a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
|
|
| Prabhupada Letters :: 1973 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
|
|
17 February 2007 Thursday, 17 February, 1973 Sydney My Dear Govinda dasi, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 31st. and I have noted the contents carefully. I thank you very much for sending me the nice monogrammed shirts and I am wearing them daily. I am thinking of you and your husband and of the nice devotional service you are performing and I pray that Krishna will give you more and more intelligence to continue in this way. You are the pioneer of pushing forward Tulasi worship in the Western world and I can understand that proportionally as your Tulasi plants are growing, your devotion and love is also growing. Please continue in this way. I am glad to hear that you are opening another workshop in Kauai for the manufacturing of the Gaura-Nitai Deities and this is a very great service to our society and devotees. But one thing. You should always inform me before sending the Deities to the Temples. We cannot send them indiscriminately to anyone who has the whim of worshipping the Deities. We must be very very careful as to not commit offenses in worshiping the Deities, so therefore there must be sufficient facilities and Brahmins to worship the Deity. Here in Australia, everything is going on very nicely and we will be travelling to New Zealand on the 19th of February where Tusta Krishna and Siddha Svarupa das Goswami are preparing a one week lecture tour and then I will be returning to India and again back to America by April. At this time I will be pleased to see you again. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ms Labels: Australasia, deities, tulasi letters | 11:18 |17 February, 1973 Sydney My Dear Karandhara das, Please accept my blessings. While in India last it was brought to my attention that our Sriman Hayagriva das has become deviated from the four basic principles which I have given to all my students for adherence to when they are first initiated. I do not know why he is living in such a way but I feel that he must be brought back to the standard immediately. So I am requesting you as my Governing Board Commissioners to help me bring him back to the standard. He has very good talent, but he is spending it by living such an unrestricted life. Therefore, in the meantime, there must be another co-editor of Back to Godhead magazine to replace him. I have discussed this with Madhudvisa Maharaja here in Australia and he has suggested that Hrdayananda das Goswami could be a good man for the job. I have not made any decision, but I would like you to discuss this amongst yourselves and send me your conclusion. I cannot stress this point enough that we must handle this publication of Back to Godhead very nicely for it is one of the most important aspects of our society. So you will please do the needful in this regard and please contact me soon. I will be in Auckland up to the 25th. of February and in Calcutta after the 2nd. of March. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ms Labels: GBC, principles, publishing letters | 11:17 |16 February 2007 Wedmesdau, 16 February, 1973 Sydney My Dear Sudama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of 6/2. and I am very much joyful to hear that you are enjoying you preaching activities there in America. Actually this is our real business, preaching, chanting, distributing prasadam and book distribution. This book distribution is especially an important program and it is first class preaching work. So I encourage you to work with all the senior men there in America and encourage them to distribute more and more of this transcendental literature. As far as your attachment for tending the Deities is concerned by no means this can be considered material attachment, but this is our real desireless state to be always engaged twenty four hours in the service of the Lord. But if the facility for serving the Deities is not there, then we should not be discouraged. This is real detachment. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu was touring all over India He did not bring the Deities with Him. So in our travelling and preaching, Deity worship is not essential but if it is done nicely it can be a very attractive aspect of our preaching work. After consulting with the GBC I have decided that the far east zone can be managed by Karandhara das for he already has extensive dealing with Dai Nippon etc. So he may look after this area for the time being and in the future we will see what happens. So now I am seeing more and more that my senior disciples must take and active role in continuing the high standard of purity which has been established in our Vaisnava line. In your travelling from centre to centre, you must be very careful to see that the leaders are observing the principles of chanting 16 rounds, rising early for Mangala Arati, participating in the morning and evening classes, observing the four regulative principles etc. If there is any deviation from this standard then it is the responsibility of you and the local GBC representative to rectify it immediately. Within these Vaisnava standards which I have put forward lies the spiritual strength of our movement. So you may please do the needful in this regard. I shall be returning to the U.S. in April and I will be looking forward to seeing you at that time. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ms Labels: book distribution, deities, GBC, principles letters | 05:57 |16 February, 1973 Sydney My dear Citsukhananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 4th of February and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very much encouraged by your work in pioneering this movement in South America and I pray to Lord Sri Krishna that he will protect you in all your endeavors. Hanuman and yourself appear to be working so nicely as a team that I am writing to you as a team so you please discuss the points I have mentioned in Hanuman's letter and do the needful in this regard. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ms Labels: South America letters | 05:54 |16 February, 1973 Sydney My dear Son, Please accept my blessings. On the recommendation of Satsvarupa I am herein accepting you as my initiated disciple. Henceforth your name will be GHANASYAMA DASA. Now you must agree to very rigidly follow the rules and regulations, i.e. chanting sixteen rounds of beads daily, rising early and attending Mangala Arati, observing the four principles, attending the classes, eating only bhagavata prasadam as well as working under the instruction of my representatives, such as your GBC representative and Temple President. If you follow this procedure very strictly then your life will be glorious and you will go back to Home, back to Godhead, this I can guarantee. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ms Labels: initiation letters | 05:53 |15 February 2007 Tuesday, 15 February, 1973 Sydney My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated nil and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very pleased to hear of your determination in spreading this Krishna Consciousness philosophy on all these campuses. This is a very important program. Right from the beginning of my mission, I have always stressed and encouraged my disciples to work with the college students. You should not be discouraged if people are not coming to your meetings. We are trying to please Krishna. That is all. We simply must go on with our business, to the best of our ability. We must always sincerely try to do our best with great determination. This is the transcendental position. Success or failure, this is not our business. We leave that up to Krishna. My Guru Maharaja said, it does not matter if anyone comes to hear. You go on with your chanting. If no-one hears you the walls will hear. But this does not mean that we should sit down someplace and simply chant Hare Krishna for our own benefit. We should be always anxious to save the cripple minded people with the science of Krishna Consciousness. This is the position of a Vaisnava. One disciple of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Vasudeva Datta prayed to Lord Caitanya, please Caitanya Mahaprabhu, take all these people back to Home, back to Godhead and I will suffer for their sins. Like this, this is the attitude of a pure Vaisnava. Actually the true Vaisnava, he is the only true humanitarian in the world today, for he is interested in the well-being of all living entities. So you will continue on and consult with Karandhara and the other GBC men and formulate some program to preach this Krishna Consciousness in the colleges and this will please me very much. I am approving of the initiation of John Favors who is now to be called GHANASYAMA DASA. From your description he is to be a very nice and intelligent boy so please train him up properly. You may send his beads on to Kirtanananda Maharaja for chanting. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Labels: initiation, preachers, spiritual master letters | 21:20 |14 February 2007 Monday, 14 February, 1973 Sydney My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I am in receipt of your letter dated 31/1/73. After conferring with my various GBC representatives I have concluded that polygamy must be strictly prohibited in our society. Although it is a Vedic institution still there are so many legal implications. Neither are many of our men fixed up enough to tend for more than one wife. Polygamy will simply increase the sex life and our philosophy is to gradually decrease the sex life till eventually there is no sex life. The policy should be that all the women are given the utmost protection. Women are looking for husbands because they feel unprotected so it is up to the senior members to give all protection to the women. Regarding our sankirtana party members dressing up as hippies in order to increase book distribution this is not a very good plan. I am instructing Bali Mardan Maharaja that this should be stopped, that we should not give anyone cause to call us hippies, but the devotees can dress up in respectable clothes like ladies and gentlemen in order to distribute my literatures under special circumstances, but even this program should not become widespread. It should only go on under the supervision of Bali Mardan Goswami and Karandhara das. Wherever there are individuals there is bound to be difference of opinion. Therefore for this purpose I have formulated the GBC. Therefore any new programs or proposals or discrepancies should be submitted before the Governing Board Commission and then their conclusion should be submitted to me for the final approval. In other words I am requesting you as my senior men not to tax my brain with so many details but simply come to a conclusion amongst yourselves and then present this final conclusion for my sanction. In this way I will be free to concentrate on my translation of Srimad-Bhagavatam. I have the information of a few cases of illicit sex in our society but this is not an overall thing. And whether it is or not, the only cure is Hari Nama. You simply be engaged in chanting all day and serving Krishna and any time there is no service, simply chant Hare Krishna. Then there is no chance for illicit sex. As far as studying my books is concerned, I have already given the order. One hour in the morning class and one hour in the evening and if there is extra time during the day it may be used for studying but we cannot expect everyone to be studious. If someone has desired to distribute books all day he may do this, but he must always follow the principles of rising early, chanting 16 rounds, etc. Just as some rich men have no inclination for studying, but still he opens many schools for others to study at. Like this, all of my students may not be inclined to study but they are very much eager to give others the opportunity to read my books and this should not be discouraged. All programs must go on but it is a fact that this book distribution program is very very important. It is real preaching work but I think this program for T.V. and radio is not so important. There are so many T.V. programs. Someone will see us on T.V. and then right after they will see some other nonsense and they will forget. Therefore it is better for them to read my books but I think your proposal for seriously organizing the college programs is first class. If this program is conducted in the proper fashion it can be our biggest book distribution outlet, I am convinced of this. You are advanced devotee and you should use your intelligence to convince the professors that they should use my books in the colleges. This will be the greatest service. Regarding your question about taking Gaura-Nitai Deities with you on travelling Kirtana, this is not so important. When Caitanya Mahaprabhu was touring India He did not bring His Deity with Him. But if you can make proper arrangement then you may take them, but if you say you have no Brahmins then I think for the time being you may postpone this program. I will be returning to Calcutta from my preaching tour in Australasia by the 2nd. of March and therefore I am requesting that you come to Calcutta no later than this date in order to travel with me and be my secretary for one month. If there is any difficulty in this would you please write to me at Auckland, New Zealand for I will be arriving there on the 19th of February. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. I am in due receipt of your most recent letter and I can see if the T.V. agrees to endorse our books and show them on T.V., this is a good program and it must be continued. Labels: book distribution, deities, GBC, itinerary, sex life, study, women letters | 06:12 |14 February, 1973 Sydney My Dear Ramesvara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 5th. and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very much pleased to hear of your increased book distribution and it gives me great pleasure to hear of your increased eagerness to distribute my literature. Through the distribution of this literature, we can completely annihilate all the bogus yogi groups in the world. Of this fact I am sure. Therefore there is no need for us to directly attack these charlatans but simply by this distribution of books the sunlight of Krishna consciousness will prevail. It has been brought to my attention that some of my students are not studying. I do not know if this applies to you or the devotees under your care, but I must stress again that we must have our classes one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening and the devotees must also chant regularly their sixteen rounds and follow the principles. The rest of the time they may go on distribution of my books. So I hope you will do the needful in this regard. Still again I must express my appreciation for Sriman Tripurari Prabhu's outstanding service, as well as all the devotees in your party. So my request to you is to go on in this way with more enthusiasm. This is the key. Always remain enthusiastic and inspire others and your life will be glorious and at the end you are sure to go back to Home, back to Godhead. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Labels: book distribution, study letters | 06:12 |11 February 2007 Sunday, 11 February, 1973 Melbourne My Dear Guru Gauranga, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of you letter dated January 24th, and have noted the contents carefully. I am very much encouraged to hear of your increased Sankirtana movement and your return to Geneva to open up still another chapter in Lord Caitanya's conquest of the world. You may consult closely with Bhagavan das on all matters and he will give you good advice in this regard. As far as police problems are concerned, this is going on all over the world, especially here in Melbourne, they are being persecuted by the police. Even they are going to jail daily, but still they will not stop their chanting and distributing. When they go to jail, they refuse to eat the food, and in this way so much public sympathy is there. So eventually the police will accept us and our Sankirtana activities will go on unchecked. Simply we must have the determination to continue our preaching work under all circumstances. The initiation of Bhakta Olaf das is duly approved by me and his new name is Asok Kumar. You may also have him send his beads along with a cover letter from you to Rebatinandan Swami, who is in London and has been authorized by me to chant on the beads. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Labels: initiation, preachers letters | 06:31 |11 February, 1973 Melbourne My Dear Nityananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 16th and I have noted the contents carefully. I can see from your account that everything is being conducted in a first class fashion and if you continue to spread Lord Caitanya's movement in this way your life will also become glorious. Therefore I recommend that you go on with more enthusiasm to inspire the devotees of New Orleans Yatra and I am confident that through your sincerity you can very shortly be one of the top distributing centres in the world. The initiation that you have recommended are approved by me. Victor Mistretta is now to be called Vrikodara and Darrel Martin is now Dvibhuja. You may send one letter to Kirtanananda Swami along with their beads for chanting on. I have authorized him to chant on the beads on my behalf. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ms Labels: book distribution, initiation letters | 06:31 |11 February, 1973 Melbourne My Dear Tosana, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 25th. and have noted the contents carefully. Your dedication to Srimati Tulasi-devi is very laudable and I am sure that if you consult with Karandhara das he will give you all assistance to help make your dream come true. But carving tulasi beads should not be your sole occupation. You should also go out for street sankirtana and distribute my literature for the cripple minded masses, and whatever spare time you have you can carve some tulasi beads for me to sanctify. But whatever you do should be done with wholehearted enthusiasm and strict adherence to the principles of chanting 16 rounds, rising for mangala arati, following the four basic principles, always remaining clean etc. You may consult with Karandhara das and request him to approve your second initiation. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 06:30 | 11 February, 1973 Melbourne My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter and I approve of the initiations of Bill Allan who is now to be called Balaji das, Paul Terry who is now to be called Parambrahma das, Richard Selvin who is now Radhanatha das and Tom Meyers who is now Taru das. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Labels: initiation letters | 06:29 | |
|
| ||
|
||||
|
||||
