Prabhupada Letters :: 1972
a.c. bhaktivedanta swami

7 October 2007
Saturday, 7 October, 1972  

San Francisco

My dear Puri Maharaj,

Kindly accept my humble dandabats. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind letter dated September 21, 1972, and I have noted the contents with great encouragement.

I am coming to India by the 15th of October and will stay during Urja-vrata at the Radha-Damodara temple in Vrndavan. It will be a pleasure if you will come and stay with us at Vrndavan during the urja-vrata period. So I thank you very much for taking so much trouble. If we get that house we shall celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada a little pompously.

In my last letter to you I also requested you to take permanent permission from Visvanath Das, the chief minister, for permission of admission for my devotees in the Jagannath temple. At present I am here in San Francisco and your letter addressed to London is just now received by me.

Hoping this meets you in the best of health,

Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS: pda

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letters | 20:32 |

26 May 2007
Friday, 26 May, 1972  

Los Angeles

Sri B.V. Puri Maharaj
President, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mission
Aryapuram, Rajahmundry 1 P.O.
S. India

My Dear Reverend Puri Maharaji,

Please accept my humble obeisances. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter from Rajahmundry dated May 19th, 1972.

It is a good idea that you are proposing. The two claimants of proprietorship and the tenants should be given some money and they will go away. So I am advising my Bombay center to send you Rs. 1000/=. So now you do the needful, I am completely trusting in you in this matter.

I am very glad that you are in contact with the chief minister of Orissa, Mr. Dass, he must have full knowledge of our world wide activities. Jagannatha Puri is one of the main headquarters of the Vaisnavas, so if the outsiders have trouble in entering Jagannatha Temple it will be a great scandal, so the government must be liberal on this point and co-operate, as we are trying to interest so many foreigners and tourists to come there.

And if they co-operate we shall build a very nice center there. At least the government must agree to admit anyone who is certified by ISKCON. I know that they admit foreigners into the temple who are certified by some mayavadi sannyasis living there. So why not they shall allow anyone who is certified by me or the society?

You know how strictly we are following the principles of Vaisnava way of life. So kindly try to persuade the government officials on this point and it will be a very great service to Srila Prabhupada’s cause.

Bhaktivinode Thakur and Srila Prabhupada wanted that American and European Vaisnavas should come to India and join with dancing our Vaisnavas there, but if they have got some difficulty to enter into the temple it will be against the desire of Bhaktivinode Thakur and Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.

So I am sure that Mr. Dass, the chief minister, is a very nice gentleman, I know him personally. So while he is in the office he must rectify this anomaly and situate himself in the history for doing such nice service for Lord Chaitanya’s mission.

I expect to hear from you soon regarding these matters and I shall look forward very much for your letter.

Hoping this meets in you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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letters | 18:51 |

5 January 2007
5 January, 1972  

Bombay

My dear Satsvarupa,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 27, 1971 and I have read its contents carefully.

As you say there are some serious delays in the negotiations for purchasing the large buildings, I think you must immediately return the $15,000 loan to Karandhara and the $8,000 loan from San Diego. I believe there was some agreement on your part that the money should be repaid within six months, so nearly four or five months have already passed. You first fix up the contract definitely and when everything is settled beyond any doubt, then you should think of again getting the money.

In the meantime, your school at Turtlecreek Boulevard can continue functioning. I have been getting good reports that you are all serious to develop this program, so I am sure that Krishna will bless you with the desired building. Good things do not come so easily; you know the difficulties that I encountered in my first year in your country. Sometimes I did not even know where I was to live, neither when I came did I have any friends.

But I was always determined that somehow I would do everything possible to fulfill the desire of my Guru Maharaja, and despite all difficulties I always remained enthusiastic. So do not diminish your program in any way now. Continue the school project enthusiastically and expect Krishna's mercy at all times. Everything will come out alright.

Regarding the land called New Naimisaranya, unless the land is signed over to us with proper documents, we should not invest any money in it. As you think best some of our devotees may stay there and even keep cows if this is feasible, but there should not be any money invested from our side until we are the legal owners.

I have seen the All-India BTG issue No. 43 only in its dummy form, so I eagerly am awaiting the final copy. I received one letter from Hayagriva in which he says he is not getting any material for editing. Is there some some reason for this?

I hope this meets you in the best of health.

Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS:tkd

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letters | 09:50 |

3 January 2007
Monday, 3 January, 1972  

Bombay

My dear Giriraja,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 30th, 1971.

I am not surprised that Mr. Rathanam Iyer has decided to cancel the program you were planning. I was not eager to accept his proposal in the beginning because it has been our experience that it is never good to have to depend upon others for our preaching. I am sorry that now that it has been advertised in the newspapers that I am coming to Madras, if I do not come our prestige may suffer. Anyway what is done is done.

The fact is that I am the only one in India who is openly criticizing, not only demigod worship and impersonalism, but everything that falls short of complete surrender to Krishna. My Guru Maharaja never compromised in His preaching, nor will I nor should any of my students. We are firmly convinced that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and all other are His part and parcel servants.

This we must declare boldly to the whole world, that they should not foolishly dream of world peace unless they are prepared to surrender fully to Krishna as Supreme Lord.

I have read the text of your speech delivered to the Rotary Club and it is very thoughtfully prepared. Try to arrange as many speaking engagements like that, and simply repeat what you have heard me say in lectures and in our books, and the spiritual effect will be very potent. I am very pleased with your preaching attitude. Now you can finish up making members and distributing the books you have and then you can come and join here in Bombay.

On about the 11th of this month we will be going to Jaipur most likely. Srimate and Kausalya devi are trying to arrange a five day pandal there. They are preaching very nicely also, making engagements and potential members. So if we go there there will be a good field or making many life members.

As you have asked, the books are being dispatched to you today and Tamala informs me that Dinanath and Pancajanya have gone to Madras to assist you.

I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

N.B. It may be that the Governor of Madras will invite me as his guest. If this happens I will come to Madras. So far the time being you may remain in Madras making members, and by my next letter I shall let you know definitely whether I am coming. If I come you can arrange lectures in all the prominent halls and all over the city you can advertise "A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speaks."

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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letters | 08:47 |

2 January 2007
2 January, 1972  

Bombay

My dear Kirtiraja dasa,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 23, 1971.

Regarding the list of my Godbrothers, you do not any longer need to send them issues of BTG or other books. That we will do from here in India. Similarly whenever you get requests for BTG subscriptions or other literature, you can forward these requests to Bombay ISKCON to the Secretary and he will deal with the requests.

You do not need to approach Gaudiya Math for films or photos of my Guru Maharaja. I do not think they have such films. Whatever photos we now have already of Guru Maharaja can be used.

Neither is it necessary to send the Indian life members circulars, since this will be very costly and they are not very much interested in our circulars.

I thank you very much for taking so seriously to helping me fulfill the order of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati to distribute Krishna consciousness literature to the whole world masses. What strength our Movement has now got is due in large part to the enthusiasm we have had to distribute our literatures profusely throughout the world.

I have got very, very encouraging reports how my books are being distributed vigorously in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Our New York Temple has got the most devotees so rightfully, they should also lead our Society in book distribution. You have got a very important duty to see that all the branches are kept with a full stock of all my books. And I know that we are getting many mail-orders daily, so you must see that these orders are all filled promptly.

If we take the public's money, and then delay too long in filling the orders, this will give us a bad reputation. So be very conscientious and hard-working and Krishna will give you the ability to do everything nicely. There is no difference between chanting Hare Krishna or Sankirtana and doing one's assigned work in Krishna Consciousness.

Sometimes we have to do so much managerial or office work, but Lord Caitanya promises us that because in the Kali yuga this is required for carrying on our preaching mission. He gives assurance that we will not become entangled by such work. When the work has to be done, do it first, then chant. But you must fulfill at least 16 rounds daily. So if necessary sleep less but you have to finish your minimum number of rounds.

Regarding Mr. Kallman, the matter is very simple. If he says he will do whatever I ask, then let him give us the rights. Then only shall I understand that he has got some feelings for me. We cannot pay him any money.

The difference between competition and Maya. Here, competition is for sense gratification. How much I can enjoy, my sense, and the other person sees how much he can enjoy his senses. In the spiritual world the competition is how to satisfy Krishna. There the center is one. If you draw innumerable circles they will not overlap.

But here the circles will overlap. Even a small circle can overlap a large circle. This is because in the material world there are many centers, whereas in the spiritual world there is only one center. In the spiritual world whether the circles are big or small they will never overlap. In the spiritual world similarly, whatever or whoever is rendering the service, there is never competition of maliciousness.

I hope this finds you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS:tkd

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letters | 08:42 |
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