a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1972 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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8 June 2007 Thursday, 8 June, 1972 Los Angeles My Dear Acyutananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 1, 1972, and I have noted the contents with great pleasure. I am very glad to hear that you are going to take Indian citizenship and passport. Now you be in charge of our Mayapur Center. Practically speaking you were my first disciple, and I think it is Bhaktivinode's desire that my first disciple shall go to Bengal and revive Krishna Consciousness there. So I have heard also from Tamala Krishna that he is going with his party to Bangladesh for preaching among the largely Mohammedan population. So your photos amongst the Mohammedan people of Nadia will also help you as propaganda items.* I am also glad to hear that you are attending all of the meetings of the big Sannyasis and Saintly persons from Navadvipa area and that you are one of the important members of the committee. for protesting against violation of our Vaisnava principles. If your songbook is in English language then you may send it to New York immediately for publishing. You may send to me first and I shall read it and be very happy to write a short introductory note. One thing, if you can secure a nice Bengali typewriter for shipping to USA, there is some large amount of transcribing to be done from all of my tapes in Bengali language and there are persons in Los Angeles who will transcribe the tapes under my supervision and the manuscripts can be sent there to Calcutta for printing. If someone of our life members there in Calcutta might like to render this nice service to Lord Caitanya, he may donate us one Bengali typewriter for transcribing my tapes and making into books, and this will be a very nice service. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda In your song book, poet Jayadeva's high madhurya rasa songs may be avoided because they are meant for highly advanced devotees. Labels: Calcutta, Muslims, Navadvipa letters | 09:53 |8 June, 1972 Los Angeles My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 6, 1972, and I have noted the contents. I shall be very glad to see the manuscripts which you are typing. You say that ___ early writings are very powerful and strong, so now it is not ___ I have become a little soft on account of my disciples. They ___ follow very strong orders. I am glad to hear that you will be going to Gujarat state for about one month and that you are preparing one Gujarati BTG for distributing there. Tamala Krishna is doing very nicely by this traveling program in Bihar and Bengal. But one thing, why still insisting on this truck? Rather I have already explained, that in the interior preaching will not be suitable for you. Our business is in the big towns of India with the persons who speak in English language, so go town to town, and for that there is already the ___ arrangement of train, bus, like that. But I have given you the ___ in my previous letter to organize your party for traveling __ out the suburbs of Bombay city for collecting. Bombay mean __ So if you are anxious to collect large fund for our Vrindaban __ Bombay construction work and distribute many literatures ___ think is to stick to Bombay city and outlying districts ___ Poona, Thana, and others. But the best thing for attracting many people ___ in India will be the opulence in our Deity worship ___ should try to assist also in making sure that ___ ornately and gorgeously worshiped so that the ___ observe that our American and European Vaisnavas are passing all others in the sincerity and purity of their service to Lord Krishna. Our business is to chant, so the time that Indian __ to come to hear our chanting and arati and take prasada __ that your preaching work is actually successful. For the __ we should be satisfied with that. And if they become __ that is very nice. The only difficulty is the Indians __ we have to learn from the Americans? So the best thing is to __ or other make them members and raise funds for our activities. When someone pays it means he is converted. Somehow or other __ has to render some service, so if you can collect money from ___ that means practically they are becoming our disciples. So do not become spiritual depressed, actually these things are going forward very progressively there in India and I am very much thankful to you all my sincere disciples, especially the elder disciples and Sannyasis like your good self, for assisting me in this great mission of reviving the original Krishna Consciousness atmosphere in India. Do not worry, in time we shall be completely successful. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda n.b. Syamasundara. has just shown me your letter ____ and I agree that these pandal programs or ____ very good opportunities for us, but we should ____ if somebody invites. If local men cooperate ____ all expenses, that will be nice, for example, at Kanpur. ____ held at Jaipur, the leading citizens raised money and ____ thing. But the Vrindaban Fund should not be touched at ___ time being, unless there is donation, a truck is not __. I am just now in receipt of your letter dated 7th June, ___ (can understand that it is best thing for you to travel as ___ posing, and that is actually the duty of the Sannyasi, to ___ widely and preach. So you can go to Gujarat and other ___ Krishna is doing. ACBS Labels: Bombay, book distribution letters | 09:53 |8 June, 1972 Los Angeles My Dear Giriraja, Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter from Bombay dated May 30th, 1972, and noted all the contents. Yes, by Krishna's Grace we have a very responsible task before us, so combinedly we should do it nicely so that everything goes on systematically. Rupa Goswami says that the things are enthusiasm, patience, conviction, acting exactly to the order of the Sastra and Guru, and always keeping oneself in the society of devotees, and this makes our devotional service successful. So our serious students should follow Rupa Goswami's advice. Mr. Pandiya's suggestion for the housing society is very much appreciated by me, and it is very good proposal. We cannot give the control of the house to anyone and everyone. So your idea is all right, the housing society should be registered in the society's (ISKCON) name and we should pay the tax 70,000/. Thank you for sending the books to Brahmananda, so you should also send him bill, collect, and deposit in the book fund. If you have paid 100% of BTG money into the book fund account already, that is all right, you haven't got to pay twice. You should inform Ksirodakasayi what you have already paid into the BTG Book fund account. Did Ksirodakasayi send any bill? According to that bill you must pay, then the account will be nice. But if he has not sent you a bill, and you have paid the rest into the book fund, you haven't got to pay him. But in future he should always send bill and you should settle up with him accordingly. Now Gurudasa has gotten the import license, so whatever books are sent from here, the whole amount should be spent for building. Books sent from here should be considered as a contribution to the building work in India. Now we are printing many small, attractive booklets at ISKCON Press and I think they will sell like anything in India also. So in the future we shall see about getting these small books printed in Japan and send them in profuse quantities to India. If you have a crown dipped in gold for the Bombay Deities, you must keep them very carefully. I understand that sometime ago one crown was stolen from Krishna's Head despite the presence of one brahmacari who was sleeping there and did not even hear the thief coming. So we must take very great precaution to always protect the Deities from all kinds of danger. One thing is, if we make our Deity worship program extremely opulent and gorgeous, and if all of the devotees are always attending arati and holding kirtana in front of the Deities, that will be the best program for attracting the Indian people to Krishna Consciousness Movement. So you try to give the pujaris all assistance to improve the standard of Deity worship and always render Radha and Krishna the most sincere attention. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda n.b. I am in receipt of your letter dated June 5, 1972. I was not here, I was in Portland, Oregon, and am just now coming back. I think all the points are already replied, still I say that the land should be registered in ISKCON's name and pay the tax of Rs. 70,000. This is a good idea. And you can introduce the Bhetnama system, whereby one person purchases the use of one room or some rooms for his lifetime, and whenever he may come to stay the room must be vacated immediately for his residence for as long as he likes, but if he leaves, someone else may use the room in his absence. This is called Bhetnama. As Mr. Chhabria has said he wants to reserve one room for the week-ends, similarly, many men are prepared to pay for this facility. We have to simply find them out. All good men should spend their week-ends with us, away from business, and they may bring family and it will be Vaikuntha in Hare Krishna Land. The deity program must be improved very gorgeously. Flower garlands should be expanded, and all expenditures for the deities must be expanded without any miserly contemplation. Our temple should be so gorgeously decorated that we shall excel all Bombay temples. This is my idea. Try to fulfill it. When they hear that we decorate our deities so gorgeously, people will throng, and on festival days especially, like Janmastami, Jhulana Yatra, etc. So four or five devotees should be always engaged in deity worship. ACBS Labels: Bombay, book distribution, deities, life members, publishing letters | 09:52 |7 June 2007 Wednesday, 7 June, 1972 Los Angeles Secretary to Minister of Education and Culture Government of the U.S.S.R. Moscow Dear Sir; With reference to an article entitled, Baptists Besieged, published in the international edition of Time Magazine of June 12, 1972, page 66, it is understood that your people are now protesting against atheistic government. So far we know your government is pledged not to believe in God. But this kind of suppression will not be tolerated by the general mass of people. It is understood also that your Constitution allows freedom of religious expression. But it appears from the facts that you do not wish to indulge in religious principles which are simply sentiments. We agree wholeheartedly that without philosophy, religion is reduced to sentiment or the opium of the masses. We are likewise in full agreement with your national leaders that the state and the citizens in general must be organized upon philosophical principles. We, the above institution, have got our spiritual communism idea, and we want to see that not a single person, man or animal, remains hungry or in want of material necessities of life. According to our philosophy, a householder or substantial citizen of the state has to see not only after the well-being of his wife, children, relatives and dependents, that they shall be properly taken care of and will not starve, but also even if a lizard lives in his house, he should see that it is not hungry. Therefore, to give all facilities of living condition to all living entities is our Krishna Consciousness movement.Besides this human welfare activity for communal sharing of the material necessities of life, there is an ancient Vedic program for simultaneously raising the whole society to the highest perfection of spiritual consciousness. We are, like you, the good public leaders of your nation, interested in material improvement, but also there must be spiritual improvement as well. It is not that I should be concerned only that my wife and sons eat and get satisfaction, but I must be concerned for the ultimate well-being of everyone. By nature, everyone is endowed with individual tastes and preferences, therefore what satisfies one many may not satisfy another, so there will always be some dissatisfaction and discrepancies of all sorts. Therefore, if we try to satisfy everyone's well-being on the material platform, we shall never find the end of it, and we shall be frustrated in our attempts, and there will be protest, etc. Your great founder of your nation, Mr. Nikolai Lenin, was very much intelligent, and he could understand that people become united only under the guiding principles of a commonly accepted philosophy or standard of truth. But if we examine the course of history, we must conclude, with Mr. Karl Marx, that this so-called standard of truth constantly changes, and that what one group of people accept at standard of perfection at one time, the same people may again reject that standard and take another philosophy as the all-in-all, and so on. So if we are intelligent leaders of state, it is to our advantage to benefit all the citizens by satisfying their material requirements, but even more is it our duty to satisfy their need for being secure and confident that they are working under the principles of a truth or reality which does not change and is therefore absolute. That is spiritual satisfaction. Spiritual means philosophical, otherwise it is sentiment and sentiments are fickle and always changing. So we can very much appreciate your rejection of sentiment as a basis for practical activity. Our institution, as above mentioned, is a philosophical and cultural movement originating long ago in the Vedic period of history of your friendly neighbor, India, and it is meant for awakening peoples' dormant acceptance of the absolute truth, or God-consciousness, without which a human society is no better than animal society. By the progressive evolutionary process, the human being is enriched specifically with dormant obeisances for the supreme authority. We cannot deny logically and scientifically the supreme authority of the whole cosmic manifestation. In abnormal conditions only we deny this authority, but normally it is not possible to deny this fact. I think your people are now protesting against this suppression, and at the same time, we can understand that your government does not wish to encourage the above-mentioned sentimental religious faiths. Our International Society is based upon scientific and authoritative understanding of God-consciousness. Any philosopher or scientist will certainly agree with our philosophical point-of-view on religion and God-consciousness. We also understand from one prominent Soviet professor of Indology that a few years ago your government published a translation of the Ramayana, an ancient Vedic scripture describing the pastimes of Lord Rama, who advented Himself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead long years ago, and that this translation, the whole stock, was sold out within a few days. With reference to this obvious preference by the citizens in general, we wish to publish our translation of another ancient classical Vedic literature, namely, Bhagavad-gita, in the Russian language. The English edition of this great book of knowledge, which has been called by us as Bhagavad-gita As It Is, is already published by the famous London publishing house of Mss. MacMillan Co. This book of knowledge is perfectly educational and is an authoritative cultural presentation in the matter of understanding God-consciousness. If you, therefore, permit, I can send you the copy of Bhagavad-gita As It Is and ask my publishers, MacMillan Co., to send you one copy immediately on hearing from you. Our only desire is that when the good people of your country are so anxious to continue the natural God-consciousness, why not give them opportunity to read a book which is full of philosophy and science in the matter of developing their firm understanding of the truth or God-consciousness, and thus very easily unify and satisfy all the citizens. Thanking you in anticipation of an early reply, Yours sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami cc: Time Magazine, New York. MacMillan Co., London. ACBS/sda Labels: Moscow, philosophy letters | 11:55 |6 June 2007 Tuesday, 6 June, 1972 Mexico City My dear Visakha, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter from Bombay dated May 24, 1972, along with the very nice article, Prabhupada: India's National Hero. I am very grateful to you for your kind words about me, but I do not think that I have done anything, but I am only delivering the best message as it is. Actually, anyone who is a sincere devotee of Krishna and who is rendering service by preaching His message is to be considered as hero. So you are all heroes of your country and your humanity. Hero means someone who others want to follow as example of the best type of person. So you all become like that, perfect examples of Krishna Consciousness heroes and heroines, and preach the message exactly as I have taught it to you very seriously and being fully convinced, and others will automatically come forward and join us. We shall all be like one great army of heroes for Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I am very glad to hear that you are using your talents very nicely to do artwork and photographic designs to make brochures. It is very important to have such brochures for presenting to important men of the Indian society, so make them very elegantly and just to the points of interest. I have met with your good husband's parents in Los Angeles and they are both very nice and they respect me also. Hoping this will find you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 11:54 | |
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