Some think that Prabhupada didn’t want us to study anything apart from his books. However, when we carefully study different passages from Srila Prabhupada, we see that this is not the case. Prabhupada mentioned on different occasions that he wanted us to study important Vaishnava books, like the Jaiva Dharma, Brhad Bhagavatamrta, the Sat-Sandarbhas, and so on. However, he was also very concerned with devotees studying these books at the right time and with the proper mentality, after getting a good understanding of Vaishnava philosophy from his own books.
Recently we spoke about the process of obtaining the correct conclusions from the scripture that Srila Jiva Goswami gives in his Sat Sandarbhas. Studying the scriptures without the guidance of a spiritual master is more or less useless because one will just become confused and will more probably than not reach the wrong conclusions. The general principle is that one should not only study the scriptures under the guidance of a qualified spiritual master but also study one book at a time, being sure of getting the correct understanding before moving to the next book. That’s different from what most of us do nowadays, when we not only study independently but jump from one book to the other, just like one scrolls through his feed on social media.
The problem is that directly studying under the spiritual master is a luxury that very few of us have nowadays. Nowadays, it’s hard to find even one devotee who had the opportunity to study a few books directly under his spiritual master. In most cases, we are lucky if we have at all a channel where we can ask questions, even if occasionally or in written form.
That’s something that Srila Prabhupada could apparently foresee, because he created a system that precisely addresses this deficiency, writing books that contain all the correct conclusions from the scriptures in a format that is accessible to most people.
We can see that many don’t appreciate Prabhupada’s books, preferring to read other, more vague commentaries. One reason for that, I believe, is that when we read Prabhupada’s books there is very little space for speculation and misunderstandings. The conclusions are stated in such a direct and clear way that it’s almost impossible to misunderstand. Yes, Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead (not Shiva, Durga, or even Vishnu). The ultimate goal of life is to attain love for Krsna (it’s not achieving higher planets, merging into some impersonal light, or solving all one’s problems with the help of psychology). Mayavada philosophy is nonsense and many personalities whom common people usually respect were just rascals who were misguiding people. The soul has an eternal relationship with Krsna, and the goal of life is to reconnect with Him in this eternal relationship. The list goes on.
The difficulty many have is exactly that they can’t study Prabhupada’s books without accepting such conclusions, and it is like that by design. One is forced to accept a submissive position and accept the conclusions Prabhupada gives in order to study under him. Some gladly accept this process and thus are able to continue studying his books and gradually understand Vaishnava philosophy, while others fail at some point, and decide to go to other books that give them more space to interpret according to their personal convictions.
We can see that Prabhupada understood well what he was doing. He didn’t want to become another Osho or Vivekananda, giving a diluted and sweetened version of the philosophy, that is palatable but ultimately useless, preferring to give directly the correct conclusions and focussing on quality followers, instead of quantity. He understood that this was the way of training well-rounded devotees, instead of just creating a sect of nonsensical mental speculators.
In the Sat Sandarbha, Srila Jiva Goswami explains how the Srimad Bhagavatam is the essence of all Vedic scriptures, and that all the other Puranas and other books of the Vedas must be interpreted according to the conclusions of the Srimad Bhagavatam if one wants to understand the truth. However, he mentions that even the Srimad Bhagavatam can be misunderstood if one doesn’t study the text under the correct philosophical conclusions. One who doesn’t accept that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for example, may study the whole Bhagavatam under the conception that Krsna is just an avatar of Vishnu, and thus misunderstand all His pastimes, taking something else as the ultimate goal.
When we study Prabhupada’s books, all these conclusions are very clear. It’s not possible to study the Krsna Book without understanding that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for example, but if one moves to other authors, it becomes easier to misunderstand.
We can practically see that many devotees study the Jaiva Dharma and come to the conclusion that the soul doesn’t have an innate relationship with Krsna (which is contradicted by the very title of the book), or study the Sat Sandarbhas and come to the conclusion that Bhaktivinoda Thakura contradicted the teachings of Srila Rupa Goswami, showing that they are not at all understanding what they are reading.
In this way, the path for us is to first study deeply the books from Srila Prabhupada (at least getting a solid understanding of the Bhagavad-Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Nectar of Devotion, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, etc.), getting thus a solid understanding of the conclusions of Vaishnava philosophy according to our parampara, and only them consider gradually studying other books.
The sources of the translations we study are also extremely important. There is no such a thing as a direct translation. All translations are merged with the personal biases of the translator, and thus choosing a translation is often a matter of choosing a devotee who you trust. I generally try to stick with translations made by disciples of grand-disciples of Prabhupada, who follow his conclusions, avoiding translations made by other scholars, or from Babajis who show to not agree with his conclusions. Over time, I found that this is possibly the most accurate method of finding good works.
I personally appreciate very much the translations of Gopiparanadhana Prabhu, for example, because he is a devotee who deeply studied the works of Srila Prabhupada and translated books following the conclusions he gives. He also translated quoted verses from the Bhagavatam and other books according to the translations given by Prabhupada, for example (different from other scholars, who frequently give translations that are substantially different in meaning). He is the author of the Brhad Bhagavatamrta published by the BBT, among a number of other books. It appears that the copy of the Sat Sandarbhas available in the ebooks section of Iskcondesiretree (in the folder of Jiva Goswami) is an unfinished work by him.
There are also some very good works left by godbrothers of Srila Prabhupada, like the translation of the Jaiva Dharma made by Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja, as well as many works by Srila Sridhara Maharaja, for example.
Translations are however a playground for adults, because there are all kinds of things floating around, and one has to be mature enough to select what is bonafide or not and to properly understand the books he or she is studying. Spiritual teenagers can seriously hurt themselves by jumping here and there.