a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1972 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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18 December 2007 Monday, 18 December, 1972 Bombay My dear Sankarasana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 10, 1972, and due to my wandering here and there for preaching work in India I have not yet had opportunity to reply you til now. Your question is whether you can utilize your inclination to play the guitar and write songs about Krishna in devotional manner of activity. Several times I have replied this question, I do not know why you are not learning these things. There should be arrangement for distribution of such information to all the devotees if there is some important question, not that I shall have to continue answering over and over the same thing. But as you have requested, I am your spiritual master, I must reply you to your satisfaction. So this playing guitar and writing of songs is not very important thing. You can write and play, but one cannot take it very seriously. If any Vaisnava is writing song about Krishna, he should have realized himself what is Krishna, just like our great saints and acaryas like Madhvacarya, Ramanujacarya, Rupa Goswami, six Gosvamis, Bilvamangala, Bhaktivinode Thakura, like that. They are self-realized souls, therefore if they write something song about Krishna that will be perfectly from the transcendental platform, without any tinge of mundane influence or nonsense imagination. Unless he comes in the category of these big Vaisnava personalities, his manufacturing some songs will be misleading to himself and to others. And unless his writing of songs can be accepted as gospel, like Vedas, then such writing is simply disturbance and is diverting the attention from the subject matter only. That songs writing we cannot regard very seriously. That will spoil the whole thing. But you can utilize your propensity to write poems and articles for BTG, for singing in the kirtana, like that. That will make you very happy. Now you just apply yourself for becoming qualified to see Krishna face-to-face, then you will be able to actually write songs about Krishna. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda Labels: Miami, singing, writing letters | 17:19 |6 December 2007 Sunday, 3 December, 1972 Bombay [Letter to Billy Reyburne] Regarding your question about writing songs about Krishna, this is not very important thing. You can write, but one cannot take it very seriously. If any Vaisnava is writing song about Krishna, that should be from one who himself has realized Krishna, just like our great saints and acaryas like Madhvacarya, Ramanujacarya, Rupa Gosvami, six Gosvamins, Bilvamangala, Bhaktivinode Thakur, like that. They are self-realized souls, therefore if they write something song about Krishna, that is perfectly from the transcendental platform, without any tinge of mundane influence or nonsense imagination. Unless someone comes in the category of these great leading Vaisnava personalities, his manufacturing some songs will be misleading to himself and to others. And unless his writing of poems and songs can be accepted as gospel, as Vedas or the Absolute Truth, such writing is diverting the attention from the subject matter only and should not be regarded very seriously. Now you should become serious to pursue this Krishna Consciousness movement with full energy of body, mind and soul. If you are writing poems and songs, that’s all right, you can do it also, but if you can write articles for our Back to Godhead magazine, that is better, that is solid preaching work. No one should write songs of Krishna unless he is self-realized soul, that will spoil the value of the whole thing. But try to use your writing and singing talent for Krishna’s preaching work, by writing articles, singing the kirtan, like that. Then you will be happy, and I think you should without further delay try to become devotees as the others are doing and live with us and practice the regulative principles of brahmacari life. In this way, become determined to fix your all attention for seeing Krishna face to face by the Krishna Consciousness process and then you shall qualify yourself for writing songs about Krishna and you chant always this Hare Krishna mantra you can come to the highest point of seeing Krishna very soon, you may know it for certain. ACBS letters | 12:31 | 15 July 2007 Saturday, 15 July, 1972 London My dear Acyutananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 7, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the songs by Jayadeva, Srita Kamala is not approved. Sometimes our Krsnadasa Babaji sings, but it is not approved by Prabhupada. Those songs are for siddha bhaktas, not for us who are sadha bhaktas or learning bhaktas. Lord Caitanya never divulged in public, he enjoyed them in the company of his selected three or four devotees. There is one song by Jayadeva, Worshiping the Ten Incarnations, that song is all right. The other songs that you mention are all right. Regarding the manuscripts, you may photograph all of the pages, then we shall type them later. If there is shortage of film, I have instructed Karandhara to send you a large supply of the appropriate films for photographing the pages. Or you may purchase there and we shall pay from Book Fund. These are important works and they must be preserved forever, so what is that expense? Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda N.B. I am not hearing about Mayapur. Please send me reports regularly what is happening there. Where is Tamala K. Goswami. I have not heard from him since longtime. Has he gone to Bangladesh yet? ACB letters | 19:25 | 10 April 2007 Monday, 10 April, 1972 Sydney [Text missing] So far your thinking about things and making so many plans, that is all right, but our first business is Krishna's plan. That is the only plan, and no matter how many schemes we employ to adjust things in this material world, if they have no solid basis in Krishna's plan, they remain merely dreams of phantasmagoria. So in this Krishna Consciousness Movement, I am training boys and girls all over the world how to act nicely by practically serving Krishna in their everyday lives. That is more important than trying for something which I may like to do but which will never happen. Just like Sudama Vipra, he did not want to offer something very small, but his wife insisted so he offered Krishna only a small bowl of flaked rice, and Krishna took it with great pleasure, and when Sudama vipra returned home to his poor hut, he found a huge palace made of jewels. So the point is to make use of what we already have. That is most important, and if Krishna sees that we are using is properly for pleasing Him in loving attitude of devotional service, then Krishna gives every facility in reciprocation of love. So if you have talent for musical achievement, that is nice; but if you nourish some idea of becoming famous by playing some music, that will be a source of frustration--the end. So it is better if you play your music for Krishna by having very ecstatic kirtanas in your center in Vancouver, and in this way, as I have introduced it, all of the devotees and also the general public as well will be able to join together cooperatively in the glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not that we shall glorify anyone else. Let the materialists operate in their own way, but we have got Vaisnavism stand and we should train the general public to accept it and come up to our platform of process of doing things, not that we should reduce to their standard. [To Mahatma] letters | 11:36 | 12 March 2007 Sunday, 12 March, 1972 Vrindaban [To Billy Reyburne] Regarding your question about writing songs about Krishna, this is not very important thing. You can write, but one cannot take it very seriously. If any Vaisnava is writing song about Krishna, that should be from one who himself has realized Krishna, just like our great saints and acaryas like Madhvacarya, Ramanujacarya, Rupa Gosvami, six Gosvamis, Bilvamangala, Bhaktivinode Thakura, like that. They are self-realized souls, therefore if they write something song about Krishna, that is perfectly from the transcendental platform, without any tinge of mundane influence or nonsense imagination. Unless someone comes in the category of these great leading Vaisnava personalities, his manufacturing some songs will be misleading to himself and to others. And unless his writing of poems and songs can be accepted as gospel, as Vedas or the Absolute Truth, such writing is diverting the attention from the subject matter only and should not be regarded very seriously. Now you should become serious to pursue this Krishna Consciousness movement with full energy of body, mind and soul. If you are writing poems and songs, that's alright, you can do it also, but if you can write articles for our Back to Godhead magazine, that is better, that is solid preaching work. No one should write songs of Krishna unless he is self-realized soul, that will spoil the value of the whole thing. But try to use your writing and singing talent for Krishna's preaching work, by writing articles, singing the kirtana, like that. Than you will be happy, and I think you should without further delay try to become devotees as the others are doing and live with us and practice the regulative principles of brahmacari life. In this way, become determined to fix your all attention for seeing Krishna face to face by the Krishna Consciousness process and than you shall qualify yourself for writing songs about Krishna and you chant always this Hare Krishna mantra you can come to the highest point of seeing Krishna very soon, you may know it for certain. [Text missing] Labels: art, preachers, singing, writing letters | 07:16 | |
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