The Trust

The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust ("BBT") is the charitable religious trust that His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada created on 29 May 1972 to own, publish and distribute his books.

The founding

By the 1972 Trust Agreement, Srila Prabhupada — as settlor — gave and transferred all of his books, and all property rights incidental to them, to trustees to hold in trust. The instrument covers his present and future works: books, manuscripts and translations, together with the copyrights and publication rights in them. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is the Trust's beneficiary.

How the Trust is constituted

The 1972 instrument appoints trustees for lifetime, provides that successor trustees are appointed by the remaining trustees, and caps the trustee body at five (Article VI). The trust is irrevocable (Article VII). These provisions matter: the Trust's continuity does not depend on any corporation, and changes to its trusteeship must follow the instrument itself.

What the Trust owns

The Trust — not any corporation — owns Srila Prabhupada's works. In November 1998, in case BC 170617, the Los Angeles Superior Court entered a judgment that "confirmed and ratified" ownership of the copyrights in "the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT), created … on May 29, 1972," and found the BBT to be a valid California religious trust. The same record describes the separate corporation that has operated since 1988 as the Trust's agent, and describes the BBT as the Licensor of the works — the party that grants licences, which is to say, the owner.

A charitable trust, publicly accountable

As a charitable religious trust under California law, the BBT is administered for its purpose — the production and distribution of Srila Prabhupada's teachings — not for private benefit, and is subject to the oversight of the California Attorney General. Order proceeds and donations are applied to that mission.