“My Take” on the ‘Book Changes’ – Prabhupadanugas Worldwide

By Sarvopama Dasa, for your consideration:

In the science of Nutrition there is a principle, “Fractionalized, adulterated, or Processed” food, in the long run has the opposite effect of it’s intended purpose.”

I believe the same principle applies to religion, or the process of transcendence.
Food is meant to nourish and maintain ultimate health of the material body, while spiritual practices are for the health and the “ultimate” benefit of the soul [experiencing pure love of God].

For a person who has been deprived of food for a long time [perhaps due to having gotten lost in the wilderness], and who is therefore suffering from extreme weakness, if such a person by chance encounters some ‘hiker’ who shares with him a bunch of candy bars [Hostess Twinkies] that he happens to carry with him, I am certain, that even such “junk/adulterated food” will provide that hungry person not just a delight to his palate, but also a substantial energy boost [due to the carbohydrates]. However, no one would suggest that one should take this as an argument in favor of going on a permanent diet of Hostess Twinkies/Junk Food, as in the long term such a diet will have an ill effect on the physical health of a person.

Similarly, a person/jiva who has been deprived of spiritual sustenance for perhaps lifetimes, if such a soul comes in contact with even an adulterated “spiritual” process, or message [literature], that soul will experience some initial spiritual “rush”. However, just like a diet of adulterated/junk food’ will maintain or nourish a material body for a period of time, so will adulterated/junk religion nourish the soul for some time, while, again, in the long run both practices will be detrimental to either the body or the soul, and will have the opposite effect of it’s intended purpose. Toxins have an accumulative effect to both, the material as well as the spiritual body.
We see this even in other “religious” practices, either in Christianity, Islam, or various “Eastern [Mayavadi]” disciplines. Although all these “teachings/religions” I just mentioned have been heavily adulterated over time [the Bible and the Koran], people are still deriving enough “spiritual” taste/sustenance from their practice to seduce them into thinking that they have found “the light and the Truth”, only to be disappointed again at the time of death, having to take another birth again!

And may I point out, in the verse you quote above, “Such transcendental literature’s, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.” [SB 1.5.11] , the words ‘imperfectly composed’ is not referring to “changes” made by conditioned and disobedient “disciples” who think they know better than their spiritual master, but rather to the unadulterated [even at times “apparent imperfect”] words of the pure devotees of the Lord.

The ‘unauthorized and un-impowered editor’ is not just changing or adding words, but he is injecting his very consciousness into the literature, he is contaminating Srila Prabhupada’s books with his envious and most toxic mentality.