by Jayadvaita Swami

Srila Prabhupada completed his education in the first decades of the 1900’s and wrote his books in the 1970’s or earlier, before gender issues in the English language reached the level of attention they have lately assumed. He therefore used the pronoun ‘he’ not exclusively as the masculine pronoun but also as generic and inclusive for both sexes. Out of respect for Srila Prabhupada, the BBT does not intend to retrofit Srila Prabhupada’s English to bring it in line with more recent ideas and practices regarding sexism. We hope that readers sensitive about these matters will read Srila Prabhupada’s books with the same spirit of broad-mindedness they extend toward other authors who wrote in previous days.