a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1971 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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Mar 18, 2006 Thursday, March 18, 1971 Bombay My Dear Karandhara, Please accept my blessings, I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 2nd, 1971, and noted the contents. I am very glad that you are carrying on your programs for spreading Krsna consciousness to the people with great enthusiasm and good response. The good reports are coming and it is a fact that we are being highly appreciated for our efforts to introduce this pure spiritual life to the society at large, but we must not lose our own status of advancement in Krsna consciousness. Everything must be done very intelligently. I have the seven sacred threads (including one for Sriman Yasodanandana) and they are returned by separate post with my blessings. I have received the Bank of America deposit slips for $1,080.00. Thank you very much. I am encouraged by your new membership drive. This membership program is so important that we get money, sympathizers and push on our mission of distributing books, all simultaneously. Anyone reading our Krsna book, Nectar of Devotion, Teachings of Lord Caitanya and Bhagavad-gita will certainly become a Krsna conscious person. Someway or other we have to push these literatures, whether through schools, colleges, libraries, membership or ordinary sales. In your country practically there is no illiteracy. Everyone can read and write. So when they will read Krsna book, certainly they will enjoy this as a story or as philosophy, morality, religion, etc. and gradually they will become perfect in Krsna consciousness. It is very nice that Dayananda has taken most of the management of L.A. Temple. He will be more active now and his intelligent wife should also assist him, at least in secretarial work. Bookkeeping is the most important item. As you are growing in stature, our accounting system should become very perfect. We have to publish now a short statement of accounts. As we increase our life membership number, we must submit our audited accounts and that will convince the public of our stability. I have received some letters just now from Kesava in San Francisco, and I am sending him some instructions for celebrating Rathayatra. I hope by this time the new throne has been completed. I am very eager to see it installed. In the meantime we are sending big Deities, like in London. Please offer my blessings to your good wife, Srimati Saci Devi, and all the other Prabhus. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. I have seen the GBC financial report for January, 1971, but I could not follow what is this ``Breakdown'' (i.e. BTG a/c $3,717.70; BP a/c $2,798.00; // total = $6,515.70). ACBS:ds letters | 11:28 | March 18, 1971 Bombay My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated 12th and 25th February as well as enclosed ISKCON Press Newsletter dated 22nd January, 1971. Also I have received all our new publications and I am very much pleased with them. I can see from ``Purusa-sukta Confirmed'' that our printing has very much improved, especially the color cover, and if it continues to improve in this way it will be a great credit for our Press. The membership receipt book is also quite satisfactory. So far as reprinting of NOD, for the time being this printing may not be taken up if it hasn't already begun because until now we have had nobody fixed up for the responsibility of binding. Until now we could not fix up our own place, neither there is any responsible men who can be entrusted with this work. But very recently we have sent some men to Delhi and as soon as the Delhi branch is fixed up, I shall write to you in this connection. So far as TLC, in India we have got sufficient stock of this book, but if there is a demand in U.S.A. or if the stock of TLC is already finished, then you can print one book, not five small books. Another suggestion is if this can be reduced to small pages like penguin books and printed at very cheap price. What will be the cost for such a book? If you reduce the size of the page, then it has to be photographed. So there would be no need of recomposing. The new BTG logo is very nice. It is accepted. The original idea is improved in this logo. I am very glad. So far as the new BTGs sent by you, all of them are very nice. Regarding Bhagavad-gita As It Is, this book is very urgently required. You had previously quoted a price of $17,000. So why print in Dai Nippon for $20,000 and lose $3,000? If it is possible to print on our press, that is better, but if not then Dai Nippon may do the printing. It is understood that BTG department has become debtor to Dai Nippon by $52,000 and they wanted to stop printing on BTG. I have therefore immediately paid them $20,000 out of my book fund so that BTG may not be stopped. I think that there is a lack of management in realizing the return on BTG. The idea is like this: If you print 200,000 BTG and collect at least 25 cents per copy, the collection is $50,000. Out of that, $14,000 is paid to Dai Nippon. So why there should be scarcity of money? It is simply mismanagement. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Yours sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 11:27 | Mar 17, 2006 Wednesday, March 17, 1971 Bombay My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 22nd February, 1971 and have noted the contents. Presently I am in Bombay and will be here until 4th April. I am very sorry to inform you that the London management is not going on nicely. I have received so many unfavorable reports and the most astonishing report is that our small van which you had purchased in my presence has been taken away by the proprietor on account of payments not being made properly. So we have lost all the money that we have already paid. But never mind; that is past. Now, better late than never, try to establish the position of the London temple as it was before. I have confidence that you can do it nicely so go on and let me know what progress you are making. Also I have received the five letters requesting initiation. Richard Prime and Jim Counsilman have already been initiated and they should have received their beads duly chanted on by now. Also please thank Milan, Phillip, and Anna for their kind letters. From Bombay I shall most probably be stopping in London on my way back to U.S.A. and at that time can initiate them personally. Please offer my blessings to the others. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 11:26 | March 17, 1971 Bombay My Dear Bhavananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 20th February, 1971 and have also received the enclosed pictures and newspaper cuttings. All of them were so interesting to me. Thank you very much. You are doing so much for my Guru Maharaja. It is still more encouraging that the number of devotees in N.Y. temple is increasing. I wish that the number of devotees in every temple be more and more increased. I know that there are many young men in your country who are very frustrated but they have got one good quality. That is renunciation of this worldly attachment. From this platform they can very easily take to Krishna Consciousness. So our Krishna Consciousness Movement should be especially directed towards these frustrated persons. Make all our temples full with many devotees and after being trained up they should be sent to every town and village in your country so that they will be benefited as well as all others. So far as making speaking engagements is concerned, by all means you may do so but first of all I shall let you know definitely when I am going to N.Y. Then you can make many engagements in respectable circles. That will enhance the prestige of our society. Yes, let the devotees wait for initiation until I go there and under your care let them become more and more strong in Krishna Consciousness. I am looking forward to visiting N.Y. City. N.Y. is favored by me because I started this movement from there, and I wish to see that all the residents of N.Y. Krishna Consciously advanced. 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 | 11:24 | March 17, 1971 Bombay My Dear Jayadvaita, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 21st February, 1971 and noted the contents carefully. I do not know what may have happened to the letter dated 9th January, 1971, but I have not received it. Regarding your questions: 12:12: The ultimate point is to come to the stage of loving Krsna and all other indirect processes are subsidiary. We are concerned here with approaching Krsna by the direct process of devotional service. Independent of Krsna consciousness, the cultivation of knowledge, work, meditation and renunciation are of no value or the proud achievements of the atheist or less intelligent class of men. In this connection, the term ``knowledge'' is mental speculative theorizing up to the stage of brahmajnana or impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth. Especially such knowledge as it is concerned with various views of the causal and effective material phenomena is of no importance in the matter of spiritual realization or God-consciousness which is transcendental to the realm of sensual, mental and intellectual activities. So the order of supercession of these various indirect processes for approaching the Absolute Truth is not as much important as fixed understanding of the exalted position of devotional service rendered directly to Krsna. 14:27: Impersonal Brahman is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness because without coming to the brahma-bhutah platform and remaining engaged in the activities of brahman nobody can be joyful. To realize that aham brahmasmi is the first step of transcendental life. After one is in full knowledge that he is not this body, but is spiritual soul, he can effectually engage himself in the transcendental service of the Lord. It is not that one develops any other identity, but the soul in its liberated existence is Brahman or pure spirit always. You know that each of the successive realizations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead includes the earlier realizations in the order of Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. If you want to go into the sun planet, you have first to go into the sunshine; then you remain in the sunlight. It is not that when you reach the sun planet you will no longer be in the sunlight. I have dictated the missing purports from Chapter IX and they are set enclosed herewith. So far changing the working of verse or purport of 12:12 discussed before, it may remain as it is. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 11:23 | March 17, 1971 Calcutta To Whom It May Concern Resolved in a meeting of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness held in Calcutta at 3, Albert Road, Calcutta 16 in the presence of the Acarya Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, G.B.C. Secretary Tamala Krishna Das Adhikari and initiated members as Ksirodakasayi Das Adhikari and Revatinandana Das Brahmachari that a checking account of the society be opened in Central Bank of India, Delhi and Ksirodakasayi Das Adhikari and Revatinandana Das Brahmachari will jointly sign the cheques. Their specimen signatures are as under. Acarya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Secretary G.B.C. Tamala Krishna Adhikari specimen signatures Ksirodakasayi Das Adhikari Revatinandana Dasa Brahmacari letters | 09:25 | Mar 16, 2006 March 16, 1971 Bombay My Dear Karandhara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 1st March, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. I understand that you have become a debtor to Dai Nippon for $52,000. This is not good. We must keep our credit. They have given us all facilities, and if you don't keep our credit with them, that is not good. So consider it a heavy debt. I have just sent them a check for $20,000. The forwarding copy of the letter is enclosed herein, which will speak for itself. Now to make a solution to the problem the following formula should be followed: Print 200,000 BTGs without fail. The cost of this printing will be $14,000. Each center must collect at least 25 cents for each copy as donation, if not more. Any man will be able to pay 25 cents; it is not difficult. So by collecting 25 cents per copy is $50,000, expenditure is $14,000, and so there is a clear profit of $36,000. Out of that $5,000 per month may be paid towards the old debt. So still there is $31,000, so if this is divided proportionately for each temple, where is the question of poverty? This means that the management has not been done properly. Henceforward this policy should be followed. Collect $50,000, pay $14,000, leaving $36,000 profit. Pay the old debt of $5,000 and divide the remaining $31,000 amongst the temples. Now as I am forwarding $20,000, the first four months at the rate of $5,000 may be paid to me. After this is paid, regularly $5,000 may be paid to Dai Nippon for their old debts. Manage like this and everything will be all right. So far Indian money, I paid for Isopanisad, NOD, KRSNA book, and some of the chapter-wise Srimad-Bhagavatam. So there was about 10,000 NOD, worth about $40,000, Isopanisad--$5,000, TLC--$3,000 and KRSNA book at $80,000. The total price for all these I have paid. These books were in the stock worth $155,000. You have not paid Dai Nippon even $50,000, so where is the money? The whole thing is that management is not being done properly. So far as moving the accounting department to N.Y., that is all right, but first of all let the certified accountant there do and then when the GBC sees that he is doing nicely, then you can hand over the account. Yes, you may give the donors an honorable mention page in Bhagavad-gita. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Enclosure-1 (see next letter to Mr. Yukio Ogata) letters | 08:04 | March 16, 1971 Bombay Mr. Yukio Ogata c/o Ushigome Post Office Tokyo, Japan My Dear Mr. Ogata: Please accept my greetings. It is understood that the Back To Godhead department is in debt by $52,000.00. I am very sorry that this has increased so much. Therefore I am sending check no 16-320 for $20,000.00. So please continue to print Back To Godhead magazine without hesitation. Your money is always safe. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Yours sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 08:03 | Mar 14, 2006 March 14, 1971 Bombay TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Resolved in a meeting of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness held in Calcutta at 3, Albert Road, Calcutta 16 in the presence of the Acarya Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, GBC Secretary Tamala Krishna Das Adhikari and initiated members as Ksirodakasayi Das Adhikari and Revatinandana Das Brahmacari that a checking account of the society be opened in Central Bank of India, Delhi and Ksirodakasayi Das Adhikari and Revatinandana Das Brahmacari will jointly sign the checks. Their specimen signatures are as under. Acarya A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Tamala Krishna Das Adhikari Secretary GBC Ksirodakasayi Das Adhikari Revatinandana Das Brahmacar letters | 08:01 | Mar 13, 2006 March 13, 1971 Bombay My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated 21st and 23rd February, 1971, respectively. I have also received the newspaper clipping showing Hrdayananda's wedding and it is very nice. So far as him taking over the management of Boston temple, that is all right. All department heads should train an assistant so that in their absence, work may not suffer but go on continuously. However, why do you want to divorce yourself entirely from management of Boston temple? Do you think that is necessary? Our new publication ``The Modern Mission of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness'' sounds very nice and you may send me some copies as soon as they are printed up. So far as your suggestion for a booklet of operational principles, you may go ahead as planned. For this book so many points have been explained in the Nectar of Devotion. So why don't you refer to it? Last year's handbook was not bad. There was sufficient stock of information there but if you can improve upon it still further, that will be very nice. Also very soon I shall send you one complete set of instructions on worshipping the Deity and you can print in English and distribute. This book shall be named ``Method of Worship''. So far as life membership is concerned, what is this time and circumstance of U.S.A.? To become a life member means a person has become sympathetic. They should simply be convinced of the importance of our movement, and that according to your activity. In some newspaper clippings I have read, about our devotees. ``These are good men and we want more men like this in our community.'' That is certainly good impression. They are sympathetic and so for them to become our life member is not difficult. There are four divisions of members; life member, donor member, subscriber member, and common member. So any membership will make the people sympathetic to our movement and it will be a stride toward our progressive march. Yes, it is my desire that Isana and his wife and child stay there in Boston temple and Isana may continue as cook there. He should always be kept engaged. He is a bit crazy but he is a very good soul. Please give him my blessings and let me know how he is doing there. So far as helping youth cases, they should live with us. We cannot devote separate time for them. That is not possible. If anyone desires to be treated, he must live with us. Before admitting him, we must see that he is not a mad man and will not create a disturbance. If he lives with us and sees how [PAGE MISSING] letters | 07:59 | |
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