a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1971 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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Nov 18, 2006 Thursday, 18 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Paramananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of November 2, 1971, and I am pleased that you have returned to New Vrindaban to develop it nicely. I wanted from the beginning that schoolhouse for teaching our children Krishna Consciousness. Now it seems that Krishna has fulfilled our desire and that Mr. Coffield may now sell it to us. Purchase it immediately and we shall construct there a model school for molding children in the perfect way of life. I know that you are the fit person for carrying out his plan, so I am entrusting you to see that everything is done very nicely and up to standard. This project of opening a school for young children may be expanded to include inviting children of respectable families for some tuition fee to come there for an ideal education including the basic requirements of reading and writing, but giving them also real spiritual knowledge of how to live perfectly--what other school of learning can offer such wonderful educational opportunity? There has also been suggestion of a kind of summer camp for children from crowded cities. What do you think? I am pleased to note the birth of your second son. Now kindly deliver him to Krishna and your life will be perfect. Actually, you are an ideal householder couple, and I want that such grhastha couples should manage things as they have a tendency to organize and manage, and so I am confident that you will help me deliver these children back to Home, back to Godhead. Yes, you may call your son Madhavendra das. I hope this meets you and your good wife Satyabhama in strong health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 12:18 | 18 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Srutasrava, Please accept my blessings. I have instructed Sridama, that if he is willing then the match may take place. However I must caution that we must be careful to avoid so far as possible affection for family based on sense gratification. Be happy in your family life by working cooperatively to please Krishna, and she should be your assistant. We must always feel the grave responsibility of serving Krishna. Hope this finds you in strong health and cheerful mood, Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 12:17 | 18 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Badrinarayana das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated November 7, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your proposal to accommodate more indoor engagements for Sankirtana, and thus to avoid the severe cold of wintertime, is a nice proposal, and I am encouraged to hear that you are always thinking of how to improve the program of your St. Louis temple. We should always be thinking of how to spread this Sankirtana Movement by applying our basic principles according to time and place, and I especially want that my students enter into the schools and colleges and present our Krishna philosophy and sell our books. So you may do this in consultation with Brhaspati das and other temple officers, and whenever such questions arise in future, do not hesitate to refer all matters of temple management to your GBC Zonal Secretary, Bhagavan das, for his help. I have appointed this GBC body to relieve me from the burden of administration, so I may concentrate on my writing and translation of books. Regarding your second point, I am pleased to hear that you are concerned for the development of your neophyte godbrothers and godsisters. So just try to help them by giving them Krishna Consciousness and the best way to do this is to set the example by being very enthusiastic to do anything and everything to please Krishna, even we may have to make sacrifice. Follow the regulative principles very strictly, and be ready to tolerate all kind of setbacks and disappointments. The difference between a devotee and a nondevotee is this, just like the bee and the fly: the bee always is attracted by the honey and flies go to the open sores. So the devotee is only attracted by the good qualities in other people and does not see their faults. He is friend to everyone and in this way he finds his life sublime. Of course we are not ourselves perfect, so sometimes there may be something, and we may lose our enthusiasm to do something--but these things come and go and you should not bother very much with them. Just be attached to Krishna and try always to think how to please Him, and He will personally rescue His devotee from all kinds of unfavorable situations. Even we may not like to do the work, if we work very hard for Krishna soon we lose our attachment and become satisfied just to be serving Krishna, and as long as at least 16 offenseless rounds daily are being chanted, know it for certain that our anxieties will disappear very soon. Regarding deity worship, the standard of deity worship must be kept very high in all our ISKCON centers. There should be no question of decrease, only how to increase in the quality and opulence of our arcana offerings. To supervise this essential Krishna Conscious activity requires a very fastidious person, one who can remember everything and be very conscientious to prepare everything nicely, be timely, like that. If you are very much attracted to pujari work then you should be given opportunity in some one of our ISKCON Temples to practice it very nicely. For that you consult with the officers and GBC. You have been my student for some time, and I consider that you are one of the big men who are assisting me in this vast work, so I am naturally concerned for your well-being. I want that you should give up this idea of outside living and working and regard it only as a temporary trick of Maya. I need such strong men as yourself to stick with me and together we shall go back to Home, back to Godhead. If you have no other engagement, I would be greatly pleased if you could take up this work of selling my books and literatures everywhere, as many as possible. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda/ddb letters | 12:16 | Nov 17, 2006 Wednesday, 17 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Brhaspati das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of November 3, 1971, and I am very much pleased that in the short time you have been president of ISKCON St. Louis so much work beneficial for spreading Krishna Consciousness has been done by you. Especially I am encouraged by your programs in the schools and colleges. Try to interest these students in our books. If you simply stick to the textbook teaching becomes very easy. Philosophy is the highest, but even higher than philosophy is practice of philosophy. So when your students apply Krishna philosophy to their lives, they will feel the beneficial result, and this will make your teaching work very easy. Just like you add hydrogen and oxygen and get water. So let them chant and learn Bhagavad-gita and they will get Krishna's mercy. I am successful in my teaching work because I have not deviated one inch from my Spiritual Master's instruction, this is my only qualification. So if you simply remain pure, your preaching will have effect. Kindly push on this college program--only the most intelligent persons can understand Krishna philosophy, so it is very important that we spread this message to the intelligent class of men. Soon I shall be printing my latest book, commentaries on your Western philosophers, and with this instruction you will be able to defeat all of the mental speculators and so-called scientists who are simply misleading everyone. Your program should help your distribution and popularizing of our books and magazines. This is our primary activity, to sell as many books as possible. So far establishing Krishna Conscious schools for higher education in St. Louis, this is a very nice proposal. Let us see what develops in future. The details can be discussed between you and the GBC, whom I have appointed to manage such things. Hoping this meets you in good health and cheerful mood. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda/ddb letters | 12:15 | 17 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 7th November, 1971, and have noted the contents. It is very good news to hear that the German government has granted you a 5 year visa and that your Sankirtana activities are expanding. This is all very encouraging. Continue investigating for a temple in East Berlin and then inform me when you have heard some word. Our festival here in Delhi is going very nicely. Every evening I am speaking with some chief guest, all coming from various fields of life. Hoping this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdd letters | 12:14 | 17 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Himavati, Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter of Nov. 2, 1971 and I have appreciated the contents carefully. I am especially pleased that you are finding great pleasure in serving Their Lordships in Hamburg Temple as pujari. I think that under your care They have become very gorgeous and satisfied. It is the sole aim of life to be constantly absorbed in thoughts about Radharani and Krishna, and because you are so determined to become fully Krishna Conscious, Krishna has given you this opportunity to realize that aim by serving Him directly. I have always instructed that the standard of arcana worship must be kept very high, because this will insure that every other temple activity will also flourish. So I am relieved to know that now the Deities are in your care. Thank you for this. If one simply deposits all of his or her loving propensity onto the Deity of Krishna, immediately they are relieved of anxiety due to material sense agitation. This is Krishna Consciousness. Your prayer that you may be put always in difficulty is just like Queen Kunti Devi. She prayed to Krishna in the same way, because whenever there was trouble Krishna felt the suffering of His devotees and stayed by them to help them. And as soon as the trouble ended, Krishna went away! So let us always pray that Krishna may put us into difficulty so that we may expect that He will also remain by us and not go away. You have a natural inclination as a teacher of small children, and I think that you should utilize it to instruct the young children of Hamburg in Krishna Consciousness. Children especially are inclined to appreciate Krishna's pastimes, so begin by reading to them from Krsna Book. They are not yet covered by false prestige and will very quickly take to tapasya as if it were amusing like a game! Just see the young brahmacaris in India. The Guru says do this, do that--immediately they do--they go out and beg all day in the hot sun and come back with a little rice, then take rest on the floor with no covering. And they are enjoying, it is pleasurable to them to work very hard. So it is very important to train children to endure all sorts of hardships and restrictions at the boyhood stage. Later, no one will renounce what he has accepted as the standard of enjoyment, to accept a standard of less enjoyment. So I think you should begin immediately holding class regularly and advertising for it. I understand the German people are very fond of kindergarten schools, so let them send their children to us for receiving the highest education. Because mushrooms grow in a filthy place, they are not usually offered to Krishna. It is very nice that all the men should participate in deity-worship, this will sanctify their all other work. I think you are the most clever manager, better than your husband, because you are organizing temple routine very nicely for serving the deities and this will have very good results for everyone. I hope this meets you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 12:14 | 17 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Patty Dorgan, Please accept my blessings. I have received your very nice letter of October 4, 1971, and I have appreciated the contents. I am very much encouraged that despite so many difficulties and tricks of Maya that you are still desiring Krishna so much. Thank you very much. In order to attain the topmost perfection of this human form of life one simply has to try for Krishna with enthusiasm and patience, and all obstacles will be overcome. If you are determined in this way to be His devotee, Krishna will provide some happy solution. But even if He puts us into extreme difficulty, we must always be prepared to consider everything as His special Mercy, that He is testing my sincerity, or that this trouble is nothing to what I deserve. Just see Prahlada Maharaja. His father tried to kill him many times! At least I don't think your father is trying to kill you. And after Krishna in the form of Lord Nrsimhadeva came and killed Hiranyakasipu, Prahlada prayed to Krishna to have mercy on his demon father. So we must take the instruction to respect our parents, and to be kind and very tolerant and patient with them, and very soon I promise you everything will be all right. I am very pleased that you are chanting regularly. This will save you and protect you from all misfortunes. So chant Krishna's Name regularly, think about Him all the time, and your love for Him will keep you free from any bondage. Also, you must try somehow to avoid eating any meat, fish or eggs. Be very strong in this respect, and eventually your parents will appreciate your determination especially if you are otherwise always very kind to them. As far as your questions, Krishna is not in need of anything, He is purnam, the Complete Whole. And yet He appreciates our love for Him, just like everyone appreciates if someone exhibits love for them. So he kindly allows us to show that love by considering that if I do not feed Him, Krishna will go hungry, if I do not give Him rest, He will be tired, like that. He reciprocates by pretending to be dependent on me, my slave, just to give us opportunity to find the real object of our loving propensity and to take pleasure by pleasing and serving Him. Everything we do should be for the reason that it gives pleasure to Krishna. Because Krishna's intimate associates give Him the most pleasure, and because they are His favorites, it pleases Him to see that these associates and close friends are also offered all respect by the devotees. Tulsidevi is part of Krishna's entourage, she is Krishna-ised or Krishna Conscious, and in this pure state she has all the qualities of Krishna, and therefore she becomes worshipable just like Krishna. There is a saying, love me, love my dog. It is like that. To approach the President is very difficult, unless you are the friend of his son or daughter, then it becomes very easy. So worship of Tulsidevi and other of Lord Krishna's Entourage is part of the total devotional attitude of pleasing Krishna. I hope this finds you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 12:13 | 17 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Sridama das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 4th November, 1971, and I am very much encouraged to hear that things are improving nicely in Miami center, under your expert supervision. I think it is a good plan that you have bought that house, with negotiations going to buy the church behind. You state that you will be the largest distributer of BTG in the world. This statement is very pleasing to me, because more than anything I want that my students should distribute my books and literatures profusely all over the world, and this should be our formost concern, how to do it properly. But one thing, now you must try very hard to live up to your promise of becoming largest distributer! Regarding Prayag Devi Dasi, yes, a woman requires protection. But normally we regard that any unmarried woman with children should take security of the temple--that is more secure than the protection of Krishna--and be satisfied with her children. Marriage is simply a license for having sex, so we are not very fond of sanctioning unnecessary sense gratification. However in this case, if you think the match is favorable for their advancing nicely in Krishna Consciousness, then I shall agree with your judgement. One thing is, there should be a formal contract signed by both parties at each marriage, voting that there will be no separation and that man and wife will work cooperatively in Krishna Consciousness. Unless ________ you will find two copies of Gayatri mantra and two threads duly chanted on for your wife Manmohini dasi and Satyahit das Brahmacari. Hold a fire yagna and give them Gayatri mantra. Rupanuga has a tape of me chanting Gayatri mantra, so you can get a copy of this from him. The tape must be heard through the right ear only by the initiates. Your court battles are great victories for Krishna; whenever there is Krishna there is certain victory. Everywhere we are winning in this fight to hold our Sankirtana meeting on the street. I hope this meets you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 12:12 | Nov 16, 2006 16 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Gunagrahi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 23rd September, 1971 and have noted the contents. It is very nice to hear of your credit course. Continue in this way and Krishna will surely give you all facility. Enclosed please find one letter for initiates as well as two copies of Gayatri mantra and two sacred threads also duly chanted on. Two beads duly chanted by me have been sent under separate post. Hold a fire yajna and give Gayatri mantra to Kavi and Atmarama. Rupanuga has a tape of me reciting Gayatri mantra, so you can get this from him. One thing is that the tape should be heard through earphones into the right ear. So the fire yajna can be held for all four devotees. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdd letters | 12:12 | Nov 15, 2006 Monday, 15 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Lalita Kumar, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter, and I am very encouraged by the progress you are making to lead the citizens of your community, Wilmington, on the transcendental path back to Home, back to Godhead. Because you are very sincere and enthusiastic boy, and very intelligent also, Krishna has give you this position of leadership in His army, to win the war with Maya and establish Krishna Consciousness as the perfect way of life for every living entity. If you simply push on this one activity of distributing my books, your all success will be there. I have hatched this transcendental plot for getting money by selling my books, and if we stick only to this plan, and use our brain for selling books, there will easily be sufficient money. I have recently informed the GBC to allow each temple to keep 25% of the money they collect from direct book and magazine sales for temple maintenance, 75% to be sent to Book Fund. Supposing you can sell 800 dollars a week worth of literature (retail price). Will not 200 dollars weekly be sufficient for food and rent? If not, increase book sales, or, until things are adjusted in this way, supplement in other ways, but try to avoid too much business as this distracts us from our real mission. If Krishna sees that we are very active to spread information about Him, He is Master of the Goddess of Fortune, He will give everything. I note that you have got a nice van--why not have some travelling Sankirtana parties in the surrounding countryside, distributing our literature in new places? Your approaching schools and colleges is very tactful because these students are the most eligible candidates for receiving this transcendental knowledge of Krishna philosophy. Simply by repeating what I have said--first you must yourself become fully convinced of this philosophy--your preaching will meet with all success. Our philosophy has the full potency to deliver anyone from the darkest realms of ignorance to the enlightened realm of complete cognizance. The potential is there, simply you have to master the words and deliver them purely, and this will please me very much. You will be happy to know that I am preparing a book on commentaries on your Western philosophers, so that all of my students may defeat these nonsense rascals who are simply speculating this and that and misleading the people. If we sincerely try to present our philosophy at every opportunity, eventually it will be heard and appreciated. So plan your school program in this way. As for your questions, do the fallen souls leave the spiritual world all at once or gradually, we can answer, do all the prisoners in the prisonhouse free at once--no, some are coming, some are going. Our presentation of Krishna Consciousness must be always very bold-if we are king, we must act like king. The idea is if we speak the truth, those will hear who are intended to hear by being qualified or prepared. It is not that we should compromise to attract the mass--we are after the class. Still, it was my method to make Krishna Consciousness palatable to you Western boys and girls, how else could I attract you to give up your habits of sense gratification? Krishna philosophy can be approached from every angle because it is the Complete Whole, purnam. So if your scientific explanation, beginning from the point that sound vibration is the root cause of everything, and leading to the understanding that Krishna is the Cause of the sound vibration is having good effect, why not continue in this way. Only thing is to remain true to the authorities--Krishna, the great saints and acaryas--and everything you say will come out nicely. People are of different natures so we have to use our talents how to convince people in different circumstances, that's all. I hope this meets you and your good wife Jambavati in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 12:11 | 15 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Nanda Kisora, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter, asking me if you could go to Mexico City to learn Spanish language for opening centers in South America. Learning Spanish is a difficult job. How can you learn? I am very much enthusiastic about expansion of our branches, but if it is dependent upon learning of Spanish language, don't take this adventure. We should serve Krishna in whatever talents we have already got. However if you are still very much anxious to go there, and you think that you shall be able to get along without knowing Spanish language, then you may go there immediately and push on this Movement. The idea is to recruit active speakers who also speak English to translate and be trained for administering things locally--you simply organize everything and instruct them, and gradually they will take over full management. Hoping this meets you in good health and jolly mood. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 12:10 | 15 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Patita Uddharana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge your letter of Oct. 9, 1971; due to our frequent moving about and heavy schedule I have been unable to answer until now. Please forgive me. I have noted especially your description of the unfortunate accident which took place and which took away our friends Jananivasa das Brahmacari and Will Prabhu. So on one side we have to be very sorry if our dear friends are taken away from this world, and on the other side we should be satisfied that a pure devotee is never lost. He gets another good chance to cultivate Krishna Consciousness, or if one is advanced he goes back to Home, back to Godhead. But even if it is taken that a devotee is not mature, we should be confident that he will take birth in a rich or devotional family. So their human life in a very good position is guaranteed. A devotee's position is always better than an ordinary karmi's position. Karmis do not know what is the next life, but devotees know it as certain as anything that he is going to have a nice human form of body. So let us pray for the departed souls that they may be engaged again in Krishna's service. It will be a good idea in the future if our devotees take lesson from this unfortunate incident and take precaution not to drive late at night for any reason--no gain can come from such driving at night which will ever compensate for much great losses. Please advise your GBC zonal secretary that in future great precaution must be taken. Please continue in your writing of songs and poems for Krishna, because singing Krishna's praises is the highest type of spiritual activity and will give Him great enjoyment. I would be pleased if you can send me a tape of some of your compositions. I plan to remain here in Delhi until 26th November, then we are all going to Vrindaban for a few days. I hope this meets you and all of my spiritual sons and daughters in Columbus in good health and jolly mood. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 12:10 | Nov 14, 2006 14 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Jagadisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge your letter, no date, and have noted the contents carefully. This college program and school work you are doing is very encouraging to hear. In these schools try to get as many classes as possible. This traveling Sankirtana is very good; to go from village to village as Lord Caitanya has predicted. Yes, if you think Suzanne Boase is a suitable partner for Hiranyagarbha, then they have my blessings. I hope this meets you in the best of health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdd letters | 12:09 | Nov 12, 2006 Friday, 12 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Nityananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 20th October, 1971 and have noted the contents. I am very pleased to know that your temple is doing nicely and that there are sincere souls trying to understand this Krishna Consciousness process. You must always remain very serious and enthusiastic about chanting and hearing the message of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, and set a good example for the new devotees to follow. Bhakti Yoga is the process for all the ages, but the method is different in each age. The rascal people have got some idea of Bhakti according to their whims. Some meditate on light, but real meditation means to concentrate on Krishna. An example of summary punishment is this: If you are sentenced to be hanged but instead you are given a simple pinprick, that is very nice. Krishna minimizes the devotee's suffering to the lowest. So long as one is engaged in devotional service, he is immune to the reactions of his past sinful activities, but if he chooses to give up this devotional service, then he has to undergo all these reactions. For all devotees chanting, attending arati ceremony, taking prasadam and attending classes is compulsory. If it is possible, everyone may go on sankirtana. Principally there are four sampradayas; Nimbarka sampradaya coming from the four Kumaras; Sri Sampradaya coming from Laksmi; Rudra Sampradaya coming from Lord Siva; and Brahma Sampradaya. Vivasvan is in the Brahma Sampradaya. All the sampradayas are related with one another because the conclusion is the same: that Lord Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities are His eternal servants. It is a basic principle that one must accept a bona fide spiritual master in order to achieve the highest perfection of life, love of God. I thank all of you very much for accepting me as your spiritual master, and I promise that I will take you back to home, back to Godhead. I ask you all to promise me to always chant at least 16 rounds, follow the regulative principles, read our books and try to preach this Krishna Consciousness Movement all over the world. So far my qualifications are concerned, I am simply trying to carry out the order of my Guru Maharaja. Hoping this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/akb letters | 12:30 | 12 November, 1971 Delhi My Dear Kirtanananda Maharaja, Please accept my blessings. I am in receipt of your letter of November 3, 1971. Yes, you may take the 32" brass deities, along with throne and paraphernalia on your tour of many states, and in this way try very nicely to reveal to everyone everywhere you go the ecstasy of arcana worship. I have answered your several letters, but somehow or other it appears they did not reach you. I am very much pleased by this travelling Sankirtana program. Kindly execute it nicely, and sell as many books and magazines as possible, so that by reading Krishna philosophy, and by seeing you, they will become fully convinced. Please keep me informed of your successes. Hoping this meets you in strong health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 12:29 | |
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