THE ARTICLE “CHALLENGING THE AUTHORITY OF SRILA PRABHUPADA’S BOOKS” REBUTTED A HERMENUETIC PAPER ISSUED BY THE GBC-APPOINTED HERMENEUTIC COMMITTEE.
The Sastric Advisory Council (“SAC”) has now officially taken over the work of this committee and built on it to produce a full hermeneutics course for ISKCON. The dictionary definition of the word “hermeneutic” is “a method or theory of interpretation” of, in particular, “religious texts”. This course has been approved by ISKCON.
At the same time ISKCON’s India Continental Committee (ICC) has strongly objected to this course and has demanded from the GBC to seriously consider the damage that is being done by this course that is clearly undermining the concept that Srila Prabhupada’s purports are DIVINELY inspired. Actually that course is a smokescreen for teaching and encouraging the interpretation of Srila prabhupada’s purports. This is OFFENSIVE to Srila Prabhupada and UNACCEPTABLE in the movement where Srila Prabhupada’s teachings are incontrovertible, being the guidance for THE MOVEMENT and THE WORLD for the next TEN THOUSAND years.
We do not find that Srila Prabhupada ever used the hermeneutics, and, in fact, generally criticized approaching scripture to “interpret” it. The course tries to get around the lack of authorization from Srila Prabhupada for such a hermeneutics course by stating: “However, Srila Prabhupada used the word EXPLAIN as a valid way to understand scripture”.
But Srila Prabhupada has already EXPLAINED scripture in his books, and thus, Srila Prabhupada would state that we simply should REPEAT and REPRODUCE his purports when preaching (see for example letter to Dinesh dated 22/1/70, to Hridayananda 6/1/72 and arrival conversation 20/6/75). Hence, Srila Prabhupada never stated that:
a) Everyone in ISKCON must LEARN to explain scripture BEYOND what Srila Prabhupada has already explained.
b) Therefore special “hermeneutics” training to do this, must be given in ISKCON.
Thus, Srila Prabhupada never AUTHORIZED such a course to be taught in ISKCON, and hence it is UNAUTHORIZED.
The course attempts to justify it’s existence by invoking the example of Acharya Srila Rupa Goswami:
Why teach hermeneutics? It is part of becoming EXPERT IN THE STUDY OF SASTRA. Why? To establish the REAL PRINCIPLES of DHARMA.
The above is given as an EXPLANATION for the following quote:
“Rupa Goswami, he’s presenting this Bhakti-Rasamrta Sindhu, quoting from so many scriptures. Why, they studied so much? Because they wanted to establish Sad-Dharma, real type of religion, Bhakti”.
(Srila Prabhupada lecture, 31/1/73)
However, neither in this quote, nor elsewhere, does Srila Prabhupada direct us to IMITATE Rupa Goswami and become EXPERT in SO MANY SASTRAS in the same way as Rupa Goswami. Because we are NOT THE ACHARYA and are only supposed to become expert in the books of THE CURRENT ACHARYA, Srila Prabhupada.
“Regarding reading Mahabharata, Why divert your attention in this way? Bhagavatam is also Mahabharata. There are so MANY BOOKS I have presented ALREADY, So, whatever you have got, just become expert in that”… (Srila Prabhupada letter, 29/4/73)
“One should not partially study a book just to pose oneself as a great scholar by being able to refer to scripture. In our Krishna consciousness movement we have therefore LIMITED OUR STUDY of Vedic literatures to the BHAGAVAT-GITA, SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM, CAITANYA CARITAMRTA, and BHAKTI-RASAMRTA SINDHU. These four works are sufficient for PREACHING purposes. They are adequate for the UNDERSTANDING of the philosophy and the SPREADING of missionary activities all over the world”… (Cc., Madhya-lila, 22.118 purport)
"I have given you EVERYTHING, so read and speak FROM THE BOOKS and so many new lights will come out. We have got so many books, so if we go on preaching from them for the next 1,000 years there is enough stock”… (Srila Prabhupada letter, 16/6/72)
Thus, claiming that we need this course, or, we need to study all the previous acharyas in order to become expert in SO MANY SCRIPTURES in imitation of Srila Rupa Goswami is NOT SUPPORTED by Srila Prabhupada.
Jaya Srila Prabhupada
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