a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
|
|
| Prabhupada Letters :: 1970 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
|
|
Oct 7, 2006 Wednesday, 7 October, 1970 Calcutta My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. I understand you have left and it is a thunderbolt for me. How is that? What are your demands? Or have you also been contaminated? Please tell me frankly. Where is your wife and child? If there is any disagreement with your Godbrothers, you may live separately. That doesn't matter. If there is any severe misunderstanding, I request you to come to India and live with me and start a press here. I shall await your reply with great anxiety. Please let me know everything in detail by return mail. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 15:00 | Oct 6, 2006 6 October, 1970 Calcutta My Dear Krsna das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated August 31st, 1970, and September 28th, 1970. I am very encouraged to hear of your Sankirtana Party activities and your program of visiting different cities weekly is very nice. Krsna is giving you very good intelligence. In the future you may maintain a permanent Sankirtana Party that will regularly visit in the cities all over Germany and in this way you will be able to distribute our literatures without any difficulty. Here in Calcutta we are daily travelling to different engagements and the response is very favorable. The pictures painted by Vasudeva are very nice and will be installed at our new place under construction on October 31st, 1970. You write to say that "the communist goal is to achieve a paradise on earth" but in the Bhagavad-gita Krsna has definitely stated that "from the topmost planet down to the lowest, all are places of misery where repeated birth and death take place" -- so what kind of paradise can they achieve? Any society without religion is animal society. The difference between animal and human being is that an animal has no intelligence and therefore is not expected to follow any regulative principles, but human life is a life of responsibility and the human beings are meant for satisfying the material necessities of life under regulative principles or laws. In other words, religion is laws of God. Human life is especially meant for reviving our lost relationship with God by following the instructions of God contained in religious books like the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, etc. Without God-centered society, the whole thing is dog-centered society. A dog also eats, a dog also sleeps, a dog also defends and they have ample opportunity for sex-life. So the goal of life is Krsna--to become free from the cat and dog propensities of eating, sleeping, defending and mating and achieve the spiritual platform of Eternity, Knowledge and Blissful Life in pure devotional service to the Lord--Bhakti yoga, that is religion. Simply loving Krsna. Society without religion, it is all animal society. The next point is that religion without philosophy is sentimentalism or fanaticism. Simply performing empty ritual without understanding is condemned by Srila Rupa Goswami in his Bhaktirasamrta sindhuh--pure devotional service which ignores the injunctions of the scriptures is simply a disturbance to the society. In Bhagavad-gita it is stated "One should approach a spiritual master and inquire from him submissively, render him all kinds of service. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the Truth." One has to hear the message of Godhead from the lips of the pure devotee of the Lord or Acarya. The religion is originally spoken by Krsna Himself and that message or science is coming down directly through the chain of disciplic succession and one who is in that chain is called acarya or one who teaches by his life. Religion is practically presented by the bona fide spiritual master or acarya. The next point is philosophy without religion is mental speculation. No one can manufacture a system of religion. Religion is the Law of God and no one but God or empowered representatives of God can put forward religious formulas. Therefore, because every living entity is the eternal fragmental part and parcel of God, it is practical that by simply accepting the authorized statements of bona fide scripture without mental speculation or fashionable interpretation one fulfills the mission of human life very easily and goes back to home, back to Godhead. "There is another eternal nature which is transcendental to this manifest and nonmanifest matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is." (Bg. 8.20) "It is the highest destination, going, no one ever returns from that, My Supreme Abode." (Bg. 8.21) So although the Russians may be very much advanced by throwing sputniks into the outer space, they are missing the real point--Krsna Consciousness, the science of God. Although there are so many departments of knowledge, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, etc., the science of God is still to be introduced. When the scientist philosopher medical man will get the opportunity to study systematically what is God, what are His energies, what is my relationship, how to approach Him, then only there will be paradise. But paradise in the present condition of life in ignorance of God is parasite in temporary paradise. I have already spoken to Hamsaduta about your enthusiasm to open some branches for ISKCON propaganda in Russia and in that connection you can immediately send him the address of the Indology Department along with the prominent professors. Always follow very strictly the regulative principles, chanting sixteen rounds, Deity worship and everything will come automatically. Please offer my blessings to all the nice devotees there. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 14:59 | Oct 5, 2006 Monday, 5 October, 1970 Calcutta My Dear Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings you all. You are welcome in India. Now my going to Bombay is postponed and my enclosed letter to Sri Bajoriaji will speak for itself. Now if your preaching work in Bombay is going nicely, then you can stay there for some time and do preaching work as they are doing here in Calcutta. Otherwise, you can immediately come here and work jointly. We are expecting to have our own place by the end of this month. When you come, you should send a telegram with the details of your arrival. If you interested to open a branch in Bombay, you can see the following gentleman and he will help you. Dr. Ram Candra Pal 62, Keluskar Road Sivaji Park Dadar Bombay-28 Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 14:59 | 5 October, 1970 Calcutta Bharata Sadhu Samaj Bombay Dear Sri Bajoriaji, Please accept my greetings. In continuance of my telegram dated October 2nd, 1970, and letter dated October 3rd, 1970, I beg to inform you that although my party from London has reached there in Bombay, I am unable to join you there in Bombay because there was no arrangement for my passage. Therefore, if my disciples there can do the work, then I do not require to go to Bombay leaving aside my important engagements here. Yours sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds c.c. Sriman Gurudasa Adhikari, leader of ISKCON Sankirtana Party from London. letters | 14:58 | Oct 4, 2006 Sunday, 4 October, 1970 Calcutta My Dear Daivisaktidevi and Nayana Bhirama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you both so very much for your card dated September 15, 1970. I am so happy that you are finding your combination for working forward in the transcendental loving service of the Lord to be very fortunate by the grace of the Lord. I beg to thank you for your gift to me of a handsewn bead bag which is very skillfully done. I shall be utilizing it very soon for my beads. I hope everything is going on well with you at your center in Philadelphia. Please set the example of our ideal householder life in Krsna Consciousness. This will be very highly appreciated by all persons who will come in your contact and you will also be benefited. So please see that you all stick to the regulative lines of our devotional practices and keep up the standard of purity as it has thus far been established in our progressive functions in Krsna Consciousness. Hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 14:57 | 4 October, 1970 Calcutta My Dear Yogesvara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you so much for your letter dated September 21st, 1970, along with your copy of Who Is God?--A Children's Introduction to Krishna Consciousness which I see you have done with great care. I have gone through the book, and I think it is very nice. Devananda and others have also seen it and have also approved your efforts. But I think this book is meant for somewhat older children, about ten to fifteen years. We are also immediately requiring some books for much younger children, say five to ten years age. Another thing you just see that every and each item and example for discussion is made very clear in continuous context so that it will be easy for their understanding. As you have done this first book it is very good beginning, so you go on writing and improving and make a series of such books and we shall see to their printing. Also have the pictures done very nicely and in color if possible as it is done by our Art Department in Boston and if you have any questions in this regard you may correspond with them directly. That will be very nice. In the meantime, have all your works read by the other devotees as they may find it convenient to do so and they can give you further suggestions. So go on writing more books; we need many such books for distributing to the public schools as well as for our own schools and send me the draft copies as you make them up. I will be very glad to see to them. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 14:56 | Oct 3, 2006 Saturday, 3 October, 1970 Calcutta Sri Professor S.C. Chakravarti, D. Litt. Bolpur, India Dear Sriman Sudhindra Babu, Please accept my blessings. I am so pleased to receive your postcard dated 18th Sept., 1970. Unfortunately, I could not reply it very promptly on account of various engagements here almost twice, thrice daily besides my routine work. You will please excuse me. I am so glad to learn that you are interested in the matter of Vaisnava philosophy. Vaisnava philosophy is very simple: that God is great and everyone is His servant. Nobody can be equal to or greater than God. They are simultaneously one and different. In quality they are one, but in magnitude they are different. This is the whole philosophy of the four Vaisnava sampradayas. As we are now preaching Vaisnava philosophy throughout the world as a whole, your valuable service is most welcome. Most probably I am going out of station by the 5th instant and shall come back by the 20th or by the end of this month. If you kindly see me by that time it shall be very much appreciated and we can talk about this cooperation in detail. Regarding our institution, please read the enclosed pamphlet and you will know the synopsis of our propaganda work and as well you will find herewith enclosed a booklist of our publications. Thanking you once more for your kind letter. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:ds letters | 18:36 | |
|
|
