Baba
Namaskar,
Here are important guidelines about how we evaluate the accuracy of printed AM discourses and books prior to the use of any recording devices.
(a) We shall strictly avoid all blanket statements and gross generalizations and will instead handle each and every discourse on a case by case basis. That means we will not say things like, “All the Hindi / Bengali / English editions prior to 1959 were gold”, or that “Baba redictated and reviewed all Bangla discourses before the use of recording devices”. Instead, we will proceed on an individual basis.
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(b) Here are some reasons why AM books were faulty prior to the use of any recording device:
1. Sometimes Baba told something and those note-takers could not write it down properly.(c) We must bear in mind that this is a big topic with numerous issues and factors. We must strictly avoid oversimplified generalizations. Those types of statements will only undermine our cause.
2. Baba spoke something and they wrote it properly and then there was a printing mistake. These printing mistakes come in two categories: typos and lost words. For instance, sometimes when printing then basic typos occur, and other times in those early days when using a letterpress some of the words might fall off the string in which case they will not get printed, i.e. they become lost.
3. Those notetakers prepared their notes / manuscript and then drops of water got on it smearing the ink so those words became illegible. Because they did not have the courage to ask Baba they tried to fix it themselves and made up something that was not what Baba spoke.
4. Sometimes the original printed version is ok but then it got ruined in translation.
(d) There is hope however and here is the practical way that we should proceed. We should focus on making proper Pure books using the audio cassettes. And any idea in those old books (non-recorded discourses) that contradicts the ideas in recorded discourse should be treated as a distortion.
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How to solve this issue
Solution: A proper formalized system is needed to evaluate each and every discourse. Just as governments and judicial systems have different types of review boards to handle technical issues etc.
In Him,
Raghava
Case example
Here is an example of one such distortion from that era when there were no recording devices.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/2013/10/nervousness-epilepsy-or-samadhi.html
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