Prabhupada’s Books

In 1965 Prabhupada worked on the Srimad-Bhagavatam singlehandedly.  He typed on his small manual typewriter, the one he had brought with him from India.  As in India, he worked with no assistance.  He translated the Sanskrit verse, composed the word-to-word synonyms and then, referring to his book of commentaries by previous acaryas, he wrote his own Bhaktivedanta purports.  He had no one to help him with the English editing and no specific plan how to finance the publications.

Today’s meditation is a general reflection on Prabhupada’s books.  Prabhupada always did the needful – whatever was best for spreading Krishna consciousness.  His own Krishna consciousness was mature; therefore, he wanted to give Krishna consciousness to others.  As he preached, his own enthusiasm and attachment to Krishna increased more and more.  Although he was perfect, the ocean of Krishna consciousness is always increasing. 

The BBT publishers list many of Prabhupada’s accomplishments in the “About the Author” section at the end of Prabhupada’s books.  Finally they state, “Srila Prabhupada’s most significant contribution, however, is his books.”  Thus we think of Prabhupada as a writer of transcendental literature.  He was a translator and a commentator on sastra.  He was a philosophical writer who carefully represented the parampara in modern English.  His writing contained his personal experiences and realizations. 

Prabhupada had much personal love and enthusiasm for his practice of writing the Srimad-Bhagavatam.  He had the satisfaction towards the end of his life of seeing his works quickly edited and published by the BBT and then distributed with wild enthusiasm by his sankirtana devotees.  

Prabhupada was not attached to his own writing.  He saw it as Krishna’s writing with himself only recording what Krishna wanted to say.  Although he knew it was important to spend as much time as possible producing Srimad-Bhagavatam – and it also gave him personal peace and satisfaction to produce Bhagavatam – yet he also had to forego his writing time in order to manage ISKCON.  Some days would go by and he would not touch the dictaphone.  We would gently remind Prabhupada that we hoped he would go on working on his translations.  He didn’t need our reminders.  He loved the Srimad-Bhagavatam, but he also saw that he couldn’t always work under all circumstances.  He sometimes spoke of giving up other activities in favor of his translation, but he was never able to do that.