Sunday, July 17, 2011

BBT Misleads Devotees with Changed Books


I am inspired to submit a short statement about the new CC’s just as an alert to devotees who want to buy or distribute them.
I recently purchased the new 9 vol. compact set of CC’s ($99) from BBT. I received them yesterday and am unhappily returning them.
On looking at the first volume, after reading the Forward, there was a small footnote saying that this printing is revised from the original edition. I am interested in the original edition. There was no mention in the ads that I’ve seen that these are the revised editions. Also, out of honesty, I think the BBT should note on the title page that these are revised editions. No where on the front or back of the title page is this noted. Any published book has this information prominently displayed on the title or verso page — not hidden in a footnote at the end of the Forward. How many people are going to see this? What’s also disturbing is that it says on the title page “with the original Bengali text, roman transliteration, English equivalents, translations and elaborate purports.” This is mis-leading, text has been changed by the editor’s admission on page xviii in a note. My request is that at least in the ads for the CC’s, it should be mentioned that this is the revised edition. Interestingly enough, there is no where that I know of where you can find the changes that were made to the CC like you can with the revised BG.
I’m not here to debate about revising Prabhupada’s words, though you can probably guess what I think. I’m just asking the BBT to be up front about what they’re doing so devotees have a choice. I’ve also sent a note to the BBT and krsna.com to re-consider the ads and revised edition note. Thank you.

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