a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
|
|
| Prabhupada Letters :: 1970 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
|
|
Jun 10, 2006 June 10, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your very interesting letter dated 5th June, 1970, and noted the contents. It is by the grace of Lord Krsna on account of your sincere service unto Him that you have got a very nice place for our propaganda center. I understand that the house is purchased by you, but you have mentioned nothing about it. So I am not very much anxious whether it is purchased or not, but from your description I understand it is a nice place. You are personally a good carpenter, and certainly you can make good additions and alterations for our purpose. In the meantime, if you could make some time to come here you could see personally how the Los Angeles temple is constructed by the devotees here. Everyone who comes to see this temple is very much pleased to see the arrangement. I was expecting your newsletter which is very interesting since its beginning, and I wish that you may continue the practice. Offer my blessings to your wife and other brahmacaris; and I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 08:37 | Jun 9, 2006 June 9, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Uddhava, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 4th June, 1970, along with the enclosed photostat of the new masthead for Back to Godhead. Thank you very much for this. It is very nice. One of our friends, Sri Sarafji, Chief Editor of the Godarsana magazine, has requested some photographs for an article which is to be published in the Godarsana. Please send therefore some negatives of pictures of Sankirtana, Deities, and some other pictures of our devotees and temples to the following address: Sri Tarachand Saraf Chief Editor: Godarsana 11-7 Kalakar Street Calcutta-7, India Please send these negatives by Air Other mail as soon as possible. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 08:37 | Jun 7, 2006 Sunday, June 7, 1970 Los Angeles Dr. R. N. Vyasa Indore Dear Sriman Vyasaji, Please accept my greetings and blessings of Lord Krishna, I beg to thank you for your kind letter dated 26th May, 1970. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam there is a question asked by Pariksit Maharaja to Sukdeva Goswami on the sinful activities of the human society. As a learned professor you will understand it very easily why a man is addicted to sinful activities. A person knows in two ways the after effects of sinful activities. Just like a criminal has heard from lawyers that a thief is punished for his criminal activities and he has seen also that a thief is arrested by the police and put into jail. Generally our experience is gathered by hearing and by seeing personally. The question was why a sinful man commits sinful activities although he has full knowledge of the after result by knowing it from authority and by seeing it personally. A thief commits theft repeatedly and is imprisoned repeatedly, and he has full knowledge of it--then what is the cause of his putting himself into miserable condition of prison life? The cause is diagnosed by Vedic Acaryas as the papa bija or the seed of sinful activities. This papa bija remains dormant within our heart in three stages--dormant, seedling and fructified. This chain of different stages of our papa bija is the cause of repeated birth and death transmigration in different species of life. Actually this is the cause of suffering of the living entities. There are many processes for delivering the living entity from this life of entanglement. Generally it is summarized in the process of meditation, performances of great sacrifices and worshiping the Lord in the temple. But in this Age of Kali Yuga nobody can meditate perfectly, neither they have sufficient resources for performing great sacrifices, neither they have tendency to attend spiritual services in the temple, churches, or mosques or any such sanctuaries. Therefore, in the Brhad Naradiya Puranam it is stated that none of these three principles of spiritual upliftment is possible to perform in this Age of Kali. Therefore, the only possible means of spiritual realization is chanting the Holy Name of God or Krishna or Rama. Lord Caitanya propagated this formula of spiritual realization 500 years ago; and by His grace now it is introduced in the Western world, and practically we are experiencing that it is effective. The Krishna Consciousness movement is being popularized here by three principles: by temple worship, by sending Sankirtana Party for chanting in the streets and by distribution of small booklets. Although we have got many voluminous books like Srimad-Bhagavatam, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Nectar of Devotion, Krsna, etc., they are selling less from our different centers. So immediately we cannot think of publishing your Srimad-Bhagavatam for two reasons: 1) that we are dealing with the general mass of people, and 2) we talk with high level scholars only occasionally. Recently we had a correspondence with Dr. J. F. Staal, Professor of Philosophy and of South Asian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, and the small pamphlet is sent to you per separate Air Mail in this connection. So if you send me some of the specimens of important portions of your writings for publication in our magazine Back to Godhead, that is possible for the present. Thanking you once more for your kind letter. Yours very sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 21:02 | Jun 6, 2006 June 6, 1970 Los Angeles Sri Radha Madhava Sharan Vrndavana Dear Sri Sharanji, Please accept my greetings. I beg to thank you for your kind letter dated 28th May, 1970. I am so glad to receive a letter from a 70 years old young man. Sometimes they say about me "74 years young holy man" and sometimes they say "jet-age parivrajakacarya." They also very kindly have written that I have done magic to the foreigners. So I thank you all for your good wishes, although I am not elegible for these honors. Whatever is being done, it is Lord Krishna's mercy. He is unlimited and His mercy is also unlimited, so by His mercy even a crow can dance like a peacock. Things are going here nice. The younger generation is taking very serious interest, and whatever advancement is made it is due to their cooperation. They are taking seriously to the sadacarya process--good behavior. The thing is that this country is not poverty stricken. So after material opulence the natural tendency is for something which is better. That better is spiritual enlightenment. The leaders of these countries could not deliver that better thing to the hankering souls, and as such some of them have become frustrated and confused. Now, having received this transcendental message of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, they are feeling relieved. So there is very good possibility of advancing this movement, and I am so glad that you are ready to offer your cooperation in this connection. I have advised my secretary to send you immediately a copy of Back to Godhead, and I am getting also many demands for the KRSNA book. I think in future you will be able to get this book from Atma Ram & Sons, P.O. Box 1429, Kashmere Gate, Delhi-6. Regarding your cooperation, I have got many things to ask from you, but because you are a 70 year retired man I do not wish to overburden you. For the time being if you kindly help us by sending some goods from Vrndavana just like some chanting beads, some brass murtis, gopi-candana tilaka and similar other things. I understand that you have got business in Allahabad, so if your sons and grandsons there can supply us Banarasi dhoti and saris from Benares as well as some brass utensils from there, this is one thing. Besides that, next year I am contemplating to send a World Sankirtana Party, therefore I wish to have a nice place in India either in Vrndavana or at Prayag Sangam. So I shall be glad to know if you can help us in this connection. Thanking you once more for your kindly letter. Yours very sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 14:50 | Jun 5, 2006 Friday, June 5, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Vrndavana Candra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your encouraging letter dated 24th May, 1970. I am so happy to learn that both you and your good wife are now engaged in opening our new center in Baltimore. This opening of new centers gives me the greatest transcendental pleasure, and I beg to thank you very much. It is very good news that you have received such nice cooperation from the City authorities so you can carry out our Sankirtana program with unrestricted distribution of literatures. This is excellent opportunity, so please take full advantage and push on our movement with your greatest enthusiasm. The house which you have described sounds very good for our purpose. So continue to develop this building for our Baltimore temple. Please also continue to cooperatively join with Philadelphia temple and the other temples for spreading Krsna consciousness by Maha sankirtana, festivals like Janmastami festival to be celebrated at New Vrndavana. I want that all my students will cooperate fully for expanding our movement, and in this way every center will be benefited. Regarding your visit to the Indian social club, we no not expect very much from such Indians, but you have done best by distributing our literatures to them. I have already advised that you may get some help from the Eastern temples and Bhagavan das has, I am told, already agreed to send some men to help you in Baltimore. I beg to thank you for your enthusiastic service attitude, utilize it with determination in the matter of preaching this Krsna consciousness and you will quickly achieve the highest perfectional status of life namely Krsna consciousness. Please offer my blessings to your good wife, Vidarba Kanya, and to the other boys and girls who may be there. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 14:50 | June 5, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Bhagavan das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated 2nd June, 1970. Gargamuni has said that he has received a check for $100. If you think that the marriage ceremony of Rudra Das should take place, I have nothing to say on this decision. So far opening of a branch in Chicago, this is a very encouraging proposal, but I think before opening a center we must be confident that things will go on nicely. Chicago is a very important place, and we need a strong man to manage affairs there. So I think if you personally can stay there for some time to arrange things it will be very nice. Best thing will be to consult Rupanuga, and whatever you do by mutual agreement that is accepted by me. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 14:49 | June 5, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I have received your informative letter dated 2nd June, 1970. Thank you very much. Try to deliver the tape recorder to Dinesh who is now in Washington again. So try to make some arrangement for this. Hope this will meet you in good health. Please offer my blessings to all the boys and girls there. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 14:48 | June 5, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 2nd June, 1970. You go with increasing the Bhagavat pictures according to the descriptions, and you need not divert your attention for the pictures demanded by our different centers. You can redirect such inquiries here, and as there are three artists now living with us it will be not difficult to paint the temple pictures Pancatattva, etc. So you simply concentrate in drawing pictures from Bhagavatam etc. and keep them together because they will be needed in future for many other purposes. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 14:48 | Jun 4, 2006 Thursday, June 4, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters both dated 26th May, 1970. So I was sure that you could not allow anyone to sit on the Vyasasana, and therefore when I read your statement I was little surprised. Anyway, that is alright. I hope your arrangements for Rathayatra festival are going on and Yamuna devi is taking nice care of the Deities. I can understand from the record album that your devotional feelings have improved. So keep this standard intact. In India the Kalyana magazine has published a nice description of our movement, and they have very much appreciated about my regulative principles. So keep this standard rigidly intact so the Indians may not be able to criticize in the matter of managing our temples. I am sure if you simply follow the instructions I have already given there will be no difficulty. Sometimes back I wrote you if the government can give us land in the Regent Park for constructing a big temple on the Indian style. I have not received any information about it. If possible try and get the information. I have not heard from Mukunda for a long time. Please keep me informed at least once in a fortnight about the good progress of your temple. KRSNA book will be ready by Rathayatra festival. When you take the procession on the street, always keep our books and magazines ready for distribution. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 14:45 | June 4, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Yamuna devi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 23rd April, 1970, with enclosed pictures of Lord Caitanya's Birthday procession as well as the Calcutta magazine section. I have immediately asked our magazine editors to publish the London pictures. This letter was mailed by ordinary surface mail, so it reached here just after one month. So in future send by aerogram or air mail. It is very, very encouraging to learn that London temple is receiving so many inquiries form the different European countries. So open branches there. When there is inquiry, the people are receptive. It is now already experimented that wherever we may open a center, Hare Krsna mantra will be chanted with great delight. Our Japanese center is doing very well. They have got very many television engagements. Brahmananda has gone there, and he says that in those parts of the world there is very good chance of spreading Krsna consciousness. Most probably Brahmananda will open a branch in Hong Kong. One Indian gentleman has taken very active interest, and he is paying $50 per month. So if there is possibility of opening centers in the places from where you have got inquiries, do it as far as possible. I am so glad to read the line wherein you write to say that there is no room for nonsense. That we want. We don't want to give any chance for Maya to enter in our business. That should be our motto, and we should be very much vigilant. In the meantime, while writing this letter, I have received your letter dated 1st June, 1970, and I am glad to know that the program for Rathayatra is well under way. Regarding your first question, the bathing ceremony of Lord Jagannatha is observed by His Lordship standing in a bathing tank while each of the devotees in turn offers prayers and obeisances, then pours water to bathe the Lord, then offers obeisances and the next devotee follows the same procedure. All the other devotees are holding kirtana throughout the bathing ceremony which takes place on June 19th. Regarding your second question, after being bathed, Lord Jagannatha catches fever and at that time you may carry Him along with Balaramaji and Subhadra to my room for recovering. During this time, up to Rathayatra, any repairs may be made. In Jagannatha Puri during this recuperation period the Deities are completely repainted. But that is especially in Jagannatha Puri that this is done so. Then Lord Jagannatha reappears on the day of Rathayatra festival. During His convalescence Bhoga is offered as usual, but no visitors are allowed to see the Lord. I am so pleased with the continuing expansion of London center's opulence for Deity worship, and that is the mercy of Lord Krsna for attracting so many visitors who will become devotees. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 14:44 | June 4, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Krsna das, Please accept my blessings. Since a long time I have not heard from you, so I will be glad to hear from you about your temple and Sankirtana activities. I was informed that Hamsaduta was going to Berlin. Whether he has gone there? So please drop me a line or two about your center activities, Hope this will meet you in good health. Please offer my blessings to Hamsaduta, Himavati, Jaya Govinda, Sadanandini, Sivananda, Vasudeva, Natabara, Haripriya, Vrndadevi, Sucandra, Heidrun, Mandali Bhadra, and all the other boys and girls there. What is being done about French and German magazines? Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 14:43 | June 4, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Srimati Joanne and Connie, Please accept my blessings. In continuation of my last letter, upon opening further the box sent by you along with your letters to me I have found the necklaces and handkerchief made by you for Sri Sri Radha and Krsna, and they are so wonderful. I have immediately got them on the Deities, and They are looking very gorgeous with Their new ornaments. So I beg to thank you very much for these nice gifts of your artistic talents. In the meantime, I have received one letter from Sriman Jananivasa requesting your initiations from me. So on his good recommendation you may send me your beads for chanting and I will be very happy to initiate you both. Please always chant Hare Krsna mantra and be happy. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:db letters | 14:42 | June 4, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. The tape recorder which you have taken for Dinesh--whether he has taken delivery? He wanted it very urgently, so if he has not taken it yet, you can inform him by telephone. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami N.B. With further reference to question five, in both the Bible and the Koran it is always recommended to be engaged always in kirtana or glorifying the Supreme Lord. Kirtana means to glorify the Lord by your vibration. In the churches there is always singing of praise and glories of the Lord and there is preaching naturally also. Mohammedans actually have singing kirtana publicly. This I have seen in India that they were holding kirtana with drum accompaniment. ACBS:db letters | 14:41 | June 4, 1970 Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, Bharadraja, and Muralidhara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter and I see that it is approved by the President. So anyone of my students can inquire from me in the matter of serving Krsna directly, and especially you are advanced and approved students. Sometimes somebody sends some irrelevant inquiries which students should not have asked from the Spiritual Master, and for them the restrictive circular was issued. So you are at liberty to send your letters directly, and I will reply them duly. So far painting the pictures, you are already doing it nicely as I have seen so many pictures in KRSNA, and I am also answering specific inquiries, so there is no difficulty. The best thing is you use your discrimination. I was advised that Narada Muni was to be painted on Easy Journey, but the picture which is given on it was suggested by me. The best thing will be that you paint pictures to your best discretion, and in controversial points you can write to me and I will send instructions. All of you are expert painters, so your mutual decision for painting a picture is more valuable than my suggestion. The descriptions are already there given in the book, so there is no difficulty to take out the points and prepare a sketch. Yes, I am very glad that temple arrangement in Boston is nicely being carried out and new devotees are joining--this is the success of preaching work. Preaching work means increasing the number of our family members. Krsna is our head man in the family; Kartamarshi means head man. According to Vedic system, Kartmarshi is asked in the morning by his wife what kind of foodstuffs he will like to take on that day. And the kartamarshi or the head man of the family will dictate some preparation, and that will be the accepted as the foodstuff for everyone on that day. Similarly, our principle should be to act in the way as Krsna will feel satisfaction. Krsna wants everyone of the living entities to go back to home, back to Godhead, so if we can induce even one person to understand that this material world is not meant for our living, our real home is in the spiritual world, and if we can convince this philosophy to even a single person, that is the success of our missionary activities. Jambavan the name does not suggest a bear, because his daughter was one of the queens of Dvaraka married by Krsna. Just like sometimes our name is Krsna, that does not mean that I am real Krsna, but I am Krsna Das or servant of Krsna. From the description of Srimad-Bhagavatam we understand that this Jambavan was very sturdy and strong fighter. Sometimes we get such picture of bodily construction of a black man in your country. So in this way you can guess what should be the features of his body. But certainly he was not a bear. Hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 13:46 | |
|
|
