The Best Evidence for Capitalization

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

My name is Jadurani dasi. I am a diksa disciple of Srila Prabhupada and a siksa disciple of Srila Narayana Maharaja. Somehow, by the grace of Lord Krsna, I found myself on your mailing list.

Just recently there has been a discussion on the same point (capitalization of the Lord's pronouns) among some of the editors in Srila Narayana Maharaja's sanga. Srila Narayana himself is in favor of capitalization. In my experience Srila Prabhupada and Srila Narayana Maharaja are always in accord, and so I knew there must be an exact quote from Srila Prabhupada in the same regard. I typed in "pronoun" in Prabhupada's folio, and there I found the following darsana [ Dec. 24, 1969]: Please forgive me, if you have all already seen this.

Aspiring for the service of the Vaisnavas,
Jadurani dasi

Satsvarupa: Prabhupada, in editing, there are two different policies about using capitals. One is to use as few capitals as possible or to use many capitals, in grammar capitalized, or to use few. So sometimes your Nectar of Devotion has got very few capitals. When Balarama is referred to as "he," there is no capital. But the other policy is to always put... Krsna's Hands, capital H, Krsna's Feet, capital F, Krsna Who, capital W. Which is...

Srila Prabhupada: No, no, no. Don't follow that policy. That will not be very... Then...

Satsvarupa: The less capitals, the better?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. I think. What do you think?

Hayagriva: Well, I think, when referring to Krsna, we should always have a capital "H."

Srila Prabhupada: Especially. Yes. Especially for Krsna, you can.

Hayagriva: And if we want to, for Radha, capital "S."

Srila Prabhupada: But Balarama is not different from Krsna.

Satsvarupa: So He is capital "H."

Hayagriva: So He is capital "H." But then here we go. (laughter)

Srila Prabhupada: No, no. You limit to these three. That will do.

Hayagriva: Limit to those three.

Srila Prabhupada: Or Visnu. Yes. Visnu.

Hayagriva: What about avataras, in reference to Christ or Buddha?

Srila Prabhupada: Buddha is capital used. Jesus Christ is capital used.

Satsvarupa: Yes. But he... Like "He." He means Buddha, "Who."

Hayagriva: No, "He."

Srila Prabhupada: No. That you can use...

Satsvarupa: Small.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

Satsvarupa: Then words like Krsna's "pastimes," "entourage," His "will."

Srila Prabhupada: No, small.

Satsvarupa: Small.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

Hayagriva: The possessions of Krsna, small.

Srila Prabhupada: Small.

Satsvarupa: His hands and feet, small.

Brahmananda: Lotus feet?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

Satsvarupa: Lotus flower?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. All small. Simply name. Stick to name.

Hayagriva: The pronoun, Krsna, "who." The pronoun "who," that's not...

Srila Prabhupada: No, no. Use small.

Hayagriva: Thank you. There's so many... That causes a headache for everyone.

Srila Prabhupada: No. It is better to make everything sound but slow. We want to create this position of Back to Godhead as very authorized representation of the science of God. In future people may refer to it, so we should very cautiously and very nicely do it. It is very important thing, Back to Godhead. If our movement is going to be recognized as scientific, God consciousness movement, then this Back to Godhead will be referred as authorized scripture. So therefore we have to prepare in such a way, nothing non-conclusive can be introduced in this. That should be our policy. And actually it is the position of Back to Godhead.

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