying books and distributing them? Thereis no barrier to acquiring Prabhupada's books, unless you want to printthem yourself; a practice Srila Prabhupada absolutely forbade.

BAP 8 reply: My God Sri Krishna! Why do you not get at least someinformation before you write such statements? We were cut from gettingbooks from the BBT since 1984. In 1983 I paid from Colombia alone the sumof $105.000 (US) to the Spanish BBT. We were cut as customers and the samehappened to devotees in Spain, Germany, Hungary, Argentina and many otherplaces because of some Gaudiya Math affiliation. Who is stopping us? Goodquestion. Last reply came to me from Hanuman das, the manager of SpanishBBT. He refused to see me when I went to Spain to try to buy sets ofSrimad Bhagavatam for our book-thirsty congregation in 14 Spanish speakingcountries. Well, that is business the way dictators do it. It is called,Eliminate the Competition. They are filled with fear that if someone getsa book from the "deviants" he may surrender his life and money to them aswell. Obey the truth, not me, but do not claim that you have the rightalone to discuss what is truth and what is not.

I just want to tell you and all BBT experts that it is time to put all ofSrila Prabhupada's books on CD ROM and distribute them in all poorcountries for no more than $10.00 (US). We are losing time. Not manypeople can afford to buy all the books. It will be impossible even whenprinted to get all these books to all corners of South America. We arealready doing that. Only if you are so stingy and do not want the souls toget the nectar of Srila Prabhupada will you stop me. Then people will getthe Srimad Bhagavatam and the CC without the purports of Srila Prabhupada.You will be responsible for withholding the nectar by blocking ourpreaching. Then we will give them all the books of Srila Sridhar Maharajand other great Gaudiya Vaisnava Acaryas and Srila Prabhupada will not beglorified as he deserves. In South America we have no time and no moneyfor your power games. The issue is saving people. If I could steal allyour Veda base and books in order to give a copy to every family in theworld, I would happily go to jail for the rest of my life to concentrate onchanting and hearing. But alas, I can only do a little service to SouthAmerica while the Internet folks have to read Osho, Maharishi, Sai Baba anda whole lot of other Mayavadis on the Internet. That is because ourbusiness-minded BBT managers are scared to put the nectar on cyberspace. They do not want to show who gave true knowledge to the world, selflesslyand with any sacrifice required. I offered to Svavas to sponsor the entireteachings of Srila Prabhupada in all languages on a server so that thewhole world could get it right now and start getting purified. Instead ofthat, Internet surfers can find out about big fights about whether thebooks could be changed or not.

SRd: Well, enough said. I think the major points have been addressed. The BBTpublished the Brahma Samhita because it was in the public domain. SrilaPrabhupada's book will retain copyright protection for about fifty moreyears. Then you can do whatever you like.

BAP 9 reply: Gods mills grind slowly but surely. I want be around when thatgenerous offer you gave will take place, but I pray that some moreenlightened book distributors may have a deeper inside into spiritualcopyrights and not withhold the nectar from the poor people in the age ofKali. If Srila Prabhupada copyrighted something it was for purity. Without that purity, the whole philosophy cannot be understood.

I resent the fact that my words sometimes get somewhat sarcastic. Thewhole issue of the copyrights of Srila Prabhupada's purest books andinstructions as well as the recent fight among between Harikesh, Hansaduttaand Bhagavan about them remind me of the story of the fight over the deadbody of Gaura Kishora das Babaji Maharaj. Every Babaji wanted to have thebody to make a Samadhi and collect big bucks. But Srila PrabhupadaBhaktidisshanta Sarasvati claimed the body himself by allowing any one totake the body who had not touched a woman short time before. Everyone leftand our Param Gurudeva made the dignified Samadhi for his Guru. I alsofeel that now we will ask the people to take the copyrights of the greatestgift for the fallen people of this age and manage them properly. But onlythose who have not privately been with any woman or who have notmisappropriated any Laksmi for their sense gratification. Let only thoseindividuals come forward and take this heritage. And let those who do nothave such qualification burn their fingers if they dare to touch the sacredbody of the Vaisnava Grantha for their personal maya.

I love all of my godbrothers and these issues must have the purpose toproperly guide the generations of Vaisnavas to come in the future. Therefore I offer my affectionate embrace to you and all those who somehowcame to the family of the Vaisnava faith as was predicted by Sri GaurangaHimself.

Your fallen aspiring servant
Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti
pswami@ipof.fla.net