Sastra Caksusa

seeing through the eyes of scriptures

thus nourishing one another" Gita 3.11

In 1987 in ISKCON Vrindavana Jayadvaita Swami had his first Ista Ghosthi about book changes and I asked him about changes he had done to this sloka :

CHAPTER 3: KARMA-YOGA
TEXT 11
devan bhavayatanena
te deva bhavayantu vah
parasparam bhavayantah
sreyah param avapsyatha
SYNONYMS
devan—demigods; bhavayata—having been pleased; anena—by this sacrifice; te—those; devah—the demigods; bhavayantu—will please; vah—you; parasparam—mutual; bhavayantah—pleasing one another; sreyah—benediction; param—the supreme; avapsyatha—do you achieve.
TRANSLATION
The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you; thus nourishing one another, there will reign general prosperity for all.

to :

devān bhāvayatānena
te devā bhāvayantu vaḥ
parasparaṁ bhāvayantaḥ
śreyaḥ param avāpsyatha
SYNONYMS
devān — demigods; bhāvayatā — having pleased; anena — by this sacrifice; te — those; devāḥ — demigods; bhāvayantu — will please; vaḥ — you; parasparam — mutually; bhāvayantaḥ — pleasing one another; śreyaḥ — benediction; param — the supreme; avāpsyatha — you will achieve.
TRANSLATION
The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign for all.

in 1987 I confronted Jayadvaita Swami about this change, he stated the demigods have no benefit from human sacrifices. I quoted the pastime where Indra was starving in the Manasa Sarovara lake because he was hiding within the stem of a lotus ,Jayadvaita Swami does not know the KC philosophy properly because according to him the humans never nourish the demigods by their sacrifices.So he changed the wording to suit his own misunderstanding but Srila Prabhupada picked the word nourish for a reason that JAS could not comprehend. SB 6.13.15
TEXT 15 sa āvasat puṣkara-nāla-tantūn
alabdha-bhogo yad ihāgni-dūtaḥ
varṣāṇi sāhasram alakṣito ’ntaḥ
sañcintayan brahma-vadhād vimokṣam
SYNONYMS
saḥ—he (Indra); āvasat—lived; puṣkara-nāla-tantūn—in the network of the fibers of a lotus stem; alabdha-bhogaḥ—not getting any material comfort (practically starving for all material needs); yat—which; iha—here; agni-dūtaḥ—the fire-god messenger; varṣāṇi—celestial years; sāhasram—one thousand; alakṣitaḥ—invisible; antaḥ—within his heart; sañcintayan—always thinking of; brahma-vadhāt—from the killing of a brāhmaṇa; vimokṣam—liberation.
TRANSLATION
Always thinking of how he could be relieved from the sinful reaction for killing a brāhmaṇa, King Indra, invisible to everyone, lived in the lake for one thousand years in the subtle fibers of the stem of a lotus. The fire-god used to bring him his share of all yajñas, but because the fire-god was afraid to enter the water, Indra was practically starving.

So obvious Agni would bring prasadam from the offerings of humans, because after food is offered to Lord Visnu (Krsna) in the sacrifices it was also offered to the demigods as Visnu Prasadam.(Krsna objected to Nanda Maharaja offering to Indra that was not offered to Govardhana (who is Krsna Himself first.The point of this post is JAS do not even understand why his changes are not bonafide .He missed an important subtle point yes the demigods are nourished by humans sacrifice to Visnu that is what Krsna is talking about in this chapter not only cooporating but humans nourish the demigods with offerings of Mahaprasadam (which is said to increase their life as demigods as well) and the demigods let it rain and what not to nourish humans..I hope I have brought this subtle point across ?

Sri Kesava Kasmiri from the Nimbarka Sampradaya has also used the word nourish in his commentary to this sloka :
Commentary by Sri Keshava Kashmiri of Kumara Sampradaya:
To answer the question how will yagna or worship fulfill one’s prayers Lord Krishna reponds that the devas or demi-gods nourished by the oblations offered will in turn mutually reciprocate fulfilling all one’s prayers with prosperity and abundance. Gratifying each other as such human and deva will all attain the fulfillment of their desires.

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