== "BE ENGAGED IN WAR" ==
Namaskar,
Our AM scripture needs our distinct help and attention. This letter
details how rampant sloppiness and ineptness in our Publications Dept
has led to wide-spread misrepresentation of Baba's divine teachings.
Please note that the specific case outlined below is not an isolated
example but rather is one of innumerable distortions which are the
result of improper methods and repeated failures by those in our AMPS
Publications office.
GURU'S WORD IS MANTRA
As we all know "mantra mulam gurur va'kyam"-- the word of Guru is
mantra. Thus when our Baba is the Sadguru, every disciple, nay the
entire humanity, will key into His each and every syllable. Because
internally everyone desires His divine guidance in hopes of attaining
spiritual realisation and establishing peace on this earth.
GURU'S WORD IS MISREPRESENTED BY PUBLICATIONS DEPT
Naturally then we must be vigilant to keep all His divine scriptures as
accurate representations of what He has actually said. Not even one word
should be wrong as that could invite disaster-- such as in this below
described case. Here are the details.
On the morning of 27 November 1978 in Mumbai (Bombay) during His general
darshan, Baba graciously delivered His historic discourse titled
"DHARMAKS'ETRA AND KURUKS'ETRA". The discourse was given by Him in
English with a few words in Hindi.
The discourse itself is not very long and stands as just a few printed
pages. And in one culminating section of the discourse Baba delivers
very specific guidance about how one should proceed in life. And
tragically that very guidance was totally misconveyed by the
publications team. Here below is the critical and systemic error.
"BE ENGAGED IN WORK"
NOT
"BE ENGAGED IN WAR"
At one particular place in the discourse Baba is very carefully
revealing the meaning of the term, 'kuruks'etra'. And here below is the
first printed version in English of that exact section which was
released by our Publications department.
Baba says, "Kuruks'etra means the field that is always saying: 'Do
something, O person, do something. Don't sit idle -- do something. Be
engaged in war'." (AV-5, Disc #116, p.87)
So here in the printed text it is clearly written that Baba says "Be
engaged in war"-- this is Baba's guidance to the humanity, or so the
book says.
And again, as a reminder, this discourse was originally given by Baba in
English twenty eight years ago in 1978. And in 1987 it was first printed
in Ananda Vacanamrtam 5. Thus the discourse has been in print 20 years.
And since that initial printing it has been reprinted in at least three
other books in English:
[1] Karma Sannyasa pg 36 (1988);
[2] Discourses on Krsna and the Giita pg 79 (2000);
[3] Discourses on Krsna and the Giita pg 80 (2004).
Plus it has also been electronically published in ZY Find multiple
times, including the latest 2006 edition.
And in all those instances, over the course of 20 years, those
publications personnel printed Baba's guideline entirely wrong.
The Publications Dept printed:
'Do something, O person, do something.
Don't sit idle -- do something. Be engaged in WAR'
When in fact Baba's real words are:
'Do something, O person, do something.
Don't sit idle -- do something. Be engaged in WORK'
Thus Baba's divine teaching is 'Be engaged in WORK' but the Publications
team wrote 'Be engaged in WAR'. Thus the whole thing is a total misfire
and for years and years the mistake was never caught even though the
discourse has been reprinted multiple times. Always the same critical
mistake has appeared: "Be engaged in WAR".
And still to this very day it is like that.
The whole thing makes a total mockery and embarrassment of Baba's holy
discourse. Unsuspecting readers and the common public will naively think
that our Sadguru wants that the whole humanity and this struggle torn
earth should engage in WAR.
When in reality Baba is giving us the dharmic guideline to "be engaged
in WORK". Needless to say there is a heaven and hell difference between
"War" and "Work".
THE BLATANT ERROR DOES NOT END THERE
HINDI AND BENGALI EDITIONS ALSO DISTORTED
However that is not the be-all and end-all of the mistake. Because as
was noted above, the discourse was originally given in English. So that
incorrect English version was used as the basis for the Hindi and
Bengali editions.
Thus the Hindi and Bengali editions also proclaim: "Be engaged in War".
Specifically the Hindi version says, "yuddharat raho" meaning, 'keep
engaged in war'. The term 'yaddharat' means 'engaged in war' and 'raho'
means 'keep'. Hindi readers can reference: AV-5, p.142, Edn '97. Because
that is where the distortion occurs. And there they will see that the
guideline mistakenly says, 'Be engaged in WAR'.
Likewise the same problem occured with the Bengali text. It was also
based on the faulty English version so that led to the Bengali edition
also being distorted.
Specifically the Bengali version says, "samgra'm karo" meaning 'be
engaged in war'. The term 'samgra'm' means 'war' or 'battle' and the
word 'karo' means 'do'. Bengali readers can reference AV-5, p. 170 Edn
'97. Because that is the where the distortion is printed. And there they
will see that the printed discourse wrongly proclaims, 'Be engaged in WAR'.
AN ENDLESS STREAM OF MISTAKES
Thus the whole blunder has turned into a systemic problem. None can
claim that it is but a simple printing error and that during the next
printing it will be corrected. It is not like that at all. Rather due to
extreme laziness and disinterest, the same mistake gets reprinted again
and again until it gets printed in every single language in the wrong
way-- thus giving the wrong guideline to the entire humanity.
Because as we know the Ananda Vacanamrtam series of discourses has been
translated into so many languages like Spanish, French, German, Chinese
etc. And in each edition the same wrong guideline is given, 'Be engaged
in war'. All because of faulty techniques employed by our Publications
department. They never revisit or check the original cassettes to see
what Baba's actual words were. Just they reprint the old sloppy version
and put a new cover on it and make the false show that the discourses
are getting better and better. When the truth is that they carry the
same wrong mistake. And that is spreading all around the globe.
JUST LIKE THE STORY OF GANDHARBA SINGH
The entire blunder by the Publications Department is just like
ridiculous scene which unfolds in one short story, 'Gandarbha Singh is
No More' (Ref: Sarkar's Short Stories, part 1). In that tale one simple
villager is crying profusely about the death of the 'great Gandarbha
Singh'. And little by little all the royalty of the King's palace is
also mourning the death of the great Gandarbha Singh-- without ever
knowing who Gandarbha Singh was. But in their stupidity and inane
approach they keep spreading the news all around and all are shaving
their heads to mourn the tragic loss of the great Gandarbha Singh.
Finally, in the end, seeing that everyone in the King's royal palace has
shaved their head, the Queen shows her worthiness by asking who is
Gandarbha Singh and it is found out that Gandarbha Singh was the trusted
and aged donkey of that villager.
SAME THING IS HAPPENING WITH BABA'S DISCOURSE
So just how the above false fact inanely circulates throughout the
entire kingdom about the death of the great Gandarbha Singh, similarly
the same type of ludicrous nonsense is going on with our Publications
Department.
Initially someone half-heartedly listens to a discourse and wrongly puts
in print that Baba says, 'Be engaged in WAR'. And then without any
checking, that wrong transcription gets spread into more books and then
gets translated into other languages until finally the whole earth has
the wrong guideline from Baba. With the result being that everyone
thinks that Baba wants for the whole humanity to 'be engaged in WAR'.
Thus the same silly and senseless mistake is getting propagated all
around just like as happened in the tale about Gandarbha Singh. This is
the credibility of our Publications Department these days. And do not
forget that the electronic versions also carry this mistake-- 'Be
engaged in WAR'-- thereby preserving the wrong teachings for ages and ages.
And the worst part is that even after raising the matter with the
Publications Dept they are still not going to fix it. This they never
do. They do not print an errata page informing everyone of the error,
nor do they send out an e-mail to all margiis, nor do they do anything
to repair the error. Just the problem sits there and gets multiplied
until all over the globe it is proclaimed, 'Be engaged in WAR'.
AM SCRIPTURES MUST BE CORRECTED
By the above case, it is clear that our AM published books of Baba's
discourses must be completely overhauled in order to ensure that they
are pristine and perfect. Because the mistake about 'be engaged in WAR'
is not the only problem. Rather the discourses are riddled with hundreds
and thousands of such problems. And these critical errors will get
multiplied and spread throughout the universe if we are not careful.
Because at present our Publications Dept uses a totally faulty method
for reprinting discourses. Only they want money in their pocket and
prestige added to their name-- they never think about the accuracy of
the discourses. And for that reason wrong things get printed over and
over again.
That is why in every language around the globe Baba's guideline is
wrongly printed as 'Be engaged in WAR'.
When of course the reality is 'Be engaged in WORK'.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION
The best solution is for all of Baba's discourse cassettes to be spread
amongst our entire Marga community. All margiis should have easy and
free access to all of Guru's original discourses. Then these
publications errors can be corrected. That is how this error was found
about 'WAR'. One local margii has the discourse and a few of us listened
to it one day and we found this outrageous problem in our printed books.
Here the point is that if the original audio versions are available to
all margiis then we will be easily able to correct all the problems.
This is the best solution-- the only solution.
But this also those Publications Dadas and factional heads do not like
to do-- for reasons best known to them. But if we push again and again,
then they will have to one day respond and make the discourses
available. This is the only way.
BABA'S BLESSING
By Baba's grace let us make His discourses perfect so that the earth
will be full of sweetness-- not WAR.
Baba says, "...This Goal provides inspiration, supplies the means for
forward movement and makes the little lamps infinitely effulgent...it
will make the earth ever full of sweetness..." (Ananda Vanii #67)
Namaskar,
Manindra
Note 1: NEW BOOKS ARE NOT "NEW"
Many gullible people think that whenever a new book is published then it
is entirely clean and perfect. But in reality it is just a new cover and
the same old problems that occurred under Sarvatmananda's crooked regime
are getting multiplied over and over again. So the new books coming out
now are not polished and error-free. They contain all the same garbage
mistakes because the publishers never refer back to the original audio
cassette. So their whole working style is faulty. That is why no new
book is really new but rather is a re-hash of the same old mistakes.
Every margii should be aware about this fact.
Note 2: THIS GLOBE IS TIRED OF WAR
Due to world wars and due to terrorism this entire earth is tired of
war. Nobody wants war. That is another reason why we should fix the
printed version of Baba's aforementioned discourse; because when members
of the public see that our AM books indicate that Baba is prescribing
for people to 'be engaged in WAR', then they will not be attracted to
AM. Rather they will think we are like radical Muslims who cry out for
'jihad-- holy war'. This is the wrong impression people will get by
seeing our error-filled publications. Let us do something to correct
this system-wide problem.
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Think on This
Baba says, "You are social beings. One cannot live in isolation. When
you feel thirsty, you can't manufacture a spade, dig a well, and draw
water yourself. One person will make a spade, another will add the
wooden handle, and another will dig the well -- this is how we work
collectively. This is the way for human beings to live. In all spheres
of human existence, in the aesthetic sphere as well, humanity should
live collectively. You should live in unison. You should vibrate
together to the same music. You should move in a common psychic flow.
You should fight collectively against your common enemies. Unitedly you
should face all problems, mundane and supra-mundane. In a word, you must
reflect the spirit of harmonious collective living in conformity with
the spirit of the Vedic mantra sam'gacchadhvam' sam'vadadhvam." (5 April
1981)
Note: This above Baba's teaching is the special guideline for arousing
social conscious-- which is lacking these days in the society. It is
commonly known that some margiis and wts have gone far off from this
above Baba's teaching.
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