a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1971 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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Jan 28, 2006 28 January, 1971 Bombay My Dear Edith, Please accept my blessings, presently I am touring India and so have just now received your letter dated 3d August, 1970 and am replying it herewith. We are presently in the age called Kali yuga, or the age of quarrel and dissention where man is very shortlived and not so very intelligent. But the most regrettable characteristic of this age is that man has forgotten God. He is claiming God is dead or I am god, etc. Just try to understand how much degraded this age is. One of the anomolies of this Kali yuga is that our foodstuffs have been grown with so many chemicals, etc. Actually nothing in this Kali yuga is pure. The soil is polluted, the air, so many things as well as man's motives. But by firmly establishing our Krishna Consciousness Movement all over the world, such unfavorable conditions can be terminated. That is our program.So for the present we must tolerate such conditions. Actually, these are material considerations only. By offering our foodstuffs to Krishna with love and devotion, Krishna says he will accept and it becomes spiritually purified because he is the supreme pure. So love and devotion to Krishna is the purifying agent and nullifies all the bad effects of this age of Kali yuga. Simply let as offer to Krishna with love and devotion and chant the Hare Krishna Mantra and our very existence will become purified. Presently we have established one center of our International Society for Krishna Consciousness in Chicago. Please visit there and if you have any further questions the devotees there will gladly answer them. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb Edith Greene Chicago, Ill letters | 13:44 | Jan 27, 2006 Wednesday, January 27, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated 16th and 17th Narayana, 484, along with enclosures of pictures and news clippings. I am so pleased to see you and your good wife in every picture in different poses of preaching work. That is real Krsna consciousness service to preach the message of the Holy Name to all persons. And they appear to be all responding very enthusiastically to your preaching; that is very good sign. If you remain pure and enthusiastic, you will have the spiritual strength to enthuse others with the chanting of Hare Krsna Mahamantra and devotional service to the Lord. I am a little concerned, however, that you are being somewhat harassed in your activities by these so-called swamis. But do not be discouraged by their foolish talkings, we have got more important business. We do not judge the man by his dress, so we are not concerned with the color of our cloth as much as we are concerned to keep our conduct on the plane of pure spiritual life. Our Krsna consciousness is practically being accepted by all kinds of persons all over the world and there is no discrimination of types of dress. Generally Grhasthas wear white for the men and colorful saris for the women. While performing sacrifices, etc. they may wear yellow cloth which is considered auspicious. But you are always engaged in such religious activity in direct service of the transcendental Lord, so yellow garments are not inappropriate. In India our householder devotee men are all wearing white cloths and they all look very, very nice. You can do also if you like. I am so glad to hear that the people are eager to have more opportunity for Krsna Consciousness. I would also very much like to travel there. But I do not know what arrangements you can make to bring us there. Please keep me informed of your progressive activities and may Krsna bless you more and more with increased intelligence for spreading His movement. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 04:04 | January 27, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Sukadeva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter undated and have noted the contents carefully. I am so glad to hear that you have now opened a center in Tucson, Arizona. It has been my desire to open 108 branches of our society all over the world and due to the sincere efforts of devotees such as your good self, it is actually happening. If you simply follow the regulative principles strictly, always chant Hare Krishna and just depend on Krishna, then all facility will be given to you to make Tucson temple a grand success by the grace of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So far as Deity worship is concerned, for the present you can have a Guru-Gauranga altar and later on when there are more devotees there and you have facility, Lord Jagannatha or Radha Krishna Deity may be installed. Only initiated devotees may tend the Deity or cook for Him, so for the present you can set up a very attractive Guru-Gauranga altar and that will be very nice. It is encouraging to hear that already you are distributing BTG so nicely, so continue in this way. Also you should widely distribute our books, especially to the schools and libraries. We have also initiated a life membership program for distributing our books and you can inquire about this program from Karandhara. I have noted how you already have been invited into peoples homes for Sankirtana program. Such engagements are ideal for making life members and distributing our literature. That has been our program in India and it has been very successful. So continue this program. Yes, you have my blessings always. You are very sincere boy. Without being sincere nobody can make advancement. Please offer my blessings also to Sriman Elliot Prabhu and Sriman Pat (Balarama) Prabhu. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 04:01 | January 27, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Satyabhama Devi Dasi, Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your fine Vaisnava son Premananda. I am in due receipt of your very kind letter dated 28th December. Yes, you may write some of the stories in simplified version for the children. That is very nice. The story of characters cannot be changed or anything made up, but simply the language may be changed. Also it is good to note that you are writing these children's books to comply with the academic standards of the public schools. In this way you should seriously work to compile these books along with the help of Krishna Bhamini. Then they can be printed by our press and dispatched to N.Y. centers as well as all our other centers. Krishna Consciousness is for everyone and so we can present your books to the public also in that light. You can send me copies of some of the stories you have written in which there are "personified animals" and I will tell you if they are all right. So go on compiling these books. Do it nicely and Krishna will bless you. Thanking you once more for your kind letter. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Yours sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 03:59 | January 27, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Paramananda, Please accept my blessings and I thank you very much for your kind letter dated 28th December, 1970. I am so glad to hear that your son Premananda is already walking and already chanting Hare Krishna. That is very good. So Krishna has blessed you with a nice Krishna Conscious wife and a devotee son and good atmosphere for raising a family in Krishna Consciousness. You are one of the main members of our New Vrindaban scheme. So be very serious to develop it nicely so that we can show the world how the ideal God-conscious community is working. So far as your questions are concerned: 1) How the five great elements are a gross representation of the subtle false ego. Where is the problem? By false ego, which is part of the subtle body, we are thinking that we are this gross material body made up of the five great elements. That is all. (2) There are 16 factors--10 senses, 5 sense objects and the mind. When the three modes of nature react, then from these 16 factors the gross and subtle elements come out. The soul is the 17th factor. Please offer my blessings to the others there. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 03:58 | Jan 25, 2006 January 25, 1971 Allahabad Manager Central Bank of India Gwalia Tank Road Branch Bombay Dear Sir: Re: My Home Savings Account No. 14538 with you. Please find enclosed herewith two checks, one check No. T458303 from Central Bank of India, Bombay, for Rs 2250.00 and another check No. C676070 from the Bank of India, Ltd. for Rs. 100 only. Please credit my above account with the total of Rs. 2350 only and return the counterfoil receipts to me. Thanking you in anticipation, I am. Yours sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 03:53 | Jan 23, 2006 January 23, 1971 Allahabad 23 January, 1971 My Dear Ksirodakasayi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 12th January, 1971, and I am very glad to hear from you after some time. In the meantime our program for touring India has been going with all success in every place we are invited. Now we have come to the Ardha Kumbha Mela at Prayag and we have got undisputed prominance amongst all groups here in the large gathering. So things have gone on considerably and so it is a little late at this time to continue our older plan for a charter flight from London with party to India because our program is almost complete. So no flight should be booked at this time. Regarding the Regent's Park land, I am very hopeful of your efforts to secure permission from the Queen and we are duly contacting Sri Karan Singh, who is already known to us, very shortly as you have suggested. So for the time being you should try to improve our London Yatra as far as possible and increase the distribution program of our books. These are more important business than India. And the land in Regents Park is also important. I am expecting to return to U.S.A. very soon, so I shall most probably see you in London and then I shall give further instructions. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 03:55 | Jan 22, 2006 January 22, 1971 Allahabad My Dear Sudama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 7th January, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. It is very good news that your wife has taken to learn the Japanese language. So you should train your wife like that instead of fighting and creating misunderstanding. You must tolerate such misunderstandings. Train her for useful purpose and it will be a great help to both you and the society. Offer my blessings to her. Bruce has not yet taken his initiation. He wants to remain with us independently. I have no objection for such conclusion but unless he is properly initiated, he cannot help you either in the kitchen or with Deity worship, but he can help you in translating and other activities. Our whole process in on the basis of surrender. I think he is lacking in that spirit. So I have given my permission for him to return to Japan. Try to train him to the right path. So far as recruiting men is concerned, we have to create men. Preaching means to recruite more and more men. This process is called gosthananda which means pleasure by seeing increase of followers. So far I know, not a single Japanese has been initiated. What is the cause of it? In my letter to your good self dated 5th December I gave my permission for Visnujana Swami to go there, but now it has been arranged that Karatieya Swami will be going there instead. He is enthusiastic for going and will accompany Bruce Prabhu. Yes, both the boy mentioned by you as well as Bruce may be engaged in translation work and you may start with Bhagavad-gita as planned. Our beginning is Bhagavad-gita, next Srimad-Bhagavatam, next KRSNA book, and then Teachings of Lord Caitanya. And anyone who reads these books will surely become Krishna Conscious. Please keep me informed of your progress there. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb P.S. I have just received your letter dated 15th January, 1971. You may send passage for Karatieya Maharaja and as soon as he receives the ticket, he shall go there immediately. He will be going to Calcutta, so you can send the ticket there. The address is as follows: 11B. Jatindra Mohan Ave; Calcutta-6, India. Simply instruct him at what airlines office he can pick up his ticket. Bruce Prabhu already has passage money, so you needn't send a ticket for him. Bruce has had a change of heart and the day after tomorrow, January 25th, he will take initiation. So first of all let the two go there and then after we finish our Indian business, we shall think of going to Tokyo. For the present, though, both Karatieya Maharaja and Bruce Prabhu should be a great help to you there. ACBS letters | 03:23 | |
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