a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1968 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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26 Sept 2004 Thursday, September 26, 1968 Seattle, Washington My Dear Krishna devi and Dinesh Candra das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of Sept. 24, 1968, and have noted the contents carefully. Yes, you can accept this proposal without any hesitation and get the loan from him. For service of Krishna sometimes we may agree to act in a way which may not be very agreeable to us. But in all cases, please do not agree to accept meat. Avoid such undesirable action very tactfully. Hope you are both well, Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 20:05 | September 26, 1968 Seattle, Washington Sri S. S. Sethi, Vice Consul Consulate General of India 215 Market Street San Francisco, Cal. Dear Mr. Sethi, Please accept my greetings. I hope by this time you have received two copies of photos I have sent you through Sri Somnath Dhar. Now with reference to your letter no. SANF.CONS.384.68 addressed to Mr. A. C. Misra, Attache, High Commission of India, Ottawa, Canada, I beg to inform you that they have sent me a wrong passport and returned back the postal order in order that I may receive the certificates from your office. In this connection they write to say as follows: "As you are no longer living within our jurisdiction, you are advised to contact our San Francisco office for police clearance and birth certificate." Please therefore issue these certificates per bearer and he will pay the required fees. I do not know what to do with this wrong passport. The copy of the letter which I have addressed to Mr. Misra in this connection is also enclosed herewith. Kindly therefore do the needful immediately as I want both the passport and certificate very urgently, and I am simply waiting for them. I am sending my disciple Sriman Cidananda Brahmacari (Mr. Clay Harrold) to see you, and please advise him what to do. Yours sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 13:05 | September 26, 1968 Seattle, Washington Sri A. C. Misra Attache High Commission of India 200 Maclaren Street Ottawa 4, Canada Dear Sir, While thanking you for your registered letter No. OTT.428.2.68, I beg to inform you that on opening the registered cover, I find that the passport does not belong to me. I am very much surprised how this misdelivery has been possible. The passport which I have got in my hand just now is No. I-062636, in favor of Charamma Sebastian, issued from your Bombay office, dated October 25, 1962. Please therefore find out immediately where is my passport and send it directly to your San Francisco office care of Mr. Sethi, because without the passport I cannot get the police clearance and birth certificates. I have received back the money order, but I cannot utilize it without getting my passport. I have been so long waiting for the passport and twice I phoned your office in Canada, asking you to send it back, as requested by your San Francisco office, but when I got your registered package, it is a different one. Please therefore immediately arrange to return my passport care of Mr. Sethi, and on return of my passport, I shall return the wrong passport which is in my possession. Yours faithfully, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 01:00 | 23 Sept 2004 Monday, September 23, 1968 Seattle, Washington My Dear Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated Sept. 15, 1968, Sept. 21, along with the nice news clipping, and I am so glad to note your feelings of Krishna Consciousness gradually increasing. It is all Krishna's Mercy upon you for your sincere mode of service; please keep this attitude and you will be happy more and more. Regarding the lost certificate paper: I understand from Govinda devi that you have got it back. Please print it nicely. I have received one letter from Mukunda that your preaching work is going on nicely, and so it is also confirmed by you. I shall be glad to know how you're meeting in the Hindu center, and how the meetings are being carried successfully. These people might be impersonalists, so far I can understand from the handbill, but still, we can perform Kirtana in any place. It does not matter what they are. By our Kirtana process we have to influence others. Now I am thinking of Kirtana with slides. If I get opportunity to prepare some nice slides from Srimad-Bhagavatam and make tape records on the prayers offered to the Deity in the slide, as well as explain the whole slide in English, all tape recorded, this will be very nice idea. I shall be glad to know your opinion also. Since I received letter in San Francisco, I have come here to Seattle, and on Saturday last, the 21st instant. And the report is that in this place, our preaching of Krishna Consciousness has a great potency. So I shall begin my classes today. And they have arranged some lectures also. Let me see what will happen. I do not know whether you are in receipt of the bank money which I have sent from Montreal, for credit of account with Syamasundara. at Charter Bank. So I have written to the bank, to the Montreal bank, to take information, and shall be glad whether you have received the money or not. In case you have not received, take one letter from the Charter Bank and send it to me. You will be glad to know our disciple Sriman Dinesh is preparing another record, Cintamani Prakara Sadmasu, and other songs and speeches, 20 min. each side. And it will come out very soon. Regarding our former records, if you want we can send you for selling there. Hope this will find you all in good health. And awaiting your further letters about preaching work. Yours ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 09:47 | 22 Sept 2004 Sunday, September 22, 1968 Seattle, Washington My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated New Vrindaban, 16th Sept. 1968. I am very glad to learn that all the members there are doing very nicely, and living happily. I hope that New Vrindaban will give shelter to so many unhappy men of this country and they will be happy by working there, and living there in good association of devotees. Pradyumna and Vamanadeva are very good boys; keep them very nicely, and they will be very much helpful. I have come here to Seattle, last evening, and things are hopeful here also. Yesterday, before coming here I was talking with one hippy boy. He came to see me in my apartment in San Francisco, and was talking that hippies are in search after such peaceful place, like you have got in New Vrindaban. And they do not like to live in the cities anymore. So if some of us go and make some canvassing work among the hippies, that the thing which they are searching after is here in Krishna Consciousness, and as soon as they come they will understand, so somebody may be engaged in such propaganda work. Regarding Randy, I understand that he is addicted to heroin intoxication, and he is taking some medicine to give it up, but I am sure that the best medicine is chanting the HARE KRISHNA mantra. For the time being, let him take the substitute medicine as he is taking, and at the same time let him seriously chant HARE KRISHNA. And I hope he will be able to give up that substitute medicine also. I have got experience--one of my God-brothers, he related about his past life, that he was addicted to all kinds of intoxication, and he was distilling wine in his village without any license--he was such a great intoxicant. But later on, we found him completely free from all intoxication--even he was not even smoking and was quite fit to work for Krishna Consciousness. So everything is possible provided one is serious. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that if somebody is not too much addicted, neither he is completely powerful to give up some bad habits, this via media stage is favorable. Immediately if he cannot give up the medicine as he is taking, that doesn't matter. Let him chant HARE KRISHNA very seriously and he will gradually be able to give up everything. I am very glad to learn that HariVilasa has given you a Pair of Radha Krishna Murtis, so it appears that Radha Krishna is very kind on you, because you went to Vrindaban, to live there but circumstantially, you could not live there, and you left. Krishna has given you New Vrindaban, as well as He has, out of His good will, He has come to you. It is very surprising. So please welcome the Deity and install Him in a nice throne. I think Vamanadeva will be able to prepare a nice throne, and you have seen the New York Deities' dress and process of worship, so you can do in that way. There is nothing to be added new. The same principle should be followed, and the Deities should always be well-dressed in clothing and some ornaments and flowers and incense. The Deities should always be attractive. And the more we are engaged in decorating the Deities, washing the room, the more we are engaged in Deity worship, the more we become purified. That is practical. Brahmananda is also taking care of my Deity in New York, and he is practically experiencing and doing it. So if necessary you can take some information from him also. This Seattle city is understood to be very big in area, and appears to be very peaceful also, because the population is less, and they are little responsive also. I think gradually this center will also grow very nicely. I have sent Gaurasundara to Hawaii to open a branch there, and I have received letters from London that the 6 devotees there are prosecuting their regular duties, namely kirtana in the morning, and on the weekdays as we do generally, and they are having love feast also, although not in our own place, but in different places. And they are searching after a suitable place for our temple. Similarly, in Berlin also, we are hopeful for starting a new branch there. And Krishna das, and Uttama Sloka (Uttama Sloka is a German boy) they are going there. And I have also advised Acyutananda to return back to Germany. So I think 4 or 5 of them will do very nice in Berlin, and the 6 devotees in London, they will also do very nice there. And I think as soon as they are prepared to take me there, I shall go immediately, in Europe. Hope you are well, Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 05:23 | September 22, 1968 Seattle, Washington My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated Sept. 16, 1968, and I think everything is going well with you, both. Yes, from the very beginning you just revise Srimad-Bhagavatam and now we shall print 12 volumes, for 12 cantos, under different names, each canto. That scheme will be nice. Regarding encroachment by Maya: There is every possibility, at every time, because we are living in the kingdom of Maya. Her influence upon us is very strong, but as indicated in the Bhagavad-gita, 7th chapter, that in spite of her very great influence over the living entities, a living entity as soon as he fully surrenders unto Krishna, the influence of Maya will no more act upon him. This is a fact. So the more we become stronger in our Krishna Consciousness, the more Maya is aloof from us. Your poetry is nice, and I am keeping it with me for future publication in Back To Godhead. I shall send it to Rayarama in my next mail to him. If you can write a nice short article, inviting the hippies, to take to Krishna Consciousness, and practice it in New Vrindaban, I think many sincere hippies who are looking after something genuine, peaceful, they will come. So our movement if it is introduced amongst the hippies, because so far I can understand, they are after such thing for peace of the mind. Not only for the hippies, but for everyone. Everyone is seeking after peace and happiness, but they are seeking in the material platform. That is not possible to be achieved there. One has to be elevated on the spiritual platform and then his aspiration will be fulfilled. I think you can write a nice article for publication in our Back To Godhead. Hope this will find you in good health. Yours ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 05:19 | 20 Sept 2004 Friday, September 20, 1968 San Francisco, Calif. My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated 8 and 17, 1968. I am so happy to learn that you are proud of being husband of Jadurani. Yes, you should be proud of having a nice wife like that. And I have handed over my daughter unto you, because I knew it that you will be the perfect boy to take care of her. Recently she was deteriorating in her health, so I was very much anxious about her, therefore, I decided to give her in your charge. Of course, even when you were not married, you were taking care of her always, but when the relationship is there as husband and wife, there is the question of responsibility. So I wanted you to take that responsibility. Anyway, everyone in our society thinks that your combination is very much appropriate. So be happy with your nice wife and take care of her properly. In your letter of the 17th instant, you have very frankly inquired from me about householder life, especially in the matter of sex relationship. A sannyasi is not supposed to be asked about anything sexual. But still, because you are so much dependent on my instruction, so I must give you information as far as possible. Married life is not for sex indulgence. The principle of marriage is on the background of getting good children. So the householder is allowed to have sex life once in a month, just after the menstrual period. The menstrual period prolongs at least for 5 days, so after this 5 days, one can have sex life provided he desires to get a child. And as soon as the wife is pregnant, no more sex life, until the child is born and is grown up at least for 6 months. After that, one may have sex life on the same principle. If one does not want more than one or two children, he should voluntarily stop sex life. But one should not strictly use any contraceptive method and at the same time indulge in sex life. That is very much sinful. If the husband and wife can voluntarily restrain by powerful advancement of Krishna Consciousness. That is the best method. It is not necessary that because one has got wife, therefore you must have sex life. The whole scheme is to avoid sex life as far as possible. And if one can avoid it completely then it is a great victory for him. Married life is a sort of license for sex life on condition of raising children. So you should try to understand these principles of married life and use your discretion. You should not imitate great personalities like Bhaktivinode Thakura, but you must follow His footprints. But it is not always possible to have the same success as great personalities like Bhaktivinode Thakura achieved. So in all circumstances you should try to follow the footprints of authorities but never to imitate them. Unless Jadurani develops a better health and strength, I do not advise her to become pregnant. I think you will understand the instruction as I have given and try to follow it as far as possible. Our relationship is eternal. But if somebody lags behind, so in spite of our eternal relationship one may not meet other at the destination. Just like a flock of birds--although very intimately related, everyone of them has to fly in the sky by individual strength. If one is less strong, the other cannot keep him in the sky. That is the law of nature. So long everyone of us is strong in Krishna Consciousness, there is no doubt, you can fly in the spiritual sky and meet together without failure. Therefore, individual strength is most important. And that individual strength is achieved in the association of devotees also. So you can make your own judgment. Anyway, please take care of your health, and I hope you are both well and happy. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami P.S. Tomorrow I am going to Seattle. letters | 05:11 | September 20, 1968 San Francisco, Calif. My Dear Ananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated Sept. 10, 1968, and I have noted the contents carefully. I think your program is very nice, and Anapurna is here. We had a good talk yesterday, and it is understood that her parents are agreeable in this marriage proposal, and she wishes that the marriage may take place in London, when she goes there. It is understood also that her father is impressed with our society's work and her mother especially liked all the members of our society who have gone in London. So you work very diligently and secure some money. I am coming to Seattle by tomorrow evening and if you can see me at Seattle it will be very nice. You can also inform Mr. Renovich and Mr. Windisch that I am going to Seattle by tomorrow, and they can correspond with me for my visiting Vancouver and attending lectures, so that I can make my program there and come to Vancouver for a few days. Hope you are well, Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 05:09 | |
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