(Click to enlarge photo of Srila Prabhupada and his beloved books)
Devotee: People..., I've talked to professors who know the original Hebrew and the original tongues that the Bible was written in. And they say that is has changed so much that you can hardly...
Prabhupāda: Yes, they are changing. Just like he said, "Thou shall not kill." They are now changing, "Thou shall not commit murder." They are doing that.
Devotee: Yes. They have a modern Bible, using all modern terminology.
Prabhupāda: So when you change, then the authority is lost. Just like in our Society, sometimes they do something nonsense and they, "Prabhupāda said." (laughter) They are doing that. We know that. Things deteriorated like that. Therefore Kṛṣṇa said, sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ kaunteya: "And in due course of time, this yoga was lost. Therefore I am repeating the same thing, old philosophy, to you." So it requires like that.
Devotee: The one thing about the Christian religion is that through the last two thousand years, Christ's original teachings may have been good teachings, may have been potent preaching, but because there were no potent preachers to carry on the preaching, therefore the whole thing has been lost. But if there are potent preachers to continue reestablishing and establishing the principles again...
Prabhupāda: So how you'll find, if everything is now changed? Where you will get the right information?
Devotee: That's the problem. That's why there are so many hundreds of branches of Christianity, literally hundreds. So many divisions of Christianity. Some people accept this, some people accept this.
Prabhupāda: Therefore we should advocate that Bhagavad-gītā is not like that. It is coming in the same form as it was taught to Arjuna. If you challenge that "How you know that it has not been changed?" the ācāryas are there. The ācāryas are there, and they are accepting; therefore it is correct. We have to follow the ācārya. So when we see the ācāryas have accepted, then we accept. All the ācāryas— Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, before that, other ācāryas also—they accept. They never say that "This was not in the original scripture. It has been changed." You don't find any such statement of the ācāryas. The best thing, therefore, if you want a religious system, Bhagavad-gītā is coming without any contradiction, change, for the last five thousand years. You accept it. Other scriptures are newly introduced, and there are so many doubts, so many interpretations. So if you want real religious system, this is the scripture spoken directly by God and accepted by all the ācāryas, so take it. If you are really after God, so you take enlightenment from this perfect scripture. If you want truth, it doesn't matter wherefrom it is coming; I must accept the truth.
(Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, Perth, May 9, 1975)
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