a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1971 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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Jan 12, 2006 January 12, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Vaikunthanatha, Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your good wife, Saradia Dasi. I am very glad to hear from you after some time and I am glad that you are feeling very happy in our Society. That is the sign of advancement in spiritual life that one is detached from material sense gratification and finds pleasure in serving Krsna only. I think as you say that Trinidad is the "stepping stone" to South America and it is very good proposal that you and your wife shall go there with the encouragement and support of some natives. When people are so eager for Krsna consciousness, it is our duty to go and enlighten them. Lord Caitanya wanted this mission spread up all over the globe. Now you are kindly helping to fulfill His transcendental desire. I am very anxious to see this movement having centers in all the important cities of all the seven continents. That will serve the purpose to bring in unification of the entire world under the banner of Krsna Consciousness Movement within a very short time. The secret of preaching work is that one must keep himself fit in spiritual strength by maintaining always the highest standard of purity in Krsna consciousness. Our process is simple and practically experimented everywhere. Simply by vibrating the Hare Krsna Mahamantra sixteen rounds daily one advances to the stage of sadacara or good habits and when he is pure in consciousness by devotional service, he advances to the stage of ecstatic love of Krsna. We should always pray to Lord Caitanya simply to be engaged in His confidential service by chanting Hare Krsna mantra always. That will purify us and give the strength needed to infuse others with Krsna consciousness. I will be very glad to receive the package of Deity clothes made by Saradia, but they have not arrived yet. I have been travelling about between many provinces of India and my mail is not always received timely. Anyway, I am expecting them at any moment. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 05:25 | Jan 11, 2006 Monday, January 11, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 14th December, 1970. In the meantime we have come from Surat to Bombay and from Bombay to Calcutta. Tomorrow morning we are going to Allahabad to attend the Adha Kumbh Mela festival. We shall be going all 40 strong devotees and there are an expected 7,000,000 going there also for the month of Magh. I expect that by this time you are touring Europe and especially overseeing London Temple, so I am expecting another letter from you soon reporting the situation there. Anyway, I shall address this to your Buffalo Temple. I was glad to know from you that in your tour of the East coast temples everything is going on nicely. Please encourage our devotees to continue in their good efforts to spread this sublime Movement. The standard of purity must be kept intact along with firm faith in Spiritual Master and Krsna, then everything will go on smoothly. I have just received a letter from Bhavananda from New York and it appears that there are many persons regularly attending our classes and following the regulative principles as well as chanting Hare Krsna Mantra. That is the success of our preaching work when there is this result of more persons joining, so I am confident that things are going on. Please increase the book distribution program as far as you can. The proposal to open a center in Trinidad with the help of Mr. Gajjar and others is very encouraging. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. I have received your London letter at Allahabad. ACBS:ds letters | 05:18 | January 11, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your several letters and ISKCON Press Newsletters dated 13, 16 and 27th December, 1970, and noted the contents. I have been travelling considerably and the preaching work is taking up all of our time; so our tour in India is very much welcomed by the people, but I have not the opportunity to write my correspondence very often. I am hoping that the Bhagavad-gita As It Is and Nectar of Devotion shall be printed soon. If you require the funds for NOD and TLC, I shall send it conveniently. But I have just received a letter from Karandhara that the needed money is already arranged and the printing should begin soon. I am very anxious to see that ISKCON Press is operating effectively. Regarding the Preface to Bhagavad-gita, I shall send that as soon as I have got some time to write one. In the meantime you can go ahead with the remainder of layout work. It is very good news that Advaita is back with you. Please see that he is given all facilities to operate the press to fullest advantage. Kulasekhara should be a great assistance also in this connection; but Advaita is expert. Regarding funds for ISKCON Press, this has been very much mismanaged in the past, so now you are suffering. The right thing is that the temples have got to pay the book bills to ISKCON Press very promptly. We have got so many literatures and therefore it is not very good that there is a shortage of money realized from their distribution. I am still awaiting the shipment of books to India. Please let me know if they are dispatched or not. I hear from all our centers that they have instituted regular classes for writing articles and still you say they do not contribute sufficiently to Back to Godhead. How is that? I want all our students to write articles for our transcendental magazine. That is practical. Karandhara has also written that my long desired scheme of a Krsna Conscious daily newspaper is being implemented. Please do this work very nicely. It will be a very great step in the history of ISKCON movement. Regarding your proposal to approach important persons to help us in this work, I am sorry to note a consideration of some false ``Trust Fund.'' Such false things have no value either for us or anyone else. I am awaiting your next letters of progress and newsletters also. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. What action you have taken on the Mayavadi Sannyasi? letters | 05:16 | Jan 10, 2006 Sunday, January 10, 1971 Allahabad, India My Dear Damodara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your encouraging letter dated 12th December, 1970. I have carefully noted the enclosed photographs as well, and I am so glad to see how you are nicely conducting Sankirtana activities in important places in your nation's capital city. It is my firm conviction that this Krsna Consciousness Movement of Lord Caitanya's will be successful in all parts of the world if our students kindly continue in their enthusiastic endeavors to distribute this message freely to all persons. Our Movement is now appreciated all over the world and it is gradually coming to the attention of the important leaders of the present society, so it is incumbent upon us to keep our spiritual strength by rigidly following the regulative principles; then we can deal adequately with all facilities offered by the Lord for expediting His Holy Mission. I am confident that all our sincere intelligent young devotees like your good self will carry this program to fruitful conclusion namely the delivery of the Holy Name to all the fallen souls suffering in varieties of conditional misery and material happiness. Please execute your program for distribution of literatures and Sankirtana, therefore, with increased vogor and may Krsna bless your sincere efforts to serve Him faithfully. It is very good news that you are introducing courses in Krsna Consciousness in the Universities and the yoga institutes. As you know this is the only real yoga--bhakti yoga-- and it is the only practical means for God realization in this age. So you are doing the greatest good for your countrymen and the world at large by introducing this sublime movement for regaining out lost position as eternal servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna. Please continue to distribute our books, that is a very important business. Your idea for film distribution is also good, so do it nicely in cooperation with the GBC. I am very much anxious that at the same time as you carry out all these outside activities you are maintaining a strict schedule of Temple activities. Such regular activities like attendance of Arati, chanting of rounds, study of literatures in the class will keep you fit for effective preaching work in the outer field. Our standard of purity must be kept, otherwise there will be loss of spiritual strength, and subsequent fall down. Everyone of you should be thoroughly convinced of the power of the Hare Krsna mantra to protect you in all circumstances and chant accordingly at all times without offense. Then advancement will be swift and you will gradually come to see everything clearly so that you may act for the pleasure of the Lord without uncertainty. When one is spontaneously engaged in this way, always in the service of the Lord and anxious to avoid all mundane activities, he is actually experiencing the taste of bliss in Krsna consciousness. Please offer my blessings to your good wife, Mrganetra, and I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 06:21 | January 10, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Citsukhananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 10th, December, 1970, and noted the contents. I beg to thank you for your nice appreciations of this transcendental movement which I have been trying to present to you on request of my Guru Maharaja. Now I am counting on your good self and all my other good disciples to kindly take this message very seriously and make your lives sublime and the lives of all you contact similarly sublime. That is our business--to please the transcendental Lord by disseminating His message of Krsna consciousness or Love of God by the simple method of Sankirtana. I am so glad to know that our San Francisco Temple is improving at the new location. Regarding the arrangement for an altar, you may follow the arrangements made in L.A.--that is just suitable--and when the Radha Krsna Murtis arrive from India everything will be complete. Please continue your program in the universities. They are the best places for propagation of our philosophy and the students are very eager for this crucial information. They are not unaware of the futility of material education which gives a paper degree only, because it is common observation that the graduates are unable to find good employment and the students are becoming hippies, etc. So they are wanting something good and that best thing is Krsna consciousness. I am glad that you are finding the work of the GBC to be very nice. That is required. Everything should be done in a spirit of cooperation and Krsna's work will go on unhampered. That is our only desire. It is very good that you have begun to spread Krsna consciousness literatures in Spanish language and that was your proposal since a long time, so do it. We are requiring all our energies to be channelled in the service of Krsna and then only will our mission be complete and our life perfected. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 06:18 | Jan 9, 2006 January 9, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Nayana Bhirama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 27th December, 1970 and have noted the contents carefully. I am glad to hear that Philadelphia is such a good place for pushing on our Sankirtana movement and it is also very encouraging to hear that BTG distribution is increasing. Also, now that you've moved into your new temple, you should also enthusiastically resume the placing of our literatures in the schools and libraries. Then so many people will be given the opportunity of being exposed to our Krishna Consciousness philosophy, and I am very eager for this. So far as meeting with the college professors mentioned by you, I shall be very glad to do so when I visit your temple. That your "TV sermonette" was so successful is also very good news. This also goes to show how much people will be attracted to our books such as KRSNA book if they are properly displayed, and so propoganda should be made in this way. The mass media can become such an important instrument in spreading our Krishna Consciousness movement and I am glad to see that you are endeavoring to explore how this can be done. Yes, I have received your contribution of $15.00 (by money order) for my maintenance fund and I thank you very much for this. Please offer my blessings to the others there. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 06:14 | Jan 8, 2006 Friday, January 8, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Visnujana Maharaja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your encouraging letter dated 23rd December, 1970. I am very glad to know that things are progressing nicely in Houston. I have seen the flyer and it is nice. Please establish this center firmly just according to our highest principles of devotional service to Krsna. It is good news that you have now got a house and are remodeling it for the Temple. You may immediately arrange an alter for worship of Guru-Gauranga and that will be very suitable for the present. Later you can increase the Deity worship, but for the first while worship of Guru-Gauranga will be within your present situation very nice. Regarding the college programs you propose to start this month, please carefully do it so that the young men and girls may take advantage of this transcendental movement for their ultimate welfare and highest education. Our program in the schools and colleges has everywhere been successful and I am confident that you can also carry on such a program with very good results. I am glad to note that from your recent letter under reply you are feeling better than you previously expressed. So when you may feel morose, chant Hare Krsna Mantra loudly and hear it. That will reestablish you on the platform of transcendental bliss. Sometimes it appears that the devotee is put into some difficulty unreasonably, but the devotee does not take even this adverse circumstance as other that a manifestation of the Lord's Supreme Mercy. Anyway, such feelings come and go like seasonal changes and we should not deviate for that reason from our prescribed duty. I have just recently replied several letters sent by you some time ago, I hope you have received the reply by now. I am simply counting upon you to faithfully execute your duties in Krsna's service and follow the regulative principles strictly. Then you shall be able to help spread this mission to the suffering persons of your country and that will be the greatest service. I am so glad that one young couple has already joined with you . Please offer my blessings to them, John and Barbara. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 01:14 | January 8, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Vrindaban Candra, Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your good wife Vidarbha Kanya Dasi. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your very kind letter dated 16th December, 1970 and have noted the contents. I am so glad to hear that our Philadelphia temple is running so smoothly, "filled with love and truthfulness." Such an atmosphere is so congenial for advancement in Krishna Consciousness and if the Prabhus there continue their devotional activities in such a spirit, so many people will be attracted. Also I am glad to note that you and your wife are cooperating so nicely in Krishna's service. So you should set an ideal example of household life in Krishna Consciousness for all to follow. In this way continue your program there in Philadelphia and Krishna will surely bless you. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 01:10 | January 8, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Sriman Sai, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated 29th December and the nice sentiments expressed therein. I am very glad to inform you that I have seen your photograph and from your features it appears that you have improved very much spiritually. The problem that your followers want to accept you as guide in spiritual matters is not objectionable if they are sincere. If they have sincere faith in you, it may not be disturbed, rather it can be fully utilized. My main purpose is to propagate the teachings of Lord Caitanya or Krishna Consciousness. I am not after recruiting some disciples; but for preaching work we want some assistants and if somebody offers voluntarily his service it is welcome. So the best thing will be that you become a regular disciple of me and you can teach your followers in the same principles. There is immense field of our activities. In your country there are so many confused young men and girls known as the hippies and if you work very steadfastly I am sure a tremendous advancement can be done in our missionary activities. I have studied the behavior of the hippies--they are searching after something good, but they have no proper guidance. In the material world the highest principle of happiness is supposed to be sex indulgence, but real happiness is not attainable by eschewing the senses; it is above the senses which means on the spiritual platform. Unless one is able to deal with the Supreme Personality of Godhead on the spiritual platform, there cannot be any permanent bliss. People don't know it. It is our duty only to explain the situation to the ignorant persons. Many leaders have to be trained up for this purpose so that they can go from town to town, village to village and enlighten the people to be trained up in this Krsna Consciousness. Yes, for the present there is no need of spending money by coming to India. That decision is very nice. I think by the end of March I shall be returning to the USA. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 01:08 | |
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