a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1973 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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8 November 2007 8 November, 1973 New Delhi My Dear Jadurani dasi: Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 19, 1973. Yes, why not get Devahuti to paint, she's a good painter. Now I want for Lord Caitanya's Appearance Day one book of Adi lila published, 400 pages at least, hardbound, for being distributed at Mayapur. Regarding the enclosed photo, the Yamadutas are all right. Yes, it is all right to show the subtle body looking just like the gross body. Regarding Lord Caitanya's danda, it was broken for good. So after Puri, He never took danda. So for painting Him as sannyasa, it depends on the time as to whether He had danda or not. The eka danda is all right, as in the Sadbhujah picture I sent. Do not be concerned with how the Mayavadi sannyasi dandas are wrapped because we are not following them. Kapiladeva was a young man, say 15 or 16 years. He appeared as a baby. Salagrama sila is a black stone ball, round, with eyes and nose painted with gopicandana with a golden crown on and placed on one small srngasana. Advaita Acarya was worshipping this way. Regarding the arati ceremony of Svayambhuva Manu, better to have the men and women separate. That is the Vedic system. Not like in the West of co-education, because intermingling of men and women was not at all sanctioned. If he is performing arati, how can he sit in a throne or asana? The young girls on the bank were worshipping Siva linga. It is made from earth collected from the Ganges bank. There was no deity of Durgadevi. These Siva lingas are placed right on the Ganga bank without any throne, wherever there is a suitable place. So why don't you come to Mayapur for sometime, not only you but all others and stay for sometime and finish the paintings locally there. So go on with your chanting of Hare Krsna. You have written "Jaya Vali Hari," but it is "bali hari yai?" meaning "I give you all credit, all glories." I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: art, Brooklyn, Caitanya Caritamrta, questions letters | 05:18 |1 November 2007 Thursday, 1 November, 1973 New Delhi My Dear Acyutananda Maharaja: Please accept my blessings. Enclosed please find one letter addressed to me from one of our Bengali devotees, which I am forwarding to you for necessary action. Try to pacify him if he is offended. Everyone comes to us to offer voluntary service, so amongst ourselves there must be good behavior. One may not feel sorry. So the leaders must take precautions as far as possible. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami N.B. Regarding your two questions addressed through Tamala Krsna, the reply to your question about Arjuna's relationship with Krsna, is that Arjuna is an eternal devotee, so on the higher platform the devotee is so intimately related that he forgets Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But, in the lower stage of devotional service Krsna is looked upon with awe and veneration. When Arjuna saw the virata murti of Krsna, actually he came down one step below his position. Therefore he asked for forgiveness from Krsna. So this is a teaching to the common man that we should not take Krsna immediately as intimately as the gopis, cowherds boys, and other advanced devotees treated Him. In the beginning we must treat the Lord with awe and veneration. Later one when we are perfectly on the spiritual platform, we treat Krsna more intimately, and therefore we forget the exalted position of Krsna. But, we never imitate the Brijbasis from the beginning as do the sahajiyas. In the beginning a devotee must follow strictly viddhi-marga or regulated principles. When one is on the swarupa siddha stage, the devotee can treat Krsna on an equal level or sometimes he becomes even higher than Krsna. Just like Mother Yasoda treated Krsna a being completely dependent upon her. So these stages are appreciated in many advanced stages of devotional life. As far as the results of one's good karma is concerned, good karma returns in that he is surrendering to Krsna. One comes to the point of surrender when one has actually amassed the result of multi pious activities. This is stated in the Caitanya Caritamrta as quoted from the Srimad-Bhagavatam as follows: ittham satam brahma-sukhanubhutya dasyam gatanam para-daivatena mayasritanam naradarakena sardham vijahruh krta punya-punjah (Bhäg. 10.12.11) This was the statement of Srila Sukdeva Goswami when he saw Krsna carrying the cowherds boys on His shoulders. To be in such a position could only be the result of the performance of many, many pious activities. They were putting their legs on the Supreme Personality of Godhead and were forgetting who He is, and Krsna is taking the feet of His devotee on Himself. Krsna is so nice. The mayavadis can never understand this exchange of devotional activities. I have been hearing about your successful preaching. Stick to this work allotted to you by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Always pray to Caitanya Mahaprabhu for strength and go on with your preaching. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs letters | 14:31 | 17 July 2007 17 July, 1973 Bhaktivedanta Manor Dear Cintamani dasi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your undated letter and I have carefully examined the contents. You have written that you are not sure what Krsna wants you to do and that Palika dasi has invited you to go to Hyderabad to come help with the deities. So I think that is a good idea that you go to India and you can do so as soon as possible. We require many more devotees now in India so it will be very nice if you can go. You ask how you can become free of envy. Simply by chanting Hare Krsna, Lord Caitanya has said the heart will become cleaned of all the dirty things accumulated in the heart. It is not that we have to endeavor separately to become rid of envy or any deficiency or impurity. In this age the chanting of Hare Krsna is recommended as the only possible method to associate with Krsna. By offenseless chanting, when we associate with Krsna through His Holy Name, then all inauspicious things are cleared from the heart. So wherever you are you should always go on chanting, and that in itself will bring all perfection. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: New Vrindaban, questions letters | 19:30 |28 June 2007 28 June, 1973 Calcutta My dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 18 and I have carefully studied the contents. I am very glad to hear you have begun paintings for Caitanya Caritamrta because we will require many illustrations. Re your questions: During Krsnadasa's time there was no Radharani deity, Madan Mohan was alone. Radharani was later introduced. The temple of Madan Mohan was formerly on high level, that is, the original old temple. It is still existent and can be seen side by side with the new Madan Mohan temple. You can write to Gurudasa in Vrndabana to send you two photos of the old and new temple. I will also write him requesting he send such pictures. No, Haridasa Pandit is not the namacarya Haridasa Thakura. Haridasa Pandit was the pujari of the temple. As far as the old Govindaji temple is concerned, that is now rejected. It is now newly situated. Both the old Govindaji and Madan Mohan temples were desecrated by the Mohammedans and partly destroyed, but Govindaji deity was removed. The old temples are rejected and these temples are both now newly situated as you will see in the photos. No, there was no Radharani in the temple of Govindaji then; she was later introduced. Yes the deities can be painted similar to the way they are dressed now. There is not much difference in the robes of mayavadis and Vaisnavas, but they generally use a deeper color and we use lighter saffron. Lord Caitanya did not necessarily wear the mayavadi robes. He carried ekadanda, but that is covered by the cloth, they have one rod, we have four rods. But they look the same. Yes, Lord Caitanya carries a water pot. If you sincerely pray to Krsna, He will help you to paint quicker and better. Hoping this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: art, Brooklyn, Caitanya Caritamrta, questions letters | 16:54 |22 June 2007 Friday, 22 June, 1973 Mayapur My dear Makhanlal, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 8 June 1973 and I have carefully studied the contents. I am encouraged to hear that you have recommended a total of ten devotees for first initiation from our St. Louis temple. Preaching means to increase our family members, so I can see that the preaching at ISKCON St. Louis is going on very sincerely, otherwise so many would not be interested in becoming devotees. So on your carefully considered recommendation, I am accepting these girls and boys as my initiated disciples and their names are as follows: Thomas Doherty--Tamopaha das; Jim Higgins--Niscinta das; Paul Gibson--Punderika das; Lance Nally--Gaya das; Steven Lisowski--Satyamadhava das; Nancy Alderman--Nikunjarasi Vilasi dasi; Deborah Little--Daksinesvari dasi; Ginette Newman--Govindarupini dasi; Donald Parker--Modandin das; Sylvia Parker--Savitri dasi They may send their beads for chanting along with a copy of this letter to Kirtanananda Maharaja. Now you instruct them carefully that they must chant 16 rounds daily without fail and always follow the four regulative principles as well as engage in daily duties of temple attendance, classes and street sankirtana. The word initiation means "to begin'' not that when he is initiated a disciple becomes slack; rather upon initiation he begins spiritual life in earnest. Regarding second initiation, enclosed is one sacred thread chanted on by me, and the gayatri mantra. This should be instructed to Maha Muni in private, have him hear a tape recording of the mantra in the right ear. Hold a fire yajna for the first initiates. You have asked what is the mentality of the demons who attacked New Vrndavana and why did this happen? You should know this already, that there are two classes of men, devotees and demons. The whole history is that the peaceful devotees are disturbed by the demons but that the devotees are always victorious by the grace of Krsna. In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna ordered Arjuna to declare to the whole world that His devotees would never be vanquished. And in the last verse of the Gita, Sanjaya says wherever there is Krsna and Krsna's pure devotee Arjuna there will always be opulence, victory, extraordinary power and morality--tatra srir vijayo bhutir dhruva nitir matir mama. But because we are engaged in warfare with the forces of Maya, there will be casualties. Even Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu a 16-year-old boy was killed at the battle of Kuruksetra. We should be prepared to protect the Deities and always expect Krsna's Mercy, because we are always dependent on Him and we cannot do anything on our own without Him. You have asked about whether nuclear devastation on this planet would effect the Sankirtana Movement. No, there is nothing that can stop the Sankirtana Movement because it is the will of God Himself, Lord Caitanya, that His Holy Name be heard in every town and village. Neither can the demons devastate this planet independent of the will of Krsna. Nothing happens without His sanction. If Krsna wants to kill someone no one can save Him, and if Krsna wants to save someone no one can kill him. For our parts we should just be determined to carry out our mission against all opposition, demons, nuclear war, whatever. The whole universe is finally subject to certain annihilation by the will of Krsna, but devotional service is eternal and is the only certain way one can save himself from devastation. We can preach all over the world that the only way to be saved from collective and individual devastation is to take to the chanting of Hare Krsna. In short, this material world is a very precarious place therefore we should always chant Hare Krsna and seek Krsna's protection. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: initiation, questions, St. Louis letters | 16:51 |12 May 2007 Saturday, 12 May, 1973 Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 8, 1973. I have noted the contents carefully. I hope that by now you have received my letter of 2/5/73 in answer to your letter of April 25. I have not received any letters from you since then. In regards to your questions in the letter of May 8, Caitanya Mahaprabhu was going to see the temple of Visesvar and hundreds and thousands of people were following Him. He was chanting Hari! Hari! It was not on the bank of the Ganges. It was on a road. It was not a high road but very narrow. Lord Caitanya was a sannyasa should be depicted with shaven head and wearing a short dhoti with folded part in front. Hoping this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/jda Labels: art, Brooklyn, questions letters | 20:37 |9 May 2007 Wednesday, 9 May, 1973 Los Angeles My Dear Caturbhuja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to aknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 27, 1973. Thank you very much. In answer to your several questions, first; what is meant by conditioned sould? Conditioned soul means one who has accepted something illusion as reality. Conditioned means that due to imperfect desires the spirit soul becomes dependent on material conditions for his satisfaction. Your second question; how does he become conditioned when the jivatma is eternal full of bliss and knowledge? The answer is that it is not the soul itself that becomes mixed with matter but it is his consciousness that becomes absorbed in trying to enjoy the matter. Out of desire to lord it over, the jiva soul forgets that he is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss and identifies with the material energy. So it is the consciousness of the conditioned soul that is affected. Your third question is: does the soul ever become weak or strong on account of its association and contact with material nature? It is not the spirit soul that becomes weak or strong but it is his determination to become Krsna Conscious that me become weak or strong. By the influence of the modes of passion and ignorance he becomes weak and by the influence of the mode of goodness he becomes strong. But by the association with the pure devotee he becomes strongest. Your fourth question: "Whether or not it is possible for the soul to exist without having this external gross and subtle body covering it? So if the bird is existing within the cage and someone takes away the cage does that mean that the bird can no longer exist? No. This body is illusion. It is only because of out attachment for this body that we have to remain within it. But as soon as one transfers his attachment to Krsna then no more is there any need for this body. Your fifth question is, "Bhagavad-gita says that the conditioned soul is subjected to four defects. Does that refer to the body or the soul?" The defects are there in the living being when he is acting on the material platform. As stated in Bhagavad-gita chapter 15 verse 17: "dvavimau purusau loke, ksaras caksara eva ca, ksarah sarvani bhutani, kutastho 'ksara ucyate:" "There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every entity is called infallible." So the defects are there only on the material platform. One who is acting in Krsna Consciousness is beyond those defects. Your nest question: "The Bhagavad-gita says that Lord Brahma is a conditioned soul. Then how was it possible for him to impart the Vedas to a non-conditioned soul--Narada Muni?" So, Lord Brahma is a conditioned soul means that due to his desire to become the creator of the material manifestation he had to take birth within the material world. But although he was conditioned by such desire, still he is a great devotee of Lord Krsna. He has written Brahma-samhita which is pure Vaisnava literature describing the Supreme Personality of godhead. Lord Brahma was the first created being within the universe and the first spiritual master, as he received knowledge from within his heart from Lord Krsna. Narada appeared as the son of Brahma and therefore he had to accept Lord Brahma as his spiritual master. Your last question, "How is the sould degraded (by lust, anger and greed) when it is transcendental to the body? Doesn't that imply that the sould has changed?" No. The soul never changes, but due to his tinyness he may become forgetful of his relationship with Krsna. The spiritual quality of the spiritual spark has not changed but he has forgotten his spiritual nature, bewildered by the imperfect desire to become equal or greater than Krsna. I hope you are able to understand all these points. As you know, I am translating so many books into English from the Sanskrit, therefore, I am very busy. Now, I have representatives, the GBC and the temple presidents who are qualifies to answer your questions. Of course if you ask me I am obligated to reply because I am your spiritual master. So please direct your question to my representatives. I may be coming to London in June, and I will be pleased to see you at that time. Hoping this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Labels: questions letters | 20:33 |4 January 2007 4 January, 1973 Bombay My Dear Dhruvananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 17, 1972, and I have noted the contents with care. You have asked me several questions about the deity worship in Los Angeles, so I shall answer them one after another: Your first question, shall Srimati Radharani's feet be showing, the answer is no, they should never be seen. Krsna's feet, however, should be showing. I do not know when I have said to anyone that Krsna should not wear anything black color, nor I know where I have given any permission to wear black color, but there is no harm if sometimes Krsna dresses something black. Sometimes in Vrndavana they dress Him in black. Yes, the leaves of Srimati Tulasi Devi may be offered to all Visnu-tattva expansions of Krsna, including Nityananda and Balarama. You may dress Lord Caitanya in the standard way, main things is do it nicely, don't make it funny. In your Western countries Lord Caitanya should be entirely covered, He should not appear bare-chested. Why you are pouring water over the head of Radha and Krsna deities? Big deities should not be bathed in this way, using water or other things. Rather they are bathed daily by mantra, do you not know these things? Under no circumstances shall we bathe the Jagannatha deities with anything water or liquid, they should be bathed with mantra also. Now you are asking if Lord Jagannatha carries flute? why this nonsense question? You are asking me so many concoctions and manufactured nonsense. Don't bother my head in this way any more. From now on unless I order you do something change or in addition, go on with the usual standard way. You manufacture ideas and then I have to waste my time. I have given you everything already, there is no need for you to add anything or change anything. Why you are asking these things? Who has given you such freedom? Pujari should operate entirely under the supervision of temple president and GBC, not independently. The greatest danger to our movement will come when we manufacture and create our own process for worshiping the deities. So don't ask any more new questions, whatever is going on, follow it just to the exact standard as I have given you, that's all. [PAGE MISSING] letters | 09:26 | 4 January, 1973 Bombay My dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 16, 1972, along with photos from Srimad-Bhagavatam. To answer your questions; "Self-deception" means that I know I should have done something, I have knowledge of what I ought to do, and still I don't do it. Just like some of our devotees, we have got certain prohibitions, and everyone knows they will be harmful to me to violate, still they do it, despite everything. It is not like running after a mirage in the desert, thinking something water, that is ignorance, not self-deceit. So I cannot think of any example for your illustration just at this moment, but you have got the idea now what is self-deceit, I think you will be able to draw something nice. The depiction of Brahma and the destruction of the material worlds is very nice. When Brahma enters into the body of Visnu, that is ultimately, at the ultimate destruction, not in the partial destruction which you are illustrating. So it is all right as you have done it. So far the picture of three-headed Brahma in the assembly of other Brahmas, I have not seen, so what can I say? Whatever is palatable to everyone, you can do it that way. There is no mention otherwise, so the all Brahmas can be shown four arms. So far the question of all Brahmas riding on swans, at least when they came to offer respects they did not come with swan, they are all standing, they have walked into Krsna's palace. Yes, you may show all Brahmas very big in comparison with three-headed Brahma, otherwise how you can compare the elephant and the mosquito? The picture of my Guru Maharaja is nice. So far your questions about Lord Jagannatha and Ratha-yatra Festival, the first Ratha-yatra Festival was 5,000 years before, when Krsna and Balarama and Subhadra came from Dvaraka to Kuruksetra. So far the festival at Puri, there is no such history, but it must be more than 3,000 years. At least there is recorded history 2,000 years old, because we see in the Aquarian Gospel that Lord Jesus Christ was attending the Ratha-yatra Festival at Puri. Yes, there was attempt by Radharani to take back Krsna from Kuruksetra to Vrndavana. I think that answers your questions, so if you have got any more in connection with your work you may feel free to always write to me. Hoping this meets you in good health, Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sda letters | 09:23 | |
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