a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1968 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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21 Apr 2004 Sunday, April 21, 1968 New York, New York My Dear Boys and Girls: Please accept my blessings and my message unto you is that this Krishna Consciousness movement in your country is the greatest boon to you all. Please take full advantage of this movement and be successful within this life. Everyone of us had to pass through many millions of years in the chain of evolutionary process from aquatic to plant life. from plant to reptile life, then to the species of birds, beasts, uncivilized human beings and now this is the golden opportunity with these nice American bodies. You have high intelligence, opulences, birth in the families of the rich nation. Use this opportunity for making life successful and go back to Krishna, back to Home. It is a very scientific movement authorized by the Vedas and accepted by all great acaryas. I think the boy Terry is God-sent. In his past life he must have cultivated this science of Krishna Consciousness and therefore he has automatically been attracted with this movement and who knows if all the boys and girls joining me were not born by the Supreme Will of Krishna just to help me in this great task of distributing Krishna Consciousness in the Western World specifically. I am always at your service and whenever you shall call me I shall come to your place and enjoy your good company. Please try to open a center there as soon as possible. I have instructed Terry about this. Please cooperate with him and chant Hare Krishna and open a center there. Ever your well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 04:37 | Sunday, April 21, 1968 New York, New York My Dear Malati, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 19th April, 1968, and the incidence in connection with Krishna's sitting on your lap is very interesting. I am so glad to learn that you have developed so much love for Krishna. This is the way of developing Krishna Consciousness; and wherever you will be rigid in your Krishna Consciousness, the triumph will be yours. Yes, here everything is very joyous, because so many nice boys and girls have joined the society, and they are joyfully dancing and chanting. You can let Syamasundara. know that the calculation of Rathayatra was made one month ahead. The actual date is the 28th of June; beginning of Rathayatra is on the 28th, and it will continue till 8 days, and the general festival may be observed on the 7th of July, Sunday (because Saturday is Ekadasi). Hoping you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. I thank you very much for the beautiful picture of Krishna which you have drawn and sent to me. Please paint many such nice pictures of Krishna, and we shall use them in all our temples. letters | 04:35 | 19 Apr 2004 Friday, April 19, 1968 New York, New York My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. Hope you are well. I am so much pleased that you are studying seriously our Krishna Consciousness philosophy. Please continue with your sincere efforts for Krishna. Now, regarding your question about Brahma, he may be chosen either from the liberated or the conditioned souls. In this case Brahma is a liberated soul from the beginning; therefore there is no contradiction that Brahma can be Haridasa Thakura. Those who are conditioned souls are eternally so, which means that it is never possible to trace out how long ago the conditioned existence began. We simply say that misuse of the little independence we have got creates so much trouble for us. But now by adopting Krishna Consciousness, we may finish this conditioned life immediately. That is Krishna Consciousness. Your reasoning is all right that the Brahma energy must have conscious direction to manifest form. Therefore He who gives that direction is the Ultimate Controller or Param Isvara. In Brahma Samhita it is said: "Isvarah paramah krsnah saccidananda vigrahah, anadir adir govindah sarva karana karanam." Krishna is the Supreme Controller of all controllers and therefore, He is the Origin of everything including the Brahma Energy. This Govinda is the cause of all causes, and He is without any cause. This is the beauty of the sastras, that one sloka finishes billions of years hard labor of mental speculation. Just try to give evidence like this. Regarding the Christian's Trinity, I believe it is called God, the Holy Ghost, and the son. Person in Krishna Consciousness accepts this by the name Visnu, Paramatma, and Jiva. God is a Person, the holy spirit or the supersoul is a person, and the living entity is also a person. Also, Mary is the representation of the energy of God. Either as internal energy Radharani or as external energy Durga, the energy of Godhead can be considered the mother of the living entities. But there is no clash between the Bible and the Vedas, simply some people formulate their personal ideas and cause quarrelings. Nobody can say the Bible was meant for the same class of men as the Bhagavad-gita. And Bhagavad-gita is the ABC's of spiritual knowledge. Beyond that is Srimad-Bhagavatam. How great Srimad-Bhagavatam is nobody can imagine. And beyond that is Caitanya Caritamrta. But beginning from the Bible or Koran, on up the principle remains the same. Just like beginning from the pocket dictionary, up [PAGE MISSING] letters | 04:30 | Friday, April 19, 1968 New York, New York Sri Syamasundara Mullick 155.A Mahatma Gandhi Road Calcutta-7, India My Dear Brother Gabu, Please accept my blessings. I hope in the meantime you have received the reply of your letter dated 27th March, 1968. Since I wrote you last I have come to New York. Regarding Business: if you send goods on our order then just on presentation of the shipping documents and your bill, my banker, the Bank of America, will pay for it at once. The copy of the bank's letter is enclosed herewith; please find it. If you agree to do business in that way, you can send immediately 20 first class kholes, and immediately ship 10 kholes to New York, and 10 to San Francisco. There is a shipping line, American Mail Service, or there are many shipping lines regularly coming from Calcutta to San Francisco and New York, and you can take advantage of them. We have got some money, about 3000. Rs., lying with United Shipping Corporation, at 14.2, Old China Bazar Street, Room No. 18, Calcutta. I have sent them several letters for statement of account and they are silent since a long time. I am also enclosing herewith the copy of their letter as enclosed herein. So if you send the khole, then this shipping corporation will ship the kholes, freight paid, because our money is lying with them. Please see them why they have not replied my letters, submitting statement of account. I am very much ashamed for their behavior because here the people are surprised that they are not submitting the statement of accounts of the money lying with them. And please let me know if you can help us in this matter. Yours affectionately, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 04:16 | April 19, 1968 New York, New York [TEXT MISSING] dated April 17, 1968, and I thank you very much for it. I am so much pleased to hear that you are not afraid to stand alone, and to maintain the temple there nicely; krishna is always there with you, and He will see to your success. Do not feel that you have offended me. You have served Krishna very nicely and are continuing to do so very nicely. There is no question of your falling from my grace: you have always my blessings upon you, and I am always thinking of you, and praying Krishna to help you and give you more and more advancement in Krishna Consciousness. So please do not be disturbed in that way. Just continue with what you are doing there, and Krishna will give you all facilities and all protection. I have arrived here in New York on the 17th afternoon: the trip was very quickly passed, and we were very nicely received at the airport, by both the press and the devotees. Here there are so many new flower-like young boys and girls, and they are all so much interested in Krishna Consciousness very seriously. I am surprised at their great enthusiasm, and I am very happy amongst them. Just try to make your temple there as successful as this one in New York; just work sincerely, and it will come. Please keep me informed of your activities: I am so much happy to hear you are contacting reporters and radio and tv stations; please send me a copy of the news article whenever it appears. And please keep me informed at least once or more in a week. Hoping you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 03:27 | |
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