Wednesday 7 November 2012

What the scholars say about the original Pre 1978 editions of Srila Prabhupada’s books.

All these below reviews are from scholars that read the 1972 Macmillan edition of the Gita that the BBTI/BBP ‘scholars’ like Jayadvaita and Dravida and company say are (and I quote) substandard, wrong, erroneous, offensive, insensible, embarrassing, and don’t make a damn bit of sense etc etc:
“I am most impressed with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s scholarly and authoritative edition of Bhagavad-gita. It is a most valuable work for the scholar as well as the layman and is of great utility as a reference book as well as a textbook. I promptly recommend this edition to my students. It is a beautifully done book.”
- Dr. Samuel D. Atkins, Professor of Sanskrit, Princeton University
“The scholarly world is again indebted to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Although Bhagavad-gita has been translated many times, Prabhupada adds a translation of singular importance with his commentary….”
- Dr. J. Stillson Judah, Professor of the History of Religions and Director of Libraries, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
“…It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully explained work. I don’t know whether to praise more this translation of the Bhagavad-gita, its daring method of explanation, or the endless fertility of its ideas. I have never seen any other work on the Gita with such an important voice and style….It will occupy a significant place in the intellectual and ethical life of modern man for a long time to come.”
- Dr. Shaligram Shukla, Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University
“There is little question that this edition is one of the best books available on the Gita and devotion. Prabhupada’s translation is an ideal blend of literal accuracy and religious insight.”
- Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins, Professor of Religion, Franklin and Marshall College

“I have had the opportunity of examining several volumes published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and have found them to be of excellent quality and of great value for use in college classes on Indian religions. This is particularly true of the BBT
edition and translation of the Bhagavad-gita.”
- Dr. Frederick B. Underwood, Professor of Religion, Columbia University
“No work in all Indian literature is more quoted, because none is better loved, in the West, than the Bhagavad-gita. Translation of such a work demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit, but an inward sympathy with the theme and a verbal artistry. For the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all things….The Swami does a real service for students by investing the beloved Indian epic with fresh meaning. Whatever our outlook may be, we should all be grateful for the labor that has lead to this illuminating work.”
- Dr. Geddes MacGregor Emeritus, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy University of Southern California
“…As a successor in direct line from Caitanya, the author of Bhagavad-gita As It Is is entitled, according to Indian custom, to the majestic title of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The great interest that his reading of the Bhagavad-gita holds for us is that it offers us an authorized interpretation according to the principles of the Caitanya tradition.”
- Olivier Lacombe, Professor of Sanskrit and Indology, Sorbonne University, Paris
“The increasing numbers of Western readers interested in classical Vedic thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, he has increased our understanding manyfold.”
- Dr. Edward C Dimock, Jr.  Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization, University of Chicago
“The Bhagavad-gita, one of the great spiritual texts, is not as yet a common part of our cultural milieu. This is probably less because it is alien per se than because we have lacked just the kind of close interpretative commentary upon it that Swami Bhaktivedanta has here provided, a commentary written from not only a scholar’s but a practitioner’s, a dedicated lifelong devotee’s point of view.”
- Denise Levertov, Poet

No comments:

Post a Comment