a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1971 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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Oct 14, 2006 Thursday, 14 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Vasudeva, Please accept my blessings. I have heard a serious complaint against you that you are in intimate relation with Aradhana's wife Santanu. I am not only surprised but I cannot believe that a nice boy like you should be thus accused. Anyway young boys and girls sometimes commit mistakes due to age but we should remember that we are considered to be the most responsible persons in the society. Rejection of illicit sex life is our first motto. So I request you to stop immediately all this nonsense and remain fixed up in your good character. I have got very much appreciation of your abilities and I hope you will do the needful so that there may not be any more accusation against your good character. Any god-brother's wife or any unmarried girl in our society should be always treated as mother and sister. Any married woman should be treated as mother. So we require many pictures of the acaryas so please engage yourself in painting more seriously than to divert your attention in any other matter. Please reply this letter to my Bombay address and let me know what you have done. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 17:44 | 14 October, 1971 Nairobi My dear Vrinda devi, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 8th October, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. I heard from Sivananda that you had left him without his knowledge. That is not very good. When he wrote me twice "my wife has left me and there is no trace" then I advised him that instead of marrying again, better to prepare for sannyasa. So far my knowledge is concerned, I consider Sivananda as one of my foremost disciples. I always remember his smiling face and when I was in Hamburg he was my constant companion and my personal attendant also. So I cannot forget Sivananda's good behavior and gentle nature. I do not know why you disagreed with such a nice husband. If you take my advice, then you will immediately return to your husband and live there peacefully. You are a qualified girl. You can do extensive service to Krishna. I require your service in the matter of translating work. So I advise you to engage yourself fully in your good quality occupation and be advanced in Krishna Consciousness. Our ISKCON Society married couples means that both parties fully are engaged in Krishna's service. I have noted your several complaints against the devotees but it would be better to set the example rather than to criticize the defects of the devotees. We should always remember that we recruit members from people in general. It is not expected that every one of our members should be immediately to the standard qualification. The best thing for you is to set the example by your personal behavior and try to reform the others, not by criticizing but by friendly behavior. If sometimes there are any disagreements, we should try to forget such incidences and be always in friendship with each other. So I hope you will immediately return to your husband and forget all these disagreements and fully cooperate for developing our Berlin center. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. Regarding children, when you are married you will have children undoubtedly, but you should wait for the opportune moment when Krishna will bestow upon you all good fortune. Our line of action is enthusiasm and patience. cc: Sivananda; c/o ISKCON Berlin W. Germany ACBS/adb letters | 17:43 | Oct 13, 2006 Wednesday, 13 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Dayananda and Nandarani, Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your children Candramukhi and Vilasani. I am in due receipt of your letters dated 7th October, and I am so glad to receive them. I am so pleased to see that you both have taken very seriously to improve the conditions of our London temple. Our London center is very important and it is already known all over Europe and what to speak of England. So try to develop this center to the best of your capacity. I am sure that now London temple is in the right hands. Both of you, husband and wife, attempted to improve the L.A. temple and Dayananda took so much risk to maintain it. I remember all these things. Now our L.A. temple has come to a very prominent position. So far I know Karandhara is managing it nicely and you have got sufficient experience as president of L.A. temple. Now you are president of London Temple, so please just try to raise it to the L.A. standard. So far the roofless church, it is lying unused for so many years. Why not approach the authorities to give it to us as donation for this great cause, or else for a nominal lease-rent for 99 years? Then we can repair this church very nicely. I have seen it but still if you will kindly send me specifics of the land area, the inside area of the church and other particulars, then I can give you some suggestions. I think there is some spare land also surrounding the church. So all details may be supplied. But I think if we replace the roof and make necessary arrangements for living quarters it will be very nice. But so far the neighborhood is concerned, I am not very much optimistic. So you have to study the neighborhood also whether people will come to our church. Out of all the churches that I saw during my stay in London, I found the old Paddington church very nice. Why not negotiate with this property? What is the difficulty? I like that church very much. It is quite suitable for London temple. But as soon as we get a nice church it will not be difficult to raise the money for that purpose. When George came to our L.A. temple he remarked--why not a nice temple in London like this one? So you try to find out a nice church, preferably the Paddington one, and I think there will be no difficulty in raising the necessary funds. Our book sales are increasing. If we attempt to do something the Indian community also will contribute. George will also contribute. So try to find out the best one. Krishna will help you. So far the accounts are concerned, it is a very important item. I am so glad to learn that you are taking assistance from a chartered accountant. We are a registered limited establishment. Accounts must be submitted yearly to the companies registrar. Then there will be no [PAGE MISSING] letters | 17:42 | 13 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Sons and Daughter, Please accept my blessings. I have just recently received one letter from Sriman Tulsidas Prabhu and at his recommendation I have gladly consented to accept you all as my duly initiated disciples. Your beads are all chanted and they are enclosed herewith. I have given you the spiritual names as follows: Sriballavah Das Brahmacari (V. Fiocco). Sriballavah is another name for Narayana. Pranaballavah Das Brahmacari (B. Webster). Pranaballavah means Krishna. Vallabha means beloved and prana means life. Kamalavati Dasi (E. Heller). Kamalavati means the goddess of fortune. I can understand that you are all very sincere and very much qualified devotees and now by Krishna's grace you are engaged whole-heartedly in His service. So take full advantage of this opportunity and perfect your lives; that is my request. Our process is simple. Follow the regulative principles strictly, chant at least 16 rounds of Hare Krishna mantra daily, read all our books, go for street Sankirtana and in this way be engaged in Krishna's business 24 hours. Then you will be always thinking of Krishna and in the end go back to Krishna, back to home, back to Godhead. Hoping this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 17:41 | 13 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Tulsi das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter from Denver dated 3d October, 1971 and have noted the contents. It is very much encouraging that your center is improving daily and doing so nicely. There is good field there. So combinedly work very hard to make our new Denver center a grand success. We have all taken on a great responsibility for spreading Krishna Consciousness all over the world. Actually people are suffering on account of being enamored by the external energy. Krishna wants to deliver them. He comes personally, he comes as a devotee, and he sends His authorized devotee. So some way or other we have been entrusted to serve Krishna in this connection. Do it nicely. Follow the regulative principles and teach others to do likewise and we shall remain strong and it will not be difficult for us to push on this movement. I am so much obliged to you for your helping the cause. Please stick to this principle and Krishna will bless you with all benediction. At your recommendation I have accepted Vin, Bruce and Elicia as my duly initiated disciples. One letter and their beads are enclosed herewith. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 17:41 | 13 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 3d October and have noted the contents. I am starting for Bombay on the 19th October at 10:00 p.m. reaching Bombay at about 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning.* I shall stay there until the 23d, four days, and then I shall start for Calcutta on the 24th, some time in the morning. The exact time of my arrival in Calcutta will be informed to you in my next letter. I do not know whether you are all coming to Calcutta for the festival there. Neither I know who is in charge of organizing the Calcutta meeting from the 28th. Your reply to this letter may be sent to Bombay address. So far printing Hindi BTG, why the check should be issued in the name of ISKCON; why not directly to the press name? My checks for the book fund account are lying in Bombay. So you can let me know in Bombay the exact amount, or the press bill, and the name of the press so that the check may be issued directly to their name. Regarding record impressions, the price appears to be very much exorbitant. In U.S.A. I think such records are printed at 15 cents per copy. So that comes to Rs. 1.13. Why should we get from Gramaphone Co. at such high cost? What will be the selling price for these records? If the cost is about Rs 5/- per record then would they be sold at Rs. 10/-? I do not know at what price you have sold them in the past. Anyway if you have already placed the order with Gramaphone Co. then what can be done? We will have to take delivery of them. So in your next letter to the Bombay address you can mention the exact amount to be paid to the Gramaphone Co. and a check will be issued directly in their name. I think there is no need of issuing a check in the name of ISKCON and again have to transfer it to the company name. The real method is that the check should be issued directly to the payee's name. So far the books are concerned, the method appears to be very nice. So make correspondence with our book supply department and do the needful. Another point is that why don't you get all reprints of our books, such as TLC, NOD, etc., that are to be distributed in India, printed there in Delhi on offset press? You can inquire into this matter. So whatever has been done in the past you forget, but now do things nicely. All new matters should be consulted with all the members and a vote taken. I think you should immediately consult with Rupanuga and Karandhara also about the record impressions, what would be the cost in USA. Outside of India everyone is cooperating with Karandhara. I don't think there is any discrepancy, but I do not know why in India cooperation is lacking. So you should do things nicely and in consultation with others and rectify the situation. I have also apprehended a scandalous situation; so do things nicely and immediately begin. Printing Nepalese edition of BTG is a good suggestion. Also to Mr. V. R. Ragam (c/o Sri Rama Nama Kshetra; Guntur-4; S. India) you should send a complimentary issue of our Hindi BTG each month, beginning with the issue already printed with Dai Nippon. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. Please offer Gurudasa my blessings. I have received his letter of 7th October, 1971 and noted the contents. While posting I received one letter from Ksirodakasayi and the program presented by him appears to be very nice. So kindly cooperate with him and make things nice. We have got great responsibility. Further talks when we meet./ ACB *flight # E.C. 820, arriving 8:15 a.m. 20th October. East African Airlines. letters | 17:40 | Oct 12, 2006 12 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Citsukhananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 29th September, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. I am very glad to see that Candrabali and your son have returned to you again. It is very good. Husband and wife, there may be some disagreement but it should not be taken at any time very seriously. So combinedly together, go on with your preaching work. I am so much pleased that you have got a nice place. I shall try to go to your center at my first opportunity. Some time back I went to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is a nice small city. I think Santa Fe is near Albuquerque. These tracts of land are full of hills. I quite follow the situation prescribed by you, and all these yogis are mostly bluffers. They have no substance to give. You can openly declare this fact. Try to distribute our books very widely and preach also. These bogus yogis and swamis will vanish. It is very good that you have registered the society. It is very important. Actually we are not a religious institution. We are presenting a cultural program, making men of good character. Therefore it is a cultural institution. We are also registered here in Nairobi as International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Ltd. Many people are becoming our life members also and we have collected over 30,000 shillings and are trying to find out land where to locate ourselves. One thing is that all translations should be checked by you and Candrabali because those who are not our students, if they write some wrong conclusion, the whole thing will be murdered. The prose and appreciations are very nice. Thank you very much. It is all being sent to Satsvarupa for future publication after examination. Please offer my blessings to the others there. Hoping this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 17:39 | Oct 9, 2006 Saturday, 9 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter 28th September, 1971 and have noted the contents. Also I have received newspaper clipping. So it appears that things are going on very nicely in Melbourne. Please now stick there and develop that center. There is no question of leaving our society. One may think like that but I cannot allow you to leave. That is my inspiration. Those who have left the society I am always thinking of them. Especially for you there is no question of leaving. Stay in Melbourne and preach with steady determination. I am glad to learn that you are in steady correspondence with Karandhara and am sure he will give you all good direction. So don't be agitated by anyone's so-called demand but you stick to your preaching work, husband and wife, chanting and following the regulative principles. Don't be agitated by trifle things. Remain steady and go on with preaching work. Krishna will help you in every way. I am so pleased with you that you have done so nicely in the service of the Lord to your best capacity. That is required. It is not that everyone should be equally expert. But the thing that is needed is that we should be serious and sincere in our engagement. Nobody can adequately serve Krishna because Krishna is unlimited. But Krishna so kind that even a small leaf or flower offered to Krishna by the poorest man in the world, Krishna accepts such thing. Krishna is so opulent that he is not even slightly benefited by any presentation but he is so kind and merciful that he accepts a little bit of leaf or flower or water from his devotees, and because a devotee comes to him with such love and affection he becomes very much satisfied. As a father is always sorry for the son is out of home, similarly Krishna is not very happy on account of so many bewildered fallen souls in the material world. He therefore comes personally to ask them to surrender again to Him. But the conditioned soul is so much illusioned that it is very hard to make him surrender to Krishna. Therefore each and every one of us, if we can give service to Krishna by making another man surrender to Krishna, then He will very much appreciate that service and that is our gain. Try to follow this principle and preach vigorously to your best capacity and everything will be all right. Don't worry. So far your question, the soul is fundamentally pure but he has an aptitude to come to the impure state of material contamination. He is therefore called tatastha or marginal. He has got the liberty of staying within the pure state or becoming contaminated. That is his choice. This marginal point can be understood in this way; just like you are standing on the shore of the sea. So you can remain on the land or sometimes you can jump into the water to enjoy as you will see on the beaches. So many young boys are enjoying. But that is dangerous at the same time. One who does not know swimming expertly well he may become drowned. Similarly the soul from the spiritual platform sometimes jumps over the material ocean of nescience. The Vedic knowledge gives him specific instruction how to swim over but if he is a rascal, he does not take the instruction through the bona fide representative, the spiritual master, and he becomes drowned. That is the position. The Vedic instruction is so nice that the soul, when he jumps over this material ocean, the Vedic instruction teaches him how to swim and come back again to the shore. This swimming process, according to Vedic instruction, is called sacrifice, charity and penance. One who learns these techniques of swimming over the ocean of nescience, he goes back to home, back to Godhead. One who does not take to this swimming process, he becomes drowned. In the Bhagavad-gita this is stated iccha dyesa samutthena . . . svarge yanti parantapa which means deluded by desire to enjoy the material world and becoming envious of Krishna, one comes to this material world. (Bhagavad-gita, 7/27). So read our literature profusely and you will get sufficient knowledge. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. I have received your second letter also. ACBS/adb letters | 17:39 | 9 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Karandhara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter post-dated 5th October, 1971 and have noted the contents. I am very glad to learn that Rayarama is going to join us again. He is always welcome. So when he goes to N.Y. he may write to me. Then I shall let him know where to go in India. For the time being, from here I am going to Bombay and then Calcutta and then Delhi. In this way they have got several programs in India. So on hearing from Rayarama at my Bombay address I shall give him direction where to come. If you think it is wise to purchase that house you can give the loan of $15,000 from the amount of $33,000 advanced to BTG a/c. But one thing is that these amounts are especially kept to meet emergency credit with Dai Nippon because twice I paid them at the rate of $20,000, to meet their immediate demand. So our credit is maintained with them. So this $15,000 loan to the Dallas school scheme must be returned very quickly because it is emergency fund. If it becomes blocked on account of purchasing property then I do not think this money should be invested in that way. Soif you consider that this money will be returned as soon as possible, not later than six months, then I allow you to give them the loan. So far marriages are concerned, just use your discretion but be sure that marriage does not become a farce. It must be serious. So far age is considered, generally the girl should not be older than the boy but in special case you can use your discrimination. Sometimes it so happens that the girl is older than the boy. In India also sometimes it so happens that the girl is older than the boy in some provinces. So you can use your discrimination and do the needful. I am in due receipt of your statement of account and similarly every branch of our society should make a periodical trial balance and balance sheet. You can advise to all the branches that such accounts should be kept very nicely so that the public may know that we are very clear in our dealings. Regarding printing our books and literatures, I may inform you in this connection that I saw one bulletin of Indian Railways in which it was specifically advised that every railway servant should see to it that the wheels of the carriages or vehicles must be moving always, which means that the railway is going nicely. Similarly all of us should see that our literatures are profusely distributed. That means that our missionary work is going on nicely. Otherwise we are simply sleeping and eating. The literature we have already designated as brihat mrdanga. So distribution of literature means great Sankirtana. Our program here in Nairobi is going on very successfully. Just the other day we had a most successful engagement at the University of Nairobi and preaching and Sankirtana is going on daily. The Africans are eagerly taking part and very anxious to join us also. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 17:38 | 9 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Bali-mardana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 5th October, 1971 and have noted the contents. So we all combined together have taken a great task of this Krsna Consciousness movement so I am very glad to learn that you are all gradually understanding the importance of this movement. So let us execute this task very cautiously so that the human society may take advantage of it and make their life successful. It is not that everyone will be able to understand this philosophy. Still if some intelligent section of the human society understands it, there will be tremendous change in the atmosphere. So I am glad to understand also that there is good chance for opening a branch in New Zealand. I think that you may remember that when we were coming from Sydney to Calcutta we were talking on the plane about opening a branch in New Zealand country. I have not heard for many days about Kuala Lumpur activities and also Hong Kong. I hope you might have received news from them. So I wish that you may stay for some time in Delhi to recoup your health. Delhi climate is now very good. So you take in the morning sugar candy juice. Just soak some sugar candy overnight in water and take early in the morning and that will help you. Don't take any fatty vegetables (too much ghee and spices). Take green vegetables in salad with lime juice. Green papaya boiled is also nice. Hoping this will meet you in rapidly improving health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 17:37 | 9 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated 1st and 4th October, 1971, respectively and have noted the contents. I am very glad to know that you are trying your best to organize a school in Dallas and purchase a building in this connection, and that you are very much anxious to get a $15,000 loan from me. So I have advised Karandhara to give you this sum as a loan for six months because this money is kept to meet emergency demand from Dai Nippon. We have to keep our credit nicely with Dai Nippon. Twice I paid $20,000 each time. So they are convinced that we are a solid party. So this $15,000 loan to your school scheme may be returned as soon as possible, not later than six months. So you can immediately complete negotiation and take the money from Karandhara. Regarding your teacher problem, I have advised Pradyumna to go there and teach students primary Sanskrit lessons at least to learn the alphabet, so that in the future when they go to India they may learn Sanskrit very easily. The students should be taught Sanskrit both in Devanagari and Bengali alphabets. Satyabhama in New Vrindaban has written a nice book for elementary lessons in English. I think this book may be printed immediately. If not the manuscript may be used to teach the students. The important matter is that the children are taken care of nicely. Bhavananda was talking with me that in New Vrindaban students were very much neglected. Therefore they were immediately transferred to New York. Every parent wants to see that their children are taken care of very nicely. That is the first duty. If they are not healthy then how they can prosecute their education? If they are undernourished it is not good for their future activities. They must have sufficient quantity of milk and then dhal, capatis, vegetables, and a little fruit will keep them always fit. There is no need of luxurious fatty foods but milk is essential. A big building is also very good for the children's health. They can move freely and run and jump. Yes, Visnujana Maharaja is personally a nice devotee so he has created nice devotees. Apani achari prabhu jivare sikhaya, which means that Lord Caitanya used to behave personally and then he used to teach others. So every one of us should follow this principle of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Please offer my blessings to Mohanananda Prabhu and the others. Hoping this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 17:36 | Oct 8, 2006 8 October, 1971 Nairobi My Dear Hamsaduta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 30th September, 1971 which is very much encouraging to me. I am very glad that you are now getting strength. So now you have got 1800 books and are getting more. There is good demand. So Krishna has solved all your problems. Print books and sell and get rich; that's all. We have got asset, our books, so where is the question of poverty? So don't be disheartened at any circumstance. Depend on Krishna. After all this is the kingdom of maya. She is always peeping to take the opportunity of attacking us, but if we fix up our attention on the Lotus Feet of Krishna, maya cannot even touch us. So let Mandali Bhadra be seriously engaged in translating work and recruit some German devotees to help him so that we can print all our books in German language and you can develop the Hamburg center very nicely. You know very well that I went to India this time empty handed but we spent there not less than five lakhs Rupees during my 10 month stay and all the money was collected simply on the strength of our books and literatures. So when you have got literature and books, there is no question of poverty in our society. Simply we have to organize things nicely and manage carefully. I hope henceforward you will not feel at all discouraged. All of you there push on this movement in Germany which is the best country in Europe. The most intelligent class of men are there. Try to convince them about our philosophy. The German scholars are especially inclined toward Indian philosophy. There are many learned scholars well versed in Sanskrit. So our books with diacritic marks and original Sanskrit verses must be very much appreciated by all schools, colleges, libraries and the general public. So develop the press there very nicely. The press already has been declared as the greater mrdanga. As far as possible do things by correspondence. In Paris they are doing nicely but when you find it convenient you can go and see how they are doing. They will be encouraged by your presence. So far opening a restaurant in Amsterdam is concerned, unless you have got four men to look after it, it will not be successful. I think our attention should be more concentrated in the matter of making life members and distributing our literature. That is solid work. My idea of opening a restaurant requires sufficient money to decorate it. Things should not be done haphazardly. Yesterday we had a very successful meeting in the University of Nairobi; the exact words used in the newspaper report as as follows: "ISKCON SWAMI EXPLAINS PHILOSOPHY . . . Impeccable showmanship was matched with unimpeachable philosophy of Gita at a jampacked Taifla Hall in the University of Nairobi yesterday evening when about 2000 people and undergraduates listened to Acarya Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his disciples who presented the 'Hare Krishna Revolution'." So the African boys are coming to us and appreciating our philosophy. Two Afro-American devotees from N.Y. have come also and joined us. So until now our program is going nicely. We have collected 30,000 shillings. One shs = 1 Rs. Syamasundara. is also enthusiastic to hold a similar function like Bombay and Calcutta and arrangement is being made for that. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/adb letters | 17:35 | |
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