Room Conversation, Vrindavan, November 3, 1977:
Rupanuga:
“But now, we discussed this… We discussed this before, Srila Prabhupada. You said that you didn’t… You wanted to make some more BBT members.”
Prabhupada:
“If I require, I can make.”
Tamala Krsna:
“The reason I’m bringing this up is because, heretofore, the BBT has been managed by one or two trustees, and the point is that maybe it is best that it be managed by the GBC.”
Prabhupada:
“So that… First of all, manage these things. Then you will, it will be included in the trustees. First of all, show your capacity that you have managed these things very nicely, these two things. Why there should be complaint? How you can solve it? And why the temples should be maintained by collection of the BBT? It is meant for printing and constructing temples. Why should (we) violate the purpose of the Trust? So first of all, you manage these two things. Then, if you want, you can come. If the problem remains the same, then what is the use of increasing heads?”
(COMMENT: It should be noted that the copyrights that were transferred from Srila Prabhupada’s BBT to the BBTI, were transferred without ANY authorization from the BBT Trust. After this insidious hijacking, the books that were produced and distributed, were still done in the name of the BBT! This, of course, helped conceal what had taken place, keeping the general community of devotees in the dark, meaning, who would protest to something unknown?! END OF COMENT)
Tamala Krsna:
“Krishna’s giving us… I figured out, Srila Prabhupada, that if we… Just like we did in September, I multiplied times twelve to see how much money in a year your books are selling. And the BBT, in one year, can expect to make, around the world, about $8,100,000. In rupees that comes out to seven crores, seventy thousand rupees. Seven crores, seventy thousand rupees.”
Prabhupada:
“What karmi can earn so much!”
Tamala Krsna:
“What karmi can earn so much. For the temples, that means that by selling your books, the temples will collect about sixteen million dollars in one year. Or in other words, fourteen cores, nine lakhs, forty thousand rupees.”
Prabhupada:
“They’ll believe?”
Tamala Krsna:
“Well, believe it or not, it’s a fact.
Prabhupada: Fact, yes.”
(COMMMENT: This is a lot of money that the BBT generated; even post-departure of Srila Prabhupada, there has been plenty of money generated through BBT book sales. Since 1965, there has been around 750 million books printed and distributed. Even if each book sold for 50 USA cents, that would calculate to $375 million dollars in sales.
Where has all this money gone?
We can see from our spotted history (post-HDG’s departure) that temples and temple properties were not going up, but factually were either sold or reduced to barely running. Many, many devotees have experienced this firsthand. So, who is responsible for this?
Hopefully the wheels will begin to turn in the minds of those devotees who actually care about what has happened, and what is happening currently with the Srila Prabhupada’s BBT and the society in general.
It also should be noted that since the copyrights were transferred from the BBT to the BBTI, Srila Prabhupada, from a legal standpoint, went from being the sole author of his books, to merely being an ‘author for hire’! An AUTHOR FOR HIRE?!?!?! This is indeed a great offense to not only HDG Srila Prabhupada, but to the parampara he is representing!
As devotees of Srila Prabhupada, we should not stand idle, and let these misdirected people in the ‘GBC’, and the so-called currently authorized BBT trustees, continue their efforts to control the BBT, while committing offenses to Srila Prabhupada which keep the growth of our society stunted. END OF COMMENT)