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'Not that I am Poisoned': The Conversations Among those who feel there may be some truth to the poison rumours, much of their concern relates to the words spoken by Srila Prabhupada and those around him, in his final days. Poison theorists like to repeat Prabhupada's words like, "Someone says that someone has given poison, it's possible", and other such equivocal statements. However, although Prabhupada made indirect references to poisoning, relating to what he had heard from friends or how he felt about the makaradhvaja etc, what they seem to overlook is the fact that he made very clear and direct statements to the effect that he wasn't being poisoned: Tamala Krishna: Srila Prabhupada?
You said before that you... that it is said that you were poisoned? Nityananda Das and others have attempted to discount this conversation by saying that Srila Prabhupada was trying to keep the truth from his western disciples. This is an attempt to silence Srila Prabhupada and not allow him to speak for himself. Srila Prabhupada gives an unequivocally straightforward answer to a straightforward question, "No...not that I am poisoned." No amount of word jugglery now or in the future can take away the clear and simple fact that Prabhupada himself denied that he was poisoned. To back up the argument that
Prabhupada was concealing the alleged poisoning from his disciples, the
poison advocates claim that he actually revealed the truth in Hindi to
the kaviraja about his poisoning, while keeping this information hidden
However, there are serious
problems with this theory. Firstly, there is the testimony of Adridharan
Das, who was living with the kaviraja in Vrindavan in 1977. He quite rightly
claims to know more than anyone of the kaviraja's thoughts on this issue,
After the last exchange
Adridharan das, who was present at the discussion, asked the Kaviraja,
whom Srila Prabhupada was supposedly revealing all this to, what Srila
Prabhupada had been referring to when he spoke of poison. Even though
in the previous conversation the Kaviraja immediately jumps to the conclusion
that Srila Prabhupada was speaking of some malicious poisoning, he later
reveals to Adridharan that Srila Prabhupada was actually only referring
to the effects of poison having been administered via bad medicine. But we don't have to accept the kaviraja's and Adridharan's words blindly, we can now go directly to the Hindi translations, recently made available, to see that this is in fact true. Prabhupada conversations, November 8th, 1977, Vrindavan. Kaviraja: Ye Maharaj ye kotha
ap kaise bola aj ki koi bola hai ki poison diya. Ye apko kuch abhasa hua
hai kya? Now compare this with the explanation given in English to Tamala Krishna Maharaja later that same day. Tamala Krishna: Srila Prabhupada?
You said before that you... that it is said that you were poisoned? Therefore the theory that Srila
Prabhupada knew about his own poisoning and only revealed it to native
Hindi speakers and not to his English speaking disciples is clearly unfounded.
All evidence, both from recorded transcripts and eyewitness Another section of the conversations
that has drawn special attention from those trying to push the poison
theory is the section where Prabhupada refers to the conversation of the
9th by saying (in Hindi), "That conversation about that someone Taken out of context this quote seems quite damning, however upon further examination it becomes clear that Prabhupada wasn't admitting he had been poisoned, but was simply referring to the conversation of the day before. Adridharan has explained this in his article on the conversations (see appendix 4 for full report): Srila Prabhupada: Vahi bat
... je koi hamko poison kiya. Nityananda Das has stated "Vahi bat" as meaning "The same thing, I said". Which gives the phrase the meaning, "The same thing I said, that someone has poisoned me." This is a mistranslation (as admitted by the translator Naveen Krishna). As any Hindi speaker will confirm, the phrase 'vahi bat' means only 'that same discussion/talk', and that is all. 'Vahi' means 'that same', and 'bat' means 'discussion' or 'subject'. The fact of the matter is this. Prabhupada never said, "Someone has poisoned me," in response to the question, "Have you been poisoned?" The only time he says these words are in response to, "What was causing you the mental distress this morning?" He replies that it was the talk from the day before about the possibility that someone had poisoned him. In contrast, the phrase, "Not that I am poisoned," is a direct reply to Tamala Krishna Maharaja's question asking Prabhupada, "Did you say you were poisoned?" Another very interesting point
which has come to light recently, is a report from a senior Bengali doctor
stating that it is common terminology for elderly Bengali Vaisnavas to
say that they've been poisoned when some treatment doesn't work. Also, one Bengali Dr I was speaking with, I told him what Prabhupada said, how he was being poisoned. He laughed, but was also upset, because he said he has treated many elderly Bengali Vaisnavas and that is a very common expression for older Bengalis when they are given some medicine that does not work well for them. He said that is very common Bengali expression for their generation to complain that the Dr or someone or the medicine is poisoning them. He is a Bengali, Calcutta man, Dr, who treated many older Bengali's so I give his understanding some credibility. This statement by the Bengali doctor is actually confirmed by Srila Prabhupada himself and it is recorded in the conversations when he is talking about the effects of the makaradhvaja. Prabhupada: ...reacting adversely.
That is proved. Hm? This conversation from October
27th is a clear example of the exact point made by the Bengali, which
is that the Bengali word visa is used in various ways, and doesn't necessarily
mean that someone has maliciously given poison. |