Cover of the first MacMillan Bhagavad Gita As It Is

Govinda Dasi : During the year of travel with Srila Prabhupada, 1968, I also did the line drawing for the cover of the first MacMillan Bhagavad Gita As It Is. This original Bhagavad Gita cover was to be a drawing of the Universal Form. It was a large line drawing, perhaps 18" x 24". Because there was to be so much detail, I had to work large, so that it could be later reduced and still have clean lines. The drawing was to depict the thousands of heads and arms and hands of the Lord, with the four-armed figure of Lord Vishnu prominently featured in the center.

My drawing was completed and approved by Srila Prabhupada, but, unfortunately, MacMillan chose to edit my drawing down to a single Vishnu form. They chose to remove thousands of heads and arms from my drawing, as well as to remove thousands of pages from Srila Prabhupada's Gita. The result was the small lavender paperback Bhagavad Gita As It Is, printed in 1969.

In 1969, though Srila Prabhupada's manuscript for Bhagavad Gita As It Is had already been completed and had been given his final stamp of approval at that time, and even personally handed over to MacMillan for printing - for financial reasons MacMillan chose to edit it severely, removing hundreds of pages of text. Since finances were limited, Srila Prabhupada accepted this severely chopped manuscript, saying, "A blind uncle is better than no uncle," a Bengali proverb that means, "something is better than nothing." Srila Prabhupada often quoted this proverb when he accepted something that was less desirable.