Tattva-viveka
Is it right? Is it wrong?
Yamuna Dasi - February 22, 2009 11:25 pm
From half a year there is no more “Bhagavad Gita – As It Is” at the Bulgarian book market because it’s out of print, and also no any other edition of Gita. No prospect to be printed again is seen from ISKCON side… don’t ask me why. The mother of one Bulgarian devotee took the hard service and for around 2 years typed by hand ALL “Bhagavad Gita – As It Is” together with even the bolds and italics! She made this incredible service for Krishna and for his preaching.
But now the burning question stands in front of me – should I put the book online for free download or not? Is it moral and ethical if ISCKON has the rights, even though I have no idea why they don’t do it if the other books of Shrila Prabhupad are already available for free download in English, but the Bulgarian ones are not and there is not even a slightest hope that they would ever be! Even though Shrimad Bhagavatam had been translated all the Cantos, till now have been published only till Fourth Canto (7-8 years ago!) and the others just stay for more than 15 years in somebody’s hard disk. Even though many books are out of print for years with no prospect to be published again, still they don’t put them for free download! And they claim that they are “preaching” and they wish the good for the mankind…
When Jesus had been asked the provocative question if it’s right to pay the taxes to the king he asked the one who asked him this question for a coin, pointed it and asked him whose image was on the coin and when the person responded that there is the king’s image on it, Jesus taught him the answer: “then give to the king what belongs to the king and give to God what belongs to God”.
This had always been my guiding line when deciding such balance issues between matter and spirit… that one has to be true and loyal to the material law while also following the spiritual low and considering it higher.
Krishna also had given a guiding line to Arjuna regarding what to do if having given two vows which in some moment come to contradict each other, then to chose the one which is more important and follow it, even if having to disregard the other vow (this is when Arjuna vowed to kill the one who would offend his Gandiva bow and this one happened to be his own brother Yudhishthir Maharaj, while had vowed also that he would reinstall him back at the throne).
Our primary loyalty should be towards the spirit, not towards the matter and respectively towards the spiritual lows and not towards the material ones.
He also said that those, who follow rules and regulations in order to please him are very dear to him, but those who are ready to break the rules and regulations to please him are his very heart and soul! So we are as Shridhara Maharaj says rather form breakers than from makers in our following the guiding line of “to please him”!
So what’s right and what’s wrong in this situation? Should I put the book at my web sites and step over ISKCON’s rights or keep them and not do it? What would Shrila Prabhupad do? What would Shridhara Maharaj do? What would my Gurudeva do? What should I do?
Please share with me what you think and feel?
Uncle, what would you do?
Prahlad Das - February 25, 2009 3:08 am
Have you contacted ISKCON about this?
My suggestion would be to cooperate with ISKCON on this to the extent that they place it online for free access by all or give their cooperation for you to put it online.
If you haven't contacted yet them regarding this topic of putting the book up for availability, I see no reason for going on the "war-path".
Yamuna Dasi - February 25, 2009 3:41 pm
You optimism gives me joy! So I will try it, even though my previous experience says it is pure optimism.
Few years ago one of our devotees offered them officially to pay the publishing of all the remaining eight Cantos of Bhagavatam in Bulgarian, since till now have been published due to lack of money only till 4th Canto even though from 15 years if not more all the Bhagavatam had been translated into Bulgarian. They said that they cannot decide anything and will ask BBT. The offer of our devotee for them was that BBT tells the price for the publishing, he pays it and then the books stay on store in our ashram and we distribute them together with ISKCON, each time they need books they come and receive them at the same price which we also have. You think that they appreciated the offer? Not at all! First for THREE years BBT did not even give an answer! And after three years of "meditating" they offered incredibly high prices for the books to be published which were incomparable with the prices for the first four Cantos. So this was other way of rejecting the offer. And what is the result? The Fourth Canto was published more than 10 years ago and since then not a single move. Gita is out of print for more than half a year and NO EVEN PROSPECT to be published again. The biography of Shrila Prabhupad, Vegetarian Cooking and a long list of other books are out of print FOR YEARS and still when someone offers them to PAY so that the books can be published, they think for 3 years and then say "no!"
Anyway, I will give it a try, but I am not a person to wait for them 3 years. If they don't respond in 2 weeks I will just put Gita online on my personal website and let them sue me if they want. This will destroy completely their own image (if they have any remaining such in Bulgaria) and they would not be able to sell a single book any more in this country.
And if they succeed to put me in jail, I have a lot of spiritual nephews and cousins, so I hope they'll bring me oranges in the jail... and finally I would have time to chant all my rounds!
:Batting Eyelashes:
Uncle, if your words have any weight in front of them on personal or official level, please help the Bulgarian preaching by telling them a word.
Yamuna Dasi - February 25, 2009 4:12 pm
I will ask them also one more question when I contact them – why if the books of Shrila Prabhupad are available online for free download in English, even though they are available also in a printed form, why then not to do the same for the same books in Bulgarian which don't even have a printed form? So many books are out of print with no prospect to be printed again and so many others had NEVER BEEN EVEN published due to lack of funds? The devotees had completed their service to translate and edit them, so they can at least do this out of care for the distribution of the books of Shrila Prabhupad, out of care for the people of Bulgaria and as a respect to the tremendous service of the translating and editing Bulgarian ISKCON devotees.
Prahlad Das - February 25, 2009 8:22 pm
I will ask them also one more question when I contact them – why if the books of Shrila Prabhupad are available online for free download in English, even though they are available also in a printed form, why then not to do the same for the same books in Bulgarian which don't even have a printed form? So many books are out of print with no prospect to be printed again and so many others had NEVER BEEN EVEN published due to lack of funds? The devotees had completed their service to translate and edit them, so they can at least do this out of care for the distribution of the books of Shrila Prabhupad, out of care for the people of Bulgaria and as a respect to the tremendous service of the translating and editing Bulgarian ISKCON devotees.
Your concerns are valid. I don't see any reason to not try. I hope they cooperate since they really have nothing to lose (other than potential monetary revenues?) and so much to gain by having Srila Prabhupada's books available to the public. After all "prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama". Here is a site which encourages me in the way they make available Vaishnava literature. I appreciate the suggestions given to show support to the original publishers while at the same time supplying "ebooks". Check it out. Perhaps you can model your Bulgarian eBook site after the same fashion.
Its interesting this topic came up as I am also getting prepared to help with transcriptions. There is another thread among the more recent ones called "Nice Website". I went to the site "ISKCON Desire Tree" and saw a contact for someone who is looking for transcribing seva. I wanted to know more information as I have offered in the past to help with this mission and didn't have the proper tools. I offered to help them (IDT) as well. They provided me a link to freeware specific to transcribing. Now I am excited to try again. So... Brajasundari or Vrndaranya :Batting Eyelashes: send me something again. This time I can slow the conversation down to where I can type. 
Yamuna Dasi - February 25, 2009 9:18 pm
If I remember right there was a thread here on TV regarding a lot of transcribing seva which was not completed for lectures of Tripurari Swami. My listening comprehension is not on the level of my reading comprehension and for me it's a bit difficult to understand Maharaja's words well from a record, and this makes also inaccessible for me the Swami Calls. I also remember that I asked in that thread if these transcribed lectures are being uploaded somewhere and no answer came. By the way slowly and sadly I am starting nearly to get used to it at this forum, but to tell you the truth I always feel a kind of uncomfortable about it because if one asks a question and no answer follows, this means zero feedback received, and in communication one needs feedback and if no such one starts thinking "did I say something wrong and if so what?" or "is this so much out of context of what these devotees think and feel?" or "is it really that nobody cares to respond?" etc. And this is so not only about tattva questions like “how Krishna is a brahmachari if he has both lovers and wives?” but also for a simple question of what to do with a mistaken subtitle for a topic, as it happened to me. There is option for editing every message one posts, but no option (or at least I cannot find such) to correct a mistaken thread title or subtitle even when posted by oneself. And even though some admins have read it, nobody answered and even if this forum has no such option for users, it has for the admins and that’s why I have mentioned along with my question what was the typing mistake I made which I would like to correct and still neither an answer nor correction followed... and it really feels strange...
Guru-nistha Das - February 25, 2009 9:56 pm
By the way slowly and sadly I am starting nearly to get used to it at this forum, but to tell you the truth I always feel a kind of uncomfortable about it because if one asks a question and no answer follows, this means zero feedback received, and in communication one needs feedback and if no such one starts thinking "did I say something wrong and if so what?" or "is this so much out of context of what these devotees think and feel?" or "is it really that nobody cares to respond?" etc. And this is so not only about tattva questions like “how Krishna is a brahmachari if he has both lovers and wives?” but also for a simple question of what to do with a mistaken subtitle for a topic, as it happened to me. There is option for editing every message one posts, but no option (or at least I cannot find such) to correct a mistaken thread title or subtitle even when posted by oneself. And even though some admins have read it, nobody answered and even if this forum has no such option for users, it has for the admins and that’s why I have mentioned along with my question what was the typing mistake I made which I would like to correct and still neither an answer nor correction followed... and it really feels strange...
Yamuna, you have to understand that we are a small mission, and the amount of full time sevakas doesn't quite match up to the amount of service at hand. We have so much going on that we have to unfortunately prioritize with a heavy hand, and that may come off callous or strange, but we just don't have enough time to attend to every detail at this point.
The other devotees who don't live in the ashram but have responsibility in the mission have their other duties on their backs, like Shyam Gopal is working like a little mole all the time and Prema bhakti and others have many things to attend to besides their service.
So please, have patience.
Yamuna Dasi - February 25, 2009 10:51 pm
Yamuna, you have to understand that we are a small mission, and the amount of full time sevakas doesn't quite match up to the amount of service at hand. We have so much going on that we have to unfortunately prioritize with a heavy hand, and that may come off callous or strange, but we just don't have enough time to attend to every detail at this point.The other devotees who don't live in the ashram but have responsibility in the mission have their other duties on their backs, like Shyam Gopal is working like a little mole all the time and Prema bhakti and others have many things to attend to besides their service.
So please, have patience.
I do have patience prabhu, but I just don't understand:
1/ if so much transcribing work had been done already (thousands of hours working time), why nobody can just respond (takes 15 seconds) where these transcribed lectures are getting uploaded so that simultaneously with the transcribing work going on others can also read and learn from what had already been transcribed? Or if they don't get uploaded just to happen getting uploaded - takes few clicks on the keyboard and all the folder gets uploaded.
2/ Regarding Shyama Gopal prabhu - my correspondence with him came to a dead street in my effort to help the many problems with Maharaja's web site since he told me that he has a full time job and anyway all my advices till now on how to repair the problems are in vain because he does not like OsCommerce and is planning to change the whole platform, completely disregarding me 10th time repeating that no need to change the whole platform just because he does not like OsCommerce, it is good enough, everything can be made perfectly with it and I can do it myself, just to give me access and some other information which I will need. If one does not have knowledge or experience how to do some details, no matter which platform will be used, the details will not be done, just a double work with no result.
Little management can do the whole thing work much better and the distribution at Maharaja's site as well.
Yamuna Dasi - February 25, 2009 10:54 pm
And one more thing – as I can see you are an admin and you have read my post and in it there is also a question on how to correct a typing mistake I made in the subtitle of a post… and no response… just a by-pass :Batting Eyelashes:
If we always by-pass the details, we shall never make the whole thing work better.
Nitaisundara Das - February 25, 2009 11:47 pm
Yamuna, I am also an admin and I read your post, and I spent 5-10 minutes trying to figure it out, but I could not. I probably should have posted, but it is really insignificant and with all I have to do it seemed inordinate to spend any more time on it.
Also, you ask a ton of questions, most of us just are not that active on here, that's how it is at this point.
There has been very very little transcribing done if I understand correctly. IT has been a topic of discussion numerous times, but nothing substantial has come from it as far as I know
And you do sometimes (somewhat regularly) say things in aggressive and condescending ways, so that is certainly something that does not attract people to responding. Like now you have again brought up Syama gopal and the web store. Everybody knows where you stand and that you obviously think you are the solution to the problem. Also GM had requested that you stop mentioning the webstore on the forum. So some of the reasons people do not reply are stemming from you. Perhaps one thing you could do if you really want a reply is be more concise, I personally(and probably others) do not usually have the time or patience to read through very long posts. Another thing is to not challenge all the replies that you request in the first place.
Yamuna Dasi - February 26, 2009 12:10 am
Being concise in words is good if not accompanied by being concise in actions. Many concise questions were put to me on how to do the repair and many concise remarks on how this is just not possible, to which I had to give non-concise proofs, explanations and answers (even though I also know the concise version of the answer: "read the manual!") and still nothing was done.
Was this concise enough, prabhu?
Guru-nistha Das - February 26, 2009 1:13 am
Yamuna, I can give an all-inclusive answer to all of your troubles and questions in 15 seconds:
you talk too much.
Yamuna Dasi - February 26, 2009 7:10 am
Yamuna, I can give an all-inclusive answer to all of your troubles and questions in 15 seconds:you talk too much.
Prabhu, I can give an all-inclusive answer to all of your troubles and questions in less:
If you were not going to improve anything at the web site you should not ask me how to do it and thus save me a lot of useless (indeed) talking. You seem to appreciate very much your own time and efforts and very little that of others.
Gaura-Vijaya Das - February 26, 2009 3:34 pm
Prabhu, I can give an all-inclusive answer to all of your troubles and questions in less:If you were not going to improve anything at the web site you should not ask me how to do it and thus save me a lot of useless (indeed) talking. You seem to appreciate very much your own time and efforts and very little that of others.
What is going on here, can we keep these petty fights out?
Prahlad Das - February 26, 2009 4:42 pm
I agree with you Gaura Vijaya, but I think it is unfair for you to simply quote Yamuna. After all, "mud" has been slung from both sides and the tone of this conversation is becoming distasteful, not only for the passerby readers, but I'm sure for the posters as well. I wish everyone involved in this thread well but will not visit it any more as I feel I have contributed to the opening post yet the opening post as evolved quite a bit into something else.
Be like a bee, not a fly.
Yamuna Dasi - February 26, 2009 6:56 pm
I am putting my resignation from the "assignment" to resolve problems at Maharaja's web site, I really tried and Krishna knows it. Silly of me to offer help which is undesired. My apology to everybody. The topic is closed for me.
Guru-nistha Das - February 26, 2009 7:30 pm
I am putting my resignation from the "assignment" to resolve problems at Maharaja's web site, I really tried and Krishna knows it. Silly of me to offer help which is undesired. My apology to everybody. The topic is closed for me.
Too bad it had to go to this, but don't expect to get martyrdom from that move.
Yamuna Dasi - February 26, 2009 8:34 pm
To expect martyrdom would include feeling like a victim, but I am always a volunteer and never a victim. Thanks for the offer for martyrdom, but I will pass it by.