1970 letters shed new light on how Gita As It Is came to be

1970 letters shed new light
on how Gita As It Is came to be

The BBT is releasing a trove of more than a dozen letters exchanged between Hayagriva Dasa and Jayadvaita Dasa about Bhagavad-gita As It Is while the book was in production. 

The letters show that the translations especially, far from being Srila Prabhupada’s words lightly edited for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, were the outcome of a multifaceted editorial process. The letters give us some insight into what that process was. The letters, which are preserved at the Bhaktivedanta Archives, thus help document the history of Bhagavad-gita As It Is.

Hayagriva had done most of his editing for the book in 1967. But while going through Hayagriva’s manuscript, Jayadvaita saw that many of the translations differed greatly from what Srila Prabhupada had written, and so he raised questions about them.

Hayagriva at one point replied, “You understand that I was trying to ‘help’ Srila Prabhupada by correcting His errors in ’67 (He did, however, approve this), but now in the revised complete edition there is obviously need for correction of the ‘corrections.’ ” He added: “The nectar flowing from the Sukadeva lips of the Pure Devotee has been interrupted by the halitosis of grammatical pedagogism. Let us then rectify.”

So as not to overburden the reader, the letters are being published in installments. You can download the first installment here: http://bbtedit.com/history/Jaya-Haya-letters.

The first installment includes a letter from Jayadvaita raising questions about the verses of chapter 11, the latest chapter for which “annotated scans” have been published by the BBT. Together, the scans and the letter tell us much about the editorial history for the chapter. You can download the scans for chapter eleven here.

After seeing the letters, Brahma-muhurta Dasa, the BBT trustee for Northern Europe, wrote to Jayadvaita Swami, “I was not at all aware that you’d had so much and such detailed correspondence with Hayagriva Prabhu.” He added, “Quite amazing.”