Allergy Towards...Discourses: Part 2 of 3

Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:43:01 -0000 To: am-global@earthlink.net From: Chatterjee_K Subject: Allergy Towards...Discourses: Part 2 of 3

POINT #8: MORE POINTS OF DISTORTION

(8) Here are two more points of alteration and distortion by the Publishers.

 (A) Critical mistranslation of Bengali and (B) Critical confusion of concepts due to removal of English and Hindi The following paragraph contains Baba's seminal explanation and definition of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva. It is the principal place in all of our scriptures, where this definition occurs. In one single paragraph, Baba begins by introducing the concept of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva, proceeds to give the social background for its need, and culminates by giving the definition of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva and the spiritual result of its implementation. Here is the correct English translation of that paragraph, which has been written now by several margiis in translation of the original statement in Bengali by Baba:

 BABA SAYS: "Then comes Sama-Sama'ja Tattva. Everyone's goal is Parama Purus'a. All are moving towards Parama Parus'a, individually and collectively. But in collective life, due to inequality and disparity, even though we want to move ahead, we cannot. But if one tries to remove the inequality and disparity, and move ahead together with all. Then as a result of removing the inequality, the collective speed of all will be accelerated. Motivated by this very idea if one moves toward Parama Purus'a, then one may not get selfish pleasure but one will get supreme peace. So by bringing everyone in the society along and making a healthy society, and also striving to move toward the Supreme Entity, this will be called-Sama-Sama'ja Tattv." So this is the correct translation of what Baba has given. In stark contrast, what our AMPS publishers have printed is something quite different and is concerning deviation from Baba's original words. The two printed paragraphs shown below contain several critical errors which result in a major muddying of this seminal concept of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva so clearly expressed by Baba. Here are those two paragraphs which the Publishers wrote:

 THE PUBLISHERS WROTE: "The second principle is sama-sama'ja tattva. Parama Purus'a [Supreme Consciousness] is the goal of everyone. We are all moving towards Him, both individually and collectively; but we will not be able to move ahead if we compromise with all the disparities and inequalities of collective life. We should eradicate all these inequalities, while at the same time we move together towards our spiritual goal. The progress of all would be accelerated if the inequalities were uprooted, if this were the motivation behind our movement towards the Supreme. We may not attain selfish pleasure, but we will enjoy spiritual peace, and pure spiritual bliss in the realization of Cosmic grace." 

 THE PUBLISHERS WROTE: "So the endeavour to advance towards the ultimate reality by forming a society free from all inequalities, with everyone of the human race moving in unison, is called sama-sama'ja tattva. That is why I say categorically, that we must totally reject all those hypocritical ideas which are contrary to this sama-sama'ja tattva, and we must welcome all those ideas which will help human beings to be established in it. All opposing theories must be removed mercilessly, just like thorns from our path."

 

A) Mixing of Paragraphs

First, note that in the above two paragraphs printed by our AMPS publishers, that Baba orginal final sentence, the definition of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva which is the culmination of this seminal paragraph, has been removed. It is placed instead in the following paragraph, together with the next series of social ideas with which it is not meant to be linked. The publishers did this because they did not print the English and Hindi paragraphs which Baba spoke in between these two Bengali paragraphs, and in order to give the two newly conjunct paragraphs some flow this so-called reorganization was needed. But in the process of so doing, they destroyed the culmination of Baba's original paragraph introducing Sama-Sama'ja Tattva. Baba's entire explanation has become unclear and diluted as a result of mixing the paragraphs. It should have been clear that the whole definition of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva is based on the achievement of Parama Purusa. But that is lost.

 

B) Added a fake phrase to end critical paragraph

What was the next-to-last sentence of Baba's paragraph, the publishers converted into the final culminating sentence. And in order to do so, they added a fake phrase to end the sentence. Something which Baba never said there. The publishers added the phrase of their own marked in capital letters, in order to make this sentence from the middle of the defining paragraph of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva, into the final sentence. THE PUBLISHERS WROTE: "We may not attain selfish pleasure, but we will enjoy spiritual peace, AND PURE SPIRITUAL BLISS IN THE REALISATION OF COSMIC GRACE." The bold section is extra and fake, never said by Baba.

 

C) Critical mistranslation

In the seminal paragraph explaining Sama-Sama'ja Tattva, there is a condition set forth by Baba that if one moves towards Parama Purus'a motivated by the idea of helping all, then one will get supreme peace. Here is the sentence. BABA SAYS: "Motivated by this very idea (of helping all move ahead collectively -- i.e. not based on selfish benefit but collective benefit) if one moves toward Parama Purus'a, then one may not get selfish pleasure but one will get supreme peace." So this is Baba's condition: That if one moves towards Parama Purus'a motivated by the ideal of collective benefit, then one will achieve supreme peace. But in the printed book, the publishers removed Baba's original phrase "if one moves towards Parama Pusus'a" from its original sentence and moved it back into the previous sentence. So the condition "if one moves towards Parama Pusus'a" is linked not with the attainment of supreme peace but instead with the previous sentence in the paragraph, i.e. with the acceleration of collective social movement. This is simply an inaccurate representation of what Baba has stated.

 

D) Critically Unclear Term, at Critical Location

In defining Sama-Sama'ja Tattva, Baba tells both in Bengali as well as in English, that by trying to help the collective society, and at the same time moving towards Parama Purus'a, this will be called Sama-Sama'ja Tattva. As mentioned already, the publishers have removed this critical sentence from its proper setting and transplanted it into the wrong paragraph, linking it with the wrong ideas. However in addition, in this critical sentence where Baba gives reference to moving toward "Parama Purus'a", in Bengali He uses the term "Parama Tattva-- the Supreme Entity". And in English, Baba uses the term "Supreme Goal". But our AMPS publishers have instead used the term, "ultimate reality"-- which is quite vague and sounds like some unclarified philosophical idea. Especially the way the publishers have restructured the sentence, the "ultimate reality" ends up seeming like some social principle. Here is our AMPS publishers' wrongly restructured, wrongly worded, and wrongly relocated sentence. THE PUBLISHERS WROTE: "So the endeavour to advance towards the ultimate reality by forming a society free from all inequalities, with everyone of the human race moving in unison, is called sama-sama'ja tattva." So the above is totally off-base and misleading. Especially a new reader, if they see the phrase "advance towards the ultimate reality by forming a society free from all inequalities", could easily be misled to think that here the "ultimate reality" refers to the social result of forming a healthy society. Or it will not be clear what "ultimate reality" actually means. When in fact Baba very explicitly states that working to form a healthy society and at the same time moving toward God, is called Sama-Sama'ja Tattva. This point should be kept clearly stated, the way Baba Himself has done in His spoken discourse. So these above points represent the problems associated with our Publications Dept wrongly published paragraphs of the definition of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva.

 

POINT #9 COVER UP BY THE PUBLISHERS

Here is further detail on the point originally brought in point #2. As stated, the following paragraph given both in English and Hindi by Baba was deleted by the publishers from the official printed version. BABA SAYS: "Who is a human being? Who is a human? The man who realizes that sama-sama'j-tattva is the only solution and after knowing it, after realizing it, tries to establish sama-sama'j-tattva in the society and help others, encourage others to move towards the supreme goal, is a human being. Otherwise he is not a human being. He is a brute in human frame." (Baba, 31 Dec 1981) So the above paragraph was deleted by the publishers. And due to that, the next paragraph in Baba's spoken discourse which begins with "That is why...", had no reference and was hanging in the breeze. Here is that paragraph: BABA SAYS: "That is why I say categorically, that we must totally reject all those hypocritical ideas which are contrary to this sama-sama'ja tattva, and we must welcome all those ideas which will help human beings to be established in it." (Baba, 31 Dec 1981) Here in the above paragraph, Baba is saying "we must totally reject all those hypocritical ideas". But to which ideas is Baba referring here? The answer is, to those ideas propagated by the "brutes in human form". And that paragraph the publishers deleted. So those publishers had to inject something to start the paragraph "That is why...", in order to give it something with which to link. And what they did was, they took the crowning sentence from the paragraph in which "Sama-Sama'ja Tattva" is defined (see point number 8), and they made that sentence the first one in the "That is why..." paragraph above. So that now in the printed version, the sentence "That is why" has an idea with which it links. But it is the wrong idea, not the idea Baba intended. Instead of linking with "brutes in human form", now the "That is why..." links with the defining sentence of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva. A sentence which the publishers scooped up, stole it out of its rightful context, and randomly slapped there in the "That is why..." paragraph. Where it does not belong. So here it is clearly seen that by deleting Baba's original English and Hindi words from the published discourse, the meaning of the discourse has been distorted. Here the publishers are misleading readers about the true meaning of Baba's discourse.

 

WORD FOR WORD TRANSCRIPTION OF THE ENGLISH PARTS OF THE DISCOURSE

Here following are the word-for-word paragraphs spoken by Baba in English during the Sama-Sama'ja Tattva Discourse. There were Bengali and Hindi language paragraphs in between, but here the English paragraphs spoken by Baba have been collected so they can be viewed together. These are Baba's words, as they were spoken by Him. None of these paragraphs have been printed in the printed discourse of our AMPS Publications Department. Neither have any of the Hindi language paragraphs been printed. As mentioned, only the paragraphs spoken by Baba in Bengali have been printed.

 

English Language Sections of Sama-Sama'ja Tattva Discourse

"Everybody will have to move. Movement is the order of the nature. Nobody is static, nothing is stationary. But for this purpose, you want that some stronger element should be the push and for movement you require the requisite stamina and also it should have a goal." "There is the urge, there is the movement. But in this movement, rather in this mobility, there are two different styles and two different goals. Rather two different psychologies. One is a'tma-sukha-tattva that is what one does, one does for mundane pleasure. And another is sama-sama'j-tattva. One wants to move with many. That is in case of a'tma-sukha-tattva, the first one, the psychology is of singularity. And in case of samasama'j-tattva, the psychology is of plurality." "That is, the starting point is, the urge is for getting some pleasure. The movement is for pleasure and the goal is also to get some permanent nature of mundane pleasure. All dogmas of this world irrespective of social, economical, geographical, geopolitical, and also of mundane spiritual that is what is known as, religion-are based on this a'tma-sukha-tattva." "They obey the orders of dogma knowingly. Because they think that by obeying this irregular and illogical orders of dogma, they'll get some pleasure. They'll enjoy some mundane pleasure." "There are so many disparities in human society, but the goal is the singular entity-the desideratum is the same. So while fighting against the man-made disparities, people should try to move towards our supreme goal. Then that urge is known as sama-sama'j-tattva. And this sama-sama'j-tattva is a must for human society." "Who is a human being? Who is a human? The man who realizes that sama-sama'j-tattva is the only solution and after knowing it, after realizing it, tries to establish sama-sama'j-tattva in the society and help others, encourage others to move towards the supreme goal, is a human being. Otherwise he is not a human being. He is a brute in human frame." "You should remember that it is our goal that all the obstacles, all the theories, all the elements that go against the fundamental principles of sama-sama'j-tattva is our enemy and all those facts and factors that encourage us in establishing the human beings in sama-sama'j-tattva is our friend we should encourage the friend. And we have to establish ourselves in sama-sama'j-tattva and be one with our supreme goal without any further delay." Here following are some critical points detailing the main issues related to the "Sama-Sama'ja Tattva" discourse as well as Baba's multi-language discourses in general.

POINTS

1. Baba has given the discourse "Sama-Sama'ja Tattva" in three languages: Bengali, English, and Hindi. Throughout the discourse He addresses each general idea serially in Bengali, then in English, and then in Hindi. And what He explains in each language is not identical. Rather each language has unique points. And although in this discourse Baba has spoken more in Bengali than in English or Hindi, yet still many points He has given only in English or only in Hindi. And indeed in some places where Baba starts a section in Bengali, what He says in Bengali is following from and depending completely upon what He has just said in English or Hindi in the previous section. So that verily, one needs to read what Baba expresses in each of the three languages to understand the discourse.

 2. The published version of the SST discourse contains only what Baba stated in Bengali. What Baba stated at each section of the darshan in Bengali, has been loosely translated into English and printed by our AMPS publishers. Whatever Baba has stated in English and Hindi, has been ignored. None of that appears in the printed discourse. 

 3. Even what Baba has spoken in Bengali in this discourse, has been poorly translated and is misleading. Several critical examples of this are given above. 

 4. Critical misinformation, then, is rampant in the SST discourse as a result of: (A) inaccuracies in translation of the Bengali, (B) ignoring the sections given by Baba in English and Hindi, and (C) falsely added sections-- sentences and paragraphs written by the publishers, which were never spoken by Baba at all. 

 5. The Bengali language version is treated as the master version of the discourse. However, as we know, it contains only what Baba stated in Bengali and excludes everything He stated in English and Hindi. This false Bengali so-called "master" was then used as the base from which all other language versions were translated and published: English and Hindi, as well any other language versions which have since been published in the world (i.e. Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, other Indian languages, etc.). This misleading and incomplete Bengali version is also the basis for the electronic version, as well as all AMPS magazine articles in which this discourse has been featured.

 6. And the mistake-burdened English version, itself but a poor translation of the problem-laden, so-called Bengali "master", is being replicated, e-mailed, propagated and shared all around the world.

 7. On the title page of the book "The Liberation of Intellect-Neo-Humanism", in which this discourse "Sama-Sama'ja Tattva" appears, it is printed "Translated from the original Bengali". But as with so many discourses which are labeled in this way in our AMPS publications, this discourse SST is not given in Bengali. It is given in all three languages-- Bengali, English, and Hindi. And all three languages should be acknowledged on the title page as well as translated in the discourse. Otherwise the discourse will not be understood. 

 8. So this LOI book is getting translated and spread all around the globe, and it is wrongly noted on the title page that Bengali is the original language. Such falsification of Baba's work is not good. 

 9. As stated, this SST Discourse is just one example. In this same way, so many examples are there in which Baba spoke in all three languages, and yet our AMPS publishers hypocritically painted the discourses as "Given in Bengali", "From the original Bengali". 

 10. From now on, all three of Baba's language sections of any discourse should be translated and included together in the printed version, even if there is repetition. So that nothing is left out. 

 11. Translation of all three languages gives added depth and color to the picture. Often new information is given by Baba in one language that He hasn't given in another language. And even if a particular paragraph given by Baba three times (once in each language) may not appear to include new information in each, but the way of expression is different and thereby lends valued perspectives on the matter. 

 12. On the 14th of October 1978, Baba stated during one discourse that, "What I say during a discourse, I am not only stating to those present. It is for the entire world." So in this same way, what Baba states in English and in Hindi during a discourse is not merely to help those present who speak those languages. It is eternal, for the entire world. So this is another proof of the fact that whatever Baba speaks in any language be it Bengali, English, or Hindi, all of it is to be transcribed and reproduced. 

 13. If others have the audio cassettes of other LOI discourses, please transcribe and share them so that the entire LOI book can be brought into proper form. Those who have the discourse cassette of any discourse, should type it out in full and send it to our AMPS publications department with the request that it be printed properly. Our publications department has not stooped so low as to be able to say this is useless. So it is our duty to point these things out to them, so they will make it proper.

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