# Letters — 1969 ### Letter to Advaita **Date:** November 23rd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. Your letter dated November 19, 1969 is in hand. The thing is that you have asked me so many questions, but it is not possible for me to manage all departments of our society. Practically you are in charge of the press department, but is is better to form immediately one press committee consisting of you, Satsvarupa, Brahmananda, or whomever else you like, and do it nicely. How things should be done I have given you suggestion, but it is not possible for me to divert my attention. Then my real work will suffer. I have written a letter to Pradyumna, but there is no reply as yet. Anyway, from the practical point of view, it appears that we cannot depend on him for composing work. So in consultation with the others, you arrange for other means. I have already advised Satsvarupa in this connection. If Sriman Candanacarya is busy in some other work, then Aravinda can wholly be engaged in Boston layout work. I have already asked him to go there. I have also noted down the lawyers instruction that outside work can be taken if the profit does not go to some individual person. I think if it is legally possible, this is all right. I have no objection if you make some profit on outside work. That is very nice. My only point is that we have got our press for printing our own literatures more and more. We should not miss this point. Otherwise combinedly together do it nicely. I shall be very much pleased to see things are going correct. Please offer my blessings to Balai Dasi, Nandini Dasi, and the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Advaita **Date:** March 16th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of March 6, 1969, and I am so glad to know that you are feeling the Lord's mercy being given your engagement of printing Krishna Consciousness propaganda literature. I think we shall have to open the press immediately because the business transaction with Dai Nippon is not very prospective. If we have our own press we become completely independent in the matter of printing. The difficulty of printing in your country has increased on account of higher wages of the workers. But as we are now training our own men, I think we shall be able to print our books and magazines in lesser cost than in Japan. Now the practical experience is that for printing one book, TLC, this Dai Nippon has delayed so much. So I do not find any good prospect of printing our books in the Dai Nippon. So if you are confident our press can now be successfully run; if you are confident that now you can conduct our press, just to print our books and magazines with the help of your other God-brothers, just try to think over the matter very seriously. And when we meet together next in April, we shall finally decide about this. If we have got our own press then we shall print at least four books yearly, and 50,000 magazines every month. Then you will have ample opportunity for printing Krishna Consciousness literature. So we have now fully equipped staff, editorial, printers, binders, and managers, and Krishna will be financier. So I think there is no more scarcity of anything and let us begin the job as soon as possible. You just consult amongst your God-brothers and I shall be glad to know how much money you can spare for the purchase of a nice press and other equipments. So I think there is possibility of asking Hayagriva for acquiring the balance money. I am also very glad that you have approved New Vrindaban as the right site for our activities, and printing work, and that will be very nice thing. We have got our project of constructing seven temples in New Vrindaban. And unless we get money from any other source, we have to earn this money by our press activities. So your responsibility is going to be very heavy. You have to give us nice printed books, and magazines, literature, and the sales organization will be done by Brahmananda, as he is contemplating to separate the department into ISKCON books for promoting the sale of our publications. This is very nice idea. So let us conjointly serve Krishna with our life, money, intelligence, and words, and this is the recommendation of Srimad-Bhagavatam for fulfilling the mission of human life. I hope you are both in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Advaita **Date:** March 30th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your kind letter of March 25, 1969. And I have noted the contents all carefully. So far BTG, for the time being, it will be printed in Japan, so we do not require an extra hand for that purpose. At first we shall print just our books, and then if successful, we shall take to printing to the extent of 5000 copies of BTG per month. So take estimate for printing and binding machines for books only, maybe one or two a year, and save money as much as possible as it will be required to purchase the machines. We shall talk further on all these matters when I arrive there in N.Y., and until then, I hope you are both well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Advaita **Date:** April 25th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated April 23, 1969, and I think your deliberation is right. I am advising Brahmananda to submit the manuscripts to Messrs. Dai Nippon under suitable arrangement, and whatever you can all get together for contributing to this purpose may immediately be handed over to Brahmananda for deposit in my book fund account. Your letter is very much encouraging, and it is worth exhibiting to all grhastha disciples, and not only to disciples, but to people in general who are simply interested in the matter of sense gratification. Our members of Krishna Consciousness society should be ideal human beings, and if they try to follow the principles, surely they will be the ideal men in the world. In Buffalo, we had three meetings, and it was found that the students, both boys and girls, especially the girls, they were very much receptive and encouraging. Please organize the Sankirtana Party very nicely, and try to preach amongst the student community, and I am hopeful that the result will be very great. Brahmananda has taken charge of the sales department, and I hope when he is successful, you will try to open your own press for better production of our publications. Thanking you once more for your letter. I hope this meets you in good health. ### Letter to Advaita **Date:** September 7th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated September 3rd 1969 and your Vyasa Puja gift of 50 dollars. On Vyasa Puja day we had a very nice ceremony in the temple where the Vyasa Puja booklet was read aloud by Hayagriva, who is travelling with me during this European tour. On the morning of the same day there was an initiation ceremony held and two German brahmacaris, one English brahmacari and one German householder couple was initiated into this Krishna Consciousness Movement. This Thursday morning we shall be going to London, and they have arranged nice living quarters on the estate of John Lennon. After our business in London is finished, most probably I shall be returning to the USA via either New York or Boston. I hope that everything is coming along nicely in setting up the press in Boston, and please keep me informed as to your progress in this connection. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Balai, and your daughter, Nandini. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: I have also received one check from Vaikunthanatha, so please offer to him my thanks in this connection ### Letter to Advaita **Date:** November 15th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated November 2, 1969 and the booklet of essays. There are improvements to be made because the essays are not adjusted on the right side. Besides that, it is being printed not on glazed paper. The photograph has not come out very distinctly. Also the cost is not very satisfactory. The Dai Nippon company is printing our BTG at 10 cents, but the size is bigger, the papers are more, there are color pictures and glazed paper. In that comparison, 6 cents cost is not very favorable. You have also printed 20,000. Anyway, it is printed in our press. If the cost is equal or little more, we do not mind. But from business point of view you should note down the points. I have heard from Tamala Krishna that this press arrangement is made very nicely and you are doing excellently. Now my manuscripts for books are ready for at least 12 books. So according to your estimate, if you think you shall be able to publish 6 books in a year besides our BTG, then you have got two years engagement already. Regarding composition, the matter is going very slowly, so if you have any ideas how this can be centralized in Boston, please give me your suggestions. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Advaita **Date:** November 19th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Advaita, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your ketter dated November 17, 1969 with two enclosures of paper samples. So far as the paper for colored pictures, 80 lbs., and dust jacket, 100 lbs., I think it is quite suitable. But so far as the papers for the inside of the book, the paper which you have indicated, 50 lbs., is not suitable. It must be either 60 or 70 lbs. If 70 lbs. is too costly, then 60 lbs. is tolerable. But the paper must be white just like TLC. The samples you have sent are not so nice a white color. So far as the other estimates, I think they are all right. The total expenditure submitted by you, $7,939—or say $8,000, is acceptable. The size as you have mentioned, 6 3/4 x 9 1/2, is also all right, and the pictures 48 in number and pages 352 is also all right. The quality of binding, get-up, texture, etc. is like TLC, so you can arrange for its printing immediately. I am very sorry to learn that our press is lying idle, and your remark in this connection that we have purchased the cart before the horse is appropriate. I have immediately asked Aravinda from Los Angeles, to go there for doing layout work. I have asked also Pradyumna why the composition work is going so slowly. I have received one letter from Satsvarupa also in this connection, so all the composition and layout work must now be centralized in the press. For editing, already Satsvarupa is there, and Hayagriva will send his editorial matters without any delay. The actual difficulty is composing and layout. Satsvarupa informs me that there is a girl, Palika Dasi, who is a good typist, and Satsvarupa also agrees to purchase another machine. So if possible, immediately purchase this composing machine and begin the composing work for Krsna. Jayadvaita is also there and Aravinda will help in layout work. So far as the press lying idle, I would advise you to immediately print the paperback edition immediately. Originally you were going to print this, and I do not know why this program was cancelled. After this is done you can reprint the first volume of Srimad-Bhagavatam, because there is a need for more copies of this volume. So I do not know why the press is sitting idly and why the proposal for printing TLC in softcover edition is put aside. Also, you mention that there is some lack of management, but I do not know why this should be since Brahmananda, yourself, and the others are there. Please inform me of the cost for reprinting TLC. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ananda **Date:** April 3rd 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco My Dear Ananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated March 30, 1969, and I have noted the contents very carefully. Krishna is very much pleased on you because you are alone conducting the Vancouver temple. Don't worry, you will get some men to assist you very soon, and I am searching after someone. In the meantime Mr. Windisch and his wife, Barbara, will return to Vancouver after the initiation ceremony. As you have said, they are very much helpful, and they will continue to help you with your venture. Have you any correspondence with Annapurna since last August or September? I have not heard from her since then. After returning to her father's house she wrote me one letter, but since then I do not know about her whereabouts. If you can, please let me know her address. My program for next summer is not yet fixed up, but I am booked for various lectures till the middle of May. After that I shall fix up my program for June. If I go to Montreal, then this time I will go to Vancouver also. Mr. Windisch has spoken very highly of you and your decision to not keep unwanted boarders at the temple is nice. Don't feel yourself to be alone because Krishna is always with you. Krishna is always with every living entity as Supersoul, and to His devotee especially He talks and gives instructions how to attain the perfectional stage of meeting Him. So don't feel alone. Always chant whenever possible, read our books, and there will be no great difficulty. I shall be returning to New York by the 9th of April, and I shall then send you a new set of beads chanted upon by me. I know you are a sincere, silent worker, and if it is not too much inconvenient for you, you can send me at least one letter in a fortnight. That will encourage me and I can then give you necessary instructions how to develop. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ananda **Date:** May 14th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Ananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated April 29, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. As you have suggested, I have sent one letter to Annapurna, in care of her father, and without writing my return address. As of yet I have not received her reply. I am very pleased to note that there are some nice boys and girls who are joining you at kirtana. Try to show them the importance of our movement, and the best way of doing this is by Sankirtana. Here in Columbus we had a very big meeting at the Ohio State University and more than one thousand students were chanting and dancing along with us. So there is very good potential for spreading our movement amongst the college students, and if we simply present them with the opportunity of chanting with us, and then we lecture on Bhagavad-gita As It Is, then surely many intelligent people will become attracted. So Sankirtana Party in the streets and Sankirtana Party in school engagements should be our chief business. This will assure success in our propaganda activities. Please convey my blessings to Mandali Bhadra and to his good wife, Vrndavanesvari, as well as to his nice little boy. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Enclosed is a few nice poems by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura which you may hand over to Mandali Bhadra for translation into German and to be submitted for publication in German Back To Godhead ### Letter to Ananda **Date:** May 25th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Ananda, Please accept my blessings. I have learned from Mandali Bhadra and Vrndavanesvari that you have been disturbed in your center by some rascal boys, and now you are living with Mandali Bhadra. So what is your program? Would you like to close the Vancouver center, or are you finding out some better place? I have received one letter from Rupanuga in Buffalo that two boys are going to Toronto to open a center there. Would you like to go there for the time being, or will you try for another place to keep yourself in Vancouver? At present I am living in New Vrindaban. It is a very nice place, but there is no facility of modern amenities. It is completely aloof from city life, and we have to adopt so many things. In comparison to city life it is very inconvenient. But still the atmosphere here is very pleasant. As of yet I have still received no answer from Annapurna. I am awaiting your reply to the above points. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ananda **Date:** June 8th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Ananda, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to receive you letter (undated), and I have noted your new address. I am pleased to note that you have already paid for the place for one month's rent. I thank you very much that you are struggling there alone and silently, and Krishna will surely bless you for this. I suggested in my previous letter that you join the Toronto party if you are feeling alone. But if not, you go on with your present program, and I have got all support for that. In all the centers everyone is trying his best to improve his own center, and gradually there is becoming factual evidence of very nice progress. Mandali Bhadra and his wife have to go to Germany to take charge of our publications in German language. It is already settled, and it is understood that they are leaving on the 27th of June. So they will not be able to help you personally by their presence. You can write, however, to Hansadutta, and he may go there for some days with his Sankirtana Party and help you in establishing your center firmly. I am also writing to Hansadutta in this connection. I thank you again for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Angelo Cummings **Date:** February 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Angelo Cummings, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your recent letter (undated), and I was pleased to learn that you are able and willing to help us in our construction plans in New Vrindaban. The construction of the houses is already under way because Nara Narayana has already submitted to me some plans along with an estimate of the needed finances.* Hayagriva is ready to invest the required money, so your cooperation and help will further make easier our attempt. Please therefore cooperate in consultation with Hayagriva who is the chief man in this matter. I shall also be in New York as well as New Vrindaban in the month of April. So if I am present there, I think that your help will be of great value. Actually we want such houses as you have submitted plans for. Nara Narayana is in New York already, so you may consult with him and help him in this attempt by mutual cooperation. Thanking you once again for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *I am forwarding your letter & plans to Hayagriva for necessary action ### Letter to Aniruddha **Date:** January 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Aniruddha, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 22, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I can understand from your letter that there has been some disagreements or misunderstandings in the temple, but I think that you should know that all such disturbances must be solved peacefully and with consideration of the entire situation. Cidananda is the president there, and I think you understand rightly that everyone must cooperate with him in keeping the temple nicely and without any unnecessary tensions. Any way, if you are feeling too much inconvenience staying in San Francisco, then you are welcome to come to Los Angeles and stay here with me. But if you can help to smooth over the difficulties there that will be the best thing. You are a sincere and intelligent boy, so if you along with all of the members combine to cooperate with one another in our mission of spreading Krishna Consciousness that will be very nice. I am pleased to note that Girish is progressing nicely under your guidance. Our plan for a school is progressing very well, and already we have many qualified teachers amongst our disciples who are looking forward to beginning this activity there. Next month, Paramananda and his wife, Satyabhama, who is a qualified teacher, will be going to New Vrindaban to stay, and similarly there are many others who will be going there in the near future to start work on this new venture. So the future of our movement will be very bright, and similarly your future will be very bright also, so there is no need for you to be depressed about any previous misunderstandings. Simply you have to remember to chant Hare Krishna always, tell others to do the same, help in all respects to spread the glories of Krishna Consciousness, and certainly Krishna will help you in your efforts to solve any of the difficulties that may be taking place. But if you think that staying with me in Los Angeles will be better for you then you may consider this. Thanking you once more for your letter. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Aniruddha **Date:** February 4th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Aniruddha, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 29, 1969, and I am pleased to learn that everything is going nicely with full cooperation of all of your godbrothers. Our center of activities is Krishna, and if we are actually Krishna Conscious there will always be full cooperation between ourselves for the satisfaction of Krishna. These two boys, Girish and Birbhadra are sent by Krishna to our care, and we must be very much attentive for building their character in Krishna Consciousness. Here, the boy, Birbhadra, is taken care of personally by Vishnujana, and, by Krishna's Grace, you have to take care of Girish. In New Vrindaban, nothing can immediately be done because there is no sufficient accommodations, but I am in correspondence with Hayagriva for renting one two-story big house near New Vrindaban for starting the press. I think we will be able to secure the house by next April when I will also go there, and our project of starting a school, press, etc., will be seriously taken at that time. You are right when you say that setting a good example for the boys is the best precept. There is a saying that an example is better than a precept. Our exemplary character depends on strictly following the four principles, and this will conquer the whole world. Our boys and girls in London, by there exemplary character have drawn the attention of many respectable persons and even some public papers. Our movement is not only for some theoretical teaching, but it is for developing practical character and definite understanding. I will be glad to know what is your future program. Do you think you will be continuing as brahmacari, or in the future will you wish to become householder? The idea is that when we open our educational institute, we will require some dedicated monks, just like Christian Fathers, who have no connection with women. In that case, we can start a theological school also, along with a boys primary school. Our theological school will regularly teach our published books, such as Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Nectar of Devotion, Brahma Samhita, and Krishna. We wish to hold examinations and award titles such as Bhakti-sastri, Bhakti-vaibhava, and Bhaktivedanta. The whole program will continue for seven years, and the students who will be fully engaged in this study of a seven year course will be classified in the 4-D section of the draft board. Such students will not be called for military activities. In this connection, an experiment is going on with Kartikeya, and if it is successful then we can give protection to many such students provided they take things seriously. Apart from the draft board chasing, actually we require many enlightened students who can go to any part of the world and establish there a center. Anyone who is a little bit conversant with the above books can go anywhere, chant Hare Krishna, distribute Back To Godhead, and hold classes on the above books. I have received one letter from Gurudasa today that they have got permission to chant Hare Krishna in all the streets and parks of London. The world needs this consciousness of Krishna, and we have to manufacture many preachers for this purpose. I wish that you can also take the responsibility of teaching staff when we actually open our theological school in New Vrindaban. Thanking you again for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Aniruddha **Date:** February 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Aniruddha, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of February 11, 1969, and I was pleased to note the contents therein. I am glad that everyone at your temple is working hard and in full cooperation for keeping the temple nicely and spreading our movement as far as possible. This should be our motto. We have so many things to do for improving our Krishna Consciousness movement, and I am so glad to learn that there is a newspaper report wherein it is said that "Krishna Chants Startle London." Please send me at least one copy of the paper immediately. I want to read it. It sounds very much encouraging. I have sent back the beads for Girish by separate mail, after duly chanting upon them. I am very glad to learn that he is completing daily his rounds at any cost. It is an example even for the elderly students. Please encourage this nice boy. He is given under your protection so take care of him very nicely. Just produce one nice Krishna Conscious youth. It will be a great service to Krishna and recognition of your nice service. It is very nice that you are wishing to remain as a brahmacari. In London they are ideal householders. So actually it doesn't matter if one is householder of brahmacari. Sincerity of purpose is the only qualification for Krishna Consciousness. Sri Narottama das Thakura says that he hankers after the company of any person, never mind whether he is in the renounced order of life or in householder life, just as long as he is merged into the ocean of Krishna Consciousness. That is the one qualification. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Aniruddha **Date:** March 24th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Aniruddha, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of March 19, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Yes, I shall be arriving there in S.F. on the 31st of this month and I shall be happy to see you all there at that time. I have noted carefully the situation with Girish, and we shall best discuss the whole matter when I shall arrive there next week and make program. I am happy to learn that Dindayal and Makhanlal are doing well at Berkeley also. Mahapurusa Brahmacari is prepared to go with me on the 31st instant, if you can send his passage fare of $75, and he will do the cooking and upkeep of my apartment while I am in San Francisco. So you can find his enclosed note to you in this connection. I shall be happy to greet you on Monday next, and we shall discuss all things further; in the meantime, I hope you are feeling well and happy there, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Aniruddha **Date:** October 21st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Aniruddha, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated October 5, 1969 and October 7, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. As you were not fixed up in any place I could not reply. Now I understand from Brahmananda's letter that you have returned back to New York temple, so I am glad to hear this. Please note it carefully that you cannot leave Krishna Consciousness. That is a fact. And even if you want to leave, Krishna will not leave you. That is also a fact. Under the circumstances you should adjust your situation and continue Krishna Consciousness very enthusiastically. I know you are a very intelligent boy, industrious, so you can do tremendous service to Krishna by utilizing your inherent qualities. I am very glad you decided to marry and I quite approve of it. My married couple disciples are doing very nice service to Krishna Consciousness in Hawaii, Japan, London, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, etc. So you also get yourself married, and if you like you open a new branch, and husband and wife together advance the cause of Krishna Consciousness. Anyway, I recommend your married life very strongly. That will give you extra strength to serve Krishna. So do it as soon as possible. I think Brahmananda will help you in this matter and that will solve all your problems. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Aniruddha **Date:** November 26th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Aniruddha, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 21, 1969. I am glad that you have received my letter to to you, addressed to New York. Therein I have expressed my opinion about your marriage. So it is very nice program. Just get yourself married, and as you propose to go to Argentina with Citsukhananda to open a branch there, I have all approval. So you accept some girl who will marry you, either Sacidevi or anyone else. In our Indian way there is no question of acceptance or rejection. The parents arrange for marriage and whatever boy or girl they select for their son or daughter, that is accepted. Even there is some disagreement at times, that is not taken very seriously. In this way, in mature life they become happy. I want to introduce this system in the Western countries, amongst my disciples at least. Their primary business should be Krishna Consciousness. Other relationships are mundane and therefore not very important. So please try to open a branch in Argentina, and it is not very difficult. Recently Vamanadeva who was in Columbus, now has married and has ventured on my advice to open a center in St. Louis. I have received his report several days ago, and it is very encouraging. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. The Radha Krishna deity carved from wood by Gaurasundara at San Francisco was delivered to you. Perhaps you remember. I want those deities now. Please let me know where they are. ACB ### Letter to Aniruddha **Date:** December 7th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Aniruddha, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated December 2, 1969, and it is very encouraging that Saci Devi is coming. I know she is a very nice girl, so if you agree to marry her, then you must treat her very nicely so that you can live very peacefully. Our marriages are never meant for separation. You must live together very peacefully in all circumstances. Our Vamanadeva, after marriage, has opened a new center in St. Louis, and they are doing very well. So far as Hansadutta is concerned, immediately there is no possibility of his leaving Berkeley center. It is a very important center, and as you say he is doing very well you require to stay there, husband and wife, and improve the center very magnificently. If you want to open a center, you are already experienced, and you should do it independently. Please continue to read the literature very attentively. Try to understand very soberly and you will feel ecstasy undoubtedly. The more we understand the spiritual literatures the more we become engladdened. Lord Caitanya has written ananda ambhudhi bardhanam. This means the ocean of bliss is always increasing. So continue to execute your duties with enthusiasm and patience, and I am certain Krishna will be pleased make you successful on all accounts. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ann Clifford **Date:** August 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Ann Clifford, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 25, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to learn that you have become interested in Krishna Consciousness through living at the Krishna House in Montreal and associating with the devotees there. Your return address is not at this Krishna House, and I hope that you are attending the Kirtanas which are held at the temple on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. The chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra will clear away all of the difficulties that you have mentioned. Actually, as pure spirit soul, there is no difficulty; the cause of all problems is that we are forgetful of the fact that we are part and parcel of Krishna, and we are trying to enjoy the material nature through these material bodies. But the laws of material nature are so stringent that in spite of all attempts for enjoyment, the living entity in the material world must always come to the platform of suffering. This chanting of the Hare Krishna Mantra is especially recommended for chanting in this age of Kali yuga so that any sincere soul who takes to it will very soon regain his memory of being the transcendental loving servitor of the Lord, or Krishna. So if you will come to our temple on Park Avenue and chant and speak with the devotees as far as possible, you will find that all lesser attachments and lesser enjoyments will fall very short of your attachment for and attraction for service of the Lord in Krishna Consciousness. That is a fact, and my special request to you is that you seriously read our literature, especially Bhagavad-gita As It Is, chant Hare Krishna always; then you will find your life becoming sublime. Regarding your question about why we do not eat meat and yet we eat plant life, the answer is that we do everything as Krishna recommends. Everything we eat is first offered to Lord Krishna, and because Krishna does not eat meat, therefore we also do not eat meat. The fruits, grains, and vegetables which we offer to the Lord are not caused any suffering by our offering them to Krishna. Rather they are greatly benefited because to be offered for the pleasure of the Lord will grant for the living entity within the plant body certain liberation in the near future. Everything that we do in Krishna Consciousness is ultimately beneficial to all living creatures because we are working under the recommendations of the Lord Himself who is the well-wisher of all His part and parcel children. I hope this will sufficiently clear up this matter for you. I hope this will meet you in good health. ### Letter to Anuradha **Date:** January 19th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Anuradha, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 14, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am so glad to learn that you and ___ are well and comfortable in San Francisco. I think that your child is very nice, and Krishna has given him a great opportunity to perfect himself in spiritual life because He has placed him under the care of a mother who is a sincere devotee. Try to help him grow up peacefully in Krishna Consciousness, and Krishna will certainly smile upon you for your efforts. I am well aware that you are a good, sincere soul, so continue in this way and surely your life will be successful. Regarding the Brijbasi picture that you sent me, the story is that when Maharaja Yudhisthira was declared king, he was performing the Rasuya Yajna ceremony. In this ceremony Krishna was elected as the President to preside over the meeting. Sisupal was a rival of Krishna, and insulted Krishna with vile words at this ceremony. Arjuna's youngest brother, Sahadeva, became so angry at this that he was ready to attack Sisupal, but he was restrained by both Krishna and Arjuna. This is the explanation of the picture. The term Devi Dasi may be used for either married or unmarried female devotees. I thank you once more for informing me of your well-being. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Anuradha, Tulsi **Date:** January 27th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Anuradha Dasi and Tulsi Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of both your letters dated January 25, 1969 and January 21, 1969 respectively, and I have carefully noted the contents in each. You have both expressed a sincere desire to leave San Francisco immediately and come to Los Angeles where you can share an apartment for both of you and your children. This idea seems to be a good solution to both of your problems, and as soon as you are able you may do it. If neither of you are very peaceful staying in San Francisco then it is not very good for Krishna Consciousness, and I think the conditions will be improved if you come to Los Angeles. So as you are able, I shall look forward to seeing you again with your children in Los Angeles. I hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: I have placed the peacock feather which was sent by Anuradha upon Lord Jagannatha in my altar room, and He is looking very beautiful with it ### Letter to Arundhati **Date:** January 26th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Arundhati, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of dated January 22, 1969, and I am pleased to send herewith your beads duly chanted upon by me. Your spiritual name is Arundhati which means the great star. It is the name of the wife of Vasistha, a great devotee of Krishna. I am very pleased to know that you are taking a very sincere interest in perfecting your life in Krishna Consciousness. You are fortunate to have the association of your godsister, Jadurani, and I am sure that she, along with the other devotees in the Boston temple will be able to help you in many ways. Be sure to chant your sixteen rounds daily and read one chapter of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, one chapter daily. Follow the four regulative principles strictly, and I am sure that Krishna will see that your life quickly becomes more and more happy in devotional service. The attitude which you expressed is very nice, and please continue to develop this attitude always. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Arundhati **Date:** February 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Arundhati, Please accept my blessings. I thank you so much for your letter dated February 13, 1969, and I have noted the contents with much pleasure. Your tears at kirtana are a good sign, and it shows that Krishna is pleased upon you. So remain in this status and chant nicely. You will see you will be more and more graced by His Lordship. Your desire to serve me is very praiseworthy. But because I am the humble servant of Krishna I cannot accept any service on my account. So what I say you follow so you may advance in Krishna Consciousness. That is your service and I accept it on behalf of Krishna. This is a very good attitude, and your wish to serve me actually means to serve Krishna. Now there is ample activities for you as the Radha-Krishna Murtis are installed in Boston temple. So under the direction of Satsvarupa try to help out in these activities as far as possible. Please convey my blessings to your godbrothers and godsisters with you. I hope that this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Arundhati **Date:** June 16th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Arundhati, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 11, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your question about offering Prasadam, whatever is offered to the Deity actually it goes through the Spiritual Master. The Spiritual Master offers to Lord Caitanya, and Lord Caitanya offers it to Krishna. Then Radha Krishna eats, or Jagannatha eats, then Caitanya Mahaprabhu eats, then the Spiritual Master eats, and it becomes Mahaprasadam. So when you offer something, you think like that and chant the Gayatri mantra, and then everything is complete. At last, ring the bell, take out the plate and wipe the place where the plate was kept. Regarding your second question about greeting karmis, if a karmi is a friend, you just greet him Hare Krishna, and with folded hands touch your forehead. If the karmi is a superior relative, then chant Hare Krishna and bow down down to him on the ground. That should be the etiquette in our society transactions. Whenever you have questions, you ask your husband or ask me. You should always be very sound in knowledge about Krishna Consciousness. But as you are very much attached to chanting, there will be no difficulty for you. Regarding your last question about the ecstatic symptoms of chanting Hare Krishna, you should know that the Hare Krishna Mantra has an equal effect upon all devotees. Just like the sunshine has an equal effect on everyone, but when it is covered, the sunshine has a different effect. Similarly, the influence of the Hare Krishna Mantra becomes manifest when one is no longer covered by the ten offenses to chanting. The more we become free from the ten offenses, the more the effect of chanting becomes manifested through us. Everyone can become a great devotee, being freed from the offenses 100%, simply by one's determination and effort. When the Composer machine is purchased, you will be engaged from eleven till three PM, and from seven till ten PM. That means seven hours in a day. When you are typing, you should know that it is as good as chanting, because the work is also on the matter of Krishna. Chanting on the beads and chanting on the typewriter Composer machine are both transcendental sounds of Krishna. Krishna's Name, His Fame, His Qualities—all of them are on the absolute platform, and therefore there is no difference between one and another. So do not be misled that you are typing and not chanting. Our books should be on the standard sample of Teachings of Lord Caitanya. Your husband will guide you, and Hayagriva will guide you, so do it nicely. Please convey my blessings to Jaya Gopala and the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Arundhati **Date:** July 10th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Arundhati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated July 7, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I know you are a very sincere devotee girl, and Krishna will bless you more and more because your qualifications are quite on the standard line. It is ordained in the Vedas that a person who has got implicit faith in Krishna and the Spiritual Master, to such person the real import of the Vedas is revealed. I see that you are chanting very nicely, you have good service attitude; so continue this attitude. You have a very nice husband also, so I shall be very glad if I see both of you advancing in Krishna Consciousness as you are doing it nicely at present. Maya is sometimes strong enough to put impediments on our progressive march. But if you stick to the principles of rules and regulations and chanting, keeping faith in Krishna and Spiritual Master, then Maya cannot touch you. At present your most important duty is to compose books with the help of your husband. I am very much anxious to see that you begin this work as soon as possible. You have written nothing about your training in working the composer machine. I hope this will meet you in good health. Please offer my blessings to your husband and the others. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Arundhati **Date:** September 9th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Arundhati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your most recent letter (undated), and I have noted the contents. I hope by this time your health has improved, and as you are doing such important work for Krishna, you must be careful to take proper care of your health. You are an intelligent girl, so conjointly with your husband, Pradyumna, you can determine what are the best measures to be taken in this connection. I understand that you have quickly learned how to operate the Composer machine, and I am anxious to learn how things are progressing in this connection. Have you begun yet to compose Nectar of Devotion? Several days ago more pages of this book were sent to you, up to page 233, and as you finish work on these pages, I shall be sending you more. Regarding your question, "What does Rama mean in Hare Rama? Is this Balarama or Lord Ramacandra?", you can take it both ways, because there is no difference between Ramacandra and Balarama. Generally it means Krishna, because Rama means enjoyer. So either Ramacandra, Balarama or Krishna are all Visnu Tattvas and are always enjoying. The sakti tattva, or jiva tattva is always enjoyed. Our position is always predominated. If we remain in that position and properly use our small independence, then we remain happily eternally. But artificially, if we want to be independent and imitate the Supreme Enjoyer, then it is delusion. Material life means trying to imitate the Enjoyer, and spiritual life means to remain in one's eternal position as enjoyed. This Hare Krishna Mantra is addressed to the energy of the Lord and the Lord Himself to keep the chanter in his eternal position of being enjoyed. The prayer is "My Lord, Oh the Spiritual Energy of the Lord, kindly keep me engaged in Your service." Regarding your other question, Krishna in His four-handed Visnu Form is within our hearts, but He is not different from two-handed Krishna. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Arundhati **Date:** November 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Arundhati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 24, 1969. Regarding your working hours, if you can work more, of course that is very good. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that we should be engaged in Krishna's service always, without any gap. So we should mold our life in such a way that not a minute will be blank without Krishna's service. Regarding your first question, the proof of Krishna Consciousness is that the Bhagavad-gita it is oldest transcendental literature about God-consciousness in the history of the world. It is estimated from authoritative sources of Vedic literature that Bhagavad-gita is eternal truth and was first revealed within our knowledge at least 120 millions of years ago. So what other literature can be compared with Bhagavad-gita throughout the whole world or universe? The second proof is that Krishna is accepted as the Supreme Personality, not only in the modern age, namely within two thousand years, by great acaryas like Sankaracarya, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Lord Caitanya, etc., but before this in all Vedic literatures given by Vyasadeva, Krishna is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So whatever is spoken by the Supreme Lord Himself is certainly the most authoritative. So far as we are concerned, we do not make any alterations in the statements of Krishna. Therefore we are also authority. Just like 2 plus 2 equals four is mathematical truth. Anyone who accepts this axiomatic truth and works on this principle is also authority. To become authority is simply to follow the authority. If someone makes 2 plus 2 equal to 3 or 5, he is a rascal. That means he does not follow the authority and thus he fails to become himself an authority. Regarding crying, when someone cries during kirtana, this crying is crying of the soul. But if anyone tries to imitate such crying to get some adoration, that is a bodily function. Regarding your final question, Krishna is the Cause of all causes. That is a fact. But we being subordinate to Krishna, sometimes we create our cause under Krishna's sanction only. Just like a child may persist in trying to do something, but unless the mother allows he cannot do it. Another example is that a criminal is put into jail by the trying judge; this is caused by the judgement of the court, but it is actually caused also by the criminal person. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Balabhadra **Date:** April 25th 1969 — **Location:** Boston > (Allston) My Dear Balabhadra, Please accept my blessings. Both Gaursundara and Govinda dasi have highly spoken about your service attitude, and I am so glad to hear about your activities. Krsna has sent you to our association, and I am sure you are intelligent enough to understand our philosophy. Please try to understand us without any doubt. If there is any question, you can send it to me, and I shall be very glad to reply. But try to understand us nicely, and surely you will be very happy. Both Gaurasundara and Govinda dasi are good devotees, and your association with them will be very much beneficial. I am so glad to learn that your capatis and other preparations are attracting many guests at our love feast. Here also, as well as in Buffalo, things are improving very rapidly. I think that Hawaii is certainly a very good place for a center. While I was there, I enjoyed the climate very much. In comparison to the climate of the Eastern portion of America, Hawaii is certainly a very good place. Next time, when you get many mangoes, if you invite me I shall go there again. Hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Balabhadra **Date:** May 12th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Balabhadra, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated May 6th, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I can understand that you are working very nicely and sincerely for helping our movement in Hawaii, and this is very encouraging to me. Please continue with this attitude and surely Krishna will provide you from within the intelligence of how you can serve him in the best way. Regarding your question about maintaining your body nicely, I think that if you follow our regulations of diet, sufficient sleeping, and keep to the prescribed rules of cleanliness, two baths per day,* then you will be able to keep yourself in proper health. Of course disease will always be there at some time while there is this material body, but this we must tolerate and not be very much agitated by. Actually, the Vaisnava who knows that he is not this body, he does not therefore neglect his body, but he takes very nice care so that he may utilize his body in the service of Krishna. Just like a man may know that he is not his car, so he does not therefore neglect his car, but he will take care of it so it will be able to render service to him. So we must take sufficient care to provide our bodies with its demands, but when disease or other necessary inconveniences arrive, we do not become disturbed because such troubles are simply temporary manifestations. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *at least one ### Letter to Balabhadra **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Balabhadra, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter (undated), and I have noted the contents with pleasure. Your description of the parade with 55,000 people viewing is very much encouraging, and it is clear that Krishna is giving you nice opportunities for spreading the Sankirtana Movement throughout Hawaii. Send pictures of your activities in this parade and your other activities to Hayagriva for being printed in Back To Godhead. I appreciate very much that you are a thoughtful, intelligent boy, and you have got Krishna's Grace undoubtedly. Your good Godbrothers and Godsisters also speak highly of you, so continue to develop as you are doing and Krishna will surely be very pleased upon you. I am praying to Krishna for your long life and service. Thanking you once more for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Balai **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Balai, Please accept my blessings. It was a great pleasure to receive your letter of January 14, 1969. I hope that by the Grace of Krishna you will have a very nice child next month, and my blessings are always there. You have wished me to live until all of my publications are finished, and I thank you very much for these good wishes. May it be fulfilled by the good will of all of my disciples. Thanking you again for your kind letter. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Balai **Date:** July 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Balai, Please accept my blessings. I thank you so much for your letter of July 15, 1969, and I think of you very often that you are a most ideal devotee wife. Your husband, Advaita, is working very hard and nicely in Krishna Consciousness, and when the husband is executing his activities very nicely it is credit not only to the husband himself, but it is a credit to his wife also. In materialistic marriages generally there are too many troubles and frustrations because the basic principle for both the husband and wife is their own personal sense gratification. Therefore there is inevitable conflict and divorce petition. But in a Krishna Conscious marriage the basic principle is for both husband and wife to serve Krishna nicely and to help the partner advance in spiritual life. In this way both the husband and wife are true benefactors for one another and there is no question of any serious conflicts or separation. So I am sure that to have such nice parents who are devotees of Lord Krishna, your child Nandini is very, very fortunate. In Bhagavad-gita Krishna instructs us that for one to be born in the family of devotees means that such person was the most pious of all living entities. So raise Nandini very carefully in Krishna Consciousness, and surely Krishna will bestow all blessings upon you and your family. Regarding your question about the ceremony of offering Srimad-Bhagavatam and some coins to your child, yes, this may be done. Several months ago this same ceremony was performed with Visnu Arti, the daughter of Krishna Devi and Dinesh Candra, and Visnu Arti chose the Bhagavatam. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Balai **Date:** November 15th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Balai, Please accept my blessings. After a long time I have received your letter and I thank you very much. I always think of you how nice, Krishna Conscious, beautiful girl you are. So Krishna has given you a nice daughter to take care of. Here, the daughter of Malati, Sarasvati, is giving us much pleasure in her Krishna Consciousness activities. She is so nice that as soon as there is chanting sound of kirtana immediately she begins to dance and clap. Even the audience becomes astonished and they follow her activities. It is very nice. I think your daughter may now be walking, so she may also be trained for dancing and clapping. So attend Sankirtana Party very regularly. Kirtana is our life and soul, and the press is part of kirtana. So both of you, husband and wife, always remember this and try to execute both these ways of activities. I understand that Saradia has come back to Boston, living with Vaikunthanatha. This is nice. One thing you should know—of course, I know that you are so nice that there is no possibility amongst you for disagreement between husband and wife; but sometimes it happens—so you can let Saradia know that in our Krishna Consciousness household life there is no question of separation. Our marriage is Absolute. But if sometimes some disagreement is there, they may live separately for a few days, but that does not mean they can think of separation. Please try to educate all the girls in that way. In December I shall be there in Boston, and it shall be my great pleasure to see you all together. Please offer my blessings to your daughter, Nandini. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bali Mardan **Date:** October 4th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst Park > Tittenhurst House, Ascot, Berkshire, England LT_691004_B1 My Dear Bali Mardan, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your nice poetry. These words are very appropriate for my Guru Maharaj. Your sentiments and nice words are worthy to be offered to my Guru Maharaj. I am quite unfit for such words. Whatever I am doing, it is due to the work of my Guru Maharaj. Actually, He is the power behind me, and I am only instrument. But anyway, I very much appreciate your understanding of the Krishna Conscious Movement, and I wish to publish this poetry in Back To Godhead. I am also very glad to learn that now you have got a house also. It is all Krishna’s Grace that so quickly you have established a center in Japan, which I cherished for a long time. Please convey my blessings to Sudama and keep me informed of your activities regularly. I am sending herewith a copy of a photograph recently taken by Gurudas, and I hope you will like it. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Enclosures: 1 ### Letter to Bali Mardan **Date:** October 28th 1969 > LT_691028_B1 My dear Bali Mardan, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 15,1969, and it is very, very encouraging that you propose to go to Australia. Formerly I wanted to send Chidananda Brahmachari to Australia, and he attempted to take permission to go there. Somehow or other it was not fruitful. If you can now go there and start a center, it will be certainly all Glories to Sri Guru and Gouranga! So take information further in this connection, and as you say that you are in correspondence with some friends there, this is all right. In the meantime make the Kyoto center strong enough to stand up, and then you can immediately attempt this great adventure. Krishna will help you. I think when winter season will prevail very much on the Northern side of the world, the Southern side of the world will compensate the declining tendency of the BTG sales. There is New Zealand, Fiji Islands, etc. So by the order of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu we shall not leave any place within this world at least without Krishna Consciousness. Gradually we are increasing the number of our books. In the meantime both yourself and Sudama may take quotation either from Dai Nippon or any other reliable printing company for a book of the style of TLC. There will be 10,000 copies, and 400 pages, including 50 pages of color pictures. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bali Mardan **Date:** November 13th 1969 > LT_691113_F1 My dear Bali Mardan, Please accept my blessings. I am so pleased to receive your letter dated November 7, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. You are a sincere devotee from the very beginning, coming from a very respectable family, intelligent, and your humbleness is a proof of your high parentage. Thank you very much for this Vaishnava quality. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has advised a Vaishnava to be humbler than the straw and more tolerant than the tree. Then he can become a perfect teacher. So Krishna is giving you intelligence from within how to become preacher in distant countries to fulfill the mission of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. By this attempt only we can become within the perspective of the Lord’s attention. Our endeavor should be not to see the Lord, but that the Lord may see us. He will see us when we become in His confidence by rendering service unto Him. The best service we can render is the preaching of His glories, by which the hearer is glorified and the Lord is certainly glorified. I hope your application for immigrant visa will be duly accepted because I know the Australian government is very much anxious to invite white people to domicile in Australia. So your application must be favorably treated. Regarding books, I have no objection to change the size 7 x 10 as you have suggested, and you can take quotation in that way. The pamphlets which you have sent about the big printing house, Toppan, seems to be nice. Tamal Krishna has arrived her in London last night via New York. I requested him to come here for some time to help organize the center. Please offer my blessings to Sudama and Chintamoni. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bali Mardan **Date:** November 16th 1969 > 7, Bury Place, London, England LT_691116_C My dear Bali Mardan, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 11,1969, and I take it as practical proposal to open our Samkirtan Movement activities in Tokyo. Actually, the mission of our representative who were sent to Japan was for opening a branch in Tokyo, but at that time you could not find out suitable place to stay in Tokyo. Now at the present moment, if it is possible to open our branch in Tokyo, it is very welcome. My Guru Maharaja, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj, was always enthusiastic in opening the centers in busy cities. Our centers are not practically secluded ashrams for so-called peaceful meditation. We are for activities and fighting like the battle of Kurukshetra. Chatianya Mahaprabhu’s mission is to awaken the sleeping humanity under the spell of Maya. He says, “My dear human beings, please get up from this slumber and make the best use of the opportunity of your human life.” We have come in this material world in this human form of life not to enjoy deep sleep in the form of false activities of political, social, industrial and similar business which will be finished like a dream at night. All these things are actually the mire of daydream. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that He has brought this Hare Krishna Maha Mantra for dispelling the spell of Maya. Everyone should take up this opportunity and be benedicted. So not only in Tokyo, in all parts of the world we must have our centers in the most busy quarters. So I take your proposal as God-sent, and if it is possible to open a center in the busy section of Tokyo, that is very nice. Our London center at 7, Bury Place is very nice because although we do not hold very many meetings in the temple, they are going out with Samkirtan Party twice, thrice a day and coming back quickly with some sort of reward from Krishna. Tamal Krishna is now staying here and everything is going nicely. Yesterday they have purchased a 15-seat van, so they have the opportunity to go anywhere. The Hare Krishna Maha Mantra record has created some field of our activities both in Europe and America, and they are getting invitations from various quarters. I have received report today from Montreal that in Central American states they have become interested to know what is the religious organization behind this Mantra. I have already replied your last letter, stating therein that we have no objection to increase the size of the books to 7” x 10”, so you take quotation of the book, TLC style, both with layout and without layout. 400 pages including 50 color pictures. Please offer my blessings to Sudama and Chintamoni. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bali-mardana **Date:** July 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Bali Mardan, Please accept my blessings. I thank you so much for your letter, sent along with a check for $160. I am pleased to learn that you have now finished your college studies, and now you are going to engage yourself fully in promoting our Krishna Consciousness books. Your idea of not working for your father is nice, and several times I have stressed that our devotees are becoming twice-born. They are dvija, or twice-born. The first birth is by the natural father and mother, and the second birth is by the Spiritual Father and the Vedic knowledge. The second birth is the real birth; the first is as good as an animal's birth. It is said by a devotee of Lord Caitanya that in every birth we have got a certain type of father and mother, that is not very wonderful, but it is not possible in every birth to get Krishna and a Spiritual Master. Therefore, the form of life in which Krishna and the Spiritual Master is obtained is the most sublime. So I am very glad to know that you have become more affectionate for your Spiritual Father than for your natural father, and this is quite to the standard of spiritual advancement. Now Brahmananda and yourself are a good combination. Try to organize our book selling department very nicely. That will be great service to the society and to the people in general. The books we are publishing are completely novel to the Western world. We are explaining the science of devotional service in so many ways, and Srimad-Bhagavatam especially is unique literature that the people in general should try to understand. I have got an ambition to finish the Srimad-Bhagavatam in the same way I have already done, so try to help me as far as possible to finish this high project. If we get return from the Iskcon Book Department, then we shall be able to publish all of our books very quickly. So Brahmananda and yourself will be a good combination, and Krishna desires that you should do it exclusively. I hope this will meet you in good health, and I thank you once more for your letter and check. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bali-mardana, Sudama **Date:** October 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Bali Mardan and Sudama, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated Monday, 29th September, and it is so much encouraging. Last time, in 1967, when I was coming back from India to the States, I stopped for one day in Tokyo to find out the possibilities of opening a branch. I studied the Japanese country within very short time and saw that they are very nice people. They are Oriental men, and there is similarity with Indian peoples. So what I desired in 1967 you have fulfilled in 1969, and I thank you very much from the very core of my heart. Krishna will give you long life and prosperity to live and preach the Krishna Consciousness Movement to the suffering humanity and thereby get benediction of Krishna and thanks from the peoples in general. Both of you are very good combination, intelligent boys, and Krishna is so kind that immediately you have got no anxiety for maintaining yourselves. Now, Bali Mardan, you are trying to get Cintamani from the States; this is good idea. This girl, Cintamani, will be another asset for your propaganda because she is actually a very nice devotee, and when she will be with you she can receive many girl students and show them how to prepare Prasadam. So surely you will grow very soon a nice Krishna Consciousness society in Japan. Krishna has given you immediately one Japanese boy to assist, Sriman Co-Co, and it is understood that he is inquisitive to learn more about Krishna. As you know from Bhagavad-gita, four types of men; namely the distressed, the man in need of money, the philosopher and the inquisitive, they take to Krishna Consciousness, and such persons are described as very pious. They are not ordinary persons. From this formula, Sriman Co-Co appears to be a pious boy, so try to convince him about our philosophy. The sum and substance of our philosophy is to love Krishna. Actually, we have got our inherent love propensity for Krishna, but due to our contact with material energy, that loving spirit is being overtaken by Maya. Just like a boy with hookworm, when he eats very much his body does not get nourished on account of the middle creature in his intestine. The food goes to the account of the hookworm. Similarly, we have got our dormant loving spirit for Krishna, but it is being misused by Maya. As such, we have gradually to disassociate with Maya or take such medicine which will counteract the contact of Maya. Then our pure Krishna Consciousness will come out automatically. So this chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra is the only medicine to drive out the smokey curtain created by Maya, covering our pure heart. In other words, our love for Krishna is being blocked by the intervention of Maya, and as soon as we stop this intervention, our life becomes sublime. So this is not a sectarian religious convention, but it is a fact, and the proof is that the Hare Krishna Mantra is liked in USA, in Canada, in Europe, and now in Japan. You write to say that the Japanese students inquire very intelligently, more so than the American boys. Yes, it is a fact that the Japanese people are actually very intelligent, perhaps more than the Europeans and Americans. That is admitted by one German scholar, my Godbrother. So if you can satisfy them intellectually and answer all their questions, that will be your success. All the answers are there in Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. You will simply have to study these books to find out the answers. Anyway, I think Japan will be good field in future for spreading our Krishna Consciousness Movement. You are tested devotees; please handle the matter carefully, and Krishna will give you all help. I could not understand what you mean by a cart from India. The Japanese are good carpenters, so is it not possible to get such cart made locally? I do not know if Acyutananda will be able to help you in this connection. Here in England the Sankirtana Movement is getting very popular, and the Party here is getting numerous calls, even from European cities. So we are very much hopeful here also. I am anxious to know how you are eating, whether you have got the facilities for cooking nice Prasadam. Japanese rice is very cheap, so if you take nice rice, dal, capatis, vegetable, and little milk, that will keep your health nice. Bali Mardan, you have asked how the Sankirtana activities become more relishable every day. It is due to Lord Caitanya's benediction. All Glories to Sri Krishna Sankirtana!!I hope this will meet you both in good health, and please keep me informed of your progress. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bank Manager **Date:** August 8th 1969 — **Location:** From > : FOUNDER-SECRETARY: LEAGUE OF DEVOTEES, 1975 So. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, Cal. 90034 USALT_690808_E1Manager THE BANK OF BARODA856, Chandni Chowk Delhi-6, INDIA Dear Sir: RE: ACCOUNT #2408Kindly close this account, and whatever amount is there in credit balance please transfer to my personal account # 1452. Thank you. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhadra Bardhan **Date:** December 4th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Bhadra Bardhan, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 23, 1969 and have noted the contents. I am pleased to learn that the Columbus center is improving gradually and now you have begun to perform plays for the guests at the Sunday feasts. In one way or another you should always be engaged in Krishna Consciousness. This will protect you from the onslaughts of the material nature. Regarding your question about items being used in Krishna's service becoming spiritual, you should understand it that anything which will remind one of Krishna is spiritual, and anything which will make one forget Krishna is material. Actually, everything is of spiritual nature because everything is coming from the Ultimate Source, Krishna. But when something is offered to the Lord or when it is used in His service, then it resumes its spiritual quality because it will remind one of Krishna. Therefore, even though such object may not have consciousness, it will act as spiritual. It is just like when an iron rod is put into the fire: the rod has not actually become fire, but it will act in just the same way as fire. Regarding your question about the Brahmajyoti, it is explained in Bhagavad-gita that the impersonal Brahman effulgence is emanating from Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The brahma-jyotir is just like the sunlight, which emanates from the Sun God: Because the sunlight has no personal form, this does not mean that the Sun God has become impersonal. You have seen in pictures of Lord Krishna that there is a nice effulgence coming forth from His body. This effulgence is the Brahmajyoti, and it is pervading throughout the entire spiritual and material manifestation. But above this Brahmajyoti is the Supreme Source of everything, Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I hope this important point is clear to you now. Please offer my blessings to Jaya Gopala and the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhagavan **Date:** September 22nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Bhagavan das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated September 15th, 1969, and I am encouraged to learn how your temple is progressing nicely. You write to say that already two new boys, Frank and Ed, have joined our Krishna Consciousness Movement, and that is very good news. Please take very nice care of them and help them to understand our principles as far as possible. Actually, in every town and city there are many, many devotees of Krishna; now it is our business to go around the world wherever people are congregating and pick up these sincere souls. The world is suffering for want of this knowledge of Krishna Consciousness, and we experience practically that many people will take to this spiritual line simply if we make this information available to them. So continue to develop your Sankirtana Party activities, and if you are given permission to accept donations, that will increase the strength of your activities there. You may consult with Tamala Krishna in Los Angeles for advice as to how to approach the authorities for obtaining such permission. That 50 people are coming to your Love Feasts and 15-20 people are coming to the kirtanas in the temple is good news also. As you are a sincere servant of Krishna, Krishna is recognizing your efforts to serve Him nicely and thus He is crowning your labors for Him with success. As more and more you increase in sincerity, similarly Krishna will more and more reciprocate by giving you the intelligence to serve Him nicely. Regarding your question, we must utilize our intelligence fully for serving Krishna. Serving Krishna does not mean that we sit idly and say that Krishna will take care of all our business. That is not depending on the Lord; rather it is laziness. Depending on Krishna means to act always in Krishna Consciousness, realizing that Krishna is the Ultimate Controller of all results. I hope you understand this properly. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhagavan **Date:** November 9th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Bhagavan das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 26, 1969. It is very encouraging that from the very beginning of your center you are successfully executing your entrusted duties. Krishna will be very much pleased upon you and your wife, Krishna Bhamini. In our society we want to see some ideal householders as you are, so that preaching may go on with great speed. From the very beginning of this movement the associates of Lord Caitanya were all householders. All four of the principal associates; namely Advaita Prabhu, Nityananda Prabhu, Srivasa Prabhu, Gadadhara Prabhu, and even Lord Caitanya Himself—They were all householders. So we are not impersonalists or voidists. Our program is to enter into the association of Krishna. But we cannot enter within this association without being completely disinfected from the contamination of material sinful life. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita by Lord Krishna Himself that only those who are absolutely cleansed of all dirty sins can be engaged in Krishna Consciousness in full swing. In other words, those who are fully in Krishna Consciousness can be free from material contamination and thus enter into association of Krishna. There will be no botheration for you of family life, provided it is carried on in full Krishna Consciousness. Follow this idea and you will be happy. The Western world needs this help, so try to do this welfare work for the human society. It is very happy news that your are getting a bus, but purchase it new. Second-hand machine is not always reliable. It may give so much trouble. A similar attempt was made previously by Rupanuga. He spent $600 and was practically cheated. So be careful about all these unfair business dealers. Regarding your first question about annamoya, this annamoya theory is for persons who are in the lowest grade of transcendental realization. When you take to Prasadam, it is directly on the spiritual platform. Annamoya concept of life is not on the spiritual platform. Our process is therefore very easy and effective in this age. So the prescribed methods which we have adopted under authoritative scriptural injunctions are sufficient for our progress. Regarding your second question, the 24 elements are the five gross elements, the three subtle elements, 10 senses, five sense objects, and the total material cause, (Mahat Tattva). Above these there is the situation of the spirit soul, which is the 25th category, and above this is the Supersoul, or Supreme Personality of Godhead. The mind is a subtle element, therefore it is in the body. Generally, the brain is accepted as the location of the mind. Regarding your final question, it is a fact that when one is contact with Krishna, His Name, His Qualities, His Form, His Pastimes, immediately he becomes purified. But because we are conscious living entities, the proportion depends on our conscious acceptance. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita that Lord Krishna responds proportionately to the service of the devotee. Another example is that the sunlight is open for everyone and for every place, but to enjoy the sunlight or to take advantage of the sunlight depends on the proportionate arrangement by the receiver. Prosecution of devotional service means gradual purification and proportionate revelation of Krishna Consciousness. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Enclosed please find photographs of the Los Angeles altar. You may construct your altar in the exact same way. For any further construction information you may consult the devotees there, and when the throne is prepared you shall get the Deities also. Perhaps Naranarayana is there & he can help you ### Letter to Bhagavan, Krsna Bhamini **Date:** July 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Bhagavan das and Krishna Bhamini, Please accept my blessings. I thank you both so much for your encouraging letter of July 9, 1969. I am so pleased to learn that you are now in Detroit and already you have begun some program to introduce the residents there to this sublime practice of Krishna Consciousness. You are both very sincere souls I know, and Krishna will help you in every way as you continue to work nicely. As you have requested to be sent a nice householder couple to come and help you, I am going to arrange with Hansadutta and Himavati that they may go there soon to join you in Detroit. They are both very exemplary devotees, and they are already trained in managing all areas of Sankirtana Party and temple affairs. So their presence will be a great help to you. I understand that Hansadutta works best when he can be in charge of the situation, so when he arrives he may act as the temple president and you shall be his assistants. When I speak with Hansadutta and Himavati in San Francisco during Rathayatra Festival we shall make definite arrangements as to when they shall arrive. In the meantime, I am very pleased with both of your nice attitudes and endeavors, and may Krishna bless you for this. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhagavan, Krsna Bhamini **Date:** August 9th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Bhagavan das and Krishna Bhamini Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I thank both of you very much for your letter of August 5th, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. Krishna has been very kind upon you, and if you continue to engage seriously in His service, certainly He will give all facilities. After all, it is His business that we are doing. It is very encouraging that you have had thirty people at your feast and twenty people at your first kirtana. It appears that Detroit has very good prospects for spreading Krishna Consciousness. Try to sell Back To Godhead as much as possible. This is very nice propaganda work, plus it will provide you with some income for increasing activities further. I am enclosing herewith one book review of our Bhagavad-gita As It Is and Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and this may help you to distribute these books nicely in the Detroit area. If you require more copies of this review, please inform me and I shall have them sent to you directly. Regarding the reporters who are interested in doing an article on your activities for the local paper, give them good points. I am also enclosing an article by Hayagriva das, called "The Hare Krishna Explosion," and this will give them more idea of our movement. So far as Hansadutta and Himavati are concerned, at present they are organizing in Berkeley, but when they are finished there they may be willing to join you in Detroit. In the meantime, if there is any difficulty, or if you need men, you can consult with Tamala Krishna in Los Angeles, and he will help you. Regarding Gargamuni, yes, you may contact him. I have no objection. I hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhakti Sastri Examination **Date:** September 4th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles FIRST YEAR BHAKTISASTRI EXAMINATION September 4th, 1969time: 9:00 AM to 12:00 NoonJanmastami CeremonyAnswer any ten of the following questions with reference to the context of scriptures like Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Brahma Samhita and Isopanisad. The full mark for each question is 100.1. Who is Krsna?2. What is your relationship with Krsna?3. What are you expected to do with your relationship to Krsna?4. What is the aim of Krsna Consciousness?5. What do you mean by religion?6. Is Krsna Consciousness a type of religion or religious faith?7. How do you distinguish between religion and faith?8. Can religion or faith be changed from one type to another?9. How do you distinguish between changeable and eternal religion?10. What are the different types of religious faiths?11. Can religion be manufactured by philosophical speculation? Who created religion first?12. What is the greatest common engagement of religious men?13. Do you believe that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead?14. If you believe, how do you substantiate? If not, what is your reason?15. What is Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan? NB: Answer papers with some contribution to my book fund may be submitted to me. I shall personally examine the papers, and those who will pass will be sent a certificate of Bhaktisastri in due course. The minimum passing mark is 300 out of 1,000. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bharadraja **Date:** June 2nd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Bharadraja, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 28, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I can understand that you are having some difficulty in finding time to paint because of your other duties, but I think that all of these duties may be stopped so you can devote your full energy and time to painting. This painting you are doing is very important, so it will count as your temple work. There is no necessity either for you to go out on Sankirtana if this will take away your time from your real work. I understand that you are also very musically talented, but this talent is not so much required on Sankirtana Party because for chanting Hare Krishna it is not necessary that all instrumentation be so much polished or complicated. If it is necessary for you to work part time to earn money for artist supplies then you should do it, or else if Isana das can continue to help you in this connection, that will be better. Both you and your wife, Rukmini, are very nice artists, so please tell me what ideas you have so that you may get as much artistic work done as possible. For the time being, you should complete your Sankirtana painting, and then as you have asked about the Krishna Book, I an enclosing an idea for a painting of Krishna showing the universe within His mouth to Mother Yasoda. So you may complete this painting also as soon as possible. I have so many ideas for paintings, and we will be requiring so many expert paintings as you are able to do, so please be very serious to do this work nicely and quickly. It will be great service. In our Krishna Book we are showing the Western World for the first time what is God. So it is no unimportant task, and try to help us out in this as far as possible. I hope this will meet you in good health Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bharadraja **Date:** October 21st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Bharadraja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 4, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. I hope by now your bodily ailment is subsiding. Regarding the diet which the doctors are giving you, it is all right if you do not take milk for some time. Vegetables will do. Regarding your going to Santa Barbara to help open a center there, this idea is all right. Consult with Tamala Krishna in this matter. You have got good ideas, you are intelligent and have got qualifications, but you must learn to be more responsible. I was not very happy when I saw your wife last. She is so nice girl. You are married; you must be responsible for the maintenance of your wife. As you are qualified, you can work as a musician; but you must maintain her nicely and help her to progress in Krishna Consciousness. So far as the musical group you have described in your letter, you may consult with Tamala Krishna and see what his idea is in this connection. I cannot advise in this matter. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhurijana **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 13, 1969 along with the kirtana tapes and pictures of Buffalo temple. I cannot tell you how very much I enjoyed listening to this wonderful tape recording. All of the super-excellent qualities of kirtana were present on this tape and it was thus a great joy to hear it. On this tape Rupanuga has set an example for all householders because there was singing on this of Hare Krishna by all of his family members. It was all sounding very nicely, and I am going to show this tape to the Sankirtana Party which is here in Los Angeles so they may take example from such nice kirtana. I am very pleased that you are graduating from college in a few days and are anxious to engage your labors in spreading this Krishna Consciousness movement. Also I request you to study carefully the Bhagavad-gita As It Is because there is so much important service that an intelligent boy such as yourself can do in preaching work and spreading our movement around the world. You have very good example from your god-brother, Rupanuga, and so continue to help him as you are doing, and it shall be very successful for you. So thank you again for your nice letter along with the tape. I hope this meets you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhurijana **Date:** February 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 3, 1969, and I am so pleased and encouraged to note the contents. Your idea of going to North Carolina is excellent because there are so many students there, and you are college graduate, so I think that you are just the devotee to do the job nicely. The only thing is that I do not think it is necessary for you to go there alone, so immediately you may contact Tosana Krishna in Santa Fe temple, and he is also willing to go there to be your assistant. If the two of you find the place suitable, then for some time myself and Purusottama will go there to make the center fortified. So you may write immediately to Tosana Krishna in this connection, and the both of you may start on this important new endeavor. Regarding the seed which you have sent, yes, they are genuine tulsi seeds. I understand from your letter that Kanupriya has not yet received his initiation beads for chanting upon, but they were sent over two weeks ago. I am enclosing a carbon of the letter which I had sent along with his beads, and if he has still not received them, please request him to send another pair of beads, and I will send these back to him duly chanted upon. Thank you again for your most encouraging letter, and I shall be awaiting further news from you in this matter. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhurijana **Date:** February 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 22, 1969, and I was so much engladdened to note the contents. I am so pleased with your sincere efforts to succeed in this Chapel Hill center program. I think that by now Tosana Krishna has already joined you there and I am sending him a set of beads by separate post. You will be pleased to know that one devotee, Kartikeya, has already received his 4-D ministerial status from the draft, and I am enclosing herewith carbon copy of the letter I have sent to your draft board. So we shall save you from the draft. If you stick to the study of our books and continue as a preacher, there will be no difficulty for you to get 4-D classification. Regarding Lord Caitanya's birth date, it is March 4, and you may celebrate it as elaborately as is possible for you. Immediately you should contact Brahmananda in New York, and ask him to send you a few chapters of Teachings of Lord Caitanya which you will return afterwards. So on this day you may read from these chapters. To celebrate you should have a picture of Lord Caitanya on the altar and decorate Him with flowers very nicely. Chanting and lecturing may go on. In these lectures you should explain very carefully Lord Caitanya's teachings that we are eternal servitors of Krishna, and it is not that we are ourselves the Supreme Lord. So I am very pleased with your sincere efforts to make a success of the Chapel Hill center, and please keep me informed of your progress. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhurijana **Date:** April 3rd 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco My Dear Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your very nice and encouraging letter dated March 30, 1969. I am pleased to learn of the success which you and Tosana Krishna are having in your new center. It is all very encouraging to me. I think that your proposal to have me come to North Carolina is very nice, and if it can be arranged, I will surely do this. I shall be in Columbus by the 10th of May, and if you think that my going to your place will be nice, then you can arrange to receive me from Columbus to your place. So if it is possible, please let me know your tentative program. The program may be fixed some time after the 15th of May, and your tentative program may be informed to me at the New York address. I hope this will meet the both of you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhurijana **Date:** April 19th 1969 — **Location:** Buffalo My Dear Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. Replying to your letter dated April 14, 1969, I have already confirmed your meeting on the 15th and 16th of May, 1969, and I hope you have duly received the telegram which I have sent. Yesterday I have come to Buffalo, and Rupanuga has organized a very nice meeting of students. There were more than 200 students who were all participating in the chanting and dancing. So this Sankirtana Movement should be planned very diligently, and it should be pushed on. Then our propaganda will surely come out successful. Everywhere we are seeing good results from Sankirtana, so let us do our best for the service of the Lord. I hope this will meet you in good health, and please offer my blessings to Tosana Krishna also. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Please inform Pradyumna in Columbus about the meeting in your place ### Letter to Bhurijana **Date:** July 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 27, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I can understand that you are in need of some more brahmacaris there, and I have already told Tamala Krishna to send some devotees there. You may correspond with him immediately to make definite arrangements for this. You will be glad to learn that another center has recently been opened in Philadelphia, and another is to be opened very soon in Laguna Beach, 50 miles from Los Angeles. Our policy should be to open branches as many as possible, but not to close a single one. That would be a degradation. I think you have got enough potential opportunity in your center, so go on chanting and things will come out successful. I am pleased to note that you have decided to remain as brahmacari because it will be the most "undiverting" for your Krishna Consciousness. Actually this is correct. If one is able to remain as brahmacari, that is first class because so much botheration of household life is immediately avoided. But Krishna Consciousness is not limited that one must be brahmacari to execute, or one must be sannyasi to execute. Spiritual means that there is no conditions whatever, so in any position one may be in, he can chant Hare Krishna, preach Krishna Consciousness, and pray to Krishna to engage him more and more in His transcendental loving service. I remember that when you were in New Vrindaban with me you took some photographs with your camera. Please send these pictures to Brahmananda in New York for our Back To Godhead. In future issues we will be featuring many such photographs of our activities. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Handwritten: Dear Bhurijana Prabhu; Please accept my humble obeisances. I will send you 2 Brahma[illegible] as soon as possible. Please write me what their qualifications should [illegible] and please send air fare. your servant Tamal Krishna das ### Letter to Bhurijana **Date:** September 9th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter of September 4th, 1969, sent along with the Bhakti-sastri examinations and a maintenance check of 15 dollars. I have noted down your new temple address, and please try as far as possible to make this a very successful center. If you can get permission from the authorities for chanting and collecting on the streets, that will be a great boon to your activities. Please try for this wholeheartedly. Yes, when the schools are opened you must utilize this facility for presenting to the students of North Carolina how important and what a nice thing this Krishna Consciousness Movement is. All three of you there; yourself, Tosana Krishna and Vrindaban Candra are all very sincere souls, so surely Krishna will help you in your efforts to serve Him. Actually the work we are doing is not our work; it is Krishna's. So when He sees that we are working in sincere service mood, He is pleased to crown our efforts to please Him with success. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhurijana **Date:** October 28th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of October 19, 1969 and have gone over the contents carefully. I know you are a sincere worker, so if you think that by changing the place it will be nice, then do it. Regarding the Jagannatha mask, it is not bona fide. The Footprint of Krishna is all right. You can keep It by the throne and while taking care of the Deities you also wash the Foot, wipe It and put It back. Generally this is done with a little sandlewood pulp. There are markings on the Chest and Feet of the Personality of Godhead. That is the distinction between Him and ordinary living entities. Just like in our palms there are certain marks for a particular person indicating his fame and fortune. Similarly the Supreme Personality of Godhead has got certain signs on His Lotus Feet which are unique for Him only, and they are not to be found in ordinary living entities. In Vaikuntha all the inhabitants have exactly the same bodily features as Narayana, but Narayana is made distinct by the mark on His Chest and Lotus Feet. The Goddess of Fortune recognizes her Husband by these symptoms. That is the version of devotees. Please offer my blessings to Tosana Krishna and Vrindaban Candra. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bhurijana, Tosana Krsna, Vrindaban Candra **Date:** August 30th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Bhurijana, Tosana Krishna and Vrindaban Candra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your sending me the check for 200 dollars for my book fund, and I think of it as a big contribution of 2,000,000 dollars. I have come to your country to carry out the wishes of my Spiritual Master, and you are kindly cooperating with me. Certainly Krishna will be pleased to bless you with all spiritual benediction. I shall be glad to hear from you about your other progress in the matter of Sankirtana Party and selling BTGs. That is our main strength for preaching work. Thank you very much. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Bibhavati **Date:** May 13th 1969 > A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI318 East 20th Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43201 My Dear Bibhavati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the painting you planned to give to the New York temple, you should consult with Brahmananda to see if this new arrangement is satisfactory. So you should work this out amongst yourselves. In the meantime, you should practice your painting as you are able, because the picture which you sent me in Boston could still require some more improvement before it is perfect. So practice and this will enhance your talents. Regarding your desire to purchase plates for your small Deities, this is all right, and also the decorated box which you have designed for them sounds very attractive, so you may do it. I have not as yet received back from Janardan the constitution notes which I had given him to read, so please remind him to send them to me as soon as possible. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- p.s. Offer my blessings to all there ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** April 25th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. Advaita and his press contemporaries have agreed to pay me 10,000 per year for the printing of my books. So you can print at least two books, 5,000 copies each by that money. I hope you have by now settled something with Dai Nippon, and if they have agreed, you can hand over the Second Canto, Srimad-Bhagavatam immediately. There is one copy of Caitanya Caritamrta (No. 18) which is received from Calcutta with Bengali titles. This may immediately be sent to Gaurasundara by mail. You will find it on the shelf in my room. It is understood that MacMillan Company was to pay some hundreds of dollars to Gaurasundara for his design, so I do not know whether they have already paid or not. Anyway, you can immediately send him the above-mentioned book, and the price may be paid from his pay from MacMillan. I am awaiting your letter describing your progress with Dai Nippon. Hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** May 5th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated April 28th, 29th and 30th, 1969, along with the credit note of the Bank, #2880. Regarding the United States Customs, we had been importing books from India, and I do not know what is wrong there if we import books from Japan. So far as publication is concerned, our Society has got branches all over the world. It is written in the book "published by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, branches throughout the world, Headquarters USA". So if we have got branches in Japan and get our books printed there, what is wrong there? I think this complaint has no meaning. Regarding Dai Nippon's change of policy, I know the Japanese people are very cunning in the matter of business. They can produce things very cheaply and attract customers, but when the customer is in his grip, he does not behave very well. Under the circumstances, I do not know whether it will be nice to select another Japanese printer. The best thing will be if we get them printed in New York as I suggested to Rayarama and also Uddhava. Uddhava and Vaikuntha are very much hopeful for collecting for the book fund, and they have promised that at least $20.00 can be collected daily. Regarding the musical instruments, I do not think there need be any discount on them. So far as sending the book to Gaurasundara, you can send him one copy of Caitanya Caritamrta, and explain to him that out of his $100.00 there is no balance, so he can send the price of that book. Now immediately you have to send some papers to Syamasundara in London as follows: the picture of Vaikuntha Loka on one side, and an advertisement of Srimad-Bhagavatam on the other side. Send a few copies of this cover as well as the picture of the Prime Minister meeting me with the Bhagavatam, the recent dust cover of Teachings of Lord Caitanya and Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Syamasundara requires to prove our bonafideness, and from here I am sending the copies of our certificate. He is expecting something big, so let us hope for his success, although up till now we have been satisfied simply by promises. His address is as follows: 11 Walham Park Road, London S.W. 12, England. As I have mentioned to Uddhava, Murari may stay in New York to help Gargamuni at least till I go to New Vrindaban. Please convey my blessings to all others there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** May 6th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 2, 1969 on your new letter-heading, "Iskcon Books." Regarding the MacMillan Company's printing Srimad-Bhagavatam, we may note herewith that the MacMillan's publication of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is and our publication of Teachings of Lord Caitanya is the difference between heaven and hell. If MacMillan Company can invest their good money for publishing our Bhagavatam, they must take the standard as we have presented. The first canto cannot be reduced less than 200 pages. In the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, we have cut short the pages under the instruction of the MacMillan Company, without explaining many important verses. We are presenting a new philosophy to the world against all foolish impersonalist, atheistic, agnostic and all other imperfect philosophies. Therefore we must have sufficient chance for explaining the purports of Srimad-Bhagavatam. So if MacMillan agrees to these conditions, then we can entrust the publication of the Bhagavatam in their hands. Such a big company, world famous publishers, and we are giving them the topmost transcendental knowledge in the world. Why they should become miserly in the set-up and quality of the book? Regarding Teachings of Lord Caitanya, I am very glad to know that you are hopeful for great success. The stores demand of 40% for at least 4 copies is all right. There are about 1,000 stores in new York at least. So if they take 3 copies each, we immediately distribute 3,000 copies. Similarly in other big cities we can distribute at least 1,000 in each city. There are at least 25 important cities in your country, so in each city, if we distribute at least 1,000 copies, there is potency of distributing 25,000 copies in your country only, and what to speak of other countries, like England or any other part of the world where English is spoken. So it requires only organization; and now that we have a special "Iskcon Books" department simply for the promotion and publication of our literatures, and you also have the help of Nayana Bhirama and Bali Mardan, so the future looks very hopeful. Now you should definitely organize to distribute amongst the stores in the same conditions you have mentioned. Then our publication department will be a grand success. I would always prefer to distribute our books ourselves and publish them ourselves in our own press. That is my ambition, so you try to fulfill this desire of mine. Acyutananda's address is as follows: c/o Caitanya Saraswata Math, Kolerganj, P.O. Dist. Nadia, W. Bengal. Please negotiate with him that he may take charge of supplying and purchasing our goods from India. If he takes charge of purchasing our goods from India and sends directly, then we shall be able to save at least 50% of the cost they are charging at United Shipping Corporation. I have already written to him for mrdangas which are manufactured in Navadvipa, first quality, at the rate of $4.00 each. Similarly, first quality kholes can be purchased from there, utmost at the rate of __ each. Similarly, many other goods, including murtis, etc. he can purchase and book them regularly to our different centers. I have got news from Jaya Govinda that he has already arrived in Hamburg, and it is a great relief for me. Now Acyutananda is adamant to remain in India, so let him do something for our society. So far as starting a center in India, I am now thinking that that is not needed. I am getting inspiration that I need not bother myself in opening a center in India, since I tried for it and have lost so much money in the attempt. You know first of all I sent $100 to Acyutananda for Kanpur center; that is lost. I sent another $100 to the Sevaiti of Radha-Damodara; that is also lost. I sent for publication to Hitsaran $300, but out of that $100 is lost. Then Nippan Banerjea plundered Acyutananda by two typewriters. So in every way I see that I am losing there in spite of having our own men, like Acyutananda, Jaya Govinda, and others there. So I take it as warning from my Spiritual Master not to attempt in India, but rather to concentrate my energy in this part of the world. So let Acyutananda help us in the matter of purchasing and supplying goods from India. From Hamburg, Jaya Govinda has written to give hope that very soon he will publish Back To Godhead in German language, so I am very much encouraged for his assurance. My backache is almost cured by this time. I don't feel any inconvenience. I am walking as usual, and sometimes I am galloping the hills, defeating the young boys and girls. So don't be worried. I thank you very much for your kindly taking care of me always, especially when I was in Buffalo. The other day there was a question in class, one Indian boy asked me whether I am happy. So I answered him that in India I left my five children, but here, although I came alone, Krishna has given me hundreds of nice children. So I told him to just compare the practical happiness. So I am not at all inconvenienced under the care of my children here. The Sankirtana Party must always work regularly; that is our life and soul. You have given nice opportunity to Subala das. He is very sober and honest devotee. You are going every afternoon for one hour and that is very nice. Four or five men in the temple for kirtanas is sufficient. The temple is an ideal institution, and people should come to learn, because if they can make every house like our temples, then their lives will surely be successful. Regarding your proposal for contacting a subsidiary publisher, we are prepared to pay the fee or the cost of the production if they can produce our books of the same quality as Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and at the same price. We[TEXT MISSING] ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** May 15th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 9, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. The first thing is that you must feel well. In whatever condition you should feel well, because if you fall sick, everything will be topsy-turvy. And what you require to be in good health, you know better than anyone else. That is your first business, and your second business is to organize sales in the stores, because the organization of sales in stores will determine our future publications. If we cannot organize these sales, there is no use of printing books and stocking them in our store room. It would be better to hand it over to the MacMillan Company. If they will print our books to the standard of Teachings of Lord Caitanya, we do not mind if they raise the price. That is their business. If all problems come to me, even personal problems, then it becomes a heavy task for me. I received your letter, full of problems; Gargamuni's, full of problems; Rayarama's, full of problems, and similarly Iskcon Media's, full of problems. If everyone's problems are sent by me, then who will solve my problems? I have divided these departments to solve problems, but if in the end they are all sent to me and I have to tackle, then just imagine what is my position. The best thing would be to stop all activities and simply chant Hare Krishna. Regarding the Doubleday book stores, we do not like to give on consignment, but if some very big stores will take our literature only in that way, then we must make concession. I hope that by this time your health has improved. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. When you come to New Vrindaban, we shall talk in detail about our future preaching programme. That is our first business. Specially you and Rayarama who are advanced disciples must now do the preaching work. We are now increasing centers & they must be maintained now properly. But our publication department must be considered as the most important department for preaching work. ACB ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** May 22nd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your recommendation for initiation of Michael Kaplan, and I have duly chanted upon his beads. Please encourage him in the matter of understanding Krishna Consciousness and avoiding the ten kinds of offenses and following the regulative principles. I have written one letter Mssrs. Atma Ram and Sons in Delhi regarding selling our books, along with other proposals. He has written about the books as follows: "I contacted the local representative of MacMillan & Co. regarding Bhagavad-gita As It Is. They have not heard anything about it and have showed complete ignorance. Moreover, in the catalog which they possess, your book has not been mentioned. I am certainly interested in the sale of this book and would like to know your terms and conditions for the same." I do not know why MacMillan Company has not mentioned about our book in their Indian catalog. Anyway, he is interested to sell our books because it is written by me, so you do the needful. Ask Mr. Wade why their representative is ignorant of this publication. This Atma Ram and Sons was selling my Srimad-Bhagavatam at 40% discount. So you should open correspondence with them, giving reference to their letter #IKP, dated May 2, 1969, and signed by Ish Kumar Puri, Manager. Also send them one dust cover of TLC, and offer them the same commission so that they may, forward order to you, and you can supply them. Also inquire from them if they are interested in being the sole selling agency in India. In this case, they must purchase at least 500 books. If not, they can help us by sending a list of leading book sellers in India who can help in selling our books. Upon receipt of such list, you can open correspondence with these booksellers. Previous to this I wrote you that when you come to bring my tape recorder, but I don't think there is necessity now because here Hayagriva has got a tape recorder which can be used when I wish to make copies. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 16, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the Gaudiya Mission letter of Dr. Syama Sundar Brahmacari, I have replied asking them the terms of cooperation which he has mentioned. Let us see their terms, although it is a hopeless business. Still, as you know, I never become hopeless in any case. So I am negotiating with them to see how we can cooperate. Regarding your request for a kirtana musician, we don't require anyone who is very musically talented. Here in New Vrindaban Hayagriva has organized very nice kirtana party, and they are singing and chanting thrice daily very, very nicely. So I think you are the best mrdanga player, and similarly you have Rsi Kumar, Madhusudana, Uddhava, as well as others, so if you think all of you are deficient, I can send you a tape recording teaching playing techniques, and you will learn from this. You have got another devotee, Mohini Mohan, Purusottama's friend, and Purusottama says he is a musical master, so utilize the talent you have got and surely your propaganda will be successful and more men will come. It is in the same way that I came here with only one pair of cymbals, and now there are hundreds of cymbals going on. So Krishna will send us men; gradually as we qualify ourselves everything will come. Regarding San Francisco payment of BTG dues, whatever they can send now is all right. The balance will be sent by Dindayal, so they must fulfill their quota. Then when they get the magazines everything will be adjusted. Mukunda also will pay. Don't be discouraged, go on with your work. After all, Krishna will pay. I have seen the letter from Professor Hopkins, and you can tell him that I have accepted his offer, provided nobody shall smoke before me, specially when I take the class. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. When you come please bring my Indian Lota made of brass ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** May 31st 1969 — **Location:** Moundsville My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated May 23, and May 26, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the manuscripts of the First Canto, Hayagriva will send you a few chapters immediately, so you may do the needful with the MacMillan company. So far as the Exposition Press is concerned, this man is another Mr. Kallman. He wants to print himself and distribute himself, and when he'll print he'll charge $15,000 instead of $5,000 or $6,000, and he'll charge 40%-50% for distributing, and with condition that if they are not sold the books will be returned to you. The net result is if we give him the printing charges, he will spend $5,000 and charge us $15,000, immediately making $10,000. So far as selling is concerned, he promises to sell, but he is unable to so he returns the books. That is his policy and the reason he does not give straight answers. Once I talked with him, so I can understand his dealings. His disagreement with the design of TLC means that he wants to do this himself and charge. So I don't think we can trust this man. Regarding sales of TLC, you should try to get it reviewed, do not spend money needlessly on advertising. You have got experience already advertising Bhagavad-gita, so unless the book is reviewed, there is no question of advertising. You should send reviewing copies to first class papers for review. Also, you may arrange for some respectable persons to review the book and then submit this review to the various papers for printing. You should try for this. Generally, it is the policy of every paper that they review books as soon as it is given to them. That is one of the items of journalistic policy. So far as distributing the books, no consignment should be given. That is very risky. Let them purchase one copy, two copies, three copies, as they like, but no consignment. Let them take one copy and take the scheduled commission. So similarly they can distribute and take the money. It is all right if the store would like to exchange our forthcoming books for the copies of TLC they have not sold, and it is all right for their money to be returnable, but don't take consignment. That is only false sale, or no sale. Try to get the book reviewed. Otherwise newspaper advertisements will have no effect. I have already informed you in my letter of May 26, 1969 that I shall accept the invitation of Franklin and Marshall College. The Bhagavad-gita test you have written is very nice. The questions are all very good. Rayarama's negotiations with IBM is not yet final because similar negotiations are going on here with Pradyumna. So whichever one is easier we shall accept. I am pleased to note that you will be coming here to New Vrindaban, and when you come you may bring with you the Radha-Damodara Temple File which is in the closet near my room in a box. All of my books and files should be kept very securely. I am very anxious to know about Sadanandini, but this misunderstanding by rascals about a Krishna conscious person is always there. Hiranyakasipu understood Prahlada as crazy, and he tried to put him in so many forms of Bellevue organizations amongst the animals, amongst snakes, amongst fire and poison. Even Lord Caitanya, His relatives thought of Him as crazy. Therefore I wrote the essay, "Who Is Crazy?" Anyway, try to save the girl, and if she likes, she can be married with Candanacarya. She will then be in charge of a good husband, so if the marriage is settled, they should take a regular marriage certificate, and then they should come here, and we shall perform our mode of marriage ceremony. Regarding BTG, if you think it is better to not have the books sent to London directly, that is all right, but then you will have to pay the shipping charges to London. But unless you need more than your own 5,000 copies, why not let them try to sell what they can, and then if necessary, they can send to you their remaining copies. Or else if they are sure they cannot sell a sufficient part of their order of 5,000 then what they can sell may be shipped to them from Japan, and the difference will be added to our shipment of goods from Japan. Regarding Atma Ram & Sons, you may offer terms as you have on your rate sheet, and when you correspond with any seller, the terms is cash and delivery. That is generally understood unless otherwise arranged. I shall be very happy to see you again when you come here. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** July 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 28, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. The circular you have sent to the presidents and members of ISKCON is very nicely drawn, and please follow the principles. All students should be encouraged to write some article after reading Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. They should realize the information, and they must present their assimilation in their own words. Otherwise, how they can become preachers? So far as Sankirtana Party is concerned, as many pictures as possible should be published each month. The pictures are very attractive to the customers also. Acyutananda should also be asked to send pictures, as many as possible, of the many Visnu temples in India for publication in BTG. BTG should be full with our own articles, and there is no need for articles by outsiders. So far as ads are concerned, only our own books should be advertised; nothing else. Your proposal to keep my apartment by arrangement with Mr. Chudy by the residence of Vaikunthanatha there is very nice. If this is done, I shall be pleased. So far as my goods are concerned, they must be packed in trunks with inventory taken of where each item is being kept. For the time being, you may send me immediately from my book-shelf #6 (SB, Cantos 4, 5, and 6—a red book), #48 (Websters Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary), and the black bound typewritten manuscripts of Srimad-Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrta. I hope by now you have received the key from Purusottama, which I think is for the closet door. There are some important files in the closet. One of them is for the Radha-Damodara temple. That file contains many important documents. That should be kept very carefully. Immediately I don't require it, but I shall send for it when it is needed. When Gargamuni comes, or if Rayarama is coming, then the tape recorder, as well as the suitcase with my clothings may be sent. Now the $600 which we have saved from the ISKCON PRESS establishment may be invested in improving our New Vrindaban scheme. I am writing to Hayagriva to transfer the property in the society's name, and I have already talked with him. So far as my books are concerned, work with great enthusiasm to print, sell, and bind them in cooperation with the other boys. I am glad that Gargamuni is coming here to improve his business in cooperation with Tamala Krishna. This is nice, and I have full approval. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** July 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 2, 1969, and I thank you very much for it. Regarding your proposal for soliciting members, this is not a good proposal. We tried for membership in the beginning, and it was not successful. Collection by Sankirtana Party is the best process, along with selling our books and magazines by organized sale. But you can advertise for membership, and when somebody inquires, you can give him your chart for membership. But do not advertise it. You can simply invite people that we invite all sincere souls to become our serious members. I am enclosing a copy of a letter addressed to Mr. Kair, which may be published so people may know what is the practical advantage of becoming a member of this society. You are correct that Tamala Krishna's endeavor is very successful, and we should cooperate with him fully, and other centers should follow the same principles to make it successful. Recently, Tamala Krishna has sent Madhudvisa to San Francisco to organize the temple there, and as soon as he had gone there, the Sankirtana collection has become raised from $17 to $70. So in this way we should help all the centers, and in the future both you and Tamala Krishna, assisted by the others, should be the main guiding stars of the society. You have written that you have given $350 to India, but I do not know why. Do not send any money to the United Shipping Corporation, because last time we advanced $500, and it has become a pinprick to realize it. I think you have sent a letter of credit, but no direct payment should be sent to them. I understand that Krishna Das has sent a ticket for my going to Germany on the 25th of June. I do not know where is this ticket; I have not received it. Anyway, I think I shall be going to Germany after the San Francisco Ceremony, via New York. I understand the ticket is from New York to Luxembourg, so I think from San Francisco I shall go to New York, and from there I shall go on to Luxembourg. If you have received the ticket, please let me know. Regarding MacMillan, if they will not print our Bhagavad-gita As It Is in hard bound then why not publish our own edition of the book, enlarge and revised hard bound? We cannot be checked by their decision to print or not to print our books. The paper bound copies may be taken from them, and then our own bookbinders can turn them into hard bound editions by pasting the cover on cardboard only. In this case, MacMillan should give us special concession. Anyway, the best thing will be to arrange[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** July 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letters dated July 7th and 8th, 1969, and I beg to acknowledge receipt of your check for $2,000. Regarding your price quotation of $5,850 for printing soft-covered editions of TLC, Uddhava once quoted me a price of $3,500 for 10,000 copies without binding. Does it mean that for binding we have to pay more than $2,000 extra? In that case our men can bind it. Why should we pay extra if our men can do it very cheaply? Here in Los Angeles also I have been looking for printers who can do our books and magazines. I will let you know if there is any good result. Regarding New Vrindaban, immediately there is no program for investing in New Vrindaban until Hayagriva transfers the property in the society's name. But there is another program: Bhaktivinode Thakura desired that American disciple would come to Mayapur to take advantage of the birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I wanted to make one American home there, and I asked for a piece of land there from my Godbrother, Tirtha Maharaja. He has simply acknowledged receipt of my letter, and there has been no other reply as of yet. In the meantime, Acyutananda has given hope of purchasing land there. If we purchase some land, it may be that some American people will construct a nice temple there and a home for American visitors. So what is your idea if we purchase some land there? But if we do something there, it must be done very nicely. Otherwise it will be an insult to your people who are so rich. People must go there to see the American home and the American devotees. That is my idea. I shall be glad to know your opinion about this. Regarding the straps on the mrdangas being tightened, I am training Purusottama das Brahmacari in this connection. Let us see if we can manage this problem by ourselves. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** July 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter, one undated, and the others dated July 12th and 14th, 1969. Regarding the house on 43rd Street, I think you have made the correct decision in not taking this place during the summer because now you have so much Sankirtana activities to devote your energy to, and things are improving gradually as you are now performing your activities. So now you devote your time to Sankirtana Party and the Book Department. I have been taking price quotations from various printers in Los Angeles, and it does not look very hopeful at all that they will be able to compete with our other prices from New York, so as you have requested to be in charge of all aspects of our book publication, I think you are very qualified for this, so please do it very nicely with the help of the others. Regarding your plan for advertising membership in BTG, that is nice. I do not see how we can insist that all members must follow the four regulative principles, but this is certainly our recommendation to anyone who is serious about pursuing Krishna Consciousness. So far as United Shipping is concerned, there is no use of us now utilizing letters of credit, because they are now accustomed to dealing with us more suitably. So they should now send documents through the bank, and we shall pay for them upon receipt of these documents. That will be the best means of dealing with them now. Regarding BTG, if London is unable to sell as much as we had expected, then don't have them sent directly there from Japan anymore. As they require you may dispatch their order to them. I understand that Hawaii is a very nice place for selling BTG, so you may open correspondence with Gaurasundara to see if he can purchase 5,000 copies monthly for $750. If you can increase the number of copies to 25,000 monthly, that is the nicest idea, and then you will get 25% less for discount on these extra 5,000 copies. We want to distribute as many issues of BTG as possible, so the more you can print and distribute, the more my Guru Maharaja will be pleased to see His Great Dream being fulfilled. Regarding our boys doing the binding work on the books, if there is only saving of less than $800, then I think that they shall be able to collect more funds by begging. So which ever way will be more practical you should do it. But I think if the boys can make the same or greater amount by collecting on the street and by working, then they should continue in this way. I am surprised to learn that some of Krishna's money, $250, was misplaced and was found by you simply lying around. So from now on no money should be kept where it will be misplaced. Better is that all cash money should be deposited immediately in the bank so there will be no chance of losing it. This Sankirtana Party and our Book Department are very, very important; they are our right and left hands, so everything should be done very carefully and in remembrance that this is Krishna's business that we are executing. Because we are doing Krishna's business does not mean that we should be less careful, but it means we should be much more careful than someone who is performing activities simply for sense gratification. So instruct the boys in that way. Regarding land in India, I am corresponding with Acyutananda in this connection, and let us see how things develop. There is no need of you corresponding with him directly in this connection. Gargamuni has arrived here safely yesterday, and already he and Tamala Krishna are making plans to open 108 centers within a three year period. So I very much appreciate how my disciples are taking this movement to their heart of hearts, and are working very sincerely to propagate it. Another thing is, you may negotiate with the First National City Bank where I have got my account as to how we may start an account in their Calcutta Branch in the name of our International Society for Krishna Consciousness. We are doing so much business with India now, so if we can manage payment in American dollars, it will prevent all difficulties with the Reserve Bank. So please do this and inform me of your activities in this connection. Please convey my blessings to the others, I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** July 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 18, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to note that under your direction Bali Mardan, Jayadvaita, Rsi Kumar, Candanacarya, Nayana Bhirama and Joel Chalson are all working very nicely. It is a good combination, so make this combination stronger and improve it. You write to say that the Printing Department has $3,000. Does this mean $3,000 including the collection from selling TLC? In my idea the softcover edition should be printed by realizing money from the hardcover edition in which you have already invested $6,000. That should be our business policy. I wish to know how much you have collected thus far by selling TLC hardcover. That amount may be invested in printing softcover edition. Or if you think that the softcover edition will have immediate good sales, then we can invest the extra amount. I do not think that putting the advertisement on the cover as you have mentioned it will be very good. Everything should be exactly like it is, with the addition of the index. But the cover, the printing and the paper should be exactly as they are in the present edition. The price for the softcover copy should not be less than $2.95. Another thing is that if MacMillan Co. has decided to not print our Bhagavatam, then this also will have to be printed by ourselves immediately. I have received the copies you have sent of BTG no. 25 and no. 26. They are nice, but I notice that in no. 26 the first article does not have any adjustment for the margins. I do not know why this is. Your idea of changing the cover border to blue is nice. Black color should not be so prominent on the cover. Blue, red and yellow should be given. You have suggested that on every back cover there will be a picture of me in BTG, but I think a better proposal is that on page one or page three you may have a picture of me one month, then Guru Maharaja, then Gaura Kisora das Babaji, then Bhaktivinode Thakura, then Jagannatha das Babaji, then Lord Caitanya. This will be very nice, showing the Guru Parampara. Regarding the trip to Argentina, if it is not possible, then forget it. But do not be misled by the man who is described in your letter as "like Mr. Payne". If someone's character is doubtful, we should not associate with him and get into trouble. Regarding opening a temple in Washington, you may consult with Tamala Krishna about this. He is planning to have a center opened in Chicago. I would prefer to have a branch opened in Washington as you have suggested, but consult with Tamala Krishna to discuss. The best idea is if both centers are opened at the same time. Regarding London's order of BTGs, unless they pay then the shipment should not be sent there. Let them order and sell as they are able to do. Regarding the Printing Department. I have already informed Advaita that Los Angeles will not be good for this purpose. Immediately we should print the softcover edition of TLC, and then we shall see about opening our own press. So far as the technical machinery is concerned I think Advaita should be in charge. For selling and layout work your department will do it under your able direction. This arrangement will be nice. I am enclosing a picture of Gaura Kisora das Babaji for printing in BTG. You may also print pictures of great acaryas in our line, such as Ramanuga Acarya and Madhvacarya. I have not yet heard any word from Germany about my going there, so this program is not fixed up at present. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** July 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 21, 1969, and I have noted the contents with so much satisfaction. Enclosed please find the three cards duly signed by me. Last evening when I was in the temple to perform initiation ceremony for about one dozen devotees I was talking to Tamala Krishna and Gargamuni that Brahmananda is now competing with you. So it was very pleasing talk that there is transcendental competition between the centers, and it is Krishna's Grace that you stand first in this week's business. Krishna is very kind, and He is giving the full remunerations to His sincere servants. We should always remember that Krishna is always grateful to His devotees. If some ordinary man gives sufficient remuneration to a worker, why Krishna will not give sufficient remuneration to His servants? But we should always remember that whatever Krishna gives us, that never becomes ours. It is Krishna's. The more we receive from Krishna, the more we engage the remunerations in the service of Krishna. That is the duty of a bona fide brahmana. A Vaisnava is automatically a bona fide brahmana. There is a proverb that a brahmana remains a beggar even if he receives $100,000. That means that a brahmana is supposed to spend all of his money for Krishna as he receives it from Krishna. I am so glad to learn that you have increased the number of BTG's to be printed. It is very nice. I was just this morning asking Purusottama to inform you of increasing the publication of Issue #26 because the article, "Beyond the Universe," is very interesting. In the present atmosphere of space exploration this kind of article will be much appreciated, and people will know that we are not sentimentalists. Our background is solid, scientific and authorized. Actually, the modern astronauts are trying to reach the moon planet, and even if they reach there they cannot live there; and even if they live there, that is also not permanent. But our ambition is far, far greater, nobler and more sublime than these astronauts because we are trying to reach the Supreme Planet, Krishna Loka, and live there eternally in association with Krishna. Krishna has also advised in Bhagavad-gita that even if we go to the topmost planet, Brahma Loka, still we have to come back again. But if we go to Krishna Loka, there is no coming back to this material world. The questions as put on Bhagavad-gita, Third Chapter, are very intelligent and I like it very much. I am very much anxious to hear about Rayarama. It is my confidential advice to you that if he feels any difficulties for money, you may discriminatingly help him, and he should continue as the managing editor. Full cooperation should be there between you and him. We simply wanted to save the money for some better utilization. Otherwise we have nothing to grudge against anyone. New York is the biggest city in the world, and therefore the standard of New York should be maintained in consuming BTG and giving us contributions. Our first starting point was New York. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** August 27th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am pleased to inform you that our journey from New York to Hamburg was very comfortable, and we safely arrived at the scheduled time. The boys were present to receive us, and the apartment they have selected is very nice. I am sending herewith a letter addressed to Hayagriva. The second part of the Ginsberg conversation article should not be published, and our policy should be to only publish our Krishna Consciousness articles in various forms. We are not concerned with any other movement save and except Krishna Consciousness in its pure form. In India it is said that a little bit of a pure thing is much better than huge volumes of impure, adulterated things. So please try to follow this policy and publish in BTG only pure Krishna Conscious articles. Regarding press starting, I have already given you necessary instructions, and again I say that you complete it as soon as possible. I wish to see the press is started when I go back to USA after my European tour, probably in the beginning of November. I received a note from one girl, Gita Rajput, and I am enclosing it herewith for your reference. If she comes to decorate in the temple, encourage her because a little service to Lord Krishna will protect one from the greatest calamity. That is the version of Bhagavad-gita. I think establishment of the Deities here will not be possible because the place is not very settled up. There is objection by the health department for performing kirtana. Anyway, they are doing very nicely, and in Monday's meeting one Dr. Franz Bernhard, a learned scholar in Indology, was there, and he is very interested in our movement. Yesterday I had discussion with him for about two hours and he is impressed, as you will find I have explained to Hayagriva in his letter. Please note also the items I have requested Hayagriva to bring here when he comes. I hope you are doing well, and I shall be glad to hear good news from you by return of post. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have got now connection with a firm dealing in musical instruments in Delhi. I think they are better than Dwarkin and SonsP.S. Hand over to Hayagriva the enclosed letter. I didn't know where else to send it to him ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** August 30th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 25th August 1969, and I have noted the contents. Regarding Hayagriva and Satsvarupa, I think they can become joint editors, and articles to be published in BTG may be jointly decided upon. In case of disagreement the matter should be referred to me, and I shall give the final decision. When Hayagriva comes here I shall talk with him in detail. So your idea of them working jointly is nice. I do not know what you mean by cooperation with Kirtanananda Maharaja. In our society everyone, either a brahmacari or sannyasi or grhastha, who has dedicated his life and soul for this movement, they are all on the same level of sannyasi. For the present moment, nobody can claim an extra honor from his Godbrothers. Everyone should treat his Godbrothers as Prabhu. But nobody should try to claim any extra honor on account of an official position. I do not know why Kirtanananda Maharaja says that his authority overrides yours. At the present moment everyone is working under my authority. Similarly, Kirtanananda also should work under my authority. So the condition imposed by Kirtanananda as stated by you does not look well. A sannyasi has got four stages of elevation: kuticak, bahudaka, parivrajaka and paramahamsa. The sannyasa in the paramahamsa stage is the Spiritual Master of everyone. I have asked Kirtanananda Maharaja to work on the bahudaka stage for the present. I discussed this point with him when I was in New Vrindaban. This stage means he should move amongst people to draw their attention to the New Vrindaban scheme and try to attract their attention for its development. So he should immediately begin this bahudaka program and collect money from outsiders, not from insiders. And as he is in charge of New Vrindaban, he may invest all such collection for the development of New Vrindaban, and before this Hayagriva must transfer the property to the society's name. So far as investment of the society's money for New Vrindaban is concerned, certainly it will be done in New Vrindaban, and not only the money which Kirtanananda Maharaja collects, but also, if need be, any center will invest money. But that investment should be in proportion to food and salt. To make it more tasteful, one adds salt to his food, and similarly, every center should be independently developed by supplying the food, and the society, if required, will supply the salt. For the present, all energy should be diverted to start a nice press for our publication work. So there is no extra money for the society to invest in New Vrindaban. Neither you can spare any money to anyone without my permission. Whatever you possess now in funds, that is not your personal money, so how can you execute the request of Kirtanananda at the present moment? I think you will understand the matter rightly and do the needful. Regarding publication of BTG No. 29, it is good that you are publishing "Morphology and Ontology of Vedanta" by Guru Maharaja, 4 pages. So far as "Heroine Govinda Dasi" is concerned, if she has stated directly Ram Krishna as nonsense and rascal, that should not be indulged in. We cannot attack anyone directly in writing. There is a proverb in Sanskrit that you can speak something one thousand times, but don't give it in writing. Similarly, we may use some strong words against all this nonsense, but if we write it in black and white, that will not be good. So instead of naming these rascals directly, you change the word to "mental speculators." I am very glad that you are arranging to print 20,000 copies of Isopanisad immediately. Please do it. Krishna will give you all strength to fulfill His Mission by Your sincere efforts. Thank you very much. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Please send my snuff pot when Hayagriva comes here. I could not get the __ snuff here ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** September 5th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I understand that you want to open another branch of Spiritual Sky in Boston, but Gargamuni has written to me that he does not like the idea. I think we should not do anything which may be business competition between centers. Business is in one sense very dangerous allurement of Maya. If they are doing it nicely on the West Coast and supply the necessities of the East Coast, there may not be another competitive organization. Then this example will be followed, and some other center may like to open another branch. I am just trying to hand over the whole management in the hands of my devotees, but if there is some disagreement in the management, then the whole thing may not go well. I think therefore, unless you all agree to open another branch in the East Coast, it should not be done. You have got enough business in the East Coast, especially in the books and the press matter. I do not think you should divert your attention in any other matter. Yesterday we held Vyasa Puja Ceremony, and it was very nice. I shall take the opportunity now to thank you for the nice booklet you have had printed and for the part in this booklet written by you. After all of the reading was finished, I explained how service and prayers are accepted by Krishna through the medium of the disciplic succession. It is something like electricity: if one is in touch with his Spiritual Master, and his Spiritual Master is in touch with his bona fide Spiritual Master, then in this way an offering is automatically transferred to Krishna. Just as the Mercy of Krishna is coming down through the disciplic succession, so the service of the devotee is offered up to Krishna through the disciplic succession. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Enclosed herewith please find the picture of the altar which should be followed everywhere ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** September 9th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 6, 1969 and the new issue of BTG. I am pleased to learn that the house transaction is finished, and I shall be glad if you send a copy of the conveyance deed to the London address, where I am going the day after tomorrow. The purchasing transaction has been done on Janmastami Day, and this is also a great occasion. Regarding your anxieties how to pay the rent, etc., in the winter season, I think Krishna will provide with sufficient press work and some of the boys may work also. In this way we have to manage. Your remark that Advaita may have to do a lot of commercial work to help the temple during the winter is right. Whenever there is spare time we can earn money by outside work. We shall fully utilize the press facilities in various ways. My suggestion to meet the business men is to convince responsible men of your country to understand the importance of this Krishna Consciousness Movement and how we are molding the character of younger generation by giving them peaceful home, philosophy of life, artistic sense, musical entertainment, nutritious foods: and above all these, we are giving them spiritual enlightenment, which is never to be found elsewhere throughout the whole world. Every gentleman in your country is anxious about their children, and gradually if the richer section of the people or the government cooperates with us, we can expand this movement for total welfare of the younger generation. This calculation is only one side of the picture: The other side of the picture means the solution of the eternal problem. Even though people in general may not be able to understand it, the fact is there. So in winter season this propaganda may be done. Some very responsible man may be selected to preside over a meeting, either in the temple or in some rented private hall, if the meeting is to be very big. In this way we can try to invite the so-called important people of the society and try to convince them about the importance of this movement. Regarding the outlaws, why police protection is not there? Does it mean that in the United States if somebody is threatened, he will have no state protection and must submit to the atrocities of the outlaws? Our point should be that we shall take all necessary steps for self-protection, depending the result on Krishna. We should not idly sit down simply depending on Krishna. Arjuna had to fight in the battlefield, but at the same time he heard Bhagavad-gita. Our motto shall be like that. Neither we shall fight alone, without Krishna Consciousness, nor we shall give up all possible facilities in Krishna Consciousness. Regarding BTG no. 27, it is nicely done, but there is no mention of the words "Back To Godhead" on each page. Why this mistake has been done? Besides that, some of the headings, like "Parts and Parcels," are not very prominent, while at the same time there are many places where empty space is found. If some space is available, the heading should be broader. Henceforward, we shall try to avoid the Beatles or hippy's articles, because they have no spiritual importance. Yes, I have received the Vyasa Puja book in due time, and it is very nicely set up. Yes, the date was wrong, but it doesn't matter. It has come out timely: that is excellent. Regarding introduction to Isopanisad, please let me know the deadline for me to send it. Don't bother about the items I asked you to send with Hayagriva. I have instructed Hayagriva to work as co-editor with Satsvarupa, and he is now completely a surrendered soul. So conjointly make the appearance of BTG very nicely. The front cover page should be a nicely painted picture. You write that Jadurani is now painting wonderful pictures, so pictures by either Jadurani, Muralidhara or Devahuti should be given on the front page. The present front page picture is not very attractive as they were in last issues. A first class picture should always be given on the front page. I thank you very much for your appreciation of my book, Krishna, and you all enjoyed it on Janmastami Day. You write to say that each book I write is greater than anything written previously, but I must also inform you that each book you print is nicer than the previous printing. Two books, Bhagavad-gita As It Is and TLC, both are practically done by you, and the TLC has come out in printing art better than Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Similarly, I hope when you will print Nectar of Devotion and Krishna in our own press, it will come out better than TLC. So I will give you better writing and you will produce better books. In this way there will be competition in the service of Krishna. That is very nice. On the whole, I am very much pleased with the getup of TLC, and I hope in the future all our books may be printed at least to that standard. I am very much encouraged to learn that Jadurani is painting very nice pictures, and all of them can be utilized one after another to come out on the front page of BTG. Later on, when we print Krishna, they will come together. In issue No. 27, the marriage pictures have come out super-excellent. They will give nice teachings to the people of your country how we are harnessing the confused younger generations under the protection of Lord Visnu. Uddhava has also written a very good article, and I appreciate this very much. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** September 16th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated September 13rd, 1969. Regarding the press purchasing, it must proceed on, and Krishna will help you. Don't worry. I understand that you require approximately $14,000 out of which Advaita has $4,500 and you have about $5,000. The balance may be asked from Tamala as the house we are contemplating to purchase is untouchable by us on account of too high price. So Tamala can spare the balance money for the press at the present moment, and when the house will be actually purchased, Krishna will provide us with the money. Anyway, don't be discouraged. Whatever deficiencies will be there, Krishna will supply you, and if there is actually any deficiency, please let me know and I shall send you a check for that amount. I think this will be all right. In the meantime, I am sending herewith my pass book for the First National City Bank. You go to the bank and make it up and let me know what is the balance there. You can simply let me know what is the balance and the passbook may be kept with you carefully for depositing in my book fund regularly. Your report that book sales are not very satisfactory is not very encouraging. if it is not selling well in New York, why not dispatch to other centers for distributing? The United Shipping agency has dispatched the books as I understand, and on receipt of this you will kindly let me know how many full sets of Bhagavatam are there. Then I shall instruct you to distribute them in different centers on hearing from you. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** September 19th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated 10th and 11th September, 1969. Regarding the letter to the Punjab National Bank, that is already written, and the copy is enclosed herewith for your reference. Regarding the court case in Boston, a certified copy of the judgment should be taken. This will help us in many ways. If there is any copy of the statement of Nanda Kisora available, that should also be taken. There is a Mantra that says mukam karoti vacalam pangum langhayate girim. This means that by Krishna's Grace a dumb can speak like Demosthenes, and a lame can cross over the mountain. Krishna's Grace is so glorious. So if we remain faithful in Krishna's service, there will be no difficulty in speaking when ever it is necessary. There are many instances in the history of devotees of this, and even five year old boys like Dhruva and Prahlada were able to speak so nicely. I have seen the pictures of your kirtana sent by Sacisuta, and they are all marvelous. Please print them in BTG. All Sankirtana photographs should be collected, and one after another they should be printed in BTG. So far as printing part of the Krishna book in BTG, that is also very nice. Regarding my account with First National City Bank, I have already sent you the Pass Book, so if it is convenient to move to the branch where the society has got account, that is all right. There is no difficulty in changing the branch, but I wish to keep the account with the First National City Bank. When I receive the forms from you, I shall sign it. I am anxious to know what has transpired with the MacMillan Company so far as printing the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam is concerned. Here in London things are going nicely, and I am enclosing a newspaper clipping of the reception at the airport. Last Tuesday night, we had a very successful interview on a popular BBC television program. There is immense potency for our movement in London, and I wish that at least four or five centers may be started in England of this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Perhaps you have heard that in Tokyo already there is encouraging news from Sudama about the people there responding nicely, and similarly, two new centers have been started in Laguna Beach and Colorado. So it is all Krishna's Grace that the young people of the Western world are gradually responding to our preaching work. I hope this meets you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. There is no books here for sale. You can send some books immediately at my wish ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** September 22nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letters dated September 17th, 18th, 1969. Regarding the Rathayatra articles, Purusottama has sent you the article for San Francisco Festival, and by tomorrow most probably Gurudasa will send you an article about London Festival. So far as MacMillan is concerned, I have written to Gargamuni. Gargamuni is organizing book-selling, and perhaps you have received his memo to all temple presidents regarding selling our literature. So I am consulting with him before I finally decide about the MacMillan Company. But MacMillan's letter to you is not very encouraging. I have received the bank slips you have sent to me, and I hope by this time you have received the passbook. On hearing from you I shall advise you for changing the account to another branch. Regarding the length of the First Canto manuscript, you may write to Hayagriva, who is now in New Vrindaban. On the reverse side is a nice article of our arrival in London which was printed The Sun, a very popular English paper. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** September 28th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 23rd, 1969 along with the press proof copy of BTG #28. It is nice. Everyone here liked it. Simply the mistakes which you have already admitted may be corrected in the future. That is to say the headline should be broader and each page should mention the words "Back To Godhead". I think from next issue the editor's and co-editor's name should be mentioned: that is Hayagriva and Satsvarupa. At least officially there must be the editor's name there. I think that is required by the press act. You have received my letter dated 16th September, and I hope by this time you have made up my passbook in the bank. I am very much anxious to know the credit balance in my favor up to date. Regarding transferring my account to another branch, I think a simple letter to the present branch will be sufficient. When I transferred my account in the Bank of America from San Francisco to Los Angeles, I simply sent them one letter and everything was done. If you think that changing the branch is necessary, then I shall send them one letter on hearing from you. In the meantime, please let me know what is the correct credit balance in my favor. Regarding MacMillan's letter, I have forwarded the same to Gargamuni and Tamala for consultation before final decision. I have not heard anything from them till now. If the matter is urgent, you can consult with them and whatever you all decide, that is my decision. Now, gradually I am trying to hand over the management to the reliable hands of my disciples, and you should all work by joint consultation, without any friction. Now, by the Grace of Krishna, we are expanding and we must work in such a way that our society may stand a solid institution. In this connection I shall request you not to circulate all my letters that I address to you. Letters are sometimes personal and confidential, and if all letters are circulated, it may react reversely. I have already got some hints like that with letters I sent to you regarding Kirtanananda and Hayagriva. So in the future please do not circulate my letters to you. All my letters to you should be considered as confidential, and if you want at all to circulate, you just ask me before doing so. I am glad that Dayananda has gone to electrify the press nicely, and things are going on smoothly there. I hope this will meet you in good health. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** October 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. Replying your letter dated September 28th, 1969 and October 1st, 1969, I beg to inclose herewith a check for $4,000 in favor of Iskcon NY, and the copy of the letter addressed to First National City Bank is also sent herewith. So you can utilize this check in the matter of press. I shall talk with Tamala what money he has or hasn't got. In the meantime, the transaction may not be delayed, and therefore I am sending this check for $4,000. I hope this settles up the press question. Regarding New Vrindaban, last time I advised Hayagriva to wait transferring the property till the lease amount is paid in full. It is understood that he saves $700 per year on account of his being in the lease holder's name. So he has to pay $500 per year, but he is saving $700 from his income tax. Under the circumstances, I think that why should we pay this $500 per year from our pocket? Better it is paid from this $700 saving from income tax. So we may wait the transfer of the property till the stipulated lease amount is paid in full in the above way. Then the property may be transferred to the society's name. This is one thing. Another thing is that just at the present moment I do not think the society can invest any money in New Vrindaban, for the reason that we are starting this press, and until this press is all established I do not wish to divert my attention to New Vrindaban. Another difficulty is that nobody is staying in New Vrindaban. Even the boy Hrsikesa has left, and recently I received on letter from Ranadhira that Hayagriva and Kirtanananda are also not there. New Vrindaban is now in charge of Ranadhira, so on the whole people are not being attracted. In your next president's meeting you can consider these points. Tamala is trying to purchase some very nice property in Beverly Hills. The project is to establish there a nice Iskcon library to attract the richer class of men in that area. I do not know how far we shall be successful in this attempt, but if we are successful in purchasing a property there, it will be a great stride for our propaganda work. It is understood that the most selected persons of the Western world, both Europeans and Americans, they live in that quarter of Los Angeles. So why not a center there? That is the contemplation. Regarding MacMillan, I think the matter is already settled up and we have all decided to get Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto, published by them. So do the needful. Whatever you will decide together, that is my decision, and I have already informed you in this connection. You will be glad to know that our center in Tokyo, a few miles away from the capital, in the city of Kyoto, is already established. I think you are in correspondence with Bali Mardan Prabhu. I am so glad to learn that immediately they have become self-sufficient by collecting in the kirtana program. This is very encouraging. I am sending herewith the signed bank papers as requested by you. When you get the new passbook from the new branch you can send it to me by registered post, or if it is necessary you can keep it with you in safe custody. I am forwarding a letter I received from Gopinatha in Philadelphia, and you can do the needful. I have already informed you that there is no necessity for you to send the mango slab at present.* If it is required, I shall inform you in my next letter. In further reference to the press, do you have any plan for printing our BTG there also? Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *please send mango slab. Just learned it is not available here ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** October 15th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 12, 1969 and have noted the contents. Regarding your question about Mantra 12 of Isopanisad, the verse as it is, is correct. The Absolute means Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. When the Absolute is realized hazily it is Brahman. When the Absolute is realized more clearly it is Paramatma. And when the Absolute is realized distinctly it is Bhagavan. So Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan are different phases of the Absolute Truth. But the Bhagavan aspect of the Absolute Truth is distinct from everything. Those who worship the Brahman and Paramatma aspect of the Absolute Truth are in a dangerous position because they have every chance of again falling down into the lowest regions. This is because they are not fully purified, and the least trace of contaminated desire can cause havoc to one's progress. Just like one lit cigarette can cause a whole house to burn down, so incomplete knowledge of the whole Absolute Truth may not be able to save one from going to the darkest regions of ignorance. Isopanisad says that such persons who accept Brahman or Paramatma as the final word of God-realization will be "still more" condemned. This is because they are offenders of God and are very stubborn to accept the Supreme Personality. If one refuses to progress to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then he is sure to fall down again into darkness. The worshippers of the demigods at least have fear of some higher personality, and that may eventually develop into fear of the Supreme Personality. But the impersonalists think that everything is Brahma, everyone is God, therefore they can do whatever they want; and that is a still more dangerous position. I think this will clear up the matter for you. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: Isopanisad means "the knowledge that leads nearer to Krsna." I am returning herewith the Gita Press book you sent me for the Sanskrit Text. It is nice ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** October 27th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated October 18, and October 20, 1969. Regarding Isopanisad, enclosed please find the glossary that Satsvarupa has sent to me for making corrections. From now on all of our writings should be presented in the scholarly manner, so all spelling and diacritic marks must be done correctly. I have already sent you the corrected page which you sent me and now the glossary is also corrected. I do not think there is any necessity for any dedication on Isopanisad because it is a small book. Regarding the number of BTG which you print during the winter months, that must be decided amongst yourselves. Similarly you should decide about what is to be done with the North Carolina center. I have no objection if they move to some other place. Perhaps they will require some other nicely trained brahmacari to give them assistance either in North Carolina or some other place. So decide amongst yourselves what is to be done and do the needful. This is management. You have asked about the management of our society, and the position is that management should be done in such a way that people may not break away. That is the first business of management. I have already explained the matter to you and Tamala, so you do it consulting amongst yourselves, gradually coming to the general governing body for managing the whole affairs. At the present moment whatever you are doing is all right. Regarding New Vrindaban, the society does not require to invest now. Kirtanananda is managing. That is all right. So far as Rayarama is concerned, let us wait till he satisfies his Mayic business. The poem sent by Acyutananda is nice. It is enclosed herewith and you may publish it in BTG. Acyutananda should be encouraged to do this translating work. He is translating poems of Bhaktivinode Thakura, and that is very nice. Advaita may be requested for the estimate for 10,000 copies of Krsna on the standard of TLC. There will be about 350 pages of subject matter and 50 pages of pictures. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** November 7th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated November 4, 1969 along with BTG #29 and the new edition of The Peace Formula essay. They are both very nice. The BTG will be complete when the headings of the essays are bolder and on each page the name of Back To Godhead is printed. The titlehead on the front cover is quite suitable, and the picture in the front page is exceedingly beautiful. I showed it to Gurudasa and he remarked that it is super-excellent and he expects it to sell very well because of this picture. I think similar pictures from Western centers should be printed. The New York Sankirtana Party is also super-excellent. I am very much pleased to see all these pictures and our magazines gives information to the people that we do not stick only to the cities, but we train people in the remote villages also. So everything should be done very attentively and amicably. I am writing a letter to Hayagriva that he should take care of composition of our books. Please find a copy of this letter enclosed. If you decide to go to Columbus, that is all right. Everything should be done very amicably. I see that in The Peace Formula pamphlet that there is advertisement for TLC and Bhagavad-gita, but there is no mention of Srimad-Bhagavatam. I think that in the future this also may be advertised. What about MacMillan Co.?Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: I have shown the new BTG to Mukunda, and he has very much appreciated the nice lay-out work of Candanacarya.enclosures: one carbon of letter to HayagrivaPlease let me know if all the books "True Conception of Religion" sent by Syamasundara Brahmacari are all sold and if we owe some money still due to him? ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** November 15th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter dated November 11, 1969, but the check which you say is enclosed is not found. The best thing will be that when you want to pay me you can ask your bank to transfer the amount to my account at the First National City Bank, #0420160131. When you want some money from me, I will do the same. So there will be no difficulty. Please find out why the check is missing. Regarding your request for your deliverance from the clutches of Maya, please rest assured of being delivered, because we have captured the strong chain of disciplic succession. This chain is coming down from the highest platform, Krishna. Just like a rope comes down the well so that anyone who may catch the rope from any position is sure to be delivered; so our aim should be to not give up the rope. We must capture the rope very tightly. Then our deliverance is assured. so far as I am concerned, in relationship with my disciples who are so kindly cooperating with me in the matter of my rendering service to my Spiritual Master, for them I am always ready to come back from Goloka Vrindaban, if they are not delivered along with me. So don't be worried about the clutches of Maya. Be fixed up in your determination and go on serving the Supreme Lord, Krishna, with determination as you are already doing. It is very nice to learn that both you and Satsvarupa have highly praised Tamala Krishna. Similarly, Tamala Krishna has also highly praised you and Satsvarupa. This attitude should be maintained amongst your Godbrothers. That will elevate us more and more to the top of devotional service. This is called Vaikuntha attitude. In the Vaikuntha factually there is no fault in anyone, but there is another type of competition. The competition is that one devotee thinks of other devotees how nicely they are serving the Lord. In the material world the attitude is that everyone likes to think that I am doing better than others. This is material conception. In the Spiritual Sky it is just the opposite: Everyone thinks that my contemporary devotees are doing better than me. We are trained to address Godbrothers as Prabhu, which means Master. This means we shall try to find out always the serving side of our Godbrothers. Sometimes there are misgivings, but that we should try to overlook. One of my big God-[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** November 25th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 21, 1969 and noted the contents. The dummy BTG #30 Special Rathayatra Issue is very, very nice. Regarding the printing order, I think henceforward you should publish 50,000 at least and they may be distributed as follows: 20,000 to the East Coast, 10,000 to the West Coast, and 20,000 to the others (Middle States and other countries). The idea is that BTG is our backbone of Krishna Consciousness propaganda, and since you have taken charge from Rayarama's hand, certainly it has improved in so many ways. Recently I have received one letter from Rayarama which he has signed his name to as "Raymond". That means he has drifted from our society completely and his letter is very discouraging. He has accused everyone save himself. So I do not know what can be done with him. In the Bhagavad-gita we understand from the 16th Chapter that when a living entity becomes envious of Krishna, he is put into the darkest region of material existence, exactly in the same way as when a citizen is disobedient, lawbreaker, he is put into the prison cells. So this is nature's way beginning from Krishna, and one has to undergo such stringent regulative principles of material nature in such disobedient position. So I have not replied that letter; I have got it in the file. When I return to Boston, if you like, you can see it. Regarding press management, I have already informed Advaita that you should immediately form a press committee composed of yourself, Satsvarupa, Advaita, etc. and manage things carefully and nicely. When we have got our press, we must properly use it, always praying for Krishna's Grace. I do not think Satsvarupa can be overburdened with any further work. He is working outside, editing also, and looking after other business. But combinedly you can do very nicely. Also, the New York center must be entirely under your vigilance. I thank you very much for your check. I have sent today by registered post the passbook and signed papers to Great Jones Street Branch for transferring my a/c from Grand Street. Next time you can simply advise ISKCON a/c to transfer to my a/c. Prior to receiving this letter, I received one letter[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** December 2nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated November 26, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. Regarding Japan, for the time being let only one man go. If they require more men later on, we shall consider. To send a man is a very expensive job. The principle is that they should recruit men locally. Forty years ago when Bon Maharaja, my Godbrother, came here, he complained of getting some manpower from India. That is not a good policy that for preaching work one has to get men from another country. One has to create manpower from the local environment. That is success of preaching. I am very pleased that Jayadvaita Brahmacari will be going to Boston soon for typing BTG and our books. He is the first class typist in our society so far I have heard, so he can create so many assistants. In the meantime I have also asked Pradyumna and his wife to go there. I understand that you have spoken to him on the telephone. Regarding the Bhakti-sastri certificates, the papers have been marked, but the certificates were not taken due to our minimizing the luggage to Europe. Therefore, if there is urgent need of the certificates immediately, you can look in the trunk left in New York and send here the certificate which we will have printed here. Otherwise, we shall take care of this business when I return to the States, most likely around December 20th. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. From 14th to 21st December the installation of Deity 42" high will take place. Invitation will be issued duly ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** December 10th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated December 4, 1969 and December 6, 1969. So far as transferring $1,400 to the account of ISKCON, I have done it immediately. The copy of the advice to the bank is enclosed. Please note down my account number there which is now transferred to the same branch on Broadway. So when convenient you also transfer in the same way so there will be no difficulty of exchanging money. Regarding the Franklin and Marshall College, as you have desired that it is a wonderful opportunity for me, so that I may be able to write in seclusion while my elderly students may manage the society affairs, that is a very welcome suggestion. So you can accept the proposal immediately. Besides that, I see that Professor Thomas J. Hopkins and the students of the college are very much eager to hear from me, so I must fulfill their eager desire, even there is some inconvenience. But I hope if I get a nice apartment with heating arrangement, there will be no inconvenience. I am also pleased to note that they are going to purchase my books, 30-35 sets. That is a great boon for us. If we can introduce our books in these colleges and universities, it will be great prestige for the society and myself also personally. So let us do this business as an experiment. Another thing, I have received a great complaint against the United Shipping Corporation regarding supplying goods to our Hawaii branch. So pending inquiry, you should not forward any order to them, and if you have got any money due from them, you should try to adjust by taking goods from them immediately. Regarding BTG, I am so glad that you are printing 50,000 copies henceforward. I have received also your press management report, so the only thing to be amended there is that all books especially must be twiced edited, once by Satsvarupa and once by Hayagriva. In every publication house all printing matters are edited at least three times. So we should be very much careful about grammatical and printing mistakes. That will mar the prestige of the press and the institution. In your previous letter you told me that Mr. C.L. Jaipuria visited our temple and he paid $10 as contribution and you also presented him with one TLC. Since then, did you write any letter to this gentleman? I know this gentleman has a charitable disposition of mind, and he can help us in so many ways. Try to keep in touch with him by sending magazines and writing letters. He may be able to supply us many things from India, especially Deities. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** March 23rd 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco > New York My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. Regarding the United Shipping Corporation, I have sent them the necessary 4 copies of invoice and certificate, and asked them to send one statement of account for our $500. In future, I think we have to select very nice shipping agent, because we have undergone so much botheration this time. Please send one complete list of goods received. I am enclosing herewith one letter from Pradyumna, and you can let me know what is to be done for his hospital charges. We are increasing our expansion, but we have to take account of these emergencies. I have already written you about taking steps for protecting our boys from the draft board; now, when we live together, somebody may fall ill. Now, find some future main source of income for our institution, and main source is publications. So if we can organize a good sales organization, that is our main hope. Besides that, if the Sankirtana party is nicely organized, we can have demonstration for public. I do not know how far we shall be successful, but we must find out a source of our income. At the present moment, some of the boys are working and practically it is going on under their working strength. Anyway, please think over what is to be done with Pradyumna. I have written also to Hansadutta about the Sankirtana party, and I think our books, paintings, and the Sankirtana party can give us enormous help if we can organize it very nicely. I want therefore a permanent residential quarter at New York, so that my personal supervision of these things may go on. For the present, I would like to stay in my apartment at 26 Second Avenue, if cooking for the Temple can be arranged elsewhere. If it is silent and solitary, I feel pleasure to live there, better than elsewhere. I shall prepare to start for N.Y. sometimes by the 10th-15th of April. I think by that time the atmosphere in N.Y. will be warm, and I will feel comfortable. So far Teachings of Lord Caitanya is concerned, everything has been very encouraging, and hopefully by the Grace of Lord Caitanya, it will come out very nicely presented. Govinda dasi has sent the cover picture today by special delivery, and other 5 pictures will be sent later on. For the cover of the book, I think gold paper will be very nice, with the lettering and drawing printed in black ink. Nice gold paper must be available in Japan very cheaply, and they may send us some samples. They can set the type for the title on the cover, and you may give them some suggestion, and maybe see their samples. So far inking of the lettering and drawing, no colored ink, it is not very nice. Please do it all very nicely, as you have done so nice service for my books' publication. Hope you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** January 9th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 4, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. One thing that I beg to bring to your notice about the printing of my books. In 1954, I left my home, and for 5 years I lived as Vanaprastha here and there, and then in 1959 I took sannyasa. Of course even when I was a householder I was publishing Back To Godhead since 1947. But then my Spiritual Master dictated that I should take to writing books which will be a permanent affair. So after my acceptance of sannyasa I began working on Srimad-Bhagavatam and when the first canto was finished, with great difficulty I published the first volume in 1962, after leaving my home and after taking sannyasa and spending whatever cash money I had with me during the five years of my staying alone. Practically in 1960 I was penniless. Therefore I had to quickly take to publication of the first volume and after this I got some money just enough to pull on. In this way I published the 2nd volume in 1963 and the 3rd volume in 1965. Then I began to think of coming to your country, and somehow or other I was brought here. Now since I have come I am unable to publish the 4th volume of Srimad-Bhagavatam, but with your help and assistance, since 1965 this one book only has been published, and I do not know what this Dai Nippon Company is doing. Anyway, I am very much anxious for getting my books published. The manuscripts which I presently have may be converted into eight different books of the same size which I generally publish, (400 pages). But I do not know how I will get them published. Last year when I was in India, I thought that Acyutananda would publish them in India but this boy could not help me in the least, and the net result is that I have lost my typewriter, and Rs 2000 are now in the dark well of Hitsaran. Acyutananda was sent about Rs 1000 plus he has collected a similar amount from the Dalmia Trust Fund. All of this has been lost for nothing. Whatever is done is done. I am now very much serious about printing my books. There may be three sources for their printing. One source is that if the MacMillan Company is interested to publish my books that will be a great relief. I do not mind for the profit concerned. But I want to see them published. Another source is if MacMillan isn't interested, we can get them printed from Dai Nippon, but the delaying procedure of this company in Japan is not very encouraging. Therefore the next step would be to start our own press at New Vrindaban, because Hayagriva is ready to start a press there immediately, taking responsibility for the investment. He has told me that he could take a loan from his friend, Dr. Henderson. In this connection of purchasing a press I sent a list to be filled by the press men of New York telling of the prices of printing machines but there is no response. So I ask you what to do in this connection. Ultimately, if nothing is done, I shall be obliged to return to India for getting them published there. I hope that by now you have already deposited the $1,300 in First National City Bank. So far as the profits from the store, you may do with them as you like. The temple needs maintenance and improvements, and also the book fund requires much funds. I require to have eight books published and on the price of $6,000 which is charged by Dai Nippon, I will require about $50,000 immediately. Selling or not selling, I want to see these books published. That is my ambition. Regarding keeping my apartment, if you win the court case then keep this apartment until April when I shall arrive in New York, and then we shall decide whether or not to give it up. So far as placing the Radha-Krishna and Lord Jagannatha deities in special order to one another, there is no set ruling. Simply make the altar look very attractive. As for the address in India which I would like one copy of Teachings of Lord Caitanya to be sent, I shall send it after confirmation that the books are completed. I hope that you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. So far United Shipping Corporation is concerned, please let me know if their previous accounts are cleared off nicely. If their dealings are alright you can order them regularly & may open letter of credit. ACB ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of January 14, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. In my previous letter to you I inquired about the invoice sent by United Shipping Corp., but I have received no information about this from you. Please inform me in this connection in your next letter. I want to know whether the ________ from them $250.00?Regarding Nara Narayana, I never advised him to organize a Sankirtana Party in New York. From the very beginning he was entrusted to cast Radha-Krishna murtis in brass. He tried it in so many ways but it was not practical. So at the present moment he is engaged there in preparing a dias and decorations for the temple. That should be his business. Next, if it is possible, let him cast some plaster of Paris Radha-Krishna murtis of the size you have got in the New York temple. If not, he may go for a few days to New Vrindaban and make schemes and plans for residential quarters and press accommodations, etc. If possible, Advaita may also go with him for a few days. In this connection correspondence may be opened with Hayagriva and Kirtanananda. Regarding the press, as Advaita wants a little more time, so we should wait still for a few months more until he is confident to take the responsibility. Regarding the place for situating the press, in my opinion New Vrindaban is the best place. But I have no objection if it is started in any other place. But all circumstances and conditions must be taken into consideration before a final decision is made where to start the press. In New Vrindaban it is simply a question of providing a suitable place. I think that if we spend $1,000.00 for this purpose a very nice accommodation can be constructed there for locating our press. Whereas if we start in some city like New York or Los Angeles, for such accommodation we have to pay not less than $500 rent per month. So by spending two months rent we can have our own place with facility for further expansion. So these things have to be considered. There is now ample time, at least four months, so we should carefully think over these things. I have seen the lotus sign with the word Iskcon on it, and I think that it is not acceptable. This is because one does not know where to start reading the letters. If you like to make a lotus flower for this, I have enclosed one picture which I have drawn and which you may consider. But Radha-Krishna must also appear on this letterhead. Regarding the house in North Carolina, if Patita Uddharana's mother gives us permission to stay in this house for three months without any rent, then we can make an experiment. If this experiment is successful we can continue, otherwise we shall vacate the house. But also we must find a suitable person to go there. If she agrees, we can begin to make arrangements. Our publication project is to finish Srimad-Bhagavatam. If we publish one volume for one canto, still it will not be less than 12 volumes. Besides this we have Nectar of Devotion and two or three more books. This means all together another fourteen of fifteen volumes at utmost. Of course this will take time, but it is our ambition. If the MacMillan Company is interested, they can immediately publish at least one volume of Srimad-Bhagavatam to make an experiment. They can either print the second canto in one volume, or the first canto may be edited by Hayagriva into one volume. So if they like, we can immediately hand over to them these manuscripts. You are correct in your estimation that Dai Nippon is not to be blamed. It is our blame. In future we shall be careful and take into writing how much time they will take for each volume. When you print from Dai Nippon, the size of the books will be the same as Teachings of Lord Caitanya, but the pages will be from 350 to 400 pages. So you can try to fix up the time. Formerly they agreed to fix up their price at $5000. So immediately you make an understanding with them that just after receipt of Teachings of Lord Caitanya we will submit a manuscript of some other book. So both MacMillan and Dai Nippon should be utilized in this way, and as soon as we have our own press we shall divert our activities in this direction. I think this arrangement will be nice. I have seen your circular about the mailing list and it is very nice. I have already asked Tamala Krishna to take the addresses of persons who are purchasing our Back To Godhead magazine. This idea is very nice. Regarding Gargamuni's touring trip, he can take whomever he likes. If he finds somebody disturbing, this person need not be taken. But Gargamuni should not go alone—somebody must accompany him. Bali Mardan has written to me to suggest that he begin working immediately to raise money for the book fund, but I think that first he may finish his schooling and then immediately begin working to raise money for our books. Please keep me informed on the above points. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** January 30th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. First of all I have to thank you for the desk pen with golden glories to Guru and Gauranga. It is so nice that I am using it with great pleasure, and you have the blessings of my Guru Maharaja and Lord Gauranga. Regarding the United Shipping Corporation, you had sent me some documents which I actually do not understand. Why did you send them to me? Anyway, I am returning them to you so you may do the needful with them. In the meantime, I have sent one letter to a gentleman of the United Shipping Corporation, and you will see one copy of the letter enclosed. If they deal very nicely, you may assure them we shall send more orders to our different centers, and there will be no difficulty for a letter of credit. But they must deal with us very nicely and straightforwardly so our business connection can continue with no difficulty. Our propaganda should be focused on spreading kirtana and distributing literature, books and magazines. The process experienced now is that after holding kirtana, they are selling magazines and books successfully. On January 1st, Hayagriva held one meeting in Columbia University with 60-65 students present, and after the meeting, 30 copies of Bhagavad-gita were immediately sold. So we should now organize in such a way that there shall be nice kirtana and attempt for selling our publications. My Guru Maharaja indicated that the mrdanga and the press are the mediums of our missionary propaganda activities, and we shall follow His path in the same way. We must have large quantities of mrdangas for vibrating in different parts of the world and we must distribute our literature also. I have received one letter from Hayagriva saying that he is prepared to invest money for a press, and he has found out a nice two-story house adjacent to our New Vrindaban colony, and the house is on the roadside. The rent is only $260 per year. That is about $22 per month. So in this way we can immediately start our press. I think that our publications should be done ourselves immediately, because neither MacMillan Company nor Dai Nippon can help us rightly. If MacMillan Company publishes our books, they will ask us to make contract for purchasing 5000 copies, which I cannot advise as good plan for us. If we have to exert our energy for selling 5000 books published by MacMillan, why not publish them ourselves on our own press and obtain profit for printing new books? The best thing will be therefore to organize sales of our books as other publishers are doing. The simple and approved method is to appoint at least 1000 stores and booksellers who agree to purchase at least three copies apiece of our books as soon as they are published. This means that if we have 1000 dealers, we can immediately sell 3000 copies, and this will give us sustenance for conducting our publication activities. I do not think it is a very difficult task to appoint such selling agents throughout the country. So yourself and Gargamuni should take charge of this organization, and for press management others shall take charge. In this way, if we can work on our publications, all of our poverty shall immediately be subdued. So think over this matter seriously. Immediately consult with Hayagriva for starting the press. Let us not bother about the Macmillan Company, because they will only try to make conditions that we have to purchase 5000 copies. Regarding Bhagavad-gitas which we have already received from them, I understand that we have to pay one mature bill on February 10th. So this bill we have to pay to keep our credit, whether the books are sold or not. But we should not place a second order until our present stock of books are finished. If you are in need of hard covered editions, try to order them without taking more soft covered copies which can not immediately sell. We have prepared to take delivery from them of 5000 copies, and this we shall do. But we shall order only as our stock is finished. Regarding the second shipping from United Shipping Corp., you should have it sent also to New York. Firstly you may see the kholes before ordering the preferred instrument. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. The Press cutting sent by you is very nice. Every other organization has demand for money for their bogus classes but we don't demand any money. People should know this difference. I can challenge to all the other organizations that they are all bogus from spiritual point of view. I am admitted as Permanent Resident as "Ordained Minister of Religion". I have duly received the card. Now you shall pay me $500.00 for this because you were going to appoint some lawyer at the cost but I have obtained it simply by spending $35.00 or utmost $50.00. So you can pay me the balance. ACB ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** February 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your kind letter dated February 1, 1969, and, in the meantime, my letters to you dated January 30, 1969 and February 1, 1969 respectively might have crossed. Most of the answers of your letter under reply will be found in these two letters. Please let me know if you have received them by now. If not, I will send you the carbon copies. So far as your letters are concerned, each and every one of them will be particularly answered, so there is no question of passing over your inquiries. Feelings of love are reciprocal, especially on the spiritual platform. I know what is your feelings about me, and in the same way I am always dependent on your kind affection. Regarding printing at Dai Nippon, we have got to print so many books for which manuscripts are ready. So, pending the decision of starting our own press or having MacMillan print the Srimad-Bhagavatam, immediately we may begin printing of our books from Dai Nippon. If they agree to print 5,000 copies of 400 pages at their agreed rate of $5,000 that is good. So far the sample of print, the binding, and the size of the book is concerned, that is now all settled. The only thing is they must give us a definite date of delivery of printed books, and they must agree to the formerly stipulated price. If there is no question of delay we can immediately hand over the manuscript either of the second canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam or Nectar of Devotion. If MacMillan Company is interested in Srimad-Bhagavatam, then negotiate the transaction, and by the 15th of March we can deliver them the complete revised version of the 1st canto. So far as I understand, they will print the first canto to see the result. In case they agree to continue printing of Srimad-Bhagavatam, then we shall stop printing at Dai Nippon, and MacMillan will be handed over the charge for all other cantos. If their experiment on the 1st canto does not become successful, then let us go on printing all other cantos as usual. This is my decision, and you can arrange accordingly. So far as Back To Godhead is concerned, Purusottama has appointed one selling agent in Los Angeles who has agreed to take 400 copies per month. There are at least 300 big cities in your country, and if we can appoint one selling agent only in each city, consuming an average of 100 copies only, the total quantity comes to 30,000 copies. This is not an Utopian idea. It is completely practical. Simply we have to arrange and organize. To distribute 100 copies in a big city like Los Angeles, New York, or San Francisco is not at all difficult. Simply it requires the talent of organization. So expecting on this calculation that in the near future we shall be able to distribute at least 30,000 copies of Back To Godhead, you can immediately take quotation from Dai Nippon for regular 20,000 copies minimum per month. If their quotation is suitable, we will immediately take the risk and print 20,000 copies per month. Regarding advertisements in Back To Godhead, I am not at all in favor of it. I was obliged to suggest you take advertisements because the magazine was not coming regularly due to lack of funds, but practically I see the magazine is not improving by accepting these advertisements. So in the future, say after the next issue, we shall stop taking advertisements because it is not satisfactory. If we print, however, 20,000 copies, we can accept one page of advertisements, fixing up our rate at not less than $100 per page. And this advertisement also must be to our scrutinization. We cannot accept advertisement from anyone and everyone, rather it will be our motto to avoid advertisements. So far as I know, in India, the Kalyana Kalpataru paper edited by Hanuman Prasad Poddar, does not accept any advertisements. Nor do they review any nonsense book published by others, and they have got respectable position. Similarly we have to create a respectable position for our Back To Godhead. Actually, it is the only single paper of its nature, describing the science of God in full detail, published in the western world. Our Vaisnava religion is so vast that we can supply millions of pictures and hundreds and thousands of literary contributions in this paper. In Christian religion they have got pictures like the Crucifixion and a few similar others. In the Buddhist religion they have got the picture of the Lord Buddha. In Mohammedan religion they have got picture of Mecca Medina, and I do not know what is the picture in the Jewish religion. But so far as our Krishna Consciousness is concerned, we can supply millions of pictures of Krishna, Visnu, and Their multi-incarnations, as well as Their transcendental Pastimes. So we have to create a unique position for this paper, at least in the western world. Anyway, that will depend upon our future capacity, but for the time present we can immediately take quotation from Dai Nippon what they will charge us for 20,000 copies every month. Now I have given my definite opinion about printing my books at Dai Nippon and printing Back To Godhead, so you can do the needful. Regarding my teaching in different universities, you will be pleased to know that recently I got one letter from Cultural Integration Fellowship President, Dr. Haridasa Chaudhuri. He has appreciated my book, and he remarks as follows: "The book is without doubt the best presentation so far to the western public of the teachings of Lord Krishna from the standpoint of Vaisnava tradition and devotional Hindu mysticism." So actually this is the correct position of our Krishna Consciousness movement. There are religious classes held in almost every university of your country, and they are eager also to study different kinds of religions. So far as Bhagavad-gita is concerned, there is no doubt about it that I am the only authority in your country in this matter. Nobody can speak on the Bhagavad-gita so authoritatively as I can do. That is a fact. So if the university wants to take advantage of this opportunity, even in this old age I can go from one university to another, and I am sure they can learn from me only the true teachings of the Bhagavad-gita; from me and from my students who are already trained up in this connection. So, if something can be done in this connection, it will help our missionary propaganda, and the students shall get new light from our book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is.So, I am so much obliged to you that you are trying to get my books published somehow or other. I can simply pray to Krishna for your long life and valuable service to Krishna. Thanking you once more for your letter. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I understand that you are anxious to get me in New York. So if you like I can go immediately as I have no serious engagement now in the western part of your country ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** February 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your two letters, one of February 2, and one of February 3, 1969. Enclosed is one letter to Nara Narayana which will serve as answer to the letter of February 2nd. I am also enclosing a letter I have sent today to the First National City Bank of New York, and you will please note the contents. Regarding your questions about Dai Nippon, United Shipping, etc. these have already been replied to in my letter to you of February 5, 1969, and I hope you have received this letter by now. I hope that you have by now found out the address of the boys in Florida whose letter I have sent to you to be forwarded on to them. Also, as you have already been informed by telephone, Dai Nippon should send by the 20th of February, 1969, two demo copies of the Teachings of Lord Caitanya title jacket to the following address: Y. Jagannatham, 81 Navrang, 8th Floor, Peddar Road, Bombay-26, INDIA.* I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: The title cover of Teachings of Lord Caitanya which you have sent to me is very nice. I hope that you have already taken care of the one typographical error on the inside flap, but otherwise, it is completely satisfactory.*On hearing from you about this I shall write him letter ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** February 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated February 9, and February 10, 1969, as well as today I have received the article which was written by Howard Smith. Regarding the books, True Conception of Religion and Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, for True Conception you may send 40 cents per copy to S. Brahmacari, and you may send $2.55 per copy to Swami Bon. As we are printing Nectar of Devotion, this is the summary study of Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, there is no need of further ordering this book from India. Regarding Back To Godhead, if Dai Nippon will come down to $1,500 for 20,000 copies, or even if they charge a little more, we should immediately accept, setting the magazine at first at 32 pages, one only color cover picture as in issue number 22, and three black and white pictures within, and no advertisements. It should all be reading matter of Krishna Consciousness articles. I am negotiating with the principle centers for consuming 5,000 copies at least and paying $750 contribution no matter if the copies are sold or not. The price should be 50 cents, and the paper's quality may be as it is now. In that way set up negotiations so that from number 25, we may be able to print from Dai Nippon, and they have to deliver 10,000 copies to Los Angeles or San Francisco, 5,000 to New York and 5,000 to London. These four centers may distribute the issues to the smaller centers as they are able. I have seen the article in the Village Voice, and it is nice. If you are expecting good rush in New Vrindaban, then arrange for proper development of it. But pending all development there, we must get our books and magazines printed from Dai Nippon. Have you negotiated with Dai Nippon about further books? If they agree, we can immediately arrange to print 2 or 3 books by some arrangement. Please immediately send me dried mango. It is my daily food, and it keeps me fit. So you should regularly send the same quantity every month as you sent last time. That is your personal contribution to me. So you and Gargamuni take charge of distributing the books, and you study other methods of how to do this. If distribution of my books is fixed up then my life is fixed up in your country for the remaining days of my present body. Please therefore do it seriously. I am pleased that you are willing to take charge of the printing of my books. Krishna has desired like that, so you try to execute this implicit order of Krishna. Actually, by your grace, these two publications are already in the light, so your service in this connection is approved by Krishna and naturally by me also. So you try in this line. I am sure you will be successful, assisted by your good brother, Gargamuni. It is good that you are contacting distributers. You should offer them the best terms. Please send to me the address of Satyavrata (Stanley Moskowitz). I would like to send to him one copy of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Regarding your need for a typist. Try to find out somebody to help you for now. If need be, when I go to New York in April I shall arrange for someone to type for you. Regarding the departments not contributing to the temple, this is not very satisfactory situation. The method of contributing should be those who are not married should contribute all their income to the temple. Those who are married should contribute 50%. That should be the principle of contribution of the members and followers of the Krishna Consciousness movement. So if there are problems in this matter, discuss it in the board meetings. If such things are not settled there, then what is the meaning of this board of trustees? The local management of affairs must be decided by the board, and that decision should be final. Regarding MacMillan's bill, whatever you have collected immediately send to them. For the bill which I have, I will send it sometimes this week. I have received checks from Boston for $25 and from Buffalo for $69. So I will send these too, but why are the centers sending this money to me? Please advise them all to send them directly to you so there needn't be this botheration from this end. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees at the New York temple. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** February 27th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 25, 1969, and I thank you very much for it. You have written to say that you are my disobedient son, but I think I am your disturbing father. I am putting more and more burden upon you but you are so tolerant that you have no hesitation to accept my demands even although sometimes they are unreasonable. So practically you are acting as my father. In my childhood I was very naughty boy, and I used to catch my father in so many ways demanding unreasonable things, and my father used to satisfy me. So although I lost my father in 1930, about 40 years ago, by Krishna's Grace I have got so many American young fathers. But the same nature continues, and I am demanding from my fathers the same thing which may be a little burdensome. But I am sure Krishna will be very much pleased if you will kindly tolerate some unreasonable demands from me. I thank you very much for your giving me your pledge that you will give me $750 per month for 5,000 copies of Back To Godhead. Similar assurance I have got from the other centers. So by calculation I shall be able to collect $3,000 per month of which $2,000 or less, as you may arrange, will be paid for the price of printing, and the balance will be spent for free distribution of copies to institutions, schools, colleges, universities, libraries, and respectable individual persons. I understand that for posting magazines in large scale the rate is 3 cents or 4 cents, so I have advised Subala to take definite information in this connection for posting Back To Godhead in large scale. I quite agree with your proposal that for small centers like Montreal, Buffalo, etc. as stated by you the New York center will be the distributer; this is nice. Regarding your kirtana success in Pennsylvania at Dickenson College and Franklin and Marshall, it is so much pleasing to me. This is the way of our preaching work. Please try to infuse this Krishna Consciousness idea amongst the student community and it will be a great success. On the whole, we shall now make it a point to spread this Sankirtana movement and distribute our publications. I am anxious to know if you have received the newly dispatched kholes from India because it was due to arrive before February 4th. Is this dock strike still going on? In London there is a good demand for Back To Godhead, and if the dock strike is still going on, you can send them by air cargo shipment. Similarly, Gaurasundara and Krishna das are also in need of books. Kindly see that the supplies are made regularly. When you send news of successful kirtana performances as I received it from London also, and so also I experience personally in Los Angeles, I am overwhelmed with spiritual joy. We don't mind for selling our literature in small quantity, but there must be some sale. Regarding our record, it was manufactured by Mr. Kallman, and he has not paid me a single farthing as royalties. He has cheated me in so many ways, so if there is no legal impediment we must immediately reprint the record through Dinesh. I have already advised him in this connection. Regarding your endeavor to arrange my teaching in colleges, it is very, very welcome. I was just seeking this opportunity to teaching boys and girls in the schools, colleges and universities. So if such opportunities are available you must capture them without any fail. I have already sent you one check being the value of the books as well as the money I have received from Boston and Buffalo, namely $69 and $25. So if it is not the price of the books then you can take it out and deposit it in my account in the First National City Bank. Regarding my apartment, if you are feeling botheration then you can vacate. Do not take unnecessary botherations. Try to become free from all this material anxiety. Of course, sometimes we have to accept anxiety for Krishna, but we should do everything comfortably. So you will kindly send me at least two letters in a week because I am always anxious to hear from you. May Krishna's blessings be bestowed upon you for your long life and service. Thanking you once more. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** February 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 26, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Regarding the distribution of Teachings of Lord Caitanya, the principle will be that 60% will go to the book fund, and the rest will go to you as the distributer. So you may offer to the temples whatever is suitable. But you will be the sole distributer and the book fund will get 60%.Regarding the Back To Godhead scheme, the idea is that you pay $750 and receive 5,000 copies. Now you distribute this as you like. If you sell for 50 cents per copy, then it comes to $2,500, but I do not think it will be possible to sell them all at 50 cents retail price. So you appoint stores to sell copies, and you will get 30 cents per copy for these without fail. You are purchasing for 15 cents so even selling wholesale you make profit of 15 cents. If you sell 3,500 copies at wholesale price, then the intake is $1,050. If you are not able to sell all of the copies, then still you should have an income profit of at least $500, selling at wholesale price. If you make more profit you should do so, and I have no objection. But whatever you sell after the 1,500 copies sold retail is profit for your temple. What ever balance has not been sold will be distributed free, and you should apply for concession rates at the Post Office. In Los Angeles, we have already applied, and the postal charge will be about 3 cents or 4 cents per issue. So as far as I am concerned, I shall collect about $3,000 monthly. Out of this, $2,000 is to be paid to Dai Nippon, and I will keep $1000. Out of this amount, the postal charges will take about $300-400, and the balance $600 I shall spend for developing of the press department. So from Back To Godhead I don't want anything for my book fund. I simply want my books to be nicely distributed. As for someone to help you distribute books on the West Coast, I understand that Jayananda has volunteered for this assignment, and you can decide who you will like. So far as the list of distributers you have sent to Purusottama, they have been contacted, and they are waiting to see the first printed copies before any decision is discussed. But Purusottama will travel with me. That is certain. For the time being, I am going to Hawaii, and there is no sufficient place for him there. Therefore I am going alone. If there is a separate apartment available, then I shall call him there also. Otherwise, I shall come back within one month to Los Angeles, and then I shall go to New York, so you can make arrangements accordingly. This is my present program. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: You may send future mail to Hawaii center. P.S. I shall be glad to hear from you if my idea of distribution is appropriate. I am going to Hawaii on Monday at 10:45 A.M. Kindly send the dry mango as usual to Hawaii temple address ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** March 10th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of March 5, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. The letter heading is very nicely set up but the color black is not so attractive. It should have been two colors as you suggested, namely violet and black. I am pleased that you are going to have two color set up next printing. I thank you very much for your nice sentiments so expressed in this letter; that I am not unreasonable—rather you have taken the responsibility on your part. Actually we are all conditioned souls so our demand from Krishna to accept us is unreasonable. From my personal point of view, I think that I am so sinful that I cannot even approach Krishna to show me any favor. But I have only one hope—my Spiritual Master—He is very kind. So someway or other He is dragging me towards Krishna. That is the only hope. Sri Caitanya Caritamrta says therefore: Guru Krishna. By the mercy of the Spiritual Master, and by the mercy of Krishna, one gets into Krishna Consciousness. Narada Muni is our original Spiritual Master and he has dragged so many fallen souls towards Krishna, and we are also hoping to be dragged by Him through the disciplic succession. Otherwise, if we study our own qualifications, there is none—rather I have got so many disqualifications. Regarding United Shipping Corporation, I think our former accounts for $250 due from them is by this time squared up by supply of goods, etc. I have separately ordered one small consignment for Los Angeles, and let me see how they supply. Next order will follow from Hawaii. The shipping arrangement to the Western coast should be more carefully done. Regarding Teachings of Lord Caitanya distribution, it is a fact that you are the sole distributer. But now that you have already instructed Dai Nippon to dispatch two separate consignments, I think that if you now change the decision, it will again be perturbing for them and things may be delayed. Better not to give them any adverse instruction at this late hour. But you can send your bill to Purusottama in Los Angeles for the L.A. consignment. The bill should be paid to you . That will save you botheration from distributing again from New York. In other words, as soon as the bill is submitted by you, it means that it has been dispatched from your stock. Regarding distribution of Back To Godhead in India by the Universal Book Distributers: I have read the letter sent by them and I do not think it is very practical. I am returning herewith the letter as desired by you for keeping in your file, and you can reply them on the following points:1. That you submit us every month a list of 1000 libraries. We shall dispatch free copies from here directly, and we shall print your name as the sole distributer in India, provided:2. When you receive orders or inquiries from such parties, you immediately order from us at least 500 copies lot and we shall deliver you C.I.F. less 40% on the face value. The present face value is $.50 per copy. Payment: cash on delivery. On receipt of your confirmation, we shall send you the appointment letter and the business will begin.3. You shall send us regularly 1000 new addresses every month, and we shall post copies to them from this end. In this way, you can write to them. Another thing, the Library of Congress has got one agency in India, and they have recognized my Srimad-Bhagavatam, you know it. And they have open order for 18 copies of each volume as soon as published. Why not bring this fact to the Librarian of Congress, and introduce my other books, including Bhagavad-gita, TLC, etc.? And there are so many public libraries, and university libraries also, who may receive them. So, business has to be organized and I hope you will do the needful. Regarding Back To Godhead circulation: I shall be glad to know what is the decision of the National Distributer. Whether you have received any reply from the Japanese printer about BTG.I wish to go to New York by the first week of April, because after finishing in N.Y., I shall have to go to Boston. And when I come back from Boston by the middle of May, then we go to New Vrindaban, and if possible we make arrangements for starting the press. In the meantime, the press men, and managers and every one should be ready. If the press can manage to print 20 to 25,000 of BTG, and 5000 copies each of my books, I think that will be sufficient engagement for the newly started press. Please convey my blessings to everyone there, and I hope you are all well and happy. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I may go to San Francisco from Hawaii and from there I shall go to New York, otherwise, you will have to arrange for my ticket from Hawaii to N.Y., a very long distance. I have received one enquiry from __ __ ___ letter and copy of my reply and endorsed herewith. Please do the needful. ACBI have received the Mango pulp dry for which thank you. Please send it at regular interval because I eat it daily with my lunch ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** March 19th 1969 — **Location:** The Macmillan Company > A SUBSIDIARY OF CROWELL COLLIER AND MACMILLAN, INC., 866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022Mr. Bruce Scharf International Society For Krishna Consciousness Inc.61 Second Avenue New York, N.Y.LT_690319_E1 Dear Bruce: Shortly before his tragic and recent death Father Merton asked us to assign copyright for his “appreciation” to him in order to clear the way for a possible and future edition of his uniform collected works and essays. We promised to do so. I would appreciate it very much if you would have Swami sign both assignment copies, with you as witness, and return them to us. This does not detract in any substantial way from the Swami’s copyright and is, I think, a generous gesture made to the memory of Thomas Merton. Cordially, James O. WadeEditorJOW/pwEnc. Cc: Mrs. Carlton, Contracts.(Forwarded to Brahmananda for necessary action. ACB) ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** March 19th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated March 15, 1969, with enclosures. Regarding L.A. consignment:* It has nothing to do with your business. I have already advised them to send their bill separately and the payment also will be made separately. It has nothing to do with your transaction. You just complete your transaction with them about balance money due from them. This is the idea. The application which you have sent for filling up appears to be little puzzling for me. So far I understand from the statement, I shall have to stay there in N.Y. but I do not know whether I shall be able to stay for such long time as 7 or 15 weeks. Therefore, I think the best thing will be if you take up this class—that will be nice—because you are residing there. Regarding MacMillan Company, if they have not replied your letter, then forget. We shall publish our own books. You organize the sales promotion. Neither I want to shorten the Srimad-Bhagavatam. We should not count on them—let us try for our own publications. I have received the dust cover of Teachings of Lord Caitanya, but I think the paper is not as polished, as shiny, as the first one was. Hoping you are well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *through the United Shipping Corporation. If Dai Nippon is not very definite about printing my books neither it is possible for being published by MacMillan Co., then the next alternative is to start our own Press. And you organize the sales. Enclosed one letter for __ Please hand it over to her. By the end of the month I shall go to S.F. & by the 7th of next month I shall go to N.Y ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** March 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of March 19, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Yes, you can accept the class on the 8th instant in the City College. I am going to S.F. on the 31st, so on receipt of your passage money, I shall start on the 7th April, reaching N.Y. sometimes in the evening. And I shall be glad to meet the people from the New College while I am there, as well as Seton Hall College. I would like $100 per lecture. So far BTG advertisement is concerned, we can accept advertisement in this way—that only two lines shall be mentioned of the name and address of the advertiser, as follows: This space donated by such and such. That means we can add their name and address only, and the nature of their business. The charges for this sort of advertisement should be inside $100 and when on the cover page, $200. In other words, if they are prepared to pay $200 per month, then we can publish one Krishna picture with these lines only (two lines), that this space is donated by such and such. Henceforward, we shall very much be cautious to accept bona fide advertisement, if we do accept it at all. Regarding Brijbasi printing our books: I do not think they can compete with the Japanese people, at least in the matter of make-up. Because I know there is only one or two presses in India who can actually do very nice work, and I do not expect any first class work at least for books, in the Brijbasi press. Besides that, from our past dealings with them it is our experience that they took too long to supply our pictures, more than a year. This means the management is not very efficient. I think therefore the proposal is not practical. If the Japanese people do not agree to print on our terms then the next step is to start our own press without any controversy. Yes, we must set up our society as a school as best we can—I have already sent you letter. Please formulate the whole curriculum because we have to immediately submit to the Draft department and if this is accepted that will be great gain for our society. "Bhakti-sastri" is awarded after extensive study of Bhagavad-gita, Easy Journey, and Nectar of Devotion. "Bhakti-vaibhava" is awarded after study of Vedanta-sutra and Srimad-Bhagavatam on a preliminary basis; and "Bhaktivedanta" the highest title, is awarded after extensive study of Caitanya-caritamrta. (TLC)[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** March 24th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I have already written to Purusottama about TLC consignment and probably you might have received letter from him by now. Regarding Dai Nippon negotiation, I never told you to stop such negotiation and I do not know why you should be disturbed by seeing my letter to Advaita. If Dai Nippon negotiation is successful you can make contract as you think best. My suggestion to Advaita was that in case of Dai Nippon negotiation not being successful, then we shall give attention for starting our own press. On the whole, if Dai Nippon agrees to our printing work, I have already written to you that is very nice, but in case they do not agree then we must consider our own press, as that is the only alternative. Regarding TLC consignment: It is understood that the stock sent to L.A. is a portion of your N.Y. stock—suppose the stock is all with you—simply forget that the stock has traveled to L.A.—now how would you want to handle it and distribute it? So think in this way. However you would handle it in N.Y., just simply do it in the same way—only for convenience sake, the stock is lying in L.A. You simply instruct L.A. how to handle and distribute it, and they will do. Have them take the books to a customer, and send you the bill, and the customer will pay you directly in N.Y. So you arrange the charges, and keep the accounts with you. So far the responsibility of the shipment is concerned, Jayananda and Tamala Krishna will take full responsibility jointly. I shall write to them in this connection, or send them a copy of this letter. I hope you are well; I am receiving many letters daily, therefore there was some delay in your letter reply last week. I shall meet with you on the 7th* of next month and we shall be able to discuss things at length, so do not be disturbed in the meantime. I hope all is going nicely there, and convey my blessings to all your God-brothers and God-sisters. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *Please consult with Dindayal and fix my program by mutual agreement ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** March 27th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. As there are so many engagements in L.A. and in S.F. now I fix up my program as follows: The meeting in City College instead of on the 8th, Tuesday, push it to the 10th, Thursday, and up to the 15th or 16th of April you can make other engagements if possible. On the 18th Rupanuga wants me there in Buffalo. He wants to stay me there until the 23rd, then I shall go to Boston. Then if necessary I may come back to New York from New Vrindaban, or we shall talk when we meet. In the meantime I have received one letter from Subala, in which it is stated that on receipt of the final press proof of BTG from Dai Nippon we shall have to arrange for a letter of credit. But this arrangement is not very palatable to me, because in the last transaction, TLC, we arranged for the credit note at the cost of about $200. In this way they charged $25, for transferring the money to Japan, and they might have charged again such $25, I do not know. And on $6000, with 5% interest for 4 months, it comes to $100. So in total we have lost nearly $200. So this letter of credit is not possible. But one thing can be done, that on receipt of the press proof, you can pay your share, nearly $750, and the balance that is $1350 will be paid on delivery of shipping documents. That I shall arrange. I shall be looking forward to seeing you all on the 9th of April, and hope you are all well and happy. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** April 1st 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated March 26, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the letter to the draft board, I would like that you boys may decide among yourselves what is to be done. When you have decided amongst yourselves, send it to me and I shall sign. I understand that Tamala Krishna has contacted a lawyer in Los Angeles, so you may contact Tamala Krishna to see what he has learned. Regarding my coming to New York next week, you may immediately send tickets from Los Angeles to New York for April 9, 1969. Murari will be coming to work as my attendant but as he already has a ticket, you need send tickets only for myself and for Purusottama. I hope this will meet you all in good health, and I shall be happy to see you once again when I arrive on the 9th. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: If Purusottama's ticket is to be student fare, then please send him one student card and identification ### Letter to Brahmananda **Date:** April 3rd 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 29, 1969, with enclosures. I am glad that you have received the consignment from Calcutta, and when I go to New York, I shall see what is the quality of the khole. Then if it is nice, we shall have to order many kholes like that. Your statement that my visit in New York for only eight days causes you sadness causes me sadness also. When Rupanuga wanted me in Buffalo, I did not directly confirm it, but I asked him to consult with you. So after his consultation, you have agreed to his proposal and should not be sad at all. But I know the cause of your sadness, that you want me for a longer time there in New York, and similarly, I also want to stay there for a long time because I like New York more than all other cities. This is because my first attempt was begun there, so I have got some affection for your great city. I think if possible you should also accompany me to Buffalo, and if possible, Rayarama may also come with me so that we can stay together at least up to April 22. If you like you can also come with me to Boston. This would be a very nice idea but I do not think your occupations will allow you to come with me and stay for a long time. But the proposal for me to come back to New York from Columbus is nice. I think I shall arrange like that. So there is no cause of becoming sad. Our meeting and separation in the material world is like the flowing tide of the river. During the flowing tide of the river, so many different floating articles meet together, and with the flowing, they again become separated by the movement of the waves. That is the way of the material life. But our separation, although it resembles exactly in the material way, it is completely different. In the spiritual world, separation is more relishable than meeting. In other words, in spiritual life, there is no separation. Separation is eternal, and meeting is also eternal. The separation is simply another feature of meeting. I think from Columbus I will have to go to New Vrindaban, and after staying a few days there, I shall come back to New York. If there is call from London, I shall go there from New York. About Trinity College lectures, I think I can stay in Hartford for the days I have to lecture there, and the fees may be charged $100 per lecture as the New York City College has offered. I do not know if they will agree to this, but I think we should not make the fees very cheap. You arranged my lecture in the City College on the 8th or 10th of April, and I also requested you in my previous letter that the lecture may be arranged on the 10th, but you have not mentioned anything about this in your letter under reply. In my last letter from Hawaii I also informed you that I shall be able to stay in New York from September till the end of December if there is nice engagement. So you can arrange for the meetings as many as possible from September to December. In the meantime, you may make arrangements for from the 10th until the 15th of April, as you like. I hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda, Advaita **Date:** August 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Brahmananda and Advaita, Please accept my blessings. As you have probably heard by now, in Boston they have a big house which they are purchasing, and they are anxious to have more devotees move there. My idea is that you may immediately make plans to start our printing department in Boston now. There are two large halls in their house, and one of them may be utilized as the printing department's. I have already written to Satsvarupa to invite Advaita, Vaikunthanatha, and their wives to go to Boston for beginning this operation, and similarly, the others may go now or when they are required. The first project will be to print Teachings of Lord Caitanya in soft cover edition. So instead of spending money to have this printed outside, we can utilize the money for starting our own press in Boston. You may contact Satsvarupa immediately to make definite arrangements in this connection. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Brahmananda, Hayagriva, Tamala Krsna, Umapati, Dayananda **Date:** March 21st 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Brahmananda, Hayagriva, Tamala Krishna, Umapati, Dayananda, Please accept my blessings. Enclosed you will find the copy of a letter received by me from the draft board. Please read over it and decide what is to be done. You can consult together on this matter and get whatever information is required by them. And let me know in your next letter about the matter. Hope this meets you in good health, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- CC: New York, Los Angeles, New VrindabanP.S. I think I will have to reply to the Draft board by next week ### Letter to Candanacarya **Date:** June 5th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Candanacarya, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of June 2, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your proposal of working in Columbus with the chance of earning $100 per day, why don't you take it? This will be a great help to this center because there is such great potential for spreading our movement amongst the students there, and if we can either purchase the large church on 16th Avenue, or if they can purchase their present house, along with the nearby lot and gas station, that will be a tremendous asset to the activities there. I have seen in the gas station that there are two rooms, so if one room could be used for kitchen, then the other could be utilized as temple room, and the house would serve as an asrama for devotees. The first choice would be the big church, but if you can finance for purchasing either the church or the present site, that will be very nice service. So if you can actually earn $100 daily, I think you should take this opportunity. Please inform me what you have decided by return of post. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: I am enclosing a letter which I have received today from Sudama in Hawaii, so you can see the great possibility of propagating this chanting amongst the boys and girls of the Western World. I thank you for sending me wrist calendar. Pradyumna, I am anxious to know about the machines ### Letter to Carl Lange **Date:** July 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Carl Lange, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 9, 1969 along with your money order for $50. I thank you very much for your contribution towards my book fund. My next publication is going to be Nectar of Devotion and a paperback edition of Teachings of Lord Caitanya. I thank you very much for your appreciation of our Krishna Consciousness Movement. Except for the Krishna Consciousness Movement, any other attempt for spiritual realization, such as drugs, voidness, impersonalism, bodily exercises of Hatha Yoga, etc.—they are all something like unconsciousness under some super-intoxicant. Srila Rupa Goswami has given a very nice example in this connection. He says that a conditioned soul remains in the slumber of unconsciousness just like a patient bitten by a poisonous snake. In India there is a class of snake-charmers and physicians who treat snake-bitten persons with a particular type of jungle herbs. This treatment is to bring the herb near the nostrils of the patient for being smelled, and then the patient comes back to consciousness and finds relief from the snake bite effect. In our conditioned life we are bitten by so many types of Maya snakes, and more and more we are put into unconsciousness of mind without any hope of eternal life. Krishna Consciousness is the only herb for such Maya snake-bite condition. So our duty is very responsible. We have to awaken so many snake-bitten patients under the spell of Maya. A sincere soul like you will be a great help in this movement of Krishna Consciousness. I am glad that you are reading our Bhagavad-gita As It Is and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. You will get much enlightenment from them. Also you should read Back To Godhead and Srimad-Bhagavatam, and surely your life will be sublime. In the future we expect you to be a great preacher of this movement to the world. I am glad to learn that you are coming to San Francisco for the Rathayatra Ceremony, and I am so much obliged to you for contributing each month for the book fund. Thanking you once more. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Carl Lange **Date:** November 14th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Carl Lange, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated October 26, 1969 and I am encouraged to read the contents. Although you have been associating with us for a short time, I can understand that Krishna is giving you good opportunity to serve Him nicely. It is very kind of you to be donating all of your earnings to our Seattle temple, and surely Krishna will bless you for your sincerity. It is this willingness to serve which Krishna wants to see in us. We have nothing to offer Krishna because He is the Proprietor of everything that be. But when He sees that a living entity is trying to serve Him, that is appreciated. In Bhagavad-gita you have seen that Krishna says to offer Him a leaf, a fruit, a flower or even some water. Actually, the Supreme Lord has no necessity to request us to offer Him these items or any other items; but He gives us the opportunity of serving Him so that we may become qualified to enter back to Home, back to Godhead. I am so pleased to learn that you are chanting 16 rounds daily and studying our books carefully. You continue to do this in the association of devotees, and surely you shall come out successful in perfecting your existence in Krishna Consciousness. Within one or two months I shall be returning to Los Angeles, and at that time you may come to speak with me further. In the meantime you continue to help Upendra and the others in the activities there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Charles McCollough **Date:** February 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Charles McCollough, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 9, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your question about closing the temple for a few hours during the day, the best thing is if this can be avoided, but since you are all working in the afternoon then what else can be done? Close 12 to 5 p.m.You have asked me the meaning of the word "non-manifest" as it appears in the Bhagavad-gita, and the answer is that it means "impersonal," or that which is not personal. Just like the sun has its personal and impersonal feature. The sun can be located as the sun disc, yet it also has its impersonal, all-pervading aspect, or the sunshine. So the sun is manifest, and the sunshine is non-manifest. Manifest means where there is variety and non-manifest means where there is only one. When you go to a planet within the sunshine there are many varieties found, but in the sunshine itself there is simply one—the sunlight. Regarding your question about time, time is eternal, but in the spiritual world, there is no influence of time. In the material world there is the influence of past, present and future, and this past, present and future is a relative truth. This is because the past of one man is not the past of another; past, present and future are relative to the person, and there are different grades of persons. For example, Brahma's day is calculated as thousands of our years. In one day of Brahma there are millions of our pasts, presents, and futures. So this is all relativity, whereas in the spiritual world, there is no such relativity. Therefore, time has no such influence in the spiritual world. I hope this will clear up your questions. I understand that you will not be able to come to Los Angeles, but when it is possible, I will be very happy to meet with you. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Cidananda **Date:** December 15th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Cidananda, Please accept my blessings. I was very much anxious to hear from you since I did not receive any letter for a long time. So your letter dated December 7, 1969 is very encouraging and welcome. Since you have gone to Vancouver things have improved very nicely. Now we are going to print 50,000 BTGs per month, so try to increase the sales as far as possible. Sankirtana and distributing BTG and our other literatures is the fieldwork of this movement. Temple worship is secondary. People are invited to come to the temple to see the behavior of the devotees specifically in the matter of purification. There are two kinds of purification methods, external and internal. In our Krishna Consciousness Movement, Deity worship helps to keep us externally purified and Sankirtana helps to keep us internally purified. So as far as possible we shall execute both of these processes simultaneously. And by your exemplary character, the general mass of people will be benefited. Our hearts in material condition are filled with all dirty things, and this Krishna Consciousness Movement is the cleansing process. I am very glad that your feasts are becoming very successful. Yesterday I received a letter from Hawaii that they are now receiving about 100 guests and they are charging $1.00 each. So now they have a good income. You may know that Gaurasundara was forcibly sent to Hawaii, by now he and his wife are both doing very nice propaganda. Please offer my blessings to Ravindra, who is working so nicely for Krishna Consciousness. Krishna will certainly be pleased upon him and his life will be sublime. Just make your center still more established, and when you are prepared to install Deities in a nice place, certainly I shall go. I have never seen Vancouver, and from Los Angeles it is not far away. So let us hope for that future date. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Cidananda **Date:** January 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Cidananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 21, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Since receiving this letter I have learned that you have decided that it is best that you do not leave your position in the San Francisco temple for the press department in New York. I think that this is the correct decision because your presence is very much needed in your temple. I am always glad to know that you are there to help manage the affairs of the San Francisco center so I am glad that you have decided to remain there as president. There are many places in San Francisco who will advertise in our Back To Godhead, so as much as possible you may try for this. But one thing is that the brahmacaris who are there must help in supporting the temple so you will have adequate time for this added responsibility upon you. So those who are able to earn money for supporting the temple must assist you in this connection. I am very happy to learn that you are seriously negotiating to purchase the new house. But one thing is that if for one year there are people having regular meeting in our temple room with all of their smoking and other nonsense, I do not think this will be very good. In the meantime, you may continue to make negotiations, but if this condition cannot be changed I do not think the arrangement will be very satisfactory. I am so pleased to learn that Mulji bhai is so enthusiastic to help us in purchasing the house, and he is anxious to go from door to door to raise the money for helping in this way. Please encourage him because even this one building is not suitable then surely Krishna will supply us with some other house for our temple activities. So I am fully aware that you are working very sincerely in Krishna Consciousness, and when difficulties arise you must simply remember to continue to depend upon Krishna, and He will supply you with the intelligence to solve any problems. You have already proven yourself as a very nice servitor of Lord Caitanya and I am always praying to Him that He will allow you to advance more and more in His eternal service. Please continue to keep me informed about the activities in your temple. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Cidananda **Date:** February 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Cidananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of February 5, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. It is understood that you and Mulgi ba have been collecting for the new temple, but I do not know who is keeping account of this money. How much is there at present in this fund? Where is this fund being kept? Please inform me on these matters. Regarding your efforts for securing advertisements for Back To Godhead, the best thing would be if we could stop these advertisements, but the difficulty is that without advertisements it would be very difficult to continue this magazine. So, under the circumstances, if you and other devotees can secure at least $100 per month for Back To Godhead, then it will not be necessary for you in San Francisco to obtain money by getting advertisements. Please consider on this point and let me know your ideas. So far as the Asian Student Foundation, I do not think you should give them free of charge 150 copies of Bhagavad-gita As It Is.I hope that by now you are fully recovered in health, and I shall await your letter with interest. Please convey my blessings to the others in your temple. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Cidananda **Date:** July 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Chidananada, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated June 24, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Madhudvisa has already gone there as desired by you, and I am sure he will be very helpful. He is now a veteran trained man, and the Los Angeles temple is now an ideal place for all centers to take example. Now I hope you will be able to make San Francisco as important as Los Angeles temple in cooperation with Madhudvisa and the other devotees there. Please convey my blessings to Jayananda, who is helping so much now in organizing for the Rathayatra Festival. Regarding Kartikeya, if he wants to go to Germany, he can go, but if you require him in San Francisco at present, don't encourage him to go at present. But in Germany there is a need for brahmacaris, and Kartikeya knows a little German language. In Germany they are now printing a very fine German edition of Back To Godhead, and I am enclosing some clippings and a leaflet they have printed there. If Kartikeya can explain the words on these pages, then he can be encouraged to go to Germany. Just today I have received invitation from Krishna das that they want me to go immediately there, and even they have purchased one ticket for me. I will not be able to go to Germany immediately, but perhaps after the Rathayatra Festival this may be arranged. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Enclosed is one letter to be given to Umapati, along with German papers for Kartikeya and one note for Madhudvisa. If you meet Reka the Bengali Lady, tell her that I have received her letter without her present address. If she wants to come here she is welcome otherwise I am going there until Ratha Yatra festival ### Letter to Cidananda **Date:** October 16th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Cidananda, Please accept my blessings. It is a great pleasure to receive your letter dated October 7, 1969, and I am so glad to read it that you have got a nice place for starting our temple. I do not know what is the length and breadth of the space, but a throne of Radha Krishna may be made exactly on the pattern of Los Angeles, and the sample picture is sent herewith for your guidance. When everything is completed we shall install a 24" high Radha-Krishna Pair and make it exactly decorated like the Los Angeles temple. Ananda is a very silent worker and sincere devotee, and I am glad that two other brahmacaris, Ravindra and Rudra das, are also there to accompany you on the Sankirtana Party everyday. You are an experienced devotee, and I hope in your presence now Vancouver temple will come out very successful. I passed through Vancouver while coming from Seattle to Montreal, but I never saw the city. Now I hope while we install Radha-Krishna Murtis there I may see the nice city of Vancouver. Our method of establishing a flourishing center will continue to be the same. This is standard and successful. Please keep me informed about your center. Here in London progress is going on nicely, and they have recently received authorization from the city authorities to establish our temple at 7 Bury Place in the heart of London. Last evening we held a very successful meeting at Conway Hall, and several hundred young boys and girls, as well as many Indian people, were chanting and dancing in transcendental ecstasy with us. Next week, and once every week for the next ten weeks, we have scheduled more such engagements. I am very much encouraged to see the nice reaction that the English people are having to our Krishna Consciousness Movement. It is all the Grace of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Cidananda, Dindayal, Aniruddha, Makhanlal **Date:** February 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Sons, Cidananda, Dindayal, Aniruddha and Makhanlal, Please accept my blessings. I have duly received all of your elaborate letters, and there are so many points to reply, it will take time to reply you properly. In the meantime, my request to you is that you take very seriously our program of Back to Godhead, and, as you have promised to contribute your quota of $750 per month against delivery of 5,000 copies of Back To Godhead, I am so much obliged to you all. Now, who will work and who will not work that is consideration between yourselves. It is local affairs, and how can I advise you that one is to do something and another is to do something. Neither you should depend upon me for such local administrative business. All of you are sincere devotees pledged to the missionary activities, so you should sit together and decide what to do and what not to do. But I am begging from you $750 per month against 5,000 copies of Back To Godhead. Out of this 5,000 copies, if you simply sell 1,500 copies you immediately realize your $750. The balance of 3,500 copies will be in your hands. If you can sell them at any price, not less than 30 cents per copy to stores, then whatever amount you realize will be clear profit for the Temple. If still there is some balance copies, then these copies we can distribute free by post to heads of the society, schools, colleges, libraries, and so many other institutions. So we have to make a list of them, and take concession rates from the post office. In this way we can make vigorous propaganda with Back to Godhead. Besides that, if you can introduce Sankirtana and classes and Back to Godhead in Berkeley, that will be another great advantage. So I am reading your letters carefully and I shall answer them duly. In the meantime, you consider my appeal and do the needful jointly. For Aniruddha my instruction is that immediately there is no program in New Vrindaban because unless there is suitable houses for residence, we can not begin any work there. So I have instructed Hayagriva to make houses first. Then we can consider programs for going there. Now there is other important matters such as Back To Godhead which we should try for. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Colin Jury **Date:** February 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > London My Dear Colin Jury, I thank you for your letter which was sent along with Yamuna's. I am pleased to hear that you are anxious to meet me, and I will be pleased to meet you when I go there. But first there must be a nice house secured. Our society is now legalized in London, so there should be no difficulty in securing a house immediately. Please help the devotees there to do this. I am simply awaiting their letter to start for London. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Colin Jury **Date:** May 12th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Colin Jury, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your nice letter (undated). Practically, our Krishna Consciousness movement is based on transcendental pleasure. Music, dancing and feasts are the chief items for pleasure, and this pleasure is originally on the transcendental realm. They are simply reflected pervertedly in the material world, and every living entity has natural inclination for these three items. So Krishna Consciousness is to go back to the original position. Therefore, music and dancing can be purified for transcendental realization. Factually we do not reject anything, but we will accept anything as favorable for Krishna's service. In other words, we can dovetail anything in Krishna's service, and thus purify the contaminated covering of everything. So your talents for music may be employed fully for the cause of serving Krishna. Several days ago I got three pairs of boys and girls married, and this married life is different from the material married life. The example is already there in London how six disciples there are all working so nicely in pushing the Krishna Consciousness movement. Actually, we are trying to give real life to the human society by purifying the activities in Krishna Consciousness. The method is very simple: By chanting Hare Krishna one becomes purified immediately and by constant practice, there is no chance of being contaminated again. Please continue to follow there principles, and your life will surely be sublime. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Damodara **Date:** August 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Damodara, Please accept my blessings. I am very much thankful to you for your letter dated August 14th, 1969, and it is very encouraging. The Sankirtana Movement is the panacea for all problems of the world. The people are suffering on account of illusory happiness of this material world, and we have got great responsibility to enlighten them with Krishna Consciousness. I understand that you are considering to invite President Nixon in our temple, and if you are serious about it and if there is hint that President Nixon may visit our temple, then I can postpone my journey to Europe for the time being. I shall be so glad to receive President Nixon in our temple, and this will be a great incident. In the Bhagavad-gita it is stated yad yad acarati sresthas tat tat evetaro janah [Bg. 3.21]. The thing is that people generally follow their leaders. So if one leader is convinced about the importance of this movement, many others will follow. So if actually you invite President Nixon, it will be a great forward step in our movement. If the President comes, then we can invite many other important men, and they will also come, as well as the press representatives will come. So there will be a great assembly, and if we can convince them even a very little of our transcendental movement, it will be a great stride. So if possible, try for this arrangement seriously, and pray to Krishna. He will help you. Please keep me informed of your activities in this connection. On the whole I am so much pleased that you have opened a branch in Washington, which is the center of all elites. I very much appreciate the nice sentiments you have expressed, and Krishna is available only through service. We cannot demand from Krishna to know about Him. When you actually learn to serve Him, He reveals Himself. That is the process. And the success of life is simply by pleasing Him. That is the version of all Vedic literature. Knowledge means to know Him, and success means to please Him. And how He is pleased, that can be known through the transparent medium of His confidential servant. This is the process of understanding Krishna Consciousness. I was very much anxious to hear from you, and this letter is encouraging. Similarly, Hansadutta and Himavati are trying in Berkeley, and although they have not found as yet any temple, their work is going on nicely. Please offer my blessings to Madhusudana, Dinesh and Krishna Devi. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Damodara **Date:** October 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Ascott > England My Dear Damodara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 14, 1969 and your check for $105. Also I have duly received your $15 maintenance check. I am pleased that you are trying to obtain a very nice house in the city. Washington is a very important city, so if you can develop a nice center, it will be a great achievement for our society. If Mr. Dhyani can arrange to collect $20 from each of his friends it will be very much appreciated by us. Now Satsvarupa has given us a very good example in purchasing a house on the strength of BTG sales. So either by selling BTG, our books, or by public contributions if we can have our own house, that will be very nice. Madhusudana and yourself both are a good combination, and I am sure our Washington center will become very soon one of the first grade branches. From the plane we saw Washington city, and if possible, when I go to Boston I may visit your place also. I have received from Dinesh two records of Bunde Hum, but I could not play them as yet for want of a record player. Anyway, please convey my thanks to him. If he is earning something, let him send some money for my book fund. Here in England things are coming along very nicely. We are having a few public meetings every week at various halls and societies, and there is much interest and appreciation in our movement being shown by the English people. We are seeing more and more how the peoples in all different countries are gradually becoming dissatisfied with the present Godless civilization and are taking to our movement with great appreciation. So continue to work seriously and sincerely and Krishna will help you to advance in your activities very nicely. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dayala Nitai **Date:** March 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Dayala Nitai, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your very nice letter of March 19th, and I can understand how you are feeling. Yes, you must fix up in your mind to spread this message to the French population with our BTG and other books, that is my request. I thank you for sending me the second copy of BTG French edition. So now my only request to you, and especially both to you and Janardana, that you kindly regularly publish one issue every month of this French BTG. That will make you very much happy and will make me always very much happy. And Krishna will bestow all blessings to you in this endeavor. In this connection, if you think that by printing the yogi literature you will get some monetary help, then I give you permission that you can print it. But my standing request is this: Amongst yourselves there should not be any disagreement. Whatever you do, you do it by joint consultation. Because our center of activities is Krishna, for Krishna's sake we can sacrifice our life, wealth, words, intelligence, everything. Of course, as individuals, we have sometimes disagreements, but that should be adjusted keeping our central attention to Krishna. So what is done is done; hence forward, you do everything jointly and we shall put out at least one issue of BTG French edition every month—even it may consist of one printed page only, still it must be published once monthly. That is my desire. It is better undoubtedly to have a full magazine as our English edition BTG, but if you have no time, or you are doing this or that, then do not neglect it completely—it is better to publish and distribute a one page BTG issue than no issue at all each month. Now this work is specially entrusted to you and Janardana; so please execute it. I hope this meets you in good health, and convey all blessings to your God-brothers and God-sisters there. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dayananda **Date:** May 13th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Dayananda, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to have received your letter post-dated May 8th, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. There is a Bengali proverb that it is not wise to pick up quarrel with a crocodile while living in the jurisdiction of the water. Therefore we may agree to the desire of Mr. Spellman to keep peace with him so that in the future if required we may increase the term of lease. But as we are increasing in volume ourselves, it is better to find out a suitable place. We require nice compound around our temple. This will facilitate our work. So as soon as you find a suitable place through Mr. Leo Brown or any other Realtor, I shall return to Los Angeles. For the time being, I shall stay in New Vrindaban, and if I am not called for a London visit, surely I will return to Los Angeles as soon as possible, the latest by the end of June. One thing is though, I am wondering if in July it is very hot in Los Angeles. Please inform me on this point. I am enclosing the papers you sent to me, and you can hand them over to Mr. Spellman without any further delay. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Nandarani, and your nice little daughter. I hope this will find you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dayananda **Date:** June 1st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban Dear Dayananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated May 25, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. If a new temple site in Los Angeles is absolutely required to be moved in a bigger place, that should be your first business. For my place you may find a place near the temple, and it should be independent of any other tenants. It may be a small cottage, but it should be independent with a little compound surrounding. That will be very nice. I think there are many small cottages near the place, Hayworth Avenue. When I was walking on Oakwood Avenue there were many places there. I remember one at the junction of Oakwood and Harper. So this place, or a similar independent place, never mind how small, will be very convenient for me. I have already written to Tamala Krishna that if I am not invited to London during the month of June, then sometimes in July early I shall go to San Francisco to see the Rathayatra Festival there, and then I will come down to Los Angeles. But I have decided that I shall spend four months in New Vrindaban and eight months in Los Angeles. That will be my regular program. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Nandarani, and your nice little daughter, Candramukhi. I hope this will meet you all in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dayananda **Date:** November 13th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Dayananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your kind letter dated October 27, 1969. Tamala Krishna has arrived here, and he was describing about your nice daughter, Candramukhi, how she is chanting Cintamani nicely. So both you and your wife are doing nice service to Krishna, and He has sent you a nice daughter. Be happy with your good family. Narottama das Thakura has sung in his song that anyone who is merged into the ocean of Lord Caitanya's Krishna Consciousness Movement, never mind what he is—either householder or in the renounced order of life, Srila Narottama das Thakura hankers after his association. I have heard from Tamala Krishna that you have done wonderful work very quickly in electrical installations in Boston. So wherever you go and wherever you remain you have dedicated your life to Krishna's service. That is the success of life. Now in the absence of Tamala Krishna you will have to see the management of the Los Angeles temple goes nicely. By the Grace of Krishna, now you have no financial problem, but only you have to see that things are properly managed and nothing is misused. Gargamuni is there and Stoka Krishna is there. So I hope things will go on very smoothly. We should always be careful that we are serving Krishna, and we shall do nothing which may displease Him. Than our life is successful. According to Srimad-Bhagavatam, our life, our wealth, our intelligence, and our speech should all be engaged in Krishna's service, and that is the criterion of perfection in human life. Yesterday I have sent one bill of lading and an invoice from Bina Musical Stores in Delhi. When they are cleared from the dock, please let me know how you have received things in order. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dayananda **Date:** March 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Dayananda, Please accept my blessings. Regarding your letter asking me permission for taking prasadam comprising fruits, nuts, milk product and green leaf vegetables,—if the __ to your health for rendering service to Krishna with more energy, then you must take such Prasdam instead of cooked food. If required you can take raw cereals soaked in water overnight that is also good. The thing is you must accept such food as will keep you fit. Not more nor less that is the injunction of Lord Krishna in the B.G. Hope you are well. Yours etc. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dayananda **Date:** March 26th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Dayananda, Please accept my blessings. I am very much thankful for your nice appreciative letter of my activities in this country and my Krishna bless you for all the fine sentiments that you have by the grace of the Lord. Practically there is no credit for me, if there is any credit it goes to my Spiritual Master, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Prabhupada, Who is helping me by sending so many good souls like you in this movement. Whatever is being done, it is due to His Divine Grace only. So my business is just to carry out His order. That is the way of disciplic succession; and as you have all come to help me, if you also follow the same principles then our combined effort to serve Lord Krishna will be surely successful. So far L.A. temple is concerned, both you and your good wife Nandarani, desired to see the temple affairs improve, which I understood from your past letters. And you took the risk of 400 or 500 dollars by renting the storefront in Hollywood Blvd. It was certainly very nice, and you were paying $350, but because you very sincerely desired to have a very very nice place, Krishna arranged in a different way. In the beginning we thought that we are losing a nice place, when the landlord wanted to kick out us, but now I can understand Krishna's desire was to give us a still better place, and so we have now got it. So it is not the place alone which is responsible for beautifying the temple; it is the devotees who are actually beautifying the temple. And as president you are in charge of the whole branch, so kindly try to maintain the present atmosphere, and try to improve it more and more, that is my request. I am going to S.F. on the 31st of March, and Dindayal has already sent the necessary passage money to go there. Another thing, that consignment of 2500 TLC is coming very shortly to L.A., so when the consignment comes, you have to keep them in the temple in a secure place so that copies may not be stolen. When I was in L.A. it was reported that 10 books of Bhagavad-gita were stolen. So this is not very good. So I hope you will take proper care. In this connection, the copies of the letter which I have sent Brahmananda is enclosed within. Also I am enclosing herewith one copy of the letter addressed to the manager of Equitable Savings, Fairfax branch, so please see them conveniently and inquire what is to be done in this connection. Then on hearing from them what are the formalities, I shall send you the key of my safety deposit box which you will keep very carefully, and when need be you may open and take some papers as I may advise you. Please convey my blessings to all the devotees and I hope this will meet you in good health with your wife and child. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dayananda **Date:** May 1st 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Dayananda, Please accept my blessings. Just yesterday morning I was thinking of you that I did not hear from Dayananda for so many days, and immediately I got your nice letter dated April 25, 1969. You are such a nice soul that you are always thinking of Krishna and becoming more and more purified in Krishna Consciousness. As stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto, Second Chapter, Twenty-Seventh Verse, Krishna is sitting in everyone's heart and He is purifying one who is Krishna Conscious. The symptoms of advancement in Krishna Consciousness is gradually feeling detached to materialistic way of life. Although you are young man, you have got your nice young wife and child, and by Krishna's Grace, everything is all right so far as your family is concerned, still you are feeling detached. That is very nice. But when your wife and child all are cooperating in your Krishna Consciousness, there is no hampering in your progress. So keep yourself always in Krishna Consciousness with your family members, raise your children to that standard, and employ your energy for serving Krishna. Then, even though you are in family life, you are as good as sannyasi. You have not mentioned when you are returning to Los Angeles. The idea of New Dvaraka in Los Angeles is developing there, and Tamala Krishna has already informed Mr. Leo Brown, the real estate man, to find out a bigger place than the present one. So when you return you try to complete it. I thank you very much for your nice surrendering attitude by placing yourself at my disposal. Of course, I am using you already in the service of the Lord, and personally I cannot utilize your service. So whatever I demand from you, it is for Krishna's sake. Personally I am humble servant of Krishna as you are also, but I am deputed to accept your service just to transfer it to Krishna as via media. I shall try to do this service to you and Krishna throughout my life, and I am so proud to have such assistants as you are to help me in my mission to push on the Krishna Consciousness Movement. I do not know why I am attached to your country, but I strongly believe that if the American boys and girls would accept this philosophy, it would render the greatest service to the rest of the world. In Los Angeles, the situation is improving, and when you reach there it will be further accelerated. One boy whom I have initiated last night, named Candanacharya, is enthusiastic to go to Florida for opening a center there. For the time being he has come from Montreal along with Hansadutta. He proposes to begin a temple in Palm Beach. He is a very enthusiastic musician and appears to be very nice boy. Regarding your questions, the swami order is certainly introduced by Sankaracarya, because almost all sannyasis of impersonal philosophy take this name, Swami. But the Swami title offered to me is equivalent to Goswami. Swami and Goswami are actually the same, synonomous. Swami means the master, and master means the master of the senses. Goswami directly explains master of senses. Go means senses. So this name, Goswami, is not the Sankaracarya's order. So far as your second question, Thakura Bhaktivinode was not official Spiritual Master of Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja. Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja was already renounced order, Paramahamsa, but Thakura Bhaktivinode, while He was even playing the part of a householder, was treated by Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja as Preceptor, on account of His highly elevated spiritual understanding, and thus He was always treating Him as His Spiritual Master. The Spiritual Master is divided into two parts; namely, siksa guru and diksa guru. So officially Bhaktivinode Thakura was like siksa guru of Gaura Kisora das Babaji Maharaja. I shall be glad to receive your letters at least once in a week. I hope this will find you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Devananda **Date:** August 6th 1969 > 1975 So. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, Cal. 90034 My Dear Devananda, Please accept my blessings. Since I have come from New Vrindaban I have not received any letters from you. I know you are silent worker, but I always remember you. I am very much thankful to you for your nice service. In the meantime you have got good opportunity for Deity worship. Do it nicely, and be happy. Whenever you have time you can write me. I shall be very glad to read your letters. Also, you should write articles for Back To Godhead. You are very intelligent boy, and writing will be a good manner for you to keep your intelligence engaged and doing nice preaching work. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dhindro, Vanalata Mullick **Date:** January 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Dhindro and Vanalata Mullick, Please accept my blessings. I hope by this time you have safely reached your home and everything is going well. When you were here I requested you to connect with me some of your tenants at Natoon Bazar selling brass utensils. I want many pairs of Navadvipa-made karatalas, so please introduce to me some of your very reliable tenants, and I shall send you the money for purchase. The supplier should pack it nicely in a gunny bag. We have got our own shipping agents: Msgrs United Shipping Corporation, 14/2 Old China Bazar Street, Room #18, Calcutta-1), and they will take care of the shipping. I have already shown you samples of karatalas while you were sitting in my room, and I hope you will help me in this connection. I do not know if you were able to visit our Hawaii, Honolulu temple. Perhaps you were unable. Anyway, I shall be glad to hear from you about your pleasant journey from Los Angeles to Calcutta by Japan. You will be pleased to know that in London, one rich English boy has agreed to donate a house which is worth Rs 800,000 for our temple there. At present, our devotees there are in a rented house, but I think by the next month it will be possible to sit in our own London temple. In this temple I wish to install Radha-Krishna murtis, and if you so desire, you can donate a pair of murtis for installation in London temple. That will be very much glorified for your great forefather, the late Rajairajendra Mullick. Very much appreciated would be a pair of murtis of the size and gesture as Sri Sri Radha-Govindaji of late Kashinath Mullick's temple. Another request to you is that because you have so kindly come to see me it is my duty to instruct you about your spiritual advancement of life. Both of you are so fortunate to become the servitors of Sri Sri Jagannatha Deva, installed by your forefathers. The best thing will be to increase your affection for these Jagannatha Devas, and as such, you should not eat anything which is not offered to Jagannatha. In other words, you should take only the prasadam of Jagannatha Deva. This practice will so much help you in your spiritual life. This facility you have got in this life should not be missed. That is my request to both of you. I hope this will meet you in good health. I am awaiting your early reply. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dinesh **Date:** March 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Dinesh, Please accept my blessings. I am sorry that I could not acknowledge receipt of your albums which I duly received, although I could not play them for want of machine. But I have received Mukunda's opinion about it. He says that it is super excellent to say the least. They are going to have it played by the BBC in London. Similarly, Govinda dasi is going to play it here in such important station. We are going there this morning for about an hour of music and discussion on the station here. So I hope you will be successful in your adventure. Regarding Syama's kirtana; it is also nice. But it does not behoove that I shall sing with her. Let us see how much she is advanced in Krishna Consciousness. And then we shall think of full cooperation. Hope you are well, and convey my blessings to Krishna devi and your daughter. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have also received on letter from Krishna devi and your picture of Birbhadra. It is very nicely posed. __ great-grandchild of Srimad ___ Das Balaji. Thanks. When Purusottama will go to S.F., you will send me the tape-recorder with him ### Letter to Dinesh **Date:** April 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Buffalo My Dear Dinesh, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated April 20, 1969, and the tape of our Sankirtana recording and prayer. Everyone who has heard it here is very satisfied with the result, and I thank you very much for your efforts in this connection. I am enclosing herewith one letter from Brahmananda, and you can understand from this how much this recording is being appreciated. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dinesh **Date:** April 25th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Dinesh, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated April 22, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I have already acknowledged receipt of your nicely taped kirtana recording. I think that the mrdanga sound should be a little more increase, and the tampura sound should be decreased. When the chorus is chanting in response to the leader, the mrdanga is not very distinctly heard. Therefore, it should be increased. As for when this record will be pressed, I think this should be done as soon as possible, because everyone is already wanting this record. If you cannot get it pressed immediately, then I have asked Brahmananda to arrange for the pressing. I have heard that Dai Nippon Company can give such pressing at a competitive price. The jacket design you have described sounds nice, so you may develop it in this way. I hope this will find you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dinesh **Date:** May 15th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Dinesh, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 11, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Regarding your idea of pressing a 10" record, if you can sell these in ordinary stores, that's all right, but don't depend simply on temple sales. Depending on temple sales is not businesslike. You must plan your work in a businessman's way, so you cannot depend upon our centers for all sales. In the temple there are devotees, there are not businessmen, so you cannot depend on them for doing business; neither can you expect advice about business dealings from me. I have given you a department to manage nicely, and if there is some profit, you may give some for my book fund, but I cannot be consulted for advice in how you should manage the particulars of your business. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Krishna Devi, and to your daughter, Visnuarati. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dinesh **Date:** June 10th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Dinesh, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June, 6, 1969 and the copy of the agreement which you sent. The first thing is that I have already given you my word, so there is no need of an agreement with me. My word is final agreement, but if you want it for business reasons, I have no objections to sign it. But the wordings are not always clear. Another thing is although I have brought this Sankirtana Movement to the Western World we cannot make it copyrighted. The Sankirtana Movement is not my invention. So how can it be copyrighted? Besides that, as you will find in the album of my previous recording, the chanting of Hare Krishna is going on since time immemorial. So Hare Krishna cannot be copyrighted, although the tune in which I sing with my disciples, that may be made copyrighted. I have no objection to sign this agreement, but don't be misled that the chanting of Hare Krishna or Lord Caitanya's Movement can be made copyrighted. There are some points in the contract which are not very clear, so you may explain them to me further by post. The points are as follows: "ISKCON shall have the sole and exclusive right and authority to collect preserve and distribute all tangible expressions of said sound vibrations." "Said sound vibrations shall be fixed in a tangible form solely by ISKCON" "ISKCON shall have the exclusive right to any existing sound recordings contained in any medium of fixation that have been previously recorded by the SWAMI" "ISKCON shall have the sole and exclusive right to use the name and likeness of the SWAMI for all purposes and activities encompassed by this agreement."So upon hearing from you on these points I shall send you back the agreement duly signed by me. I am very much encouraged by the statement of your letter, but I must let you know the pros and cons of this agreement. Please convey my blessings to Krishna Devi. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dinesh **Date:** June 13th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Dinesh, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for sending me the broadcasting tape containing varieties of our Sankirtana Movement and it has come very, very nice. I have received one letter from Mukunda that you are already in negotiation with him for complete cooperation with the Beatles in future, and this is very nice program. Most probably I shall be going to London by the end of July, and from different sources I can understand that the Beatles are becoming interested in the Sankirtana Movement. In the meantime you may have received my letter to you dated June 10th in which I have asked you to explain some lines mentioned in the agreement between you and me. So I am expecting your reply, and upon receipt of it, I shall immediately send you the signed agreement as you have sent it to me. Please offer my blessings to Krishna Devi and Visnuaratrik. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Thanking you once more for the tape. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dinesh **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Dinesh, Please accept my blessings. I have just received your letter dated June 13, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I quite follow you that you are planning to work conjointly with our London party. So I am sending you back the agreement duly signed by me, and I hope you will do the business side of these records with the Grace of Lord Caitanya. If you wish to go to London, I have no objection. The Sankirtana picture which you sent, I do not follow if you want to print this picture in the next album cover, or what is your idea of sending it. Anyway, it is very nice, and I thank you for enclosing it. Please immediately send to me one copy of the contract so I may keep it here in my files. Convey my blessings to your wife and child. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dinesh **Date:** October 31st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Dinesh, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated October 21, 1969 along with a contribution of $25. I have already acknowledged receipt of your new record. Regarding the disciplic succession coming from Arjuna, disciplic succession does not always mean that one has to be initiated officially. Disciplic succession means to accept the disciplic conclusion. Arjuna was a disciple of Krishna and Brahma was also a disciple of Krishna. Thus there is no disagreement between the conclusions of Brahma and Arjuna. Vyasadeva is in the disciplic succession of Brahma. The teachings to Arjuna was recorded by Vyasadeva verbatim. So according to the axiomatic truth, things equal to one another are equal to each other. We are not exactly directly from Vyasadeva, but our Gurudeva is a representative of Vyasadeva. Because Vyasadeva and Arjuna are of equal status, being students of Krishna, therefore we are in the disciplic succession of Arjuna. Things equal to the same thing are equal to one another. Regarding your second question about Sanjaya, he was a student of Vyasadeva, and by the mercy of Vyasadeva he was able to receive the message of the conversation of Krishna-Arjuna. Thus Sanjaya was able to speak to Dhrtarastra about the conversation on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. Regarding your final question, the marginal potency means internal potency. But because the marginal potency sometimes comes within the external position, therefore, in spite of its being internal potency it is turned to marginal potency. This is stated in Visnu Purana: Any potency of Krishna is spiritual energy, but due to varieties of actions a section is called marginal potency or external potency. Please offer my blessings to your good wife, Krishna Devi, and daughter, Visnu Arati. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dr. Chaudhuri **Date:** February 6th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Dr. Chaudhuri, Please accept my greetings and blessings of Lord Krishna, and offer the same to Srimati Bina Chaudhuri and your sons and daughters. I am so glad to have received your letter dated January 27, 1969, and I have appreciated your comment about my book that it is "without doubt the best presentation so far to the western public of the teachings of Lord Krishna". Actually that was my purpose to write another commentary on the Bhagavad-gita. I think I have explained this matter in my introduction. You have written to say "Vaisnava tradition in India", and that is the real cultural standing of Vedic civilization. In the Rigveda you will find the mantra, tad visnu paramam padam sada pasyanti suraya. In the Visnu Purana also it is said, visnu bhakti bhovet deva. So Vedic civilization means the civilization of the devas, or the demigods, and the whole purpose is to understand Krishna. As it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyam [Bg. 15.15], the whole purpose of the Veda is to understand Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, if we wish to present the real traditional cultural ideas of India to the western public, we have to present to them the teachings of Lord Krishna as they are. That is my mission, and I am pleased to inform you that I am getting good response in America especially and also in London and Germany. For the last five months, our kirtana movement is going on in London. Our office is situated there at 22 Betterton Street, WC 2 London, England. The people are appreciating our movement very much there. You will be surprised to know that I have sent there for preaching work 6 boys and girls, married couples, and they are neither elderly nor very much conversant with Vedic philosophy. But still, by their character, behavior, and devotion, they are attracting many people in London, including the High Commissioner of India and others. One gentleman, Mr. Parikh, is a Doctor in Education and was formerly the principal of a college in Kenya. He is actively working with our students there, and very soon they should have a Radha-Krishna temple there in gorgeous style. Some time before in your letters you expressed a desire that we should jointly present Indian cultural ideas in this country. I think you will remember this proposal, and I replied that if we want to present the real Indian cultural traditions, then we must present the Vaisnava philosophy as it is. Poet Tagore became very popular in the western countries by presenting his Gita Anjali which is full of Vaisnava sentiments. We have immense literatures, especially in the Gaudiya Sampradaya of the Vaisnava sect which is enriched by the contribution of the Gosvamis. These should all be presented to the western world. Similarly, Vedanta commentary by the Vaisnava acaryas like Ramanuja, Madhva, Baladeva., Sridhara Swami, etc. can all be presented successfully. You are a learned philosopher, and your Cultural Integration Fellowship Institute advocates universal religion and cultural harmony. I think if you will turn your attention to the Vaisnava literature you will find all of these ideas in complete fulfillment. Your invitation for me to go to San Francisco is very much welcome. You have been requesting me for practically one year to give some discourses on this Vaisnava philosophy in your institution, but for want of time I could not comply with your request. I will let you know immediately when I know I will be going next to San Francisco. Of course, now I am in Los Angeles, and I have no serious business at present. But your mid-term quarter is already occupied by Dr. Framroze A. Bode, the Zoroastrian High Priest from Bombay. In the meantime, I wish that you may stock a few copies of our books in your bookstall and just have a test how the members of your institution will like this Vaisnava philosophy. Generally, people are not very much inclined to accept Vaisnava philosophy because for the common man it is not very easy to understand. In the Bhagavad-gita we find the statement that out of many thousands of people, one may be interested in the values of human life, and out of many persons who have understood the values of life, only one may be found who can understand Krishna. It is further stated that Krishna can be understood only through devotional mysticism. Bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah [Bg. 18.55]. On hearing from you I will ask my San Francisco temple to deliver you some copies of Bhagavad-gita As It Is if you so desire. Thanking you once more for your kind letter. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Yours affectionately, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dr. Nagendra Babu **Date:** August 28th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg Dear Dr. Nagendra Babu, Please accept my humble obeisances. I understand from your daughter that you instructed her to see me in New York as she is there with her husband. She attempted to see me several times in our New York temple, but she was unable to see me on account of my constant touring in different centers. We have got now about two dozen centers in the USA, two in Canada and two in Europe. On Sunday last I was in New York while coming to Germany, and I have reached our German center on Monday morning. The address is above. I saw your daughter, Bhakti Devi, very much devoted to Krishna Consciousness, just befitting the position of a Vaisnava's daughter. She offered me respects with some money also (two dollars), and I was very much pleased with her behavior. I asked about you and her mother from her, and I am so pleased to learn that you are now retired from worldly activities and are engaged in constant chanting of Harer Nama. I think by age you may be younger than me, if not by many years. So why not come to America and join me in this preaching work? I think if your daughter and son-in-law sponsor to receive you, there will be no difficulty for your passport, etc. There is immense potency of preaching the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness under the guidance of Lord Caitanya, and I wish that all my Godbrothers should go to different parts of the world and preach this sublime message everywhere, because that is the desire of Lord Caitanya. Of course, as far as possible I am trying to spread this movement all over the world, and at the present moment my activities are prominent from Hamburg to Tokyo, a distance of 14,000 miles. I think the circumference of the whole earth is 25,000 miles. So this should be covered by some of our Godbrothers so that Lord Caitanya's message may be properly executed. I do not know why none of our Godbrothers attempt to this important side of our propaganda. Just now I am in correspondence with the Gaudiya Mission secretary, and I have promised also to help them if they will take up this work. I have not as yet received any reply from them. I have also asked them to help us in so many ways. Immediately I am in need of some supplies from India. They are as follows: 1) regular supply of 10 first class mrdangas every month. 2) regular supply of 50 pairs of Navadvipa-made karatalas every month. 3) at least two dozen pairs of Radha-Krishna Murtis, made of brass and 24" high. Besides these things, I require many other articles like temple paraphernalia. Your daughter gave me your address in Calcutta, and therefore I am taking this opportunity for your help in this connection. Of course, I shall send money for purchasing all these goods. I simply want your help that you supervise the supply and send us first class articles. We do not mind for the price. In Calcutta there are many manufacturers for mrdangas, and if you arrange with somebody, you can easily help us. Your daughter has given me her address, and she is staying very near to our New York temple. On Sunday last she has personally seen how our preaching work is going on. On that day about 15 persons were initiated and one couple was married. So I hope you will kindly help me in this connection, either directly or through the Gaudiya Mission people. That will be a great help for my preaching work. You can reply this letter to my German center as above mentioned. I thank you in anticipation of your early reply. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dr. Sham Sundarji **Date:** October 8th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst Dear Dr. Sham Sundarji, Please accept my humble obeisances. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 30th, 1969. Our temple is situated at 7, Bury Place, London, but I am staying at the garden house belonging to Mr. John Lennon, a world-wide famous man in music and one of the richest men in England. The news which you have read in the Gujarati newspaper that some young English boys are chanting Hare Krishna Mantra in a garden house near London is this place. Here also we have got a nice temple given to us by Mr. Lennon, and sufficient land is here also so we are collecting young, enthusiastic devotees to come and live here and make another colony of Vaisnavas like our New Vrindaban in West Virginia. So there was a nice reception here when I arrived, and I am enclosing herewith one of the newspaper clippings and my London lecture list also. Last Monday I lectured on "Teachings of the Vedas", and it was very much appreciated by the audience. I spoke for about one hour and after that they continued clapping, which confirms their appreciation. Our temple at 7, Bury Place is being nicely decorated, and as soon as my apartment is fixed up nicely I shall move there. I shall remind Brahmananda about your "True Conception of Religion", and you will be pleased to know that we are starting our own press in Boston in our own house. The house has cost $70,000, and the press will cost $20,00, which in Indian exchange comes to 9 lacs of rupees. So things are gradually improving. We have already opened our German center and are publishing our German Back To Godhead. From Montreal we are printing a French edition of Back To Godhead, and recently our men have gone to Japan. We have taken a house near Tokyo and our men are working there. There will be a great World Fair in Japan in 1970, and at that time we shall formally open our temple and probably issue our Back To Godhead in Japanese language. So at present moment we have got temples in six important countries: USA, England, France, Germany, Japan and Canada. All together there are 22 branches. Recently in our Detroit branch the son and daughter-in-law of Sriman J. Dalmia, one of the big industrialists of India, visited, and the daughter-in-law presented many saris to the devotees there. So the American and European boys and girls are taking to this cultural life more and more, and perhaps this will make history in the future how[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Dr. Syama Sundar **Date:** April 12th 1969 — **Location:** New York My Dear Brother Dr. Syama Sundar Prabhu, Please accept my humble dandabats. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your very affectionate letter dated 18th March, 1969. From Los Angeles I went to my Hawaii center, then to San Francisco, and now I am in the New York center. I understand that Jagantar has published about our London activities. In London there are six boys and girls, all my initiated married couples, and though they are young, they are doing very nice work in London. One of them wrote a letter to Srimate Vinode Vani for cooperation, but she replied that she cannot do anything without permission from Bagh Bazar H.O. But I do not know if they wrote any letter to Bagh Bazar. So far I am concerned, I am always for cooperation, and I don't criticize anybody. I am very busy with my own work. Rather I welcome everyone's cooperation. If you think there is possibility of cooperation you can open negotiation directly with Sripada Audolomi Maharaja. If we cooperate, we can do tremendous service for Lord Caitanya in the matter of propagating the mission of Lord Caitanya very nicely. I am prepared to cooperate in every way, but I wonder if the other side is prepared for this also. I shall be happy to hear from you soon. Hope this meets you in good health. Yours affectionately, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Dr. Syama Sundardas Brahmacari **Date:** September 5th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg Dear Dr. Syama Sundardas Brahmacari, Please accept my humble obeisances. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 22nd August 1969, addressed to New Vrindaban center and redirected here in West Germany. At the present moment I am preaching here in our German center, and next week I am going to our London center. If you reply me, you can do so at the following address: ISKCON, 7 Bury Place, WC1, London England. Regarding your remittance in connection with True Conception of Religion, I have already advised the New York center to send you some money. I understand that you will remain at Jagannatha Puri for some time, so if you like to supply us some goods from there, you can make some profit out of it. If you kindly send me quotations for the following goods, I would appreciate it very much: 1) Jagannatha Deity set—Lord Jagannatha, Balabhadra and Subhadra of all different sizes. 2) Silverwares made in Cuttack 3) brass utensils like jhanj, karatalas, and worshiping materials, 4) conchshells, and 5) saris made in Orissa and adjoining places. If you like to purchase these goods on our behalf, then I shall send you money, and if you desire, you can add some percentage for your profit on the purchase price. In this way, if you pack up these goods nicely and send to the nearest port for dispatching, then you can do very good business and make some profit. So I hope you will give me some price quotations immediately for the above things and let me know if you are interested in doing this business. Regarding Gaudiya Mission, I am enclosing herewith a copy of the letter addressed to the Secretary Official. You will understand the whole situation. I am prepared to cooperate with the Gaudiya Mission wholeheartedly. I am prepared also to be amalgamated, and they have invited me to go to India to talk frankly, face to face. But unless we have come to some definite understanding, how I can risk the journey which will involve more or less Rs. 25,000? But I am sure if Gaudiya Mission and I combine together, it will be very nice thing to preach the cult of Lord Caitanya all over the world. I can reorganize all the branches of the Gaudiya Math in India, and if there is any financial question, it will be not difficult for our society to help in that way also. So if you can negotiate about our amalgamation on a cooperative basis, it will be great service to Srila Prabhupada. I have not as yet received any reply to the enclosed letter. ### Letter to Durga Prasadji Gupta **Date:** November 26th 1969 — **Location:** London > Sri Durga Prasadji Gupta, Asst. Manager GITA PRESSP.O. Gita Press, Gorakhpur INDIA Dear Sri Gupta, Sri Jayadayal Dalmia has requested me to send you our edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is because you are collecting all different editions of the Gita. In this connection I beg to inform you that I have already sent one copy directly to Hanuman Prasadji Poddar, but have received no acknowledgement as yet, although the book was sent sometime at the beginning of this year. Please, therefore, inquire from Hanuman Prasadji if he has received the copy. If not, I shall send another copy to you. Yours truly, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ekayani **Date:** February 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Ekayani, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter (undated), and I thank you very much for it. I am pleased to note that you and your nice sister, Indira Dasi, are making and tending to Lord Jagannatha deities. You should place these deities on sale in Gargamuni's store for selling. In this way, you will make some money for doing your painting work. You should practice developing your good painting skills very thoroughly, and if you are ready, I can send to you many Bhagavatam pictures to do. Jadurani is now sick for some time, and I have asked her to cease all of her activities. There are some paintings lying in Boston, perhaps unfinished, and, if time permits, you can go there with your sister to see them. If Jadurani likes, you can finish up these pictures for the Krishna book. Picture painting is one of our important departments, so please try to become very expert. You should be at least as expert as Jadurani, and that will be a great pleasure for me. Rukmini is also becoming very much expert in her artistic works. Regarding your question about the Goswamis, all of them are eternal associates of Lord Caitanya. I do not know where you have read differently. Sri Rupamanjari is one of the eight Gopis, but which one you will learn later on. Study the Bhagavad-gita more carefully. There will be an examination and everyone will have to appear to take this examination next January, 1969.Please convey my blessings to all of your nice godbrothers and godsisters in New York temple. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to First National City Bank **Date:** April 29th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass First National City Bank Grand Street Branch Grand Street and Bowery New York, 13, NYAtt: Manager Dear Sir: Re: MY ACCOUNT #0420160131Kindly transfer from my above mentioned account $3,500 to the Bank of America (Pico-La Cienega Branch, Los Angeles—Branch #308) for credit of my savings account there #3082-80075, and send me the advice of charge at the above address. Enclosed please find my change of address notice. Thanking you in anticipation. Yours Truly, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gajendra **Date:** July 20th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gajendra, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of July 17, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. The sentiments you have expressed are very nice, and they are just suiting for spiritual advancement. The actual Vaisnava always feels himself lowly and unqualified, but this submissiveness and humbleness is his actual qualification for becoming perfect in Krishna Consciousness. In material life everyone is thinking that I am so wonderful, I am so expert, but actually the living entity is an insignificant spark of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. So when we see we are becoming aware of our infinitesimal nature, then we begin to also understand something of how infinitely great Krishna is. One cannot be falsely puffed up and still expect to make progress in spiritual life. Rather one must learn to accept his constitutional position of Krishna's tiny servant. Then Krishna is pleased to reveal Himself to such devotee, and the devotee becomes more and more perfect in rendering transcendental service to the Lord. Regarding your proposal for distributing BTG through the agency you have contacted, I do not think this is very good idea at this time. Tamala Krishna has arranged so that there will be six devotees there in Seattle very soon, so there will be no need for such distribution arrangement. This agency is offering you only 25 cents per issue sold, and by Kirtana Party you will receive 50 cents per copy. Another thing is that we have found that our sales are much better through our personal endeavors on Kirtana Party, so this agency will simply be holding so many copies for one month, and what they do not sell will again be given back to you to sell on Sankirtana Party. They have asked you to advance $50 for their "Paperwork", but in Los Angeles there was one distributer who was taking 400 copies monthly and he did not request such fee. So as you will be having several new men there to help you after the Rathayatra Festival, Sankirtana Party will be the better way of distributing BTG. Regarding your question about offering camphor in aratrik, I do not know why you should be having trouble with smoke and soot by this offering. If you use smaller pieces of camphor this may alleviate the problem, or perhaps you are not using the right kind of camphor. Here we are using camphor for aratrik twice daily and there is no such problem. Of course, if it is too inconvenient, there does not have to be a camphor offering, but I do not know why this should be so. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** January 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 1, 1969 and it is very gratifying to know that Krishna has again engaged you in your own business. When you went to your father sometimes I was thinking whether I have not spoiled the career of this boy, but still I wanted to give your father a chance so he would not think that two of his boys are lost in the Krishna Consciousness movement. So it was Krishna's dictation that you went to your father for full cooperation, but he did not respond. Now you are free. I think that the talent which you have got for doing business will help our cause more than what you could have done at the custody of your father. So I am very glad that now you have a nice store in the new temple and that things are going on fittingly. I have got a report from Purusottama that his mother has seen your store and has very much appreciated it. Your presence was very badly needed at the temple to help your brother because Purusottama is here with me, so always do your best for the service of the Lord and be happy. So far as your selling incense is concerned, you may be interested to know that I have got connection with one big firm in Bangalore. (The firm is Sri Saibaba Perfumery Works, No. 40, 1st Cross, VI Main Road, Chamarajapet, BANGALORE-18, INDIA.) I have asked this party to send me samples and quotations, and we shall see whether they are favorable to others. It is very encouraging to note that you are receiving nice appreciations for the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and I have seen the two reviews which were sent by Brahmananda. They also appear to be nice, although one is not very favorable. However, this unfavorable review also proclaims that our Bhagavad-gita is distinct from all others. This point we want to advertise. Thank you very much for the sandalwood and sweetpea oils that you have sent me. I was just thinking of these oils because my stock was just finished, and Krishna has sent it just in time through you. Please ask Brahmananda to send to me a list of the Gaudiya Math books which will be arriving in February, so I will then direct as to what shall be done with these books so far as distribution. Also, please keep me posted as to the progress with Dai Nippon. I am enclosing a typed copy of lecture which I recorded and which was played in London on January 4th during a very successful meeting they were holding there with many important guests. Please hand over this enclosed copy to Rayarama to be printed in Back To Godhead. I am also enclosing a resolution announcing the passing away of one of my god-brothers and which also should be printed in Back To Godhead. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees. I hope that you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Please convey my appreciation to Patita Uddharana for his nice letter of January 1, 1969, and for his poem which he has sent to me via Rayarama. I have very much appreciated his poetic skills which he has shown in writing this poem, and thus I have requested Rayarama to print it in Back To Godhead as soon as possible. Encourage Patita Uddharana to compose more of such poetries. He is a good boy, and I am pleased that he is doing so nicely ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** February 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. After a long time, I beg to thank you for your letter dated 31, January, 1969 from the Spiritual Sky store. You have given a very nice name. At least you are giving ideas to the people in general that there is a Spiritual Sky, and they will get information sufficiently about Spiritual Sky, the planets thereof, the inhabitants of these planets, etc., through the medium of your store, the Spiritual Sky. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your check for $110 being the sales proceeds for Srimad-Bhagavatam. I am so engladdened to hear from you that the books are selling very nicely. Regarding the eight Gopis and my Spiritual Master, I think you did not follow what I said, but that does not mean that you should be disappointed. We are all students, and we are apt to commit mistakes; but that does not mean that we should be disappointed. Lord Caitanya also presented Himself before Prakasananda Sarasvati as a foolish student of His Spiritual Master, although He was the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Anyway, the actual fact is that the eight Gopis are as good as Krishna and Radharani. Therefore, no Vaisnava will claim to be one of the eight Gopis because that will tinge one with Mayavadi philosophy. If somebody says "I am Krishna." or "I am Radha." or "I am one of the eight Gopis." that is against Krishna philosophy. My Guru Maharaja claimed to be one of the sub-devotee assistants of the eight Gopis. Lord Caitanya also claimed Himself as servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna [Cc. Madhya 13.80]. So even though you might not have understood, you can correct it now and don't be disappointed. Your humble repentance is just like a Vaisnava student, so I thank you very much for this humbleness. Lord Caitanya taught us to be humbler than the grass on the street and more tolerant than the tree. So these symptoms are Vaisnava symptoms. There is no question of rejection or dejection. I am always at your service, and you can question whenever there is any doubt, and I will try to answer them as far as possible. Regarding the printing of my different letters, if you have sufficient time you can work on this project, but I think you have got greater project before you; sales organization of our books and publications. Unless we have got very good organization for selling our books, printing our books any place will be impractical. So I think you will try seriously how to appoint selling agents all over the country. Nay; all over the world. I'll be glad also to hear from you about how you are going to organize this selling propaganda. As for printing of the books, I have already answered this in the letter to Brahmananda, and you can see it. Hope this will find you in good health and cheerfulness. I am awaiting your early reply. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am always expecting big checks from you for my books. Do you think that you require some money for improving your business? ACB ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** February 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 9, 1969, and I thank you very much for it. Regarding your reprinting of my letters, if you will not detract from your other important engagements you may do it. I have written to Brahmananda about distributing our books, and should assist him in this important matter. I have considered your thoughts on the matter of our printing press, and for the time, the matter is still pending. Also, I think I have already answered your points in Brahmananda's letter regarding the contributions of the other departments of the New York temple. I am pleased to note that your store, the Spiritual Sky, is doing successfully. Krishna has given you nice talent for doing business, and I am glad to see that you are using it well. There is no need for you to contribute to my book fund immediately if you are unable. Do it as it becomes convenient for you. Your suggestion that we print transliterations in our future books is very nice, and I think we shall follow this principle in the future. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Please convey my blessings to your godbrothers and godsisters at your temple. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Enclosed is the letterhead sample which was sent to me by Rayarama. I think it is nice, and it should be printed in the same colors as the last letterhead. Please hand it over to Rayarama so he may do the needful ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** May 8th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 6, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I have advised Uddhava to inform you of what is decided regarding your business, and you may invite Kartikeya to come there to help you, as I have advised Uddhava to inform you. But your business must cooperate with the other departments, so that all departments can go on smoothly. Otherwise it is not a very good situation. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am going tomorrow to Columbus ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** May 15th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of May 11, 1969, sent along with the check for $250.00. You have written to say that you are still having problems in obtaining manpower for your business, and the only solution I can think of is that you engage outsiders to do this work. If you think you have a scarcity of money, then I can return the check to you, and you can utilize it. As I have mentioned in my letter to Brahmananda, I do not know how I can solve all of these departmental problems if they are all referred to me. It would be better if the department heads could work out such things amongst themselves. Today Kirtanananda Swami has left for North Carolina to take my place in lecturing there at two college engagements. This is very satisfying to me, and I wish that many of my disciples may become expert preachers so they may assist more and more in the great preaching work that we have to do for the benefit of mankind. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Successful business means it will improve in volume. Suppose you require 50 assistants then where we have got so much men. At that time we have to employ outsiders. Suppose we increase our sales of books very nice then we have take help of outsiders for binding. We cannot expect that all our men may become bookbinders. Our Krishna Consciousness program must be executed. ACB ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** August 29th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated August 23rd, 1969 with enclosures. I am sending herewith the copy of the letter addressed to Indo Crafter, giving them a trial order. You can immediately transfer 400 dollars to my savings bank account, The Bank of Baroda, Chandni Chowk, Delhi-6, and upon hearing from you I shall send necessary instructions to the bank. You have ordered through Acyutananda for supply of wooden mrdangas. This is all right, and we shall see which quality is better. I have also asked Mr. Dhadial to send me samples of Hare Krishna chaddars and kurtas. On receipt of these samples I shall advise you further. I am enclosing herewith back the letters of Bina Musician Stores and Indo Crafter. Keep them carefully in your files. I have heard nothing about the activities of Los Angeles temple. Also, I am anxious to know if you have contacted the Silverman Real Estate Company for the house we saw in Beverly Hills. Both our typewriter and dictaphone are useless here because the electric current is different. We have therefore hired another set for working. I shall be glad to hear from you again along with Tamala Krishna's letter. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** September 8th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated August 27th and 29th, 1969 and September 3rd 1969. Regarding Brahmananda's letter, I have asked him not to open Spiritual Sky business on the Eastern Coast, and a copy of the letter is enclosed herewith for your reference. I thank you very much for the contribution you have made of 300 dollars to my book fund, and the Sankirtana table is also very encouraging. Regarding the order of 12 mrdangas that you have suggested I discontinue, I have already done this, and the letter to Indo Crafter is enclosed herewith in carbon copy along with a copy of the invoice. Regarding United Shipping Corporation's shipment of Srimad-Bhagavatam, I have advised the bank in Vrindaban, and it will be all right. So far as one half of this shipment going to Los Angeles, I will speak to Brahmananda about this. But one thing is you must stop this fighting between brothers. Otherwise the whole program will be spoiled. Yourself, Tamala Krishna, Brahmananda, Satsvarupa—you should do everything combinedly. That is my request. Gradually, by Krishna's Grace, we are expanding. So if amongst ourselves there is friction, it will be very dangerous. So after my return to the States I shall make it more firm so there may not be any dissension. But you should be careful also. Regarding the Rs. 1,862.40 being equal to 250 dollars instead of 400 dollars, your money is safe. Don't worry. The balance will be used for importing goods here. It will not remain in India. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am going to London on the 11th September ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** September 22nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 13rd, 1969, and I am so glad to learn that you will not fight with Brahmananda. Brahma means "the Great", so even if you fight, then it will be physically impossible to come out victorious. But one thing I see is that you are coming out victorious in the matter of sales organization of the books. In one of the letters of Brahmananda I understand that the book selling organization there is not very satisfactory. Therefore, I am very much glad to read the circular letter issued to the temple presidents, and I shall be glad to know how you are getting response. The methods you have adopted to approach reviewers and convince them to review our books, how much this attempt has been successful? Reviewing is the only way for pushing on any publication. Somehow or other we have to organize the sales of our books and literature. Otherwise, what is the use of starting the press? The press must work on continuously, and we shall produce immense literature. If the press goes on nicely, I shall be able to give you material for publishing a book every two months. We have got so much material for Krishna Consciousness Movement. In your last letter I understood that you are collecting at least $70 to $80 weekly by selling books. That is a great service to the society. I am not very much enthusiastic to publish our books by some publication house, including MacMillan and Company. So far as I know, Ramakrishna Mission has their own publication organization; Aravinda Ashram has their own publication organization; Theosophical Society has their own arrangement; Bible Society has their own arrangement; Ravindra Natha Thakura has their own arrangement. So why Iskcon should fail to have its own organization? The thing is that the publishers are interested in money. They will make a condition that you purchase 5,000 copies, investing your money, and give some restriction that you don't go to booksellers. That means they publish with our money, our literature, and sometimes, if somebody goes to sell to some bookseller, they take strong objection. At the same time, they want to publish from the business point of view, without taking into consideration the aesthetic and philosophical side of the literature. I am enclosing herewith one copy of the letter of the MacMillan Company sent by Brahmananda to me, and you seriously consider the whole situation along with Tamala and let me know your definite opinion what to do. I am pleased to note your attitude regarding business. Our policy is nirbandhe krishna sambandha: We shall accept all kinds of civil activities, including business, trade, industry, only in connection with Krishna. I am glad that you are following this principle, and Krishna will be very, very pleased upon you to make you advance in Krishna Consciousness. Regarding Dwarkin & Sons, don't bother about it now. I shall see later on. I am keeping the invoice, and when it is required, we shall utilize. Hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** October 8th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated September 24th, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. I am so glad to learn that you liked that picture which was printed in the London newspaper, and I have got the original of this picture, given to me by the reporter. If there is somebody there who could paint it, then it may be sent to Los Angeles. Regarding MacMillan, I have already asked Brahmananda to make the arrangements complete for publishing the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. So far as supplies from India are concerned, Ranjit Mullick will be able to supply you with these. You may open correspondence with him, and the copy of his letter along with my reply is enclosed herewith for your reference. It is settled up that he will purchase from the best sources and charge 10% on the purchase price. So you can ask him for the purchase invoice, and that will be nice. First of all ask him to send samples. Then begin business. Unless you are satisfied with the price and sample, don't put any order. Acyutananda is very simpleton, and it is very easy to cheat him. That is the past experience. I have seen the label for The Spiritual Sky and it is very nice. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** October 18th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated October 10, 1969. I have already informed Tamala Krishna in my letter dated 13rd October that I have sent Brahmananda a check for $4,000, as he wanted $5,000 and you have sent $1,000 and Subala has sent him also $500. So the extra money that you have got now you can deposit to my savings account. The book fund collection may be deposited in my savings account, and a monthly statement may be submitted how much is deposited in that account. When need be, I shall personally issue a check. That will keep the account clear. I am so much pleased to learn that you are collecting $200 per week from the book selling table. Thank you very much. I am also pleased to learn that the Spiritual Sky is making appreciable profit for expanding Krishna Consciousness and opening branches. I have given instruction to Tamala how to keep the branches going on simply on the strength of chanting the Mantra and following the rules and regulations. We shall always pray to Krishna that we are weak and Maya is very strong. So seek for His protection in every step so Maya may not inflict upon us her trident injuries. Perhaps you have seen the picture of Durga carrying the trident in her hand, which is a symbol of the 3-fold miseries of material existence. Maya's most attractive feature is women and money. We Krishna Conscious men have to deal with women and money in course of preaching work, and the only prophylactic measure to save us is not to accept them for our sense gratification. Then we shall remain strong enough. Materialistic people take everything for sense gratification and Krishna Conscious people take everything for Krishna's satisfaction. There is no fault in the thing as it is; namely women and money, but it becomes faulty by improper use. The improper use is to accept them for sense gratification. As it is stated in Bhagavad-gita, we can remain very strong from this by taking a firm shelter under the Lotus Feet of Krishna, by chanting His Holy Name incessantly, and praying always for being engaged in His service. In this way He will protect us from our weakness. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** October 29th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 17, and October 24, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. I am glad that you have deposited $2,000 in my savings accounts. Regarding your business and spiritual practices, I give you special permission as follows: You find out of 24 hours at least one hour conveniently for chanting Hare Krishna with great attention, either by the Deities or any place, without being disturbed by anyone else. So you have 23 hours for other things. Now these 23 hours, whatever you do in them, either eating or working or sleeping, you always try to think of Krishna. That will keep you intact of Krishna Consciousness. If one is always careful about falling down and prays to Krishna that he may not fall down on account of greater strength of Maya, then Krishna will give him special protection. This was advised to Arjuna by Krishna Himself. Arjuna was a great fighter, statesman, and at the same time a great devotee. A statesman and military commander has very little time to perform the routine work of devotional service, but Krishna advised him especially to be engaged in his occupational duty, and at the same time always be thinking of Krishna. This is the secret of not being a victim of Maya. Rayarama's case is different. He definitely denied my instructions. I asked him to come to me and live with me, and he definitely denied. So this denial is cause of his temporary suspension of devotional life, but if he has executed devotional service in the past sincerely, I think he cannot go back. Regarding Spiritual Sky business, I am very happy to learn that it is making very nice progress and you are getting demand. Do it nicely, and as already agreed, you can use the profit exclusively for opening branches. The sales which an individual center makes by selling incense may be employed for temple expenditures. Similarly, Los Angeles also can employ it for this purpose. But so far as Spiritual Sky business is concerned, done by you, this profit should be set aside in a different account reserved for expanding branches. When you do business you should do it business-like. We should not neglect any minute part of it, but at the same time we shall think of Krishna, seeking His protection. The living example is the Gopis. They were householder wives, young girls having children to feed, carrying out the order of superiors; father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, satisfying the whims of the husband, executing so many household duties from morning to night. Still they practiced in such a way Krishna Consciousness that they did not forget even for a second Krishna. While mopping the floor, while washing the dishes, while milking the cow, while feeding the baby, while taking with friends, while cooking in the kitchen they were always thinking of Krishna. You will find all these descriptions in our book Krsna how they remained compact in thought of Krishna. So this is the highest ideal of Krishna Consciousness, and we should try to follow their footsteps. Everyone has to adjust things in his particular way, but I again repeat that at least one hour should be set aside for chanting the beads. I hope this will help you both ways and I pray to Krishna that He will give you all protection. Regarding your keeping some Book Fund money aside for investments, that is all right. Regarding the documents from Bina Musical Instruments, I have received note that they are expecting to ship the goods by the 20th, and as soon as they get the shipping documents they will deposit in the bank and take payment. Unless the documents are presented the bank will not pay. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** November 11th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 6, 1969, and I thank you very much for your bank deposit receipt. Practically you are the only hope who is filling up the gap in my Book Fund deposit account. Recently I have issued one check for $4,000 from my Book Fund to the Iskcon Press account. Out of that, you have already fulfilled the amount of $2,500. So I thank you very much. Regarding your business, Krishna will surely help you, and He is already helping you. We want to show the world that Krishna's service is not stereotyped, one-sided. Krishna can be served from any position, provided one is willing to serve Him. Krishna can be served and approached by businessmen, by lawyers, by scientists, by artists, by musicians, by philosophers, even by thieves and rogues; everyone. He is so kind. One has simply to accept the prescribed method how to approach Him. When I speak of thieves and rogues I do not mean that a Krishna devotee is also a thief or rogue. The idea is that even the thieves and rogues are eligible to accept this path of Krishna Consciousness and make their lives sublime. Actually, when a thief or rogue takes to Krishna Consciousness he soon becomes a saintly person. Just like Jagai and Madhai: They were thieves and rogues, but after being favored by Lord Nityananda they became first-class devotees. So Krishna Consciousness is so nice that everyone can approach the goal, and if one simply agrees to follow the prescribed method, very soon he becomes a saintly person. Regarding your sales report, I think it is encouraging, and the profit should be expended in the manner as I have already suggested in my last letter. Regarding Bina Musical Stores, I am sending herewith their invoice dated 30th August, 1969 and the shipping documents of Nedlloyd & Hoegh Lines (B/L 30). So you will have to pay only the freight, $129.00, and clear the goods. I do not know whether you have already received these documents through the Bank of Baroda because that was arranged with them. If not, you can do the business with these documents. The invoice #14528, dated 30th August, 1969, is for 5 cases of musical instruments. In the invoice you will find one piece "Bina Sangeet Model Harmonium". This should be kept aside for my personal use. It is not for sale. Other items are for sale. There is another item, one Big Size Khol, or mrdanga. You will see how the quality is and kindly report so that we can order for more. Tamala Krishna is scheduled to arrive here this evening. He has not come yet. Iskcon Press has very nicely printed our Peace Formula and Two Essays. They are also cheap, so I hope you will order them 2,000 copies. Our BTG appearance is coming out nicer. Everyone approves. So by Krishna's Grace I find all sides bright. My only request to all of you is to keep it bright. Don't let it go dim. That is Krishna's Glories. When Tamala comes we shall talk with him about the World Sankirtana Party program. In further regards to your recent contribution, this time you have deposited the money in the wrong number. My account number is 12410, but I see on the receipt the number is noted as 12416. In the future you should be careful about the number. In the meantime you rectify this mistake with the bank when you get time. I am returning the receipts herewith for your reference. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** November 20th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 17, 1969 with check for $63 and the bank receipt also. Tamala Krishna has gone now to Germany with the Sankirtana Party to install Radha-Krishna Deities there. I hope by this time you have received the shipping documents and invoice sent by the Bank of Baroda as well as by me. So after clearing the goods, please let me know how you have received them. Regarding your expenditures, we do not mind if there is no saving. Our policy should be to collect millions of dollars and spend also millions of dollars or sometimes more. But we should be very careful that we may not be extravagant. For necessary expenditures we have no grudge. I do not know what you are eating, but the eating program should be nutritious and simple, not luxurious. That means capatis, dahl, vegetables, some butter, some fruits and milk. This is necessary for keeping good health. But we should not indulge in sweetballs or halevah or like that daily. Too much first-class eating may stimulate our sex desires, especially sweet preparations. Anyway, eat Krishna Prasadam, but be careful that we may not indulge in luxury. For Krishna we can offer the most beautiful preparations, but for us Prasadam should be very simple. Regarding decoration of the Deities, that is very nice. They should always be very attractive so people who come will be attracted. So, as far as possible economize, and there is no need of savings. But because we are trying to purchase our own building we will have to save something because in the future we will have to pay large monthly installments. I have heard from Tamala that there is a nice church, and they are asking $100,000. Is that negotiation still going on? If so, you can let me know what is the position. Now I shall be very soon going to Boston, and then I shall go to Los Angeles. So what will be the arrangement for my stay there? I shall be glad to hear from you conveniently. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gargamuni **Date:** December 15th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gargamuni, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter with enclosures of one check for $60 and one bank receipt for $500. From the Book Fund this month I have spent a very large amount: $5,400. I have given two checks to Brahmananda, and Brahmananda has also sent me one check for $6,000. So this kind of transaction, printing of books and BTG and collection by selling, is very encouraging to me. Although there may not be any balance left, when we see we have so many books published and so many copies of BTG, that is our pleasure. So I am so glad that you are endeavoring to collect from different centers. If we print all our manuscripts, even at the cost price of materials as estimated by Advaita, I shall require at least $100,000.00. So let us go on. Krishna will help us. Let us try our best combinedly. That is our business. I am so sorry to learn about your wisdom teeth affair. These wisdom teeth are a good example of Maya's tribulations to us. In my younger days, by Krishna's Grace I had no such trouble, but I saw in my eldest sister this suffering from the wisdom teeth problem, and her gum was also operated upon. That I saw, and I saw how much she was suffering also. This is the way of material existence. So Lord Krishna has advised in this connection that we have to learn tolerance. Your example of dedicated life is very noble. You are handling thousands of dollars for Krishna, but you ask your mother for helping your personal needs. I very much appreciate this example, but it is my order that whenever you are in such trouble, you should not minimize any expenditure. You must have the best kind of treatment available, and you can spend from the money you are collecting on behalf of Krishna. Your mother's assistance is welcome, and as a child you can very affectionately ask her for such assistance. But in case of denial or inability, you should not hesitate to spend from Krishna's money. You can take it from me. By this contribution of your mother out of her affection, your mother has benefited undoubtedly. She is already benefited to have two such nice sons, and she will be more and more benefited. Not only your mother, but also your father and all family members will be benefited by your dedication of life for Krishna's sake. Be rest assured. Krishna Consciousness is so nice. From past correspondence with Bina Musical Stores and from your description, I have already written to the bank and to Bina also that if they have not actually shipped the instruments prior to this time, according to our understanding, by the middle of October, then the order should be treated as cancelled.* In the meantime, if you actually receive any documents, please inform me before clearing the goods. I have got some instruction to give you. You have to see first whether the consignment is insured. If it is not insured, then you have to take delivery, opening in the presence of a customs officer. I am expecting some unscrupulous behavior from these parties. But if in the meantime they have cancelled the order, that is good. What about Acyutananda? I understand that you sent him an order for mrdangas. Have you received any documents for that? How have you arranged the payment for him? I shall be glad to be enlightened on these points. Regarding the house, if you can do well with Mr. Spellman and if he takes 10-12% profit, that is all right. But do something of a permanent nature. The best thing would have been to have our own house, but Krishna is not giving us the facility. So if Spellman arranges something, that is all right. I am so glad that Dayananda is doing everything so nicely. He is intelligent, responsible boy, and whatever you do conjointly, it has my approval. You may note it. But always remember that Nandarani is also a very nice devotee girl, and their whole family is coming out nice; so you should see always that they are not in inconvenience in any way. Because he is family man, he should have some special consideration. A brahmacari can tolerate any inconvenience, but women and children cannot. They will have difficulty. Regarding my writing to you directly rather than through Tamala, I have noted the point. So far as Muralidhara is concerned, I have spoken to Tamala and he has advised that you consult with the lawyer, Michael Green. Also, please inform me in your next letter what is happening with this draft case as it is being handled by Mr. Green. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have sent you a duplicate B/L. Please inquire in this dock yard if the ship is expected and if so when! ### Letter to Gaudiya Mission **Date:** May 23rd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban > GAUDIYA MISSIONReg. Office: Sri Gaudiya Math P.O. Baghbazar,Calcutta-3Att: Secretary Dear Sir: Kindly accept my humble obeisances. I beg to enclose herewith a copy of a letter received from my Godbrother, Dr. Syama Sundardas Brahmacari, of your Mission. Taking the concluding portion of his letter inviting me to cooperate with the Gaudiya Mission in the matter of my activities of spreading the objective of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja, I am prepared to cooperate with the Gaudiya Mission in all respects, but I do not know under what condition you wish to cooperate with me. But I am prepared to accept any condition for getting your cooperation in full. So I shall be glad to know from you under what condition our cooperation is possible. But I am prepared in every respect and I shall await your reply with interest. So far as my starting a separate organization known as International Society for Krishna Consciousness, it was inevitable because none of our godbrothers are cooperating with one another. Every one of us is conducting his own institution, and there is difference of opinion even between Gaudiya Mission and Gaudiya Math. So if it is now possible to combine ourselves together, I shall be the first man to welcome this good opportunity. But apart from others, if Gaudiya Mission is prepared to cooperate with me, I am prepared to accept this cooperation in any condition. Please therefore let me know your terms of cooperation, and I shall be very glad to consider it. It has been suggested by Dr. Syama Sundardas Brahmacari that we cooperate at least in London, and I shall be glad to know your terms of cooperation. Thanking you in anticipation for your early reply. Sincerely yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated 21 May, 1969 which is full of encouraging news. I am now hopeful of the Hawaii center being improved like other centers by your good efforts. Last year when we were in San Francisco I practically pushed you towards Hawaii, and by the Grace of Krishna you are now finding some hopes. So continue your efforts, and Krishna will surely make your efforts successful. I am very much concerned to learn that Govinda Dasi is sick. Of course, she is always sick; that is general experience, but I do not know why she should be sick in Hawaii. The weather is not cold there, and when I was in Hawaii she had improved her health. Anyway, take care of her as far as possible and depend on Krishna. Everything will be all right. I think by this time Sudama has joined you, because I had advised him so and he has also sent his letter that he is joining you at the temple. Similarly, Balabhadra and Jayasri are there, as well as Vamanadeva, so you can do everything very nicely. Krishna will help you all. I think Hawaii is a good place; the people are interested and they are beginning to come. So you may make Hawaii New Navadvipa. Hawaii is already dvipa (island), so you make it into Navadvipa. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** June 2nd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated May 29, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am very glad to learn that you are seriously looking for some asrama site on the Hawaii island. If you are able to get some nice place there, it will be very successful because I know there are many young boys and girls there for you to chant with and speak with. This kirtana, chanting and speaking of Krishna, is the sure and certain method of propagating Krishna Consciousness, and we already have so much experience in all of our centers that if we simply chant Hare Krishna with karatalas and mrdanga and if we speak from Bhagavad-gita just as we have heard it coming down from the disciplic succession, then automatically the people become attracted. So you simply find a nice site on the Hawaii island or any other place near there where there are many boys and girls, and if you simply follow the above procedures, then your success is automatically there. I am pleased to note that there is one boy named Tony who has become attracted to our movement and wishes to be initiated. He may send me his beads immediately. Please take nice care of him because there are so many good souls who we must inform of this most important philosophy, and when another man is sent by Krishna to help us it is our duty to help him understand Krishna Consciousness as far as possible. I am very concerned to hear that Jayasri has now joined Govinda Dasi in becoming ill. I hope that by now they are both improved in health. Please convey my blessings to all of the devotees there, and I hope this will find all of you well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Please let me know when you are in Hawaii ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 13, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am very glad to hear about your recent Sankirtana success, and as long as this is going on, everything will come out nicely. I can understand that you are now forced to reduce your number living at the house, so for the time being you keep five or six men there. This landlady is increasing rent simply to take advantage, but as you have no other place to live you have to make some compromise. Jadurani may immediately return to Boston, and Sudama may immediately go to London. Sudama is much required in London, but because I thought he was needed in your center I did not ask him to go before. Under the circumstances, I think he may go to London immediately. In this way adjust things. Be confident that Krishna will save you from the present inconvenience, and take these steps immediately. You have spoken about Govinda Dasi's expertness on Sankirtana, and I know very well about her qualifications. I am 100% confident about her competence, and she can be very useful to your activities there. Unfortunately she becomes sickly, so as husband, you must see that she is taken proper care of. She is a good asset for you as your wife, and I want that you two work combinedly. That is my desire. You have such nice opportunity for doing very nice service to Lord Krishna in Hawaii, and I want that you two, husband and wife, work together. I have confidence in you, and I have got all blessings for you both that in the future you will be nice preachers. What you have done so far is very nice, and I am praying to Krishna for your success there. Please send all nice pictures of your activities to Hayagriva for publication in BTG. We have decided to give many pictures of our Sankirtana activities along with short descriptions. Hayagriva is now renovated to be the senior editor. You also should write articles as you have done before. Your articles are very much appreciated by me, so you write them, not only about Sankirtana, but also on our philosophy. But send immediately pictures to Hayagriva of your Sankirtana activities. Thanking you again for your letter. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** August 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 30 July, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am always encouraged to learn of the nice activities of our Hawaii Iskcon as they go on under your direction. These concerts which you are attending will not go in vain, because all of these people who are now hearing these vibrations of Hare Krishna Mantra will be gradually coming to our camp of Krishna Consciousness. This is the Vedic process that simply by sound vibrations there will be the reaction of spiritual benefit. And for all of these people who are joining you in chanting and helping you in your various activities, for them Krishna has shown His Special Mercy, and it is to be understood that Krishna will guide them more and more to return to Him again in His Spiritual Abode, Goloka Vrindaban. Regarding the difficulties you are having because of the police stopping your chanting in the streets, when Subala was arrested in Philadelphia for this same reason the judge declared him as "not guilty" when he learned of the nature of our movement and the purpose of our collecting. Subala has testimonial of this "not guilty" verdict as declared by the judge, so if you think it will be of help to you in getting permission from the police for chanting on the streets, then you may write to Subala for a xerox copy of this testimonial. Regarding your order of BTG, on such matters you should negotiate with Tamala Krishna. But one thing is that we are now stepping up publication from 20,000 to 25,000 per month, so we must likewise step up our sales on Sankirtana Party. In Philadelphia, Subala has reported that simply by standing on the street corners wearing our robes, automatically many, many people come up to inquire and purchase BTG from them, and they are selling about 80 copies per day. My Guru Maharaja always stressed the importance of distributing this Krishna Consciousness literature, so try to do it as far as possible. Regarding your obtaining a new temple, and your idea for yourself, Govinda Dasi, Balabhadra and Turya dasa to go to Tokyo in December, on such matters you may consult with Tamala Krishna in Los Angeles, because he has agreed to take charge of organizing this aspect of our movement. But I do not know how you are planning that the Hawaii branch will be maintained if so many important members leave for Tokyo. Just today I learned that in about one month Sudama and Bali Mardan will be leaving to begin this Japanese center, and Sudama has already arranged for free tickets for them both. So you may open correspondence to discuss this with Tamala Krishna. My idea is that you may not divert your attention to Tokyo at this time. Your responsibility in Hawaii is very great, so make it well-established first of all. Then you may try for another center. For your selling BTGs there is no reason for you to be strained. Whatever you can do conveniently is all right. I have received information from the United Shipping Corporation that the Murtis are coming from Calcutta to Honolulu. I am glad to learn that you have performed the Guru Purnima Ceremony by Kirtana that is all right. But this Guru Purnima is generally performed by the Mayavadi sects. The idea of Guru Purnima is to offer gratitude to the Spiritual Master by the disciple once in a year. That is called Guru Purnima. So far as we are concerned, Gaudiya Vaisnavas, we offer all our gratefulness to the Spiritual Master on His Appearance Day Ceremony, called Vyasa Puja. So kirtana is our daily function; whatever you have done is all right, but actual worship of the Spiritual Master will be done by all of my disciples on the fifth day of September, just one day after Janmastami. I am pleased to note that you have performed at certain "yoga" groups in the area, and already you are making a nice dent in their Maya, as they are now preferring the Maha Mantra to the chanting of Om. Actually, this chanting of Om is also a bona fide form of meditation, but as we learn from Vedic literature and from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the chanting of Hare Krishna is the prime benediction for this age, and it is the authoritatively recommended means of God-realization. Also, I am very encouraged to learn that you have your own radio show for one hour every Sunday morning. Here in Los Angeles I have so many tapes of my singing prayers, chanting new tunes of Hare Krishna, playing mrdanga, and purports to prayers. So if you think that some of these tapes will be nice for your program, I will have copies made of some of them and have them sent to you. Please convey my blessings to Heroine Govinda Dasi. Yes, it is nice if she can draw pictures for BTG covers. She may ask Brahmananda what pictures will be required for upcoming covers. But as she is still sometimes feeling weak, she should not tire herself out in this connection. Please convey my blessings to all of the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** August 9th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 5 August, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Enclosed please find one stereo tape of "Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu," song and purport. We have played a non-stereo tape on one recorder, and dubbed over it the sound of karatalas on a stereo tape recorder; so now the result is stereo. I do not know if this tape is suitable for your broadcast purposes, but if it is all right, please inform me. I am so pleased to read about your most recent chanting where thousands of people have heard you. It is very encouraging. Regarding your taking on an outside job, I do not think that will be nice. In Boston they have decided to purchase a large house with 16 rooms plus two halls, for the price of $70,000. The major source of payment for this house will be sales of BTG. So if you can organize sales of BTG and our literature very nicely in Hawaii, there will be no financial strain. Now we have a very nice book review from the "Honolulu Advertiser," so try to cooperate with the local booksellers. Regarding the boy who is now staying with you, if somebody takes shelter of our organization, we have no objection. If he desires to go to San Francisco, let him go. There is very good possibility that next week I shall be going to Boston to help them begin our Iskcon Press Department there in their new house, and from Boston I shall be going on to Europe. In the meantime, I will be remaining in Los Angeles at least till the middle of next week. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Are you getting some inquiries on a/c of the review. I think you should have some inquiries. Elsewise see the total book-sellers if they purchase some copies. The Review is nice ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** September 20th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. It has been some time now since I have heard from you, so I am anxious to receive your letter. Please inform me how you, Govinda Dasi, Balabhadra, Turya dasa and Jayasri are doing. I shall be glad to hear from you about this. You will be pleased to learn that Sudama, his wife Cintamani, and Bali Mardan have gone to Tokyo, and already they are making friends with very influential people there, and they are very encouraged that in Japan there will soon be a nice reception of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. I am very pleased to learn of the progress in Japan, and similarly, I am pleased with the nice progress being made in all of our centers. I arrived in London on September 11th, and there was a grand reception arranged. I am enclosing herewith some newspaper articles which reported on this event. Last Tuesday evening we were interviewed on a very popular program on BBC television. It was quite successful, and I can understand that there is immense potency in England for spreading Krishna Consciousness. I want that there may be at least four or five centers here. So I shall be awaiting your letter as soon as possible. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** October 6th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 1 October, 1969, and I am so glad to hear from you. You write that you have sent me some letters recently and also the examination papers, but I have received no such letters or papers. I have asked Tamala Krishna to keep the test papers that were sent to him in Los Angeles there with him to save postage, so if you have sent the papers there, I shall see them when I return to the USA. Otherwise, I do not know where these papers are; perhaps it is lost in the mail. In that case you should notify the bank to stop the check for $75.08. I am very pleased to learn that you have now moved to Honolulu into a very good section. Now if you can purchase a house as you have described your plan to do so, that will be very, very good. In Boston they have purchased one house, and the monthly payments of $1,000 are depending upon their sales of BTG. So if you can arrange for sales of BTG and our other literatures, that will be of great assistance for you in purchasing the house. The best news you have written is that Govinda Dasi is improving in health now. She is a very nice girl, and I want that in the Name of Lord Krishna both of you work together for propagating Krishna Consciousness. Krishna will always help you in this and bestow His all blessings upon you. Please ask Govinda Dasi to write to me sometime, because I have not heard from her for many days now. Here in England everything is going on nicely, and this evening we shall appear in big hall in London for kirtana and lecture. There is great interest in Krishna Consciousness amongst the English people and wherever we have spoken here there has been very nice reception. So by Krishna's Grace many of the boys and girls of the Western countries are advanced enough spiritually to take advantage of this Benediction of Caitanya Mahaprabhu of making perfection of life by the Hare Krishna Mantra. Please offer my blessings to the others and keep me informed of your activities in Honolulu. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Our Japan center is opened. So on my way to Japan I must drop at Honolulu ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** November 13th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated October 23, 1969. Both you and Heroine Govinda Dasi, assisted by Jayasri, Turya dasa and Balabhadra are all doing very nicely and entirely to my satisfaction. Krishna will bless you. Srimati Govinda Dasi's writings have come out in the BTG issue 28; I have received the press copy and it is so nice. Everyone is appreciating, and especially for the Sankirtana articles this issue has become super-excellent. So gradually I am getting to be an old man. I have given you the formula how to preach; you are young boys and girls, our future hope. Now you follow the principles, apply your intelligence, and everything will come out successful by the Grace of our Lord Krishna. Regarding the songs you have written, yes, you may send them here for Mukunda to consider for future recordings. I expect to visit your Hawaii center again when I go to Japan. Surely at that time it will not be difficult. But always remember that I am always with you. As you are always thinking of me I am always thinking of you also. Although physically we are not together, we are not separated spiritually. So we should be concerned only with this spiritual connection. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** November 20th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 17, 1969 with enclosed check for $30 for my maintenance, and I thank you very much. Regarding the house, I think there is indication of Krishna that we shall have our own house in Hawaii. Usually we do not wish to have our own house, but when Krishna offers it we must take the facility without any hesitation. In Boston also, Satsvarupa was put into similar trouble, and by the Grace of Krishna he has got now our own house and we have established our own press there also. The description of the house as you have given appears to be very nice, because it is near to the University of Hawaii. If by the Grace of Krishna you get the bank loan, I think that you can take the risk. For Krishna, to take some risk is also devotional service. That is ordered by the Gosvamis: krishnarthe akhila chesta. This means for Krishna's sake to do everything possible. From San Francisco when I pushed you alone for Hawaii, you did not know where you were going, where to stay, and what to do. But since more than one year you have struggled very hard, and gradually you are getting some foot in that distant place, and your good wife, Govinda Dasi is helping you. Also, some very nice assistants have joined you, so try for Krishna to do your best. That is our duty. Success or no success: it doesn't matter. The only thing is that we should try our best. So that I know you are doing your best, and Krishna will be very much pleased upon you all. Srimati Jayasri Dasi sent me some dried banana chips and they are very nice for my Ekadasi food. Is it possible to send us in large quantity this foodstuff? If not, please try to send me at least one small packet like that every fortnight. It is very nice. The mango pulp, a sample of which was also sent to me, I don't think it has come out very nice, so there is no need of sending it. Here the preaching work is going on nicely. Sankirtana Party is going on, and they have got many engagements. Just now they have got four days engagement in Germany. More than one half dozen devotees have gone there now, and they will also install the Radha-Krishna Murtis. They have taken the Murtis there with them. What did you do with the Murtis you received from Calcutta? Are they being worshiped regularly as I showed you during my stay at your place? Radha-Krishna seva should be done very nicely, and all the members should always be cleansed. I have personally[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** January 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. Thank you very much for your letter of January 10, 1969. In the meantime I have sent one letter to Govinda Dasi, and perhaps you have read it. I am glad that there was a nice newspaper reporter, and he is favorably convinced so do your propaganda work as far as possible combined together. It is very nice that Govinda Dasi is cooking for you and following my instructions. The husband's duty is to give the wife all protection, even from the material maya, and the wife's duty is to see to the personal comforts of the husband. In this way the husband and wife in cooperative spirit should execute Krishna Consciousness. That is my mission. In your country, practically everyone has no home life. So this Krishna Consciousness movement is giving them home life and the chance to live peacefully with wife and family. Regarding my going to Hawaii, it is not the question that I will have to take with me my present secretary and attendant. I can go alone as you are so anxious to see me, but the most important thing is if my presence there will improve the situation of our movement and temple very nicely. In this case, I am prepared to go alone; it doesn't matter. But if you think there is no such urgency, I can wait until the rainy season is over. So in any case, do not think that I am delaying to go to Hawaii because you cannot pay for my other assistants. I came to your country alone, and if necessary, I can go to Hawaii alone still providing there is urgency. Please continue to keep me informed of your activities and continue to spread kirtana as far as possible. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** January 26th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of January 19, 1969, and I have noted the contents with care. Regarding the work you have done on Caitanya Caritamrta, when they are finished being edited and typed please send me the copies so I will give you further work to do with this. I have written in Govinda Dasi's letter about this which you will please read. Concerning Vamanadeva's trouble with the draft, I think that if properly utilized, my certificate of acceptance of a person as student of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam may be very helpful in avoiding the draft because recently one Lieutenant Colonel, Mr. Davis, from the Selective Service came to see me about our activities, and he is fairly impressed. So I think that if Vamanadeva presents himself as a serious student of this institution he may not be called. I have a very nicely made certificate which can be sent to Vamanadeva if he would like to try for this. Regarding Muralidhara, he is now working here, and he is helping to meet the huge expenditures of the Los Angeles temple. But I shall see if he cannot be spared after a few weeks. Let me see how he is doing here. If he is not very much needed, which I shall know after a few weeks, then I shall ask him to join you in Hawaii. Please continue to keep me informed of your activities in Hawaii. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gaurasundara **Date:** May 12th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 6, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I think you should send United Shipping Corporation the price in advance of the sitar, and for the balance they can make their invoice. The balance may be deposited in the Hawaii bank, and ask the United Shipping Corporation to send the documents to the Hawaii bank; and the invoice may be made in your name because you have got account there. So you may accept the proforma invoice and send them back the copy. You advise them to collect through the Hawaii bank, (branch #—wherever you have got your account), and advise the United Shipping Corporation where your documents should be sent for collection. So please sign one proforma invoice and send it with the branch number where they are to collect the money from. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: I have chanted upon the beads sent by Jill (Jayasri), and I will be sending them back to her very soon. P.S. Please let me know if Jadurani has gone there and let me know how Govinda Dasi is. ACB ### Letter to Gaurasundara, Govinda, Vamanadeva, Balabhadra, Sudama, Kartikeya **Date:** April 2nd 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco My Dear Gaurasundara, Govinda Dasi, Vamanadeva, Balabhadra, Sudama, and Kartikeya, Please accept my blessings to all of you. I beg to inform you that I have safely arrived as scheduled in San Francisco, and I am thinking fondly of you all. Cidananda has received one telephone call from Satsvarupa requesting advice as to what should be Jadurani's program, and I have advised that if the doctor wishes Jadurani to go to Hawaii immediately then she should do this. Otherwise she will wait in Boston till after I go there on April 22nd about. So when this matter is decided you will be notified about her arrival there. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. Please keep me informed to your well-being and the progress of your center. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am reaching L.A. on 6th and N.Y. on 9th ### Letter to Giriraja **Date:** July 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Giriraja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 2, 1969, sent along with your beads. I have chanted on them and your initiated name is Giriraja. Giriraja is the name of the Govardhana Hill on which Krishna used to tend His cows. In Vrindaban the Govardhana Hill is worshiped as a representation of Krishna. Sometimes devotees take stone from Govardhana Hill and keep it at home as a representation of Krishna, and they worship in this way. I am very glad to understand that you have at least relished some of the transcendental bliss of Krishna Consciousness. It is a great fortune for you. Living entities are roaming within the universes in different species of life and in different planetary systems enjoying or suffering the reaction of pious or impious activities. But they have no information how to get out of this entanglement of repetition of birth and death. Due to the darkness of ignorance, most living entities have no idea about the values of life. Therefore, one who understands the importance of Krishna Consciousness must be a very fortunate soul. So I marked it in your person when I was in Boston, and I prayed to Krishna that this good soul may be aware of the importance of Krishna Consciousness. With my blessings I am sending herewith your beads, duly chanted upon by me. You should avoid the ten offenses as far as possible, and follow the four regulative principles as Satsvarupa will instruct you. I know your good Godbrother, Satsvarupa, will always help you in this connection. Regarding your $2,000 which you promised to send me within three weeks, I beg to thank you for this.* Actually, a brahmacari should contribute whatever he has got to Krishna, through the Spiritual Master. The Spiritual Master does not accept anything for his personal use, but he employs everything for Krishna's service. Therefore the Spiritual Master is accepted in the renounced order of life. So far as householders are concerned, they may contribute at least half of their income to Krishna. Then life is sublime. After all, everything belongs to Krishna, and the sooner we return whatever we have got to Krishna, the better it is. That is our normal life. Regarding your stocks, you can keep it for yourself for the time being, and if need be I may ask you to deliver this in the future. Your engagements there are nice, so continue to follow rigidly. You may inform Satsvarupa that I have sent the Krishna tape, #13, so he may transcribe it and send me a copy. I will be sending further tapes henceforward, because my Nectar of Devotion is now finished, and I shall concentrate on the Krishna tapes. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- * you can directly transfer this amount to my a/c No 12410 with the Equitable Savings & Loan Association Fairfax, Los Angeles, California ### Letter to Giriraja **Date:** July 10th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Giriraja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to enclose herewith one letter I have received from your father which will speak for itself. From this letter it appears that you are a good scholar and there is very good background in your educational career. So if you wish to make progress further in your educational career, that will be a nice asset for our Krishna Consciousness Movement. You have a taste for psychology and divinity studies, and this is very nice. Of course, our Krishna Consciousness Movement is on the line of divinity, and we have got so many books about the science of divinity. Unfortunately these books are not yet on the university curriculum, but if you take your post-graduate studies in divinity by comparative study, then in the future we shall be able to present the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness in comparison to other theological presentations. Actually, we are teaching the science of God; we are teaching how to develop our dormant propensity to love God. Being parts and parcels of the Supreme, we have got an eternal affinity to love God. Unfortunately, by our contact with matter we have practically forgotten that we are eternally related with God. In our Krishna Consciousness philosophy there is no question of sectarian views. Krishna Consciousness is the post-graduate study of all religious conceptions of the world. I like the idea that you should make a thorough study of all theological schools, and in the future if you can explain our Krishna Consciousness Movement as the post-graduate presentation of all theological theses, then it will be a great accomplishment. You are a grown-up boy and intelligent also, so you make your position clear and do the needful. I hope this will find you well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Giriraja **Date:** July 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Giriraja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 14, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. When Lord Caitanya was discussing with Ramananda Roy "who is the best educated man," the answer was that a person who is in Krishna Consciousness is the topmost educated man. Similarly, Prahlada Maharaja stated before his father that one who has taken to Krishna Consciousness, he is supposed to be the best educated man. In Srimad-Bhagavatam also it is said that unless a man is Krishna Conscious, his external advancement of knowledge has no value. On the other hand, any person who is on the platform of Krishna Consciousness is supposed to have acquired all the good qualities of the demigods. So your present engagement is very nice; neither I think that you can be better educated in the universities. Practically we find that in your country there are so many big universities, and the government arranges for educating the entire population, but still the hippies are coming out from the educational institutions. It is understood that in some of the big universities the entire student body has turned to be hippies. Of course the hippy philosophy is nice in the sense that they have been disgusted with the materialistic way of life. Therefore they want to renounce this stereotyped way of life. Unfortunately, they have no good leader, neither they have information that there is another beautiful life in Krishna Consciousness. I am so pleased to learn that you have taken Krishna Consciousness as the most valuable gift. One who can understand this, is not an ordinary living entity, but is the most fortunate. I think therefore that in all circumstances you should steadfastly continue your Krishna Consciousness engagement, rather than joining any more universities. So far as the draft board is concerned, I may inform you that we are arranging our institutions to be recognized by the draft board. In that case all our students will be taken as divinity students. Already some of our students have avoided being drafted by this way. So that is not a problem. If you are engaged in Krishna's service, He will give you all protection from all kinds of obstacles. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Giriraja **Date:** September 19th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Giriraja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 13rd, 1969 along with your check for $20, and thank you very much. I am receiving very encouraging reports from all our centers, including yours, so we should know definitely that Krishna is giving us all opportunities to serve Him more enthusiastically. Actually, the whole universe is Krishna's property. Krishna's devotees are His bona fide officers or sons, so if He likes, He can entrust the whole charge to His devotees immediately. It is not difficult for Him, but He wants to see how His devotees are developing unalloyed Krishna Consciousness. You are a very nice boy, and by Krishna's Grace you have captured the opportunity, and Satsvarupa is a very good associate for this purpose. So combinedly you try to spread this movement, follow the rules and regulations, chant Hare Krishna, and gradually you will see your life is perfect. So with all my good wishes, offer my blessings to the others. Here in London they had a very nice reception, and the press cutting in one of the papers is sent herewith. The BBC television station very much appreciated our movement, and we were interviewed on one very popular show last Tuesday evening. So things are progressing nicely, and our movement is gradually becoming popular. You will be also glad to know that we have recently opened centers in Tokyo, Denver, and Laguna Beach. Most probably very soon there will be another branch in Chicago. So let us work sincerely, and the requisite money and men will be supplied by Krishna for His service. I think Jadurani is very much busy in painting pictures, otherwise she should have written me some letter by this time. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Girish **Date:** August 21st 1969 > 1975 So. La Cienega Blvd.Los Angeles, Cal. 90034 My Dear Girish, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for the beautiful ornaments that you have so kindly sent for my Deities. Immediately upon receipt of them I have placed these ornaments upon Sri Sri Radha Krishna, and they are looking very gorgeous. So your gift has been very successful, and surely Krishna will bless you for it. I understand from Kirtanananda Maharaj and Hayagriva that both Birbhadra and yourself are doing very well, and it engladdens me to hear this. Both of you are highly intelligent boys, and I expect that in the future you will both be great preachers of this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Please offer my blessings to your teacher, Satyabhama Dasi, and to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I shall inform your mother about your gift and she will be happy ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** June 21st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated June 7, and June 16, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I have also received your presents, shoes and soap, and I thank you very much. I am also glad to learn that the anxiety of your parents is now removed. So go on with your prescribed duty of Krishna Consciousness and be happy. You are a very intelligent boy and faithful to your parents and to your duty. Certainly Krishna will be very much pleased upon you. The father and mother are also as good as the Spiritual Master, and we are indebted to father and mother in so many ways. So as they are dependent on your income, try to help them as far as possible, as well as spend something for Krishna also. Rupa Goswami spent 50% for Krishna, 25% for emergency, and 25% for relatives. You can also try to follow this principle as far as possible. Your main business is to keep in Krishna Consciousness, and if you keep that point in view, you can deal with others according to social conventions without being attached. Another thing, if you can request your father to supply us with Maharastrian mrdangas and kanjanis, that will be very nice. I wish to import them from Bombay, so if your father or anybody else who may be known to your father can arrange to supply us these things from Bombay, it will be a great service to the society. On receipt of your favorable reply from your father, I can arrange to pay him from a Bombay Bank where I have got money. In the Bank of Baroda, Bombay, I have got some money, and if your father agrees to take this trouble, then I may send him the required money by check, payable in the Bank of Baroda. So you can ask him quotation for the following things: 1) Harmonium—double reed, 2) Harmonium—triple reed, 3) mrdanga, 4) Kanjani. As our new centers are being opened in all parts of Europe, Canada, and America, we require many such instruments. So if your father does some business, he can make some profit also. In Bombay, the Scindia Steam Navigation Co. carries our goods free of charge, so if your father agrees, have him see the director, Sumati Morarji. She will be glad to dispatch our goods free of charge. Or else we can get the goods by paying the regular freight and price. So you can open correspondence either with your father or with some reliable person who can supply the above goods. Regarding Back To Godhead, I wish that you take charge of organizing the sales in the libraries. If you write letters on behalf of the society, will not that be good? I suggest that you may take a little responsibility for organizing the sales, and wherever you will direct, they will dispatch the sample copies if so required. Or else we can send the copies to you in Montreal for you to do such propaganda work as you like. I am starting for Los Angeles on Monday, the 23rd of June, and I shall be glad to hear from you at our Los Angeles address as follows: ISKCON, 1975 South La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90034. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** July 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 4, 1969 with the check for $50, and I thank you very much for this. I am very glad to learn that your father will be glad to do something for our Krishna Consciousness Movement, and I am expecting his reply with great interest. When you go to India, as you asked me for something to do, and also as you have an inclination to construct a temple somewhere in India, I would request you to consider if you can construct a temple at the birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. My disciple, Acyutananda, is already there in search after a suitable land for developing an American home for the Krishna Conscious devotees, and when you go to India, if you cooperate with him, it will be a grand success. He is alone there, and when you go you will be two, and maybe another two American disciples may go there so jointly you can develop a nice center for the foreign students who may go to visit the holy birthplace of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I think if you can organize it nicely there, maybe some other Americans may come and contribute for a nice temple. So keep these things in your mind. It is a hint for your work in India, and you can think this scheme over conveniently. In the Montreal temple Jayapataka is in charge, and I hope you are also cooperating with him. It appears that things are going on nicely there. I am enclosing a letter for him, so you may kindly hand it over to him. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated July 26, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your future settlement in India, You can work in any big city like Bombay or Delhi, because without living in a big city you cannot have a good job. You can also try Calcutta. Calcutta is also a very big industrial city, and if you are posted there, it will be easier for you to look after the Mayapur-contemplated temple. But it does not matter whether you are situated in Bombay, Calcutta or Delhi; wherever is suitable you can accept. Regarding your dress, you should dress yourself as smartly as possible. Krishna Consciousness does not depend on the dress. It is consciousness. If by dressing yourself very nicely you get honor from your customers, then it is a great asset for business management. So far as your diploma in business management from McGill University is concerned, you must have it by all means. In the Bhakti-Rasamrita-Sindhu it is enjoined by Srila Rupa Goswami that any work, either prescribed in the Vedas or ordinary mundane activities, if the target is to satisfy Krishna, then everything is devotional service. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam also it is recommended by Suta Goswami that ultimate perfection of an engagement is tested by the satisfaction of the Lord. Our aim should be how to please Krishna. As it is said in English also, the ends justify the means. So it is my request to you that keep Krishna always in view and accept anything necessary for your worldly affairs. I am very pleased to note that in such things you consult me. This is a very nice habit. You will please always consult me before doing anything, and I shall try to guide you to my best abilities. Regarding distribution of BTG or my publications, I welcome your floating a company yourself for this purpose. In that case your company will be another department of the society, although the society has no intention to interfere with your business. But your business will be considered as my business. So think of it very carefully, and it will be very nice. Regarding kholes from Bombay, I was expecting your father's reply by this time. Anyway, I hope to receive the same as soon as possible. Last week I was in San Francisco, and the Rathayatra Ceremony was a grand success. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** September 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Gopala Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated August 30th, 1969 with enclosure of your money order check for one hundred dollars Canadian. Another check for fifty-five dollars for my book fund was not enclosed. I think you are sending it by separate mail. If you have not sent it as yet, you can deposit it in The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce at Sherbrooke and Aylmer Branch. I have got a savings account there under A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- You can find out the number from the teller, deposit there, and send me the receipt. I am so glad to read the portion of your letter where you say "I would have continued to live in ignorance and darkness, thinking I would have known how to approach God." At the present moment, the modern education has taught everyone either not to think of God or everyone can think of God in his own way. The result is people have become Godless atheists. So to approach a bona fide Spiritual Master and to understand the science of God from him is the Vedic way of understanding. Even Lord Krishna, Lord Caitanya, and what to speak of other acaryas, all of them accepted a Spiritual Master, even if some of them were incarnations of God. The Vedic way of receiving knowledge is called avaroha, against aroha. Aroha means to try to understand God by one's own effort, and avaroha means to understand God by disciplic succession. Therefore we find in Vedic instruction that one must approach a bona fide Spiritual Master to learn that transcendental subject. I thank you very much for your solemn assurance that you shall try to follow my teachings throughout your life. It is very encouraging. Regarding dress, I have already written to you that you can dress as smartly as possible to deal with the public, and dress is immaterial in Krishna Consciousness. Consciousness is within. I am a sannyasi, but if some important work requires I dress myself just like a smart gentleman, I would immediately accept it. So it is not a problem. Acyutananda Prabhu is in correspondence with Gargamuni, and I have already sent one trial order to the Bina Musical Instrument Company in India, of which you have sent me a catalog. I don't think your Montreal center will require many musical instruments, so you may not send order separately. Regarding Murtis, you will have to prepare a nice altar and throne. The LA temple has done it very nicely, and I am sending herewith the specific design in picture. So your next business will be to construct a throne and altar, and as soon as they are ready, the Deities will also be received, and maybe I shall go and install Them. But when the Deities are installed in the temple, you have to take personal care. Deity worship is very regulative. You have to follow the regulative principles very rigidly. I shall be glad to know how many initiated members are there in Montreal, so I can chalk out the program for Radha-Krishna Deity worship there. Regarding Scindia Navigation, correspondence will not be fruitful, but if somebody sees Srimati Sumatee Morarji personally, then it will be at once done. By correspondence the underhand clerks and secretaries do not sometimes like the proposal. That is the envious nature of the human being in conditioned state. Regarding your correspondence with the leading men in India, I don't think it will be very much fruitful. Personally I have no faith in them, but if you decide to open correspondence with them, I have no objection. But my personal opinion is not very hopeful. I thank you very much for your submissive mentality, and as it is stated in the Bible that God is for the humble and meek, similarly, Vaisnavas are taught by Lord Caitanya to become humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the tree. Thus one can seriously execute progress in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** September 9th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter of 3rd September, 1969 with check for 55 dollars enclosed, and just today I have received your nice gift package of sweater, scarf, socks and incense. They are all very nice and I much appreciate your kind thoughts of me in this connection. On Vyasa Puja Day your article in the Vyasa Puja booklet was read aloud and everyone present thought it is very nice. This Thursday I am proceeding to London temple, and most probably I shall return to the USA by November. Perhaps we shall meet again at that time. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** October 1st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated September 25th, 1969 and I have noted the contents. I am sorry to learn that Dayala Nitai has temporarily left our association, and if in his absence you can take charge of printing French edition of Back To Godhead, that is nice. But the thing is it must be regularly published every month. Now some devotees have gone to Paris. They are not as yet established, but the idea is that we should eventually publish our French edition from Paris, as the German edition is being published from Hamburg. But so long it is not begun there, you can take charge of publishing from Montreal, as it was being done. Janardana has not come here to see me at London. I do not know if he has already gone to Paris, because I have not received any letter from him either. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** November 8th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I thank your very much for your letter of October 18, 1969, and yesterday I received your gift of one shawl. This shawl is very nice, and it will be used when I go to some meeting in my dress garments. Please send some me the new editions of the French BTG. If you are able to print them nicely in outside press for a good price, then it is very good. But in any case this magazine should be published regularly. The addresses of the Paris devotees are as follows: Suridas Adhikari, 2 Place de la Chapelle, Paris, 18, France. Janardana's address is 6, rue Michelet, 94 Fontenay-Sous-Bois, France. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** November 16th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. Thank you very much for your letter dated November 11, 1969 with enclosed BTG, French edition. Krishna is giving you gradually more and more strength to serve Him. Just like a wrestler, simply by practicing wrestling amongst friends, gradually becomes stronger and the body is built up very nicely, Krishna Consciousness is exactly like that: The more you serve Krishna, the more you get better strength to serve Him. Please remember this valuable advice and you will find it very convenient for your progressive march. The BTG French edition is very nicely done. Even if our endeavor is not always successful, because it is done for Krishna, by nature it becomes nice. We have nothing to do with material considerations. Janardana came to see me about one fortnight ago, and he is also eager to do something in Paris, so be in correspondence with him. I am very glad to learn that Yasodanandana's name is given as the editor, and encourage this nice boy more and more. I have received your shawl duly and I have already acknowledged it. It is very nice. I am using it for my dress garments. Regarding the Mayapur center, this is almost settled up that we shall have a temple there. Very soon we shall purchase a piece of land there, so when you return to India it will be in your charge for constructing a temple in grand scale there. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: I have received the bank receipt of your contribution to the Book Fund, and thank you very much for this ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** November 26th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated November 22, 1969 and noted the contents. I have received one check signed by Raktaka Brahmacari for $15, and please convey my thanks for this. Regarding your citizenship in Canada, I agree with this proposal because the service which you are now occupied in is very good service and your bosses have recognized your activities. So gradually it may be that you will improve more and more. But I know that this Pepsi Cola Company attempted their business in India and it was not very successful. Otherwise I would have asked you to transfer yourself in the same service in India. Regarding your marriage, that is my open opinion that if anyone can remain a brahmacari all the time, without being disturbed by sex urge or who can tolerate such urges, there is not any need for him to marry and take some extra responsibilities. But one who is disturbed in mind, he must get himself married. Therefore, it has to be decided by oneself if he should marry or not marry. It is a fact however that if one is thoroughly engaged in Krishna's service, this sex urge does not have much disturbance. But you have got to work outside with karmis and different types of people. Under the circumstances, if you have a good wife to help you, that will be very nice. Another difficulty is that in modern civilization everyone is independent spirited. The girls are no longer very much humble and submissive to their husbands. So you must be prepared to tolerate such whims of your future wife. According to our Vedic civilization, disagreements between husband and wife is not taken very seriously. But the modern age allows divorce even, either by the husband or by the wife. These things are not good. But after marrying, certainly there will be some disagreement or misunderstanding between husband and wife. So consider all these points, and you can decide yourself. But if you marry, I have no objection, as I have gotten married so many boys and girls and they are living peacefully. If you marry one Canadian girl, your citizenship will be immediately made, without waiting for time. That is the law in the USA. I do not know what it is in Canada. Regarding land in Mayapur, the price is not $2000, but it is about $1200, so far as it has been offered to me. So you do not talk about the price with Acyutananda. When it is settled up, then I shall let you know. The article which you have sent to me appears to have been written from London, thank you very much for collecting this. I am sending herewith an article translated by a girl in our Hawaii temple named Monique Wynkoop. I do not know the French language so I cannot check whether or not it is correct. If it is all right, you may publish it. It is very good news that the French BTG is also selling nicely, and if you think the sales will be 2,000 copies, then you can print at least 5,000 copies in our own press in Boston. That will be cheaper. If you simply send the layout work, they will immediately print and send it back to you. You can open correspondence in this connection with Advaita das Adhikari at the Boston address. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** February 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of you letter of January 26, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am very pleased to understand that you are going to contribute $250.00 for murtis. I think that you can pay at the rate of $100.00 twice and $50.00 once. That will save much time, but if it is inconvenient, you can pay at the rate of $50.00 per month. As soon as I get $100.00 I shall immediately order the deities with this advance. I am so glad to learn that you are chanting very regularly and trying to follow the four principels of restriction as far as possible. I have got an account with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Montreal, and, if you like, you may deposit the money there in my account. I can send you the name of the branch and my account number if you like. I think this will save time in your remitting your contribution. Thanking you for your letter and for your sincere good will toward our mission of Krishna Consciousness. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** March 16th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 7, 1969, and thank you very much for it. I am sorry I could not acknowledge receipt of your money, but it was deposited in the bank less $3.00, and some cents—about $4.00. So, next time when you send me your contribution you can send it in American dollars. Otherwise, they deduct some exchange difference. You can send me always your long letters—it is very pleasing to me. And I am so glad that you want to chant 16 rounds of Hare Krishna Mantra every day. And you can chant immediately, but you should also, at the same time, follow strictly the four principles of restraint and avoid the 10 kinds of offenses in the matter of chanting, it will be quickly effective. I'm very glad to learn that you have vowed to follow these four principles, as far as you can in your lifetime. And because you are so sincerely trying to push yourself in the matter of Krishna Consciousness, Krishna is giving you some intelligence also and you are thinking in so many nice ways in the matter of serving the Lord. I am so glad to learn it. You are returning to India by August of 1970—do you think that you will not come back again in Canada? If so then I shall give you some work which you can nicely perform in India, informing them about the Krishna Consciousness movement in the Western countries. To tell you frankly, one of the objects of my missionary activities is to bring to notice of the educated Indian public that devotional service originated from the Indian side in its pure form, propounded by educated public and the leaders of Indian people specifically are deliberately violating all the principles of India's original spiritual culture, in the name of secular state. When India was divided into Hindustan and Pakistan, there was good opportunity for the Hindu Indians to follow strictly the principles of Bhagavad-gita, and the state religion should have been declared Krishna Consciousness. Mahatma Gandhi was a great advocate of Bhagavad-gita, and when he was alive I requested him to preach but I did not receive any favorable reply from him, because he was too much politically contaminated. So anyway, taking consideration of India's present governmental policy, in the matter of educated public opinion, I do not think that in India there is any immediate possibility of spreading Krishna Consciousness very seriously. Under the circumstances, if you go to India, you have to make some propaganda against this attitude of the government and the public. Your desire for opening many temples is very laudable, but unless you prepare some temple worshippers then the temples will remain vacant. So in this age, it is more important to create devotees than to construct temples. My Guru Maharaja advised me to give more stress on literary work such as publishing books and magazines in Krishna Consciousness, and temple opening is a secondary consideration. I am just trying to open some temples in the Western countries because there is none. So far India is concerned, still there are millions of temples, but gradually the number of temple worshippers is diminishing. Perhaps you know that recently within 50 years, our capital New Delhi has developed tremendously, but the constructor of the New Delhi city has not erected even a single temple. So this is the tendency. Neither it is recommended in the scriptures to give more stress on temple building. The best thing is in this age to propagate this Sankirtana movement. So I shall be very glad to utilize your energy in this Krishna Consciousness movement as you are willing volunteer. May Krishna bless you with more Krishna Consciousness activities, and you will feel a glorious life by Krishna's Grace. I wish that all your good desires may be fulfilled without delay. Thanking you once more, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** March 30th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter of March 21, along with a check for $75, Canadian, and I thank you very much for this contribution for the Deity. And also I am very much obliged to you that you are going to send me another lot of $250 for my book fund. Yes, my Guru Maharaja advised me to give more stress on publication work so most probably I shall try to concentrate my energy in this department very shortly. Perhaps you know that we are going to print BTG every month 20,000 copies, and maybe very soon we shall increase to 50,000 copies. If you kindly help me in distributing these books and literature, it will be a very great help for my missionary activities. You are working as sales organizer so you can think up this sales organization side by side, and if possible try to help. My next scheme is to develop the New Vrindaban scheme, and I require there millions of dollars. Immediately I have got about $25,000 worth of books or more. If you think of how to organize sales, then we can promote more and more books, and with the profit thereof, we can spend in so many departments. The people of the Western country, they are fond of reading books and by propaganda work we have to change their taste and divert them from reading all worldly literatures, to transcendental literature. Please think of this carefully and let me know if you can help. You write to say that these days the educated class of people have rejected devotional service—and it is their misfortune. This means they are not being educated; rather they are being degraded. According to the verdict of Srimad-Bhagavatam, if one is not devotee, then he has no good qualifications, and if one is simply devotee, it is to be supposed that he has got all the good qualities. For the present you do not try to have a small temple in your house, because I know that you are not strictly vegetarian. I do not know whether now you are also strictly vegetarian, but unless you become so, don't try to have a small temple in your house as proposed by you. The four principles which we ask our students to follow, namely, restraining illicit sex life, etc., must be the basic principles of spiritual life. I am glad that you are preparing for your exam, and after that, please try to move the Indian papers, how Krishna consciousness movement is improving and flourishing here in USA, while the Indian boys and girls have rejected it. Illustrated Weekly of India had sometimes back published our article (maybe Dec. 21, 1967), so if you remind them, and send them more articles and photos, they will surely be glad to print them on receipt of them. From here I am going to San Francisco, then L.A., and then to New York by the 10th of April, and I shall be glad to hear from you at your convenience, and I thank you once more for your contribution and kind letter. Hope this finds you well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S Please contact Bal Samant by correspondence. His address is with Jayapataka Brahmacari. Also let me his address in India. ACB ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** April 30th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated April 23, 1969 and was very pleased to note the contents. You are very anxious to have engagement in Krishna's service, so my immediate best service for you is to help organize the sales promotion of my books. I have already got five books; three volumes of Srimad-Bhagavatam, one volume Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and one volume Teachings of Lord Caitanya. This year most probably we will have another three books; namely Nectar of Devotion, and two further volumes of Srimad-Bhagavatam. So the future hope for expansion is selling of books and magazines. So if you can make some organizational idea, you will please send it to me and I shall consider it. I am very glad that you are thinking of marrying. Why don't you marry one Krishna Conscious girl? I think instead of going to India, you should find out some Krishna Conscious girl, either from America or Canada. We have got so many nice girls in Krishna Consciousness, and she will help you in your further advancement. You are already accustomed to the climate in this part of the world, and you have got a nice job. Therefore, I would recommend you to get married here. Lord Ramacandra once said that wife can be found in every country. DESHE DESHE KALATRATRANI. DESHE DESHE means in every country, and KALATRATRANI means wives. So all the ksatriyas married in different countries. Of course you are not expected to have many wives in different countries, but if you have one wife in one country that does not hamper. But I recommend you to marry one Krishna Conscious girl from our group. Then you will be happy. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** May 13th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated May 6th, 1969 and May 9th, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I think that since you are willing to observe the four principal rules of spiritual life, you may be initiated by me as soon as you like. The other rules you should try to follow as far as possible, but according to circumstances they may be adjusted if necessary. But the four rules must be maintained. Regarding your idea of marrying one Krishna Conscious girl and then going to India, that will depend upon the desire of your wife. I cannot interfere with that. But generally the wife is meant to follow wherever the husband goes. Most likely your wife would agree with you—she will not disagree to go. Rather, some girls will be very much encouraged to go to India with her husband. So you may consider on these points and inform me what you have decided. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 21, 1969. I am very glad to send you the beads for your initiation, but I think you wanted permission from your father, and I have received the following telegram from him: "Gopala Khanna at Montreal our only son pray his initiation to brahmanahood will doom and driven future of this small humble family. Pray abandon programme and earn our gratitude, cable. Accepting our prayers Lord bless every one and give us our joy back.—Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Khanna Aban Villa Santacruz East."I do not know why you had wanted permission from your father. In the material world everyone is interested in pound-shilling-pence. Your parents must be thinking that upon your being initiated you shall become a mendicant and the pound-shilling-pence you are sending will be stopped, and they will suffer materially. But you can assure them they will be better off materially after you are initiated. Anyway, now I do not know what to do with you. Shall I wait till you get sanction from your parents, or shall I initiate immediately? In my opinion, because you wanted permission of your parents, you should wait at least for such time when your parents will permit you. But if you are strongly desirous, then you can disregard your father's desire and make advancement in Krishna Consciousness. On hearing from you I will do the needful. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** May 27th 1969 — **Location:** Moundsville My Dear Gopala Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter, sent along with your japa beads, and I have duly chanted upon them and initiated you as my disciple. So you should go on with your chanting as you have been doing, and as your name is already Gopala Krishna, there is no need of changing your name. So now you will be known as Gopala Krishna Das. Try to follow the regulative principles and avoid the ten kinds of offenses. Next you shall be initiated by the offering of the sacred thread, so in the meantime you can convince your parents to give up their objections. But if you are personally determined, there is no question of any objections. No one can check another's spiritual advancement on the plea of any material relationship. There are many instances of someone accepting the spiritual line, despising all family relationships, and the best example is Lord Caitanya Himself. I do not know why your parents are so upset, so you should convince them there is no need for this. And why you should inform them of all the details of your activities? Of course as honest son you have done the right thing. But if they object and if you have to obey by their orders, I don't know how things can be adjusted. I am enclosing the letter I received from your parents, along with my reply to them, so you may do the needful. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gopala Krsna **Date:** June 5th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban Dear Gopala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 29, 1969. I have already sent your beads duly chanted upon, and I hope you will be happy in Krishna Consciousness always. As you are a very nice, good soul, Krishna will certainly bless you with all benedictions. It doesn't matter whether or not you remain in this part of the world or in India. Wherever you remain you chant Hare Krishna regularly, and your example may be followed by others. The world needs this benefit, and when you return to India there are so many ways you can convince your parents that to take to Krishna Consciousness does not mean one has to give up his worldly affairs. I know in India there are many foolish persons who think that by reading Bhagavad-gita one is apt to renounce this world. This is completely foolishness. Arjuna was a family man, a soldier, and he was directly taught the principles of Bhagavad-gita, but he never renounced the world nor the battlefield. I do not know why there are certain crazy men who think like that, that if a man becomes devotee, he will have no more interest in worldly affairs. We are not Mayavadi; we do not state that the world is false. We say that if Krishna is truth, the world is also truth because the world is a manifestation of Krishna's energy. So if Krishna is true, how His energy can be false? The Mayavadis preach so-called monism, but they always distinguish brahma and maya. They say brahma is true, maya is false. We say maya is true, and because it is Krishna's energy, she must be employed in Krishna's service. That is our philosophy. So far your parents are concerned, I have received another letter from a friend of your parents whose name is Bhartendu Vimal. I am enclosing this letter for you to read. Your father has induced him to ask me not to initiate you. This gentleman came to see me in San Francisco. He might be some congressman, and at the expense of the government he was making some so-called cultural tour. The government is interested to send anyone for dancing or recitation of poetry, but when the government is requested for giving some facilities for preaching Krishna consciousness, they will not encourage. On the other hand they encourage publications in which Krishna is depicted as black and low-born. This is the position of our government. I am glad that your parents are interested in Bhagavad-gita and Lord Krishna, and when you return to India you make them understand Krishna philosophy very nicely. I am also pleased to learn that when you marry, you will marry a girl who is a worshipper of Lord Krishna and who agrees to follow the four basic principles strictly. I am so please to learn that you have appreciated our aratrik song, "kiba jaya jaya gorachander". You have voluntarily offered to do something when you return to India, and the best project will be to work there as representative of this Krishna Consciousness Movement. In my opinion, India is going down by giving up this original cultural life which is its own. The government is enamored by the glittering civilization of the West, and it was a definite policy of our late prime minister, Mr. Nehru, who wanted to see India overnight as rich and materially advanced as America. It was, of course, Gandhi's policy to concentrate his organization in village life, taking to simple life and cow protection. But just after Mahatma Gandhi's disappearance, his chief disciple, Pandit Nehru, planned for up-to-date organized cow-slaughter house. So this is our position. If you have understood Krishna Consciousness science, then you will try to revive this cultural life in India. Of course so long I shall live I shall give you all assistance. But if you concentrate your energy in a city like Bombay for propagating Krishna Consciousness amongst the younger generation, as I am doing here in the Western World, it will be great service to Krishna and to your country. I have already asked you to think on the project how you can push on our books and literature. I cannot suggest any other alternatives, but if you can execute this will of mine, I shall remain ever-obliged to you. You are welcome to write to me as often as possible, and it is my duty to give you right instructions. Try to follow them and you will be happy. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Goursundar **Date:** July 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Goursundar, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 9, 1969 along with the copy of the article, and I have noted that your new address is Box 1684, Sunset Beach, Hawaii. I think it is Krishna's desire that you would vacate the former building and go to the hippy quarters. Actually, the hippies are our best customers. Almost all of our important disciples are recruited from that group, and you are also from that group. So actually we should try to serve the hippy group more than others because there is great potency of recruiting Krishna Consciousness devotees from them. You will be pleased to know that one hippy girl named Chris who came to see me in your apartment is now living in our Los Angeles temple and doing very nicely. So if you make propaganda amongst the hippy group simply by our standard method; Sankirtana, reading some portion of Bhagavad-gita, and distributing prasadam, then I am sure the quarters in which you have now shifted will be very much prospective. Besides that, it is a beach and the atmosphere is very nice. So by the Grace of Krishna do it nicely, husband and wife combined. That will be a good example. I was so much pleased with Govinda Dasi and with you also when I heard about her spirited preaching and your tolerance like Nityananda Prabhu. May Lord Caitanya and Nityananda Prabhu bestow Their blessing upon you, and don't be deterred in any circumstances. Serve Krishna with serious attempt. Your article is very nice and gradually you shall improve. Go on writing. It is my policy to publish as many as possible of articles by my disciples. BTG should contain news of our temples, articles, pictures of our activities, etc. The bunch of pictures you have sent have been forwarded to Brahmananda for publication. Regarding BTG, I am so glad to learn that your center will be a good distributing place. Do you think that you shall be able to distribute 3,000 copies? Then I shall ask Japan to deliver the copies directly to you. We are charging from different centers $750 for 5,000 copies of BTG. Similarly, for 3,000 copies you have to pay proportionately, and the marginal profit will be 25 cents to 35 cents per copy. So even if you make 25 cents profit, and you can sell 3,000, that means about $750 to $1,000 profit. If you pay $750 per month, you get 5,000 copies, and by selling only 1,500 copies you realize your investment money, and you have 3,500 more copies to distribute. So we have to calculate business like that. If you think you can sell 3,000 copies, I shall notify Japan to send them directly to you. I am always thinking of Govinda Dasi. Although she is young and delicate almost always suffering from some ailment, still she is so sincere devotee and spirited preacher that I have named her Heroine Govinda Dasi. May Krishna bless you both and be happy in the preaching work of Krishna Consciousness. Gradually convert the Hawaii Islands into New Navadvipa Dham. I am sure you can do it if you go on preaching with the same present spirit and enthusiasm. I hope this will meet you in good health. Please convey my blessings to the others. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Govardhana **Date:** December 25th 1969 — **Location:** Boston My Dear Govardhana dasPlease accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 9, 1969 along with your prayer beads. I have duly chanted upon these beads and thereby have accepted you as an initiated disciple. Your spiritual name is Govardhana das Brahmacari. Govardhana is the name of the hill which Krishna lifted up to protect the inhabitants of Vrindaban from the heavy rainfalls which were being sent down by Indra. This Govardhana Hill is still there in Vrindaban, and it is worshiped by the devotees of Krishna just as Krishna Himself is worshiped. You have a very nice opportunity to quickly advance in spiritual perfection because you have the good association of the devotees in Hawaii. This association with devotees of Krishna is recommended by Lord Caitanya Himself as the most important factor for developing Krishna Consciousness. This is because our dormant love for Krishna is covered up by the material contamination, but it is quickly aroused when the association of a pure devotee is there. The example is given that when an iron rod is put into a blazing fire, the rod soon takes on the qualities of the fire; namely light and heat. But if the same rod is put amidst some ice, then it will remain simply dark and cold. In the same way, a devotee should associate with fellow devotees, and in relationship to others the devotee should try to elevate them also onto the spiritual platform. So please follow this principle and surely you will mark great strides in the matter of your spiritual advancement. The four basic regulative restrictions we observe are 1) no illicit sex connections, 2) no intoxication, 3) no meat-eating, and 4) no gambling. You must try to chant at least 16 rounds on you beads daily, and avoid the ten offenses to chanting which Gaurasundara Prabhu will instruct you about. When you are having questions to ask, you inquire from Gaurasundara and I also will be happy to help you in any way possible. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Govinda **Date:** January 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Govinda Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I hope that by now you have received the reply to your letter which you mailed just after your arrival in Hawaii. I am very glad to learn that you have now become a very good housewife with your very good husband. It is learned also that you are cooking very nice foodstuffs for him. This is very good. Your husband is very busy now, otherwise I would have asked him to continue the work on Caitanya Caritamrta. Now I shall be glad to know what you are doing. Do you propose to manufacture Kartamasi from there? But whatever you do, do it in a program. I hope this will find you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Have you received any news from Jaya Govinda. His latest letter received yesterday is very disappointing. He has not mentioned about the murtis. Please remind him again. He appears to be on the path of Maya. ACB ### Letter to Govinda **Date:** January 26th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Govinda Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I was very pleased to read your letter of January 19, 1969. I know that you will always be thinking of me as you described in your letter because you are so affectionate to this poor old man. And by your sincere affection you have also made me think of you how you are doing there in Hawaii. I understand from your letter and from Gaurasundara's letter also that you are now engaged as a nice housewife. It is a great pleasure for me to know this. In London, the six couples who are working very hard there have been very much appreciated by the people of London, and their character, behavior, and devotion are attracting sincere people to our movement. I want similar thousands of couples for my disciples to propagate our movement throughout the world. You can always help me in this matter because you are an intelligent girl and you have many talents. So you can utilize your god-gifted qualities for utilizing in Krishna Consciousness. So far as my taking botheration in coming to your country, I must take this so-called botheration for Krishna. But what botheration I have taken? You know that the Goswamis were ministers in the government's service and they left their posts for going to Vrindaban and living there just like paupers. They produced such great literature like Sandarbhas, by Jiva Goswami, and Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, by Rupa Goswami. Apparently they took so much botheration but they preferred to accept it because they were compassionate for the suffering humanity. Similarly, Lord Caitanya is Narayana Himself, and His wife, Visnupriya, is the Goddess of Fortune. Lord Caitanya was a very learned scholar, a very beautiful young brahmana, and He had a very affectionate mother, but Lord Caitanya Himself accepted the botheration voluntarily for the good of the human society and all living entities. We should always follow these footprints—not try to imitate, but to follow the same spirit of compassion for the conditioned soul and try to help them advance to Krishna Consciousness. Actually in the service of Krishna there is no botheration. Rather we feel more transcendental pleasure. I hope you will more and more appreciate this status as you work combinedly with your very good husband, Gaurasundara. Regarding your dictaphone work, I have got two kinds of tapes. Either you can type up my lectures (Purusottama has already sent you one tape), or you can do tapes of Caitanya Caritamrta as you were doing formerly. But I think that Gaurasundara hasn't got sufficient[TEXT MISSING] ### Letter to Govinda **Date:** February 10th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Govinda Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 30, 1969, and I am so glad to learn that you are working as a full-time secretary in a good business firm. Please try to continue this work as far as possible. I think that by Krishna's mercy you must be feeling happy. Now you are getting some income which is essential for householder life, and you are living with your husband, so I am very much satisfied that you are in happy mood. Now I am sure that you will be able to contribute $5,000 to my book fund. I understand that you have some difficulty with your dictaphone, and as soon as you fix it, I will continue to send you some tapes. Regarding Kartikeya, I am sorry to inform you that all of a sudden he has been captivated by maya, and since yesterday, he has left my company. The day before yesterday afternoon, he was absent for more than three hours and when he came back, he explained that he was out walking in the street. Later on, it was found that he went to see a Christian priest who had impressed upon his mind that one can drink wine after offering it to Lord Christ on the first Friday of every month. I had been informed by Kartikeya that before his coming to our Krishna Consciousness camp he was drinking too much. So now he wanted to give me evidence that drinking was good when it is offered to Lord Christ. I tried to convince him that drinking is not at all good. The very fact that one should drink on the first Friday of each month means it is rigidly restricted; one can drink only once every month, but in the case of bread, it is said that one should pray daily for bread from the Lord. In this way there was some remonstration, but he was silently hearing from me while being not at all satisfied. I understood from Purusottama that the whole night he was not satisfied. The next morning, that was yesterday, Tamala was talking with me and I asked him to keep Kartikeya for some time in his Kirtana Party. But Kartikeya got immediately upset, and just within 15 minutes, he took away his bags and baggage and phoned his sister and went to her place. This morning, Sudama phoned him that if you do not like to live in the temple, you can come back and live with Swamiji. But he has not come back. Therefore, for the time being, it is to be understood that he is victimized by the stroke of maya. I do not know what is awaiting his future lot, but I am sure that his service to Krishna and to his Spiritual Master will not go in vain. But individual independence and maya are so strong that they can stop progress at any moment. So long as he was here, he was taking care of me very nicely, and I am very much obliged to him. I simply said that he may live for some time with the Sankirtana Party, and he became upset. So I do not know what to do. Regarding your German acquaintance, I understand that he may be a very intelligent man and believes in science. But even the most advanced scientist depends on the statements of authorities. Science begins on some definite data, just like Sir Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravitation, and so much scientific advancement depends on such authoritative statements. So even scientific knowledge has to stand on the evidence of authority. He admits that we are all spirit soul inside the body entrapped, and he believes this body is composed of various chemicals about which we know a great deal. But unfortunately, with all this chemical combinations combined together, we can not produce a body like this; this is also a scientific fact. Just like rasgulla is a milk product everyone knows. But how to make a rasgulla from milk requires expert further knowledge. Therefore, simply to know that this body is made of chemicals is not sufficient knowledge. When one can reproduce a similar body with the known chemicals, then he is to be considered as the expert scientist. The spirit soul is impossible to find out by materialistic scientific means, but if one will hear from the right authority, he may understand. The gentleman is disappointed that probably no one will ever know about spirit, but this is not true. We know what is spirit, how does it work, how does it transmigrate from one body to another or from one planet to another. We know these very scientifically, and we are firmly convinced about it. We can refute any dogmatic arguments against this conviction, and how do we do that? Simply because we start our understanding from the data of authoritative sources like Krishna or His representative. In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna speaks about spirit soul from the very beginning. Unless one understands what is this spirit soul, his further advancement of the Supreme Spirit God has no value. So this gentleman is puzzled in his understanding about wherefrom we have come, what we are, and where we are going. But we are certain about it. So if he wants to know all these things, there is bona fide source for understanding these problems, providing he agrees to give a submissive aural reception to the respective authorities as much as he believes in the authoritative statements of Sir Isaac Newton. So either to accept the statements of Sir Isaac Newton or the statements of Lord Krishna, the beginning is a kind of faith. Unfortunately, these so-called scientific men can usually pin their faith on Sir Isaac Newton but not to the statements of Krishna or his representatives. So try to explain to him in this way. Thanking you again for your nice letter. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Govinda **Date:** April 21st 1969 — **Location:** Buffalo My Dear Govinda Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your nice letter dated April 1, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. Your humble sentiments are very nicely expressed and I thank you for them. I have already written to Jivananda and Harsarani, and they are inclined to go to New Vrindaban but I have advised them to go to Hawaii after spending a short period in San Francisco training up the devotees there in Deity worship and Sankirtana Party. So you may correspond with them to make more definite arrangements. From Sudama's letter I can understand that some people are coming to your kirtanas, so try your best to develop your center and Krishna will surely help you. We have not brought your Srimad-Bhagavatam here, but when I get opportunity, I will send you one volume one. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Govinda **Date:** July 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Govinda Dasi, Please accept my blessings, and offer the same to Gaurasundara. I am so much pleased by reading your letter of June 26, 1969, describing your preaching activities in Hawaii, both husband and wife together. It is very much pleasing to me. I was shocked when I heard that Gaurasundara was hurt on the chin, but at the same time, I was so much enlivened by hearing of your spirited preaching activities. I am proud that a little young girl like you is so much spirited in preaching Krishna consciousness. Undoubtedly I was very much sorry to learn about Gaurasundara being attacked by a fanatic, but don't be disheartened. Even Nityananda also faced such difficult problems, but try to avoid them as far as possible. The whole world is full of fanatics and atheist classes of men, so sometimes we have to face such difficulties. But this is all tapasya. Without tapasya, nobody can approach Krishna. So preachers who boldly face all kinds of difficulties are considered to be under tapasya, and Krishna takes note of such tapasya of the devotee, and the devotee is recognized by Him. I have asked the BTG men to publish your heroic preaching activities under the heading of "Heroine Govinda Dasi." So I am sure Krishna is very much pleased of this incident, and He will surely bestow His blessings both on you and Gaurasundara. So try to continue preaching Krishna Consciousness to the suffering humanity as far as possible. I hope by this time your house problem is solved, and I shall be glad to hear from you on this point. I have received one letter from Subala das from Philadelphia informing me that he has opened a center there. So by Krishna's Grace our program is improving day after day. Most probably another center in Laguna Beach will be opened soon, and they are arranging for a gorgeous Rathayatra Ceremony in San Francisco. So you have all my blessings and encouragement for your nice preaching work, and I can simply pray to Krishna to save you from all sorts of difficulties. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *Enclosed some literature from Germany. They are doing nice in Hamburg & they have published German edition of BTG ### Letter to Govinda **Date:** August 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Govinda Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 9th, 1969. In the meantime I have sent one tape to Gaurasundara. Perhaps you might have received it, and if it is all right, then I can send you many other tapes, similarly stereoed. From the description of your letter I understand that Hawaii is good field for our preaching work. The hippies are actually immediate candidates for our Krishna Consciousness. We pray to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, "My dear Lord, Your Incarnation is to claim the most fallen souls." So in this age of Kali almost everyone is dangerously fallen, and the hippies appear to be still more greater fallen. Besides that, from their behavior it appears they like this movement. This is a very good sign. Your description of that Yogi Sai, that is also little hopeful. He is reading Bhagavad-gita and quoting some lines. So you are very intelligent; you can tackle these people very nicely, assisted by your good husband and the other boys and girls. You write that you have desire to avail of my association again, but why do you forget that you are always in association with me? When you are helping my missionary activities I am always thinking of you and you are always thinking of me. That is real association. Just like I always think of my Guru Maharaja every moment, although He is not physically present, and because I am trying to serve Him to my best capacity, I am sure He is helping me by His spiritual blessings. So there are two kinds of association: physical and preceptorial. Physical association is not so important as preceptorial association. So try to preach this Krishna Consciousness Movement amongst the hippies there, and simply induce them to chant Hare Krishna. If they kindly join in chanting Hare Krishna, that will make our movement successful. Then gradually make them more and more advanced by participating in Love Feasts and ceremonies, like Janmastami and Rathayatra. Then everything will go smoothly. The only thing wanted is that we should work very sincerely, with full faith in Krishna and the Spiritual Master. Then all help will come automatically. Regarding mango recipe directions, it may be done as follows: first of all collect the juice, then boil it on fire until it is a thick pulp. And while boiling, add a little salt also. That will act as a preservative; but don't make it salty. Then spread the boiled pulp in thin layers on dishes or suitable pots and dry it in the sunshine. I think it will come out successful. Regarding Sadhana Ausadhalaya, you can write to him c/o Kaviraja Rajani Candra Shastri, 227 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Calcutta-7. Let him know the symptoms of your ailment, and ask him to send some good medicines. But the difficulty will be for the vehicles. In the Ayurvedic medicine there are vehicles which are very difficult to obtain in this country. So you should advise them to send medicine and suitable vehicles which can't be obtained in this country. But if the medicine is only mixed with honey, as they usually do, then there is no difficulty. You can refer my name also to this physician. Then he will be more careful. Regarding Holy Days, I am very glad that you performed Guru Purnima, and you offered puffed up kacoris. You must have enjoyed Prasadam very nicely, but you forgot the statement bracketed on that list, "special honoring of the Spiritual Master," and that you had to send some contribution to the book fund. Never mind, you can do it again on the 5th September and rectify the mistake. I hope it will not be a very difficult job. Regarding celebrations of other holidays, they will be described as to how they should be celebrated in future memos to all of the temples. I think by now you must have received instructions how to celebrate Jhulana yatra festival. As you have suggested, I shall inform Tamala Krishna and Brahmananda that you are in need of some issues of BTG #22, containing the first part of Isopanisad. Please offer my blessings to Gaurasundara, Balabhadra, Turya dasa, Jayasri, and the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Are you getting some inquiries for the books after the review published? P.S. If you take green bananas, peel them and put them out in the sun to dry for one, two, three days—till it is dry—then these may be sent to me, especially when I go to Europe. This is a very good tonic for liver, and I am now having these unripened bananas daily in Los Angeles ### Letter to Govinda **Date:** October 27th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Govinda Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I thank you so much for your letter dated October 13, 1969 and I am anxious to know about the result of the church negotiations. If by the Grace of Krishna it comes out successful, it will be a great achievement for your activities in Honolulu. When you get the church I must go there. Regarding the French girl, she is so kind to join with us. I have advised Janardana, who is here in London for a few days, to write you how this girl can help us. Janardana liked her translation and good spelling, so she will be very much useful for transcribing or typing our French literatures. I do not know whether she will be prepared to go to her own country and assist the other devotees in Paris. That would be a very nice proposal. I am very encouraged to hear about your nice engagements there. I am enclosing herewith one note for Sai. You can hand it over to him. I have duly received the bananas you sent, and you can send me these dried bananas tons and tons. It is very useful and can be nicely used for our Ekadasi foodstuffs. After drying the bananas you can make powder, just like flour, and out of this you can prepare puris, halava, pakoras and other fruit products. Please offer my blessings. to Gaurasundara, Balabhadra, Turya dasa and Jayasri. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- enclosure: one letter for Sai ### Letter to Govinda **Date:** December 9th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Govinda Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated November 30, 1969. I have already acknowledged receipt of your very nice cloak, and yes, everything fits nicely. Regarding the Radha-Krishna Murtis, first of all, as you are searching out a permanent place, the best thing will be to install Them in that permanent place. It doesn't matter if it is on rent or purchased; but we must be confident that there will not be disturbance by some landlord on some flimsy grounds. In the meantime, you can construct a nice throne as you will see it on the pictures enclosed. I have got plans for going to Japan from Los Angeles, but in case I do not go, you shall be able to install the Deities. I shall send you the instructions how to do it, if this becomes necessary. In the meantime, just prepare the preliminary things. Regarding translation work, I am very glad that Monique is very enthusiastic, but I do not know French. I have consulted persons who know the French language, and they do not very much appreciate her translations. So what can I do? The best thing is that she may go on translating and send her articles to Montreal in care of Gopala Krishna Brahmacari. She may similarly contact Janardana at Damberg, 6 Rue Michelet, 94 Fontenay-s-Bois, FRANCE.For Brijbasi prints you may contact Acyutananda. Similarly you may contact him for other goods from India. All others have proved insincere. The case of the USC surely is deplorable. I have written them a very strong letter asking why this has happened. The best things will be to contact Acyutananda at the following address: Acyutananda das Brahmacari, 35 Satish Mukherjee Road, Calcutta-26, INDIA. When I hear from the USC, then we shall see what steps we should take to realize the cheating money. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Govinda dasi **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Unknown Place [text missing]time now for editing Caitanya Caritamrta. If he has got time, he can get one copy of Bengali Caitanya Caritamrta. I can spare my own copy for which he hasn't got to pay me anything. Or else, if he likes, he can purchase a new copy from the New York temple. If Gaurasundara is too busy however, you can work on the lecture tapes. I am so glad to know that you are soon to complete the Dr. Frog story, and I shall be anxious to see the final result. It is also very nice that you are performing arati regularly, and you are planning to make it more elaborate very soon. I have received a letter from Murari that you desire me to go to Hawaii after the rainy season is over. I think that will be very nice. In the meantime you settle up things there more strongly. I Have got good faith in your husband, and I know that he can speak very nicely on our philosophy. So try to help him as far as possible to keep fit and continue to speak on Krishna philosophy. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Govinda, Gaurasundara **Date:** April 25th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Govinda Dasi and Gaurasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated April 17, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very much anxious that Govinda Dasi has fallen sick. Similarly, I am also from yesterday feeling little uncomfortable on account of backache. I think the constant change of climate in Buffalo has affected my rheumatic tendencies, so today I am not feeling very well. In Buffalo we had very nice meetings, and the students, both boys and girls, were very receptive. I am so glad to learn that your center also is improving. Day by day continue to work seriously and faithfully, and it will surely grow to be a very nice center. I have talked with Jadurani yesterday, and she asked my opinion of her going to Hawaii. I advised her to go as soon as possible, and she has proposed to go there when I leave Boston. She is not very seriously ill, but she feels little ill, and with change of climate I think she will improve without any doubt. I am very glad to learn that Kartamasi is now very nicely dressed. Govinda Dasi is surely a good artist, so I am sure Kartamasi is very attractive. Please offer my obeisances to Him. I am very glad to learn from both of your letters that Jill is now staying there. She is very nice girl and intelligent. So the addition of Balabhadra and Jill to our movement is very much appreciated. Please help them to be Krishna Conscious, and it will be great service to Krishna, and you will enhance your Krishna Conscious beauties by such activities. So far as Gaurasundara's request for Caitanya Caritamrta, I have already advised Brahmananda to send it to you immediately. I hope this will meet the both of you in very nice health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gurudasa **Date:** February 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > London My Dear Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 29, 1969, and I am so glad to learn that you have permission to have kirtana all the time on the streets and parks. You have written that you are missing me, and similarly, I am sitting here anxious to meet you as soon as possible. In previous letters of Syamasundara it was understood that the Beatles were going to help us positively, but the delay method appears to be diplomatic to avoid the pledge. I do not know what is the position, but I think that without depending on anyone, we may take the risk of renting a nice house for our temple immediately. If you think that my presence will accelerate matters, I am prepared to go immediately. In Yamuna's letter I understood that many people are interested in our temple work, and they are prepared to contribute items such as deities. All such things being favorable, why you are not taking a temple at your own risk? Besides that, you wrote to say that I will not go there for one year, but I have no such idea. I do not know who has spread such rumor. I have already postponed my journey to Hawaii in the month of April. In April I will go to Columbus, Ohio, so these two months of February and March I am completely free. If you so desire, I can start immediately and see the situation which is preventing the renting of a nice house. You write to say also that everyone is awaiting my arrival, and they ask "When is Swamiji coming?" So far as I am concerned, I can go immediately because I have no serious engagements here now. I thank you very much for your assurance that I will find London a most flourishing center for our world Sankirtana movement. That is my ideal of life, to form a nice group of devotees to perform Sankirtana and to distribute our books in wider circles. Here, Tamala Krishna's group has proved a very nice Sankirtana Party, and we can combine with your group which is also a very nice Sankirtana Party. Then we could immediately take the responsibility of a round the world trip, and I am sure it will be successful. You can let me know by return mail if my services in London are immediately required. I am prepared to go. The picture of Kartamasi which you have sent is very nice. Kartamasi is becoming very popular in every center. That is a good sign. Thanking you once more for your letter, and I am awaiting your early reply. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gurudasa **Date:** April 27th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass London My Dear Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of April 20, 1969, sent along with some pictures. All the pictures you sent are very important. You are doing very laudable service by collecting some old reminiscences, and I shall do the needful in due course; there is no immediate emergency. Your idea of writing a book named Swamiji was formerly informed to me. Unfortunately, because I am travelling in so many places—from Los Angeles to Hawaii, then to San Francisco, then again Los Angeles, then New York, then Buffalo, and now I am in Boston. From here I shall go to Columbus, then to North Carolina, then to New Vrindaban, and then I may go to London if required. At that time I shall give you solid information for both the Krishna book and the Swamiji book. But for the time being all of you should concentrate your energies to occupy the house mortuary by all means. It is understood that Mr. George Harrison has given a letter of guarantee for payment of rent, but if they want further guarantee, I can ask Bank of America or any other bank to give the necessary guarantee of payment. Somehow or other you must satisfy them and occupy the house. That is the immediate program, and as soon as this is done, I shall go there to adjust things in right order. If some way or other you miss to occupy the house, then you can arrange for me some place with someone who can receive me as guest at least for one month. That also will help me in organizing things there. And what about Mataji? When she was here she assured me so many things hopeful that she wants to work conjointly. I understand that Syamasundara has gone to Mataji to build an altar. This means that she has already started the temple. She wanted me also to go to London, and I told her that as soon as opening of temple is assured, I shall go to London, leaving aside all other engagements here. But since she has departed she has not written me anything, although I have written her one letter forwarded through Malati, acknowledging receipt of her book, Mataji Charitavali. I am little disturbed hearing from Yamuna that you are in financial difficulty there. If you can sell our Back To Godheads and our books, how there can be financial difficulty? From the month of June you will have 5,000 BTG's, and you can make 35 cents profit on BTG. So roughly calculated, even if you distribute BTG wholesale, you make minimum profit of 20 cents per copy. Thus, you can easily make $1,000 profit simply by selling BTG, and what to speak of the books? Besides that, if you have got kirtana engagements, why should there be any difficulty of finance. The only problem is you have no place to live together. That you must make immediate solution. If you have no place to live together immediately, ask Mataji to give you a place. If she does not, then secure the mortuary at any cost. If they require a bank guarantee we shall arrange for this. Another thing, the proprosal of Mr. Gupta to give you 150 Rs is simply ludicrous, and for us it is insulting. Do you think that an American boy like you can live in India on $20? This talk means they are not very serious or important men, so you should be careful to mix with them. There is no use asking any help from these embassy men. I know they will never help our Hare Krishna movement. The government is pledged to the policy of secularism, so as soon as there is any scent of religious fervor, they at once become opposing element. Please inform Yamuna that I have received her nice certificates, and her letter is also replied in this letter to her husband. I hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gurudasa **Date:** May 15th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 6, 1969, but in the letter-heading there is no mention of London, so outsiders may misunderstand where is Clapham. Regarding my going to London, I have now finished my engagements on this side, and I can go to London at any time you may call. But still I understand there is no temple building settled up. Anyway, I am encouraged that somebody is trying for a church in cooperation with Mr. George Harrison. Formerly, Syamasundara also informed me of this fact as well as of the arrangements for the Rathayatra Festival. I shall be glad to know in your next letter how far you have made progress in this connection. Now as promised by your group, you have to pay $750.00 for 5,000 copies of Back To Godhead which will reach you sometime in the month of June. Please arrange for it and send the money to New York, to Brahmananda, for clearing the bill. Regarding Mataji, she must have some trouble because she has done something which is nescience. How could she marry a young girl to Krishna? Is Krishna so play thing that He can be handled in such a way? This means she has no knowledge of Krishna. She is simply a sentimental devotee. When a sentimental devotee takes the part of becoming representative of Krishna, there is simply havoc. Srila Rupa Goswami therefore said in his Bhakti-Rasamrita-Sindhu that devotion to Krishna without reference to authoritative scriptures is simply a disturbance. How Krishna could be married with a young girl? I very much appreciate your securing the letters from the Hindu centers in London in support of our activities. I am also pleased to note that the BTG's are selling nicely. Try to sell them more and more, along with sales of our other books, TLC and BG.Kindly offer my blessings to the other devotees with you in London. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Next week I am going to New Vrindaban ### Letter to Gurudasa **Date:** June 21st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings. I have received your note about the new house, and I have arranged to send the money as requested by Mukunda. I hope the money is already received by you and the transaction is nicely executed. After hard labor, you are getting a nice house just suitable for your purposes. Now decorate it nicely, and go ahead with new vigor and energy to push on the Krishna Consciousness Movement in London. You have already created an impression in the greatest city in the world, and I hope in the future there will be even greater hope for this movement. I am glad to learn that the Beatles have showed guarantee for payment of the rent. It is a nice, friendly gesture. Recently Mr. John Lennon had an interview with one of our disciples, Vibhavati, and it appears that he is also sympathetic with our movement. Another point is that in BTG we shall now publish as many pictures of our Sankirtana Movement in different cities as possible. So get good snaps of your kirtanas and engagement in London, and send the photos on to New York. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gurudasa **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of July 28, 1969, and I could not understand from your half-finished letter whether Rathayatra Ceremony was performed according to a subdued program. But I could understand that you are immersed in great confusion on account of the wheels giving way just after starting. I have received one letter from Syamasundara dated July 25th in which it is stated that the magnitude of the Ratha was double than the one you had in San Francisco. So such a heavy structure was not properly attended as to its weight and the wheels which could carry such huge weight. I think it was a mistake of engineering calculation. The load was heavier than the wheels could carry. So there is no question of being disappointed. I have not received any detailed information either from you or from the others, but even if the Festival was not properly performed, you should not be discouraged. As in the material world sometimes failure is considered as a pillar of success, similarly in the spiritual order also the same principle can be applied. So don't be disappointed. Maybe Krishna's desire is something higher in this connection. If the Rathayatra has not been performed, you can postpone it to be performed on the Janmastami Festival. There is no harm if you postpone the function to a later date, and the public will appreciate it. You consult amongst yourselves without being discouraged and patiently work for its being performed one month later. There is no harm. Jagannatha and Krishna are the same Supreme Personality. If it is Krishna's desire that He should enjoy the function on Janmastami Day, it might be He put some hindrance on the Rathayatra Day plans. So if you decide to hold the function on Janmastami Day, September 4, 1969, then on hearing from you I shall give you further instructions in this connection. But in any case don't be disappointed. Keep your enthusiasm. Be patient, and Krishna will reward your attempts with success. So far as San Francisco Rathayatra Festival, it was very pompously and successfully executed in my presence. There were about 10,000 people attending the function. The procession was led from our temple through Golden Gate Park and some other streets. We started at about 12:30 and reached on the beach about 5:00 or 5:30. Then we held a meeting in a big hall up till 6:00 o'clock, and they performed a puppet show and distributed Prasadam. Then Kirtana continued up till about 10:00 o'clock at night. The function was reported in the local papers, and I will send you a copy when it is printed up. So if possible, you just postpone the function till Janmastami Day, and do the needful. But don't be confused and disappointed. I hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gurudasa **Date:** September 15th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of the 13rd Sept., and I am so glad to learn that you are active in preaching Krishna Consciousness in London. You all 3 couples are expert in the matter of preaching Krishna Consciousness, and your last effort in the matter of performing Ratha Yatra festival was so successful. So I am sure by your combined effort in London, there will be a great successful center. I am so pleased to learn about your staunch faith in Krishna and your Spiritual Master. May Krishna bless you more and more in the matter of advancement of Krishna Consciousness. Hope you are well, and please convey my blessings to your good wife, Yamuna devi. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Gurudasa, Yamuna **Date:** January 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Gurudasa and Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge both of your letters dated 14, January 1969 as well as one letter from Gurudasa dated 16, January 1969 with enclosed a picture and newspaper cuttings. This picture is undoubtedly very unique because perhaps in the history of the world it is for the first time that Western boys and girls in the dress of pure Vaisnavas are chanting on the street of a very important quarter of the greatest city in the world, London. So by the Grace of Krishna you are all six together doing very nice Krishna Consciousness activities, and I am so much pleased. In your letter I can understand that people from many important cities of Europe and Africa are taking part in our Sankirtana movement, and you have got continuous engagements almost every night. This is very much encouraging. I am so glad to understand that as soon as your finances are almost depleted, Krishna sees to everything. This is the process of Krishna Consciousness. If we are sincere, Krishna will supply us with all necessities of life. When we serve some mundane master, he gives us sufficient salary, so when we serve the Supreme Master, how it is possible that He will keep us fasting? Actually due to our lack of Krishna Consciousness sometimes we become disturbed with shortage of funds. But we should be confident that our necessities will certainly be fulfilled by the Supreme Lord. The same incident sometimes happens in New York temple. When there is a shortage of funds, sometimes they find money accidentally without knowing the source. I have received report from Mr. Parikh and others that they are enamored by your behavior, your character, and your devotion. In the newspaper cuttings also they gave such hints. In other words, everyone is appreciating your presentation. Please keep up this standard of behavior. Do not make any artificial discrepancies amongst yourselves because you are acting on a very responsible business. Perhaps you know that there are many political parties in a country, but when the country's total responsibility has to be executed, they become combined. To have some little disagreements amongst yourselves is not very unnatural because we are all individual beings. But as we are all working on behalf of Krishna we should always forget our personal interests and see to the prime cause. I have noted with great satisfaction the list of foodstuffs offered on the meeting day, and they were so much appreciated. I have not as yet received any letter from Mr. Fakirchand who is interested in starting a temple. I hope this meets you both in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** January 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > [ > Based on the 1st paragraph, we believe that the original letter was incorrectly dated. Our estimate is that this is the correct date. > —Bhaktivedanta Archives] My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. Thank you for your letter of December 25, 1968. I am awaiting your pictures of the house which might be used for prasadam program. So far as the press utilizing this place it is not possible because the press is to be set up either in New Vrindaban or in New York. Here in Los Angeles we have a very nice place. The rent is very high, but if we can maintain this establishment it will surely have great future prospects. I am glad to know that you now have a nice apartment. Live comfortable there and try to improve the temple conditions to your best capacity. If there will be an opportunity to purchase the new house you have found, try your best for this. I thank you so much for having nicely appreciated the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. This book should be read by all of my students at least one chapter per day, and in kirtana class it should be discussed sloka after sloka. Practically, we have tried to explain in this book all of the basic principles of Krishna Consciousness. If you can simply cram Bhagavad-gita then you will surely become a very good preacher. Next January there will be an examination on this Bhagavad-gita. Papers will be sent by me to all centers, and those securing the minimum passing grade will be given the title as Bhakti-sastri. Similarly, another examination will be held on Lord Caitanya's Appearance Day in February, 1970 and it will be upon Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. Those passing will get the title of Bhakti-vaibhava. Another examination will be held sometimes in 1971 on the four books, Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and Nectar of Devotion. One who will pass this examination will be awarded with the title of Bhaktivedanta. I want that all of my spiritual sons and daughters will inherit this title of Bhaktivedanta, so that the family transcendental diploma will continue through the generations. Those possessing the title of Bhaktivedanta will be allowed to initiate disciples. Maybe by 1975, all of my disciples will be allowed to initiate and increase the numbers of the generations. That is my program. So we should not simply publish these books for reading by outsiders, but our students must be well versed in all of our books so that we can be prepared to defeat all opposing parties in the matter of self-realization. Please keep me informed as to the progress of the prasadam program. I hope that this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Offer my blessings for Smt. Himavati my beloved daughter ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** January 10th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I have received one letter from Mr. and Mrs. Levine who I suppose are living in the same building where you are living. It is understood from their letters that they are eager to be initiated. If they are prepared to follow the rules and regulations I think that they can be initiated by mail. So if you recommend you can ask them to send their beads and I shall initiate them. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have replied their letter ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** January 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 9, 1969. Krishna is pleased upon you so that He is responding to your sincere service. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that He responds proportionately along with the degree of surrender to Him by the devotee. So the spiritual progress that you are making now is duly being responded to by Krishna. Of course it is the duty of the teacher to instruct his pupil rightly, but to pass the examination with a degree and merit depends upon the student himself. But the teacher is always happy when he sees one of his students has surpassed the capacity of the teacher also. That is an occasion of great jubilation. Please therefore prosecute your Hare Krishna vibrations along with your good wife, and certainly Krishna will see that all of your attempts will be successful. I am very glad to note when you write to say that both you and Himavati miss your sleep and go to bed late. By Krishna's grace, Himavati is not only beautiful externally, but she is beautiful within also. Otherwise how she can say that you may have the license for sense gratification but what will you do with this license? A brahmacari is good for living a life of celibacy, but a person who can live a life of celibacy in the presence of a beautiful and obliging wife is more than a brahmacari. Of course anyone who is stuck up with only one wife is also called brahmacari. You will set a very good example if both of you agree not to have sense gratification anymore and still you remain as husband and wife together. This is possible, however, only if both of you are fixed up in Krishna Consciousness activities. I thank you very much for your sincere endeavor to do this activity. Concerning the house, if it is possible to rent it with an option to purchase that will be very nice. My Guru Maharaja instructed us, especially to me, that it is better to remain in a rented house than to purchase our own place, but actually He had constructed many temples during His lifetime. The idea is that if things can be done without any extra endeavor, that is all right. If purchasing a house becomes cause of our extra anxiety, we should avoid it. But if by the grace of Krishna it can be easily done, there is no harm of having our own house. Anyway, if this house is suitable for a temple and for prasada distribution, we must have it at any cost. You may do as it is best by consulting Krishna. Regarding the examination, you are already a passed student so don't be afraid of it. When the examination will be held, you will find the questions so easy that within a few minutes you shall be able to answer them all. I wish to introduce this examination system so that in the future our students may not remained unconcerned with these books we are publishing. These books are not material knowledge. To a sincere student, all of the contents of these books become revealed from within, even if he has not thoroughly studied them all. Regarding your question, the deity shall be put to rest in time, and if people are still eating prasadam, the arati cannot be performed. It is better if after offering prasadam to the deity you perform arati, close the curtains and then distribute prasadam to the devotees. Please do not accept from Gopala Krishna 6 inch murti. He has promised to donate one pair of 24 inch murtis. Besides that, when you are engaged in the worshipment of the temple deities, you may not install separately deities at your home. Tears come down from the eyes of a person who is already elevated in ecstatic love of Krishna. So these are very good signs. I am explaining all of these matters in my next book, Nectar of Devotion. I pray to Krishna for your further and further progress in this connection. I am pleased to note that you are now accepting outside engagements for kirtana activities. This is an important attempt. Please convey my blessings to Kulasekhara also. I am very glad to note that he is back at the temple and painting nicely. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have duly replied separately Mrs. & Mr. Levine and hope they have received my letter by this time. I have agreed to initiate them & you can do the needful. ACB ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** January 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of January 12, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I have gone through the description of the various rooms of the house but you have not mentioned if there is suitable space for a temple also. Our present temple in Montreal has very nice space so our first consideration is how to make the temple room nice. So I do not know how this house shall be suitable for all of our purposes. It may be very suitable for residence and prasadam distribution, but unless there is nice arrangement for a temple, how will it be possible to rent it? So unless I understand how you intend to arrange for a nice temple like the one you have presently, a little difference doesn't matter, I do not know how you can accept such house. I shall be glad to hear further from you about this. Regarding your questions, the incidence of Sanatana Goswami and Rupa Goswami should be taken as follows; Rupa Goswami treated Sanatana Goswami as his Spiritual Master, so therefore to pray to Krishna for serving Krishna or the Spiritual Master is very good. Similarly, if the house is very good for serving Krishna it is very good. But if our purpose is for our personal convenience, for that purpose we shall not pray. But for the convenience of Krishna and the Spiritual Master we should always pray. The absence of the idea of God is not very important, but the sense of loving God is the most important. The cowherd boys and all of the residents of Vrindaban were so much absorbed in love for Krishna that naturally there was absence of the idea of God. Yasoda was so much absorbed in love of Krishna that she did not care to know that He is God. Our whole philosophy is to increase our love for Krishna. Love with awe and veneration and love that is spontaneous is different, but still one has to learn about the greatness of Krishna. To come to the stage of spontaneous love for Krishna is a very high stage, and it is not to be imitated. In our conditioned state of life, we should worship Krishna as God with respect and veneration. That is the system. The relationship of the Spiritual Master and the disciple is not the same as the relationship with Krishna in Vrindaban. The relationship with the Spiritual Master must always be continued with the greatest respect and veneration, without forgetting His exalted position; like father and son. Regarding your question about my Guru Maharaja, I never told anyone that He was one of the eight saktis. I do not know how you got this news. According to Vaisnava principles, nobody should think or imagine somebody as Krishna, Radharani, or Their associates. Everyone should aspire to follow the footprints of such associates. If somebody thinks that somebody is Radha or Krishna that is not sanctioned by the Vaisnava philosophy. So far as I know, my Guru Maharaja's position was one of the assistants of the manjaris. For the present, it is better not to discuss on these confidential things of a higher level, but you are always welcome to put your genuine questions for an answer. Otherwise, how will you know things as they are? The photographs you sent me appear very nice, but the house photograph is covered with snow. I have seen this house from the outside, and sometimes I was thinking that this is a nice house for a temple. So I shall be glad to hear from you how and when you are going situate a temple in this house. That is the most essential point. Hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Enclosed is a speech which was delivered by me by means of tape recorder in a meeting held in London center with many important guests. Please hand it over to Janardana for translation into French and printing in the French edition of Back To Godhead ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** January 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 18, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Regarding the house, you must know that it is in a residential area, and I don't know if you can get a license for a temple there. In the present temple, there is no temple license but we have freedom to chant and dance as we like. However, if we chant and dance in this new house I am wondering if the neighbors will not object. Without any license you will have to stop kirtanas immediately if this should happen. In my apartment on the same street as the new house I had the experience that one day there was playing of the mrdanga and immediately there was objection. So these things must be carefully considered before making a final decision. Also, because there are several new people coming to kirtanas there, you must be sure that there is ample room for them to be comfortable. Anyway, before there is a final settlement of this house affair, please hold a meeting amongst yourselves to discuss this matter further. The meeting should include Janardana, Dayala Nitai, Jayapataka, etc. Already you have a very nice temple on Park Avenue so before you make any plans to change this you must make sure that this move is very carefully thought out. Regarding Brahma Samhita, this book shall be included in the examination of the second year along with Srimad-Bhagavatam. I don't know why you are so concerned with starting with the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu already. First study carefully the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. This is the most important book for you to learn at first. I am pleased to learn that Eve Levine is expert typist, and that she is willing to begin typing the Vedanta Sutras. She will require a dictaphone for this work, and I would like to know if there is one available for her. Also, I am very encouraged to learn that Jayapataka has taken the initiative to look for kirtana engagements for your temple. He is a very good boy and you should encourage him to do this important assignment very nicely. So far as the 24" murtis which Gopala Krishna has agreed to donate, I have information that They will cost about $250.00 including the cost of shipping up to Montreal. So either Gopala Krishna may write to his father or else he may donate the money to the temple and we shall get the murtis from Vrindaban. Regarding Himavati's visit home, if it becomes necessary, the idea is all right. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this meets you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** January 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 22, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. From your letter I can understand that you will no longer be negotiating for purchasing the house, and this is all right because I do not think it is very suitable for a temple. Regarding your question about Vasudeva, the father of Krishna, you should understand that he is not simply a symbol. The statement made in Srimad-Bhagavatam in this connection is meant for understanding, but unless one is in Vasudeva's position, it is not possible to understand Vasudeva or Krishna. Vasudeva's position means to be situated in pure goodness. In the material world, the three modes of nature which are named ignorance, passion and goodness, are always found mixed up together. In other words, these modes are never found pure, but if there is one mode present, there is sure to be at least a tinge of another mode there also. For this reason, we may sometimes see a third class man showing the quality of goodness, and we may see a first class man showing hints of ignorance. The modes are never found in a pure state in the material world. But in the Vasudeva stage of pure goodness there is no contamination from any material influence of passion or ignorance. Vasudeva is never to be understood as being a symbol. You should clearly understand this. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Himavati. I hope this will meet the both of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** February 9th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 30, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to note that you are seeing into obtaining a dictaphone for helping me in preparing so many Krishna Consciousness literatures. The maker of my present dictaphone is Grundig, and it is an Embassy de Jur, Sterorette. This model was purchased by Hayagriva in New York for $190 by cash payment, but it can be had by installment payment at a higher price. So you may do the needful in this matter. Regarding the Panca-tattva picture, it is simply a pose of Lord Caitanya and some of His associates receiving service from Their devotees and chanting Hare Krishna. Panca-tattva is described as Krishna in five expansions, namely Krishna Himself in the role of a devotee; His Incarnation in the role of a devotee; His energy in the role of a devotee; His expansion in the role of a devotee; and His two energies (internal and marginal) in the role of devotees. So the external energy is not there. Therefore the whole manifestation is transcendental. There are three energies, namely internal, external, and marginal. Although all of the energies are connected with Krishna, the external energy is differentiated. Just like darkness is another part of light, and therefore darkness can not stand before the light, but it stands somewhere by the side of the light. Without light, there is no existence of darkness, but darkness cannot be found in the light. Similarly, there is no darkness or activities of the external energy in the Pastimes of Lord Caitanya. So far as Acyutananda and Jaya Govinda are concerned, I am not displeased with any of my disciples. A father can not be displeased with his sons, but sometimes the sons create disturbances, and the father has to tolerate. Constitutionally, the father is always affectionate and pleased with the sons. But it is up to the sons to obey the father and keep the relationship natural. The little disturbances created by Acyutananda and Jaya Govinda were temporary. Now again they have come to their real consciousness. Regarding your question about Subhadra and Durga, they are not at all the same. Durga's other name is Bhadra, not Subhadra, and Durga's activities are within the material world. Subhadra does not work as Durga. Subhadra is internal energy, and Durga is external energy. As energy, they have a relationship as much as we are energies of Krishna, but the energies are working in different capacities. Although originally the energy is one, by their expansion, the accents of the energies are different, and as we are not impersonalists, this variegatedness of actions are essential for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as much as the government is one but there are multi-departments for management of the government. The education department and the criminal department are all departments of the government. The government is connected with all parts and departments, but the education activities are different from the criminal activities. This is the philosophy of inconceivably simultaneously one and different manifestations of the Absolute Truth. I have received one nice letter from Ivan Levine, and I would like to know your opinion whether or not he should take initiation without his wife doing the same. I have no objection to initiate him alone, but will he be able to thereby follow the rules and regulations? If you recommend it, I shall initiate him. Of course, the best thing will be to initiate husband and wife together. If the wife is interested, why does she not agree to be initiated with her husband? What is the difficulty. On hearing from you in this matter, I will do the needful. Also, I understand that Mrs. Levine has not been feeling well due to her pregnancy. Please convey my request to her that she rest as much as possible and not too much exert her energies in any way. Upon hearing from you, I will inform Mr. Levine as to what is to be done. I shall be very happy to know what is happening to the second issue of our French edition of Back To Godhead. I was very pleased with the first issue, and I hope the new issue will be ready very soon. Please inform me what is the problem in this important matter. Kindly convey my blessings to the other devotees in your temple. I am awaiting your replies to the above questions. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** February 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 14, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Regarding your joining the Sankirtana Party, please wait for the time being and I shall call you at the right time. I have this in my mind. When I go to London and by Krishna's Grace we fix up for going around the world, or even if not that, if the London devotees need to strengthen their Sankirtana Party with more attractions, then your services will be required there. But in the meantime you must keep in mind to train somebody there so that in your absence he can take charge. So far as the bowing down in Deity worship, before opening the door you should bow down. Then turn on the light and bow down again. There is no restriction on bowing down. As many times as you can is all right. Of course, your clothes and under garments should always be as clean as possible. Guests and devotees need not be wearing woolen robes to be dancing around the deities. Regarding your question about guests being present at arati, you should have as many guests there as is possible for you to get to come. Please convey my blessings to all of the devotees at your temple. I hope this will meet you and your good wife, Himavati, in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. What about French BTG? I have asked Janardana to translate into French my B.G. Has he received the copy from Rayarama? Please ask him to write to me. ACB ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** March 11th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of Feb. 28, 1969, and I am very much surprised that other nonsense magazines are being published by Dayala Nitai, and Janardana says it is in my knowledge! I am very much surprised to hear this. Enclosed I am forwarding one letter to Dayala Nitai, and how it is that without your knowledge these things are being done? Certainly it must be disturbing to you—it is disturbing to me also! Please do work on the French BTG, and you must immediately ask Dayala Nitai to stop that printing business. I was doubtful about him because he was still inclined to that yoga process, and my doubts are now coming to be true. He does not understand our philosophy very nicely. I have come here last Monday, the 3rd March. The place is very nice, with both sunshine and seaview and fresh air. But the boy Kartikeya has fallen sick and it is apprehended that he is developing appendicitis trouble. I shall soon return to the mainland and I plan to go to New York the first week of April. Please inform me further of this printing situation on receipt of this letter, and what is being done to remedy the situation. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** March 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I am duly in receipt of your letter of March 18, 1969, and I thank you very much for it. Yes, I have written Dayala Nitai in connection with the yoga magazine, and you can keep me informed on this matter. Please try to run on smoothly as is possible. Yes, it is very good if you can chant 64 rounds; this is very nice if you can do it. But first of all we should not be disturbed by any circumstances. If you do become disturbed then this means you are still deficient in reaching the point. In Bhagavad-gita it is said that when Krishna is within our view, at that time one is not disturbed even in the midst of gravest calamity. Anyway, even if we are disturbed, then the only resort is to chant and concentrate one's mind in Krishna. There is no other alternative. Chanting and dancing make one relieved of all material burdens. I am going to N.Y. on the 7th of April, so as you propose it will be a pleasure to see you there with your good wife. I hope this meets you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. If possible Janardana may also see me at N.Y ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** May 27th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 22, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I have initiated the boy whom you have recommended named Steve* and his beads are sent herewith. Please help him to understand the principles of Krishna Consciousness as far as possible. Regarding Candanacarya's marriage with Sadanandini, if they settle up amongst themselves, I shall be glad. They are a very nice combination. You have written that you are wishing to leave for Toronto with Kanupriya, but this can be done only if there is no sacrifice of the Montreal temple. You are doing so nicely there as you have written, so why should you leave? Very soon we shall be getting huge quantities of Back To Godhead, and I want that Montreal temple shall purchase at least $100's worth of copies for selling each month. Do you think that in Toronto you will be able to raise as much money as you are doing now in Montreal? Please think over these matters and let me know what you have decided. Anyway, I am pleased that you are very enthusiastic for spreading this sublime movement, and your idea of having devotees going to the Newport Festival is very nice. You may correspond with the other centers on this point. Another thing is I have heard nothing from Bharadraja and Rukmini. I am anxious to hear from them and to see how they are doing the pictures. I have so many pictures for them to do, but why they are not corresponding? Please convey my blessings to Himavati and all others. I hope this will meet you all in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *Sripati Das ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** June 8th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 2, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I understand that you are feeling some inconvenience due to police interruption, but we have to make the best of a bad bargain. There is a Sanskrit proverb, sati shatyam samacharit, and this means if somebody is cunning, we must also become cunning. To a cunning person we must not be a simpleton. Krishna Conscious devotees are expected to be very intelligent, so we have to work very intelligently to prove our advancement in Krishna Consciousness. I think you should keep a table by the Sankirtana Party, a table with a charity box and our books and literatures for sale. You go on with your work as usual and when the police come you say you are not canvassing. You have simply kept a table and whoever wishes to purchase may do so. This is called sati shatyam samacharit. Regarding the Beatle hero, certainly you will find him nonsense. Actually they are nonsense, but in the Western part of the world it is a folly to be wise, and ignorance is bliss. This whole material civilization is gross ignorance, and therefore you cannot expect very intelligent persons in this part of the world. Even though one is a great philosopher, writer, or something like that, it does not qualify him to be one of the selected intelligent persons who take to Krishna Consciousness. There is another proverb in Bengali that in the forest a jackal is considered to be a great nobility because he is very cunning. Similarly, in the materialistic way of life everyone is blind, and in spite of thousands of big blind leaders, the followers who are also blind cannot get any tangible benefit. So you have done your duty to give him some impression about Krishna Consciousness. That is all right. We should not waste much of our time with these so-called leaders because they are jackals in the forest. They are not actually leaders. The only leader is Krishna and one who is Krishna Conscious. Others are simply misleaders. Your unhappiness in the absence of sufficient engagement is a good sign. This is called abertya kalatyum. When a person is advanced in Krishna Consciousness he should always think that my time may not go in vain without being engaged in Krishna's service. Your main business is Sankirtana. From everywhere I am getting good reports, especially from Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Hawaii that they are having good success by outdoor kirtanas. So you follow this principle without fail, and treat the cunning with cunningness. Sometimes in your letter it appears that you are confused. I do not know why you should be like that. Your clear program is spreading Krishna Consciousness, and you are competent and experienced for this. Why you should feel confused? As you are feeling for a little change, I thing you can go with your Sankirtana Party to Vancouver for some time, and help establish a center firmly because Ananda is struggling there alone. He had been helped by Mandali Bhadra and Vrndavanesvari, but soon they are leaving for Hamburg. So why don't you go for a few days to Vancouver? Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Himavati,* as well as all other devotees there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *I shall be glad to hear from her and a dress for my deity ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated June 7, 1969 and June 11, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the tour of North Dakota, this is a nice proposal. So if it is practical, it will be very nice for you and your wife. Only thing you have to do is rent a station wagon, so you can travel, sleep and cook there. Keep with you four or five pairs of cymbals, one harmonium, one mrdanga. One of you play the harmonium, one of you plays the mrdanga, and some persons in the audience can play the karatalas. In this way you can perform nice kirtana. Subala met me here in New Vrindaban and described this plan, but I do not think it is mature yet. But when some arrangement is done, you can accept it. You have suggested that Nandakisora and his wife join you, but how will you manage with two pairs of husbands wives with the $350 per week? The program is very nice, and if you can make it practical, I have full support for it. This is a good opportunity for spreading our philosophy and Sankirtana. I understand that you and Himavati have gone already to Vancouver, and I am expecting a letter from you as to your report in this connection. Please offer my blessings to Himavati. I hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: Regarding the time when the devotees arise in the morning, here in New Vindavan they are getting up by four o'clock. But in your country the people are not accustomed to this, and it will take a little time to get them used to it. But try to get them up at four o'clock as far as possible ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** June 26th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 22, 1969, and I have noted the contents. As you know that in the beginning of the Sankirtana Party, first I suggested to you, and you formed a small party in New York and began to perform Sankirtana in the parks. To some extent this was successful. Then gradually this idea was taken by others, and I am getting good reports from everywhere. So Sankirtana is our life and soul, and you have got a natural tendency for these Sankirtana performances. I have seen this personally, and you can do it very nicely. So for you the best thing will be to form a Sankirtana Party for yourself and travel all over the country. The talks which you had with Subala for a touring program, I do not know what happened to it. Subala also is not here; he has gone to Philadelphia with a view to open a center there, but I have not heard from him yet. The most successful Sankirtana affairs are going on here in Los Angeles. It is actually wonderful in comparison to others. They are also thinking of opening a branch in Laguna Beach, and I have encouraged this idea. Personally, I also still maintain the idea of a world Sankirtana Party, but such things at the present moment are a dream only. But one day maybe it may come out successful. So as you ask my permission to come here, I have no objection. I think if you come here and stay for a few days to study how they are doing things nicely, it will be a great benefit. Besides that, in San Francisco they are arranging for a nice Rathayatra Festival. So after getting all these ideas, if you make a program for touring all over the country with Sankirtana Party, that is cent per cent supported by me. Please convey my blessings to all others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Mail may be sent to me at 737 Formosa Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** July 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 7, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Rather then answering your points now, I think when we meet again in San Francisco Rathayatra Ceremony we shall discuss things. But one thing is that I have a very nice place in mind where yourself and Himavati may go to help start one temple. In Detroit there is one very nice household couple, Bhagavan das and Krishna Bhamini, and I am thinking that you would be ideal to go there and organize the temple as the president and propagate Sankirtana Party. So we shall discuss this at length in San Francisco. Please convey my blessings to Himavati and Ananda and the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** September 5th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 2nd, 1969, and I have noted the contents. Yesterday, the writings by you and Himavati were very much appreciated. I understand Krishna has given you very good opportunity for service in Berkeley. You both together apply your full energy in organizing this center. It has very good potency, and I am very glad to learn that you have got a nice house also and the rent is also not very high. But unfortunately you have only one year's lease, so how you can install a lifesize Deity there? Therefore, for the time being to install a lifesize Deity may not be feasible; but if you can pay 250 dollars, I will get for you from India 24" high brass Radha-Krishna Deities, one pair, for installing in Berkeley. In the mean time, I may remind you to fix up the altar exactly like Los Angeles. You have seen it personally, and I am also enclosing herewith a picture of the Los Angeles altar. I wish that this design of the altar should be followed by everyone. This Los Angeles altar has been erected under my supervision, especially the Radha-Krishna throne, and I would very much like to follow this idea everywhere. Get for your temple nice devotees and monetary help. I hope you will stick to this center organizing, husband and wife, and in the very near future it will be as good as our Los Angeles temple. Regarding your question about rasa with the Spiritual Master, I do not know who is the someone who has said this, but it is a most unauthorized statement. Better you should stick to hearing from authorized persons, like your Spiritual Master or experienced Godbrothers. But never try to hear someone who is not in our line. It is simply a waste of time to hear and then again have to rectify the mistake. Regarding your question about my never returning to Spiritual Sky, that is possible simultaneously. So far as the quotation from Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura you have cited, that is quite all right. In this age, chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra is the prime business of the devotee, and preaching of this Hare Krishna Mantra by outdoor Sankirtana and propagation of literature is our more important business. Side by side, Deity worship is recommended, but when there is a question of accepting one of them, we shall prefer to accept chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra first. Please convey my blessings to Himavati and the others who are helping you. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** September 28th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 23rd, 1969 along with your check for $250. I have ordered for 4 pairs of Deities, and as soon as they arrive I shall give you one pair. Regarding your question about faith in devotees, faith must be there. But we should always take instruction from devotees who are considered to be elevated. A preacher's position is like this: He should have firm faith and love for Krishna. He should make friendship with devotees. He should be very much charitable and kind to the neophytes and he should avoid the company of nondevotees. This program suggests, of course, that a devotee who is not in the neophyte stage can discriminate what is Krishna, what is devotee, what is neophyte and what is nondevotee. Unless one is able to discriminate, he is to be considered to be in the neophyte stage. In the neophyte stage the position is that the neophyte devotee worships the Deity in the temple with great awe and reverence, but he cannot discriminate who is devotee, who is nondevotee and who is neophyte. I think you must be in the second stage and should try to discriminate as above. Any devotee wanting to see you should be welcomed, but your treatment should be according to his position. I am so glad to learn that you have so quickly improved the center by the Grace of Krishna. So conduct business very carefully and cautiously. When Krishna gives us opportunity, we should never misuse it. I am confident that you and Himavati are very considerate. So you arrange things in such a nice way that the center improves more and more daily, as Tamala is handling in Los Angeles. If you deal with the students cautiously and carefully, many of them may embrace this Krishna Consciousness Movement, and even a few of them turn to Krishna Consciousness on account of your endeavor, Krishna will be so much pleased upon you and bestow His benediction. So you can keep the extra money in the bank carefully, and whenever there is excess money, you can spare it for the book fund and press organization, which I have taken now very seriously. So far as I understand, to install the press there is about a $5,000 deficiency.* Brahmananda informed me of this, and I have assured him that he should not worry, I shall try to manage for it. So far as you are thinking about me, I always think about you and your wife, how beautiful devotees you are. May Krishna bless you more and more. Things here in England are satisfactory, and I am meeting some interested important Indian gentlemen, who may take also seriously this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Regarding your two questions from Bhagavad-gita, in both instances the reference is made to the Supersoul, or Krishna. Regarding Vedanta Sutra tapes, I can send them to you when I return to Los Angeles, because the books and reference books are there. You mention in your letter that you have a very good typist there. If he can handle a Composer machine as we have purchased in Columbus, that will be a great help because as soon as we start our press we shall require so many composed matters for printing into books. The IBM machine is very nice in this connection. If he can handle such machine, then you can try to secure such machine and we can send manuscripts for composing. First of all see whether he sticks with us and becomes seriously engaged in our activities. Then consult with the people for Composer machine. That will be a great help. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *They will require $20,000.00 for establishing the press ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** November 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 4, 1969, and there are three important subject matters of which you have tried to get my opinion. I may inform you that they are all very nice proposals. So far as the building is concerned, if you can manage for the money, immediately try to purchase it as Satsvarupa has done in Boston. Similarly, regarding the land, it is also a very attractive proposal. If the land is not rocky and there is sufficient open space for pasturing ground so that we may keep cows all the year round, then it is a very nice proposal. Tamala Krishna told me about such land, and he is very hopeful about getting our men in that quarter (California). So you can try for it, and if possible please let me know what is the actual situation of the land. Regarding my accepting a teaching position in Berkeley University, which is said to be the finest University in the United States, this is also a nice proposal. Actually, I want to have such position for some time in order to attract the University students. But one thing must be noted that I will not be free to take the class between 11 am and 5 pm. If that is possible, you can negotiate for such post. If actually I get such post, naturally I will have to live in Berkeley. And as you say the climate is nice there, there will be no difficulty. Regarding your question about Lord Jesus Christ, we accept him as saktyavesa avatara. Lord Buddha is in the same category also. Lord Buddha is mentioned specifically in Srimad-Bhagavatam as incarnation of Godhead, and yet Vaisnavas do not accept his philosophy, which is classified as atheism. Similarly, even if we accept Lord Jesus Christ as saktyavesa avatara., it doesn't mean that we have to accept his philosophy. But we have all respects for him without fail. Regarding books like Aquarian Gospel or even the Testiments, we cannot accept them as authorities because sometimes it is learnt that the words are not actually spoken by Christ, but they are so set up by the devotees. For example, in the Ten Commandments it is clearly stated "Thou shalt not kill", but some Bishop in Boston has changed it to "Thou shalt do no murder". This means the Bishop wants to keep hold for animal slaughter. So don't bother about all these literatures. We have all respect for these great preachers, but we do not require to study books save and accept for some reference. We must push on our philosophy how to love God. Our process is simple. We have got volumes of books also, so it is better for us to mind our own business than to divert our attention in the studies of other books. This was definitely forbidden by Lord Caitanya. After all, Krishna Consciousness philosophy is as old as 120 million years at the least. So nothing can be compared with our philosophy either in the matter of antiquity, philosophy, ethics, science, morality, etc., all in correct vision and approved by great stalwart acaryas. So far others are concerned, they cannot be compared even. For example, if Lord Jesus Christ said "Thou shalt not kill", or "Thou shalt do no murder" to the people, it does not reflect very good social structure of the audience. Our philosophy is above all these things. Just like we prescribe to our students no illicit sex-life, no meat-eating, no intoxication, no gambling, but they are not ends in themselves. The real end is how to serve Krishna and sacrifice everything for Him. And to learn this transcendental art we have got so many volumes of books. So the summary is that instead of diverting our attention to read such unauthorized books, better pay our attention to more authorized Vaisnava literature. These scriptures of the Buddhists and the Christians may be the words of God, but still the are not always applicable to us. It is just like a king may give some rules and regulations for some criminals in prison; but for the good citizens out of the prison these rules are not necessarily applicable. So these Christian and Buddhist scriptures were delivered for a different class of men, and we needn't spend our time in studying their doctrines. You should read our own books over and over again and as far as possible do not try to enter into controversy. We do not concern ourselves with any other religion. Our religion is to become the servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna [Cc. Madhya 13.80].You have sent me one plan for constructing a dais for the Deities in which you have placed Radha-Krishna under Lord Jagannatha. Instead of putting it like this, you put Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana picture underneath Lord Jagannatha, and make a separate throne for Radha-Krishna exactly on the pattern of Los Angeles temple. Regarding Melvani, I am glad that he has come to you from Montreal, but his photo shows he is not in the standard dress; and the tilak is not correctly made. Anyway, you welcome him. He is a very nice gentleman. But try to convince him to follow all of our principles. That will be very nice. Please offer my obeisances to your good wife, Himavati. I hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. You will soon have Radha-Krishna Murtis. More pairs of them will reach L.A. very soon & one of them for you ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** November 18th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 7, 1969. Whenever there is difficulty in understanding you are at liberty to question me, and it is my duty to give you the right reply as far as possible. There is no cause of anxiety for this method. Questions and answers is the relationship for the Spiritual Master and disciple. The only thing is that questions should be put, as it is advised in the Bhagavad-gita, preceded and followed by submission and service. With this, all questions are bona fide. Regarding the application for the school, I don't think it is very lucrative job. If you want your Spiritual Master to be engaged in some outside job, you must see that He is getting suitable remuneration. I am therefore returning this form as there is no use of it. Regarding the building, if it is already acquired by the university, then if you purchase, the university authorities must give you guarantee that they will return the money, whatever we have paid, after deducting the usual rent only. On this we can negotiate. For the land, first of all ascertain the real situation as I inquired in my last letter. Then try to secure it. But the university course should be given more stress than purchasing the house or securing the land. This is a very important thing. If such courses are taken by you, then practically there is no need of my employment there. Regarding Citsukhananda, I do not know whether his Spanish education is sufficient for the purpose of right translation, but he can make some portion and send it to me. I shall examine it and then give my direction. In the meantime he can try to translate our BTG and you may try to print a Spanish edition of BTG as you were doing in Montreal of French edition. That will be a nice job for him and an opportunity to nicely expand our literary activities. Please offer my blessings to Himavati and the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hansadutta **Date:** December 7th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Hansadutta, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated November 28, 1969. I could not check my laughing when you have said so many things in bereavement for asking me to serve in the university. There is no question of bereavement. A child sometimes commits mistakes, and the father says "Don't do like this." So there is no question of being very seriously bereaved. There is a story that one man was very hungry, and he went to an unknown friend and asked him to give him some food. The man supplied him a little foodstuff, but he was not satisfied. His hunger was still there. So he asked the man for more food, and the man said there wasn't any. Then the hungry man inquired from the other man, "Which caste do you belong to?" The other man said, "I am Mohammedan." Then the hungry man said, "Oh, I have lost my caste, and still my belly is not satisfied." The idea is that if we have to accept some service, there must be proper remuneration. Otherwise, our free service is open in the temple. Anyone can come and take advantage. Generally in the universities they pay the teachers from $800 to $2,000 per month, so at least they must pay via media not less than $1,000 per month. Anyway, don't bother about it. Go on with your business. But I thought that I required some money for my Book Fund, so I could gather some money in this way. But this will not satisfy my hunger, so forget this incident. Now I am so pleased to learn that your Berkeley center is improving day by day under the good care of yourself and your good wife, Himavati. Please go on improving the condition of this important center until you have made it as good as Los Angeles center. Regarding the building, how much money do you have for a down payment? If you have at least $3,000, then I can ask some other centers to give you a loan for the balance so you can attempt to purchase the house. You say that it is a nice house, so if it is ours, we can decorate it very nicely for a good temple. Otherwise, we do not mind to stay in a rented house. When Krishna will give us opportunity, we shall purchase. Here in London temple we are going to install very big Deities on December 14th. The Deities are 42" high, made of first class marble imported from Jaipur, India by some devotee at the cost of about $400. He has donated it to our temple. Please go on with the school course. That is a very nice program. In Hawaii also they are doing that, and also in Seattle, Los Angeles, etc. this program is going on. So it is a good opportunity. Sankirtana Party on the streets, selling our literature, taking some opportunity for teaching students, and giving them nice Prasadam: This program should be followed very rigidly and things will come out very successful without fail. Regarding Citsukhananda, he needn't bother at present to translate into Spanish. Unless we have got branches in some country where the Spanish language is important, he should not divert his attention. Regarding the little boy named Jimmy and his mother, the mother may do work; just like sweeping, cleansing the temple, collecting flowers, making garlands, washing dishes, etc. The boy should be trained to be a nice brahmacari, but it is risky to keep a boy of this age away from the public schools. In your country the law is very strict to send such minor children to school. The best thing will be to send him to New Vrindaban to be taken taken care of by Kirtanananda, Ranadhira, Satyabhama, Syama Dasi and Paramananda. They are already taking care of some young boys who are there. They are trying to develop a school of our ideal in that place. So after some time, if the mother sticks to our principles, the child may be sent to New Vrindaban and she can remain in the temple and gradually be initiated. In the meantime, encourage her to read our literature and books, and be engaged in some service as above mentioned. Please offer my blessings to all of the other devotees in your Berkeley center. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Harer Nama **Date:** February 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Harer Nama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 13, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am so glad to hear that you are having nice response now and soon you hope to hold some feasts. If by the summer you feel that the center has urgent necessity of some other brahmacaris, then we shall arrange for this. At present I think that Tosana may go to North Carolina immediately and help Bhurijana with the center there. In the meantime, you try to keep the temple maintained somehow or other, so when the summer arrives some helper may go to give you assistance. Please let me know if Kamalasana arrives there in Sante Fe. He has left the temple here all of a sudden, and no one knows where he is. I am very much anxious for him, so please let me know if you have any word from him. Thanking you again for your letter. I hope that this will be meeting you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. In case of urgent work somebody may go to help you from here. ACB ### Letter to Harer Nama **Date:** April 30th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Harer Nama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 21, 1969, and I have gone over the contents very carefully. I am pleased to learn that your mother is willing to pay for your schooling expenses, and I think that you may take this opportunity of completing your education. I have enclosed one letter to Prabhavati, and you should see this letter also. Regarding your request to sing prayers in English, this is nice suggestion, and you may do it. So far as the songs that you have written, you may send me a copy of them and I shall see them. In Montreal also they are writing songs in the popular Western style of music and it is coming very nicely. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Harer Nama **Date:** May 23rd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Harer Nama, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated May 14, 1969, and I congratulate you and your good wife, Prabhavati, for your marriage. Live peacefully, husband and wife, and now you will be happy in the management of the temple. Both of you are initiated, and as it is necessary for you to work, your wife may take care of the temple in your absence. I am glad that you have received some money from your grandmother, and you wish to send it to me for my book fund. In the meantime, there is Rathayatra Festival propogation, and Tamala Krishna wishes that all branches on the Western Coast may conjointly perform this ceremony very pompously. I do not know if you have got any news already, but if you have, please cooperate fully to make the Rathayatra Festival a grand success. I hope this will meet you and Prabhavati in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Harer Nama **Date:** November 6th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Harer Nama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated November 3, 1969 and have noted the contents with pleasure. For some time I have been anxious to hear from you, and now that you have written I am encouraged to learn of your nice activities in Colorado. I am pleased also that Bhavananda, Palika Dasi and Prabhavati Dasi are all working so sincerely and steadfastly to promote this Sankirtana Movement, and surely Caitanya Mahaprabhu will bestow His full blessings upon all of you. This is a qualification of activities in Krishna Consciousness that if one renders even a small amount of sincere devotional service, Krishna becomes obliged to elevate such person; and what to speak of one whose entire life and soul has been dedicated to Krishna's service. So continue to push on as you are now doing and as far as possible distribute our books and magazines. Now that our press is ready in Boston, we have more than one dozen books which are ready to be printed, so with your help I wish to overflood the marketplaces with our literatures. Now people are reading all kinds of nonsense books, and thus their reading capacity is helping to pave their way through the circles of birth and death. If they will simply take to reading this transcendental literature we are presenting, the same reading capacity will elevate them to the highest perfection of spiritual life. So this is very important task we are doing, and all of you push forward in Colorado with increased enthusiasm. Here in London things are going on nicely, and at all of our meetings, hundreds of people join in with us in the chanting and dancing. Similarly, from all of our centers we are getting very good reports, and I think that before long your center will develop into a very important center for our movement. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Harer Nama, Prabhavati **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Harer Nama and Prabhavati, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters of June 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents of both with much encouragement. I have also received short letters from the new people who have come to help you in the Santa Fe temple, and their nice appreciation of our movement is a great pleasure for me to note. Keep them very nicely, and as you consider that one or all of them are ready for initiation and are desiring like that, then they can send their beads to me to be chanted upon. You have invited me to come again to visit the Sante Fe temple and this idea is nice, but at present I am planning to be going to London by the latter part of July, so I do not see any immediate opportunity. From London most probably I will be returning to Los Angeles, so let us see if there will be any opportunity at that time. The pictures you have sent are very, very nice, and I am hopeful that under your guidance the Sante Fe temple will spread the chanting of Hare Krishna throughout that area. Please convey my blessings to your nice wife, Prabhavati, and to the very nice new people who are fortunately taking to Krishna Consciousness, I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Harold Torf **Date:** November 15th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Harold Torf, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to receive your letter dated November 11, 1969, and I am so much obliged to you for your kindly offering me your service. You are rightly placed by Krishna's Grace under Brahmananda, and you try to follow his instructions. As soon as he will recommend, I shall initiate you; most probably when I return to Boston. Your picture shows you are a very nice boy, promising to become a good Vaisnava in the future. Krishna has sent you for being taken care of by us, so we shall do our best. You also kindly try to follow our instructions. Regarding Omkar, you may know that Om is the impersonal sound form of Krishna. Those who are unable to utter immediately the Sweet Name of Krishna, they are recommended to chant Om. Just like a child is taught to make a particular type of sound, and thus he learns the name of father, mother and other relatives. That is the beginning. So in the beginning, Om is the right vibration of transcendental sound, and the meaning is to address the Supreme Lord. Our business is directly with the Supreme Lord. Impersonal feature of the Lord is just like the illumination of the lamp. The lamp is the more important thing. You will gradually understand all these features of the Absolute Truth if you read Bhagavad-gita and adhere to the regulative principles. If there is difficulty in understanding, you consult with Brahmananda, or still further you send your inquiry tome. Thank you very much for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** January 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 26, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am very pleased to learn that the entire first canto should be completely edited by March 8th, and I am also glad to hear that your Lord Caitanya play is at last completed. From what I have gone through of this play I could see that it is very well done, simply it is a little prolonged. Otherwise it is very nice. I hope that when we start our own press we shall get this book printed. Regarding my coming there, I think you should fix up my date of being there with Alan Ginsberg. Provisionally, you can set up my date of arrival by the middle of April as described by you. I can understand from your letter that your car is now broken and useless. In the future, we should not purchase a second-hand car; it is always troublesome. This is the third time that such car has caused us difficulty. Rupanuga purchased a second-hand car for $600, and it proved to be useless. Another was given to Hansadutta, and this too proved not very satisfactory. Now the third experience is yours. If it is possible to get it sold and get some money, you can purchase a small truck new, or else whenever we need a truck we can rent it. But don't purchase any more second-hand cars; they are too much troublesome. Regarding the press, I have already written to Brahmananda about this. We can risk $260 for renting one year the two-story house you mentioned. So immediately you should make arrangements for this. As for your nice sentiments about our first meeting on Houston Street, it was all arranged by Krishna. That was practically a favor shown to me by Krishna because I came in your country by superior order. I had been feeling lonely although I had the mission of starting this Krishna Consciousness movement. So Krishna sent you to me, and therefore our meeting was also the desire of Krishna. Therefore, both of us, or for that matter, all of the boys and girls who are working with me, have met by the desire of Krishna. As such, everyone should always feel the responsibility that Krishna wants us to do something for Him, and we must invest all of our energies to fulfill this mission of Krishna Consciousness. The boys and girls in London are doing very nicely. My Guru Maharaja sent one sannyasi, Swami Bon Maharaja, to preach Krishna Consciousness in London, sometimes in 1933. Although he tried for three years and at the expense of my Guru Maharaja, he could do not do any appreciable work. So Guru Maharaja, being disgusted, called him back. In comparison to that situation, our 6 young boys and girls are neither very much advanced in their study of Vedanta nor any other Vedic literature, neither are they sannyasis. But still they are doing more tangible work than what Bon Maharaja could do there 35 years ago. This very fact confirms the statement of Lord Caitanya that a preacher or teacher may be a householder, a sannyasi, a brahmana, a sudra, or anyone, provided he knows the science of Krishna. And to know the science of Krishna means to serve Krishna under the directions of a bona fide Spiritual Master. When we serve Krishna in this way, Krishna is pleased to reveal Himself. So we should follow strictly the Vedic principle that anyone who has unflinching faith in Krishna and the Spiritual Master, to him only the science of Krishna Consciousness becomes revealed. Then when we are fully conversant in revelation of Krishna Consciousness, we can meet any opposing elements and come out victorious. Now you are grhastha, and there is no need to be despondent, simply we have to become sincere to act fully in Krishna Consciousness. Your wife, Syama Dasi, is a very good girl. She will be always helpful to you in doing as the boys and girls in London are doing in attracting the attention of various types of people from all over the world. They are doing wonderful service, and it makes no difference that they are householders. Do not be very much anxious whether you are fired from your present service or not. But you should not do something there which will be disturbing to the authorities. However, in all circumstances we must execute the program of Krishna Consciousness, even at the risk of dissatisfying the so-called employer master. Please convey my blessings to Syama Dasi. I hope this will meet you both in happy mood and good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. You know Dr. Haridasa Chondhery of San Francisco. He writes as follows:—"I am delightful to receive your affectionate gift of 'The Bhagavad-gita As It Is.' Whenever I find some time, I read a little from it. The book is without doubt the best presentation so far to the western public of the teachings of Lord Krishna—the standpoint of the Vaisnava tradition of India . . . etc."Actually it is so. Now we have to make some propaganda work to convince the different colleges and universities to read this real form of B.G. to the Western Public ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** February 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 7, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I am so glad to learn that Mr. Ginsberg is taking some serious interest in our Hare Krishna Movement. When he actually comes into Krishna Consciousness, which I expect will be in the very near future, at that time our movement will get a great impetus. I understand that in New Vrindaban you have got electricity, and I shall be glad to know what is the condition of the atmosphere there. The other day, I saw in the paper that there was very strong snow-storms in New York and the airport service had stopped there completely. Is there any snow-storm in New Vrindaban also? If not, I can go whenever you call me there because here I have no serious business just now. In London, they have not yet been able to find out a suitable temple house, but their propaganda work is going on very nicely. They are attending almost every night somewhere in kirtana engagements, and five or six English boys have joined them already. So I was thinking of opening the London temple on the Birthday of Lord Caitanya which falls on March 4, 1969. I have already written to them about this, but if it doesn't take place, then why not make foundation stone ceremony on that date in New Vrindaban? If the climate is not too much obstructive, then we can hold a ceremony on that day on account of Lord Caitanya's Advent and lay down the foundation stone of our New Vrindaban construction work. In the meantime, I am enclosing herewith some plans and a letter from Angelo Cummings who is in New York temple. He is also ready to help in the construction work. After examining the plans, you can return them to the boy in New York and open correspondence with him. If Nara Narayana and he conjointly work, then very quickly the construction will be finished. Please inform me what was the report of the press boys. Anyway, press or no press, we must have some houses there because many students are very much eager to go to New Vrindaban. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Syama Dasi. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** February 20th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 16th 1969. And I've also received the letter from Uddhava. I heard about the house indicated by you from Kirtanananda Maharaja, so if it is approved by you all as a suitable place then purchase. In answer to your questions concerning sex life: sex life restriction does not mean that husband and wife live separately. The idea of marriage is to increase spiritual consciousness as far as possible. And by advancement of Krishna Consciousness that restriction becomes automatically practical. Sex life for begetting Krishna Conscious children is as good as Krishna Consciousness. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita so one has to use his own discretion in this matter and Krishna will help such discriminatory method. It is not that in every state you have to concern me but you have to concern Krishna Who is situated within. On the whole, sex life, like that of ordinary materialistic men, is not recommended for a Krishna Conscious person. My Guru Maharaja although he was Brahmacari, sometimes he used to say that if I could beget Krishna Conscious children I am prepared to indulge in sex life a hundred times. The summary is sex life should be utilized only for begetting Krishna Conscious children—that's all. Regarding your new engagement in Wheeling, it is a very nice offer and you must accept it. The yoga center class may be conducted by Pradyumna and assisted by someone else. What is the position of the Yoga society class now? Are the students purchasing our Back to Godhead magazines and the Bhagavad-gita? Another problem is that Rayarama has become sick so will it be possible for you to take care of Back to Godhead as one of the editors? As joint editor as you were formerly. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- ,P.S. Regarding B.T.G. you will have each about 32 pages every month. P.S. I have also received your letter of Feb. 18. I think I shall not now go to New Vrindaban. Anyway if I decide, I shall let you know timely. ACB ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** March 18th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your nice long letter of March 12, 1969, and have noted the contents carefully. I hope by Krishna's Grace all will work out nicely with your job arrangements. I am glad to learn that your yoga society is going on nicely. Regarding Pradyumna: I shall write to him in this connection, and when I come there in May, I shall see the situation and make the suitable arrangements as necessary. Regarding Srimad-Bhagavatam: No it is not possible to delete so much of the books. We will print it ourselves. We do not find any special facility being published by MacMillan, so we shall publish on our own press. That is the best idea. And Brahmananda is organizing a special department for book selling. So far I understand, Nara Narayana will arrive and I shall send also Vamanadeva. Most probably Vamanadeva and Murari will go there so you will have ample hands to construct buildings. In the meantime, when I go there we shall do things according to plan and with the help of these boys who are our carpenters. My ambition is that we shall have all editorial staff, all artisans, and conduct our press there to print at least four books yearly and 50,000 copies of BTG.So far Syama dasi is concerned, she is very good girl, and I am very much pleased to hear that she is typing so nicely the Srimad-Bhagavatam. You are good couple, work combinedly in this way. I am disturbed to hear she is feeling some chest pain and fainting, but I do not know what is the matter . . . it is all right if she wants to rest, and can go to her grandfather's house not far away. So far the living arrangement is concerned, the grhasthas should be given chance to live together as husband and wife. If not, then all the girls can stay in a place and all the boys can stay in a place, if there is not sufficient space. So far the Brahmacaris, you cannot check the association with householders. But their living should be separate. Kirtanananda Maharaja may be the supreme authority for the New Vrindaban center, but the management should be entrusted to the Brahmacaris and next the Grhasthas. He should not directly interfere with the management—he can simply give direction and the Brahmacaris and Grhasthas can carry out the management. During Kirtana time, all members should assemble together. Only at night they should live separately. And Kirtanananda Maharaja should live and associate with Brahmacaris. Best thing is that he should be completely aloof from everyone, and assisted by one Brahmacari. But he should be the man in charge to give direction. So far as the two of you working in conjunction, you and Kirtanananda Maharaja, whatever is practical can be adopted in this connection. I shall most probably reach there by the 10th of May, and if not called by London, then I may live there all summer to construct New Vrindaban, and the press affairs. I hope you are all well, and please convey my blessings to Syama dasi, and all the students there, and I shall be happy to see you in May. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** March 27th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of March 21, 1969, and have noted the contents carefully. Yes, you can begin negotiations and as soon as I shall go there, we shall see and if possible we shall purchase the property. Regarding my going to London: If you accompany me, that will be a very nice thing. I want your company always for editing my writings very nicely, but because you have to work for maintaining New Vrindaban, so let us see what Krishna desires in the future. If the press is started in Vrindaban then certainly I shall have to stay there the major part of the time, at least for the summer season. In the near future I shall have to stick to the press work and publication work. Regarding the publication work, and editorial matters: I shall definitely settle it up as soon as I go to New York. Hope you are feeling well, and I hope Syama dasi's health is improving by this time. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** April 29th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 25, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I have already sent Pradyumna the schedule of my touring in this part of the country. I did not know that there was so many important engagements in Columbus because formerly I was informed only that on the 12th there was an important meeting. So as I am going on the 9th, I shall be staying there for six days, till the 14th. On the 15th I will be going to North Carolina. So if you think that in Columbus there are many other engagements, then I may come back again to Columbus and stay there for as long as you like, and then I shall go on to New Vrindaban. Best thing will be if you talk with Bhurijana in North Carolina and arrange things mutually. I don't think he will be able to change the present arrangements because he has sent me one press cutting in which it is advised that I shall speak there on the 16th. Therefore, the best thing may be to come back. So you may not make any program for me on the 15th, 16th and 17th. Then on the 18th we can make more programs at Columbus. I am enclosing one letter to be handed over to the girl, Cynthia Daily, who is there in Columbus with you. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** July 1st 1969 > 1975 So. La Cienega Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90034 My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 27, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. So far as the Sanskrit transliterations are concerned, I have done it, and am returning it herewith. Please do the needful. Regarding the New Vrindaban scheme, I think you should now transfer this property to the society's name, and I have asked Brahmananda to invest $600 per month for improvement of the New Vrindaban scheme. The adjoining property, if you propose to purchase, you may keep it in your personal name, and in the future we shall see what is to be done. But there will no hampering in improving that part of the property also. If you purchase that property, it will greatly facilitate for transport. Now Brahmananda and yourself cooperate in the present scheme of BTG. Put in the magazine as many pictures as possible and articles by the students. The purpose of the magazine is exclusively for the propagation of Krishna Consciousness. I think that I will have to remain here in Los Angeles at least for the months of July and August. Things are going very nicely here, and the weekly love feasts, more that 150 persons assemble. On the general meeting days, not less than 50 people are assembled. I am simply attending on the Sunday evening Festival and not for the general classes. The accommodations are also very nice. So if there is no inconvenience for you, you may also come here to stay for some days. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** July 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 8, 1969, and I have noted the contents. Regarding articles for BTG, I have already issued instructions to all centers requesting my disciples to send articles every month, and I am going to repeat it again for the second time. You may continue to send me the Sanskrit transliterations for being corrected as I did last time. It will not be difficult for me to do the work in the same way. Your first business is to see my books and the magazine, BTG, published very nicely, and for this work certainly you require a very calm and quiet place. So in the absence of sufficient accommodations we may now restrict the influx of devotees to New Vrindaban. Unless we have got sufficient place it will not be possible to make separate arrangements for brahmacaris and women and children. There is sufficient place there but there is no buildings. If we depend on our own men, I don't think we will have sufficient accommodations within the thinkable future period. We have to build by professional men, and that means we require money. That is a problem. Now I can't tax my brain how to get this money for developing the buildings there. If automatically it grows, that is very nice, otherwise let all remain as it is, and in the course of time when Krishna desires it shall be developed. But try to keep the place peaceful without any disturbances. The girls and children who have been a source of disturbance may be for the time being asked either to build their own cottages or leave the place. I can just imagine how much disturbance it is when all around there are children howling and noisy talking. Regarding transferring the property to the society's name, I do not know the legal implications, but so far as I do know for the time being you are not the proprietor of the land; you are the lease-holder. The lease-holder cannot transfer his possession without arrangement with the real owner. So I think legally you cannot now transfer the property to Iskcon because I know it definitely that a lease-holder or a tenant cannot make any such arrangement with a subtenant or sublease-holder. If someone does so, it is not valid. So for the time being the idea of transferring may be deferred. Let it go on as it is. In the meantime you devote your attention for first-class editorial work, and try to manage things there how to keep the inmates peaceful. There is no use to create a pandemonium. Better to keep it under your personal management to keep it nicely for your editorial work. I do not wish that you should be disturbed. In the meantime you can negotiate with the owner of the other property, and if there are suitable terms, the society can purchase that property outright. Then there will be no question of transferring your present property to the society's name. You can go on saving taxes as you are now doing, and similarly there is no question of our society paying any taxes because we are tax-free. So far as Nara Narayana is concerned, I do not know how did you think that he alone would be able to tear down the whole house single-handed. He sometimes promises such utopian things, but never fulfills. That is my experience. I am returning the letter you have sent in this connection. I am missing one letter said to contain my ticket from New York to Luxembourg. From Hamburg they have informed me that this ticket was sent, but I have not received it. Regarding the usefulness or uselessness of the inmates, it all depends on proper management. You can't expect that all men and women who will be going there will be very useful. You have to make them useful by your arrangement. I am very glad to inform you that Tamala Krishna and Madhudvisa are managing so nicely in Los Angeles that they are making all men useful for Sankirtana Party purposes. Of course there is no question here of construction work. I do not find amongst our men anyone suitable for regular construction work, so we will have to engage professional men for this purpose. That is my opinion. Please convey my blessings to Syama Dasi and the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 22, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. The money matters dealings are somewhat an embarrassment to me. I do not know what they have paid and what you have received. The best thing is as you suggested that the girls who are there may come back to Los Angeles. I have asked Tamala also to write them. If Tamala is not sending their money, he should look after their comfort, and the best thing would be that you ask them to come back to Los Angeles, without any hardships and burdens on you. You take care of Girish and Birbhadra nicely, and I shall ask Silavati to send the money directly. Yes, Kirtanananda Maharaja is not very much in favor of Nara Narayana, so for the time being I am not asking him to return to New Vrindaban. He has done very nicely here in the Rathayatra Festival, and it was very successful in San Francisco. I shall send you later on the reprint pictures published in the local newspapers, and you will be glad to learn that about 10,000 people participated in this function. The procession was taken along about an 8 mile distance, and the people followed all through, simply chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra. This was a unique scene in this part of the world. Some of the Christian-minded people became almost envious, and I have received some anonymous letters. Maybe as our movement increases in volume the orthodox section of Christianity may be envious of our successful march. I think you should collect some information from the Bible that Sankirtana, chanting of the Holy Names of God, is recommended there also. There is a book called Aquarian Gospel in which it is stated that Lord Jesus Christ lived in the temple of Jagannatha. Without being His devotee, how could he live there and how the authorities could allow a nondevotee to live there? From that book it appears that Lord Jesus Christ lived in intimate relations with the priest order. So as far as possible, you should prepare yourself for future writings that our movement is not against the philosophy of Jesus Christ, but it is in complete collaboration with his line of religiosity. Actually, we don't decry any religious way of the world, but we are simply advocating that people should learn to love God by following their religious principles. If one is not fortunate to be learning how to love God, then his religious principles are simply fanaticism, without any value. We are presenting the same thing practically by which one can learn very quickly how to love God, and then his life becomes sublime. So our process is a system, following which any man from any religious sect may come and join and learn how to love God. Now you should think over this matter and try to convince people by writing different types of articles in Back To Godhead. Please convey my blessing to Shama Dasi and the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** August 6th 1969 > 1975 So. La Cienega Blvd.Los Angeles, Cal. 90034 My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 28th, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am so pleased to learn of your hard work for writing Krishna Consciousness essays. When Shama Dasi leaves for Columbus to begin her composing tasks, you will require another Dictaphone. There is one almost new Dictaphone lying in Montreal temple. You can write to Jayapataka, who is in charge there, that when I come to New York on my way to Europe he may bring the Dictaphone for you to take back to New Vrindaban for the time being. Then when other arrangements are made you shall return it to him. Please take care of Birbhadra, Girish and Dwarkadish, and make them nice brahmacharies. Treat them like your own children. These boys are future hope for our preaching Krishna Consciousness, so help them grow in that spirit. I am enclosing herewith separate letters for Anuradha and Labangalatika Dasi. I have informed them that they may remain in New Vrindaban for the remainder of the summer if this is their wish and if Kirtanananda Maharaj agrees. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** August 16th 1969 > 1975 So. La Cienega Blvd.Los Angeles, Cal. 90034 My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 12th, 1969, and I have noted the contents. Enclosed please find the Conversation With Allen Ginsberg Part 2 and An Ancient Science for Modern America, along with the corrected Sanskrit verses duly typed. Regarding Macmillan publishing Srimad Bhagavatam if this is so, then the introductory portion about Lord Chaitanya must be included also. I am enclosing herewith* a copy of my letter to Pradyumna. The machine will be ready by the 22nd of August and you must immediately arrange for composing the books. So far as BTG is concerned, I think it is being done in New York by Jayadvaita, so let him do that as usual. You immediately take care that both Arundhuti and Shama Dasi compose the books. That is my desire. I did not go to New York this past week because in Germany they have not as yet obtained an apartment. So I am awaiting Krishna Das' letter to inform me when they are ready. As soon as I receive this, I will go to the East Coast on my way; to Germany. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have received Kirtanananda's sandesh. It is very very very nice. Thanks. * sent next time ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** August 27th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. We have safely reached exactly at the scheduled time in Hamburg, and the journey was quite comfortable. Lufthansa is a very respectable airline, and the ladies and gentlemen and stewardesses and hosts were very kind in their treatment. One girl was insisting that we take some food, and when we refused she was very sorry, but she brought us a sufficient supply of fruit. So everything was nice, and I have lectured in the temple on Monday night. Professor Dr. Franz Bernhard, a learned scholar in Indology, was present. We had a long discussion yesterday evening when he came to see me, and he admitted that all his philosophical talks were simply wasting time. He remarked another thing that he had thought of us as hippies because he saw that Ginsberg on the notice board, seemingly like one of our members. From his conversation I understood that people are very badly impressed about Ginsberg, especially respectable persons, on account of his hippy tendencies. I of course supported our case that Ginsberg is a great friend of our society and we advise everyone to chant Hare Krishna, and I believe he also does so. Anyway, we should be very much careful to publish anything in our paper which will give impression to the public that we are inclined to the hippy movement. In our papers nothing should be published which has even a small tinge of hippy ideas. I must tell you in this connection that if you have any sympathies with the hippy movement you should kindly give it up. Regarding your coming here, it will be very nice. You will have no difficulty to stay with me. We have got two rooms: one occupied by me and one by Purusottama. So you can stay here or in the temple, as you like. In the case which we left behind with Brahmananda you will kindly find the following items and bring them here with you: one Bengali character Bhagavad-gita and Purusottama's copy of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. I hope this will find you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: When you come here, please also bring with you the original manuscripts for Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Mandali Bhadra will translate into German ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** September 30th 1969 > Tittenhurst Park Tittenhurst House Ascot, Berkshire, ENGLAND My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 25th, 1969, and I am very much perturbed reading the contending points with Brahmananda. So I am enquiring in this matter. In the meantime, don't be agitated. Sometimes such moments come, but we have to tolerate. That is the instruction of Lord Chaitanya. In the future, I am contemplating that management should be done by you all in combination, but I am sorry that the idea is not very hopeful. Anyway, I shall try to adjust things nicely. Don't worry. In the meantime, go on with your duty, and Krishna will bless you. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** November 19th 1969 > 7, Bury Place London, WC 1ENGLAND My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your New Vrindaban newsletter copy dated November 11, 1969. I am so happy to learn that everything is going very nicely in New Vrindaban. Regarding BTG, please let me know definitely how many minimum copies will be required by you and Kirtanananda Swami for distribution and what is the difficulty of getting them. BTG is practically our vital line of existence. The more we distribute BTG the more we become stronger in our preaching program. In the meantime I have received a letter from Boston, informing me that the press is lying idle for want of printing matters. I have written one letter to Pradyumna, the copy of which is enclosed herewith, but I have received no reply as yet. So I do not know why the composing in Columbus is going so slowly. Before purchasing the machine, both you and I agreed and the girls also agreed that at least 20 pages would be composed by both Arundhuti and Shama Dasi. So what is the cause of the slow work? Will you kindly explain what is the difficulty there? If there is actually difficulty, then the machine may be transferred to Boston. There is a girl there now who can do the work. Now we want sufficient composing work. Otherwise, what is the use of our press? Please enlighten me in this connection by return mail and oblige. Another thing is that practically Pradyumna is the only Sanskirt scholar in our society. Formerly he was happy to get some assistance from Harvard University in this connection, and practically he began his Sanskrit learning from Boston. Now, if Pradyumna and his wife move to Boston, I think that will be great help to the press. I am, of course, awaiting the reply from Pradyumna. In the meantime please enlighten me in all the above points because I am very much anxious about this matter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- enclosures: one ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** October 21st 1969 > Tittenhurst Park Tittenhurst House, Ascot, Berkshire, ENGLAND My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 13, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. The most enlightening paragraph of your letter is when you say to print 50,000 copies of our BTG. My idea is that we should print at least 100,000 of this magazine every month; if not immediately, then in the very near future. And it will be quite possible to do it easily because we have got our own press. I am so glad to learn that you are deeply absorbed in editorial work and your good wife is assisting you. I have received one letter from Shama Dasi how much she is pleased to assist you in this great task. I am also glad to learn that you have received the manuscript sent by Purushottam from Hamburg. Please finish up the business very nicely and the balance manuscript will be sent as soon as you want it. The date mark on the magazine I think is already removed from the face of the cover, as I see it in the #28 issue. Your desire that you could be always with me is exactly befitting, because I need your service in that way and I wanted to keep you with me always. But somehow or other Krishna desired in a different way for better purposes. Now, by Krishna's Grace, you have got a nice wife, you have got a nice home, and you have got a nice engagement, along with a nice desire to serve Krishna. So all these combined together means your future is very great. You try to utilize the situation properly and I wish to help you to my best capacity. If you could get some service in some of the Universities in Boston, that would be a great facility. Then both of you, yourself and your wife, could live in Boston and do the editorial work more conveniently in cooperation with Satsvarupa and others. I think in that way. So far as New Vrindaban is concerned, I am very glad to know that Kirtanananda is touring and trying to maintain and develop the affairs of New Vrindaban by his own endeavor. It is very, very encouraging to me that in his last letter he expresses his desire to sell our books and magazines. I replied his letter that he can take with him as many books and magazines as he likes and sell them and utilize the profit also, but I have not received any reply from him since a long time. I am so glad to learn also that your working in the Universities is not so much burdensome so that you can utilize your time more for editorial work. Please note it carefully that the publication of my books is so dear to me, and I wish that you help me to the highest perfection of this work. You wanted my desire to order you something you shall carry out. I wish that you may take up this responsibility and do it nicely in all circumstances. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** November 7th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 29, 1969 and noted the contents. Things are going on nicely in every department, and it is very encouraging. But as I have already told you, your first business is to see about the publication of my books. I have already advised Satsvarupa and Brahmananda in this connection, and they will take the necessary care for it. I want to know if Nectar of Devotion is coming along at proper pace. So you will kindly manage in Columbus that the printing matters are substantially ready for the press. The press may not sit idly for want of printing matter. Then it will be very nice from all sides. Pradyumna is in charge of making the diacritic marks nicely, so I shall be glad to know if he is doing that work according to plan. Recently I received one letter from Arundhati that she wants to work very hard. So Syama Dasi should also do this as it was previously programmed. The main point is that the press should not sit down for want of printing matter. That you will kindly manage. As you write that you cannot find suitable work in Boston, you stick to Columbus and give sufficient time to your editing work. Please also take care of the children. They are our future hopes, and the adolescent age is the most dangerous age. It is the turning point of one's life. In this age, if you take care of the children, surely they will come out first class Krishna Conscious devotees. Regarding publishing articles from the Harmonist, after the departure of my Guru Maharaja so many nonsense things have been written. So we should know who has written these articles. Articles written by my Guru Maharaja can be published without any hesitation, but articles written by Prof. Sannyal after 1936, they are not at all good. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva **Date:** December 25th 1969 > 7, Bury Place London, WC 1England My Dear Hayagriva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated November 25th and 30th, 1969. That things are improving in New Vrindaban is very encouraging to me. The collection in Washington was $4,200, and out of that $1,200 was for expenditures. So the balance $3,000 I have received for my Book Fund. I think for us to publish all of the books which are ready now it will cost not less than $100,000, even without any charges for labor or for the establishment: simply for the cost of materials. So I shall expect contributions from all centers as far as possible for my Book Fund. Regarding the rumor about New Vrindaban closing, do not try to divert your attention to all these rumors. Rumor is rumor. When New Vrindaban by the wish if Krishna is started, let us go on with the business. I can understand why the rumor was broadcast. There was some discussion when I was in San Francisco with Tamal about the protection of cows. Our main function in New Vrindaban is to give protection to the cows, but there was discussion about the difficulties of keeping cows in New Vrindaban because for the winter season they have to be locked up and fed extraneously. Actually, cow protection is easier when they have simply pasturing ground and we have no botheration for their upkeep. But because in the winter season we have to lock them up and feed them by spending, is that not a problem? Of course, for the small number that are there now that is not a problem, but when we have 50 or 100 cows, as we expect to have that number, then what is the solution? These points were discussed. I think it has taken a different form by rumor. Anyway, this is also a practical point we have to consider. But in spite of all difficulties, when we have started we have to go on improving it as far as possible. New Vrindaban is already established; it cannot be closed. Rest assured. I am so glad to learn that you have planned to build a special accommodation for me, and next summer, if Krishna desires, I must go there. I always remember the fresh milk, fresh vegetables and daily ground wheat flour. They are all very, very nice. Now Kirtanananda Maharaj is also doing very nicely. The whole problem will be solved when we get more men to live there. With sufficient manpower there will be no problem, even for the cows. So make some living houses so people may live there comfortably. Now you should give stress on developing the school. That is important. If Shama Dasi can better take up schooling, it is very good that she be relieved from composing work. So far as correcting the manuscripts is concerned, you will edit first, then it will be composed, and if there are any spelling mistakes, that can be corrected by anyone there. Regarding purchasing more land, I shall advise you that we shall not keep more than what can manage very nicely. But if the adjoining land is available at a cheaper price, that should be acquired. That is a principle. As it is fixed up that we shall develop New Vrindaban, if land is available at a cheap price, we must have it. Regarding Vrindaban Chandra going to Columbus, you may open correspondence with Brahmananda in this connection. The remaining portion of Nectar of Devotion has been sent to you, so please acknowledge receipt as soon as it arrives. In your letter of November 25, 1969 you write that you have Nectar of Devotion up to page 346, but Purushottam informs me that he has given you the manuscript up to page 367. also in your letter of October 13, 1969 you write "everything up to page 367 is here in Columbus with me, safe and sound." So please check what is the situation in this connection and inform me in your next letter. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva, Pradyumna **Date:** May 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Hayagriva and Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for sending me the poster with pictures of Mr. Ginsberg and myself. It is very nicely done. Now on that I shall lead the kirtana. I shall first of all chant, and our devotees should respond as usual. And with the devotees Mr. Ginsberg will also be amongst our devotees, and the public will be requested to follow this response. In this way there shall be kirtana performance for at least half an hour. For our men I want four mrdangas and twelve karatalas or cymbals. If Kirtanananda can play the harmonium melodiously along with the chanting, it will be nice. If somebody can play the tamboura, that will be still more nice. But they should be rhythmically played. So I do not know how many devotees are there or how many mrdangas are there, but we will require four mrdangas. If this is deficient now in men or mrdangas, then you should arrange for that by calling New York men and Buffalo men. Recently I have made one record in Los Angeles, so in trying to train our men in that rhythm is not difficult. Just arrange for sixteen men; four mrdangas, harmonium, tamboura, and the rest playing karatalas. If we can perform kirtana following the recently made recording, it will be marvelous. The summary is that you should make the above preparations for when the advertised meeting is held. I will be reaching there in Columbus on United Airlines at 10:47, so in the evening if there is an engagement, we can accept. I will not be tired. On the 9th, 10th, 11th, if you want you can make some programs. On the 12th it is already scheduled, and similarly, on the 13rd and 14th you may make arrangements. On the morning of the 15th I shall be going to North Carolina. On the engagement with Mr. Ginsberg, after the first kirtana with me leading, then Mr. Ginsberg may speak something about the Sankirtana Movement. You can also speak about it, and then I shall give the concluding speech, or if someone else wishes to speak you can arrange for this. After the speaking there will be kirtana in the same way. But if you so desire, Mr. Ginsberg can lead this last program and all the others shall respond. I think this will be nice program. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hayagriva, Vamanadeva, Pradyumna **Date:** November 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Hayagriva, Vamanadeva, and Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 28, 1969. I have received also a spearate letter from Vamanadeva who is going to open a center in St. Louis. The list of proposed centers in different places is very encouraging to me. My aim is that I want to start at least 108 centers during my lifetime. So there are about 23 centers already existing, and your list completes another 16. That is very encouraging, and if factually it is done under a suitable scheme by your mutual cooperation, I have all approval for this, and you can do the needful. I hope this will meet you all in good health, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Himavati **Date:** March 18th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Himavati, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated February 21, 1969, along with the Deity dress. It has come to me late on account of changing places so quickly and the statement given by you in the matter of worshiping the Deity is super excellent. Please continue this system and Krishna will bestow upon you all blessings. If one attains perfection in Deity worship, that is called Arcana Siddhi. Arcana Siddhi means simply by Deity worship one goes back to Godhead, immediately after this life. So this Arcana Siddhi program is given in the Narada Pancaratra especially for the householders. Householders cannot undergo strict disciplinary activities of austerity, therefore for every householder the path of Arcana Siddhi is very much recommended. According to Vedic system, all householders are ordered to keep Deity at home and follow strictly the worshipment process. That makes the home pure, body pure, mind pure, and quickly promotes one to the pure platform of spiritual life. The temple is also specially meant for the householders. In India, in every town, in every village, in every neighborhood, still there are Visnu temples for the convenience of the surrounding householders. So I am pleased that you are ideal householder. And you are doing very nicely combined together husband and wife. Please do it as you are doing and gradually Krishna will give you all facility. Regarding Vedanta Sutra tapes, please ask Hansadutta to send me the copies of transcription so that I can make another tape. If I read the copy then it gives me impetus to write further. I am enclosing herewith one copy of letter from one German gentleman. I could not read it. So will you send me the English translation of this letter. And if possible you can write to him that this letter has been received very late by Swamiji Maharaja, so you acknowledge receipt of the letter immediately. In the meantime, on receipt of the translation, I shall reply. Hope you are well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Himavati **Date:** March 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Himavati, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your nice long letter of March 17, 1969, and I thank you very much for it. Your feelings of appreciation are too much kind, and I can see you are making good advancement with your humble attitude of service to the Lord and His devotees. This is very nice. Yes that is the way—Krishna wants to be approached through His devotee. Just like the prayers we sing—yasya prasadat bhagavata prasada. Keep Narottama das very nicely. He is a very good boy, sometimes he is attracted by maya but this is not very unusual thing. So kindly try to protect this boy as much as possible, and when you come to N.Y. he may also come so that I may see him again. Yes I received the package of clothing, and they are too much beautiful, but still must be a little longer. The first set which you made for Them was the perfect fit. So I am sending them to you, so that you can measure from this first set of clothes and make more in the same size. I think this will solve the fitting problem. Regarding your question about Lord Siva and Thakura Haridasa, and their different response to sex agitation: This does not mean that Lord Siva has become degraded from the devotional platform. A devotee even if he is sometimes found that he is attracted by sex life, that does not mean he is degraded. That is by chance. Because Lord Siva is Grhastha, so by his past habits if he appeared to have been attracted by sex life, that does not mean he has been degraded from his position. You should never think of any devotee like that. There are many other stories also, but such apparent falling is without any influence to very very advanced devotees. A neophyte should always be careful. One should not discuss about such great devotees' apparent fall-down. Just like one should not discuss about the sun who evaporates urine from the earth; it is possible for the sun to do it, and still remain the sun, but for ordinary man if he lives in a filthy place he will be infected. So Lord Siva or Lord Brahma, they are highly elevated devotees, and we should not try to criticize about their behavior even though it appears against the rules. These things are very nicely explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam in course of discussion between Maharaja Pariksit and Sukadeva Goswami, in the 10th canto. Your next question: In regard to Kardama Muni, how can a pure devotee become passionate for any amount of agitation? That is not passion. One should not be impotent also. One should have full potency, to beget children, but such sex life should be under his full control. Passion is a different thing. Passion makes one blind. And a devotee is full controller; that is the difference. The example is given of the tortoise; as soon as he likes he discloses his senses, and when he likes he pulls them within. That is the position of a pure devotee. He can wind up the senses, whenever he likes and he can exhibit the senses whenever he likes. On the whole, the senses are under his control. He is not under the control of the senses as are the ordinary persons. That is the meaning of Goswami. A Goswamin does not mean he is to become impotent; and can have no children; but he can use it when he likes. They are never the victim of passion. Sense gratification means unlawful sex life. Sex life is not sense gratification . . . unlawful sex life is sense gratification. If there is no need of sex life and one uses sex life anyway, that is sense gratification. But when there is need of sex life, that is not sense gratification. Never think that the devotee is impotent and is obliged to become free from sex life. If required they can take to sex life 1000 times. Otherwise, if there is no need for it, they have no use for it. Kardama Muni married a wife. Why he shall not give her children? The wife begged that she must have some children. So he must satisfy the wife and give her some children, that is the duty of husband. But he left his wife as soon as the son was grown up. Not that he used to live with the wife for all the days. So far Lord Brahma and his attraction for his daughter; this illustration should be taken by conditioned souls, that even a person like Brahma is sometimes victimized, how much careful we should be. Not that even Brahma was enticed, so we shall become enticed more and more. This is an example set for us by great devotees. To become agitated is not very unusual thing, but to control it, that is the real thing. I hope this meets you in very good health, and I shall be anxiously awaiting our meeting together with your husband and yourself in New York. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Himavati **Date:** December 20th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Himavati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 9, 1969, along with Deity clothes and my cap. I thank you very much for this. I have learned the story of the delivering of the Berkeley Jagai-Madhais. Although it is surprising, yet it is possible to happen in this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Sri Narottama das Thakura says all sinful persons and suffering persons were delivered by the Sankirtana Movement inaugurated by Lord Caitanya, Who was formerly the Son of Nanda Maharaja, accompanied by Nityananda Prabhu, Who was formerly Sri Balarama. If we keep ourselves purely on the standard of Lord Caitanya's order, then chanting by us of the Holy Names of Krishna will descend as powerfully as He acted previously, during the time of Jagai and Madhai. So I am very glad that you both, husband and wife, are executing the mission of Lord Caitanya so nicely and faithfully. Please continue to act like that and certainly Lord Caitanya will bestow all His blessings and power upon you. Personally I am so much engladdened that the pairs of young boys and girls whom I have placed in householder life are doing so nicely in the Western world. When Lord Caitanya delivered Jagai and Madhai He was also a householder, but when Jagai and Madhai were actually reclaimed, His wife, Visnupriya, was not there. But in this case and in many other cases also, I find that my disciples combined together, husband and wife, are doing this preaching work so nicely. So I am especially proud how my householder disciples are preaching Lord Caitanya's Mission. This is a new thing in the history of the Sankirtana Movement. In India all the acaryas and their descendants later on acted only from the man's side. Their wives were at home because that is the system from old times that women are not required to go out. But in Bhagavad-gita we find that women are also equally competent like the men in the matter of Krishna Consciousness Movement. Please therefore carry on these missionary activities, and prove it by practical example that there is no bar for anyone in the matter of preaching work for Krishna Consciousness. I am very glad to learn that Haribasara has got a child. Here also the boys and girls with children are dancing. So there is not distinction between the child and the child's parents in the matter of Krishna Consciousness. All of them are equally participating and deriving transcendental benefit. I am leaving for Boston USA tomorrow at 2:30 pm, so you may address future correspondence there. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Himavati **Date:** January 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Himavati, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 16, 1969, and I thank you very much for this. The deity clothing that you have sent are all very beautiful, and everything is fitting just rightly. Regarding your thoughts of separating from your husband, I do not think this is a very good plan. You should always live with your husband and help him with his personal comforts, and he will look after your all necessities of life. There is no question of separation. By mutual agreement and advancement of Krishna Consciousness you can stop sex life, but there is no question of separation. Separation is artificial. As Hansadutta advances in Krishna Consciousness then by his company you will also profit. So the husband and wife are mutually beneficial. This idea of separation was developed also in Govinda Dasi, but I have sent her back to her husband, and she is now following my instructions. There is no question of separation between husband and wife until the time when the husband takes sannyasa. At that time the wife cannot remain with the husband. Even in vanaprastha stage, or retired life, the wife remains with the husband, but without any sex relations. Regarding your keeping private deities, if you will have time it is all right, but the same energy can be utilized in the temple for decorating, dressing, cleaning, cooking. Actually, every day the dress should be changed with new ornaments, clothes, flower garlands. So we can increase even in one place the activities of deity worship. If you are having free time, I can give you a very grand list of activities for deity worship which will keep you occupied for twenty four hours each day. Regarding your question about the husband becoming the Spiritual Master of the wife, anyone who can give instructing in spiritual life is treated as Spiritual Master. There are two kinds of Spiritual Master, initiator and instructor. So the husband can help the wife as instructor. So far as the money which is owed to New York temple, I never suggested that you should send deity clothing for payment. But if Montreal owes $500 to New York then it must be payed, if not at a time, then gradually. That is your mutual account. If you actually owe some money to New York then you must try to pay it. If you are unable to pay, then I shall ask Brahmananda to square up the account, or if need be, I shall pay it from my book fund for you. So don't worry about it. There should be no misunderstanding on this point. It is departmental management only. The government has so many departments. One department pays another so there is no question of misunderstanding because you are all working for Krishna. In any case, the $500, if Montreal temple is unable to pay, then I shall ask Brahmananda to square it up, or if need be, I shall pay it. Regarding your questions about the examinations to be given, the girls will also be able to take these. In Krishna Consciousness there is no distinction between girls and boys. The girls also may become preachers if they are able. Once again I thank you for the nice deity clothings and for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Himavati **Date:** February 9th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Himavati, Please accept my blessings. I thank you so much for your letter of January 30, 1969. I am glad to know that you are anxious to begin tending the Deities in grand style and fashion. Before I instruct you further in this matter, please send me a detailed list of what worshiping methods you are now performing. Let me know how you are conducting temple worship now from morning till night. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hit Sharanji **Date:** December 5th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Hit Sharanji, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated November 24, 1969. You need not send the Murtis by air cargo to London because some devotee here has contributed a Radha-Krishna Murti pair imported from Jaipur. It is 42" high and very nice. So Krishna has saved us in this point because we are going to have our opening ceremony on the 14th December through the 21st of December. But if one pair is ready, you can immediately dispatch by ship to Boston as previously advised. From here I shall go to Boston, and if the Deities reach there timely, then I shall install them there also. I think in my previous letter the instruction was to dispatch one pair to Boston, so you can send the Deities to some shipping agent in Bombay and they will forward to Boston. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hit Sharanji **Date:** December 9th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Hit Sharanji, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 5th December, 1969, and my instructions for the points of your letter have already been explained in my letter to you dated 5th December, 1969. In case this letter has not safely arrived there, I am sending herewith a copy. Also, please find enclosed two invitation cards for the opening of our London temple: one is for you and one is for Sri. J. Dalmia. Please hand it over to him conveniently. I shall be hoping to hear from you soon. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. The brass deities must be packed securely in wooden box while shipping ### Letter to Hitsaranji **Date:** November 16th 1969 — **Location:** London Dear Hitsaranji, Please accept my blessings. With further reference to my letter dated November 1, 1969, I beg to inform you that immediately I want one pair of Radha-Krishna Deities in London. If you will kindly send me out of the five pairs contributed by the Dalmia Trust and Birla Trust at least one pair to London by the quickest transport, maybe by air cargo, then it will be very kind of you. Kindly treat this as urgent. I hope this will find you in good health. I am awaiting your early reply. Affectionately yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hrsikesa **Date:** January 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles (to Hrsikesa)[TEXT MISSING]letter of January 9, 1969, I suspect that you have interest in taking instruction from some siksa guru, but in this connection, because you are my disciple and I think, a sincere soul, it is my duty to refer you to someone who is competent to act as siksa guru. This Bon Maharaja, perhaps you do not know, has been rejected by Guru Maharaja. So I cannot recommend him as siksa guru. I think that he has no actual spiritual asset. For spiritual advancement of life, we must go to one who is actually practicing spiritual life; not to some head of a mundane institution, not to one who has offended his Spiritual Master in so many ways. I do not wish to go into all details here, but I must inform you that this Bon Maharaja may be considered as a black snake, and at the time of His Disappearance, my Guru Maharaja did not even wish to have him in His presence due to the character of this Bon Maharaja. So if you are actually serious to take instructions from a siksa guru, I can refer you to one who is most highly competent of all my god-brothers. This is B.R. Sridhara Maharaja, whom I consider to be even my siksa guru, so what to speak of the benefit that you can have from his association. He is living in Navadvipa, and if you like, I can give you letter of introduction as well as I will send him letter to allow you to stay there with him. So if you and Acyutananda are not lost to the poison of Bon Maharaja, and are still serious about advancement of your spiritual life, I will advise you to go to Sridhara Maharaja. Or else I do not know what will save you. So my advice to you both is that you immediately leave the unhealthy and envious association of Bon Maharaja and either proceed to Germany as I have instructed you, or at least go to someone who will be competent to act as siksha guru. This is Sridhara Maharaja. When I was in India, Acyutananda, Ramanuga, and myself, with others, lived with Sridhara Maharaja, so Acyutananda knows him very well. He spared a big house for us and if both of you go there now, it will be very good for your spiritual benefit. Then I will feel that you are safe. Besides that, if you wish to live in India, you can make arrangements for this house so that other of your god-brothers may go there in the future. Just on the other side of the Ganges there is Mayapur, and you can occasionally or every week go there and learn Bengali and Sanskrit if it is your desire. All facilities are there. Sridhara Maharaja is a very good English scholar and he can talk with you very nicely in English. The room in Vrindaban where you are residing may also be kept so that it may be utilized when necessary. But so far as I am concerned, I am becoming older and older, and my life may be finished at any moment. As I have got my permanent residence in America, it is indication of Krishna that I shall live here to organize this movement to the best possible extent. If I sometimes go out of this country, I will go to Europe only and again come back. So, practically I have decided not to go to India anymore. In case I suddenly meet my death, then I shall make my will how to deal with my body later on. So don't be carried away by whims. It is my duty to save you. Leave Vrindaban, live peacefully with Sridhara Maharaja, if you do not wish to go to Germany, and thereby you will be spiritually enlightened. Please inform me immediately regarding what you have decided. ### Letter to Hrsikesa **Date:** February 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Hrsikesa, Please accept my blessings. I was very much pleased to receive your letter of 3 February, 1969, and I have carefully noted all of the contents. Regarding the insurance money, if you are able to use it immediately, without waiting for two years, it will be a great boon. The best use of this money is for the constructing of so many living quarters in New Vrindaban. There are so many schemes pending in New Vrindaban, such as press, school, etc., and as soon as there is adequate accommodation facilities, we can at once begin work very fruitfully. So if you can immediately engage this $2600 in these plans it will be very much helpful. I have received one letter from Nara Narayana, and he has already drawn up the plans for the various buildings which are required to be constructed in New Vrindaban. Now as soon as the proper manpower and finances can be arranged, we can immediately start on this important task. So far as your occasional agitation from the maya, the answer is very simple that one must either strictly control his senses, or else he must get himself married. If one is strong enough in Krishna Consciousness, then there is no reason to become grhastha, but if one is still disturbed by sex-desire, then marriage is the only other possibility. But if one is still brahmacari, then he must be sure to follow all of the rules and regulations very strictly. There is no place in spiritual life for cheating in this matter. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has never criticized a householder for having sex life for the purpose of bearing children. But when it came to Junior Hari das, who was posing as sannyasa but was still engaging in lustful thoughts, Lord Caitanya would not tolerate, and Junior Haridasa was banished from the association of the Lord. So this is very important that we remain very firm in our vow of brahmacari, or if this is very difficult, then householder life is the next satisfactory solution. Regarding your idea of a Krishna Conscious book of many of our prayers, this is a nice idea, and very soon Dinesh will have many prayers which he has been tape recording written out in English transliterations. I am advising him to send these to you when it is available. I have seen the plan for the cottage which was sent along with your letter. It is very nice, but so far as I can understand, it will only accommodate for one person. If you like, this house may be constructed, but I think the immediate necessity is to construct buildings to accommodate the many people who may soon come to New Vrindaban to work there. So I thank you again for your nice letter. Please convey my blessings to the others there with you. I hope this will meet you in very good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hrsikesa **Date:** March 18th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Hrsikesa, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for you very nice note enclosed with Hayagriva's letter. I am so glad to learn that you are reading my Bhagavad-gita As It Is with great interest, and I hope if you kindly read my books carefully that all your spiritual desires will be fulfilled. And you are in the right place for doing this, in New Vrindaban, and I shall be happy to meet with you again when I arrive there in May. Thanking you once more for your nice letter, and hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Hrsikesa **Date:** March 29th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Hrsikesa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of March 21, and have noted the contents carefully. No, I think the letter you sent formerly must have been lost, or missing in the mail. So I have sent your draft letter duly, and the copy of which is enclosed here with. I thank you very much for your kind appreciation of "Govinda" my new record album. I am very much happy to hear your kind appreciation, and it is very much encouraging to me. So I hope you are all well there, and very happily executing Krishna Consciousness. I will be very anxiously awaiting to see you all in mid-May, and then we shall talk at length on so many Krishna Katha topics, Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Indira **Date:** February 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Indira, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 14, 1969, along with the very nice pictures you have sent to me. I thank you very much for this and I am always very pleased with your sincere efforts to serve Krishna. For the Krishna book we will require paintings, so we will not need any etching and woodcut. So you can send me some samples of your paintings and then I'll give you some suggestions. But anyway, you continue to improve your very good artistic talents and it will soon come to the perfectional stage. Regarding your question about artist materials, you may use any materials which will be useful in producing nice paintings. I hope this will meet you in very good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Indira **Date:** May 14th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Indira, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your nice letter dated April 5, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. The sincere sentiments you have expressed are very nice, and surely Krishna will be pleased to bless you because of your nice attitude for serving Him. I think that because you are unable to tend the Deities in the temple, that you and your sister, Ekayani, may serve the small Radha-Krishna Deities which you will be receiving soon. Try to follow all the rules and regulations of Deity worship as are followed in the temple. Please convey my blessings to Ekayani and all the others at the New York temple. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Isana **Date:** May 23rd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Isana das, Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your good wife, Vibhavati. I am very much pleased to receive your daily reports, and you are one of the best students who follows the regulative principles rigidly for enhancing the devotional service. Rupa Goswami has recommended that for enhancing this spirit of devotional service one should be very enthusiastic, one should be patient, one should be firmly convinced, one should follow the regulative principles rigidly, one's occupation should be very honest and straightforward, and one should keep company with devotees. Anyone who follows these six principles of devotional life is sure to achieve success. Similarly there are six principles which we should avoid. They are as follows: eating or accumulating money more than necessary, wasting energy for material gain, talking unnecessarily, following the regulative principles fanatically without any sense, not following the regulative principles, and to become too much greedy and associate with persona non-grata. So as you are serious in the matter of advancement in Krishna Consciousness, you will remember the above instructions given by Rupa Goswami, and you will feel more and more secure in your endeavor. I am keeping your daily reports, and they shall be a good example for the other students. I hope this will meet the both of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Please ask Janardana to immediately send me the constitution notes which I had given him to read in Boston. NB: Please also ask Bharadraja to send me one completed Sankirtana picture and also let me know how many he has completed so far ### Letter to Isana **Date:** June 20th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Isana das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 14, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the land which you now own, if you are conveniently able to keep it, that is all right. It can be used for developing in the future. But if you need the money for going to London, you can sell it and utilize the money for this purpose. You have described how you meditate on Krishna and your Spiritual Master, but I do not follow what you mean by "identify". To think of Krishna and your Spiritual master is very nice, but if you think you are Krishna or Spiritual Master, that is Mayavadi philosophy. One should not indulge in this sort of thing. I have already received the constitution notes from Janardana, and I am very encouraged by his descriptions of the opportunities of spreading Sankirtana in Paris. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Please inform Gopala Krishna that I have received his presents with thanks. ACB ### Letter to Isana, Vibhavati **Date:** March 8th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Isana das and Vibhavati dasi, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your kind letter of February 22, 1969, along with your beads, which I have duly chanted. Your name is now Isana das Adhikari and your wife's name is Vibhavati dasi. Please follow the four principles of initiated disciples which are as follows: No eating of animal foods such as meat, fish and eggs; no gambling; no illicit sex life; and no intoxication of any kind. Chant 16 rounds minimum daily, attend classes in the temple, and read Bhagavad-gita, and Srimad-Bhagavatam regularly. Whenever there is any question, ask me, and try to preach Krishna Consciousness movement to your best capacity. I am very glad to learn that Mukunda has invited you to go to London and if there is possibility you should go immediately, both of you, and join with them. The six boys and girls, husband and wife, are preaching Krishna Consciousness movement in London so nicely, that in the London Times there was a news heading like: Krishna Chant Startles London. These boys and girls are also initiated for the last two years only—they are not very great scholars in theological studies, but still by the Grace of Krishna they have created some impression in a city like London simply by their sincere effort. My Spiritual Master used to send preachers who were all in the renounced order of life (sannyasis), but I am doing a completely different process—namely, preparing some young couples of husband and wife to take up this job. this is approved by Lord Caitanya. He said that it does not matter whether the preacher is in the renounced order of life, or a family man, or a brahmana or a sudra—nothing is hampering in the process of preaching Krishna Consciousness. The only qualification required is that one should know the genesis of Krishna Consciousness and then he is just the fit person to preach this great philosophy. I understand both you and your wife are very intelligent boy and girl and I hope if you sincerely wish to serve Krishna He will give you all intelligence how you can nicely serve Him. I am here at Hawaii at the care of Gaurasundara and his wife Govinda dasi; they are also doing very nicely. Similarly, another couple of disciples, Satsvarupa and Jadurani in Boston are also doing very nicely. Similarly, in Buffalo Rupanuga and his wife and their small child are doing very nicely. Similarly, in New Vrindaban Hayagriva and his wife Syama dasi are doing very nicely. So it is a part of my missionary work; I want to see that the Western boys and girls who are very much loose with their sex life should get themselves married and take to Krishna Consciousness seriously and they will be happy both materially and spiritually. So if you go to London to join Mukunda and his company you will be very much pleased to see how husband and wife combined together can so nicely preach this Krishna Consciousness movement. Please take up this philosophy very seriously and you will be happy in this life and next life. If you are going to London please let me know when you are going. Your poetry is very nice, and I am sending the copy to our editor of Back To Godhead for publishing it conveniently. Herewith please find your chanted beads and be happy by the Grace of Krishna. Please convey my blessings to all there, and I hope you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- ACB/gd ### Letter to Isanadas **Date:** April 30th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Isanadas, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 25, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am pleased that you are taking serious interest in helping us spread this sublime movement of Lord Caitanya to the Western World, which has such urgent need of this knowledge. Regarding your idea of going to London before they obtain a temple, I do not think this will be the best thing because already they are scattered there, living separately, and they are inconvenienced. I have asked them to occupy a building and assured them of guarantee of payment. If the building is occupied, then by June I shall also go there, and then you will be welcome there. But without having a temple there I do not think it will be very much beneficial. Now you are helping the Montreal temple, and that is nice. I am glad to learn of your policy of occupants in your building. If that house can develop into a students home, preaching our philosophy to the residents, it will be a great service. Make it a point that at a certain period of time there should be lecture about Krishna consciousness and some kirtana. This time should be fixed up for all residents. So if they take part in kirtana and have opportunity to hear our philosophy, certainly they will take it up. Side by side, if our prasadam program is also introduced, that will also be great impetus. Regarding Vibhavati's plan of natural childbirth, this is very good. Since your wife is pregnant, let her be engaged with some little work, That will help her natural childbirth. I have read your suggestions for improving Back To Godhead and they are very good. You are acquainted with Rayarama, so please write your suggestions to him. But I like these ideas you have suggested. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Vibhavati, and I hope this will meet the both of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Your suggestion of sending me a report of your daily activities is very nice, and you may do it ### Letter to Ishan **Date:** May 13th 1969 > 318 East 20th Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43201May 13th, 1969 My Dear Ishan, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the lease on the building, I think you may consult with Hansadutta in this matter and decide what is to be done. The description of the house sounds very nice, so if you agree to take the lease, I have no objection to this. Your suggestion about the householders all living there is also nice, and if this can be arranged, you should do it. Regarding the Krishna Consciousness film you have suggested, I do not know who will pay for the making of the film or what the film will be about. So before I can advise you I must know more specifically what you have in mind. I have seen your daily schedule report and it is very nice. I am glad that you are always engaged in the service of Krishna. That is required. In the future you may continue to regulate yourself in this way, and there is no necessity of sending these reports to me on a regular basis. You have expressed a fear of becoming attached to your musical activities, but attachment for Krishna's service is not bad. If you can engage your talent for Krishna's service, then this attachment will increase your Krishna Consciousness status. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ishan **Date:** June 8th 1969 > CENTER NEW VRINDABAN RD 3, Moundsville, West Virginia My Dear Ishandas, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 28, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I am pleased to note that you are working very enthusiastically in Krishna Consciousness. Your idea of a small handbook for new devotees is nice, and you may do it conveniently. Be sure to include such important items as the ten offenses to avoid in chanting and the qualifications of a devotee. When this book is completed I shall inspect it and return it to you for printing and add any suggestions I may have. I am also pleased to learn that you are taking charge of overhauling the physical set-up of the Montreal temple. Our first business however is always Sankirtan, and as Hansadutta has informed me that you were having some troubles with the police because they were not allowing collecting, I have given a suggestion of how to overcome this difficulty. So you may consult with him on this point and do the needful. I have not yet received the constitution notes back from Janardan so if you see him please remind him to send them as soon as possible. It is very encouraging to note that there are four new-comers living in the temple, and this is a proof that you are doing nicely there. Actually if we simply keep ourselves Krishna Conscious, chanting our prescribed rounds and following the regulative principles, then automatically the sincere souls who we come in contact with will automatically be attracted. This is because we are not bluffing anyone, and if some one is seriously after perfecting himself in spiritual life, then surely he will agree with all of our principles and he will wish to join us. Other so-called yoga societies in this country are actually offering only nonsense or forms of sense gratification, but such material activities will not sufficiently attract one who is serious about real spiritual life. Real spiritual life means acting in our constitutional position of the eternal servants of the Lord, so we must offer this sublime science of Bhagavad Gita to the population at large, and those who are actually serious will take advantage. Try to reach as many of such sincere souls as possible through your Sankirtan Party. This will be the greatest service you can render to Krishna and to your fellow men. Krishna has given you good ability and intelligence, so now you must continue to utilize them fully in Krishna's service. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Bibhavati. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** January 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 6, 1969, and I have noted with pleasure that you are almost done with the first five Krishna pictures which I have suggested to you. I think that you may immediately send these pictures to me in Los Angeles. So far as photographing these pictures for the book, I think that it is essential that these pictures be with bright attractive colors, so please do them in this way. I am enclosing herewith the instructions for the next four paintings. 1. Nanda Maharaja (an old man of not less than 50 years) is observing celebration. Many cowherd boys are coming with milk and curd on a balancing stick on their backs (see enclosed picture). Nanda Maharaja, who is the chief amongst the cowherd men, is giving them presentations of cloth, ornaments, fruits, etc., and there is feasting going on. Some of them are enjoying by throwing butter upon their friend's bodies. 2. The demonic Putana Witch has come to Yasoda looking just like a very nice young woman, and congratulating Yasoda for her beautiful child. She said to Yasoda "You have such nice baby, kindly let me hold Him." Yasoda was very simple and allowed this, but when Krishna sucked the witch's breast the demon showed her true gigantic form which was actually miles long and she died. In the picture, Krishna is playing on the breast of this gigantic dead demon. 3. Krishna was lying underneath a cart which was actually a demon who had taken the shape of a cart so Krishna would not suspect danger. Krishna was lying underneath the cart, but then He kicked it while playing, and a great giant came out and died. 4. One asura Trinavarta whirlwind took Baby Krishna into the sky and was fighting with Him. The idea was to take Krishna into the sky and drop Him. But once in the sky, Krishna fought with the whirlwind, and the demon fell down dead while Krishna was lying happily on the ground. Yasoda was praying in thanks that "God has saved my Boy." Regarding your question about placing an effulgence around Krishna's head in all of these pictures, yes this should be done. I hope to be receiving the previous paintings you have done soon. Kindly convey my blessings to all others at Boston temple. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 11, 1969 and I have noted the contents. The picture of Vasudeva exchanging the babies is not correct because Nanda Maharaja should not be in this scene. Vasudeva silently exchanged babies with the sleeping Yasoda, and neither Yasoda nor Nanda Maharaja knew about this till long after. Yasoda had just given birth to her girl baby, and having fell asleep right after this birth, she did not even know that the child she had given birth to was a girl. So please correct this error somehow. In the meantime I am awaiting the other paintings which are sending to me in Los Angeles. Hope this meets you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** January 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your undated letter, and also I have seen the nice pictures which you have completed for the "Krishna" book. I was very gratified to see your expert touch in these paintings, and also convey my thanks for Joy Fulcher for her very nice efforts. Regarding Madhavi Lata, it is very difficult to get her to be fixed up into doing constructive work, so I gave her so many paintings to do to get her to utilize her talents in Krishna Consciousness. If you would like her to help you in the paintings for the new book, then it is all right, but you must deal with her very tactfully. Best thing is that I send suggestions for pictures directly to you, and whichever picture she will do, let her do it. In this way, you can give her one or two pictures. In the meantime, you and Joy may finish the rest of the pictures, and if she does not finish her assignment, then again you may do it yourself. Certainly she is talented artist so try to help her be engaged in this way. Please convey my blessings to the others there. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** March 16th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of March 10, 1969. And I am glad to learn that you are feeling somewhat healthier. Now you have requested to begin working, but I think you shall just suspend your activities at least for one month more. By that time I shall be in Boston, and I shall examine you personally then I shall do the needful. In the meantime, you can sit down silently, and increase your number of chanting. That is your work for the time being. And now as you have Deity in the temple you can rise very early in the morning for Mangala arati. I hope you are following all the Deity worship rulings. That is necessary. I am happy to hear that you are all appreciating the new record album "Govinda", and I have good hopes of it selling nicely to so many American and European people. I hope you are feeling stronger day by day, and please convey my blessings to all your God-brothers and God-sisters there with you. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** March 28th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. Govinda dasi has already written you letter to come here as soon as possible. I hope you come before I leave this place on the 31st March 1969. This tape may be returned to L.A. address. ACB ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated May 9, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your question about kirtana, practically we are not concerned with the instruments. They are used sometimes to make it sweeter, but if we divert our attention for using the instruments more, that is not good. Generally kirtana is performed with mrdanga and karatalas, but if somebody is expert instrument player, he can be admitted to join Sankirtana. We can accept everything for Krishna's service, but not taking the risk of diverting attention to any other thing which will hinder our Krishna Consciousness. That should be our motto, or principle. Regarding your question about your sleep, you should sleep after noon prasadam, and when you are tired. You may take whatever foodstuffs you can digest easily. I do not think coconut will be easy for you to digest, but green vegetables you can take. So far as your missing Satsvarupa, it is natural to be attached to husband. But Satsvarupa is engaged in Krishna's service, and you are also engaged in Krishna's service. So both of you should feel happiness in Krishna's service always. When you get well, you can immediately join your husband. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I thank you so much for your encouraging letter, and I am so pleased to learn that the center is doing very nice propaganda work in Hawaii. Now you send to Brahmananda as many photographs as possible of the parading and the other chanting engagements. It will be the policy of our paper now to print as many as possible photos and articles of our own activities. I understand from Gaurasundara's letter that there is now inconvenience in having so many people living in the house there, so I think you may immediately return to Satsvarupa in Boston. I think that you may now take part in Sankirtana activities, so when you return to Boston you may go out with them sometimes on Sankirtana Party. I am very glad to know that Govinda Dasi felt herself cured of all her diseases by hearing my words, and I am very much encouraged. Both of you chant Hare Krishna and join Sankirtana Party, and there will be no disease. Maharaja Pariksit said that chanting the glories of the Lord can be executed by liberated persons. This means by chanting one becomes liberated from all material impediments. Not only chanting gives us liberation, but even in our conditioned state we like to hear the sweet melodious sound of the chanting. Only a person who is committing suicide or who is addicted in animal killing, such persons cannot relish the sweetness of this chanting. But even if they take to this chanting, they will become liberated. Thank you again for your letter. I am enclosing a list of the special Krishna Consciousness holidays in the coming months. I hope this will meet you in improved health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** July 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, I have already asked you to join the Sankirtana Party. Today I have received one letter from Govinda Dasi in which I understand that she is a spirited preacher. I am so proud of her, that even my girl disciples are so nice for preaching work. ACB. ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** July 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I hope now you are well. You can therefore begin painting nicely Krishna picture from Tape No. 13. Read the subject matter when it is typed & draw pictures accordingly as many as possible. ACB ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** July 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your recent letter, and I have noted the contents. Regarding Festivals in Boston, you may hold as many as possible. If you can hold such festivals daily, that is also nice. Our movement is for ananda, simply bliss, and the method of pushing this movement is chanting, dancing, feasting and philosophizing. So in our almanac there are many festivals in every month. I am enclosing some festivals which were already held in Los Angeles, and if you perform them, I will give you a long list of others. But don't embarrass yourself at present with greater plans than you can handle. The more you get devotees the more you will be able to perform nice festivals. I am glad that Boston is improving in so many ways. So far as painting is concerned, you can begin now. I have already advised you this in a note enclosed with Tape #14 of Krishna. So read the Krishna tape transcriptions and draw pictures as many as possible. Each picture should be very much attractive, colorful and nice so that people will appreciate these paintings also. Our standard size will be like TLC, and you can make the pictures accordingly. According to my idea the pictures should be proportionate to 8 1/2 x 11. The style of the book will be like TLC so far as paper, print and binding are concerned. Please convey my blessings to Satsvarupa and the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jadurani **Date:** September 25th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated September 16, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to note that the Boston temple is going on nicely and you are working very steadily at your painting work. Regarding Barunadev, he is a very beautiful demigod in the form of a man. He has a beautiful body nice clothe, helmet, ornaments. So you may paint him in that way. Regarding pictures from Srimad-Bhagavatam, if you have enough time, I can suggest so many pictures; but for the time being you are engaged in pictures for Krishna. That is also Srimad-Bhagavatam. First let these pictures be finished nicely. Make them as nice as possible, and then later on you can do pictures for our other books. Regarding the relative importance of painting and temple kirtanas for you, the painting is more important. Paint and chant Hare Krishna, that is the most important engagement for you. I have received a letter from Satsvarupa in which he inquired if he may print some of the Krishna book in BTG. Please inform him that this is a nice idea and he may do it. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jagadisa **Date:** September 7th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Jagadisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you so much for your letter (undated) and your contribution of 150 dollars to my book fund. I also take the opportunity now to thank you for the nice poem you submitted and which was printed in the Vyasa Puja booklet. I am pleased to learn that you have gone with your wife, Laksmimoni, to Detroit, and you are now working conjointly with Bhagavan das and Krishna Bhamini. You are both very nice householder couples, so work together in cooperative spirit, following the example you have seen in our other Krishna Consciousness centers. I can understand that Krishna is giving you encouragement to increase the strength of Detroit center because you write to say that there is a big article to be printed in the largest Detroit paper and you have already arranged for two university courses. This is very encouraging news, and please forward a copy of the article to me when it is printed. You should try now to obtain permission for chanting on the streets. This will greatly enhance your activities there in every respect. Sankirtana is our very life and soul, so try to take permission from the authorities as soon as possible. I understand that you are a very sincere soul, and surely Krishna will show His favor upon you. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: I have received the Janmastami Day examinations from your center but there were no fees enclosed. I assume they are coming by separate post ### Letter to Jagadisa **Date:** September 9th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Jagadisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of September 4th, 1969 and the enclosed check for the Bhakti-sastri examination. As I have already mentioned in my letter of September 7th, I have also duly received the contribution of 150 dollars from Laksmimoni and yourself. I am so pleased to note that Sadanandini is now staying in Detroit, living at the temple, and arrangements are being made for her wedding to Candanacarya. It is very good news. She is a very nice girl, so take care of her until she is handed over to the charge of Candanacarya. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am going to London on the 11th Sept ### Letter to Jagadisa **Date:** October 11th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Jagadisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated October 3, 1969, sent along with a maintenance check of $15. Regarding the information you heard that it is all right to neglect one's 16 rounds as a daily minimum, this is wrong. Everyone should strictly follow the regulations of 16 rounds daily. If one is busy for other Krishna Consciousness activities and cannot fulfill the regular routine of chanting, he must compensate it the next day, curtailing his activities in the matter of sleeping or eating or any other sense gratificatory process. So far as how long each day to go out on Sankirtana Party, Caitanya Mahaprabhu prescribes to chant Hare Krishna Mantra 24 hours. So if you can do so, it is very nice. Otherwise, as much as possible. Sankirtana is our life and soul. I am very glad that Jaya Hari Dalmia was in the temple, and I hope you received him well. His father is a great friend of my activities. When I was in India he helped me so many times with financial assistance, so he is sympathetic. I am very glad that his daughter-in-law has presented some saris and the boy has presented some books. Please keep the books nicely. None of you will be able to understand Hindi or Sanskrit, so when I return to USA I shall ask you for these books. Regarding the picture of Lord Caitanya which is outside of your temple, this is not good. We should not place our worshipable Deities as statues in the open atmosphere. I have also received one very nice letter from your good wife, Laksmimoni. She is a very nice girl, so the two of you work combinedly to spread this Sankirtana Movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That will bring all happiness and success to both of your lives. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jagannatham Prabhu **Date:** February 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jagannatham Prabhu, Please accept my humble dandabats. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind letter dated 1 February 1969. I have received one pamphlet of the Golden Jubilee, organized by Sripada Tirtha Maharaja, and a covering letter dated 29, January 1969. This letter was not even signed by Tirtha Maharaja, but appears to be a general circular letter with his rubber stamp only, without any signature. Besides that, there is not a single line inviting me to attend the ceremony either officially or personally. Aside from this, I have not received any invitation from him, and I do not know if the other Tridandi Sannyasis and disciples of Prabhupada have been specially invited or not. The copy of his letter along with the copy of my letter is enclosed herewith for your purusal. I have also sent to him one copy of my Bhagavad-gita As It Is.You have written to say that Tirtha Maharaja will give me all facilities to present before the audience during the Golden Jubilee function a picture of my "marvelous work that is being done in the USA and East European countries," but I do not think he has any intention to give me such facility because he has in his pamphlet presented one picture of Bon Maharaja's preaching work which is defunct for the last 40 years, but he has purposefully not mentioned even a single line about the preaching work now going on in Europe, Canada, and America under my direction. You will read a copy of my reply which will speak for itself. Regarding your books, the editorial assistants and myself do agree there is no difference of our Sampradaya Siddhanta. Now we have only to see how these books will be sellable in this country. The best thing will be if you can kindly send more copies of each book, and we can try to sell them in our different centers. If there is good response, we can think of republishing them. Certainly to send the books by air mail is prohibitive, but you can send them by surface mail in different batches to our different centers of which a list of addresses is found in the copy of the letter addressed to Tirtha Maharaja. The next alternative is to pack up all of the books and send them to Calcutta to our shipping agents, namely; United Shipping Corporation, 14/2 Old China Bazar Street (Room #18), Calcutta-1, INDIA. Upon hearing from you I will advise them to take care of the packages to New York by sea-way. We shall try to sell the books in our different centers, and the sales proceeds will be kept separately. If the books are to be published, from here the sales proceeds will be utilized for this purpose. Or else, the proceeds shall be sent to you after a deduction of 40% discount as we get from others. We are selling books of many of our godbrothers, just like Bon Maharaja, Nitai dasa Brahmacari, Prof. Sannyal, Bhakti Pradip Tirtha, Raga Caitanya Prabhu, etc. I think this arrangement will be practical. If you will give us your permission then we can immediately arrange to publish some of the best portions as articles in Back To Godhead with your good name therein. My next book, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, shall be out by the end of March 1969. I have advised the printer to send you two dozen title covers to your Bombay address, and I wish that these covers may be kindly distributed by you to respectable guests who may participate in the Jubilee celebration. You will read the letter addressed to Tirtha Maharaja, and you will meet him also by the 25th instant. If he agrees to give me a plot of land as requested in my letter than it will be a practical gesture of our full cooperation. If you can kindly help in this matter it will be a great service to Srila Prabhupada. I thank you very much for your kind blessing, and I beg to remainYours ever affectionately, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jagannathan Prabhu **Date:** January 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jagannathan Prabhu, Please accept my humble obeisances. I beg to thank you very much for your sending me the copies of your books ____ and your letter dated January 20, 1969. I have noted the contents very carefully. I have immediately upon receipt handed over the books to my editorial assistants, and I shall duly inform you about their opinion for publishing them in this country. I think it may take at least one month to let you know their decision. I have received news from Vancouver that our godbrother Sadanandaji Swami (formerly brahmacari Earnest Schulze) who is in Germany now has enquired from a friend about my address, and he wants to meet my disciples in our German Hamburg center. I do not know his address, but I am expecting his letter very soon. When I hear from him I shall let you know. My sister from Calcutta has addressed me one letter that she has heard by some source that I am coming to Mayapur during the great festival. This means that some of our godbrothers and sisters may be expecting me during the ensuing festival there. But till now I have heard no news from Tirtha Maharaja. Hoping this will meet you in good health. Thanking you once more for your letter and books. Yours affectionately, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: The set of books may also be sent to Brahmananda das Brahmacari c/o International Society for Krishna Consciousness, 61 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10003 ### Letter to Jahnava **Date:** February 14th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jahnava DasiPlease accept my blessings, and the blessings of my Guru Maharaja. I am very pleased to now accept you as my disciple, and your spiritual name is Jahnava Dasi. Janava Devi was the consort energy of Lord Nityananda. This process of Krishna Consciousness is offered to every one, but only one out of many thousands of people will accept it. Therefore you should be very serious about perfecting your life in Krishna Consciousness, and thereby becoming qualified to enter into the Kingdom of God, Goloka Vrindaban. So please receive these beads, duly chanted upon by me, and chant at least 16 rounds daily and follow all of the regulative principles. Take assistance from your godbrothers and godsisters there, and engage yourself purely in the business of Krishna Consciousness. This will bring all success to you. You can be certain of this. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to James Doody **Date:** July 10th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear James Doody, Please accept my greetings. I thank you very much for your letter dated June 23, 1969, and I am pleased to note that you are anxious to see me as soon as possible. So far as human frailties are concerned, they can all be adjusted by dovetailing everything in Krishna Consciousness. Our Krishna is a great family Personality. Krishna is never a mendicant, and our ambition is to enter into Krishna's family and to associate with Him personally. In spiritual life also there are men and women. They are very beautiful and attractive, but they are all so much absorbed in thought of Krishna that in the spiritual world there is no sex life. That means that Krishna Consciousness is so sublime and happy that it surpasses the pleasure of sex life. In the material world, because there is no information of Krishna Consciousness, sex life is taken as the highest pleasurable situation. Anyway, in our philosophy we prohibit illicit sex life and not sex life itself. In Krishna Consciousness there are many illustrious householders. So to marry and to become an exemplary householder is the ideal life of Krishna Consciousness. If the girl who is willing to marry you becomes Krishna Conscious, and as I think you are already Krishna Conscious, it will be a nice combination, provided you live under bona fide guidance. I am very much pleased that you wish to live under my guidance, and if you actually follow, then I can nicely direct you, even in your married life. So far as my going to London is concerned, I can go immediately, provided I get my passage money. I have been invited to Germany also, and they are prepared to pay for this fare. I have postponed this journey till the end of the month. Most probably I shall be able to meet you in London some time in the month of August, and then you can decide whether to come here or not. Regarding your job at Krishna Lights, if you are getting a good income from this business, why should you stop it? Our philosophy is that we should earn honestly as much as possible and spend it for Krishna. I understand from Syamasundara that you have agreed to help pay the rent on the newly occupied house there. So if you can actually do so, it will be a great service to the society and to Krishna. I therefore would advise you to continue with this business. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Janaki **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Janaki, Please accept my blessings. I was thinking of you since about a week why you are silent, and all of a sudden I got your letter with a golden ring enclosed. It was so much ecstatic. I thank you very much for your kind presentation which you have given, even sacrificing your husband's interest. I think, though, that your husband, Mukunda, is also pleased with this action. Anyway, immediately upon receipt of this ring I pushed it on my finger, and it is very nice. Regarding your unstable condition of mind, I beg to request you to always remember that you have all gone to London with a great mission and responsibility. I am so much pleased with you all six boys and girls who are doing so much for my missionary work. My Guru Maharaja, Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura, Lord Caitanya and at the end Lord Krishna Himself all are surely very much pleased for your noble activities. You have already made the city of London feel something about the Hare Krishna movement. This is a great credit for you all and I appreciate it very much. Please do your duty combinedly without any disruption of peaceful attitudes amongst yourselves. We are pushing our movement on the background of a peaceful atmosphere in the world, and if we show a little disturbance in our own camp that will not be a very good example. Therefore, everyone should be forebearing, tolerant and cooperative. That is my special request to you all. So far as I am concerned, I have written to Syamasundara whether there is any possibility of my going there immediately. If not, then I may go to other places for the time being. Regarding competition with other so-called yoga groups, certainly we have to win the race because we represent Krishna directly, and others are all mostly impersonalists or less than that. So far as I know, our Krishna Consciousness movement is the only genuine endeavor for self-realization. I have tried to explain the genesis of this movement in my book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and people will learn it if they will carefully study this book. In this connection, there was a radio interview this week in Los Angeles, and the summary is being sent herewith. If possible, you can try to get it printed in the Times, as they have already printed an article about ourselves. You can make the heading as follows: Genesis of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. So please consider carefully the above mentioned points, and also keep me informed as to your all round well-being. Hope this meets you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Janaki **Date:** February 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Janaki, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your long letter dated February 20, 1969 after a long interval, and I have noted the contents very carefully. You are so anxious to see me in London and I am also very anxious to see you all. I have not received any letter from Yamuna since a long time. I tried to go to London as I was very much anxious to see you all, but your good husband will not allow me to go there unless you are all fully equipped to see me. That is all right, and I am pleased to note that you six boys and girls are doing more than my expectation. Krishna will certainly be pleased to give you more strength to preach this glorious movement of Krishna Consciousness. So please keep yourselves steadily in the manner you are now keeping yourselves. The more you are working sincerely and steadily the more you will get strength from Krishna. Regarding your questions, as Brahma realized that he was the maidservant of Krishna, similarly, everyone of us has to realize that Krishna is the only single purusa. Purusa synonymously means male, but actually, in the spiritual dictionary, male means "enjoyer" and female means "enjoyed." So in this sense, Krishna is the only male and all others being energies of Krishna, they are prakrti, or female. Please do not try to understand this male and female in the material sense. In other words, our perfection of life will be actually realizing that we are all females. In the material world we have got simply different dresses. Here in the material world, everyone is in the temperament of male, even the so-called females are also in the temperament. This is very prominent in the Western part of the world, and you know it very well how the females here think on the level of equality with males. This aptitude is material. Regarding your other questions, yes, the desire tree can also supply dresses for Lord Jagannatha. Certainly my Spiritual Master watches me. So far as your question about the disciplic succession, in all Vedic literatures it is mentioned about the disciplic succession. You have read in Srimad-Bhagavatam, first canto, first chapter where it is said that Brahma was inspired from within the heart by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Similarly, in the Katha Upanisad it is said that "in order to learn the transcendental science, one has to approach the Spiritual Master." This spiritual master means one who has heard correctly from his Spiritual Master. In this way, ultimately it goes to Krishna, the Supreme Spiritual Master. There is no possibility of understanding the Vedic knowledge without this descending process. The modern world is puffed up with personal research knowledge, but the person who is engaging in this research work does not know that he is imperfect on account of his aptitude for becoming illusioned, for committing mistakes, for his cheating propensity and for his possessing imperfect senses. Therefore there is no possibility of receiving perfect knowledge without approaching a self-realized Spiritual Master coming down in disciplic succession. The mental speculator, no matter how advanced he may be, cannot deliver us the right knowledge. I thank you very much for your good wishes for our opening 108 centers. Krishna will bless you and please try to help me. In England we will have to start at least 10 centers, and I understand from the activities of Mr. Parikh that it will not be a very difficult task. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jananivasa **Date:** August 19th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jananivasa das Brahmacari, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated August 7th, 1969 and your prayer beads. There was some mix-up with these beads, and they have been sent to Krishna Kamini Dasi (Mrs. Jane Cline). Let her keep these beads. I am enclosing herewith another set of beads for you, duly chanted upon by me. Your initiated name is Jananivasa das Brahmacari. You should chant on these beads 16 rounds every day and avoid the following offenses: 1. Blaspheming the Lord's devotee, 2. Considering the Lord and the demigods on the same level, 3. Neglecting the orders of the spiritual master, 4. Minimizing the authority of the Scriptures, 5. Interpreting the Holy Name of God, 6. Committing sin on the strength of chanting, 7. Instructing the glories of the Lord's name to the unfaithful, 8. Comparing the Holy Name with material piety, 9. Inattention while chanting the Holy Name, 10. Attachment to material things while engaged in the practice of chanting. The four basic regulative principles to be followed by all initiated devotees is as follows: no illicit sex life, no intoxication, no meat-eating or fish or eggs, and no gambling. If you will follow all of the above rules very carefully, then surely you will make very nice advancement in Krishna Consciousness and your life will be sublime. Actually, one who is Krishna Consciousness is to be understood as the topmost intelligent man and the best yogi. The whole purpose of the yoga system is to gain control of the mind and concentrate the full attention on Lord Visnu within the heart. In Krishna Consciousness, by chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra, we immediately fix our mind upon Krishna's Name, which is exactly identical to Krishna Himself, and Krishna is the source of Lord Visnu. So one who has taken fully to Krishna Consciousness must be accepted as having surpassed all of the perfections obtained in other yoga processes. This idea is confirmed by Krishna Himself in Bhagavad-gita when He instructs Arjuna that one who worships Him in transcendental loving service is the highest of all yogis. Now you have very good opportunity to make perfection of your life, and do it very, very seriously in the association of your Godbrothers. Help Pradyumna, Jaya Gopala and the others as much as possible to propagate the Sankirtana Movement, and surely Krishna will bestow all blessings upon you. I hope this will find you well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jananivasa **Date:** December 25th 1969 — **Location:** Boston My Dear Jananivasa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated December 9, 1969 and your kind contribution of $25 to our Book Fund. I was very happy to learn that you are very serious about writing an essay entitled "Krsna Consciousness is the Absolute Necessity for Mankind in this Age". If you can write this essay successfully, then it will be very great service to our Movement. One of the qualifications of a Vaisnava is that he is poetic. This means that the Vaisnavas are very much enthusiastic to describe on paper the glories of Lord Krsna and Krsna Consciousness. In our Back To Godhead I am very pleased to see that many of our disciples are becoming eager to record their thoughtful ideas about Krsna Consciousness. This eagerness is one of the symptoms that a devotee is making progress in the matter of spiritual purification. So when your article is completed, please send a copy to me, and I shall read it carefully and then submit it to Back To Godhead for consideration of publishing. I have arrived here in Boston this past Sunday, and there are nearly one hundred devotees who have come to visit me. The reception at the airport was very nicely arranged, and the local newspapers have commented that this airport has never before witnessed such a nice event. When I arrived at the Boston temple I was asking if you were there too, but Jaya Gopala informed me that you were remaining in Columbus. So as you are serving Krsna nicely in Columbus, that is also very good. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Janardana **Date:** March 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Janardana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter, undated. It is a very long letter and, as you have written it in two months, perhaps I'll also require similar time to reply to this letter. On Monday I am going to Hawaii at least for a month, and there I shall try to read your letter very peacefully, and maybe I'll be able to reply in great detail. In the meantime, I may inform you that your newspaper cutting, "Non-Christian Unity Ruled Out," is not very surprising. Religious bigotry is one of the strong material symptoms, therefore, in the beginning of Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said dharma projhita. This means that the idea of religiosity, economic development, sense-gratification, and endeavors for merging into the impersonal absolute are the different activities for the materialist person. Leaving aside the too grossly materialistic persons, who are without any moral principles or social conventions, if we take the right type of civilized man, then we find that he is engaged in some type of religious principle. It doesn't matter if he is Christian, Moslem or Jew, the symptom of a civilized man is that he must have the recognition of religious principles; that is required for civilized man. But generally men take to religious principles for economic development. Just like in the Christian religiosity the prayers for solving the economic problem or bread problem. Similarly, in the Vedic rituals also different methods of sacrifices are recommended for pleasing the demigods so that they will supply quantity of rain and there will be enough grain for eating. In this way, religious principles are generally practiced by men for some economic development. In this modern age, people being scientifically advanced, they seek economic development without any reference to worship of God or following any religious principle. So such people are gradually forgetting their eternal relationship with God because they think that without God they can inquire sufficient progress in economic development which is required for sense gratification. Some of them, when they are frustrated, try thinking of voidness or merging into the impersonal absolute truth. So voidness or impersonal idea of the absolute truth is just an opposite of material variegatedness. So this idea can also be accepted as the material concept of transcendence. So things are going on like this, not only now, but it is the nature of the material world. Therefore, the Srimad-Bhagavatam has used the suitable word, dharma projhita. That means to kick out the so-called religious principles, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation. According to Bhagavata, these are all cheating processes, because by following such processes, the living entity can never be happy. Such principles in different forms according to different circumstances of candidate, place, and time, they are simply cheating formulas. So our Krishna Consciousness movement does not belong to any such cheating process. They are cheating processes in the sense that the basic principle is for economic development, and if it is simply for solving the problem of bread, it is not true religion as described by Srimad-Bhagavatam. Even if the living entity is born with a silver spoon in his mouth he will not be happy so such plans for economic development are simply cheating processes. Therefore, the great rishis in the forest Naimisaranya inquired of the great sage, Suta Goswami, "How can the living entities actually be happy?" Srimad-Bhagavatam answers this question that the top-most super-excellent religious principle is that which following, the protagonist becomes a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without any motive and without being checked by any material impediments. That will make a person completely satisfied, and that is our process. We are educated people how they can develop their dormant love of the Supreme Lord without being impaired by any material condition. We should train our disciples as well as ourselves in such a spirit that even if the whole world is against us, which is impossible to happen, the Sankirtana Movement must be pushed on without any reference to archeological evidence or any such scientific advancement of knowledge. Besides that, the argument that archeological evidence will lead many people to accept the philosophy of Lord Caitanya has no evidence. For example, the Christian religion principle is now established in archeological evidence, but still it is not that the whole people of the world are attracted by Christian religion. Even a great scientist, Professor Albert Einstein, was Jewish by religion, but because the Christian religion gives evidential proof of archeological discovery, still he did not become a Christian. No religion or no principle is accepted by the whole world; that is a fact. I can give you a statement of Albert Einstein in which he says "The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is in the sensation of the mystical. It is a shower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, he who can no longer stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power which is revealed in the comprehensible universe forms my idea of God."I think that our Hare Krishna Movement is just following the same concept of God by awakening the dormant transcendental emotion of the human being without any consideration of religious faith. In our camp all of my disciples are coming from different faiths, mostly Christians or Jews, and why are they accepting this Sankirtana Movement, unless there is the awakening of mystical emotion described by a great scientist like Albert Einstein. If somebody does not accept Caitanya Mahaprabhu for want of archeological evidence, it will not hamper our movement. There is sufficient archeological evidence in this connection, and it can be supplied from various sources which are in India. There is even archeological evidence of Vyasadeva which was recently propounded by one Dr. Cakravarti. I personally saw this in a monthly magazine of Calcutta of the name Mother in which I was giving my articles. If you like, you can inquire from them or such institutes as Caitanya Research Institute, started by my godbrother, Tirtha Maharaja. That is not a very difficult task. Actually we have nothing to do with compromising with Christians or Buddhists. Our principles should be to preach Krishna Consciousness as it is spoken in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. As we are now collecting some fortunate students in our movement, similarly, it will be possible to collect more students in the future. But it is a fact that the unfortunate persons who stick to the four material misbehaviors, just like illicit sex life, etc. cannot accept these principles of Krishna Consciousness. But still there is chance for them simply by giving aural reception to this transcendental sound of Hare Krishna Mantra. If we turn our attention to fit with the Christian people, or any other religious sect, I think it will not be very much fruitful because nobody will change his faith even though he is given scientific or archeological evidences. And that will also not help anybody. We have already discussed this point in many articles and change in religious faith does not make one advanced in spiritual understanding. The spiritual understanding as taught by Lord Caitanya is that all living entities are eternally servants of God. We have to propagate this philosophy, and for this we have to make propaganda. Every religion believes in God, and we want that everyone should actively come to this understanding of accepting one's eternal servitorship to God. There are many things to criticize in the matter of any faith, and if we divert our attention to such activities we shall simply create more opposite elements and waste our time. Better if we try to push on this Krishna Consciousness Movement and use our energy, education, scientific knowledge, etc. to simply convince the present generation that everyone is servant of God. Then our mission will be successful. Actually at the present moment, never mind if one is Christian, Jew, or Moslem, most people are Godless and don't care for God. They simply take an official stand, but actually, from the depth of their heart they have no idea what is God. So we have to invoke the dormant understanding of God-consciousness; that is the principle of Krishna Consciousness Movement. If a Christian believes in God let him love God prominently rather than loving matter. If we wish to criticize Christian faith we can do so, and we can prove that hardly there are any sincere Christians. In the ten commandments we see Lord Jesus Christ advised "Thou shalt not kill," but this killing process is still prominent among Christians as well as any other religious group. So much so that it is simply horrible. Recently, the head of the Christian people, the Pope, declined to sanction the killing process in the embryo, namely contraceptive methods. We can see that so many Christians revolted. Apart from this killing process within the embryo, there is also killing process in the slaughterhouse and in so many ways. I do not know how a Christian can violate this important commandment of the Bible, "Thou shalt not kill." So in this way, if we want to criticize we can, but it will simply increase our enemies. Better let us try to invoke the dormant transcendental emotion by chanting and dancing. You try to understand this philosophy more seriously, and as you are able try to write articles on this subject matter without being inclined to compromise with any other religious faith. I shall write you again from Hawaii. In the meantime you can let me know if you have got the manuscript from Rayarama, and reply to this letter to the Hawaii address: ISKCON, 4 Leilani Building, 1649 Kapialani Boulevard, Honolulu, Hawaii. Enclosed is a page of poems by Bhaktivinode Thakura to be translated into French and printed in your magazine. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jaya Gopala **Date:** July 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jaya Gopala, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 4, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. For the time being you should go on with your work there. I shall consult with Tamala Krishna, and if possible I shall try to send devotees there to help you. In the meantime you should continue going out on Sankirtana as much as possible and preach to the many boys and girls with whom you come into contact there. Krishna Consciousness is the absolute need of the present day society, and there are many people who will come to join us if we simply make these teachings of Bhagavad-gita and rest of the Vedic literature available to them. So try to sell Back to Godheads as far as you are able to do with only Arundhati and yourself on Sankirtana Party, and soon others will come to join you. I have no objection to sending you some men from Los Angeles, but you also should try to recruit some men from amongst the residents of Columbus. That is the best plan. Simply let them hear our chanting, invite them to our temple Love Feasts, and automatically some intelligent boys and girls will become interested to associate with our movement. You are a very sincere worker, so go on increasing your enthusiasm, and you will see how Krishna provides everything nicely for your center. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jaya Gopala **Date:** November 19th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Jaya Gopala, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated November 13, 1969 with enclosure of my maintenance check. I hope everything is going on nicely in Columbus, and I am sure under your able management it must be going on smoothly. I have written one letter to Pradyumna and Arundhati regarding composing my books, so I am very anxiously awaiting the reply. Please inform them about this and let me know what is the situation there. Offer my blessings to all of them, and I hope this will meet you in good health. Thank you very much once more for your letter. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** October 8th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge reciept of your letter dated October 3rd, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to note that you are so seriously considering how to organize the printing of our German Krishna Consciousness literature. You have suggested that you print in ZZG simply the verses of Bhagavad-gita, but without the purport what is the meaning of the verses? The purport is actually the main thing. So you can pick up the principal point of a purport and make then a heading for the article. Just like in the next issue Satsvarupa has published an article, "Lord Siva, the Greatest Devotee". This was picked up from my translation and purport of 3rd Canto Srimad-Bhagavatam. So far as sales are concerned, if you don't sell, then how you will be able to maintain your establishment? If you want to maintain a nice place simply by all working hard—in the beginning that is all right—but if you cannot maintain it by selling literature and making collections, then that is not a good idea. How to sell our magazines and literatures you have to find out means and ways. On the whole, everywhere we are arranging to sell our BTG and maintaining our centers on this sale. So what is the defect that you cannot sell? It is printed in the German language, and it is presenting new and sublime ideas. I you wish, you can cut down on the production costs as you have described, but the sales must be there. Another thing is that you should obtain this IBM machine as you have mentioned. Then you can make the size of ZZG suitable for being printed later on in our Boston presses in book size. If the composition is prepared by this time, we can immediately print in Boston on our own press which will be ready in December. In that case Bhagavad-gita As It Is may be translated and printed in ZZG in a book shape, so later on it can be reprinted in book form. That is a good idea, but it means you will have to reduce the size of the pages of the magazine. Regarding Kulasekhara, I have asked him to go and join you. Most probably he will join you very soon. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** October 15th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 15th, 1969 and the copy of Zuruck Zur Gottheit. I had received another copy of this issue and I think I had acknowledged receipt. Anyway, now there is a second copy; that is all right. In the meantime Kulasekhara has gone to Germany along with his wife to assist you. Of course, weakness in Krishna Consciousness we should always feel. That is a good symptom. We should never think that we are strong enough. But the source of strength is Krishna and His manifest representative, the Spiritual Master. We get this instruction from Caitanya-caritamrta that we receive the seed of Krishna Consciousness through the Spiritual Master and Krishna. Therefore, we should serve both simultaneously for continuous supply of spiritual vitality. So you are now serving Krishna under the instruction of your Spiritual Master, so there will be no scarcity of supply of strength unless there is some weakness on your part in the matter of absolute faith in these two shelters. So if you have still some doubts in pinching your faith in the service of your Spiritual Master and Krishna, then you can clear it up. I am always prepared to assist you. When you came from India to Germany you told me that you felt complete satisfaction being in Germany, having a good engagement for serving Krishna. But at present you express that you may not be feeling that satisfaction intact. If you would explain to me why you are feeling like that, then I can help you. We are trying to manage a great institution of Krishna Consciousness Movement, so there is possibility of adjusting so many circumstances. But in all circumstances we should have our staunch faith in Krishna and the Spiritual Master. Then we will never be shaken off. I hope this boy, Kulasekhara, will be much helpful in your department and you will feel more strength in pushing on this German edition of BTG. There is a proveb in Sanskrit literature that enthusiastic persons achieve the favor of the Goddess of Fortune. In the Western part of the world there is tangible example of this slogan. People in this part of the world are very much enthusiastic in material advancement and they have got it. Similarly, according to the instructions of Srila Rupa Goswami, if we become enthusiastic in spiritual matters, then we also get success in that way. Take for example, I came to your country in ripe old age, but I had one asset: enthusiasm and faith in my Spiritual Master. I think these assets only are giving me some lights of hope, whatever I have achieved so far with your cooperation. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** December 8th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 3rd, 1969. The descriptions given by you are very pleasing and nice. Kindly keep up the standard of your temple activities by mutual cooperation, and everything will come out successful and smooth. Krishna is giving you all help, and the more you serve Him, the more help will come automatically. You were in India, so you have seen our Godbrothers have hundreds of temples and Maths, and others also in India; everyone is nicely maintaining, depending on Krishna. Actually they have no fixed income, but as they serve the Lord, the Lord arranges everything. Therefore, our principle should be to serve nicely, and everything will be arranged by the Lord. Try to make your press department very nice. The magazine is already selling, and if you make further improvements, the sales will also improve. Just like our English BTG: from 5,000 copies they have increased to 25,000 copies per month, and they are going to increase the number of pages from 32 to 40 pages. Regarding the IBM typewriter, is this a composing machine or an ordinary typewriter? If you are able to take a composing machine, that will be very nice. So far as your plan for making Hare Krishna day-glow signs, that is very nice. Regarding your question about Krishna's associates, the principle is that all living entities are expansions of the Original Living Entity, Krishna. But there are different grades of living entities: Visnu Tattva and Jiva Tattva. Visnu Tattva is almost equal to the level of the Personality of Godhead, and Jiva Tattva is minute particles. So when Lord Caitanya appeared, Nityananda Prabhu and Advaita Prabhu were Visnu Tattva; whereas Gadadhara Prabhu and Srivas Prabhu were Shakti Tattva. Jiva Tattva is also within the Shakti Tattva. These things are explained in TLC and other of our books. Lord Nityananda is Balarama Himself, not an expansion of Him. Srila Narottama das Thakura has sung that the Lord who appeared as the Son of Nanda Maharaja has now appeared as the son of Sacidevi; and the same Balarama has appeared as Nityananda. This is the statement of Srila Narottama das Thakura. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** December 25th 1969 — **Location:** Boston My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated December 17, 1969, and I can understand from the spirit of your letter that Krishna is fixing you in a particular type of duty which you may welcome for your benefit, for the movement's benefit, and for the benefit of the people in general. Yes, you secure an IBM composer and utilize it fully. Let Mandali Bhadra translate our magazines and books, and in the IBM machine you compose it, ready for being photographed and printed. You send the ready matters to Boston, and they will print the magazine without any price from you. The cost of the printing will be balanced by keeping some magazines here for sale; so in that way your center will not have any botheration for paying the price. The balance magazines will be sent to you by ship, and you clear it, sell it, and pay for the monthly installments of the machine. This is the general arrangement I have thought about, without any monetary botheration for any of us. Simply we have to render service. Similarly, you invite such reading matters form Suridas in the French language. You compose it and send the matters for printing here, and in the same way things will be balanced, and the magazines in French language will be sent to Paris and they should partly pay for the IBM machine. I am sending a copy of this letter to Suridas, as well as to Brahmananda for future guidance, and you immediately begin the work. In the same way, if Mandali Bhadra can translate my books also, you can help the German composition and get the books in the same way. This is my theoretical proposition, and I am sure that if you follow, it will come to be fruitful. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** March 27th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter of March 17, 1969, and I have received the bank receipt for the money deposited there. I have received one letter from Atma Ram and Sons that they have already dispatched the books to Calcutta and handed over the R.R. receipt to you. but you have not mentioned anything about this. I hope you have the matter handled nicely. I am in Hawaii for the last one month, then on the 31st of March I shall go to San Francisco, then to L.A., and then to N.Y. and then to Buffalo, then Boston, and then New Vrindaban. This is my present program up to the end of May. And in June I may be called by London. And if you are by that time in Germany it is possible that I shall go to see you there. Another prospect is that one Mr. Windisch and another woman Mrs. Barbara, they have become very much interested in Krishna Consciousness movement, and they have seen me while I was in Montreal. Now they are in Vancouver, and most probably they will be interested to translate my books and magazines in German language. So already there are three boys in Hamburg and when you join, four, and if the German gentleman and woman go, then you will be six altogether. So a good party for preaching Sankirtana movement. Here in almost all our centers the Sankirtana movement has proved very successful. Everywhere, especially in London, L.A., and N.Y., especially in these places the Sankirtana movement has very much become successful. Every day when they take the party in the street, market, or parks, they collect sufficiently and sell BTG quite a number. In Germany I think also the Sankirtana prospect is there. I do not know before starting whether you intend to see Acyutananda in Vrindaban. He says that very nice pair of Deities will cost 1000 Rs. per pair, 24" high. Formerly, it was settled at 700 Rs. so if you go to Vrindaban, you can settle up the price of the Deity, 24" high, and very nicely cut, as Acyutananda has described, at maybe up to 800 Rs. Then we shall order many Deities. And at last I wish to request you once again, if you can do something to realize the 2000 Rs. from Hitsaran by seeing Dalmia and if it is not possible, then I shall have to satisfy myself without any action, because I do not think I shall go to India to realize this money. If Parvat Maharaja can help you in this, it will be very kind of him. ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** March 30th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of March 7, 1969. At the present time, I am living at Hawaii, therefore your letter was redirected from L.A. temple to here, so I received it late. I am very sorry that I did not reply your last letter but I thank you very much that you are sending me letters every week. Your very strong desire to return to Germany is already approved by me, and Krishna das is very much eager to receive you there. In his letter of March 2nd, he writes to say "we may send Jaya Govinda his ticket via AE immediately; hopefully he will arrive here by the week's end." Therefore I hope you might have already received the ticket for returning to Germany. But before your leaving Delhi, either for Bombay or for Europe, please book the unsold goods taken delivery from Atma Rama and Sons and send to our shipping agent in Calcutta, so they may ship them to N.Y. Your sympathetic expression about my magnitude of work with which I am pressed here is undoubtedly very much encouraging to me, and certainly I am pressed with heavy work. I am receiving letters about 12 daily, from different centers with different problems and then at the same time I am just trying to write my books, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Nectar of Devotion, and Krishna, and lately Vedanta Sutra. So certainly this is heavy task but by the Grace of Krishna, it does not depress me. I feel encouraged to act so busily day and night. But the body sometimes does not allow me to do so. So I have to sleep about 4 to 5 hours. But in comparison to our predecessors, the Goswamis, this engagement in insignificant. These Goswamis used to work almost 24 hours. They used to sleep not more than 2 hours, and they produced immense literature. Of course, it is not possible to be in their level of activities, but as far as possible, we should everyone of us try to work as hard as possible for Krishna's satisfaction. This material body can be adjusted with practice. If we adjust these bodily activities towards Krishna's side, then the labor is fruitful, but if we adjust towards maya's side, then the labor is useless. A little labor done for Krishna is never lost. But the greatest labor done for Maya is simply waste of time. So I think by the Grace of Krishna you are feeling nice now. Please try to work hard for Krishna, and your life will be glorious. By Krishna's Grace and by His desire, you are destined to go to Germany to take up the work of BTG in German. The three boys now working there are very sincere workers. You are also very sincere boy and I am sure when you go there you will find a very nice atmosphere of ISKCON workers. I am so glad to learn that you are feeling considerably the missing separation of ISKCON devotees. I am very much hopeful that Krishna Kirtana will be nicely introduced in the Western world by the Grace of Krishna, and by the efforts of our ISKCON DEVOTEES. I am very sorry too that in India you could not fill up the gap of such separation, and I know why you couldn't. So let India may do whatever they like. By the Grace of Krishna you are now initiated to take up this movement;[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** May 8th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I am so much glad to learn that you have arrived in Hamburg. Your letter of 26 April, 1969 gives me a great relief. I was very, very much anxious while you were in India. For the time being, I have given up the idea of opening a center in India because by so attempting, I have simply lost money in so many ways. Now you have come to our own place and you will enjoy the company of the guru and sincere devotees who have dedicated their life for pushing on the Krishna Consciousness Movement, and I am sure you will feel happy in their company. Please try to publish Back To Godhead as soon as possible, and very soon Mandali Bhadra and his wife, Vrindabaneshvari will join you. All of you combined together will be happy propagating our literatures, magazines, books in German language with concentrated attention. Krishna das, Sivananda, yourself and the new devotees will be a happy combination, so please do your best. Regarding your future status in Germany, Krishna will save you; don't bother yourself about it. For the time being, engage yourself in His service, and I think it is the desire of Krishna that you live in Germany and be engaged in His service. I understand from Krishna Das's letter that there is great possibility of pushing our movement in Germany, so it is a great advantage for you to be there. I understand that you had some difficulty in reaching Hamburg, travelling for two weeks, but do not mind this trouble, because you underwent it for Krishna's sake. I was on the sea for one month and ten days continually, and that was a horrible account. Perhaps you have read it in my diary which you collected in Vrindaban. So let us forget our past difficulties and in Krishna Consciousness, if anyone faces difficulties, it is considered as blessings, because without tapasya, or voluntarily accepting some inconveniences, nobody can realize the Transcendence. So when we are put into difficulties while discharging Krishna Conscious duties, it is to be understood that Krishna puts us in a field of austerities and penances which help us making progress towards realization of our goal of life. Here in the USA, especially in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, they are taking out Sankirtana Party in the streets and getting very good results. The student community in the above cities are gradually realizing our activities as very good. Yesterday evening we had very good meeting in Harvard University, and many students and professors attended. There were nice discussions and they are convinced that our activities are genuine and for the real welfare of the human society. And actually it is so. We are not adulterating the transcendental message with any mundane rubbish. If we stick to the principles of Lord Krishna, Lord Caitanya and the Goswamis, then surely they will appreciate. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** May 22nd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 14 May, 1969 and I am very much pleased to note the contents. You are a sincere soul, and that is the only means to get out of our ignorance and poor planning. If we simply become sincere to our Spiritual Master and Krishna, then everything will automatically come to help us to proceed further and further in our Krishna Consciousness. I think that when Mandali Bhadra comes there, there will be no more difficulty in the translation work. As far as possible though, you all should try to learn a little German. One should learn the local native language if one desires to live there. For the present, even though some people may think that our translation work is terrible, there is nothing to lament. After all, German language is a foreign language for us, and our main business is to present our thoughts to the German people. If in a foreign country a man is met with some catastrophe such as fire, he has to take help from the neighbors even though he has no language to express himself. Some way or other he has to inform his neighbors there is a fire in his house so that they can help him. So if the foreigner cannot express himself in very good language, he is not at fault. So there is a blazing fire of maya, and we have to inform the people, even if we must use broken language. That is no fault. But by Krishna's Grace this problem will soon be solved. Don't worry. Regarding my diary, you are right when you say that you would not see my personal belongings, that is a nice attitude, but still I have nothing to close from the eyes of my disciples. I think that my diary is now lying somewhere in New York, but that is not a very important thing. Regarding Acyutananda, he is now in Navadvipa in care of Sridhara Maharaja. I have written one letter to him, requesting him to supply at least ten first class mrdangas purchased from Navadvipa and sent to our different centers. I am seeing our Sankirtana is being accepted more and more in the Western World, and there is very good future for its spreading by the help of my very sincere disciples. So we shall require a large number of mrdangas and karatalas primarily. Please ask Acyutananda to serve our society at least in this capacity because he is in India. Regarding United Shipping Corporation, I understand that there was some death of a senior partner, so they were busy in ceremonies, but apparently they are also not very prompt. If Acyutananda is serious about purchasing goods and dispatching from Calcutta or Bombay, he may also find out some good shipping agents in these places. If he would do some work for our society, surely he would be happy. Regarding the electric typewriter, if you are going to purchase, you should purchase an IBM Composer. That would be very nice for us, without paying it all at once. So you may look into this. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** June 7th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 27, 1969 and your letter dated May 20, 1969. I have immediately sent to Acyutananda a copy of the goods delivered to United Shipping Corporation. It appears that this company is very slow and not businesslike. So probably I will have to change to some other shipping agents, and I have already advised Acyutananda to do the needful. The second batch of Deities which you sent to Los Angeles has been received by them. I am very glad to learn that you are feeling enthusiastically in the German center, and it is clear that Krishna wanted you there. Please work there with your full energy in cooperation with your other godbrothers. Krishna Das, yourself, Sivananda and Uttama Sloka all are good souls and sincere devotees of Lord Krishna. So as you faithfully continue to work under my direction, your further advancement is sure. I have received a letter from Mandali Bhadra that they are reaching there on the 27th June, and when they arrive, do everything very nicely in a cooperative spirit. I hope that by this time you have secured the typewriter and things are going on with the German translations. You have inquired if you should learn the German language, and my answer is yes, you should learn it by all means. Here in New Vrindaban the atmosphere is exactly like Vrindaban. They are performing the routine activities from 4 am. in the morning till 10 pm. at night. The aratriks are going on several times daily as you have seen in Vrindaban. The pictures which you have taken of Vrindaban have been published in BTG, and I have seen a special advance copy sent from Japan. It is very nice article, and you have done nicely. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- The reproduction of the newspaper cuttings which you have printed was done very well, and I would like about ten more copies of this page to show to other centers ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** July 4th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 23, 1969, sent along with your German language Back To Godhead. It is very, very nice. You have achieved a great blessing from my Guru Maharaja. My Guru Maharaja had an ambition to publish the message of Lord Caitanya in all the languages of the world, and when He was present in India, He published six magazines in five languages; one in Hindi, one in Assami, one in Bengali, one in English, and one in Oriya. Your Zuruck Zur Gottheit is certainly a unique gift to me, and I shall ever remember it. It is all your credit that as soon as you arrived in Germany you have done some tangible service to the mission. May Krishna bless you more and more. And as you wish that this service may continue throughout all your life and the next, so it gives me more pleasure about your sincerity of service. I am also glad to know that sometimes the happiness you feel is very strong. There is some words spoken by Lord Caitanya that this service is a transcendental ocean of bliss. Ananda ambudhi bardanam. Here we have got experience of the material ocean; it does not increase. On the other hand, gradually it is decreasing. Formerly the whole planet was merged into water, and there was no earth; it ws simply inundated water. Now gradually the ocean is drying up, and the land is coming out. Therefore, this material ocean is decreasing, but the transcendental ocean of bliss is only increasing. So I can only say that you stick to your present nice service, entrusted upon you by my Guru Maharaja and Krishna. Try to improve it to your best capacity. You are three, just like Brahma, Visnu, and Maheswar. And Mandali Bhadra is going to join you as Indra. These four principal demigods are controlling the whole universe, so I hope in the near future Sivananda, yourself, Krishna Das, and Mandali Bhadra will have full control over the German young boys by pushing on this magazine Zuruck Zur Gottheit. I shall be glad to hear whether by this time Mandali Bhadra has arrived there. Regarding my going to Hamburg, I am writing to Krishna Das separately, and you will understand the situation. Regarding New Vrindaban, I think we shall have many advantages here that are not in Vrindaban in Mathura. The Vrindaban in Mathura is now congested with so many worldly men. Formerly, Vrindaban was excavated by the Goswamis, and only pure devotees were going there. But at the present moment, this has become a place for the bischovs, materialists, and in the interior part of Vrindaban there are so many rogues and robbers. Formerly, a devotee could live peacefully in any corner of Vrindaban; it is about 180 square miles, but now if somebody lives in some secluded corner, he will be attacked by so many rogues and robbers. Perhaps you know there is a place known as Nandagram, wherein Bon Maharaja has got a place. I have heard that it is very nice, but nobody can live there securely. So at least in New Vrindaban I hope there will be no such disturbances. If we nicely organize as it is going on now, only selected persons will live there and peacefully cultivate Krishna Consciousness. You have inquired why Caitanya Mahaprabhu has not mentioned anything about accepting a Spiritual Master in His Siksastaka. But perhaps you have missed the point that He says amanina manadena kirtaniya sada hari. This means one has to chant the Holy Names of Krishna, becoming humbler than the straw, and more tolerant than the tree. So who can become humbler than the straw unless he accepts a Spiritual Master? The whole world is puffed up. Everyone wants to become the Lord of everything. Ultimately, the Mayavadi philosopher wants to become one with the Supreme Lord. This means that when one fails to become Lord of everything, he wants to mix up with the Supreme Lord and tries in that way to automatically become Lord of everything. What he can't perform by his own capacity he wants to have done by being merged into the Supreme Lord. That is the mentality of the general people. But if anyone becomes humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the tree, it is understood that he has accepted a Spiritual Master. Besides that, if we accept Sikshastak as authority given by Lord Caitanya, this means we accept Lord Caitanya as Spiritual Master. In the Bhagavad-gita it is openly mentioned that Arjuna accepted Krishna as the Spiritual Master. There is another mention in the Sikshastak, Lord Caitanya says "I do not want any wealth of this world, I do not want any following, neither do I want a beautiful wife. Simply I want to become a servant of the Lord." To become the servant of the Lord means to accept a Spiritual Master. Without accepting somebody as master, how can one become an expert servant? It is not that in every literature you will find the words that everyone has to accept a Spiritual Master, but we have to study things scrutinizingly. In the Caitanya Caritamrta there is mention guru krsna krpaya paya bhakti lata bija [Cc. Madhya 19.151]. By the mercy of the Spiritual Master and Krishna one can get the seeds of bhakti lata, the plant of devotional service. I am glad that you have named your printing press the Radha Press. It is very gratifying. May your Radha Press be enriched in publishing all our books and literatures in the German language. It is a very nice name. Radharani is the best, topmost servitor of Krishna, and the printing machine is the biggest medium at the present moment for serving Krishna. Therefore, it is really a representative of Srimati Radharani. I like the idea very much. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayagovinda **Date:** August 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jaya Govinda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 4th, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your accepting a job in the Graphics profession, I think you can accept this job because it is paying, as well as you can get experience in the profession. So as Krishna Das has advised you, I confirm it. Regarding your meeting with the Ram Krishna Mission man, you write to say that he has advised you how you should work combinedly with the Maharishi group in Hamburg, and he has said that our goals are actually the same. I do not know how our goals are actually the same. Our goal is Krishna, and we are preaching the gospel of Krishna, Bhagavad-gita as it is. In the Bhagavad-gita the point is stressed to concentrate on Krishna only, and the highest perfection of yoga process is to realize Krishna both externally and internally. We are teaching to vibrate the transcendental chanting of "Krishna" because in that way, by hearing the sound vibration of Krishna, we can see everything as diverse extension of Krishna's external energy. And because we think of Krishna always in all our activities, therefore, internally we are 24 hours in meditation with Krishna. I don't think the Maharishi group or the Ram Krishna Mission is teaching like that. So how can it be accepted that our goal is actually the same? Accepting that Krishna is everything, what is aimed by the Ram Krishna Mission or by the Maharishi group is also Krishna; but Krishna says that although everything is expansion of Himself, He is not in everything. Exactly like in our material experience we can understand that everything is ultimately produced of sunshine, but that does not mean everything is sunshine. Rather, other things cover the sunshine and creates a shadow. The Ram Krishna Mission or the Maharishi's activities are nothing but expanded energy of Krishna, but by such work Krishna is covered. Therefore it is called Maya. Maya has no separate existence beyond Krishna, but when there is Maya, Krishna is covered. Exactly like cloud is nothing but creation of the sunshine—the cloud has no independent existence—but whenever there is a cloud in the sky the sunshine becomes covered. Therefore it is Maya. Maya means things which have no existence independent of Godhead, but its business is to cover Godhead. Similarly, either the Ram Krishna Mission or Maharishi's group, they have no existence independent of Krishna, but their activities are just like the cloud covering Krishna. Actually, they never directly preach Krishna Consciousness. On the other hand, they do something to cover Krishna Consciousness. So although water is generated from fire, we cannot pour on water when the fire is blazing. We cannot adulterate Krishna Consciousness with the Ram Krishna Mission or with anything else. We must present Krishna Consciousness in its pure form, as it is adv[TEXT MISSING] ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** September 26th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 11th, and I have noted the contents. Enclosed please find one photograph of the Radha-Krishna throne, so you may begin constructing it as soon as possible. When the Radha-Krishna Deities are installed, you may turn your main attention to Them, rather than to the Lord Jagannatha Deities. You continue to keep Jagannatha nicely though, and sometimes change His dress. So far as your having already ordered instruments from India, that is all right. Regarding your question about the verse in the prayers to the Spiritual Master, the Spiritual Master is one of the associates of Krishna. The prayers offered by Visvanatha Cakravarti to his Spiritual Master have a special significance. His Spiritual Master was one of the assistant gopis, so the prayer was offered like that. On the whole, the Spiritual Master is an agent of Krishna. But either He is assistant to the gopis or assistant to the cowherds boys, He is on the level of Krishna. That is the verdict of all scriptures. Krishna is worshipable God and the Spiritual Master is worshipper God. The exact words are sebya (worshipable) and sebak (worshipper).Your explanation of Annamoya is all right. Pranamoya means there are different types of airs, and the spirit soul is floating on the air, just like all the planets are floating in the air. This Pranamoya air is transferred by breathing exercises, but we have nothing to do with such exercises. Our prana, or life, is surrendered to Krishna. That is the first class yoga system approved by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. This Pranamoya, Annamoya, etc. are different stages for persons who are too much engrossed in the bodily concept of life. Our philosophy begins from the point where we immediately accept that I am not this body; I am pure spirit soul, servant of God, Krishna. Therefore, these studies are meant for neophyte transcendentalists. But this devotional service is far above such platform. Regarding your last question, generally those who are attracted very much to Lord Caitanya and Goswamis are understood to develop to the conjugal love stage with Lord Krishna. So I am very much pleased, and I congratulate you. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have just now received your letter of September 23rd along with the check. Thank you ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** October 13th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst Park > Tittenhurst House, Ascot, Berkshire, England LT_691013_C1 My dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated October 3, 1969. and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the questions you have asked about the Radha-Krishna throne, I am enclosing herewith a diagram by Shyamsunder which should help you. If you have further questions about constructing the throne, you may consult with the Los Angeles temple. They will be able to give you the information. Try to make the set-up in your temple like the photograph I have sent you of the Los Angeles temple. If there is difficulty keeping the Vyas Asana as it is in the picture, then keep it where it is, and use the entire back wall for Lord Jagannath and Radha-Krishna, as per design in the picture. Regarding my meeting with Allen Ginsberg, don’t bother with this now. I wont be there while he is there, so there is no need of arranging for such engagement. Regarding Dyal Nitai, he was not fixed up from the very beginning, so let him try his luck elsewhere if he wishes. But if he has little bit of Krishna Consciousness he cannot cope with any one else. That is a fact. But if he is not pure from the very beginning, then he may slip away. But from the very beginning he had tendencies like that, so even if he came back don’t rely on him, neither give him any responsible work. The tests you have sent to me are nice, and the Hare Krishna Mantra leaflet is also nice. The only thing is that on the leaflet the type is very small, so people may have trouble to read it. I thing you may send one copy to Woomapati, because he may like to have some for his Paris center. I have received one letter from Janardan a few days ago, and he is coming to see me here. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** October 16th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I beg to inform you that I have received a letter from the Gaudiya Mission, Calcutta, in which they write to say as follows:"We have been greatly obliged on receipt of a letter dated August 18, 1969 from Sri Krishna Das of Radha Krishna Temple, Montreal (Canada) offering us a shipment of medical stores and again a letter dated September 1, 1969 from one Administrative Asst. of world Naval Service, Montreal, offering us 20,000 bags of flour for the needy in India. We value such offers as coming at your instance. We contacted W. Bengal Govt. They are not much interested in taking charge and distributing the same. We are, however, consulting other suitable parties who can handle and deal with the matter as per object of the donor. We are personally unfit for such importing and shipping matters, as you may well understand. We shall write to the parties after we get response from a dependable local party here."I am surprised that such bogus letters have come from parties claiming to belong to our centers. Our disciple Krishna das is in Germany, not in Montreal. Anyway, such irresponsible letters dispatched from our temples must be stopped immediately. I shall be glad to hear from you about this by return of post. If somebody is unauthorizedly using our stationeries and writing letters to responsible quarters, with no sanction from us, then such persons must be avoided. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- enc: 2 pictures ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** November 26th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Jayapataka, I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of November 6, 1969. Regarding the Prasadam restaurant, if you start this, you should do it only in the temple. Not in another place. People there know about out temple; it is old enough. So if they come at noontime to take Prasadam, that is very nice. I have received the picture drawn by Peetabarana Gaura das Adhikari, and it is very well done. If you see him again, please convey my thanks to him. I shall be returning to USA sometimes in December, and I hope when I arrive in Boston at least some of you in the Montreal temple will be able to come see me at that time. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** January 30th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters of January 23, 1969, and I have carefully read the contents. For the present I think you cannot leave Montreal for doing work on your draft status. Your service is much too valuable there. Even if this means that in the future you cannot leave for the United States, what is the harm in this? Everywhere you are it is the same because Krishna is there, and you can perform devotional service anywhere you are. There is no need to be attached to any particular land on account of some mayic relationship. All places belong to Krishna, and wherever we get the chance for serving Him, that land is our God-gifted land. Anyway, you may write to your draft board and explain to them that you are studying to be a minister of Krishna Consciousness but you are at present unable to leave Montreal. When your duties are not so much needed in Montreal you will come to the United States to resume your attempts. Write to them in this way, and let us see what is their response. Regarding your question about the Brahma Samhita, there is no contradiction with the Bhagavad-gita. If "direction" is not specifically mentioned in Bhagavad-gita it does not mean that Brahma Samhita is not authorized. Regarding the singing meter used by Narada Muni, anyone can utter it. You have asked about the specialness of the month of Kartikeya, and the answer is that is is a special inducement for persons who are not in Krishna Consciousness to perform some devotional service. For persons who are doing nothing in Krishna Consciousness, it is an indirect inducement to take to devotional service in earnest seriousness, every moment is Kartikeya. In this connection, there is a good example that sometimes a store gives special concession to attract new customers. But for those who are already customers there is no need of a special sale. They will purchase at any cost if they know the import and value of the goods. Similarly, those who are pure devotees do not aspire for any concession, and out of spontaneous love try to engage themselves in devotional service 24 hours each day, 365 days every year, without any stoppage. So far as reading scriptures out loud, this depends upon the circumstances. If you can understanding by reading silently, there is no need to read out loud, because this may make others feel disturbed. The mantra you have asked about which is mentioned in Brahma Samhita means the pastimes, Form and Qualities of the Lord with His Associates. Our mantras are never impersonal. When we meditate upon Hare Krishna we remember the Pastimes, Form, Qualities, etc., of Lord Krishna. Regarding the teaching at Sir George Williams University, if you like you may take charge, I have no objections. But if there is somm one who may speak better at present, you should give him a chance. In either case, you should please try to introduce into every college and university our Bhagavad-gita As It Is. That will surely be a great service. The Bhagavad-gita is well read everywhere, and you need only to convince them that this is the best edition.[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** February 14th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of February 7, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I have also seen the leaflets done by this boy, Mark, and they are very nicely done. Regarding your question about the 10 senses, such questions should be taken up at your Istagosthi meetings. I have already answered most of the questions you have asked in this connection in a previous letter, so you may refer to it. About the shell which you are presently keeping in the temple, because it is not a conchshell, it should be considered as impure, and therefore it may not be placed upon the altar. Regarding the meter sung by Narada Muni, it is not necessary for us to practice this. For your final question, you are correct in your idea that leaflets which are destined to be thrown upon the ground should not contain pictures of Krishna, Jagannatha, etc. Such leaflets may only be hung up for people to see. I thank you very much for your offer to print any pages I may need upon your press there, but I think that the first business should be to immediately print another issue of Back To Godhead, French edition. The first issue was very nice, but I hope this will be printed regularly so that it may be a great help to us in spreading this Krishna Consciousness movement to the French speaking peoples of the world. Please inform me immediately as to what is the problem of printing this second issue of Back To Godhead, French edition. Thanking you again for your letter. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** March 11th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to receive your letter dated February 28, and noted the contents with great pleasure. The transcendental experience which you had during kirtana performance at the Loyala University is very nice. Relishing the transcendental sweetness of Krishna Kirtana is only possible when one is actually advanced, towards perfection. Srila Rupa Goswami used to say, wishing if he had possessed millions of ears, and billions of tongues then he could chant the Hare Krishna mantra a little bit relishably. In the conditioned stage, we chant Hare Krishna mantra officially without any attachment and try to finish the rounds as soon as possible. Sometimes we also forget to chant the prescribed number of rounds. But Haridasa Thakura even at the last stage of his life, he was chanting 300,000 beads although Lord Caitanya personally asked him to not labor so hard. But Haridasa Thakura said that he would continue the practice till the end of his life. So that is the position of transcendental taste. Please therefore chant very sincerely with your present aptitude of mind and Krishna will bless you more and more in understanding this secret of transcendental vibration. Of course, sometimes the public may misunderstand such tears of bliss, so we may better have to check it from the vision of ordinary persons. So far the strange colors, etc., better when you see all these things that you chant and hear; that will help you to understand what they are. (Also, it may be some effects of your past drugs habit.)So far as painting on the body the Names of the Lord, this is all right. But there is no need of doing that in this country. Simply hearing is sufficient. Please ask Janardana what is the difficulty in editing BTG in French language. Of course, I received his letters that he was so much busy in so many ways, but still, this is also one of his responsibilities. In the absence of BTG printing, the machine is being used for some other purposes. Of course, when I was in Montreal, I think I gave permission to print some outside work, to get some money, but that does not mean that we should stop our own work, and print something in our press which is against our principles. Please try to convey this news to both Janardana and Dayala Nitai and they may please give attention.[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** June 21st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated 18 June, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. The Rathayatra Festival you will perform from the 20th of July to the 27th of July. The main item is the car, so how will you observe the Festival with out the required car, or ratha. If you want to take the Deities on the shoulders of the devotees, that is also nice. But if you would convey the Deities on a car, that will be very nice. The Festival is the Deities are taken to some river side, if not the seaside, and Montreal has got a very nice river, the St. Lawrence River. The system is that for 8 days the Deities remain on the seaside, and kirtana goes on, prasada is distributed, and people offer flowers, fruits, etc. to the Deities. Then on the 8th day, the Lord returns to His own place. This is the system, and the care is taken in great procession, complete with chanting, flowers, etc. This year Boston is also trying to celebrate the Rathayatra Festival, and if you like, you may open correspondence with Satsvarupa in this connection, and he will help you with further ideas. I am so glad to learn that Kirtana is going on, and by Krishna's Grace you are getting some collections. This is very good news. If during Rathayatra, you cannot keep on the seaside, then you take the car in procession to the riverside, and come back the same day. For the eight days, as far as possible distribute prasadam, especially kitcherie. Then on the 8th day you also hold the ceremony in the same way. Please arrange to take nice photographs of your Festival activities as well as of your other kirtana activities. We wish to print many such photographs in our Back To Godhead, so take many pictures, and send them to Brahmananda in New York. This Monday, June 23rd, I am going to Los Angeles, so you may address future correspondence to that address. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** July 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated July 1, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to note that you are diligently going out on Sankirtana everyday, and you are managing the temple affairs nicely. You have requested that some brahmacaris may come out to help you in Montreal, but one problem is that the American boys cannot work in Montreal. This is one hindrance. I shall consult with Tamala Krishna to see if there are any boys available from the Los Angeles temple who may go there, but I do not think that these American boys will be able to hold jobs in Montreal. I am anxious to know what is the position of the French Back To Godhead. I received issue #3 several months ago, but since then there has been no further word about this very important publication. So please inform me what is the situation regarding French BTG. In Germany they are now printing a very beautiful German edition of BTG, and this is very, very pleasing to my Guru Maharaja because He wanted that peoples of all languages may understand this philosophy of Krishna Consciousness. Regarding further tapes of Vedanta Sutra, this has been suspended for the time being, but when I begin again I shall send the tapes to you. Recently we have finished our book, Nectar of Devotion, and now the book, Krishna, is in the process of being written. So when the project of Vedanta Sutra is again taken up I shall inform you. You have asked if it is true that the Spiritual Master remains in the material universe until all of His disciples are transferred to the Spiritual Sky. The answer is yes, this is the rule. Therefore, every student should be very much careful not to commit any offense which will be detrimental to this promotion to the Spiritual Kingdom, and thereby the Spiritual Master has to incarnate again to deliver him. This sort of mentality will be a kind of offense to the Spiritual Master. Out of the ten kinds of offenses, the number one offense is to disobey the orders of the Spiritual Master. The instructions given to the disciple by the Spiritual Master at the time of initiation should be strictly followed. That will make one advance to the spiritual path. But if one deliberately defies such instructions, then his advancement is hampered from the very beginning. This defying means to disconnect the relationship with the Spiritual Master. And anyone who defies and therefore disconnects the relationship with the Spiritual Master can hardly expect the assistance of the Spiritual Master life after life. I hope this will clear up this question sufficiently for you. Please convey my blessings to the others. I am very pleased that you are working so sincerely to maintain the Montreal temple. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** August 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 29, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to note that the French edition of BTG will be ready by the end of the week. Please send a copy to me immediately when it is ready. You ask if you should improve the magazine to look like the English BTG, and of course this is very welcome, but first you must organize things so that the French edition can come out regularly every month. There are plans that soon there will be a center in Paris, France, so this French edition of BTG will help a great deal in the success of this center. Also, there are so many French speaking people in Canada, so please try to have this magazine come out on a regular monthly schedule. That would be very nice. Regarding the arrangements you described for having devotees come from here to work in Montreal, please send this information to Tamala Krishna, along with further details, and he will do the needful. I am pleased to note that you are selling about 25 copies of BTG daily and you are going out on Sankirtana twice daily. I have learned from Brahmananda that he is increasing the number of BTGs to be printed from 20,000 to 25,000 copies per month. So there is much potential for selling these issues to the many people who are gradually taking more and more interest in our movement, and please organize your sales there to increase at a steady rate. Sankirtana is the tried and proven method of propagating all aspects of our Krishna Consciousness Movement, so continue to go out chanting in the streets as much as possible. Regarding Jhulanayatra Ceremony, during these five days the Deities' clothings should be changed everyday, and there should be nice Prasadam distribution and Sankirtana as far as possible. If you are able to do it, a nice throne may be constructed on which the Deities can be placed. This throne may be swung gently during Kirtana. That will be very good, and surely the Deities will enjoy the function. You have mentioned that you have been invited to attend some "World Brotherhood Conference," and if it is convenient, you may go there with your Sankirtana Party, chant Hare Krishna, give some talk on Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and distribute Prasadam. That is our only business, and we can do these activities anywhere; it doesn't matter on the street or in some "World Brotherhood Conference." Everyone in this material world is conditioned by the laws of Maya, so wherever we go, surely there is much work we have to do in help[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Jayapataka **Date:** August 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Jayapataka, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 7, 1969, and I have noted the contents. Regarding Narottama das, our policy should be to keep members as much as possible. We should not flatly say "You must leave." That is not our policy. If he comes to Los Angeles to see me, I shall speak with him to find out what is his difficulty. So far as that meeting you are invited to, it is not very important. Our stress should always be on Sankirtana Party. These "yoga" societies are useless. If you do go, you should not eat their food. We cannot eat anything not offered to Krishna, and we cannot offer anything to Krishna which is not cooked by a devotee. I hope this will clear up the matter for you. Regarding Dayala Nitai, I am instructing Umapati to send him from Los Angeles translated essays and articles for printing in French BTG, so Dayala Nitai will now have more time for going on Sankirtana Party. You have asked about a quote from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and the statement is that the material energy is Brahman, not Brahma. Brahman means spirit. Brahma is the first living entity in the universe, and their is no "n" at the end of his name. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am enclosing some copies of a recent book review which was printed in a Hawaii newspaper. You should approach the local papers there and try to induce them to similarly review our books. Also you approach the local bookstores with this review and try to arrange for them to carry our Krishna Consciousness literature ### Letter to Jayasri **Date:** May 13th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Jayasri Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of May 5th, 1969, sent along with your beads, and I have duly chanted upon them and initiated you as my student. Your name, Jayasri Dasi, means victory, and if you will simply continue to develop your Krishna Consciousness by following the rules and regulations, then surely your life will be very victorious in defeating all contaminations of the material world and in returning back to Home, back to Godhead in the Spiritual Kingdom. Our process is to faithfully follow the rules of no illicit sex-life, no meat-eating, no intoxication, and no gambling. Also we should chant at least 16 rounds each day, trying to avoid the ten offenses. You have very nice association with your godbrothers and godsisters there with you in Hawaii, and you should help them to propagate our movement in that area. So consult with Gaurasundara and Govinda, and there will be ample engagement for you in this connection. When any questions or difficulties arise, you may consult with them there, or if you like, I am always at your service to help in any way that I can. So now you have great opportunity to make perfection of your life, and my request to you is to be very serious always about this and Krishna will give you all facilities for advancement. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Jayasri **Date:** November 13th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Jayasri, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letters dated October 14, 1969 and November 5, 1969. You are such a sincere devotee that Krishna has helped you to understand the philosophy so quickly. And this sincerity of purpose is the only means to attain perfection in Krishna Consciousness. I am so glad to learn that you are thinking of sleep as a waste of time. This is not an ordinary thing. So I have become very much pleased to hear this statement from you. Be blessed by Krishna. Just as you have already understood the benefits of this Krishna Consciousness Movement, try to realize and assimilate it more and more and distribute it to the suffering humanity. Our movement is the greatest gift to the human race. They may not immediately appreciate it, but time will come and history will give evidence that this movement saved the human society from being fallen into barbarianism. Regarding the things that Krishna is giving you, everything belongs to Krishna and He is giving everything, even to the nondevotees, even to the animals who have no consciousness of Krishna; and what to speak of His devotees. Just like the father maintains all his children without any grudge, but the child who is very faithful to the orders of the father is given specific care by the father. Similarly, Krishna being the Father of all living entities, he is supplying the bare necessities of their life; but for His devotees He has got special attention. So depend on Krishna, chant regularly Hare Krishna and you will find that He is talking with you face to face, what to speak of supplying your necessities. This is a great science, and please try to understand it nicely. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Joel Chalson **Date:** July 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Joel Chalson, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your contribution of $200. From your previous letter as well as this letter it appears that you are the right person to grasp the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness, and you have got good association of the devotees in New York. Also you are giving nice service so you have got very good opportunity. Please read our literatures carefully, and try to give service to Krishna as far as possible. Whenever you are in doubt you can ask me, and I am at your service. But one point you should not miss is that this life is very important to awaken our dormant Krishna Consciousness, and we should not miss this opportunity in any circumstance. That would be a great blunder. We must be very cautious to not fall prey to the clutches of Maya because in this material world Maya is very prominent although Krishna is everything. Maya and Krishna are just like the sunshine and darkness: the darkness has no independent existence without the sun. But still the darkness is existing in some corner of the sunlight. If we therefore always keep ourselves exposed to the open sunlight, there is no cause of being attacked by the darkness. If you keep yourself faced to the sunlight, you will never see the darkness, and as soon as you turn your back to the sun, then immediately you find in your front a huge shadow of your own body. This shadow is Maya, and if you turn to the sun, to Krishna, then there is no shadow. Therefore, Krishna should always be in the front of us, and Maya will disappear automatically without any separate attention. Yogis and jnanis artificially try to get rid of Maya, but in spite of their much endeavor for spiritual realization they are still in the Kingdom of Maya. The conclusion that God is impersonal or that everyone is God is the statement of a person who is in Maya. In other words, anything which is a setback to the realization of Krishna Consciousness is Maya. Anyone who is not in Krishna Consciousness is supposed to be in Maya, and anyone who is in full Krishna Consciousness is out of the clutches of Maya. This is the statements of the Vedic literatures, and we should try to understand and follow the principles. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kancanbala **Date:** February 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kancanbala, Please accept my blessings. I thank you so much for your letter dated February 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am pleased to note that you are painting nicely, so go on improving your abilities because we will require so many paintings for our temples. You may paint pictures of Guru Maharaja, me, Bhaktivinode Thakura, Gaura Kisora, Panca-tattva, Sankirtana, etc. We have immense work to be done so you become expert painter. That will engladden me, and it will be a great benefit to all society. Thanking you once more for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kanupriya **Date:** January 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kanupriya das Brahmacari, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 9, 1969, and I am pleased to send herewith your beads duly chanted upon by me. Your spiritual name is Kanupriya das Brahmacari. Kanu means Krishna, and priya means dear, so Kanupriya means one who is very dear to Krishna. I am so pleased to learn that you have been already receiving some training up from Rupanuga and you are assisting the temple activities along with the others. It is very gratifying to know this, and please continue in this way. Also, you must be certain to chant 16 rounds per day upon your beads. Regarding other yoga exercises, if you take Krishna prasadam you shall keep your body automatically fit for working, so there is no need of extra exercises which are required by persons who may eat more than what is required. So for prosecuting Krishna Consciousness one should not eat more than what is needed. One should not endeavor beyond his capacity. One should not talk unnecessarily. One should not stick with some extra regulative principles, nor should one associate with persons who are not in Krishna Consciousness. One should not be too much greedy. What one should do is chant the Holy Name of the Lord with faith, enthusiasm, and firm conviction on the statement of Lord Caitanya that simply by chanting the Maha Mantra one can be gradually elevated to the highest platform of spiritual perfection. Also what is important is to follow the four regulative principles of avoiding all illicit sexual connections, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling. I am sure that Rupanuga will ably guide you in these matters. Try to help in our Krishna Consciousness activities, and whenever you feel the necessity of my help you are welcome to address me in letter. Read Bhagavad-gita As It Is very carefully, and we are going to hold an examination next year in January upon this book. I hope that you will be enough expert in this Krishna Consciousness science to pass the examination and be awarded with the title of "Bhakti-sastri", one who knows the principles of devotional service. So think over these matters discussed herein very carefully, and Krishna will help you in all respects. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kapiladev **Date:** October 24th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Kapiladev, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 18, 1969 and have carefully noted the contents. It doesn't matter that you were unable to remain in Vancouver because now you are serving Krishna in the Seattle temple. This is the meaning of transcendental. The devotee of Krishna is beyond the touch of time and space because these are simply external features. The only concern of Krishna's devotee is to serve Krishna to the highest level of perfection in whichever situation Krishna wishes him to remain. Regarding Nityananda Prabhu breaking the sannyasi rod of Lord Caitanya, the explanation is that this was to show that Lord Caitanya was Krishna, so He had no necessity of taking sannyasa. In the higher sense the Vaisnavas are meant for being members of the family of Krishna to serve as friend, to serve as parent or to serve as lover. So for such elevated devotees sannyasa is superfluous. But still, Lord Caitanya took sannyasa just to prove it factually that so far as the material conditions are concerned, they must be given up. Without knowing this fact some so-called Vaisnavas have turned to be sahajiya. This means one who takes everything as very easy. All the acaryas, beginning from Lord Buddha, Sankaracarya, Ramanuja, etc., all of them renounced this world. So renunciation is required, but when one makes further progress after renunciation towards spiritual life and enters into the Pastimes of Krishna, then things become perfect. The summary is that sannyasa is renunciation, which is imperative for all. Nityananda's breaking the sannyasi rod of Caitanya Mahaprabhu was with the purpose to show that Lord Caitanya is transcendental to all material conditions [Cc. Madhya 1.97].Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kedar Mataji **Date:** January 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kedar Mataji, Please accept my greetings and blessings of Sri Sri Kisori Raman. I wrote to Krishna Prasad Bhargava about these murtis for free donation. As you know that I am trying to establish many temples of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna in the Western world. I think that devotees of Lord Krishna in India should come forward and cooperate with my missionary activities. Krishna Prasadji donated one pair of Sri Murtis for our New York temple, and I wished that many other rich merchants of India who are devotees of Lord Krishna may contribute a pair of 24" high Radha-Krishna murtis for installing in various temples here. You should also come forward to cooperate with this movement. I am already getting murtis 24" high at a rate which is almost 50% less than the price quoted by you. If you therefore wish to cooperate with this great adventure, you shall not please try to make any profit out of it. You simply cooperate with me in supplying murtis at the rate which I am already purchasing. We do not require any clothings because our devotees here are now expert in making nice clothings. What you have to do is to purchase the deities, pack Them in nice wooden boxes securely, and dispatch to Calcutta to our shipping agents. We have arrangements with Scindia Steam Navigation Co. to carry our temple goods free of charge. You will be pleased to note that I have established temples in the following important places: London, Hamburg, New York, San Francisco, Hawaii, Montreal, Vancouver, Boston, etc. In each of these temples we will require one pair of deities. Besides that, we have secured about 140 acres of land in West Virginia where the scheme is to construct 7 temples. We wish to develop a township there called New Vrindaban for our growing Krishna Conscious community. Similarly, an attempt is being made in England also for which we are requesting legal documents. So I hope you will cooperate with us, and induce others to cooperate with this movement. The Americans have enough money to purchase the deities, but I wish that the Krishna devotees of India should come forward and cooperate with this movement by contributing pairs of deities. I shall be glad to hear from you soon. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** January 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 31, 1968, and I thank you for your good wishes for the new year. Please accept the same from my side. So far as we are concerned, our new year is every day because Krishna belongs to the nitya lila. Nitya lila means that all of His Pastimes are going on in either of the so many universes. It is just like the rising of the sun. In your country the sun is supposed to rise at 6:30 at the present moment, but at any time you can inquire in some part of the world and there it is the same 6:30 and sunrise. While you are in this meridian, in another country it may be 6:30 AM, and the sun is rising. So you have now taken charge of the sunrise of New Vrindaban. Our program is there for constructing seven temples. One Rupanuga Vidyapitha—that is a school for educating brahmanas and Vaisnavas. We have enough of technological and other types of educational institutions, but perhaps there is none where actual brahmanas and Vaisnavas are produced. So we will have to establish an educational institution for that purpose. A first examination will be held sometimes next January on Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and those passing will have the degree of Bhakti-sastri. Next year we will hold an examination on Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the person who passes will have the title Bhakti-vaibhava. And the next year we shall hold an examination on Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Nectar of Devotion and Vedanta Sutra, and those who will successfully pass will be awarded with the title of Bhaktivedanta. By 1975, all of those who have passed all of the above examinations will be specifically empowered to initiate and increase the number of the Krishna Consciousness population. Another important scheme is to start a nice press next spring. So these duties are there in New Vrindaban, and we shall have to live there self independently, simply by raising cows, grains, fruits, and flowers. I have already explained these things to Hayagriva, and he is now married and a responsible grhastha. You are of course sannyasa. Your duties will be more to preach and supervise the activities there. But do everything jointly. Many grhasthas and brahmacaris will join you for full cooperation. Some of them have already prepared to go there immediately, and perhaps you have received some letters about this. So everything appears very bright in the future. We have to deal with things very sagaciously and success will surely be there. The immediate necessity is to construct some simple cottages for living purposes, and then everything will gradually come out, one after another. I hope that you are already in touch with Hayagriva, and he must have spoken to you about these ideas. May Krishna bless you with long life in executing the idea of our New Vrindaban scheme. Thanking you once more. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** July 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 16, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am so pleased to learn that everything is going very nicely in new Vrindaban now, and the men, women and children devotees are all happily executing their daily functions. I have received the cheese you have sent, and although it was nice, there are yet some improvements to be made. The improvements are that first you should put the cheese in a frying pan and stir vigorously, adding 1/4 of sugar. While on the fire it should be stirred and mixed as nicely as possible. Then while it is cooling it should still be stirred as nicely as possible. Then when it is cooled you should knead it to make dough. When it is soft enough you can shape it into squares or round shapes as you like. The cheese you have already sent was not bad, but this procedure will improve upon it further. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 22, 1969, and because I went to San Francisco I could not reply earlier. You have suggested that people coming from various centers to New Vrindaban should have their expenses underwritten by the temples at the rate of $25 per person paid for one year. I think that will be a new introduction in our institution. In our so many centers the members go and come, but there was no such demand from any center, and if new Vrindaban demands like that, it will not sound very nice. But I can understand the financial position of New Vrindaban so the best thing will be to stop any more influx in New Vrindaban until the place is self-dependent. The whole idea of New Vrindaban is that men who are living there should produce their own food, of which milk is the principal thing. Unless that position is achieved it will not be advisable to ask anybody to go there. Better to ask them to go there if they are willing to work and produce their own food. Otherwise, nobody should be advised to go there. Besides that, I have received letters from the girls there that they are feeling inconvenience. Therefore, without having adequate place to live there, nobody should be advised at the present moment to go there. I am glad that the boys have been working for the house and the project will be completed satisfactorily. My advice is that you make the place very peaceful. You should admit only such persons who can work without any disturbance. For the time being you may not admit any more men and ask them to pay you $25 per month. That will not sound very nice. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Your last consignment of sandesh was very very nice. Keep this standard and try to make it whiter than this. I had a good taste of them at today's lunch. Thank you. ACB ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** August 6th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 2, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your recipe for pickling foodstuffs, it is all right, but it will be nicer still if you follow the following procedure: Cut berries, green apples or green tomatoes into pieces. Without adding water, add a mixture of equal quantities of salt, turmeric and red peppers. Then let it be dried in the sunlight as far as possible. When this is done, put it either in mustard oil or in olive oil, and it will then keep for years. Regarding the girls, Hayagriva informed me that there was disturbance, and you informed me that it is all right. So how can I advise in this matter? Try to settle things amongst yourselves. But my idea is that New Vrindaban should be peaceful. There should be no unnecessary disturbances. Regarding Dvarakadhisa, if his mother leaves New Vrindaban, it is all right if he remains there under your care. When my itinerary is settled up you shall be duly informed. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** August 21st 1969 > 1975 So. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, Cal. 90034 My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of 12 August, 1969, sent along with a package of sandesh. I am sorry that I was not able to see how you have nicely made the sandesh because upon arrival it was found to have gone bad. So I do not think it will be practical to continue sending foodstuffs through the mail. It has not proven successful. Anyway, I thank you very much for your efforts in this connection. Your proposal to sell sandesh to the temples will also not be practical. I am very pleased to learn that there is a new boy living in New Vrindaban, named Dan, and please help him advance nicely in Krishna Consciousness. You have not mentioned anything about Jadunanda and Taruna Dasi. I hope everything is going nicely for them and their child in New Vrindaban. As the Composer I.B.M. machine will be in Columbus by this time, Hayagriva and Shamadasi may go there to take care of the book composition as early as possible. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** September 15th 1969 > Tittenhurst Park, Tittenhurst House, Ascot, Berkshire, ENGLAND My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated September 1st and 6th, 1969, and I have also received the Bhaktishastri examinations from New Vrindaban along with the contribution for our book fund. Hayagriva is here with me in England, and things are progressing nicely so far as Krishna Consciousness propagation is concerned. When I arrived here on the 11th September, there were m ore than one dozen reporters there to take pictures of the reception. The next day there were several articles published in the local papers, and I am enclosing one such article for your reference. I am very pleased to learn that you are going to Ohio to preach after Janmastami Day, and I shall be glad to know of your experience in this connection. This evening there is scheduled a program of chanting and kirtan at the Town Hall, and there are similarly many other big engagements for us here. Most probably I shall be returning to the USA by November. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** September 22nd 1969 > 7, Bury Place, WC1London, England My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter (undated), and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very pleased to learn of your successful preaching work in Antioch College. Your idea of obtaining a vehicle for traveling around to many such engagements is nice. As sannyasi, you can ask somebody to give a nice truck for this cause. But you must have one brahmachary as your assistant. So if you make a traveling program, it will be very, very nice. A sannyasi requires to travel as much as possible. So Krishna is giving you now the chance. You should carry out this opportunity very carefully and with good sense also. Regarding collecting money, a sannyasi's name is vikshu, or licensed beggar. Not only sannyasi, but a brahmachary also is required to collect for his Spiritual Master. The Spiritual Master spends for missionary activities. So in the beginning you may feel some inconvenience to collect because you are not accustomed, but if you try for it, depending on Krishna, there will be no difficulty. For developing the New Vrindaban scheme you shall require such help from the richer circles. We are trying to give some valuable service to the society, and at least some people must know it and appreciate. It doesn't matter whether they contribute or not. But they must be informed at least about the Krishna Consciousness Movement. The collection is not by any force, rather it is voluntary. If they are convinced of our good work, surely they will come forward with some contribution. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** October 11th 1969 > Tittenhurst Park, Tittenhurst House, Ascot, Berkshire, ENGLAND My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated October 2, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your question about who shall get the money that is collected by you and your assistant, Jimmy, I think that because practically a sannyasi belongs to every center whatever is collected should go to the same center where you are staying. That is best. But this question may be settled in the meetings held between all the temple presidents. If you collect something where there is no center, that money you can take to your own center, New Vrindaban. But I think that all these matters should be settled amongst yourselves with the presidents of different centers. Now as we are growing in magnitude we should managed things in such a nice way that there may not be any misunderstanding between one center and another. That is my request. Everything should be done on the basis of mutual agreement. So far my opinion is concerned, any amount collected from a particular center should go to the center. That means if you collect anything while in Columbus center, that should go to Columbus center, and similarly if you are in some other center. I am very pleased to learn that Jimmy has sent me his beads to be chanted upon. I have not received them yet, but when I do, under your recommendation he shall be duly initiated.(hand written) I have received his contribution $25.00. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** October 23rd 1969 > Jai Kirtanananda Maharaj Ki jai!Jai Kirtanananda Maharaj Ki jai! My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated October 20, 1969. Now I am very much hopeful that New Vrindaban will develop very nicely under your good care. You had a very successful meeting in the University, and that is wanted. As soon as you get some opportunity you should immediately go out with Hayagriva's car and preach. Krishna will bless you more and more. Now you have got a good assistant, Yamunacharya das Brahmachary. I have sent his beads through Hayagriva. Hayagriva and Shama Dasi will be constantly engaged in editorial work, so you take care of the boys and cows in New Vrindaban along with Ranadhir. All our centers are doing very nicely, and now your center, New Vrindaban, is also doing very nicely. The more we preach the Glories to Krishna, the more He will be pleased and there will be no scarcity. So follow these principles and keep me informed of your preaching success. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** November 13th 1969 My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated November 3, 1969, and it is so much heart-engladdening that you have taken very seriously the preaching work, and Krishna is giving you chance for becoming a great preacher in the near future. Yes, from the very beginning of your sannyas I had the desire like this, so Krishna is now fulfilling my desire. Be blessed and go on with your work. New Vrindaban is also improving and I am pleased that you have solved the important question of water supply. This was a great problem, and now that you are fitting the pump to work it is very nice. Regarding distribution of books, if you kindly take up the charge of introducing our books in the colleges and universities, then any of our publications may be immediately distributed at least 10,000 copies all over your country. There are so many colleges and college libraries, and you are the person to take charge of this task. Of course, It will take some time, but if you make the plan and stick to this work that will be very nice. For this purpose whatever help you want, please let me know and I must help you in this effort. Any scholarly pamphlet you want in this connection, you make a draft and send to me for arranging its being printed in our press. Also please let me know how many thousand copies you will have need for. You are educated, intelligent and experienced by this time, and you shall be the fit person to take up this job and do the needful. Please offer my blessings to Yamunacharya and the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** January 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 18, January 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am encouraged to know that you are very enthusiastic about our projects for developing New Vrindaban. So far as the school goes, we have many qualified teachers, and they are all enthusiastic about going there and beginning their teaching work. The only thing is that there is as of yet no place to accommodate these teachers. So as soon as these facilities are constructed we can at once start at full force in setting up our Krishna Consciousness school program. You have asked some questions, and I will answer them herewith. The first question is, "When making arati offerings, is it proper to meditate on the different parts of the Lord's Body?" The answer is that there is no need to meditate in that way. The Lord is actually there with you, and you are seeing all of His parts of the Body, so there is no need to meditate in that way. In regard to the other questions, food should be offered before arati. In the morning, after arati, you can offer some food and then perform kirtana. Regarding your question about the disciplic succession coming down from Arjuna, it is just like I have got my disciples, so in the future these many disciples may have many branches of disciplic succession. So in one line of disciples we may not see another name coming from a different line. But this does not mean that person whose name does not appear was not in the disciplic succession. Narada was the Spiritual Master of Vyasadeva, and Arjuna was Vyasadeva's disciple, not as initiated disciple but there was some blood relation between them. So there is connection in this way, and it is not possible to list all such relationships in the short description given in Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Another point is that disciplic succession does not mean one has to be directly a disciple of a particular person. The conclusions which we have tried to explain in our Bhagavad-gita As It Is is the same as those conclusions of Arjuna. Arjuna accepted Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we also accept the same truth under the disciplic succession of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Things equal to the same thing are equal to one another. This is an axiomatic truth. So there is no difference of opinion of understanding Krishna between ourselves and Arjuna. Another example is that a tree has many branches, and you will find one leaf here and another leaf there. But if you take this leaf and the other leaf and you press them both, you will see that the taste is the same. The taste is the conclusion, and from the taste you can understand that both leaves are from the same tree. Regarding the problem with your father, it is not good to fight with one's father, but if he is not going to give you the money, it may be necessary to take legal steps. Since the money is to be used in Krishna's service, you should try to get it. I have heard from Syama Dasi that she has infected her finger, and I will be glad to know of the particulars so I may give her advice in this matter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: I understand from Hayagriva that you have at New Vrindaban an edited manuscript of Easy Journey To Other Planets. Send this copy to me immediately because in London, Mukunda is attempting to have this published and I would like to read the edited version and send it on to him. So far as your idea of editing the lectures which you started to edit in Montreal, the idea is very nice. ACBP.S. You will be pleased to know that I have got now my immigration visa card (___ Blue Card) ACB ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** February 14th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 9 February, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Regarding prasadam offering to the Deities, you will take from the cooked foodstuffs in a plate just sufficient for one man's eating, and this prasadam should be offered to the Deity, not the whole quantity. The rest of the foodstuffs may remain in the oven to keep it hot until the devotees accept and honor it. The plate offered to the Deities must be kept 15-20 minutes so that the major portion of the foodstuffs will be remaining warm in the oven, and the devotees will therefore not be dissatisfied. I think this practice will solve the question. Regarding your insurance policy, I do not wish to engage you in litigation; that is not a sannyasi's business. In India, since I left, people have grabbed my money up to many thousands of rupees. That Hitsaran took away 2000 Rs, the landlord has taken away more than 2000 Rs, but what can I do? If I go to litigation I will have to put myself in so many anxieties. It is better to forget. If peacefuly you can draw the money from your father that is all right. I do not know what kinds of devious means you want to use in this connection, but any means, if it does not put you into difficulties, will be acceptable. Regarding Syama Dasi's health, it is to be understood that so long we have got this material body there must be some trouble. Actually, medicine is not the remedial measures for our bodily troubles unless we are helped by Krishna. Therefore, whenever there is bodily trouble we may adopt the prescribed methods of medical science and depend upon Krishna for His Mercy. The best remedy, not only for Syama Dasi but for everyone, is to consult some approved physician. But ultimately we have to depend on the Mercy of Krishna, so we should chant regularly, pray to Krishna to give us a chance to serve Him, and, if required, we may adopt the approved method of treatment. I am glad to learn that things are very nicely going on in New Vrindaban, and I learned from Hayagriva that electricity is already there. I have received one letter from Mukunda that some publisher is interested in Easy Journey to Other Planets. So immediately send one edited copy which you should have there to me and also send another copy to Mukunda at the following address as soon as possible: 22 Betterton Street, London WC 2, ENGLAND.Uddhava das has not yet written me about possibilities of the building suggested by you, but if it is available at $1000, it must be purchased. Has Uddhava and the others seen this building also? Regarding your Istagosthi question, chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra can be done loudly or slowly, and in all conditions. There is no restriction. Lord Caitanya has said that there is no hard and fast rules for chanting this Maha Mantra. For your toothache trouble, you can brush your teeth with the following mixture; common salt, 1 part, and pure mustard oil, quite sufficient to make it a suitable paste. With this paste brush your teeth, especially the painful part, very nicely. Gargle in hot water, and keep always some cloves in your mouth. I think that will cure your troubles. It doesn't require to extract any teeth. About my going to New Vrindaban, I have already written to Hayagriva about this, and you can let me know your decision as soon as possible. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** February 20th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 18, 1969. I thank you very much for your inviting me to New Vrindaban, but, considering the local climate as presented by you I think I shall postpone it until the end of April. I am enclosing here reply to the letter of Hayagriva and Syama devi. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Is it possible to get your insurance money for clearing debts? Then why not show some debt & get the money. I am thinking of going to Hawaii by the end of this month! ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** March 24th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for you letter of March 17, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. (along with the letter of March 4th). Yes, I have duly received Hayagriva's letter and I have replied him also, that I shall be coming to New Vrindaban, or Columbus, on or by the 10th of May. I am happy to hear you have a new boy, John Saltzgiver, and you keep him nicely and gradually introduce to him our K.C. philosophy. So far the cucumber pickles: As far as possible we should not offer to the Deity things which are prepared by nondevotees. We can accept from them raw fruits, grains or similar raw things. So far cooking and preparing, that should be strictly limited to the initiated devotees. And aside from this, vinegar is not good; it is tamasic, in the darkness, nasty food. So I think we shall not accept this pickles. I understand that you are proposing for delivering children. That is not a Sannyasi's business. You should not bother about it. A Sannyasi should not much bother about family affairs. Best thing is that they shall go to a bona fide physician for delivering the children, otherwise there may be complications which only a physician may have experience in handling. No, I think it is not proper for Srimati Radharani to have a white night dress. Best to have a nice color for Her. I hope all is well there, and I am very much encouraged by all the nice letters I an receiving from New Vrindaban, that the inhabitants there are very happy and living in Krishna Conscious surroundings. This is very ideal example for all. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** April 16th 1969 > 61 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003 My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 12 April, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I have also seen the letter from Angelo, and I am sending it back to you because the handwriting is not clear for me to understand, and I think you can answer the questions anyway. Yes, I hope you will soon be getting a cow for New Vrindaban. Vrindaban without cows does not look well, so we must have many cows as soon as possible. Many devotees will be in New Vrindaban before very long, so this may be taken care of soon. For New Vrindaban, the principle of raising cows and raising foodstuffs must be very prominent. I understand that Hayagriva was negotiating on some adjoining land of 150 acres and with two buildings, but I have not heard any recent reports on this. Please ask him to continue negotiation, and if the terms are fixed up, and I see the houses suitable, then we shall arrange to purchase. Please inform me how many mridungas are there. If there is not a sufficient number, then one or two may be purchased from New York center. I hope this will meet you in good health. I have received one nice letter from Shama Dasi, so please convey my thanks to her for this. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Enclosure: 2P.S. I am going to Buffalo on Friday 18th ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** April 28th 1969 > 95 Glenville Avenue Allston, Mass. 02134 My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I am very happy to receive your letter dated 23 April, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I understand that due to rain New Vrindaban is not very dry now, but I hope it will be nice by the 18th of May when I wish to go there. Herewith you will find my program in this part of the country, and please do the needful. I have not as yet heard anything about if there were any tangible negotiations about the adjacent land with buildings. I have not heard anything from either Hayagriva or you. I hope it is going on, and it will be completed on my arrival there. Please convey my blessings to the others there with you. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Enclosure: 1 ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** June 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your kind attention for me continually for one month, and I was so happy to remain in New Vrindaban. Yesterday afternoon, we safely reached Los Angeles, and Tamala Krishna has rented a very, very nice entire house for me, with compound and garage, at $350 per month. So I am very comfortably situated here. Two brahmacaris, Purusottama and Sridama, are always taking care of me, but at the same time, I am always thinking of your New Vrindaban. The first thing I find in the taste of the milk. The milk which we are taking here is not at all comparable with New Vrindaban milk. Anyway, there must be a gulf of difference between city life and country life. As poet Cowper said, "Country is made by God, and city is made by man." Therefore, my special request is that you should try to maintain as many cows as possible in your New Vrindaban. The first thing is that whether the girls and women who live there are agreeable to work as I have suggested; namely 1) to take care of the children, both from health and educational point of view, 2) to keep the whole temple, kitchen, etc. very clean, (At the present moment, things are not kept very clean. You are right that if some outsiders come, they will view our situation as not very hygienic.), 3) cooking, 4) churning butter. If they agree to all these four principles, that is to say, if they cooperate with the boys, then surely very quickly New Vrindaban will develop as nicely as possible. So far as milk is concerned, I can arrange for financing in the matter of purchasing cows. The arrangement will be like this, that I shall ask all the centers to finance at least for one cow, and you will have to pay them back the price by supplying ghee. Suppose somebody advances $200 for purchasing a cow; you will have to repay the debt by supplying $200 worth of ghee. After that, the cow becomes your property. But to produce this ghee means there must be regular churning. The men should be engaged in producing vegetables, tilling the field, taking care of the animals, house construction, etc. and the women shall do the indoor activities. Of course, those who are engaged in typing, like Syama Dasi, they cannot do any other work. So you may arrange things in this way. Please request Satyabhama to send me back the Krishna Book immediately. Mail may be sent and forwarded to the LA temple, at the above address. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kirtanananda **Date:** July 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kirtanananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of July 3, 1969, sent along with the cheese. But the cheese has gone bad. Perhaps you did not note it what I said that this cheese should be made into sandesh; that is 1/4 part of cheese should be mixed with sugar and fried in a pan, constantly stirring till it is almost hard. Then after taking it down, knead it nicely and then prepare small balls. This sandesh can be kept at least for a fortnight without damage, but cheese cannot be kept more than three days. It reached me, but it had gone sour. If you can prepare sandesh and send it to me, it will be very nice. So try it, and if it comes out successful, you can send it to me. I am glad that Devananda is tending the Deities very nicely. He has learned this art directly under my supervision, so I hope he is doing it nicely. Your kirtana program as it is going on is very nice. You have kept the Vrindaban spirit so sublimely that I always remember it and always hanker when I shall go back again. In the meantime I am enjoying the tape which I recorded of your morning prayers and chanting. Here in Los Angeles also the temple is very gorgeous, and I am receiving reports from other centers that they are also doing nicely. I shall be going to San Francisco by the 25th or 26th of July, and from there I may be going to Germany, because they also want me there. Krishna das has already purchased one ticket for me, but I asked him to postpone it till the end of the month. In London they have secured a house, and I understand it is very nice. But it is in office quarters, so there will be difficulties to use it as a living house. Anyway, whatever Krishna desires He will do. In the meantime I have written one letter to Hayagriva regarding transfer of New Vrindaban in the society's name. I am glad that the girls there are taking my suggestions, and if things are done according to program, New Vrindaban will surely develop to the highest extent. You may inform Satyabhama that I have already received the Krishna book which she has sent. Please convey my blessings to all the other inhabitants of New Vrindaban. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** February 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 6 February, 1969, and I thank you very much for it. It is not surprising that it is taking a little time to begin your actual printing work. In the beginning of everything there is always some difficulty, but when you are accustomed to the process, there will be no difficulty. If no better grammarian is available, the translations of Uttama Sloka may be published. But I think that as many friends are coming to the temple, especially some Bengali Indians, they can help you in doing this translation work. When a person is willing to help with our mission, he is also a devotee, so there is no question of him being nondevotee. But they must translate as it is, they must not deviate. Anyway, our motto should be to somehow or other express the objectives of Krishna Consciousness to the German-speaking people. There is a verse in Srimad-Bhagavatam that a book or poetry in which the Holy Name of Krishna is depicted, such language is revolutionary in the matter of purifying the material atmosphere. Even though such literature is presented in broken language or grammatical inconsistency or rhetorical irregularity, still, those who are saintly persons adore such literature. They hear such literature, and chant it and adore it, simply because the Supreme Lord is being glorified in this literature. In other words, we are not meant for presenting any literary masterpieces, but we have to inform people that there is a fire of maya which is burning the very vitality of all living entities, and they should guard against the indefatigable onslaught of material existence. That should be our motto. So even if you do not get any assistance from friends, get it translated by Uttama Sloka, and publish. You can at least publish a 5-10 page edition of German Back To Godhead. That is my request. In the Western World, people are simply interested more in politics because the problems here is materialistic. In the material way of life, people are embarrassed with the thoughts of how I shall sleep, how I shall eat, how I shall mate, and how I shall defend. That is the way of material life. In the spiritualistic life one knows that God has provided food for everyone, so we shall live on whatever things are contributed by the Grace of God. God has provided immense land on this globe, so so we have enough place to lie down. Mating is possible even in the bird's and beast's life, so that is not a problem, and defending is always incomplete. Nobody can defend himself with utmost precautionary methods unless one is protected by the Lord. Therefore, in all circumstances a devotee is cent per cent dependent on the mercy and protection of the Lord, as much as a child is cent per cent dependent on the mercy of the mother. Of course it is very difficult for the western people to understand this philosophy of being cent per cent dependent on the mercy of God. Therefore, the easiest method for us is to popularize the Sankirtana movement everywhere, and that will pave the path of spiritual understanding. You will be glad to know that in London they are doing very nicely, and a report was published in some San Francisco paper with the heading, KRISHNA CHANT STARTLES LONDON. So you shall also try to startle Germany with the Krishna chant. That should be our main program, and publishing of Back To Godhead is a bigger chanting process. With mrdanga you can chant within the boundary of your temple, but by publishing Back To Godhead you can chant throughout the German speaking land. So both mrdanga and Back To Godhead is our life and soul. Your efforts to repeat the philosophy as it is will be successful by two things; the mercy of Krishna and the mercy of the Spiritual Master. These will keep us always fit in speaking the right thing. If the climate is suitable now in Germany, or as soon as it is so, I can immediately go to Germany. What is the temperature there now? How far are you from Switzerland? I am very much anxious to go to Europe to visit London, Germany and other places as soon as there is an opportunity. The only problem is it should not be too cold for me, an old man. So you let me know the maximum temperature at the present moment, or if in the month of March the climate will be all right. I can tolerate very nicely temperatures of 50-60 degrees. Regarding Bhagavad-gita if you have not yet received them, just take the rate of air-cargo carrying from Germany to New York. If it is not prohibitive, then you can ask immediately Brahmananda to send by air-cargo. I think the present delay is on account of a dock strike in New York. Regarding Jaya Govinda, the concessional rate of $200 suggested by you to Jaya Govinda is very nice. What is there if he comes from New Delhi to Moscow, it takes only 6 hours. So if he starts by plane some night, he can reach Moscow in the morning, and if he then leaves for Germany, by train he will arrive Hamburg the next morning. So to save $185 is a good proposal rather than to wait 3 months to send him the full amount. Instead of waiting 3 months, he can travel for three days, so there is no difficulty with this plan. Regarding the Raghu Pati Raghava song, we are not concerned with this song because it had a political motive; it is not pure devotional service. Gandhi was a great statesman in the garb of a saintly person, so that the Indian population would blindly follow him. But his motive was political and we are therefore not very interested with it. However, you can sing the first two lines, (Raghu Pati Raghava Raja Ram, Patita Pavana Sita Ram). I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** March 15th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii > Hamburg My Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of March 2, 1969, along with the German handbill, which appears to be very nicely presented. I could not read anything save and except the known lines of Hare Krishna, and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- So the press work is started and I am sure as soon as Jaya Govinda arrives in Germany the press work will go on in full swing. Jaya Govinda is very much anxious for the press work at your end because he writes like this: "I think of the printing press lying idle (as far as I know) in Germany, and as printing and the graphic arts field is what I have the greatest amount of experience and training in, that seems to be the place for me to go." This means he is very anxious to come to Germany and I am glad to learn from your letter also that you are trying to get him in Germany by the end of this week. This means perhaps you have already arranged for his come back to Germany. If not, please do it immediately because it will be a great help to our German center, and I am sure you will be able to start BTG in our press there in the German language immediately on his arrival. Regarding other points, that there are many people living in German villages and when you distribute BTG in German, if you go from village to village then at that time you will make my mission successful. You are very sincere worker and I am sure Krishna will give you the required strength for this preaching work. I am sorry to learn that you are also attacked with the flu fever as most of the boys in this country are also attacked this past winter. So this attack of Maya's agent is not very uncommon. When Krishna Himself was present He was being attacked by Maya's agent almost everyday during His childhood. When He was just born, within three months, he was attacked by Putana. When He was a little grown then He was attacked by Sakatasura, then by Trnavarta, then Agha, Makasu, then Kaliya, then Godavarsu, and so on. So the Maya's agents does not let go even Krishna, then what to speak of Krishna's devotees. They will act in their own way, but as Krishna miraculously saved Himself from the hands of all these demons, similarly, He will always save His devotees. He has declared in the Gita, "My Dear Son of Kunti, just declare it to the whole world that my devotees will never be vanquished." Therefore your only business is how to become pure devotee of Lord Krishna. Then everything is all right. Please remember this truth always, and do your duty for strongly pushing on this Krishna Consciousness movement in Germany, in cooperation with Sivananda, Uttama Sloka, and Jaya Govinda, who I think might have already joined you. So far my going there, it is not very important thing—I may go or not go, my beloved spiritual sons are there, and they are acting very nicely. That is my great satisfaction. I am glad to learn that the local Indian community is also cooperating with you. Actually my ambition is to form a strong Sankirtana party and travel all over Europe, and then in Africa, Asia, India, and Japan, etc. This is my thought. Please try to give it effect. I am glad to learn that the temple is looking very nice. And as soon as you get at least $100 extra, I shall ask you immediately to get some temple goods from India; when you are ready with the money, I shall let you know farther on this matter. I have received from London pictures, and it appears things are going there also very nice. No letter from you is useless for me—they are all important. And you can write as long a letter as you can. I shall read them carefully with attention in spite of my various duties always. Regarding the tape lecture which you requested, I have got the copy in L.A. most probably, so I shall have to send it to you when I get back to the mainland. All the devotees are very much thankful here for your good wishes, and they also are hoping all is going well there for you, and are feeling your separation as well. I hope you are all feeling happy and well in Krishna Consciousness. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** April 3rd 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 27, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. In the first portion of the letter you have expressed your desire how to learn surrender. This surrendering process is unconditional. Surrendering does not mean that one should surrenderly only in favorable circumstances. That is not surrender. Surrender means in any condition the surrendering process must continue. In the latter portion of your letter it appears that you have been disturbed on some trivial matters, and you wish to leave the place and go to London. That is not at all good. You must work conjointly. That is my desire, and if you fight amongst yourselves for some individual interests, that is not surrender. Whatever the other two boys may do, that I shall see, but unto you my request is that you must remain in Hamburg until I order you to leave the place. I understand that you have sent passage money to Jaya Govinda. Let him come first. He is a very sensible boy, and I hope on his arrival there will be no dissension. Last night, one German boy was initiated by me, and he will be entrusted for rendering all my books in German language. There will be now no difficulty to publish the German edition of Back To Godhead therefore, in your newly purchased press. You should take the indication given by Lord Krishna: The press is already there, the press worker, Jaya Govinda, is coming, and the German scholar has joined our institution. Don't you see the indication by Krishna that we must make propaganda in the German language in that part of the world? So you have to adjust things by the indication of Lord Krishna. Don't do anything whimsically. The direction comes through the Spiritual Master, and any one who abides by the order of the Spiritual Master to give shape to the wish of the Lord, he is perfectly surrendered soul. So don't be childish, stay there. Let Jaya Govinda come and begin printing the BTG. Go altogether in Sankirtana Party and try to sell BTGs. In other centers they are doing very nicely with this. Sometimes they are selling more than 100 copies of BTG and collecting $130.00 or $150.00. The Los Angeles temple has become unique in this connection. They have decorated the temple room so nicely that in the Love Feast and any other ceremony, hundreds of people are coming. Why don't you follow this example and try to exert your energies to make your temple more important than Los Angeles? In the spiritual world there is also competition, but the center is always Krishna. In the material world there is competition, but the center is sense gratification. That is the difference. So competition, disagreement, or even dissension, if they are there, and the center is Krishna, such disagreement is not material. Even in Krishna Loka, there are rival parties of Srimati Radharani whose name is Candrabali, and there is competition between the two parties how to serve Krishna the best. So you are all good souls, please do not be agitated in trivial things. Do your duty nicely, develop the center as nicely as possible. If you think that your personality has been minimized, you can tolerate it. That is very nice. Lord Caitanya has taught us to be more tolerant than the tree in the matter of chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. You can show this letter to Sriman Sivananda and Sriman Uttama Sloka, and my request to you all is not to be childish, but to be serious for propagating Krishna Consciousness. Regarding your other points, I am pleased that you are trying for legalization of our society. This has been already done both in London and the United States. As for your eye trouble, you need not take to an operation for your sickness. Doctors are not the Ultimate Healer. This is Krishna's position. In your Western countries, the doctors are very much fond of surgical operations. When there is no other alternative, of course we have to take shelter of such demonic treatment, but as far as possible try to avoid that, and depend on Krishna. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** May 8th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 28 April, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. You say that there is great prospect for moving our Krishna Conscious propaganda and activities in Germany. We are already experiencing in several cities in the USA that by performing Sankirtana on the streets, they are collecting $40-$50 minimum daily. Sometimes they are going to $150, so now you are three, so one mrdanga and two karatalas will be nice beginning for your German Sankirtana Party. I think if you go and chant in the park, you can sufficiently collect for meeting your expenditures, and the balance money you can engage for producing Back To Godhead and other German literature. Actually, if you can pull on with the center without having to work outside, it is the best. If it is not possible, then the question of working outside arises. But if you can profitably start a jewelry shop and earn something, that is also very nice and will help give us income. You will be glad to learn that your sister, Saradia, was married last night with Vaikunthanatha, and they appear to be very nice, happy couple. When I was in Montreal, your sister proposed personally that she wanted to marry Vaikunthanatha one year ago. So according to her desire she is now married. Regarding your question about keeping daily income and expenditure records, I am enclosing a brief lesson in how to do this. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- There are two things in accounting; one thing is I am receiving some amount, and the other thing is I am paying some amount. The paying or receiving will come under certain account. Whatever I receive is put under debtor column. Debtor means receiver, and the particular begins with the word "to." Whatever I am paying is entered into the creditor column. Creditor means payer. In this way, after the whole day's transactions, you make a total of the debtor column and creditor column, and if there is any balance, it is adjusted by the words "balance carried forward." This balance is entered in the creditor column. So we have to see that the amount in the debtor column and the amount in the creditor column is equal. This is called a correct account. Next day you begin with "To Balance B.F." That means whatever balance you had the day before you put in the debtor column with particulars To Balance B.F.. Then begin your transactions as in the previous day. This is the system of keeping an account in general. For the time being, keep your account in that way, and later on, as you inquire, I will let you know more about how to keep books ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** May 17th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I am very much encouraged to receive your letter of May 12, 1969, along with the German articles published in two different papers with pictures. It is very, very encouraging that you are holding kirtanas in public places and some way or other people are becoming interested. These outdoor kirtanas should be rigidly followed at least one hour daily. That will make our movement popular there. We have good experience here in every city, especially Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and here in Columbus. This is making our movement very popular more and more, so in any circumstances, you all go together outdoors for kirtana at least for one hour daily. I am very pleased also to note that the Peace Formula will be printed very soon, and I am expecting it to come at any moment. I will be going to New Vrindaban in about a week, so you may send it there. The address is as follows: New Vrindaban, RD 3, Moundsville, West Virginia. You have written to say that the climate in Germany is very nice in July and August, so when Mandali Bhadra and Vrndavanesvari arrive there, you call me and I shall go there whether I am in London or the USA. So far as getting engagements, don't expect any help from Sadananda because I understand he is practically ruined by his health. So don't trouble him, and let him take full rest. Please convey my blessings to Sivananda and Jaya Govinda. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. My dear Jaya Govinda will you let me know the list of goods that you have sent to Calcutta for dispatch by the United Shipping Corporation. ACB ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** June 7th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 25, 1969, and I beg to inform you that both Saradia and Vaikunthanatha are doing well in Boston. I hope you have sent her a letter of congratulations by now. When I was in Montreal Saradia expressed her desire to marry Vaikunthanatha, and immediately I asked that he would remain reserved for her. He is a very nice boy, and I hope they will be happy in their future homely life in Krishna Consciousness. I have received also news from Mandali Bhadra and Vrndavanesvari that they have already purchased their tickets and are going on the 27th of June, so when they arrive, please cooperate with them nicely. You are all sincere workers, and they also are very sincere souls. So cooperate together nicely, and I hope our Hamburg center will very soon become the important center in Europe. In London they have not yet been able to find out a suitable place, but still they are prepared to celebrate the Rathayatra Festival there. But so far I have received no definite information on this festival. Under the circumstances I am not yet certain whether or not I shall go to London, but in your letter under reply you have expressed the desire of my going to Germany, so do you think you are able to receive me there at the present stage? My going to Germany means lots of expenditures, including travel fare, etc. If you think that you will be able to meet these expenditures, then I have no objection for going there directly. From your report of sales of the Peace Formula it appears that when you get Back To Godhead printed in German language it will be very nicely distributed. I can see that Jaya Govinda is a great asset to your center and there will be no difficulties for printing matter. He is expert in that line, and he and Rayarama worked for many months in connection with Back To Godhead here in New York. In hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** June 13th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 6, 1969, and I thank you very much for your submissive feelings. They are just appropriate for an advancing Vaisnava. Please keep yourself in this nice attitude and Krishna will bless you. Regarding registration of the society, you can simply translate our New York registration form into German and submit it to the court clerk, depositing the requisite fees, and I think that will finish the registration problem. If the police do not allow you to perform kirtana in public places, do not disobey their orders. Try to abide by the law of the state for taking advantage of performing kirtana as far as possible. Regarding your father's suspicion, you should not keep him in suspicion. As you are working in apprenticeship for jewelry work, you should continue that occupation, and even if your father comes and sees that you are engaged in your occupation as well as looking after management of the temple, he will not be displeased. I can understand from your attitude that your father must be good gentleman, otherwise how could he have such a nice son? So there is no need of playing hide-and-seek. If you continue learning the jeweler's trade, he will not be displeased. Besides that, some of our men must work, otherwise it is difficult to maintain all the expenses in the European countries. Regarding Sivananda's plan to go to Paris, it may be suspended till I request him to do so. In the meantime I have received information from London that they have secured a nice house at the cost of $400 per month, so they want me to go there by the end of July. In the meantime, if you think my presence in Hamburg will help your organization, I can go there for a few days. But I do not know what is your financial condition. So if you are serious to call me, you can let me know by return of post. I have received a letter from Mandali Bhadra that they are positively going there on the 27th of June. Regarding the conch shell that was donated, it is welcome. You can use it in the temple. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** June 21st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 18, 1969, and I am very glad to understand that things are being arranged in Hamburg so nicely. Your attitude for Krishna's service is very much laudable, and I am very much proud of having a disciple like you. May Krishna bless you more and more in the advancement of Krishna Consciousness. If you want me to go to Hamburg, then you can arrange for it after the second week of July, because I am going to Los Angeles on the 23rd of June. Tamala Krishna wants me there immediately because some of the devotees are very much eager for my presence there, and probably I will also frame our future program for opening sub-branches in the Los Angeles area. In neighboring places, such as Laguna Beach, there is good prospects for a center. I understand that you are in correspondence with London for some financial arrangement, but recently, just the day before yesterday, I received one cable from Mukunda asking me to give them a loan for $1,025.00, so I have asked Gargamuni to send them this money. Under the circumstances, I do not think they will be able to arrange financially to receive me there immediately. But there is no need of hurrying the matter. You can arrange for my reception conveniently, although I am always ready to go to Europe at any moment. I think that when London will be ready to receive me, at that time my going to Germany will be the most profitable. But if you think that you can manage to receive me directly in Hamburg, I have no objection. But anything you arrange must be after the second week in July, in which time London may also expect to receive me. In their last letter I was informed that I shall not be required there before the 20th of July. So on the whole, there is no question of hurrying. Do everything carefully and by mutual consent. You will be glad to know that Janardana is going to Paris at almost the same time, and Sivananda is also eager to open a branch in Paris. I understand from Janardana's letter that there is very good possibilities of spreading our Krishna Consciousness Movement there. So if Krishna desires, it will be possible to have three important centers in Europe very soon. I have been informed from a London letter that they have secured a very nice house, and the money for the deposit is already sent, so there will be no difficulty in establishing our London center immediately. I am enclosing a list of the fasting days and festival days which you may follow. Please keep it carefully. Kindly convey my blessings to the other devotees there. I hope this will meet all of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** July 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. After receiving your letter of July 2nd, as mentioned above, I have been anxiously awaiting to receive the ticket that you say you have sent. Please write immediately as to the position of this ticket as I am much concerned about the situation, (Whether it is lost?). Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** July 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. Please let me know why Sivananda is leaving Hamburg all of a sudden. I am surprised please enlighten me, YoursACB ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** July 4th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 25, 1969, and I understand that you have already purchased the ticket for my journey from New York to Luxembourg on the 8th of July. But now I am staying at Los Angeles, so naturally you have to purchase my ticket from Los Angeles or San Francisco to Luxembourg. So for the time being you can return this ticket, and as I am going to San Francisco to take part in the Rathayatra Festival which is going to be performed in a considerable grand scale, arranged by all the devotees on the West Coast; namely Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sante Fe, Seattle, Vancouver, etc. So your program may be suspended for a fortnight at least. Besides that, you have written that the schools will be closed by the 11th of July,* and they open sometime in September. Under the circumstances, why not postpone everything to that time? But still I am prepared to go if you think my presence there earlier will be nice. Then you can arrange for my ticket from San Francisco to Luxembourg. In some previous letter, Mukunda wrote that he would send tickets for both me and Purusottama. So if in the meantime he sends ticket for Purusottama, then he can also go with me. I think the best arrangement would have been if by mutual consultation you make the transportation arrangements for my European journey. I do not know when Mukunda is going to send me those tickets, so you can consult with him. In the meantime, if you are able only to send one ticket for me, Purusottama may go later on. But anyway, I heard that after the 4th of August there will be a concession in the fare from America to Europe, so you can inquire about it. I shall be in San Francisco by the 25th of July, so you can let me know your decision at the San Francisco address or the Los Angeles address, which ever is more convenient for you. Regarding Sankirtana Party, whatever heads you have got at the present moment, you continue. That is our main function. The pictures and pamphlets Jaya Govinda has sent me are very much encouraging. You can make my program for lecturing in the Indo-German society, taking it that I shall be going there in the month of August. I know there are many Sanskrit scholars in Germany, but unfortunately I have no practice to speak in Sanskrit. I can read and write, but I cannot speak in Sanskrit. But I don't think my speaking in Sanskrit will be required, and if I read from Sanskrit literature like Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, that will be sufficient. After all, I am not going to Germany as a Sanskrit scholar, but my attempt will be to deliver the message of Lord Caitanya in the shape of Krishna Consciousness. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *After 27th July, I can start on any day from San Francisco. You can shave once in a month on the full moon day with head & beard ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** July 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated July 18, 1969, and I have noted the contents very carefully. My first thanks are due to Sriman Oliver who has drawn this Visnu picture, and I like it very much. Our service to God is always transcendental. It does not depend on anything material. So there was no reason to accept this picture as a very good drawing by Sriman Oliver. Krishna accepts the spirit of the offering, and anyone who offers Him some service in good devotional service, that is immediately accepted by Krishna. There are many instances in Mahabharata wherein we find that Krishna declined to accept the invitation of Dhuryodhana, who was then the emperor of the world, but He accepted the invitation of Vidura, who was famous as a poor man. It is said "Vidura's particles of grain." So our business is to offer our sincere service, and it is accepted by Krishna. From the artistic point of view I do not find anything wrong in this picture, so he should be encouraged to draw many pictures for decorating the temple. Jadurani was not in the beginning a very good painter, but trying to serve Krishna she has become a very good painter. We have got two nice painters in Los Angeles also; Muralidhara and Devahuti. They have drawn two very big pictures for the Los Angeles temple, and they are very beautiful and perfect. So encourage Oliver to go on painting more and more pictures, and it will be very nice for the Hamburg temple. I am very much obliged to you for your nice appreciation of our humble activities. When I think of you, a little boy, but you write so nicely, as if you are my little father. So I wish Krishna will give you more and more understanding about this Krishna Consciousness Movement, and you will be able to serve more and more beautifully. I quite appreciate that you four there; namely yourself, Jaya Govinda, Sivananda, Mandali Bhadra, assisted by his wife, Vrndavanesvari, will be a very very good combination to spread our movement in Germany. Our first important business is to hold Sankirtana as many times as possible. The next important business is publication work. Recently I received one letter from Sivananda that he is also thinking nicely to improve our press work. I hope in the future you shall be able to start a regular press in Germany for printing our books and literatures. I have heard that in Germany the press machine are very good and cheap. So if you jointly can think of starting a press there, that will be a great success. So far as doing business by importing Indian goods, that is a nice idea, but it is secondary. We should not deviate much of our time for any business manipulations. Our main business is Sankirtana. You will be very glad to hear that in New York last week they collected $1,000 and sold BTG at a rate of 200 per day on the weekend days. Similarly we have got good report from Boston that they are collecting $50-$60 daily and selling about 60-70 copies of BTG. And what to speak of Los Angeles? So if we can organize our Sankirtana Movement, there will be no scarcity of money; rest assured. But we may do some business which we require for ourselves. Otherwise, if you divert your attention for a separate business in Indian goods, that will not be a very good idea. It may be done conveniently as a secondary engagement, but the primary engagement should be as above mentioned. Regarding my going to Germany, I am actually very much eager to go there and speak in the Indo-German branches about the importance of our Krishna Consciousness Movement. So as you have mentioned in your letter under reply, you can arrange for such meetings at least form one month continually, and I shall be glad to go there. If you feel inconvenience to pay for my travelling from Los Angeles to New York, it doesn't matter. I shall ask Tamala Krishna or Brahmananda and they will be glad to pay for it. So this is not very important consideration. You wanted to fix up a date, so I am telling you that I am prepared now on any day you call me. Just this afternoon I returned from San Francisco where they have held a gigantic Rathayatra Ceremony just on the order of the ones held at Jagannatha Puri. There were at least 10,000 young and old people, all chanting and dancing in bliss and ecstasy for the entire day, starting from 12 noon and going on till after evening. So it was a most magnificent occasion, and I am very much encouraged that the people of the Western world will come to understand the glories of this movement, and as Lord Caitanya has predicted, His Name will be chanted and praised in every village and town throughout the world. So please inform me immediately when you will be able to have me come there to Germany, and Purusottama's accompanying me is also necessary. For me to travel alone is not very advisable. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** August 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated August 2nd, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. From these letters it appears that things are not yet settled up, and under the circumstances, there is no use of rushing the matter. Settle things up nicely, and when you get the money from Mukunda and the apartment, then arrange for the tickets, and we shall start. So far as I am concerned, I am free to start at any moment on your arrangement. But if you are financially pressed, there is no need to arrange things haphazardly. From your two letters it appears you may be a little bit confused. Do everything coolheadedly. When you send the tickets I shall go. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. It is very much interesting about Professor Bernhard. We want the help of such interested persons for our Krishna Consciousness Movement in Germany. If you meet again Professor Bernhard, you can talk with him that this Krishna Consciousness Movement is for understanding one God, one scripture, one mantra, and one engagement for all living entities, not only within this world, but throughout the whole universe. So far as sacred thread ceremony is concerned, Bhagavad-gita accepts that anyone, from any place, if he is a pure devotee of Lord Krishna, he is above the position of brahmana. When we meet together we shall discuss all these points very nicely. I am also very much anxious to see Professor Bernhard. You have asked me about my plans: My plan is for preaching with your help. You arrange for everything, and I shall talk about Krishna Consciousness for any length of time, anywhere. That is my mission. You propose to send a wire when everything is arranged. Better send the wire here in Los Angeles; that will be nice. ACB ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** August 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of August 8th, 1969, and I have noted the contents. It is understood that the ticket you have sent to New York was redirected to me here in Los Angeles, but somehow or other it has never arrived here. So you must have this ticket cancelled immediately. Another thing is that the flight on Icelandic Airlines is for 12 hours, and such a long flight is not possible. There is another airlines, Lufthansa Airlines, and their flight from New York to Hamburg is 7 1/2 hours. The fare on this airlines is $252, but I think this will be much better. Anyway, I am awaiting your telegram or your Special Delivery letter saying that you have found an apartment, and myself and Purusottama may go there to Hamburg. Regarding the ticket, I think it will be a better plan to have the New York or the Los Angeles temple put forward the money, and as soon as it is purchased here, you and Mukunda may reimburse them immediately. I understand that you have asked from San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York temples for a loan of $100. That is all right. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** August 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of 18th August, 1969, and today I have arranged to go to your place as follows: We shall arrive in Hamburg this Monday, August 25th, at 6:10. We are taking Lufthansa Airlines, flight 409. We are starting from Los Angeles at 8:00 AM on 23rd August, and reaching New York sometimes in the afternoon about 4:00 o'clock New York Time. I shall take rest there for 24 hours, and then start for Hamburg on Sunday, the 24th, and then reach Hamburg on Monday, the 25th at 6:10 AM. So kindly arrange to receive me. We are both starting together, Purusottama and myself. To inform you earlier I sent you one telegram this morning reading as follows: ARRIVING HAMBURG FLIGHT 409 LUFTHANSA AUGUST 25TH AT 6:10 AM.I hope you will do the needful, and as you are anxious to see me, similarly, I am also very much anxious to see you all. By the Grace of Krishna now the arrangement is complete to meet each other on the 25th of August. I am glad that you have arranged for a nice apartment on daily payment arrangement, and if by Krishna's Grace you find out a cheaper place in the meantime, we can transfer there. There will be no difficulty. You can also inform this message to Dr. Bernhard, and he can meet me sometime next week. I shall be glad to see him and talk with him. I hope you will receive this letter, sent by Special Delivery, at least by Sunday, and I hope in the meantime you have received my telegram as above mentioned. More when we meet. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** September 17th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. Yesterday I received a packet from you containing several letters from different parts, and I thank you very much for it. I am expecting one air mail small parcel from India, from Indo Crafter. If it does come, you can immediately redirect it to me by simply writing the new address on the package and putting it in the mailbox. That will not cost you anything. But I have not received any letter from you since I left Hamburg. You will be glad that here the reception was very nice, and I am enclosing herewith one press cutting, although there were several other nice cuttings also of our activities and picture. We have already passed through two important programs here: one big meeting at the Town Hall, attended by Indians and Englishmen, which was very successful, and one nice meeting when the BBC men invited us for television on Tuesday night. They came also to the temple last night, and it was very nice. We are expecting many engagements from different persons, and it appears that people are interested in the Krishna Consciousness Movement. So I shall be glad to know how your center is making progress. The immediate problem is to secure a nice place, and if it is possible to do so during my stay in Europe, then I shall go there again to Hamburg to install the Deity. From India I have settled up with a firm to supply Deities along with other things. So I have ordered four pairs of Radha-Krishna Deities, 24" high, weighing about 30 lbs. each. The cost will be about $100 per pair, or 400 marks. The firm in Germany wanted $650 for the Deities, 12" high, so there is much difference of price. Therefore I have decided to get them from India. I have already ordered four pairs: two pairs for England, one pair for France, and one pair for Germany. So I hope very soon you shall find out a nice place, and we shall install the Deities as early as possible. I am enclosing herewith one newspaper cutting published in New York, and you will find how Patita Uddharana, Rsikumara and other boys are chanting and getting alms. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** October 8th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 2, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I have seen the plan of the new temple that you have enclosed. It appears to be a nice, suitable place. It is Krishna's Grace that the walls for the advertisements may be properly utilized so the passengers in the trains can see it. You write if possible the following words: "We request you to chant HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE, HARE RAMA HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA HARE HARE, and your life will be sublime." The mantra may be written in big letters, and the other words in smaller letters. Another slogan may be "Join the Krishna Consciousness Movement. It is peaceful, and it will bring peace and prosperity to everyone." Regarding your idea for a jewelry shop, it is nice. You become an expert jeweler and you must open a jewelry shop to earn millions of dollars for spending in Krishna Consciousness. Your father is a kind gentleman. I have all good wishes for him, and Krishna will also be very much pleased upon him because he has such a nice devotee son. So your father will also be pleased if you open a jewelry shop. It is a good opportunity both ways: to keep good relations with your father and to make money and serve Krishna with the money profusely. Your plan for supplying the temples with nice ornaments for their Deities is also very good. We should decorate our temple Deities with first class ornaments and nice flowers. In this temple you make a throne situated in a big closet. Just like I kept my Deities in a place where they were locked up at certain times, similarly you do the same. In this way the valuables of the Deities will be protected. You have given hint that I may go there again. That is not a very impossible thing. It takes only one hour to go and one hour to come. I have some engagements here, but if I come, I can spare at least one week in Hamburg. So if you arrange for my going, then it will not be impossible. But if I go next time to install the Deities, you may also arrange lectures in schools and with the Indo-German society. that will be nice. You have written that you have sent the kurtas to me, but I have not received them yet. To which address have you sent them?* Similarly, I have not received the ticket for the Icelandic flight. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *Please inquire in the post office why such things are happening about mail deliveries ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** November 7th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated November 4, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. Regarding my going there, the first thing is that if I speak, one has to translate into German. That does not make any good speech; it hampers the natural flow of the speech and makes it not very much impressive. If you think the major portion of the audience can understand directly English, then it is much better. I am not very much enthusiastic to speak in a place where English is not directly understood. Besides that, I am expecting to be engaged in important business here, which will be ascertained on Monday next, November 10th. At that time I shall decide whether I shall go. If there is no very important engagement, then I shall go to Hamburg, and the decision will be informed to you by telegram on the 10th instant. You will have enough time for advertising because the meeting will be held sometime on the 23rd. So you will get confirmation at least 10 days in advance. In the package you received from India, did you get Deities also. If not, then the same Deities I had there will go back to Germany for being installed. If in your store you can sell musical instruments and other goods imported from India, then I shall give you good addresses for such imports. I do not know what further instructions you need for constructing the altar. You have got the picture. If you need another picture, then I shall send it. To celebrate the Rasa Lila Ceremony decorate the Deities very nicely with flowers; as many as possible, ornaments, garlands, nice light demonstration, and much distribution of Prasadam. That will be a very nice day for opening the Radha-Krishna Temple. So if by chance I do not go, then Tamala Krishna, who is arriving in London this Monday, will go. He and Yamuna are both expert in the matter of Deity decoration, so there will be no difficulty for the opening ceremony. So arrange for this ceremony without fail, and let me know immediately if you have got a pair of Radha-Krishna Deities in the new consignment. If not, the Deities with me will go back there. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** December 2nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated November 26, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. I have heard from Tamala and Mukunda that there is good chance of preaching our movement in Germany, provided our Sankirtana Party is well organized. For this purpose I have asked Tamala Krishna to stay in Europe for some time, and whenever you will require his assistance in Germany he will go there and stay for some time. After I install the Deities here on December 14th, he will be free to go there. The Deity worship should be done very nicely and cleanly, as advised by Yamuna and Tamala Krishna. I thank you very much for your nice presentation of the photographs of my Guru Maharaja and Bhaktivinode Thakura fit in a nice powder case. So I see my Guru Maharaja everyday, whenever necessary. It is kept on my table. I thank you very much for this. Please dress the Deities in your temple as nicely as possible. Also decorate Them with some jewelry. I have received one letter form Mandali Bhadra, and he has told me that he is feeling some disturbances. Under the circumstances it is better that he may live in the temple. Please offer my blessings to Jaya Govinda, Vasudeva, Sucandra, Sivananda, Mandali Bhadra and Vrndavanesvari. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** December 25th 1969 — **Location:** Boston My Dear Krishna das, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated December 17, 1969 with enclosure of $15, for which I thank you very much. You have signed your name as Krishna das naradhama, but actually, one who is Krishna das is Narottama. But a Krishna das can deliver all naradhamas. I am always very much pleased with your humble attitude, and a Vaisnava devotee of Lord Caitanya always thinks himself as naradhama, the lowest of mankind; although he is narottama, the best of the mankind. Tamala is there in London, and I have advised him to go occasionally to the German center and see things are very nicely managed. Now the Krishna Consciousness Movement is given to you, some selected European and American boys and girls. Please try to maintain it heart and soul with faith in Krishna, and your life will be successful. I am an old man and I may shift away from the scene at any moment; but I am very much hopeful of my disciples who are so sincerely helping me. This movement is greatly needed for the human society, so we are not working like any political party, but we are trying to execute the Will of the Supreme Lord. Still I shall insist upon you that Sankirtana is our life and soul, and Lord Caitanya has given us order to glorify this Sankirtana Movement. So do it happily, and other things automatically will come to our help. I am confident that yourself, Jaya Govinda, Mandali Bhadra and Sivananda, assisted by Tamala Krishna, can do tremendous work in this movement, specifically in Germany. I learned that the draft board wants you in the USA, so you can now forget about this country and concentrate your whole energy in Germany. I think Krishna wants this. Simply propagate this chanting, dancing, feasting and following the regulative principles. These are the four pillars of our success. Regarding the jewels for my Deities, I shall in due course send you the size and whatever other information you require. Regarding purchasing things in the market, these items are considered as purified when we pay the price for them. That is the general instruction, but when we know something is adulterated, we should avoid it. But unknowingly if something is purchased, that is not our fault. Things which are suspicious, however, should be avoided. It is for this reason that in our Vedic culture the people used to keep a number of cows without any expenditure, and the milk drawn out of them was utilized for so many purposes, very, very useful in life. Lord Krishna in His early Childhood life is the vivid example of this way of social life. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** January 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Hamburg My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your two letters December 21 and December 23, 1968. I am very glad to know of your sincere activities in Krishna Consciousness. You are just a child and only by Krishna's Grace you've taken the courage to go to Germany to open a center and work very hard. So I am rather envious of your advancement in Krishna Consciousness because when I was of your age I had no such energy, although my father was always educating me in Krishna Consciousness from the very beginning. So I am sure that your efforts will be successful. Sivananda is also a very good soul like you and he is sure to help you. I have already written one letter forbidding him to quit Hamburg for New Vrindaban because there is no work for him presently in New Vrindaban due to the winter season. So surely he can work in Hamburg for three months more, and I am glad that he is engaged in temple construction work. Let him do this without any interference. You do not interfere in any of his work. Let him do what he likes and at his own discretion, and you simply respect him as your older brother. I am sure that he will be peaceful there shortly. It may be due to so much bodily trouble that he was becoming distressed but this has subsided and he will continue to work as usual. I am very pleased to know that the professor who refused prasadam on sectarian grounds was not further disturbed by you. This was very well planned. People in a lower standard of spiritual understanding are generally sectarian, but unless they are so where is our possibility of preaching Krishna Consciousness. Our policy is very simple and plain. We invite people to participate in chanting, dancing and eating prasadam. So far as your activities there I am very much pleased that they are going up to this point and I am asking Jaya Govinda to join you as soon as possible. You also try to correspond with him and surely when he comes, you four boys will be quite competent to secure seven local devotees to legalize our society in Germany. I have read the translation of your German leaflet and it appears to be very nice. If there is any possibility of sales, get some copies of Bhagavad-gita As It Is also for selling in Germany. This Krishna Conscious literature is very nicely written and intelligent German people, if they can read, will derive much benefit from it. If Syamasundara is unavailable to come immediately, don't be sorry because he is engaged in London in greater responsibility. They are going to hold an important meeting with important guests in January. I have sent them a tape of a speech, and all six of our London students are very sincere workers for Krishna Consciousness. As soon as Syamasundara will find opportunity, he will come there. For the time being Sivananda can do some preliminary work, and if in the meantime you receive Sri murtis of Radha and Krishna then you may prepare a throne, possibly with silver plates. When you are ready to do this I shall give hints on the subject. So thank you again for your letter and you are doing nicely so keep up your strong endeavors. May Krishna bless you. The following is a quote from a letter of Jaya Govinda dated Dec. 21, 1968: "I am going to write to Sivananda in Germany requesting them to pay my passage, and in exchange, I will bring them goods as you have outlined, and perhaps some things to sell, and of course I am anxious to contribute to the progress of their center, and perhaps I will find better luck with my visa affairs in Germany which are still troubling me here in India." I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** January 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 8, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. The statue which you have received is not Visnu Murti. Visnu Murti is never to be found in fighting spirit with anyone. When the Lord incarnates within this material world, He does not come in Visnu Murti. Lord Nrsimhadeva although Visnu Himself, fighting with the demon Hiranyakasipu, although He is Krishna, He is different from Visnu Murti. So I think that the Murti which you have got is not Visnu Murti, but it appears to be a Murti of Lord Siva. Anyway, this Murti is not worshipable by us. In our temple we shall always worship Radha Krishna Murti or Lord Jagannatha. If possible, you can sell this Murti to some antique store and get some profit. Regarding the press, it is a very good engagement provided you can work properly on it. But if you purchase such press and there is nobody to work it, it will lie down idle, and that is not good. So if you are serious about working on a press, I advise you to do it immediately. Otherwise you should not waste your time. Regarding Jaya Govinda, settle up with him by correspondence. I think that if you send him passage money he will bring in exchange some goods from India. That is not a bad proposal because an exchange is not robbery. Regarding Sivananda, I am glad that he is doing nicely and improving in health. I am sending him herewith one note. I am glad that you have already ordered Bhagavad-gita copies from Brahmananda. Please try to introduce our books and literature as far as possible. Please write to me at least once in a week to inform me about your activities. I hope you will keep in touch with the news from London. They are very encouraging and hopeful. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna dasa **Date:** January 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Krishna Das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 22, 1969, and I am very encouraged to learn of your nice activities in Hamburg. I am so pleased to know that Uttama Sloka and yourself are now working in the printer trade, and Sivananda is busily engaged in decorating the temple. Similarly, it is very good that you are holding outside engagements for organizations outside of the temple and you are meeting with interested people. But perhaps the best news of all is that soon we shall have our own press for printing Krishna Consciousness literature in the German language. Our life and soul is kirtana and presenting literature to the public at large, and I can understand that Krishna is dictating to you from within how to carry this out successfully. I think that translation work should be done on such articles that may be included in a German edition of Back To Godhead, as well as my Introduction to Bhagavad-gita As It Is. I am wondering if there are people there who can speak English with you. Please inform me on this matter. Regarding Jaya Govinda, if he is willing to go there, you can deposit the fare money to the American Express Company in Hamburg, and the American Express Company in Delhi should deliver to Jaya Govinda the ticket. But he should not be sent cash money. Make arrangements so that, if upon receipt of the ticket he still does not come, the money shall be returned back only to you in Hamburg. In this way make the arrangements. Please convey my blessings to Sivananda and Uttama Sloka. I hope you are all very well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: You may have the ticket for Jaya Govinda sent to the New Delhi branch of American Express Company at the following address: American Express, Hamilton House, block "A", Connaught Place (tel. 43553). Three hundred and fifty dollars is about 2625 Rupees. I am writing to Jaya Govinda today to give him this address also ### Letter to Krsna Devi **Date:** June 15th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Krishna Devi, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated Ekadasi, June 19, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am so pleased to note that you are chanting nicely and that Krishna is encouraging you in so many ways. This is the actual position that if we are sincerely chanting our rounds, following the prescribed regulative principles, and avoiding the ten offenses, then very quickly Krishna sees our efforts and He gives all encouragement to such sincere soul. Then with this taste of Krishna Consciousness, we become more and more attracted, so more and more Krishna gives encouragement, and then more and more we increase in our desire to serve Krishna in pure Krishna Consciousness. So in this way there is an unlimited ocean of nectar of devotional service which eternally increases on and on. When we begin this sublime chanting process, or even if we simply hear the sound Hare Krishna, then we have begun our journey back to the Spiritual Kingdom, back to Godhead. So please continue to be serious in your chanting, and then surely Krishna will save you and all the other sincere souls who are so fortunate to have taken to this movement. I am pleased to learn that you are thinking of putting together a cookbook of our Krishna prasadam recipes. I understand that in London, Yamuna Dasi has already done some work on this same project, so you may correspond with her in this connection. I know that at our feasts especially many persons become interested in preparing foodstuffs in this way, so this cookbook is a nice thing to instruct such persons in preparing and offering nice prasadam for the Lord. So when there is some tangible book ready for publication, please inform me, and we shall try to arrange for its publication. I am pleased to note your description of the increasing interest in vegetarian diet in this country. Actually, the practice of meat-eating is very detrimental to spiritual life, because in spiritual life the goal is to become free from all sinful reactions, and meat-eating means simply to force oneself to suffer the sinful reactions of killing our fellow living entities. So as many people will be taking to practicing spiritual life through the influence of our Sankirtana Movement, such cookbook will be very important, and you should work for this as you are able. Please convey my blessings to your husband, Dinesh, and to your child, Visnu Arati. I hope this will find you all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Krsna Devi **Date:** November 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Krishna Devi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated October 21, 1969 and have noted the contents. It is very good news that Visnu Arati is advancing nicely in Krishna Consciousness and I know that you and your husband will always do your best to bring her up on the right path of Krishna Consciousness. To raise one soul to Krishna Consciousness is counted by Krishna as a very great service, so you do this duty carefully and Krishna will surely bestow His blessings upon you. I am also glad to learn that you are developing more and more a taste for thinking of Lord Krishna and His devotees. Such thinking is required, and you will see that as you think in this way, your taste for relishing the nectar of such meditation will increase more and more. This is called the limitless ocean of the nectar of devotion. This ocean is unending, and therefore the pleasure of relishing the nectar of this ocean is also increasing unendingly. Regarding your questions, yes, a woman can certainly reach the perfectional stage of devotion to Krishna. And the gopis of Vrndavana are the best example of this. They are simple cowherds girls, and Lord Caitanya has praised their worship of Lord Krishna as the highest form of worship. Krishna Consciousness is transcendental to all such mundane considerations as if one's body is male or female. This is the meaning of spiritual: Krishna Consciousness is beyond the limited bodily idea. Regarding your other questions, the Yadu dynasty completely destroyed itself because Krishna wanted this. So far as initiating disciples is concerned, anyone who is qualified can do this. For example, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura was householder and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was staunch brahmacari, yet they both were qualified for initiating disciples. Regarding your question about feeling emotions during kirtana, these are real spiritual emotions. Spiritual emotions can not be experienced by the fallen soul; but one who is feeling spiritual emotions is not actually fallen. That is the benediction of this Sankirtana Movement that it elevates one to the highest position of spiritual experiences. Regarding your final question about Laksmiji, she never has conjugal relations with Lord Narayana. Neither does she desire to have conjugal relations with Krishna. Her desire is to follow the Gopis of Vrndavana. Please offer my blessings to Damodara, Madhusudana, Kancanbala, and of course your family. I hope this will find you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kulasekhara **Date:** January 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kulasekhara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 16, 1969, and I am so pleased to know that once again you are staying at the temple in Montreal. In this age no one is able to remain aloof from the general human society. Therefore one need not go into the forest in a secluded place to try to make spiritual advancement. Much better idea is that one associate with devotees in the Krishna Consciousness Centres; this will bring better spiritual results than living in the forest. Krishna Consciousness is possible when one is in association of devotees. alone it is more difficult. Please therefore try to keep yourself always in contact with the Montreal devotees. There is no need to go away. That is not very good. If you will have any problems or questions you may write to me and I will help you as far as possible. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kulasekhara **Date:** November 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Kulasekhara, Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your good wife, Visakha Dasi. I am in due receipt of your letter dated October 21, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. In a new place sometimes one feels loneliness, but gradually this subsides. But this feeling is not very good for a Krishna Conscious devotee. When she has got her husband for companionship, what is the use of your wife desiring some female companionship? If this is available, that is good. If not, she should be satisfied with her natural companion and together execute Krishna Consciousness. If Vrndavanesvari is unable to come there, then Visakha may go to see her. Besides that there is also Mandali Bhadra's mother. Also, I understand that there is one very nice girl who is coming to the temple often, so she may try to help this girl become elevated to Krishna Consciousness. These feelings of loneliness are simply temporary manifestations due to past conditioning, and we should try to concentrate our attention to our eternal friendship with Krishna. That will relieve us of all such botherations. So both of you depend on Krishna and try more and more to serve Him nicely by spreading Krishna Consciousness. As you are both very sincere devotees, surely He will bestow His Grace upon you for this. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Kulasekhara **Date:** December 8th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Kulasekhara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated December 2nd, 1969. I am pleased to learn that things are going nicely there. Please follow the routine work as you are doing now and everything will be pleasing and smooth. That is sure and certain. Whenever there is doubt or question, just discuss this amongst yourselves, and if there is no satisfactory solution, you refer to me. But live in Krishna Consciousness. That will make you happy. I am very glad to learn that Visakha is fully engaged in taking care of the Deities. Please offer my blessings to her and try to behave with her as a very kind husband. She will be a very nice girl, helping you both materially and spiritually. She is a very nice girl. Regarding your questions about pujari, pujari means who will always be with the Deities. That is pujari. So far as the difficulty with bathing, you can heat up some water in the morning and wash yourself over with a sponge or a cloth.* That will be all right if there is no hot water for regular showers. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *In special cases you can simply wash your hands and feet and change your dress washed. That will purify you ### Letter to Kulasekhara (Colin Jury), Digvijaya (Dick Withey), Tirthapada (Tim Austin) **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Kulasekhara das (Colin Jury), Digvijaya das (Dick Withey), and Tirthapada das (Tim Austin),Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters, sent along with your beads, and I have noted the contents carefully. This initiation ceremony is a Vedic principle to lead a conditioned soul to the higher level of transcendental life. In the Caitanya Caritamrta you will find the instruction as we have given it in our book, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, that after many, many births through approximately 8,400,000 species of life, a living entity gets this human form of life, which is a chance to get freedom from the material condition. When a child is born it is the responsibility of the state, of the father, of the mother, of the relatives, and of the teachers just to raise the child to the standard of Krishna Consciousness so that the child may not have any more to repeat the process of birth and death, but being fully situated in Krishna Consciousness he may be transferred to the spiritual world and situated in one of the Vaikuntha planets. The most important of the Vaikuntha planets is called Krishna Loka, or Goloka Vrindaban. In these days the propagation for landing on the moon planet is very encouraging to the common man, but so far as a Krishna Conscious person is concerned, he is not at all interested in any of the material planets. His target is to be transferred to the topmost spiritual planet, namely Krishna Loka. So this initiation means the preliminary chance for preparing oneself to achieve this highest perfection. I am very glad that you are already interested in the Krishna Consciousness Movement, and you will please chant at least 16 rounds daily, observing the rules and regulations. The four principle rules is that you will refrain from 1) meat-eating or partaking of fish or eggs, 2) illicit sexual connections, 3) intoxication (including cigarettes, coffee and tea) and 4) gambling. In addition to these rules there are ten offenses to chanting the Maha Mantra which should be avoided. These rules are as follows: 1) blaspheming the Lord's devotee. 2) Considering the Lord and the demi-gods on the same level. 3) Neglecting the orders of the spiritual master. 4) Minimizing the authority of the Scriptures. 5) Interpreting the Holy Name of God. 6) Committing sin on the strength of chanting. 7) Instructing the glories of the Lord's Name to the unfaithful. 8) Comparing the Holy Name with material piety. 9) Inattention while chanting the Holy Name. 10) Attachment to material things while engaged in the practice of chanting. So follow faithfully the above rules and regulations, help your godbrothers and sister in London to propagate Krishna Consciousness, and there is no question that you will all come out successful. I hope this will find you well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Labangalatika **Date:** June 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Labangalatika, Please accept my blessings. I am just looking over the letter that you had given to me in New Vrindaban, so I shall reply to it herewith. You are a very good girl, and I have seen with pleasure your advancement in Krishna Consciousness. It appears that in your previous life you had cultured this knowledge, and on account of your pious life, you have got a very good son who is developing in Krishna Consciousness. So New Vrindaban is the right place for you now, simultaneously to advance in Krishna Consciousness and to take care of your boy directly in your presence. I have advised Kirtanananda Maharaja that girls who are living in New Vrindaban should be engaged in the following activities; 1) taking care of the children, 2) cleaning the temple, kitchen, etc. 3) cooking, and 4) churning butter. So for the time being, you remain in New Vrindaban, follow the principles carefully, and I am sure that your life will be successful. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Laksmimoni **Date:** July 10th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Laksmimoni, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated July 5, 1969, sent along with your chanting beads and one letter from Sriman Jagadisa das Brahmacari. I have duly chanted upon your beads, and your initiated name is Laksmimoni Dasi. Laksmimoni is the Goddess of Fortune, and she is always to be found serving at Krishna's Lotus Feet. Although the Goddess of Fortune is very restless and does not like to stay in one place for very long time, she is always finding new wonderful things in serving Krishna's Lotus Feet so that she never thinks of leaving Him. This is actually the position of Krishna Consciousness that when we get some taste of rendering sublime loving service to the Lord, no more do we have any taste for any other engagements. So as initiated student you should chant 16 rounds on your beads daily, avoiding the ten kinds of offenses which Rupanuga will explain to you. You must follow the four regulative principles; namely no illicit sex life, no intoxication, no meat-eating, and no gambling. I am very pleased to note that you will be getting married to Jagadisa, and try to serve him by helping him develop in Krishna Consciousness throughout both of your lives. Married life in Krishna Consciousness is the perfection of married life because the basic principle is that the wife will help the husband so that he may pursue Krishna Consciousness, and similarly the husband will help the wife to advance in Krishna Consciousness. So in this way both husband and wife become happy and their lives are sublime. In Krishna Consciousness marriages there is no question of any separation or divorce. Any disagreement between husband and wife is not taken very seriously, as much as a disagreement between children is not taken very seriously. This is because the basic principle of married life in Krishna Consciousness is not whimsical lusts, but it is the eternal principle of rendering devotional service to Krishna. So I am enclosing* instructions for Rupanuga to perform this marriage ceremony, and both yourself and Jagadisa have my full blessings for long and happy life in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *sent soon by separate post ### Letter to Larry Snyder, Mark Perlman, John Curran **Date:** February 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Larry Snyder, Mark Perlman and John Curran, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your very nice letter dated January 23, 1969, and I have read the contents with great satisfaction. Your eagerness to spread the Krishna Consciousness movement in that party of the country is certainly dictated by Krishna, Who is situated within your heart. There are innumerable living entities wandering within the universe in different forms of life and conditions in different planetary systems. Out of many, many of such conditioned souls, only one will come into contact with a bona fide Spiritual Master by the Grace of Krishna. Krishna can understand from within the sincerity of purpose of a particular living entity, and He gives direction to such sincere devotee to the path of realizing Krishna Consciousness. So you have already achieved to this stage of life. Please do not miss the opportunity. Although you are not formally initiated, you have associated with our devotees in the New York temple, and it has acted. The seed is already there in you and it has to be helped to grow and fructify. The best means of watering this seed of Krishna Consciousness is to chant and hear Hare Krishna. Now you have got our book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and also you have available our regular publication, Back To Godhead. In the latest issue there is an article you should read called the Isopanisad. So with these literatures you can immediately start a center wherever it is possible for you. I think that Florida will be a very nice place for this, and I have always had a great desire to open a center there. So my advise to you is that you make a small center immediately, and, if possible, get some musical instruments from New York. Brahmananda will supply you with a mrdanga and a few pairs of cymbals. Simply you have to sit down together as you have seen done in New York. Just begin chanting Hare Krishna in the accompaniment of a beating drum and the playing of cymbals. There is no necessity of any other instrument at present. The chanting is very simple; Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. So in this way for 15-20 minutes you chant, and then read from our Bhagavad-gita. There is explanation there as far as possible to convince everyone what is the importance of Krishna Consciousness. So 15 minutes of chanting and dancing, and 1/2 hour of reading from text of Bhagavad-gita, then questions and answers, and at last chanting again of Hare Krishna. In this way you can begin, and there will be no difficulty. Gradually, as you get even more interested in this procedure,[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Lilavati **Date:** April 25th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Lilavati, Please accept my blessings to yourself as well as to your good husband and nice daughter, Subhadra. I beg to thank you for your letter dated April 18, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your question about the relationship between the living entities and Krishna, the answer is that qualitatively we are one with Krishna: There is no qualitative difference, although the living entity has a different function than Krishna. Prakrti means nature. Just like fire; its nature is heat, and the heat is not a different quality although the function is different. In one sense, fire and heat are nondifferent. Therefore, Lord Caitanya's philosophy of inconceivably simultaneously one and different is the perfect philosophy of our relationship with the Absolute Truth. Everything is manifestation of the prakrti of the Lord, exactly like the heat and light of the fire. Heat and light are not different from the fire, but at the same time, heat and light are not the fire. In this way we have to understand the purusa and prakrti. The Lord is the purusa, or Enjoyer, and prakrti is the enjoyed. Regarding your question about our relationship with Srimati Radharani, She is the internal energy, we are marginal energy. Marginal means sometimes internal, sometimes external. When we are under the internal energy, that is our normal life, and when we are under the external energy, that is our abnormal life. Therefore, we are called marginal energy; we can be either this way or that way. But being qualitatively one with the purusa, our tendency is to remain in the internal energy. Being in the external energy is our artificial attempt. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Lilavati **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Lilavati, Please accept my blessings: I thank you very much for your letter dated July 23, 1969 and the photographs of your little daughter. These photographs were so nice, and I was very much engladdened to see how jolly Subhadra is. You write that she is already very enthusiastic about Sankirtana Party, so train her up very nicely. If such a pious child is trained properly as you and Murari are doing, then surely she will play a very worthy role in our society and in helping to improve the world condition by the propagation of Krishna Consciousness. It is not unusual that a little child is often very jolly, but in the material situation this jolliness passes very quickly. But in Krishna Consciousness, because the spirit soul is by nature very jolly and blissful, this jolliness only increases more and more as the bliss of serving Krishna increases more and more. So now your daughter has a very good opportunity to make final solution to her births in the material world, so keep her very nicely. Krishna will be kind upon you for this. I can understand that you are feeling for a playmate for your child. In New Vrindaban we were thinking of having such place for many children, but at the present it appears to be difficult because there is no sufficient accommodations there. I did not exactly follow what you meant about inadequacies in the editing of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. We are planning to print an enlarged edition of this book, with purports to each and every verse. The book was abridged due to the request of the MacMillan Company, but I am not satisfied with this, so we will print the complete work in an unabridged edition. I am pleased to note that you are thinking of opening new centers and you consider South Indiana to be a good place. For starting new centers and for suggestions in this connection you should write to Tamala Krishna because this department will be entrusted to him in the matter of supplying men, etc. I have also very much appreciated your poem at the end of your letter. It is very nice, and I will have it submitted to Hayagriva for consideration of publication in BTG.Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. The S.F. Rathayatra was a grand success & I am awaiting the report of Boston Rathayatra ### Letter to Linda Ryon **Date:** November 13th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Linda Ryon, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated October 26, 1969 and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am so glad to learn that you and your husband, Michael, are finding your lives very happy and satisfying due to the influence of Lord Krishna. This is the position of Krishna Consciousness that if anyone will take to it seriously, he will find instant improvement in his life's condition. By nature every living entity is joyful and in Krishna Consciousness, but due to association with material contamination certain souls have gotten their joyful spiritual nature covered up by the cloud of Maya. The purpose of our centers for Krishna Consciousness is to give everyone the opportunity to remove this cloud of Maya from their consciousness and resume their natural, blissful life of rendering devotional service to Lord Krishna. The process is very simple: chanting, dancing, eating Krishna Prasadam and associating with Krishna's nice devotees. And these four items will make one advance very quickly. We are offering to everyone everything that is nice: nice food, nice family life, nice music, nice philosophy, nice association. Only a rascal will not accept this gift of Krishna Consciousness. So please continue to follow the procedures as you have been doing under the guidance of Bhagavan das, Jagadisa, and their wives. When I return to Boston sometimes in December, perhaps you and your husband will be able to meet me there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madana Mohana **Date:** June 27th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Madan Mohan, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 26, 1969, and I am so much pleased to learn that you are gradually improving your Krishna Consciousness. The secret of success in Krishna Consciousness is to render service to Krishna to the best of our capacity. There is no other alternative to this. The more we render service therefore, the more we are able to advance. You have taken the work of indexing, so you may continue to do this. And if you want to remain, it doesn't matter, but your full energy should be engaged in the Lord's service. That is the secret of success. I do not know if Hayagriva is doing the indexing work, but I have heard from Rayarama that you have advanced considerably in this connection, so do it nicely. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madana Mohana **Date:** July 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Madan Mohan, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter (undated), and I have noted the contents carefully. I am sorry to learn that your health is not very good at the present time. The best thing is that you rest for some time until you are feeling stronger. When Jadurani was feeling very weak I advised her to take complete rest until she was stronger, and then I advised her to go out on Sankirtana Party. So you may follow the same procedure of taking as much rest as you feel you require, and then when you feel it is all right you resume your activities. There is no question of indexing the Bhagavad-gita As It Is in your present condition. When your health has improved we shall talk of work for you. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will find you with improved condition of health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhavi Lata **Date:** January 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Madhavi Lata, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your recent letter (undated) and I have noted the contents. You have tried to explain the reasons for your recent traveling excursions, but there is no need to explain; the reason is that you are restless. I wanted you to concentrate your mind on painting and utilizing your talents for Krishna's service, but you do not hear me. Any place that you want to live, that is all right, but why don't you use your talents? That you cannot do, and it is your misfortune. Here are listed some suggestions for you to begin making beautiful paintings with. If you can prosecute all five of these suggestions without wasting your valuable time it will be very satisfactory. 1. Pregnant Devaki is sitting in a palace room and some glaring effulgence is coming out of her body. Almost near the ceiling of the room, the demigods are surrounding her and praying for the Appearance of Lord Krishna. Some of the demigods are throwing flowers upon her. 2. Devaki is sitting in a different palace room and Visnu, with His four hands (conch, club, wheel, lotus), in yellow dress appeared before here. In this scene, Devaki and Vasudeva are bowing down to Lord Visnu and praying. 3. Krishna is lying happily on the lap of Devaki just like He is an ordinary child. 4. Setting the scene: Vasudeva saw that all of the doors were opened and that the gate-keepers were asleep, so he went outside of the house and came to the bank of the Yamuna. He saw that the river was inflated with rainy season water and he thought, "How shall I cross?" Then he saw a jackal crossing the river and Vasudeva realized that the river was shallow and only up to his ankles. So Vasudeva, holding Little Krishna in his arms, follows the jackal across the Yamuna River. This night scene of walking across the river and following the jackal is the fourth picture. 5. Across the Yamuna River, Vasudeva came upon the house of Nanda Maharaja, where Yasoda was lying asleep with her little girl baby. The fifth picture is of Vasudeva exchanging babies with the sleeping Yasoda. So when I return to New York, probably sometimes in April, I will be pleased to see these pictures nicely painted. When you have finished with this assignment, please inform me so that I may assign you further. Hope that this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhavi Lata **Date:** March 19th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Madhavi Lata dasi, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your telegram dated March 13, 1969, and am glad to hear from you. You have sent a very nice proposal, and if you can organize a Brahmacarini department, and manage it, the idea is very nice. But I am afraid you are not fixed up enough to carry on so much responsibility. Best thing will be if you can engage your time and energy fully in chanting and in painting nice pictures. You are very talented girl, and you can paint very super excellent pictures, I have seen it. Now the thing is that we are opening new branches all over the world, and we require so many pictures in our temples so that people may come and see and be attracted by the beauty of Krishna. That is needed. The people today are fascinated by so much of the glimmering so-called beauty of the external energy, and there is necessity of seeing beautiful pictures of Krishna and His devotees and His Pastimes, in order to attract them to the spiritual process. So this is a great service, and there is urgent need for such paintings. Our Jadurani has done so many nice pictures, and they are distributed amongst our temples, but still there is shortage of supply. and she is now sick, and unable to work very swiftly due to her health condition. So I request you to simply sit down wherever you are, and paint nice pictures for being distributed to all centers. This will help you, and it will help others as well. I shall be happy to hear from you at your convenience, and I hope you are feeling well, Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhudvisa **Date:** June 3rd 1969 — **Location:** West Virginia My Dear Madhudvisa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 30, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I can understand the disturbance of your mind, but why you keep yourself in such artificial disturbance? You can become a householder. That is not prohibited. There are so many good examples of householders, and similarly you can become a householder. Our principle is to enter into the family of Krishna. In the Vaikuntha world there are many devotees who have their wifes, but they are so much absorbed in Krishna Consciousness that they forget the idea of sex-life. Anyway, instead of being agitated in mind, it is better to become a married man and in peaceful mind execute Krishna Consciousness. That is my verdict, and ever since I started this movement I have encouraged marriage to so many disciples. So there is no hindrance in this respect, and you can do the needful. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. London wants two trained brahmacaris. Can you spare two trained men for them. Then open correspondence with Syamasundara in this connection ### Letter to Madhudvisa **Date:** June 10th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Madhudvisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated June 6, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Your determination to remain as brahmacari is very encouraging. Actually, a living entity does not require to be entangled more and more. Rather he should save his time to finish the Krishna Consciousness business, and thus be liberated in this life. Sex urge is a symptom of every living entity, but in the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is advised that it is something like the itching propensity. If one can tolerate this itching, he can save himself from enormous troublesome business resulting from this itching sensation. So an intelligent person rather suffers the pain of itching sensation than accepting the after effects of satisfying the itch. In India, therefore, there are many akanda brahmacaris, and my Guru Maharaja was the best brahmacari. So your decision to remain a brahmacari is very glorious, and if you you stick to the principles of Krishna Consciousness rigidly, you will never be disturbed by any sex urge, and life will be very much simplified, completely being engaged in Krishna Consciousness. Regarding the consignment coming from India through the Bank of America, I am enclosing herewith one letter and a check for $100. I hope this will solve your question. With this enclosed letter you may do the needful. I thank you once more for your encouraging letter. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhudvisa **Date:** August 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Madhudvisa, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of August 11th, 1969, and I am so pleased to learn that your activities in San Francisco are going on nicely in cooperation with Jayananda and Cidananda. Jayananda and Chidananda are tested devotees as much as yourself and Tamala Krishna. You are all unique pairs. So I am gradually realizing that my attempt in this country to spread Krishna Consciousness has now taken some root, and I am sure this will grow more and more 'til it reaches the Lotus Feet of Krishna in Goloka Vrindaban. Actually, our most Beloved Object is Krishna. Our love reposed on anything within our experience is due to our ultimate love for Krishna. People are trying to love the branches and leaves without taking care of the root. But when water is poured down on the root, the branches and leaves automatically become luxurious. This philosophy of taking care of the Supreme is missing in the modern civilization. They do philanthropic work, humanitarian work, national work, social work and many similar other works; now ultimately they have invented the United Nations and world health organizations. But all these attempts are exactly the same process as to water the leaves and the twigs. They don't know the missing point: Krishna. So we have got very great responsibility to spread Krishna Consciousness throughout the world. A little sample of Krishna Consciousness exhibited in San Francisco during the Ratha yatra Festival was very much appreciated by the public. I think in the San Francisco Examiner it was said that people followed the Ratha and experienced so much joy as they had never enjoyed at any time within recent memory. The reason is that we are giving people direct contact with Krishna, the Reservoir of all pleasure. Our administration may be not very perfect, but that fact is that as soon as one is in contact with Krishna he will be happy. So you have got a very nice thing, Krishna Consciousness, for distributing to the suffering humanity, and do it nicely, combinedly. It is so nice thing that anyone who distributes it and anyone who takes it, both are benefited; and Krishna also becomes very happy when all His children are benefited in this way. There is no doubt about it that our philosophy is the supermost perfect presentation. We can challenge any other philosophy and establish that this Krishna Consciousness is the panacea for all material problems. I am very much pleased to learn that you are now distributing 75-100 copies of BTG daily. As you have suggested, you have now outgrown the old temple on Frederick Street, and you may try to find a nice church in the same area. I know that there are some churches there—Cidananda knows where they are located exactly—so you continue to look diligently for such large church. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I thank you for the nice pictures ### Letter to Madhudvisa **Date:** September 7th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Madhudvisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter (undated) and the enclosed check for 100 dollars for my book fund. Also I very much appreciated the poem that you have written for Vyasa Puja Ceremony, and because it was too late for being published in the Vyasa Puja booklet, I have handed it over to Hayagriva for publication in BTG. This poem was especially nice and I thank you for it. I am always encouraged to learn of your activities in the San Francisco temple, and I think that by the Grace of Caitanya Mahaprabhu you shall do very great service to His Sankirtana Movement. For so many countless lifetimes the conditioned souls have been giving all of their service and energy to the service of Maya, and I am requesting all of my disciples that for this one lifetime you give all of your energy and service to Krishna. The spiritual force is eternal, so to give simply one lifetime to Krishna is not a very difficult thing. And yet if we are serious in executing the devotional principles, this one lifetime of service to Krishna will absolute and final solution to all the problems of life. Sincere devotional service in even one lifetime is sufficient to make one eligible to return to the Vaikuntha world permanently. Krishna Consciousness has got this power. So stick to this path as you are now doing, and as your sincerity and determination increase more and more, Krishna will surely be pleased to bestow all of His blessings upon you. This Thursday morning I will be going to London, and most probably by the beginning of November I will have returned to the USA. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhudvisa **Date:** September 30th 1969 — **Location:** England My Dear Madhudvisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 18th, 1969 along with a check for $100, and I thank you very much for this contribution. I am so glad to learn that since you have gone to San Francisco, the center is improving daily, beginning from Rathayatra Festival, and you are also selling BTGs nicely. This means Krishna is giving you the opportunity to serve Him. Actually, Krishna is the Supreme Proprietor of everything. If He likes, He can hand over to His devotee million of dollars in a second, but He is very cautious. So now He has been supplying the necessary money and something extra also. So please keep it carefully. No extravagance should be allowed. I know you are very much thrifty, you do the management nicely. So the necessary expenditures may be made and nothing more than that. Perhaps you know that in Berkeley Hansadutta is also doing very well. If you find a nice house in San Francisco, that will be also very nice. The present temple is nice, but I think the accommodation is not sufficient. Under the circumstances, we must find out some bigger place to accommodate all our devotees. I am glad that you appreciate the behavior of Sriman Gaura Hari Brahmacari, and please see that everyone of you becomes ideal devotee so people may see your exemplary character. It is stated in Bhagavad-gita that one who is in Krishna Consciousness, all good qualities of the demigods develop in him automatically. So see that everyone of you chants the prescribed rounds and follows the rules strictly along with chanting and dancing. Then you will see Krishna fulfill all of your desires. As you know that we are now opening a press in Boston, we shall be requiring a $20,000 investment in this connection. So if I need some money, I may ask you. Otherwise you may keep your money for investing in the house affairs. Regarding you first question, we observe Ekadasi from sunrise to sunrise. The 12 midnight is western astronomical calculation, but the Vedic astronomical calculation begins either from the sunrise or the moonrise. Generally it is sunrise. Our calculation is like this: when the sunrise is there, Ekadasi tithi (date) must be there. If Ekadasi tithi is not in the sunrise and the tithi begins, say after a few minutes after the sunrise, then we accept that day as previous to Ekadasi. All our ceremonies are calculated in that way. This means we must see the tithi during sunrise. Therefore, sometimes our dates of ceremonies do not exactly coincide like the western calculations. Just like Christmas Day they have fixed up on the 25th December, but our Janmastami tithi is not fixed up like that. My birthday is on the 1st September, 1896, but this year the tithi of my birthday was fixed for the 4th September. So it is very difficult to calculate, therefore we have to take help from the Indian expert almanac astronomers. Regarding Srimad-Bhagavatam, yes you may begin reading it at kirtana lectures. On someday you should read Bhagavad gita As It Is also, however. There will be an examination on Srimad-Bhagavatam, the entire First Canto, on Lord Caitanya's Appearance Day in February, 1970. Regarding responsive chanting, that is the preferred method, but if you think it will be better to chant nonresponsively at certain times, there is no harm. If you think that people will chant more if you do it non-responsively, then do it that way. It is the chanting that is required. But if it is done responsively, it will sound symmetrical and will appeal to the people. Regarding your final question, once something is offered to the Deity, it may not be offered again. Please offer my blessings to the other devotees of San Francisco temple. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhudvisa **Date:** October 24th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Madhudvisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 20, 1969 and have read it carefully. The arrangements as stated by you appear very nice. Mulgibar Patel is a nice gentleman, and when he offers $5,000 he can be elected a life trustee of our temple. That is a nice proposal. If the arrangement is successful, then immediately complete the negotiations and purchase the house. I am also glad that Tamala Krishna, Gargamuni and Jayananda also agreed. So it is a good chance, and the best opportunity is that we can keep the three Rathas in the garage. As expressed by you, our Rathayatra Festival in San Francisco must be continued every year with increased gorgeousness. I hope Krishna will bless you. So try to complete this purchase. I have got complete approval. Here everything is going nicely, and we have got our permission to remain in 7 Bury Place, London. In Oxford we are also negotiating for a church, and Sankirtana Party is going very nicely. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhudvisa **Date:** December 2nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Madhudvisa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your recent letter along with the posters and Sankirtana Party card. They are very nice. But this poster should never be distributed in hand. They may simple be distributed on walls. I am very pleased to learn that you are confident of obtaining the new house. It is good credit for you that since you have gone there the San Francisco branch is going to purchase one house. You nicely arrange for that. Krishna will be very much pleased upon you. Please endeavor in that way for Krishna's service. I am glad to learn that you have collected $1,400 on the Peace March there. The New York temple and all the other East Coast temples had a similar Peace March in Washington D.C. where they collected very nicely and gave to my Book Fund a contribution of $3,000. Regarding your scheme for holding a dance for collecting money, that is nice. But the devotees should not remain there after the chanting, if this is possible. Some may remain if required, but the majority may go away. I have received Jayananda's letter explaining the mistake by the bank. Please thank him for this letter. There are so many nice Vaisnavas in our San Francisco temple, so surely Krishna will bestow His blessings upon you all. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Here the Deity installation Radha-Krishna 24" high will take place from 14th to 21st Dec. 1969 ### Letter to Madhusudana **Date:** November 23rd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Madhusudana, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated November 18, 1969 and your maintenance check. I am so glad to learn about your Maha Sankirtana Party consisting of 60 devotees and your realization of the fact that the situation appeared to be Vaikuntha atmosphere. Actually it is so. Srila Narottama das Thakura in his prayer says he wants to be associated always with devotees. So our Krishna Consciousness Movement is to educate people to create such association. Even in the midst of a small family group, the whole world is missing this point. This is because they are creating societies of sense gratification. Therefore, in any group, either in societies, or communities, or nations, or at last in the United Nations, they are all unhappy. Because the real point is missing. So our movement is very genuine, scientific and benedictory. Only the first class intelligent class of men can understand the value of this movement. But Lord Caitanya has given us the Hare Krishna Mantra which makes things very easy. So go on chanting this mantra, following the regulative principles and rules and regulations. Then it will be effective without any fail. I am so glad that you are gradually appreciating the luster and beauty of Krishna and the taste of Sankirtana Movement. Regarding your question, it is welcome. It is not outrageous. Any honest question is welcome. The Spiritual Master is meant for answering any honest question. Krishna has genitals certainly. It is said that He has eternal, blissful Body, full of knowledge. So when He has got a body, He must have all the parts of a body. But we should not consider that His parts of the body are the same as ours. In the Brahma Samhita it is said that His parts of the body, or limbs, each of them has got potency of the others. For example, with our eyes we can see only, but we cannot eat. But Krishna's eyes can not only see, but also eat and beget children also. In the Vedas it is said that He put His glance over Maya and impregnated her with all the living entities. Therefore, although He has got genitals, necessarily He does not require to use it for the same purpose as we do. There is another instance that Garbhodakasayi Visnu begot Lord Brahma from His abdomen, navel, and the Goddess of Fortune, Laksmi, was nearby. She was just massaging the Lord's Lotus Feet, but He did not require the help of the Goddess of Fortune to beget Lord Brahma. That is His omnipotence. He is self sufficient. He has got all the limbs for all the purposes, but He can use all of them for any purpose. This is inconceivable by us. We should not therefore compare our bodily function with Krishna's. His conjugal relationship with the Gopis is not exactly in the same way as we have girlfriends, neither the Gopis made friendship with Krishna exactly in the same fashion as here in this material world a girl makes friendship with a boy. They are different spheres of activities. Therefore, I sometimes warn my students not to discuss much about the affairs of Krishna's dealing with the Gopis. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam such dealings are described in the 10th Canto, and as it is already explained, 9 Cantos have been devoted just to understand the philosophy of Krishna. In the 2nd Canto it is recommended that one should begin to see Krishna from the Lotus Feet, not from the genital. Gradually, as he advances in understanding Krishna, he should go up and up. In this way, one should try to see the face of Krishna; and His dealing with the Gopis is compared with His sweet smile. So for the present we should better stick our faith and observation to the Lotus Feet of Krishna and pray fervently that He may give us the strength and capacity to understand Him as He is. Because as soon as we are able to understand Him as He is, immediately we become liberated persons, eligible for entering into the Kingdom of God. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, 4th Chapter where the Lord says "Simply by understanding My transcendental position, appearance, disappearance and activities, one becomes eligible to enter into My Abode, just after giving up the present material body."Regarding your second question about the rasas in Narayana's Abode, it does not go higher than servitude and reverential friendship. I am very glad that Kancanbala is performing the regulative principles and worshiping and helping you to become an ideal Vaisnava householder. Regarding sannyasa, yes, according to Vedic principles, as a married man, you must give your wife at least one boy child. And when he is grown up, after you are 50 years of age, you can take sannyasa. The grown up boy may take care of your old wife. That is the Vedic system. Please offer my blessings to all of the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhusudana **Date:** January 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Madhusudana, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 21, 1969, and I have carefully read the contents. Regarding your plan for marrying with Kancanbala, I do not think that there is any immediate emergency for finding some one to replace you on the Back To Godhead staff. You have mentioned in your letter that Kancanbala will not be available until at least the month of June for marriage, so there is no necessity for bothering about this for now. By that time or soon after there may be arrangements made where you can continue your work for the press department as well as support a wife. If the press operation can be moved to New Vrindaban then that will be the best arrangement for you because you could live there without any worries about rent. So for the time being go on with your work as usual and don't bother yourself with this matter. Regarding your question about why we dress the Deities in very opulent fashion and not as simple cowherds boy and girl, this is an intelligent question and the answer is that according to the regulative principles we cannot worship Radha-Krishna now. Radha-Krishna worship is meant for persons who have already developed spontaneous love of God. In the training period we are only worshiping Laksmi-Narayana. We worship Radha-Krishna because Laksmi-Narayana is there also, but actually we do not worship Radha-Krishna with our present Deity ceremonies; we are worshiping Laksmi-Narayana. Narayana is there when Krishna is there, but actually we do not worship Radha-Krishna in Their Original Form. This is why we should worship Radha-Krishna in Their Laksmi-Narayana feature with all respect and reverence. If we deviate from this standard then we shall be prakrta sahajiya, or a person who takes things very cheap. We worship Laksmi-Narayana, and because Radha-Krishna includes Laksmi-Narayana, there is no necessity of installing a Laksmi-Narayana Deity. It is just like a king who is engaged in administering justice. Actually that business belongs to the justice department. But what is that justice department? It is all part of the kings energy, and the king also has the power to execute this function. Regarding the blood and puss from the sky during the battle between Varaha and Hiranyaksa, you should know that if Krishna desires blood, puss, fire, or whatever He desires may fall down from the sky. So far as old copies of Back To Godhead which you have enquired about, I do not know where they all are. Either they are in my room in India or they are lost. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees of New York. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhusudana **Date:** March 10th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Madhusudana, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of March 5th, and you can take it from me that I give you clear sanction to get yourself married to Kancanbala dasi, at the earliest possible date. From her side, her mother has agreed, and from your side, I have agreed. So Kancanbala is an ideal girl, Krishna Conscious, and I want that some ideal families of Krishna Consciousness should be established in your country, so that people can see that our movement is not one sided or dry. So we do not want dry renouncers. Krishna Himself married so many wives as a Ksatriya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu although He was to take Sannyas at the age of 24 years, still He married twice within 20 years. Lord Nityananda Prabhu also married. Advaita Prabhu and Srivas Prabhu, they were also householders. So to become married is no impediment for advancement in Krishna Consciousness. One should be vigilant only that he is not diverting from Krishna Consciousness. One has to follow the footprints of the great Acaryas then everything is all right. I was also a married man—my family is still existing. So you should always remember that marriage is not impediment. The greatest enemy is forgetfulness of Krishna. There are many Impersonalists and voidists—they renounced this material world very early in their life; just like Sankara Acarya. He took sannyasa at the age of 8 years. Lord Buddha left home just in the beginning of his youth. But we are not concerned with them. So I hope by this time, by serving this Krishna Consciousness movement for the last two years you must have gotten some taste of the nectarine. Now you must be fixed up and execute your specified duty as ordered by me, and then I am sure there will be no difficulty. But you should always remember that wife is not a machine for sense gratification. Wife is your half body for nourishing your Krishna Consciousness status. So your are getting a wife who is already trained up in Krishna Consciousness and if you live carefully and faithfully there will be no difficulty. That is the verdict of all Acaryas. I think this will simplify your agitated mind. Hope you are well, and also Kancanbala, and happily executing Krishna Consciousness. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Madhusudana **Date:** September 19th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Madhusudana, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your nice letter of September 16th, 1969 and the enclosed contribution for the book fund. I am pleased to note that you are going on with your Krishna Consciousness duties with enthusiasm. Now you have a very nice wife, Kancanbala, so my request to both of you is that you work combinedly to push on this Sankirtana Movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This will bring perfection to your lives, as more and more you become attached to the Lotus Feet of Krishna. Persons under the grip of Maya are simply mad after sense enjoyment, but our goal is to lose all desire for sense gratification and become simply mad after Krishna. This is the perfection of human life, to have no other desire but to render unalloyed devotional service to the Lord. Now you have very good opportunity for elevating yourselves to this status, and if you go on as you are now doing, rigidly following the rules and regulations which you have heard me speak about, then gradually your life will become more and more sublime. Here in England there is very good potency for spreading Krishna Consciousness. When I arrived on September 11th, there was a nice reception at the airport, and one article reporting on the event is enclosed herewith. Last Tuesday evening we appeared for 40 minutes on a popular interview show on the BBC television station. This Monday there is to be shown another one hour long documentary program on our activities in England. Perhaps you have heard by now that there are three new centers opened recently; Tokyo, Laguna Beach and Colorado. So Lord Caitanya is being very merciful to many of the boys and girls of the present day Western world by giving them the intelligence to understand the importance of developing Krishna Consciousness. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mahapurusa **Date:** August 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mahapurusa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter of August 14th, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to learn that you are now chanting 16 rounds daily, eating Bhagavat Prasadam, reading Bhagavad-gita, and going on Sankirtana Party. All of these things will save you, as they will save anyone who persists in Krishna Consciousness faithfully and sincerely. Actually, the presence of Maya should not surprise us because this is the Kingdom of Maya. All of the uncountable living entities in the uncountable universes are generally to be found under the stringent grip of Maya's power. So the presence of Maya is not a very wonderful thing. But what is wonderful is when a sincere soul decides to turn away from the attraction of Maya and decides to serve Krishna in pure unalloyed devotional service. So this is what we should fix our attention to: serving Krishna sincerely. Then automatically the influence of Maya will become nil and we can remember our eternal loving relationship with the Supreme Lord. But as long as we are attracted by the nonsense glittering of Maya's call, this pure state of consciousness cannot be realized within the heart. So continue assisting Upendra as you are doing it now, and I am sure Krishna will help you in all respects. Regarding the $1,000, you don't require it now. You just try to improve the Seattle temple conjointly with Upendra. I was very glad to learn from Upendra's letter that you have lectured nicely, and improve this preaching habit. Kirtana means whatever we hear from the Spiritual Master we repeat it again nicely. One who can reproduce the sound vibration heard from the Spiritual Master, he will be a good preacher. I hope you will keep me informed of your further progress, and I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mahapurusa **Date:** January 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mahapurusa, Please accept my blessings. I was very glad to receive your letter of January 11, 1969.I have received good report that you are selling Back To Godhead very nicely, and similarly you should try to sell our Bhagavad-gita As It Is and always request people to chant Hare Krishna. This will increase your advancement in Krishna Consciousness. So I am very much pleased with your activities there. Everyone of you should always be engaged in your respective duties depending upon Krishna, and things will come automatically very nice. Thanking you again for your encouraging letter. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mahapurusa **Date:** January 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mahapurusa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 18, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very pleased to note that the newspaper article which you had helped arrange has resulted in much interest in our movement in Hawaii. It is also very encouraging to note that you are going out into the streets to chant and preach to the people there. This is a very good policy, and as far as possible you should continue to go out and let the local inhabitants of Hawaii become very familiar with the sound of Hare Krishna Mantra. This will insure the success of our center there, and it is also very pleasing to Krishna to see His devotee taking courage in this way. So by no means should you give up this very nice activity. Regarding your questions, the so-called love which goes on in the material world is simply a perverted form of dasya rasa. Everything in this world is a perverted form of rasa. Just like Yasoda is loving Krishna as her Son. So this is vatsalya rasa, parental love. When Krishna is separate from Yasoda, she cried for whole life and thus became blind. In this world there is not a single instance where a mother has suffered so much in separation from her son. Therefore, it is perverted reflection of the real love. Regarding your second question, the other names of Krishna which you have mentioned, such as Gopala and Govinda are as powerful as the name Krishna. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mahapurusa **Date:** February 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mahapurusa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 2, 1969, and I am pleased to note the contents. I thank you very much for your appreciation of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. I think you may have already heard that in January of 1970 we will be holding an examination among all of our students on this book, and those who will pass shall be awarded with the title of Bhakti-sastri. With these examinations I wish to encourage all my disciples to very carefully learn this philosophy of Krishna Consciousness because there is so many preachers who will be required to bring this message to all of the corners of the earth. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has predicted that this movement of Krishna Consciousness will one day be spread into every village and town, and everywhere there will be found chanting of Hare Krishna. So you are an intelligent boy, and please continue to study our books carefully, finish all of your chanting of rounds, and help out in your temple as much as possible. These items will give you all preparation to render very valuable service to Lord Caitanya's mission. I am pleased to note that you and Gaurasundara have been trying to arrange for regular classes in the University there for a course in Krishna Consciousness. If you can convince the student body there of the importance of our movement it will be great help to our propaganda work, so please try for this. Please convey my blessings to the others there. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Malati **Date:** January 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Malati, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter (undated) and I was very pleased to note the contents. Regarding the Radha-Syama chanting which you have heard it is not very good. In our temple, strictly Hare Krishna chanting should be given more importance. This is no harm in this mantra you have heard, but it is not very important. There are many such common songs composed by common devotees out of sentiment. But our principle is to stick to the authorities, and always remember that Hare Krishna is the prime authorized mantra. I am very much encouraged to learn that you are bold enough to challenge any nondevotee as you did with that impersonalist yoga student. That should be the temperament of all our preachers. We should not be aggressive, but we should not tolerate any sort of nonsense. One who says that God is not merciful because He has made one person happy and one distressed is most nonsensical. This very statement affirms that man as a godless rascal. All of these so-called yogis are therefore rascals because they have no actual realization of God. Falsely they think themselves as God, and their association should be avoided as far as possible. Regarding this Syama-Mataji Dasi from Vrindaban, does she sing Hare Krishna Mantra or not? If she chants Hare Krishna it is all right, and if she does not chant the Hare Krishna Mantra, you should ask her why she does not do so. I am not familiar with her Spiritual Master, Gaurangidas, but if he has taught her to sing this Radha-Syama song, then he also is not authorized. Thanking you once more for your letter. Please convey my blessings to your husband and child, as well as to all of the other devotees there with you. I hope this will meet all of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of Bank of Baroda **Date:** February 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Manager Bank of Baroda Ltd.Indian Exchange Calcutta-1 Dear Sir: Re: My Savings Bank Account # 29/12802Please transfer Rs 500 to the State Bank of India, Strand Road, Calcutta-1, INDIA, account #SB-C/4208, to Ram Krishna Dey, and debit from my above account. In case of need, the following address may be referred to: Mr. Ram Krishna Dey, 14/4B Sri Gopala Mallick Lane, Calcutta-12, INDIA.Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of Bank of Baroda **Date:** December 14th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager Bank of Baroda Chandni Chowk Delhi-6, INDIA Dear Sir: Kindly refer to my letter dated September 7, 1969 in which I had to instruct you to pay BINA MUSICAL STORES Rs. 2,200 on presentation of the shipping documents by the middle of October. They informed later on by their letter dated November 12, 1969 that they had already shipped the goods sometime on October 23rd, and the original documents were submitted for being dispatched to my Los Angeles center at 1975 So. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90034, USA. But we hear from Los Angeles that they have not received the documents or any information of the consignment being dispatched by any ship. This means they have not yet submitted the shipping documents; in other words, the goods have not been shipped. Under the circumstances, please cancel our order of payment, as they have not booked the goods according to the contract. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:pdb ### Letter to Manager of Equitable Savings and Loan Association **Date:** March 26th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii ManagerEquitable Savings and Loan AssociationFairfax-Beverly BranchLos Angeles, CaliforniaRE: MY SAVINGS ACCOUNT NO. L2410Kindly note my change of address as c/o ISKCON, 518 Frederick Street, San Francisco, California 94117.I beg to inform you also that my disciple and representative, Sriman Dayananda das Adhikari (Mr. Michael Wright), is a permanent resident of Los Angeles, so in case of need he will open my safety deposit box No. 361. So in case he opens the safety box when needed, please let me know what is the necessary formalities to be done, so that I can authorize it. Thanking you in anticipation for an early reply, Yours truly, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- ACB;bmcc: Mr. Michael Wright ### Letter to Manager of Equitable Savings Bank **Date:** October 4th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst > Manager EQUITABLE SAVINGS BANKFairfax and Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, California USA Dear Sir, I beg to inform you that yesterday Mr. M.A. Grant of 7 Bury Place, London, WC 1, ENGLAND has transferred dollars in exchange of 150.5 pounds to be deposited in my account #12410. But I see the account number has been wrongly mentioned as 90034. So please rectify this mistake and credit the amount in my savings account duly. In reply to this letter please let me know what is the correct balance at present in my credit. Also please send me some envelopes for sending checks. Please treat this matter as urgent and write to me at the above address. Thanking you in anticipation. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb ### Letter to Manager of First National City Bank **Date:** November 25th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager First National City Bank686 Broadway (near Great Jones Street)New York, NY 10012 Dear Sir, Replying your letter of November 6, 1969 I beg to send you herewith as follows:1) My Passbook a/c No. 042016131 with your Grand Street branch.2) Six pieces of paper duly signed by me on the cross spots as marked by you.3) Two checks: No. 59-102/1213 for $30.00No. 137 for 15.00 for credit of my a/c.Please return the Passbook duly made up registered mail, and send me a few pieces of deposit slips for savings bank a/c.Yours truly, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:pdb ### Letter to Manager of First National City Bank **Date:** December 6th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager FIRST NATIONAL CITY BANK686 Broadway (near Great Jones Street)New York, NY 10012USA Dear Sir: RE: ACCOUNT #0400688633I beg to thank you for returning the new passbook, but you have not sent me any deposit slips. I am sending herewith as follows: one cashiers check (#6-6652) from FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF WASHINGTON for forty dollars ($40.00), and one check (#18) from BANK OF MC MECHAN for fifteen dollars ($15.00) for depositing in my account. Please acknowledge receipt and send some deposit slips by return mail. Yours truly, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:pdb ### Letter to Manager of First National City Bank **Date:** December 9th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager FIRST NATIONAL CITY BANK686 Broadway Branch New York, NY 10012USA Dear Sir, RE: MY ACCOUNT #460688633Kindly transfer $1,400 to the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, account #04489579 and debit my above account. Kindly send me the debit note and oblige. Truly yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of First National City Bank of New York **Date:** February 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Manager First National City Bank of New York Grand Street and Bowery New York, New York Re: ACCOUNT # SAVINGS 0420-1620-131 Dear Sir: With reference to the above account, I beg to point out that on January 6, 1969, after depositing $1,306.86, the balance in my favor was $8,363.88. So after depositing another $199 on February 3, 1969, you have shown a balance of $7,156.27. I do not know why there is this difference. Kindly let me know by return of mail. Also, please note down my above change of address. Thanking you anticipation of your early reply. Yours truly, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Copy forwarded to Brahmananda for necessary action. ACB ### Letter to Manager of First National City Bank of New York **Date:** October 31st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst > Manager FIRST NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK(Bowery and Grand Street Branch)New York, NY 10003USA Dear Sir;REGARDING MY ACCOUNT, #0420160131I beg to request you to transfer my above account to your branch at 686 Broadway, near Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10012. This will facilitate my dealings with the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, who has their account in this branch. After doing this kindly inform me and also send me a new passbook to the above address. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb ### Letter to Manager of First National City Bank of New York **Date:** October 31st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst ManagerFIRST NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK(Great Jones Street Branch)686 BroadwayNew York, NY 10012USADear Sir; I beg to enclose herewith a copy of a letter sent to your Bowery and Grand Street Branch in New York. Please do the needful and send me my passbook as early as possible. Thanking you in anticipation of your early reply. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of Lloyds Bank **Date:** November 27th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager Lloyds Bank Limited Long Acre Brand83-84 Long Acre London, WC 2 Dear Sir, Replying your letter of 24th November, 1964, I am returning herewith the bill of Exchange from Khem Singh & Sons duly accepted by me. Payment should be given on arrival of the parcels. Please therefore let me know at the above address immediately on arrival of the parcels, and I shall arrange for the payment forthwith. Yours sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:pdb ### Letter to Manager of Lloyds Bank **Date:** December 20th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager LLOYDS BANK LTD(Long Acre Branch)83084 Long Acre London, WC 2 Dear Sir, With further reference to your letter JC/RB, dated November 24, 1969, and my reply dated November 27, 1969, I beg to inform you that I am leaving London tomorrow. Therefore I authorize Mr. Michael Grant to take delivery of the parcels due to arrive here, and the passbook is left here with him. You can debit the charges to my account. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb ### Letter to Manager of Punjab National Bank **Date:** December 15th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager Punjab National Bank P.O. Vrindaban, Dist; Mathura INDIA Dear Sir: RE: SHIPMENT OF 8 CASES OF SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM TO NEW YORK PER S.S. JALAKALA, AND YOUR LETTER DATED DECEMBER 5TH (3732)With reference to the above I beg to inform you that I do not exactly know what you mean by some documentary evidence to connect the payment. The whole idea is that the amount of Rs. 33,705.86 was transferred from the USA and credited to my account for dispatching books. The first consignment was dispatched, Rs. 13,000 and odds, and this consignment was also dispatched in the same way. The books are mine, they were dispatched on my account to the USA. The USA has paid for it, and I am signing everything. Is that not sufficient documentary evidence? Otherwise, what do you want me to do? I am experiencing so much inconvenience in this matter of exporting from India, although the price is already transferred from the States. So if you kindly give me your direction what to do in this connection, then I shall do it. I am always in tour, and I took it simply that the goods were dispatched against the money transferred already. That is sufficient documentary evidence in my opinion. I hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:pdb ### Letter to Manager of The Bank of Baroda **Date:** August 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Manager The Bank of Baroda Ltd.Post Box No. 1801Mafatlal House Backbay Reclamation Bombay-1 Dear Sir: RE: ACCOUNT #4996 LEAGUE OF DEVOTEESKindly close this account, and whatever amount is there in credit balance please transfer to my personal account #4966. Thank you. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of The Bank of Baroda **Date:** August 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Manager THE BANK OF BARODA LTD856, Chandni Chowk Delhi-6, INDIA Dear Sir, I thank you very much for your letter #FEX.21/-2295, dated July 28th, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I am enclosing herewith another formal advice on behalf of The League of Devotees for transferring the balance to my account #1452. Please do the needful. Regarding Indian exporters, I beg to request you to send me some addresses of musical instrument dealers in Delhi. Most probably some of them might be your clients, and if you kindly advise them to send their catalogs or price lists, it will be very appreciated. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of The Bank of Baroda **Date:** August 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Manager The Bank of Baroda Ltd.Post Box No. 1801Mafatlal House Backbay Reclamation Bombay-1 Dear Sir, I thank you very much for your letter No. FGN: 14/1026, dated July 30th, 1969. First of all I beg to draw your attention to the credit balance in my SB account #4966. I think the credit balance quotation by you, Rs. 280.55, is not correct. The last balance in my credit on the 24th of July, 1965 was Rs. 502.55. Since then I have added further amounts, and I do not find any amounts drawn since then. Therefore, the balance should be not less than somewhere around Rs. 800. I request you to send me immediately a statement of account and oblige. In the meantime I am enclosing a separate advice for transferring the balance of the League of Devotees to my personal account. Regarding your inquiry of when I left India, I beg to inform you that I left India on the 4th of December, 1967, and I have no program to return back to India. Therefore, I beg to request you to send me some addresses of musical instrument dealers in Delhi. Most probably some of them might be your clients, and if you kindly advise them to send their catalog or price lists. That will be very kind of you. I have also noted your other instruction regarding Manufacturers Bank, Los Angeles, and I shall do the needful. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of The Bank of Baroda **Date:** September 30th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst > Manager The Bank of Baroda Chandni Chowk Delhi-6, INDIA Dear Sir, In continuation of my letter dated 7th September 1969 dispatched from my German center, I beg to inform you further that Messrs. INDO CRAFTER is going to supply goods as per copy of the proforma invoice enclosed. They will submit the shipping documents by the end of October, 1969, and you shall pay them the amount from the $700 and odds fund ($300 and odds previously, and $400 sent on 3rd September). The total value of the two invoices comes to Rs. 4,800 (Rs. 2,200 and Rs. 2,600), which approximately in dollar value comes to $640. So kindly arrange to pay this amount and the documents may be sent to the following address: TITTENHURST PARK, TITTENHURST HOUSE, Ascot, Berkshire, ENGLAND. You may debit the charges to my account. IMPORTANT: The shipping documents for Los Angeles shall be sent to the following address by registered mail: INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, 1975 So. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90034, USA. The shipping documents for London shall be mailed by registered cover to INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, 7 Bury Place, WC 1, London, England. We have received complaint from the Bina Musical Stores that on their inquiry about $400 dispatched from America you have replied in the negative. The $400 was sent by cable on the 3rd September 1969, and before that you received $300 and odds. Then why you should reply them in the negative? For this reply the dispatch is held up and delayed. Kindly inform the immediately in the affirmative so that the consignment may not be delayed. Please reply this letter to my above address. Thanking you in anticipation. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb ### Letter to Manager of The Bank of Baroda **Date:** November 5th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager The Bank of Baroda Chandni Chowk Delhi-6, INDIA Dear Sir;Kindly refer to my letters dated September 7, 1969 and September 30, 1969. I am surprised that I have not as yet received the shipping documents of two consignments to be dispatched by BINA MUSICAL STORES and INDO CRAFTER. Please let me know immediately at my above address what is the actual position now. Kindly treat this as very urgent and oblige. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb ### Letter to Manager of The Punjab National Bank **Date:** July 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Manager The Punjab National Bank P.O. Vrindaban U.P.INDIA Dear Sir: I beg to inform you that on August 5th, 1967 you received American Exchange for Rupees 33,705.86 for credit of my account. Out of this amount, books amounting to Rupees 13,000.00 were dispatched from Calcutta on November 20th, 1967, and again another consignment of books as per invoice enclosed is being dispatched from Calcutta through m/s United Shipping Corporation (14/2 Old China Bazar Street, Room No. 18; Calcutta-1, INDIA). Please address one letter to the United Shipping Corporation about this extra change, receipt on such and such date. On June 18th, 1969, we sent you one check for $112.65, but I have not yet heard your acknowledgement of receipt of this and what action you have taken. I am awaiting your early reply. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of The Punjab National Bank **Date:** July 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Manager The Punjab National Bank P.O. Vrindaban U.P.INDIA Dear Sir: On June 18, 1969 I have sent you a draft for $112.65, and on June 17, 1969 I have sent you a letter. I have received no acknowledgement for either of these. Please let me know what is the actual situation in this matter. For air mail charges you may debit my account, but please do not hesitate to answer my letters promptly. Also, please let me know what is the balance in my account at the present time. Thanking you for your immediate reply. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of The Punjab National Bank **Date:** July 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Manager The Punjab National Bank Ltd.Brabourne Road Branch Calcutta, INDIARE: SAVINGS FUND ACCOUNT #2595 Dear Sir: I beg to inform you that I wish to send you at least 1,000 American dollars for the purpose of purchasing Indian goods; such as Musical instruments, books, utensils, incense, etc. The idea is that my supplier will present the shipping documents, and you shall pay him the required money under my instruction, with the certificate that this money is received from America. In this way there will be no difficulty for Indian exchange regulations, and you shall send me directly the shipping documents here for clearance. Kindly send me your necessary information in this connection by return of post so I can immediately transfer 1,000 American dollars to my above account. Also please let me know what is the balance in my credit at the present moment. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of The Punjab National Bank **Date:** September 1st 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg > Manager The Punjab National Bank P.O. Vrindaban, Dst. Mathura INDIA Dear Sir: In further reference to our past correspondence, I am wondering if you have as yet advanced 100 Rs. to Sri Ram Natha Murtiwala. I have not heard from Sri Ram Natha for some time so I would like to be informed as to what has transpired in this connection. Thanking you in anticipation of your early reply. Sincerely yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager of The Punjab National Bank **Date:** September 7th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg > Manager The Punjab National Bank Vrindaban, Mathura U.P.INDIA Dear Sir, REF: Your letter dated 25th August 1969, addressed to Messrs. United Shipping Corporation (14/2 Old China Bazar Street—Room No. 18, Calcutta) in the matter of shipment of 8 cases Srimad-Bhagavatam, account Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb --- , to New York per S.S. JalakalaWith reference to the above, I beg to inform you that the value of the invoice has been increased from Rs. 3,252.60 to Rs. 4,096.00 on account of some mistake in calculation. I am now on touring, therefore I cannot send you immediately the amended invoice. But you can accept it from me and do the needful. So for sending the documents direct to New York, you can take it from me that it is in order. The charges for sending the documents may be debited from my account. Further in connection with the Deity supply by Ram Natha Murtivala, I did not hear anything from him. Kindly reply to this letter. You can sent me a note informing me what is the situation about this advance. On Thursday morning I am going to London, and my address will be as follows: INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, 7 Bury Place, WC 1, London England. Kindly reply to this letter and oblige. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Manager The Bank of Baroda **Date:** November 25th 1969 — **Location:** London > Manager The Bank of Baroda Chandni Chowk Delhi-6INDIA Dear Sir, Regarding your letter No. FEX.21/-3203, dated November 11, 1969, I beg to inform you that there were two instructions of payments. One instruction was on the 7th September, 1969 for payment to BINA MUSICAL STORES, and another instruction was on the 30th September, 1969 for payment to INDO CRAFTER. I have noted your instruction about the payment to BINA MUSICAL STORES out of the $400 sent to you; but so far as the Murtis to be supplied by INDO CRAFTER are concerned, this has been changed. They are going to send it by post parcel. Therefore, you can cancel the previous instruction in connection with the INDO CRAFTER payment for Rupees 2,600. In this connection I beg to remind you that when I was in the States last year I sent you $400 and odds through the Trade Bank and Trust Company, and the purpose also was declared there for printing of books. Since then, the arrangement for printing books has not materialized, so I want to utilize this money for commercial purchases from India. Please let me know if there is any difficulty in this connection due to exchange control. If so, please let me know what to do in this matter. Thanking you in anticipation of your early reply. Yours truly, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS:pdb ### Letter to Mandali Bhadra **Date:** May 25th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Mandali Bhadra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 14, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Now I am staying in New Vrindaban and it is a very nice spot for developing our community project. There is sufficient land for building great temples and houses for devotees. There is pasturing land, and sufficient grass and vegetables for the grazing of cows. I am glad to learn that you have already translated the foreword of Bhagavad-gita, and you have already sent it to Hamburg. The boys there are working very hard, and recently they have sent me some newspaper cuttings describing about their Sankirtana activities. They are expecting your arrival there at any moment. Jaya Govinda has got some experience of layout work, and when you go there you should do it jointly. Until then there is no need of corresponding with him about layout, and thus delay matters. I have already informed them that when you are there you will be the chief editor, and your name should be mentioned as editor of the paper. The boys there are very submissive, and I am sure when you go there everything will be done in nice cooperation. I am writing to Ananda also, and you may kindly hand over to him the letter enclosed herewith. Ananda has good experience, and you also have seen how we worship the Deities in the temple and offer prasadam, so you may kindly follow in the same way. But in everything we do devotion and sincerity are the real things. There is a word in Sanskrit; bhava grahi janardana: This means the Lord accepts service in devotional emotion. If we are sincere in offering something to the Lord in devotional love, He will accept it. The procedure may not be very right, but the desire being sincere, He accepts our offering. This is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita that He accepts foodstuffs from devotees because they are offered to Him in complete love and affection. That is required. I thank you once more for your letter, and I hope this will find you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mandali Bhadra **Date:** July 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mandali Bhadra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of July 18, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to know that you are making progress in having our society incorporated in Germany. This is an essential project, so please do it. By Krishna's Grace you are all five good souls there, and Krishna will give you immense strength to propagate this Krishna Consciousness Movement in your country, Germany. Please do it in the spirit as you are doing now, and success is surely for you all. Regarding your question about Krishna's Name, the first principle is that Krishna is Absolute. He is not only identical with His Name, but with His Qualities, Form, Pastimes, Paraphernalia, etc. Krishna is identical with the whole creation because the creation means the expansion of Krishna's energy. The energy is never different from the source of the energy as much as heat and light are never different from the fire. The quality of fire is there existing both in heat and light. Naturally Krishna is not different from anything, and what to speak of His Transcendental Name? This is explained in the Bhagavad-gita where Krishna says that "everything is resting on Me, but I am not everything." This simultaneously one and different philosophy should be carefully understood. Then our Krishna Consciousness will be more clear. Regarding Lord Jagannatha, He is the unfinished carved form of Krishna. One king named Indradyumna wanted to establish a Jagannatha temple some thousands of years ago, but while the Deities were being carved by the heavenly carpenter, Visva Karma, the king was in too much haste, and he established the half-finished Deities in the temple. Jagannatha means the Lord of the universe. That is Krishna. Krishna as the only one Lord of everything is confirmed in the Brahma Samhita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, Caitanya Caritamrta, and all Vedic literature. Rathayatra is celebrating the occasion when Lord Krishna, or Lord Jagannatha attended one religious functional occasion in Kuruksetra along with His elder brother and younger sister in a big chariot. So far as your question about controversy amongst the disciples of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja, that is a fact. But this controversy is not material. Just like in a national program, different political parties are sometimes in conflict and make propaganda against each other, but their central point is always service to the country. Similarly, amongst the disciples of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati there may be some controversy, but the central point is how to preach the mission of His Divine Grace. If the central point is fixed up then there is no harm in such controversy. Every individual being must have his opinion; that is the significance of individuality, but all such differences of opinions must coincide in Krishna. In the battlefield of Kuruksetra were Arjuna and Bhisma who were fighting with one another, and because Krishna was on the side of Arjuna, sometimes Bhisma pierced the body of Krishna also with arrows. But still they remained the greatest devotees of the Lord, and Krishna accepted the friendship of Arjuna just as He accepted the inimical arrows of Bhisma in the same loving spirit. So you do not be disturbed by such controversial points. Better you engage your mind very seriously in the matter of the service entrusted upon you. That will make you progressive in Krishna Consciousness. Regarding the manuscripts of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, when you are ready for translating I will arrange to send you the copy immediately. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Yesterday Rathayatra festival was performed very pompously in S.F. in my presence. I have come back just in the afternoon. I shall send you the necessary papers of Rathayatra later on ### Letter to Mandali Bhadra **Date:** November 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Mandali Bhadra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated October 24, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. Krishna Consciousness is not limited within any circle. Brahmacari, grhastha or sannyasi: everyone is eligible for cultivating Krishna Consciousness. There are these stages for gradual development of control of the strong senses in the material environment. But any order of life suitable for a particular person in which he can most favorably execute his Krishna Consciousness is the best position to take up. Generally, if one can remain a brahmacari, it is very convenient, and from brahmacari one can take sannyasa. But in this age of kali Bhaktivinode Thakura recommends that is is better to cultivate Krishna Consciousness as a householder. The London devotees are planning to go to Hamburg for four days this month, so if they take me during that occasion, surely I shall come to see you again. It is around the middle of the month of November, and I shall let you know in my next letter what is the exact date. I am sorry to learn that Visvanatha and Kunti Devi did not take this very seriously. What can be done? They will have to wait to the next life, or if Krishna's Mercy is there, they will come back surely. I am pleased to learn however that the nice girl who was at the Vyasa Puja ceremony is now coming more often. Any person who becomes interested, try to educate him or her rightly. Everything depends on preaching. Regarding the Gayatri Mantra, to say it silently is also chanting. Every mantra is recommended to be uttered silently, but specifically this Maha (Hare Krishna) Mantra can be chanted both ways: loudly and silently. The meaning of the first Mantra is "I meditate on the sungod who is maintaining the three worlds." Savitur is the name of the sungod, but the greatest savitur is Krishna. Therefore it is meditation on Krishna who is the master of all the cosmic manifestation. The other mantras are prayers to the Spiritual Master, Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Krishna Himself. I understand that one Indian firm, INDO CRAFTERS has sent me one package of Krishna Nama kurtas. This was sent to Hamburg over a month ago, and I would like to know if you have received this package and forwarded it to me. In any case, I have not as yet received it here in London. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mark Buchwald **Date:** January 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mark Buchwald, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your nice letter of January 19, 1969, and I have carefully read the contents. You have stated that you have spent twenty two years of my life in the darkness of ignorance, and actually until any person has come to the standard of Krishna Consciousness he is supposed to be considered as being covered by ignorance. There are different degrees of ignorance however, and to come to the highest perfectional platform of knowledge is to surrender fully to the Lotus Feet of Krishna. Because you have asked me to assign you to some duty, I think that your first duty is to regularly attend all of our classes. Chant Hare Krishna as long as possible, and try to help in the activities of the temple. Also, we have got so many literatures and books for sale, so if you can help in selling these books and magazines that will be a great help. You have also consulted me for advice about some of your personal problems, and I think that for these matters you should consult Hansadutta to help you work out some solution. Things will be shaped as Krishna desires. I thank you again for the kind sentiments expressed by you in your letter. If you simply stick with Krishna Consciousness you will very practically see how your life will increasing become more and more sublime. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Martin Malles **Date:** July 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Martin Malles, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter postdated July 17, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am very pleased to note that you have been coming to our Krishna Consciousness temple in New York and what you are learning there from the disciples and from our literature is provoking you to think very deeply on the matters of self-realization. Actually, what the devotees there are telling you about the Hatha Yoga system is correct. In Bhagavad-gita you will find confirmation of the fact that this Hatha Yoga system is not so easy process as you have been led to believe by various "masters". To do actual Hatha Yoga one must not live in the city, but he must go to a sacred spot, and completely freed from all attachments and all material desires and disturbances, he must concentrate his mind upon the Lord within his heart. This process is not completed in just six months time, but it extends over many, many lifetimes. So in this age of Kali Yuga it is not possible to faithfully follow the procedures of Hatha Yoga because our minds are too restless and our lives are very brief. Therefore, the Lord has descended upon this earth five hundred years ago as Lord Caitanya to encourage the process among all men of chanting the Holy Names of God, the Hare Krishna Mantra. This chanting will immediately captivate the hearts and minds of all sincere souls, and therefore it is the prime benediction for the most fallen souls of the age of Kali Yuga. If you will continue to come to our temple and associate with the devotees as much as possible, you will see practically how you are making very, very nice progress in spiritual advancement. Krishna Consciousness is not some invented process nor is it some brought to America in an altered form. Krishna Consciousness is the bona fide process of God-realization that has brought so many great saints and sages to the perfectional level of knowledge of God. Therefore I request you to scientifically and seriously follow the principles of Krishna Consciousness as they are recommended by Lord Krishna Himself in the Bhagavad-gita and many other Vedic literatures, and I am sure you will come out successful. When you have questions you should consult with Brahmananda or the other devotees, and if you like you may ask your questions to me. I hope this will find you will. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mohini Mohana **Date:** May 22nd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Mohini Mohan, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 16, 1969, and I am glad that you are so willing to be engaged in Krishna Consciousness. I am very much obliged to you for your appreciation of my humble services by bringing to your country this movement. But actually it all depends upon your cooperation. Because some of the intelligent boys and girls have taken this philosophy seriously, therefore I am able to push it on and on. But it is a genuine principle of life on which everyone is struggling, generally without proper direction. In the Bhagavad-gita you will find Lord Krishna says that every man is trying to follow His path, but they are proportionately understanding the goal of life to the extent that they are making progress towards perfection. It is also stated in Bhagavad-gita that when a man comes to the understanding of surrendering unto Krishna, he has come to his perfect destination. Brahmananda, Rayarama, as well as Purusottama have all spoken very highly of you, and I am glad to send you the enclosed beads, duly chanted upon by me. Your name is Mohini Mohan, which means the Enchanter of the most beautiful. Srimati Radharani is the most beautiful, and She always enchants Krishna, but at the same time, Krishna is always the Enchanter of Radharani. This reciprocal attraction of Radharani and Krishna is the basic principal of Lord Caitanya's philosophy. Please try to understand nicely through our books and magazines. Follow the four principles of regulation and avoid the ten offenses. Have Brahmananda explain these to you. By following these principles in Krishna Consciousness surely you will be very happy. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mr. Jim Doody **Date:** February 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Mr. Jim Doody, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to read your letter of February 3, 1969, and I am also glad to learn of your very sincere desire to serve Krishna. Surely He will save you. Material entanglement is no problem; if Krishna was not so powerful that He can easily undo our material entanglement then there would be no need to follow the path of Krishna Consciousness. Krishna has given His instruction in the Bhagavad-gita that one should simply surrender unto Him, and immediately He takes charge of solving all of the problems of life. So if you decide to surrender unto Krishna, and if you are sincere of purpose, there is no problem of your life. Material entanglement is not a new thing for you. Everyone who is in this material world has got material problems. Who hasn't got the problem of birth? Who hasn't got the problem of death? Who hasn't got the problem of old age? And who hasn't got the problem of disease? Nobody can escape these problems, so everyone in this material world is entangled. The difference is only of varieties of types of entanglement. I am very glad that you are desiring to be willing servitor of Krishna, and Krishna will surely accept you, provided you always remain serious in this determination. Therefore, I will advise you to keep company with my disciples in London. They are all very sincere boys and girls, and as much as is possible for you, you should help them with their activities. You also should continue to help them with Sankirtana Party in London. I am looking forward to going there as soon as there is a temple obtained. I think that because you are an English boy, you can help them very much in this connection. As soon as we get a nice place there, and they call me, I will be pleased to go and meet you and all of the sincere souls who are anxious to be engaged in this great Krishna Consciousness movement. Please rest assured that in this movement there is no question of imperfectness. This is a solid, genuine movement for the total spiritual rejuvenation of the human society. I am requesting in this letter through you that every honest and sincere boy or girl must immediately join with us in this movement. If one is actually serious to understand the problems of life, he will surely find the right answers in this movement. Please read carefully our book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and you will find yourself getting enlightenment to the fullest extent. There is no doubt of this. Please inform Gurudasa that in Los Angeles temple, Visnujana, Tamala Krishna, Silavati, and her son, Birbhadra played a puppet show yesterday on the occasion of my Spiritual Master's Advent Day. The subject of demonstration was the story of Prahlada. It was so very nice and perfect that everyone enjoyed to the fullest extent, and everyone joined in chanting Hare Krishna. I hope that some time in the future they will be able to demonstrate many such spiritual themes for puppet shows, and people will be greatly benefited. Please convey my blessings to the others there. I was so glad to talk with them the other day on the telephone. I enjoyed hearing their voices, and I was happy that they were also very much pleased to hear me. I will be glad to hear if Mr. George Harrison attended the love feast ceremony yesterday as I was informed he would. Please continue to try and understand the essence of this Krishna Consciousness movement, and try to convince others also of its importance. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mr. Levine **Date:** January 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mr. Levine, Please accept my blessings. I am so pleased to read your letter of January 21, 1969 and to learn of your sincere eagerness to serve Krishna in the best capacity of your talents. There is a Sanskrit proverb that says that there is not any better knowledge than to become a musician. Our Krishna Consciousness movement is practically based upon music and dancing. If by your exceptional qualities you can help in this movement, I think you have been sent by Krishna Himself to help me in this connection. I have one nice disciple, Michael Grant (Mukunda das Adhikari) who is a very good composer of Western music. He was earning lots of money in New York as a professional music teacher, but since he has become my disciple he has dedicated his life for propagating this movement along with his wife. I shall be glad if you immediately contact him in London at the following address: 22 Betterton Street, London WC 2, England. I have got a very ambitious program to organize a nice Sankirtana Party both in Oriental and Occidental style, so that we can thus attract all classes of people in the world to Krishna Consciousness. Very nice arrangements are being made in this connection under the leadership of Michael Grant. Please contact him soon. I am also sending him a note about you. Regarding your initiation, you have to decide yourself whether both you and your wife can follow our four disciplinary principles. I do not know if you are able to abide by these principles immediately. Otherwise there is no objection in the matter of initiating a good soul like you. Please convey my blessings to your wife. I hope this will meet both of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mr. Mottissey **Date:** July 16th 1969 — **Location:** Montreal Dear Mr. Mottissey, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated July 10, 1968, and I embrace you thankfully that you have become so much interested in Bhakti yoga. This Bhakti yoga is very pleasing, practical, and readily understandable how far we are making progress. But in practicing Bhakti yoga, we can make immediately an estimation of our progress. For example, all our students, they are completely refrained from 4 principles of prohibition in which they were addicted in their previous life. But since they are initiated, they are not taking any meat, they are not taking any intoxicants, including tea, coffee, and cigarettes, and so many other things but very nicely they are keeping the balance. So this is practical example that at least he is saved so much botheration, and unnecessary expenditures in the matter of eating and drinking. Sometimes I think when I see on the street strewn cigarette butts, that if people in general give up cigarette smoking, how much money they can save daily without any effort. And if they contribute the money for spreading Krishna consciousness, we can prosecute so many activities to change the face of the world. So Krishna Consciousness movement is all good from all sides. From social, political, economical, hygienic and many other points of view. And at last it is the greatest gift because at the end, we become associated with Krishna. I am very glad that you are attending Kirtana and eating prasadam and transcendentally enjoying the association of the devotees in the temple. Kindly continue this method and you will be more and more enlightened. So far you want to see me personally, I am always open to see you, and you are welcome to come at your convenience. But if you want to be initiated, first of all be fixed up in your mind that you will follow the restrictive rules and regulations in this connection. For further inquiries you can talk with Mukunda, Syamasundara, Yamuna, etc. and they will give you necessary information. Hope this finds you in good health, and thanking you once more for remembering me. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mr. Nair **Date:** July 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Mr. Nair, Please accept my greetings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 18, 1969, forwarded to me here from San Francisco. I quite appreciate the difficult problems in India, and I quite agree with you cent per cent that India is now in a miserable condition by its poverty, and natural atrocities like floods, earthquakes, etc. Your suggestion that this can only be solved by Lord Krishna, the Omnipotent, is also right. Therefore, if you want to do something for India, the only remedial measure that you can take is to spread Krishna Consciousness amongst the peoples. Otherwise, the next step is surely communism as you have already suggested. You say that there is a communist menace, and materialism is trying to dominate, but at the same time, religious faith is also progressing. Two things cannot go on simultaneously. Actually, India is the country of religion. The present government policy to kill religious faith of the people is resulting in frustration of religious life because it is not organizedly taught. But by nature the people of India have a hankering for spiritual advancement, and therefore the present situation is a natural result of the clash between two opposite ideals. In this case also the best treatment is to give the people scientific religious ideas which are very clearly stated in the Bhagavad-gita. But unfortunately, unscrupulous and rascal so-called scholars, religionists and philosophers have misinterpreted the teachings of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita, and they have misled the whole population. Bhagavad-gita is popular not only in India, but also all over the world. Unfortunately, the real idea has been distorted. We have therefore presented our Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and perhaps you know it; it is published by MacMillan. I have tried to explain in this book the real purpose of the Bhagavad-gita. Bhagavad-gita is the authorized book to teach people how to love Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is nothing else except devotional service to the Lord described there, but great politicians have misinterpreted the sunshine-like clear statements of Bhagavad-gita with a cloud of mental concoctions. So if you think seriously to improve the condition of India, you can begin even in a small-scale the propagation of Krishna Consciousness, and if you do it seriously and sincerely, surely you will be successful. I came here alone in 1965. Gradually the young men here took the philosophy very nicely, and now they themselves are spreading and opening many branches, even without my presence. Similarly, you can do this also, under my instructions. Just begin with a small endeavor, and gradually it will spread. You have asked me what are the formalities that you have to observe for recruiting Krishna devotees in India, and the first principle is that you have to become a pure devotee of the Lord. Then you can attempt to convert others to become devotees. To become a pure devotee means one should be firmly convinced of his being the eternal servant of Krishna. You have hinted about the value of concentration and in the stories from the Bhagavatam and Mahabharata, but I do not exactly follow what you mean by this. The statements in the Bhagavatam and Mahabharata and the Puranas are all different historical incidents. Mahabharata is called, according to Vedic authorities, as the history of India. I do not know who first designated it as an "epic." That is the cause of the falldown of Hindu culture. They did not believe in their Vedic literatures presented by Vyasadeva. They are not stories after all. Stories are imaginary, but they are not imaginary. They are actual facts. But such historical facts are not chronological; but for the teaching of the commonplace people some of the important incidents of history are there. It is said saram saram samud dhritva. This means only the essential facts have been collected, and they are put together in the shape of Puranas, Mahabharata, etc. The formalities are as follows: You should take a vow not to have any illicit sex life. That means sex life should be accepted only by married couples. You should not take anything beyond the group of grains, fruits, vegetables, flowers, milk and milk products, and that also only after offering to Lord Krishna. You should not accept any kind of intoxication, including drinking coffee, tea, or smoking cigarettes, chewing pan, etc. Finally, you should not take part in any gambling, including so-called sports, cinema, theater, or any such entertainment. Then you will have to be first initiated for chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra under regulative principles, avoiding 10 kinds of offenses and following the above regulative principles. Then, on or before the completion of one year, you will be finally initiated. In the meantime you will read our books like Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Nectar of Devotion, etc. These books are all in English, and in addition you should read our monthly journal, Back To Godhead. You should go on inquiring about your pros and cons ideas in the matter of the Krishna Consciousness. Along with this you chant Hare Krishna in the assembly of friends and family members regularly, morning and evening, and then Krishna Consciousness will become revealed unto you. Krishna Consciousness is already in you—not only in you, but in every living being. Such consciousness is aroused just like a sleeping man is aroused from slumber by vibration of sound. Similarly, a conditioned soul is aroused by the vibration of the Hare Krishna Mantra into Krishna Consciousness. This is the process. We will be glad to give you all instruction on this point, providing you are serious to accept it, and to propagate it. Thank you very much for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mr. Windisch **Date:** March 21st 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Mr. Windisch, Please accept my blessings. I am very much pleased to receive your letter dated March 18. Your writing in the second paragraph is so much encouraging for me and your appreciation of devotees like Upendra and Ananda is super excellent. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught us this lesson—one who appreciates a sincere devotee is eligible to approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I am so glad to learn that you are prepared to come to L.A. but in the meantime I have come here to Hawaii. I am returning to San Francisco by the 31st of March, and if you kindly see me on or before the 6th of April, 1969, there in S.F., with Barbara if possible, it will be very good opportunity to talk in detail about your future service. Your suggestion to return to Germany and engage yourself in the translating and publishing work of the books and magazines in German language is very much welcome; because you are a sincere soul and trying to serve Krishna sincerely, He is giving you good intelligence from within. Hope to see you again and we shall talk more when we meet. Hope you are well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mrs. Cline **Date:** February 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mrs. Cline, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your kind letter dated February 18, 1969, and I am so glad to go through it. Certainly you are blessed by Krishna, otherwise you could not write such nice things although your connection with our movement is very recent. When you write to say "what was once 'our' home, we recognize now as Krishna's," it appears that from the past you were already advanced in Krishna Consciousness. Somehow or other the path became obstructed, and now again you have come to your consciousness. Please therefore do not miss this opportunity and continue your present state of consciousness in association with Pradyumna. For the time being, Pradyumna is alone there, and your cooperation with him will give him strength, and I shall be very much obliged to you. Next time when I go to Columbus, surely I shall initiate you and your good husband. I understand that your husband is a student of psychology, and Krishna Consciousness is the summit of psychological studies. From the Srimad-Bhagavatam we understand that Krishna is the Original Consciousness and the center of all psychological movement, namely thinking, feeling and willing. We are all parts and parcels of the Supreme Thinking, Feeling and Willing, but our present thinking, feeling and willing being contaminated by the cloud of ignorance, we are thinking, feeling and willing in a perverted way. The whole Krishna Consciousness movement is an attempt to divert the same thinking, feeling and willing to their original unalloyed position. You are an educated couple, and your cooperation with this movement can help tremendously to propagate this most necessary and urgent message for the human society. Thanking you once more for your kind letter. More when we meet. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mrs. Davis **Date:** June 7th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban Dear Mrs. Davis, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 31, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Patita Uddharana was here two days ago, and I had a talk with him about the situation you have brought up in your letter. There will be no objection if you can come here to New Vrindaban. The whole thing has been explained to your son, Patita Uddharana, so you may consult with him and do the needful. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mrs. Davis **Date:** June 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Mrs. Davis, Please accept my greetings. I thank you very much for your letter of June 11, 1969, and I have carefully gone over the contents. Just yesterday I left New Vrindaban, and your son, Madhu Mangala, is still there, He appears now to be quite peaceful and happy, so I think we should let him continue like that, and if he keeps up in this way, there is no need of any demonic treatment as you have described in your letter. He is doing very nicely now, and as he continues to follow our regulative principles, he will surely improve more and more. Similarly your son, Patita Uddharana is also doing well. Perhaps you have seen that he has very beautifully bound for me copies of my book, Srimad-Bhagavatam. I can understand that both of your sons are very good boys, and you will see them developing more and more as they progress in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mrs. Hochner **Date:** January 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Mrs. Hochner, Please accept my New Year's greetings. I am so pleased to accept your token of good will and the sounding Haribol with needlework. This cloth is so nice that I have hung it in my room in front of me so that I can see Haribol and remember you always. Your are very fortunate lady to have such nice daughters like Balai and Lilasukha. Balai is very happy with her husband, Advaita, and all of my students who are married couples are doing very nicely and living very happily. Six boys and girls who were married under my superintendence are now working in London, and they are making very hopeful adventures. Here in Los Angeles also there is one married couple, Dayananda and Nandarani, and they also are doing very nicely in improving the temple here. Your son-in-law, Advaita das, is being trained up to take charge of our press. Your daughter is a first class typist, so in this way all are fully cooperating with me, and I am happy in your country. My endeavors might be sincere, but without their cooperation I could not have executed my mission so quickly. I thank you once more for your becoming the mother of two devotee girls. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mrs. Levine **Date:** January 10th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Mrs. Levine, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your nice letter of January 5, 1969, along with your husband's note. Please offer my thanks to him. Regarding your initiation, I do not know whether your husband is also willing to be initiated with you. This first initiation can be performed by mailing your beads, but if conveniently you can come to see me with your husband, that would be very nice. I am so glad to know that you have become so interested in Krishna Consciousness, and it is pleasing to note that you are hearing from Hansadutta and Himavati. They are an ideal pair amongst my disciples. There are many pairs like them and all of them, husbands and wives together, are engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord. Similarly, if I find you and your husband engaged in that way it will be a great pleasure for me. I have come to your country for preaching this Krishna Consciousness movement, and the younger generation especially is now cooperating with me. Similarly your cooperation will be very welcome. Regarding the land available, this is a very good suggestion, and if it is engaged in Krishna's service that will be a great opportunity for you. We believe that every plot of land belongs to Krishna. The sooner it is engaged in the service of Krishna the better it is for the temporary owner. We come to this material world empty-handed and go away empty-handed. The things which we possess during our duration of life are first achieved and then let out along with all of our other temporary possessions. Therefore the best use of possessions during our lifetime is to dedicate it to the service of the Lord. The success of human life is considered when one fully surrenders his life, his wealth, his intelligence and his words for the benefit of the Lord. Thank you once more for your letters. I hope that you and your husband are both well. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** January 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of January 22, 1969, and I have noted the contents with great pleasure. You have written to say that Londoners there are all so very anxious to meet me, so I am also very much anxious to meet you and the Londoners. Therefore it is the best thing that the five-story house which you have described in the letter under reply may be immediately occupied.* You can offer the best reasonable rent, and you can take the risk depending upon Krishna. If the Beatles come forward, you can take the risk. I hope that Mr. Parikh, who is a veteran educationist, can help you very much in this connection. I am very much pleased that he is also on the board of managers committee. Your Sankirtana Movement there is growing in popularity, and therefore you must immediately have a nice place. I think that for this purpose the five-story building is quite suitable. The first floor can be used as a meeting room or kirtana hall. The second floor can be used as temple room. The third floor can be used for prasadam distribution. The fourth and fifth may be used for residence and propaganda office. Now the legal document of incorporation under the company act has been examined by me, and I think that it is all right. I have made a little change somewhere, and you can do the needful. So by showing this legal document, you can immediately occupy some magnificent temple house. Regarding your seeking publication of Easy Journey to Other Planets, I am very glad to hear this, and I understand that Kirtanananda Swami has a nicely edited copy of this. I have already asked him to send me this copy, and when I examine it, I will send it immediately to you. In the meantime you can finalize the negotiation. So I am very pleased with the good news your letter has brought. I hope this will meet all of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: There is a Mr. Ivan Levine in the Montreal temple who is, I understand an expert trumpeteer. He may be interested in joining you in London with his wife, after their initiation probably, to join you in your musical activities in London. I have advised him to write to you about this.* If the opening ceremony is made on the 7th of February 1969 the appearance day of my Spiritual Master, then it will be a grand success ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** February 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > London My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. At your earliest convenience, please submit to me a list of the names of the devotees who are filling the following offices: President, Secretary, and Treasurer in your center. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** February 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter dated February 10, 1969, and I am very glad to learn that your Sankirtana Party is taking shape, and you hope to inaugurate the on the streets program in a few weeks. Now you should also start program for selling our Back To Godheads along with the Sankirtana as Tamala Krishna is doing here. Along with Sankirtana Party, they are selling daily not less than 100 copies. Sometimes the sale is 120-30 copies. Besides that, Purusottama is distributing Back To Godhead to some distributer in Los Angeles. My next program is to distribute at least 20,000 copies of Back To Godhead from four centers, namely New York, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. So each of these centers will contribute $750 and they will get 5,000 copies free delivery to destination. That means they will get the copies at 15 cents each, and the price fixed up will be 50 cents. So even by wholesale distribution the centers will get at least 30 cents per copy, and that means a 15 cents profit. If all the 5,000 copies are not sold, then we shall distribute the remaining copies to schools, colleges, libraries, institutions, etc. free of charges. This propaganda has to begin immediately. Please let me know your opinion. Los Angeles has already agreed, and I am very much encouraged. I hope you will also agree and encourage me. So on receipt of your confirmation, I shall immediately arrange for printing 20,000 copies beginning from the latest April, 1969.Regarding publication of Easy Journey To Other Planets, I can immediately give you a lengthy introduction essay addressed to the sympathetic nondevotee, or for that matter, even for the unsympathetic nondevotee. I shall add two or three essays like "Krishna Consciousness, the Genuine Yoga System," and "An Introduction to Krishna." In so many ways I can fill up the required necessary pages. Just today I have received from Hayagriva one nicely edited copy of Easy Journey. It is about 50 type-written pages, double-spaced. If Mr. Maschler is serious, then let me know, and I will send this manuscript along with essays to fill up the required number of extra pages. Similarly, Purusottama has learned of some big publishers in New York who may be interested in publishing some yoga cook books, so if you will immediately send him a description of the cook book you have there, he will contact these publishers to see if they are interested. It is very nice that you have already filled application to be company, and the office bearers mentioned there is all right. So I shall be glad to know when you open a bank account. You can register three signatures, and out of the three, two have to sign. You wrote to say that you can show Mr. Maschler our essays in Back To Godhead, so you can immediately show him Isopanisad which is published in issue #22. I am encouraged that Mr. Maschler has become friend of our movement, and if we get a sympathetic English publisher, we can publish so many small booklets through him. I am also pleased that Mr. Parikh is taking active interest, and I am simply anxious when you will have nice premises for our temple. Please let me know what is the result of the Camden Borough Council negotiations. Regarding the picture you have sent, I am so pleased to see it, because our little Sarasvati is also taking part in our transcendental movement. That is the practical proof how great is this movement. In any other movement, one has to learn something, one has to be trained to do something, but here is a movement where there is no necessity of any previous qualifications. That is the proof this movement is based on the spiritual platform. The Bhagavata says that system of religion is the first class wherein love of Godhead is aroused spontaneously without any material impediment. So our movement gives practical proof that there is no impediment of body or mind. That is the proof it is enacted from the spiritual platform wherein there is no distinction of material higher or lower gradation. So we have to push our philosophy very nicely. This means we shall simply become sincere to Krishna and the teachings of the disciplic succession. Then everything will be all right. There is no doubt about it. So please keep yourself in your present standard, and I am sure you will come out successfully. I have learnt that in San Francisco there was an article published with the title, "Krishna Chant Startles London." You may ask Aniruddha to send you a copy of this. Please offer my blessings to the other boys and girls there. I am awaiting your early reply. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have just received one letter from Gurudasa but have received no copy of the Police order ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** February 20th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 13, 1969, and I have decided not to go to London immediately. Rather I amy be going to Hawaii soon as you can peacefully arrange for the temple, and there is no hurry. But immediately my request to you is that in London you try to sell at least 2 to 3 thousand Back To Godhead. From practical experience I see that in Los Angeles on the average they are selling minimum of 50 copies daily, or in other words sometimes they are selling 100, sometimes 150, sometimes 85, sometimes 40, etc. So in this way, on the average they are selling not less than 1500 copies per month. Now the price is going to be fixed at 50 cents, so I have asked Tamala to contribute to me $750 against delivery of 5000 copies of Back To Godhead. By selling only 1500 copies at 50 cents, they cover the whole $750. The balance 3500 copies left for distribution either may be used for profit or they may be distributed freely. In neither case are we losers. But this program must be executed. I think you have got now license for kirtana on the street so you can now follow the same principle. In other words, I am just claiming this contribution as your pet child. My father was very much affectionate, and in my childhood, whatever I wanted from my father he would at once give me. One time he purchased for me one rifle, and so after taking it I demanded that he must give me another. My father denied "You already have one. Why do you ask me for another?" So my argument was that I must have two rifles, one for each hand. Due to my obstinacy my father finally agreed. Later on when I was young and lost my father, I was very sorry to have lost such affectionate father, but by Krishna's Grace, I have now many American fathers and mothers. So I am appealing to all of my American fathers and mothers to help me by this contribution. Please let me know if you will do this. I am waiting your early reply. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** February 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated February 23, 1969, and I have noted the contents with much pleasure. I am enclosing herewith the copy of Easy Journey To Other Planets*. Also enclosed is some pages of Isopanisad, so you can show them to Mr. Maschler and complete the business for their publication. I was so glad to learn from your letter that you will be able to sell Back To Godhead to the extent of 5,000 copies at least, and please arrange for this. About Sankirtana movement, in New York, Brahmananda has also begun Sankirtana in different colleges, and I quote herewith a few lines from his letter; "You will be pleased to know that we had a very successful kirtana engagement at two colleges in Pennsylvania, Dickenson College and Franklin and Marshall. At Dickinson the students were so enthusiastic that practically all of them (50 at least) were all dancing, what to speak of everyone singing and clapping. Even the professor, a dried stick scholar, danced in ecstasy." So in the future we will stick to the principle of Sankirtana movement and distributing our Back To Godhead specifically and the other literature generally. I am pleased to note that you are printing up 10,000 copies of the Prospectus of our society. Also your proposal of getting 1,000 subscribers to Back To Godhead from London alone is very encouraging and please do it. You should send your activities report every month in short for publication in Back To Godhead. Please convey my thanks to Mr. Parikh because he has taken our movement very sincerely, and Krishna will be very much pleased upon him. Actually it is the duty of all retired men and women to devote themselves in the service of Krishna. That is the basic principle of Vedic civilization. Thanking you once more. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB; As I am going to Hawaii for the month of March, you may address my mail to Iskcon, 4 Leilani Building, 1649 Kapialani Blvd., Honolulu, Hawaii.*sent by separate post ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** April 28th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I am very much perturbed in mind that you are living scattered with the others. The letter which I have written to Gurudasa is sent herewith in a carbon copy. As you will find in that letter, I am prepared to give a letter of guarantee of the Bank of America to the authorities of the mortuary building up to the extent of $15,000. So you must occupy that house at any rate. If George Harrison's letter of guarantee is not sufficient, then I am also prepared to guarantee for $15,000. Let them know that we are not paupers. If need be, you can show the authorities my latest bank balance in Bank of America. Enclosed is the latest note, dated 21, April 1969. This can be increased to $15,000 without any difficulty. So complete the transaction, and the house may be occupied immediately. Please convey my blessings to the others also. Hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. You can also let them know that I am permanent resident of the U.S.A. immigrant as Ordained Minister of Religion with fifteen branches all over the states. Also you can ask Brahmananda to send "TLC" which is now received and it is far superior quality book than anyone is get-up all binding. ACB ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** May 8th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated April 29, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I think that you may delete the two clauses if you think it will be helpful in having our society recognized in London. I understand that there is new hope now for getting a nice temple there, so I will await the results with interest. I think that there is no necessity for Isana das and his wife to go there now, because it will not be very good if they have to live apart from the others. Please convey my blessings to your very good wife, Janaki, and, I hope this will meet the both of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Tomorrow morning I am going to Columbus (Ohio) ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** May 22nd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 9, 1969, and in the meantime, I have also received letters from Yamuna, Gurudasa, as well as one letter from Mataji Syamadevi in Hindi. She has written that she wishes for me to go there immediately. In your letter you write to say that you can wait until you find a suitable place where all can be accommodated. This means that you are not living in one place, and from your letter it appears that you are scattered in different places. When Mataji Syamadevi came to see me in Los Angeles she was very respectful to me, every time she was touching my feet and offering obeisances. She was also very serious of having my cooperation in spreading the Krishna Consciousness Movement. I understand also that she has got some influence amongst the African Hindus, generally Gujaratis. I understand that she has already purchased a place in Leicester, although it is 125 miles away from London. If I go there in London it may be possible for me to take the management of the temple because she is very much eager to have my cooperation. So I am asking your opinion after consulting amongst yourselves whether I shall go as invited by her. Suppose if I can induce her to give you all a place to remain together, and if you go from there to London, and then back again, will this be too inconvenient for you? Is there any suitable travelling facilities from Leicester to London? On the whole, Mataji Syamadevi is ready to cooperate with me, and she has asked me to go to London. So if you think it wise, I can go on receipt of your reply of this letter. Wherever I go Devananda and Purusottama go also as my personal assistants. I do not know if you are prepared to send fare for three, but if my presence will be nice there, send the money for at least two, either send it yourself or through Mataji, and I shall immediately start. Here in your country all the branches are doing very nicely, and this New Vrindaban is an ideal place for improving Krishna Consciousness. We have got enough land here to construct temples and accommodate for the devotees, so in the future we may develop this New Vrindaban very nicely. There is surely an atmosphere of Vrindaban life actually, although many of the devotees here are quite new and differently cultured. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** May 27th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 23, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. You don't worry about my health. I am quite fit now, and in New Vrindaban I am walking on the hills daily. In Boston for three or four days I had some acute backache pain, but by the Grace of Krishna it was made all right very soon. This body is called the temple of diseases. So long as there is no disease it is wonderful, but when there is disease it is not wonderful. So this is the temple of disease. Of course, you are all very kind upon me, whenever I am slightly indisposed you become concerned, and I thank you very much for such anxiety. But so far as I am concerned, I always wish only to expedite my mission of life to spread Krishna Consciousness in the Western part of the world. I am still firmly convinced that if I can establish this movement through the help of all the boys and girls who have now joined with me, then it will be a great achievement. I am old man, and there has already been warning, but before I leave this body, I wish to see some of you very strong in Krishna Consciousness understanding. I am very glad and proud also that you six boys and girls, although you have not been able to establish a nice center in London, still you have done your best. And the news has reached far away in India that my disciples are doing very nice work in Krishna Consciousness. So that is my pride. I have received a letter from my Godbrother informing me that it has been advertised in India that in Vietnam also somebody is spreading Hare Krishna Movement. So there is no need to be disappointed. You go on with your work as best as Krishna gives you the opportunity, and there is no cause of your anxiety. Everything is going smoothly. But since you are now separated, the strength of your activities appears to be little disturbed. Now you try to assemble together in the same spirit as you were doing, and in that case, temple or no temple, your movement will go on progressively. We are not much concerned about the temple because temple worship is not primary factor in this age. Primary factor is Sankirtana. But sometimes we want a center where people may gather and see, so a temple is required secondarily. So try your best immediately to live together. I am very much eager to see that you are again living together. Regarding your selling of BTG, we have taken a great risk of printing 20,000 copies per month, and before taking this risk, we consulted four different centers, and you all agreed. Now you try your best and the result will depend on Krishna's desire. So try to fill up your quota as far as possible. I will be in New Vrindaban till the end of June, and if I don't go to London then, I shall go to San Francisco to attend the Rathayatra Festival in July. Tamala Krishna is arranging for a grand scale performance of this years Festival. Regarding Sudama, he is now in Hawaii temple, and I don't think anyone should go to London unless you have got proper place to stay. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** June 10th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban > London My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of June 3, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding Mataji Syamadevi's temple in Leicester, your version is all right, and I am not very interested to establish a Hindu temple. Perhaps you know from the very beginning I never described my movement as Hindu religion. Religion means the bona fide process by which we understand God and the first class religion is that which teaches people to develop love for God. To know or accept the authority of God is one thing, but to love God is another. Generally, people are interested in material comforts and they make God as the supplying agent. This kind of devotion is not purified. It is contaminated by material desires, but when one is elevated to the position of giving everything to God out of love and affection, that is the first class position. We are teaching this philosophy in the name of Krishna Consciousness, and it is applicable to all sober persons. The Bhagavat principle is that because we can be happy simply by developing our dormant love of God, this is our first business. I understand that you have now three houses under consideration: two of them are immediately available, but one requires some money. Why don't you pay the money? What is the amount? If you are short of money and the house is very nice, then we can arrange for the money. You have stated that Mr. George Harrison will be seeing the Archbishop for granting us a church, and that is a very nice idea, but so far I see Mr. Harrison promised so many things which were not fulfilled practically. So instead of waiting for the church, if you can get one of the three houses now under consideration, that will be better. Your Sankirtana Movement is going on even with no house, so there is no cause of lamentation. You must go on with Sankirtana and selling our literature, never mind there is temple or not. I am very pleased that you have already sold 1,000 BTGs, and I assume that it will not be too difficult for you to sell 5,000 magazines. That will solve part of your financial problems. The answer to your Istagosthi questions are as follows: Unless one is a resident of Krishna Loka, one cannot be a Spiritual Master. That is the first proposition. A layman cannot be a Spiritual Master, and if he becomes so then he will simply create disturbance. And who is a liberated person? One who knows Krishna. It is stated in BG, fourth chapter, anyone who knows Krishna in truth is immediately liberated, and after quitting the present body, he immediately goes to Krishna. That means he becomes a resident of Krishna Loka. As soon as one is liberated he is immediately a resident of Krishna Loka, and anyone who knows the truth of Krishna can become Spiritual Master. That is the version of Lord Caitanya. So to summarize the whole thing, it is to be understood that a bona fide Spiritual Master is a resident of Krishna Loka. Your next question, whether the Spiritual Master was formerly a conditioned soul, actually a bona fide Spiritual Master is never a conditioned soul. There are three kinds of liberated persons. They are called 1) sadhan siddha, 2) kripa siddha, and 3) nitya siddha. Sadhan siddha means one who has attained perfection by executing the regulative principles of devotional service. Kripa siddha means one who has attained perfection by the special mercy of Krishna and the Spiritual Master, and nitya siddha means one who was never contaminated. The symptoms of nitya siddha is that from the beginning of his life he is attached to Krishna, and he is never tired of rendering service to Krishna. So we have to know what is what by these symptoms. But when one is actually on the siddha platform there is no such distinction as to who is sadhan, kripa, or nitya siddha. When one is siddha, there is no distinction what is what. Just like when the river water glides down to the Atlantic Ocean nobody can distinguish which portion was the Hudson River or some other river. Neither is there any necessity to make any such distinction. Actually, every living entity is eternally uncontaminated, although he may be in the material touch. This is the version of the Vedas. Asanga ayam purusha—the living entity is uncontaminated. Just like when there is a drop of oil in water you can immediately distinguish the oil from the water, and the water never mixes with the oil. Similarly, a living entity, although in material contact, is always distinct from the matter. You are correct when you say that when the Spiritual Master speaks it should be taken that Krishna is speaking. That is a fact. A Spiritual Master must be liberated. It does not matter if he has come from Krishna Loka or he is liberated from here. But he must be liberated. The science of how one is liberated is explained above, but when one is liberated, there is no need of distinction whether he has come directly from Krishna Loka or from the material world. But in the broader sense everyone comes from Krishna Loka. When one forgets Krishna he is conditioned, when one remembers Krishna he is liberated. I hope this will clear up these points. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am very much anxious to hear from Janaki why she does not write? ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** June 13th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 7, 1969, as well as another letter signed by you, Syamasundara, Gurudasa and others jointly. It is very gratifying that at last you have got a five-story building, and in the meantime negotiations are continuing for a church. It is very good news and I thank you for your joint invitation. In your letter dated June 10th it is said that I shall not go to London earlier than July 20th. I do not know what is your financial position because you have not mentioned anything about our passage money. So kindly let me know if you are going to send me the money for passage, or if I will have to arrange for it. On receipt of this necessary information I shall do the needful. In the meantime I have replied Syamasundara's letter wherein I have stated that some of the devotees here are prepared to go to London. One brahmacari, Trivikrama das, from Buffalo will send you a telegram concerning this matter. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. In your previous letters, I was informed that in London I will have many engagements including interview with Archbishop of Canterbury. But in your letter under reply I understand that I will have to meet people in my apartment. This means that my presence is not very much needed. If you think so then why this invitation? Please clear the matter ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** June 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your several letters; two dated June 19th, one dated June 25th, and one dated June 26th. I am also in due receipt of Syamasundara's letter dated June 26, 1969, and I am very much glad to note the contents of all these letters. Your explanation regarding my P.S. is very much engladdening to me, and I am so proud of having beautiful disciples like you who understand the inner meaning of my mission. Actually, I want the people of the whole world to come to God consciousness and be happy. Without God, there is no question of happiness, and without God, there are no good qualities in a person. So the leaders of the human society are missing this point, and here is a program of Krishna Consciousness that if sober and truthful men join, certainly we shall be able to give something very sublime to the suffering peoples of the world. As requested by you, I am sending herewith a note addressed to the Archbishop, and you may do the needful. I am so glad to learn that the lease agreement is already signed, and I shall be glad to hear from you further in this connection. I thank you so much for your hard labor in pushing on this Krishna Consciousness Movement, and surely Krishna will give you more and more strength in this endeavor. Sudama has left Hawaii already, and he is here in Los Angeles. He will not go to London until you are completely equipped to receive other brahmacaris from here. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have already sent the design of the altar and throne to Syamasundara. Please do it accordingly. ABOUT ISKCON MEDIA.I don't wish that Dinesh will interfere with the recording of "Hare Krishna" by the Beatles. I don't know what correspondence is going on with you between Dinesh & you. Everything should be carefully done so that our friendship with the Beatles may not be disturbed. They are gradually coming to cooperate and we shall not do anything which may disturb this cooperation ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** July 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I have seen your letter to Dinesh, dated 26th June, 1969, and I am little bit disturbed in my mind. This recording business is not our line, so you should not divert your attention for the time being for such things. After a great struggle, you have got now a nice place for the London temple, and if you leave now, your other co-workers, Godbrothers and Godsisters, will be discouraged. So I request you not to leave London at the present moment at any cost. I have already sent you a note for the Archibishop of Canterbury as per your letter of June 19th, and you have so many things to do now. So I request you not to divert your attention to this musical side. I know you are a musician, and naturally you have got a tendency for musical entertainment, but at the present moment our main business is to push the Sankirtana Movement. So, as you are doing, take the Sankirtana Party to various places, and this will be the most appreciated. If you adulterate our Sankirtana Movement with some business motive, then it will be spoiled immediately. Be careful in that way. Dinesh wanted to print some records, so we have given him two, three recordings. Let him do business in his own way. Why he should drag our men for doing his own business? So I repeatedly request you not to divert your attention to this matter at the present moment. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I don't think Dinesh is doing nice so far Govinda record; practically he has not paid me any money out of this enterprise although he has made a legal document signed by me with very great hope. I don't mind for this let him have something out of it ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** July 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 28, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. You say that at present you cannot use instruments in the temple without soundproofing, but I do not know if this means you cannot use even mrdangas and karatala. I understand that soundproofing is very expensive enterprise, and do you have the money for this now? I think it is better if you wait until you are more established before you try for this expensive operation. If it is necessary, we shall go on without instruments. For the time being, you simply make the temple very nice with a nice altar and nice accommodations for living. Don't waste time and money on other projects. Regarding Mataji Syamadevi, she cannot live there at any circumstance. The first thing is that she does not know English, so what help will she be? She cannot speak to an audience, neither she has any knowledge of Krishna Consciousness philosophy. So why she should live with us? We should utilize all of our facilities for our own men. Besides that, she has got her ideas of Hindu sentiment, and she cannot be used for international Krishna Consciousness. She is interested in Hindus only, and otherwise she is useless. If she will donate money or Murtis, that is welcome, but she cannot live in the temple. We require space for so many other purposes. So don't commit any word that she may live there. If in the future, some tangible arrangements of cooperation can be adjusted, then she may live there; but I do not think this is going to be. Regarding Dinesh, I have already written to you yesterday about this. It is simply high-sounding words. There is no substance or practical program. So forget about Dinesh's hallucinations. He has no money, and he wants to take from others, and others wish to only sign papers. So it is a will-o'-the-wisp. Regarding the Beatles, if they chant the Hare Krishna Mantra, give them all facilities. Because if they make some Hare Krishna record, that will be widespread, and we want simply that the Hare Krishna Mantra may be very popular all over the world. We do not care for any profit out of it. We should not try to make a profit out of the Hare Krishna Mantra; then our spiritual enlightenment will be hampered. Our principle should be to beg contributions from others, and as far as possible not to try for any big bargains. As I have already written to you, we should not try to become a very popular musical party. Music is one of our items for chanting, but we are not musicians. We should always remember this fact. The best example is that we take advantage of the typewriting machine, but that does not mean we are professional typists. Please convey my blessings to the others also. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** July 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated July 21, 1969, and I am glad that you have already sent to New York part of the payment of $1,025. It doesn't matter that you could not pay all at a time. You can pay the balance after the 27th. This is all right. So far as the three sets of beads, I did not receive them yet. I do not know to which address the beads were sent. This afternoon I returned from San Francisco where there was a very, very successful Rathayatra Ceremony. There were at least 10,000 people who walked with us to the ocean for a ten mile parade, and everyone was chanting and dancing in ecstasy. Then at the ocean there was grand-scale Prasadam distribution and chanting again on into the evening. Everyone appreciated Krishna Consciousness so much, and it is so encouraging to see how the young boys and girls of the western countries are gradually coming to understand something of this movement. I am so glad to learn that Mr. Ted Berk, the American poet, is now living with you as brahmacari. Let him become now a Vaisnava poet. There are so many Vaisnava poets in India. Now as Krishna Consciousness is spreading, I think there must be some western Vaisnava poets, and Mr. Ted Berk may be the first one. So far as Trivikrama is concerned, he is a super first-class brahmacari. His service attitude, his submission is very nice although he is still a new member. The thing is that he had the association of Rupanuga who is an ideal householder devotee. I am feeling very much proud personally because my so many householder devotees are preaching Krishna Consciousness so nicely. Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not make any distinction between the so-called brahmacari, householder, or sannyasi. He specifically stressed that these designations are superficial, pertaining to bodies. Krishna Consciousness is the function of the soul, jivatma. In the Vedas it is said that the spirit soul is without any touch of material contamination, but when he forgets Krishna he thinks himself as a material product. That is called Maya. But in any position, if one can understand the science of Krishna Consciousness, he can deliver many, many fallen souls. So it is my request to you all that you establish an exemplary character and show how householders can be the first class transcendentalists. When I feel that my householder disciples are preaching so nicely I actually feel very much proud. I understand from a letter from Gurudasa that you have elections for officers for your temple, and the men filling the posts are all very well suited for their position. Now all of you please make quickly the march towards the goal of Krishna Consciousness Movement being very successful. Here Tamala Krishna and Gargamuni have promised me to start a center every quarterly, and it is my ambition that I want to establish at least 108 centers; beginning from Hamburg, crossing over the Atlantic to your country, USA, then the Pacific, covering Hawaii and reaching to Tokyo, Japan. It is about 13,000 miles long, and do you think that 108 centers within 13,000 miles is a very difficult proposition? I don't think so. So you also try to to establish at least one dozen centers in England. Krishna das, combined with Mandali Bhadra, Jaya Govinda and Sivananda are already alert to establish some more branches in Europe. Sivananda is contemplating to open a branch in Copenhagen, and Krishna das is trying for another in Munich. So this news is very encouraging to me. I shall request you that your next attempt shall be to establish a center in Oxford, where I have heard you have successfully performed kirtana so the students postponed their attendance in economic class and wanted to enjoy the transcendental vibrations. So I shall request you again to establish another branch in Oxford as soon as possible. I have recently received news from New York that their last week Sankirtana collection was $1,000, and they have already sold out 3,000 copies of BTG in the past few weeks, so now they are ordering more copies from the West Coast. This is very, very encouraging, and I have asked my Guru Maharaja to just see how nicely these nice young boys and girls are taking to His Divine Mission. I have also received report that your BTG sales are not very encouraging. I am not very sorry for this at all because I know that you are now engaged for Rathayatra Festival and for fixing up the temple. But I hope that soon you will fulfill your quota of selling 5,000 copies in London. In the issues #25 and #26 you will find very, very nice articles. So execute your duties faithfully and sincerely. I am sure that you are doing this, but still it is my duty to remind you the same thing repeatedly as I am your Spiritual Master. Krishna das is asking me to go to Hamburg repeatedly, and he sent a ticket also from New York to Luxembourg, but I cancelled it because I was expected at the Rathayatra Ceremony. Now again he says to go there sometimes in the month of August, so I am asking your opinion about this. I think if you both cooperate to receive me in Europe, that will be financially easier. And Purusottama's accompanying me is also necessary because my travelling alone is not very advisable. Besides that, he is now trained to look after me in every way, so I think when I go to Europe he must accompany me. So if you jointly make a program, that will be good for both of you, and I am also very much eager to make some propaganda work of Krishna Consciousness in Europe now. Regarding the record you recorded with Mr. Harrison, it is very much encouraging because a record issued by the Beatles will have immediate great market, and we want only that this Hare Krishna chanting is participated in by many millions of people. Another thing is that some time back you asked me to write a personal note to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but you did not inform me what happened to this and what happened to the church negotiations for which Mr. Harrison wanted to take some personal care. I shall be very glad to hear from you about these points. Please offer my blessings to the others, especially to Janaki, who has not written to me in so long a time. I hope you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** September 5th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. Now it is decided that I shall be starting on the 11th of September, Thursday, by flight 234, Lufthansa Airlines, starting at 12:15 Hamburg time, and reaching London at 13:40. So you can make the necessary arrangements. If you have any further information for me, you can send me a letter immediately or talk with me. Yesterday Vyasa Puja was held in the temple, and your tape of Cintamani was played. It was very nice. Please offer my blessings to the others, I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda **Date:** October 1st 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 1st, 1969. If Mr. Lennon contributes his place as described by you, then we shall turn it into a place of Divine Culture which the younger generation needs so badly. And if the Archbishop of Canterbury gives us one, two, three, four, up to the point of all the redundant churches, I shall turn them all into great places of worship of all kinds of men. If so desired, we can worship the picture of Lord Jesus Christ who we admit as the son of Godhead. We worship all worthy sons and servants of God, but we kick on the face of all rascals who claim to have become God so cheaply to mislead many innocent persons. Sometimes back I sent you one letter addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but I have not heard anything from you. Was that letter presented to his holiness or not? Please enlighten me in this connection. Please persuade George to see the archbishop as early as possible. Regarding my visiting London, I am prepared to go there as soon as you call me. Hope you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Mukunda, Colin Jury **Date:** February 9th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Mukunda and Colin Jury, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your joint letters dated February 3, 1969. Pending your searching out a suitable temple-house, immediately rent a suitable apartment for me from the 1st of March, 1969, and on hearing from you, I shall start for London by the end of this month. When I go there I am sure I shall find out a suitable temple-house. Please let me know your decision on this matter so that I may prepare for my London-Yatra. Offer my blessings to all of my beloved sons and daughters who are so kind and affectionate to me. Awaiting your early reply with interest. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Muralidhara **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Muralidhara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 12, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I have also seen your Krishna-Balarama picture and it is very nice. These pictures you are drawing for our Festivals in Los Angeles may be nicely colored and photographed and sent to Brahmananda for publication in BTG. The Bhagavatam picture you have already done is already arranged for publication on the front page, and in the absence of Jadurani's paintings, I shall require your work for so many pictures in BTG.I am enclosing a list of the special Krishna Consciousness holidays to be celebrated in your temple for the next several months. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Murari **Date:** February 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Murari, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 30, 1969, and I am always very pleased when I hear from you. You have mentioned in your letter that you have been making plans to build a shrine, and when you are able to, please send these plans to me so I may see what you have in mind. I am also pleased to note that Vamanadeva and yourself are seriously taking steps to begin the project of making thrones for the deities in all of our temples. In New York, Nara Narayana is going to try again to have brass deities made from the mold made from the deities in New York. Similarly, there is the possibility of obtaining deities from India in the near future. So in either of these cases, we can expect many new pairs of deities before very long, and such thrones as you are planning to work on will be an essential addition to all of our temples. So far as you going to New Vrindaban, I think that for the time being you should concentrate your efforts in organizing these projects you have begun in Hawaii. For the time being concentrate in Hawaii, and when you are needed in New Vrindaban, you will be called to go there. I have just learned today that Bhurijana, a devotee in Buffalo is making arrangements to open a center in North Carolina where one other devotee's mother is letting us use her house for two months at least with no charge so we may see the possibilities of starting a center there. Similarly, there is some possibility of beginning a center in Berkeley, and Dindayal is looking into this possibility. So Krishna is giving us all facility to serve Him, and I am so pleased with the nice cooperation that my students are giving me in spreading this most important philosophy around the entire world. Please convey my blessings to your excellent wife, Lilavati, and also to your little daughter, Subhadra. I hope this will meet all of you in the best of health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Murari **Date:** July 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Murari, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 6, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am so pleased to learn that you have obtained a permit for soliciting on Sankirtana Party, and now you are collecting $60 daily. It is very encouraging news. Regarding BTG, you should purchase at least $350 worth of copies per month. This means you get 2,500 copies, and the price is 15 cents per copy. The price for selling is declared at 50 cents, so there is a 35 cents difference. So even if you make at least 20 cents profit per copy, that is $500 per month for your temple. Now you have got good opportunity for selling, so you help BTG by contributing this amount monthly. I have heard that you have mentioned to Brahmananda that your temple will contribute $3,000 dollars for my book fund. This is very good news for me, and try to send it as soon as possible. I am so pleased that you are arranging for the Rathayatra Festival very nicely, and similarly in London, Buffalo, and what to speak of San Francisco, they are arranging. In San Francisco it is going to be unique thing in this world. Regarding a house, you look for a place. Krishna will provide for the funds. Now, because Los Angeles has got a nice church, the situation has improved very hopefully. They are getting all help. In Sankirtana they are collected sometimes $250 daily, and selling BTG not less than 150 copies daily. Boston is not a small city, and it is better than Los Angeles because you have so many students there. So try to organize very nicely. I have not heard anything from Lilavati for some time. How is your daughter, Subhadra? I received one check from Jadurani for $30 for my maintenance fund, and thank her very much for this. I have sent two tapes to Satsvarupa with a note to Jadurani. Please ask them to take care of them and do the needful. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Murlidhar **Date:** June 1st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban > Rd 3, Moundsville, West Virginia 26041LT_690601_C1 My dear Murlidhar, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 28, 1969, and I have very much appreciated your painting of Lord Nrisingadeva. If possible, paint similar pictures for other temples. I am also glad to learn that you are painting Radha-Krishna painting. You have mentioned a picture of Krishna and the Gopies, without Radha-rani cannot be. If you mean to say the picture of Radha-Krishna and the eight Gopies, then that is all right. I do not know what is this Krishna with the Gopies. There are many unauthorized pictures painted by so-called called imaginative artists, but we don’t want such pictures in our temples. So you kindly send me a sketch of the picture, and I shall see whether it is authorized. I am very glad that Devahuti has finished a picture of Radha-Krishna, and that she is working also on Lord Caitanya and Sankirtan. I am also glad that you combinedly want to paint a picture of my photograph. I prefer the picture which was published in our Back To Godhead #18, page 32. It is written there “Your ever well-wisher,”. Another thing is please send me the reproduction of the picture which you made for Bhagavat cover. The Macmillan Company is going to publish our Bhagavatam, and I shall give them the picture for the dust cover. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nandakisora **Date:** March 18th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Nanda Kisora, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your very nice poetry; I am reading it again and again and I shall most probably arrange to publish it in BTG. The devotees here also have very much appreciated it, and I may encourage to do more writing of poetry and even articles for our BTG magazine. I hope you are all well and happy there, and please convey my blessings to all your God-brothers and sisters there. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nandakisora **Date:** December 13th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Nandakisora, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your nice letter and have noted the contents with pleasure. You are gradually developing to be a nice Vaisnava, and please continue in this way. Krishna will be very pleased upon you. Regarding the song by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura, the transliteration is as follows:manasa deha geha yo kichu moraarpilun tua pade nandakisoramaravi rakhavi yo iccha toharanitya dasa prati tua adhikaraThe translation is "My mind, my body, my home, or whatever I have got in my possession I surrender unto Your Lotus Feet, O my dear Lord, Son of Nanda Maharaja (Krishna). Now if you like, you can kill me, or if you like, you can give me protection. Whatever you like you can do. I am your eternal servitor. You have got every right to deal with me in any way as you please."As I have informed Satsvarupa, I shall be arriving in Boston on December 21st at 3:40 pm. So I shall be very pleased to see you again at that time. Please offer my blessings to your good wife, Jahnava, and the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nandarani **Date:** May 23rd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Nandarani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 8, 1969, and I have noted the contents. When I receive a letter either from you or from your husband, I become so much encouraged. The most important point in your letter is the activities of your nice daughter. I hope all the small babies who are now being raised by our married couples will one day do tremendously in the matter of Krishna Consciousness. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is advised that nobody should become a father or mother if he or she is not capable to raise children to the perfectional stage of stopping repeated births and death. This process of birth and death can only be stopped by awakening Krishna Consciousness. As you have read in the Bhagavad-gita, simply by understanding how Krishna appears and performs His transcendental activities, one can immediately become eligible to enter into Krishna's Abode. And one who enters this Abode of Krishna never comes back again to suffer all sorts of material miseries. That is the sanguine process to stop repeated birth and death of the living entity. Simply by awakening the dormant love for Krishna, Who is known as Vasudeva, one can stop the material contamination of accepting a material body. New Vrindaban is a very nice spot. We have to develop it in so many ways, and it will take time. For the time being there is no regular school because there is no sufficient accommodations for living, but soon it will be done when our children can be taken care of properly. I hope that by the time your Candramukhi grows such arrangements will be completed. Regarding my residence, I have already decided that Los Angeles will be suitable, at least for eight months of the year, I do not know how the heat is during June and July though. I have inquired about this from Dayananda also. Regarding my health, I am keeping well, but after all, this body is old enough, although personally I do not feel old. I feel exactly like your little child, and I am taken care of by my so many fathers and mothers like you. So I have no anxiety. Somebody asked me whether I am happy, so I replied that I left my home consisting of five children, where I felt not very much comfortable, but Krishna has given me many obedient and loving children, even though I am in a foreign country. That is my happiness. Actually, real love can be perceived only on the platform of Krishna Consciousness where there is no possibility of thinking oneself in the bodily concept of life. So let us try to introduce this nice consciousness in the human society. ### Letter to Nandarani **Date:** September 30th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Nandarani, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 19th, 1969, and I am so glad to learn that the activities in Los Angeles temple are going very nicely. The first day I arrived we had talks about two hours with the Beatles, but because they are materially very rich, it is little difficult for them to understand Krishna Consciousness philosophy. In the Bhagavad-gita, perhaps you have read, it is said there that those who are too much addicted to materialistic way of sense gratification, they cannot put their faith in Krishna Consciousness. Anyway, whatever they are helping, that is welcome. Their record is selling nicely, and George Harrison is more inclined to our movement. Now he is not in London, because his mother is very ill and he has gone to Liverpool. I am living in the guest house of Mr. Lennon. He has spared a very nice temple house here where we hold our kirtanas, since our own temple house in London proper is under renovation. I am so glad to learn that Candramukhi is getting Krishna Consciousness from the very beginning of her life. This is the advantage of her previous life's advancement in Krishna Consciousness. Please take care of your children and make them perfectly Krishna Conscious. That is very great service. If by your endeavor one or two souls who come under your protection become liberated in this life, that is a great transcendental service to the Lord. So I am sure your children under the care of both you and Dayananda surely have salvation in this life, along with their parents, and they will not have to come back in this miserable condition of material life. That is the injunction of Srimad-Bhagavatam to the Krishna Consciousness parents. Please offer my blessings to Kartikeya and Silavati for their good service and also please hand over the enclosed note to Srimati Rekha. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nara-narayana **Date:** January 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Nara Narayana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 21, 1969, and I thank you very much for it. I have heard many nice reports from various parties complimenting the expert service you are performing in New York with your carpentry and handyman skills. So I am very pleased to hear that Krishna has blessed you with a very nice talent, and you are now using it rightly in Krishna Consciousness. Now I have also read in your letter under reply that you are successfully engaged in Sankirtana Party activities in New York, and this too is encouraging to hear. So I think that you should be encouraged in this connection, but one thing is that your Sankirtana activities may go on as long as you are working under the sanction of Brahmananda, and he finds there to be no difficulties with this additional temple's activity. Sankirtana is very important service, so as far as Brahmananda feels there is no inconvenience upon other important engagements, you may continue in assisting the organizing of the New York temple's Sankirtana Party. Regarding casting of the Radha Krishna Deities, I have already instructed you about casting in plaster of Paris. The whole thing is that we wish to have these Deities nicely done and as soon as possible. So I think that this idea of using plaster of Paris will be very easily and quickly executed. The mold may be made from the Deities already in New York, so, as far as I know, this will be the most practical method for seeing this task completed. Thanking you once more for your letter and important work you are sincerely performing. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nara-narayana **Date:** February 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Nara Narayana, Please accept my blessings. I am very much encouraged by your proposal as stated in your letter of January 25, 1969 of constructing housing in New Vrindaban for an estimate of about $1,000. This money will be secured somehow or other and invested in New Vrindaban for constructing the proposed cottages. These cottages needn't be very high class finished. We simply want protection; that's all. They may be very roughly finished. Please send me your plans which you have mentioned, and we shall begin this housing scheme in April. We agree to invest the money in this project, and the persons you wanted will join you when you actually begin the work. In the meantime, if you think brass deities can be done in New York, please let me know what will be the cost per pair. If not 24" high, they should be of the same size we have got in New York. When you were here you told me the cost will be about $40. If you can manufacture for even $50 per pair, you should manufacture immediately five or six pairs, and I will provide you with the money. But first be sure what will be the actual price and whether you will be able to do it. After finishing with this murti business, you can immediately begin the construction work in New Vrindaban. So far as kirtana party is concerned, you have well suggested to conduct the party under the good guidance of Rsi Kumar. He is a very expert devotee, and the kirtana party can be well managed under his guidance, and under the cooperation of Brahmananda. You should always read also, besides attending class, whenever you have time, the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Then I can surely recommend to the draft board that you are a very serious student of Bhagavad-gita under my supervision. I hope this will meet you in good spirits and good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nara-narayana **Date:** February 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Nara Narayana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter pointing out some of the discrepancies of many of the devotees in New York. You are correct regarding the items which you have stated, such as sleeping in front of the deities, eating in front of the deities, taking of unoffered foodstuffs, drinking water from the bathroom, and non-chanting of rounds. But the thing is discipline can not be observed unless there is obedience. As you are obedient to me, you should be similarly obedient to my representative. Your statement about Brahmananda that he is a wonderful devotee is 100% agreed by me. He is in charge of the New York center, and, therefore, if proper obedience is not given to him it will be impossible for him to manage the affairs of the temple. Under the circumstances, the discrepancies you have observed in the temple may be referred to him, and he is quite reasonable, and will handle the matter with the respective devotees. Please don't you take any direct actions because it will cause disruption. You are a very talented boy, and I have every confidence in you, so I hope you will do this and oblige. I have seen the plans for New Vrindaban, and I can understand that you have a great talent in house planning also. This will be fully utilized in the matter of our developing our New Vrindaban scheme when I go there. In the meantime, please let me know if you can get some pairs of Radha-Krishna deities in some brass foundry there. This is the immediate important work for you. You have asked in your letter to Purusottama if you should observe the lists of 44 offenses and 44 regulations for deity worship, and the answer is no; there is no need of this for the present. I will be glad to hear from you by early return mail. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nara-narayana **Date:** February 25th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Nara Narayana, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 14, 1969, and I am just now having the opportunity of replying to your inquiries. So far as the Deities are concerned, this has been discussed many times, so just do it nicely using your best judgment to make Them like the Deities which are there in N.Y. with you as far as possible. Your idea of placing conchshell in the eyes is nice and you may do it. You have the perfect example of the Deities in New York, so if you can similarly make some Deities for our other centers it will be very nice accomplishment. Also, you have asked about construction plans in New Vrindaban, and these questions may be referred to and discussed with Hayagriva and Kirtanananda. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nara-narayana **Date:** November 24th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Nara Narayana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated November 5, 1969 and I am so pleased to learn of the nice service you have been rendering to Radha-Krishna in Los Angeles. The cart you have constructed sounds very nice from your description, and when you are able please send me photographs of this cart. I have all approval of your plan to travel from temple to temple in order to give them the benefits of your carpentry skill. Do it nicely. It is very important service and Krishna will be pleased to bestow upon you His blessings for it. Here in London things are going on very nicely, and one India gentleman has promised to help us in our plan to make Deities. Therefore, I request you to send immediately to the London temple the carving of Lord Krishna which you made in Los Angeles while I was there. As you are writing from Detroit center, please inform some responsible person in the temple where the Deity is presently staying to immediately send it by air post to London address. I shall be returning to the East Coast USA sometimes in December, and if it is possible, I shall be pleased if you can come and meet me at that time. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Narayana Maharaja **Date:** September 30th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Sripada Narayana Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 14th, 1969 and I have noted the contents. I am very much perturbed to learn about your sick health. I hope by the Grace of Lord Krishna you will soon recover. Please offer my obeisances to Muni Maharaja. Regarding sponsoring Mrs. N.K. Achamma, I beg to inform you that to sponsor a person from India means to send him immediately a return ticket by air, which means Rs 12,000. I do not know who will be agreeing to invest this money for an unknown person. Although she has got money, she cannot spend it for coming to foreign countries. Therefore, sponsoring means the money should go from the foreign country and then she can come. Anyway, at the present moment I am living in London, a few miles off, at the above garden house. When I return to the States, I shall try to find out if somebody can help her. I am enclosing herewith two newspaper cuttings which were published on my arrival in London. You can publish this news in your Bhagavat paper. Regarding the 92 section case against the Gaudiya Math, I don't think there is any possibility of compromise. But the Baghbazar party and Mayapur party have unlawfully usurped the missionary institution of Srila Prabhupada, and whenever they will talk of a compromise, it means another complication. Thanking you once more for your letter. Sincerely yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Nico Kuyt **Date:** November 4th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Nico Kuyt, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated October 17, 1969, sent from the Detroit temple. I am very much pleased to note your sincere attitude towards our Krishna Consciousness Movement, and this sincerity will lead you to the highest spiritual consciousness if you continue in this way. That is the special Grace of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In former ages the processes of spiritual elevation were very difficult and long enduring. But in this age of Kali Yuga our lives are so short and our minds are so restless that the process of spiritual realization must be very simple in order for success to be achieved. Therefore, Lord Krishna appeared on this world as Lord Caitanya to show the fallen living entities the easiest and most sublime method of achieving Krishna Consciousness. His formula is that everyone, in any position of life, should chant the Hare Krishna Mantra. So this is what we are teaching, and any benefit you are feeling from this procedure is simply the Mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu acting. I am glad that you are very much appreciating the association of Bhagavan das and Jagadisa. They are both very nice devotees, so when you have any questions about our philosophy, you consult with them, or else I am also at your service in this connection. Please continue to live at our temple, follow the regulative principles and chant at least 16 rounds daily. Most likely this December I shall be staying at our Boston temple for some days, and if it is possible, you may then come there to meet me. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Official (for Madhudvisa) **Date:** March 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Local Board No. 3125 Huntington Ave. Boston, Mass 02116I, THE UNDERSIGNED ACHARYA (Ordained Minister of Religion) of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Inc, certify herewith that Michael E. Morrissey (Madhudvisa Das), S.S. No. 19/31/47/208, has been my initiated student of Theology for six months (initiated September 11, 1968). He is presently studying the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Vedic scriptures under strict discipline and regulation. As such, he is forbidden to indulge in the following activities:1. Illicit sexual connection (unmarried sex indulgence).2. Non vegetarian diet (the eating of meat, fish eggs, and all animal foods strictly forbidden).3. Intoxication of all sorts (including smoking, drinking of alcoholic beverages, drinking tea, coffee, drugs, etc.) are strictly forbidden. Michael E. Morrissey (Madhudvisa Das Brahmacari) attends daily religious classes both in the morning and in the evening, and worships the Deity under my personal instruction. This course of training continues for seven years from the date of initiation in order to befit him as an Ordained Minister of Religion. As such, my students are classified under 4-D, Ministerial Status. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Oliver **Date:** August 19th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Oliver, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated August 5th, 1969, and I am very much pleased with your nice handwriting and the purport of it. You have so quickly picked up the importance of the Hare Krishna Movement and are so much eager for propagating Krishna Consciousness. That means you are already recognized by Krishna. In your previous life you must have cultivated Krishna Consciousness. As we learn from Bhagavad-gita, it is said there that a person who does not reach to the final goal of Krishna Consciousness is again given the opportunity to fulfill the mission of achieving perfection. So my request to you is that you should try to complete the process of Krishna Consciousness in this very life, without waiting for another term of cultivation. Of course a devotee either in this world or in the spiritual world, his connection with Krishna being fixed up, is equally happy anywhere. But so long we are in this material world there is constant allurement of Maya, and sometimes we fall victim. So try to understand this philosophy of Krishna Consciousness by reading our books and literatures, discussing amongst the devotees and chanting Hare Krishna Mantra as much as possible. Whenever there is any inquiries, you can write to me directly, and I shall try to reply them. I am just awaiting the letter of Krishna das for starting to Hamburg. But if I do not receive such letter from him within this week, then the program may be changed. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Paramananda **Date:** January 9th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Paramananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 4, 1969 along with your note for Purusottama who is here now and will give you his note along with this letter. I understand that you are anxious to go to New Vrindaban. I think that it is Krishna's will that you shall go there and try to develop that nice land because there is so much potential there which can utilize your abilities in being developed. I hope that by now you have received a note from Hayagriva who was staying with me for more than a fortnight. He is now married with Syama Dasi and he has returned back to New Vrindaban. If Kirtanananda Maharaja welcomes you during the winter months there is no need of waiting for the springtime. I have no objections. The only question is if there is sufficient place to accommodate you during the winter season. Also be sure to consult with Hansadutta to be sure that there will not be too great inconvenience in your leaving to New Vrindaban. I thank you very much for your growing spirit of K.C. and I pray to Krishna for your future progress in life. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees there. ACB ### Letter to Paramananda **Date:** July 29th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Paramananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated Friday July 25, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Now that Satyabhama Dasi is becoming advanced in her pregnancy, all care must be taken for her. I think it is a good idea that she may go to New York, especially because she can receive free aid from your doctor friend. And if you feel that your presence there will be helpful, then I advise you to go with your wife to New York. Regarding someone to go there to take charge of the children in Satyabhama's absence, I will write to Lilavati in Boston to see if she is able to fill this position for that time. If not, we will have to make other arrangements. But wherever you go, either in New Vrindaban or New York, you should make effort to finish your 16 rounds whenever possible. Of course, if you are always engaged in Krishna's service, and always chanting Hare Krishna, even if not on your beads, that is also a nice status. As you are an important worker there and you have so many important duties, especially to take care of the cows, it may not be possible for you to stop your work for chanting 16 rounds. This is no great loss, and you should not feel badly about it. Krishna sees your sincerity in Krishna Consciousness, and He will be very kind upon you for this. But as much as possible you should try to fulfill the goal of 16 rounds daily. If you must fall short of this because you have so much service to render to Krishna, do not be disturbed by this. But you should not fall too much short of this goal. That will not be good. Similarly, you must read Bhagavad-gita at least a few verses every day and think about them throughout the day. The best thing is to read one chapter daily, but if you can meditate upon a few verses of Bhagavad-gita every day, that is better than reading for simply one hour and then forgetting the topics until the next reading. Please offer my blessings to Satyabhama Dasi and the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Paramananda **Date:** October 27th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Paramananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated October 21, 1969, and I am so glad to learn that a Krishna Conscious male child has been born now. His name should be Premananda Brahmacari. Premananda means one who is always absorbed in love of Krishna. So take care of this nice child and raise him along with the other boys in New Vrindaban so that a new generation of Krishna Conscious children will come out of this movement. Please offer my blessings to your good wife, Satyabhama Dasi. I hope this will meet you and your family in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Patita Uddharana **Date:** May 31st 1969 — **Location:** Moundsville My Dear Patita Uddharana, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter post-dated May 27, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am pleased to note that through your influence your family is gradually taking to this sublime process of Krishna Consciousness. This is the proof of how the presence of one devotee will have an uplifting effect upon all of the people he comes in contact with, whether family members or acquaintances. I am very pleased also to note your appreciation for our Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and I want that all of my students will understand this book very nicely. This will be a great asset to our preaching activities. I am sending along with Candanacarya some old editions of our Back To Godhead Magazine for you to bind. I wish to have bound each year's editions of BTG. Thus, there should be one book with all the 1966 issues, one book with the 1967 issues, and one book with the 1968 issues. If possible, please have these books sent along with Brahmananda when he comes here to see me in New Vrindaban. I understand that you have bound two of my Srimad-Bhagavatam's, but there is no necessity of sending them here immediately. When I need them I will call for them. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees there with you. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Patti Birnack **Date:** September 13th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst House > England LT_690913_A1 My dear Patti Birnack, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter, and I have noted your situation as you have described it therein. I am very pleased to learn that you are coming to our Krishna Consciousness temple in Ohio and you are nicely appreciating this movement. I can understand that you are a sincere soul, and I am sure that Krishna will help you to solve all of your present difficulties. So far as the questions and doubts raised by your father, you may rest assured that to every question your father may raise regarding the existence of God and even to much higher questions regarding the nature and activities of God, the Vedic literature which we are following has the perfect and authoritative answer. But to understand about God one must be purified. In contaminated state one cannot expect to understand about the Absolute Truth. Our Krishna Consciousness movement is for bringing the devotee to the purified consciousness where he understands Krishna and serves Him in unalloyed devotional service. Regarding the inquiry, “If there is God, how can there be suffering and disease,” the similar question may be asked, “In the presence of an affectionate father, why should a child suffer from diseases?” God is the Supreme Father and He gives us the process for being relieved of our sufferings. But if one refuses to accept this gift of God, then he must suffer from the results of his activities. Anyone who is suffering or enjoying in this material world is doing so as a result of his own activities. Krishna says that if we surrender unto Him, He will relieve us of all sufferings, so if someone rejects this offer of Krishna and then says that there is no God because he is experiencing some suffering, that is not a very intelligent position. Krishna wants everyone to go back to Home, back to Godhead, and enjoy eternal life and blissful knowledge there. If your father agrees to this process, he also can be taken back to Home, back to Godhead, with my other disciples. There will be no difficulty for me. You can tell your father that. But if he does not agree, what responsibility is God’s? Everyone has got his independence. ### Letter to Prabhas Babu **Date:** February 19th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > United Shipping Corporation14/2 Old China Bazar Street Calcutta-1INDIA Dear Prabhas Babu, Please accept my greetings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind letter (#F-54/117) dated February 15, 1969. I have duly replied your previous letter dated February 6, 1969, and I placed with you an experimental order. Many such orders will follow this from London and Germany when I get there in the month of April next. So you will have no difficulty for your payment. We are dealing with you since I have come to this country in 1965 and many times I have sent you money in advance, so you can rest assured about your monetary position, and you can go on executing our order as advised in my letter dated February 17, 1969.Regarding the packages you have received from Vrindaban, #1 item pack may be sent to Los Angeles, and #3 item package may be sent here also if there is inconvenience to dispatch it to Hawaii. You can book them by any steamline which is quicker. Similarly, you can dispatch the package for Hamburg by any quicker steamline until further advised. The forwarding charges of the four items, no. 1 and 3 may be realized from me and the forwarding charges for no. 2 may be realized from our German center. I am advising them to this effect. In the future also many Sri Murtis may be dispatched from Vrindaban and you will have to take care of them. They are all free gifts. I think this covers all of your inquiries, and I hope you will do the needful at your earliest convenience. Yours truly A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prabhas Babu **Date:** June 4th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban > UNITED SHIPPING CORPORATION14/2 Old China Bazar Street,Room #13Calcutta-1,INDIAAtt: Sri Prabhas Babu Dear Prabhas Babu: In further reference to my last letter sent in reply to your letter dated April 2, 1969, I am surprised that the packages sent by Jaya Govinda das Brahmacari as well as those sent by Atma Ram & Sons have not yet been sent. You acknowledged that these goods are ready to be shipped in your letter of April 2, 1969, but you have still not shipped them. I could understand that there was a delay on account of Pibhuti Babu's disappearance, but why are they still delayed? Please let me know why the shipping of our goods is so tremendously delayed. Kindly treat this letter as very urgent, and let me know why my goods have not been shipped yet. As I have been informed by Jaya Govinda das Brahmacari, you are holding the following items: Package 1. one pair of 10 1/2" brass R-K Murtis with jewelry and clothingPackage 2. one pair of 13" brass R-K Murtis with jewelry and clothingPackage 3. one mrdangamPackage 4. one harmonium—with double reeds, with 7 stops, full coverPackage 5. 30 cartons incense, each carton containing 12 boxesPackage 6. 1,400 Assorted Brijbasi pictures8 dozen Assorted brass incense holders2 dozen red candana malas50 odd Srimad-Bhagavatam prospectus16 Easy Journey To Other Planetsand personal effects amounting to 3 pairs brass cymbals, 4 old copies of Back To Godhead 8 wooden incense holders, 5 tubes incense, 7 tulsi malas from Vrindaban with kuntis and counter beads, regular items for performance of puja namely, conch, 5-light lamp, incense holder, cup and spoon, one set of Srimad-Bhagavatams, notes, etc. In addition, 8 bundles of books were sent to you by Atma Ram & Sons, containing Srimad-Bhagavatam, Vol. One—104 copies, Vol. Two—110 copies, Vol. Three—46 copies. I am awaiting your early reply. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb ### Letter to Prabhas Babu **Date:** July 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Prabhas Babu, I beg to thank you for your letter (F-235) dated June 26, 1969, and I have noted the contents. That some people in India wish to donate Murtis and musical instruments but the Indian government has no provisions for such donation is most surprising. Hindustan has become independent, but while she was under foreign government she had the liberty to preach her culture and religion in foreign countries. During my Guru Maharaja's days, thousands of Rupees were being dispatched from Calcutta to London, but the new Indian government being independent, they are prohibiting to send some Murtis and mrdangas. So it is all our bad luck that these things are happening. Anyway, for the future I have arranged like this: Sriman Acyutananda Brahmacari is collecting some mrdangas and karatalas in exchange for our magazine, Back To Godhead. The price of one year subscription to Back To Godhead is $5.00, and in exchange of such one year subscription he is accepting a mrdanga and a few pair of karatalas. He has already collected a few mrdangas, and very soon he will have to dispatch them to our various centers. So please let me know whether or not you shall be able to get sanction from the Reserve Bank of India for this exchange policy of accepting goods of the value of one year's subscription. I hope the above is clear and you will do the needful. So far as Atma Ram & Sons is concerned, I am enclosing one invoice in triplicate, and I am advising the Punjab National Bank to issue one letter addressed to you that the exchange value was received as far back as the 5th April, 1967. The copy of the letter addressed to the bank will speak for itself. I hope this copy of the letter and the triplicate invoices will solve the question, and so you can immediately dispatch the books to the New York port. I can understand that for the goods which were as gifts you had some difficulty in getting "No Objection" certificate from the Reserve Bank of India, but why you should delay in dispatching goods which we are purchasing? Before placing the order with you, I took assurance from you that ordered goods would be dispatched within one month of the date of receipt of the order. But practically, it has not happened. Why have you delayed so much in dispatching the goods? I also understand that from Hawaii they have also sent you one order, but there is no news. Anyway, for our future business relationship you should be very much prompt. There should be no question now of delaying, and I hope on receipt of this letter you will do the needful as promptly as possible and let me know the result. Please acknowledge receipt of this letter. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- ACB/pdb ### Letter to Prabhas Babu **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Prabhas Babu;I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter, F-54/286, dated July 22, 1969. I have noted that you are going to send the mrdangas more carefully. Yes, I am advising to retire your bill of shipping charges for Rs. 101.50 as soon as we receive instruction from the bank. Yes the books may be gunny packed in cases, and try to charge as low as possible. I understand The Punjab National Bank from Vrindaban has already issued a letter to you so there is no need of sending the document to them. You send the documents directly to New York. Most probably I shall be going to German and England very soon, and I shall send you some big orders from there. Also I have advised my Seattle branch to send you an order soon, so you will please do the needful in this connection. In the meantime, whatever pending goods are there may be dispatched without delay. I think there are some pending orders sent from New York. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prabhas Candra Mittra **Date:** February 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Sri Prabhas Candra Mittra United Shipping Corporation14/2, Old China Bazar Street (Block No. 18)Calcutta-1, INDIA Dear Prabhas Babu, I thank you very much for your letter (F-54/103) dated February 6, 1969. Regarding the letter of credit, I beg to inform you that I have got good accounts in some of the very respectable banks in America in which there are branches in Calcutta. I am sending herewith one letter of declaration from the Bank of America as well as from the First National City Bank of America for your kind perusal. So, for experimental sake, if you immediately dispatch the following goods and ship them to Los Angeles, your bills with bill of lading will be presented to the Bank of America and will at once be honored. For the time being you can ship the goods by any suitable steamer company to Los Angeles. In the meantime, I am trying to negotiate with Srimati Morarji. So if you agree, immediately send book the following goods, send me the invoice and upon presentation to the Bank of America (Pico and La Cienega Branch, 85-01 W. Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, Calif.), they will pay the amount of your bill. If you agree to this them immediately send the following goods:1. 1 first class harmonium with good bellow which sustains without much labor2. 2 first class mrdangas3. 5 pairs of big Navadvipa karatalas4. 1 first class panca pradipa5. 1 jahanjh (gong)6. 1 round ghari (good sound)7. 3 water conch shells8. 2 blowing conch shells9. 1 Bengali New Year (1375) panjikaIn addition to these items, you may be receiving a letter from Vrindaban about a pair of murtis which are to be sent as a free gift to us. Thanking you in anticipation of your reply. Yours truly, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prabhavati **Date:** March 24th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Prabhavati dasi, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your nice letter of March 22nd, and also your beads, which I have duly chanted. Your letter is very nice and I am very much encouraged to hear of more young American boys and girls who are searching after God. This is natural of course, and one who sticks to Krishna Consciousness purification process, will gradually understand what is God, and our relationship with the Supreme Personality. This is the perfection of human life. Unfortunately, the people of the so-called modern advanced civilization do not know this; they are groping in the darkness of material life, and simply leading others into this darkness. Therefore there are so many frustrated young boys and girls who are searching out God in some way or other, and if they are very fortunate, then they will come to this platform of Krishna Consciousness. So I am very much pleased to learn that you are chanting and reading Bhagavad-gita, and also helping with the temple activities of cooking and cleaning. This is very good. Please continue in this way, and gradually you will become more and more advanced in this spiritual consciousness, and become happy. If you can paint nice pictures of Krishna and His devotees, then that is also a nice engagement for you. Help Harer Nama in running the temple smoothly, and always remain engaged in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this meets you in good health, and happily chanting and dancing in kirtana. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- N.B. You may try using oil on the dry skin before taking your taking your bath each day, and this may help the situation. Mustard oil, olive oil, or some sort of oil will suffice ### Letter to Prabhavati **Date:** April 16th 1969 — **Location:** New York My Dear Prabhavati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter sent along with your prayer beads. I am enclosing a copy of the list of offenses that should be avoided by a Vaisnava. Please try to observe avoiding these offenses as far as possible. Even if you may have committed some offense in the past, that is all right. Just try to follow the rules and regulations, and whatever offense you may have committee. will be excused by Lord Krishna. But in the future you should be very careful to keep yourself free from such offenses. I hope this will find you well and in cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prabhus Babu **Date:** July 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > UNITED SHIPPING CORPORATION14/2 Old China Bazar Street (Block 18)Calcutta-1, INDIAATT: Sri Prabhas Babu Dear Prabhus Babu, I am in due receipt of your letter of July 10, 1969, along with enclosures, and I have noted the contents carefully. As you have requested, I have amended the invoices for the 260 pcs. of books, and I am enclosing the same in triplicate for you to do the needful with. One thing I must mention is that I have been informed that the mrdangas which you have previously sent to us were received in defective order because the crates in which they had been packed somehow or other had become wet and therefore spoiled the quality of the instruments. I therefore request you to take precaution against this danger of water seeping through the crates by packing mrdangas and all such damageable items in tarpauline or some such protective covering before they are placed in the crates for being dispatched to the USA. We have unlimited number of instruments and other goods which we shall be needing from India, so if arrangement can be made for these goods to be sent safely and promptly, there is so much business which we shall give you. Please inform me of what measures you shall be taking to protect our goods from the danger of water seeping in through the crates. I am awaiting your early reply. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdbencl: --- Invoice in triplicate ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** February 26th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 19, 1969, and I am pleased that you are doing very nicely in your center. The pictures which you have sent are also very nice. I am going to New York by the first of April or by the end of March. From there I shall go to your side, Columbus and New Vrindaban. By no means should you stop kirtana and chanting. Of course I know that you cannot stop kirtana or chanting but it must be done regularly because that is our strength. We are always in the whirlpool of maya, and only this chanting of Mantra can save us from all pitfalls. Regarding your need for records, Mr. Kallman has cheated us in so many ways, so I am therefore thinking of making a new record of Hare Krishna vibration. But if you now have a tape recording machine then you can have the kirtana record in tapes. The cost of such tapes can be found out from Dinesh in Los Angeles. Now we have to sell Back To Godheads in large quantities. We are arranging to print 20,000 copies so you should seriously consider how to step up this program in Columbus. I am very pleased that Mr. Cline is helping you in looking for a suitable temple there. Please keep me informed of your progress in this matter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** April 10th 1969 — **Location:** New York My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to receive your letter dated April 4, 1969, and I eulogize your attempt for improving the Columbus center. Do it very nicely, and when I go there I shall see that you have done so much for Krishna Consciousness. I shall also give you one very nice brahmacari from Los Angeles, Jaya Gopala. He is trained in Sankirtana Party and in cooking, so you can leave him for taking care of the temple affairs when you go to work. Besides that, if you have learned Sanskrit, I can give you one brahmacari, 12 years old, named Birbhadra, whom I want you should teach Sanskrit from the very beginning. We want a few students who know Sanskrit and Bengali, or at least Sanskrit. Most probably the boy will go with me there, and if you think you can take charge, he can also remain there. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** April 13th 1969 — **Location:** New York My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 9, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am instructing Tamala Krishna in Los Angeles to allow Jaya Gopala come to join you immediately, so I think this will be of great help to your work there. I was in San Francisco and there were three meetings there in the University campuses, and each and every one of these meetings were very successful. About 200 students in each meeting were dancing and enjoying with us. So gradually we have to organize the students to our movement, and your work so far has my approval in this connection. Regarding your questions, generally tulsi beads are required for initiation, but if it is not available, ordinary beads can be used. Sometimes the shopkeepers give ordinary beads and say it is tulsi, so it is very difficult to get tulsi beads without personal attendance. So far as your getting a Kartamasi Murti, you may take information from Govinda Dasi in Hawaii. Radha-Krishna Murtis may be purchased from Vrindaban. The cost is about $200.00, but they are very nice, 24 inches high. I shall speak with Nara Narayana to inform him that he should also go there to help you with constructing the items you have mentioned. Hope this finds you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** April 28th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 23, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am arranging for the certificates to be sent to both Hayagriva and yourself, and you should receive them before long. My travelling schedule for the next few weeks will be as follows: I shall arrive in Columbus on flight 485, United Airlines, at 10:47 on May 9, 1969. Then on the 15th of May I shall be going to North Carolina, and then on the 18th of May I shall proceed to New Vrindaban. I am pleased to learn of your nice Krishna Conscious activities in Columbus, and I shall be happy to see you there soon. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 22, and I have carefully noted the contents. Regarding the church building, from Mr. Worley's letter I can understand that the tone is acceptance, not rejection. Now as I have told you before, if out of the $30,000 you can collect at least $10,000 from the local devotees, then the balance $20,000 can be arranged from the bank. That is my responsibility, and I shall do it. Now it is up to you to collect $10,000. So upon hearing from you whether or not you are able to collect $10,000. So upon hearing from you whether or not you are able to collect the money in connection with Mr. Brahma, Mr. Ghosh and other Indian gentlemen, then we can negotiate further in this matter. Mr. Worley has said that the assessed value is 45% of the value and he has advanced the argument that for Franklyn County tax purposes, the value was assessed as around $59,000. But in our case there is no question of tax. So without tax the assessment of the city authorities is correct. Anyway, I shall talk with them seriously if you give me assurance you can arrange for the $10,000. For the balance I shall arrange; rest assured. In the meantime, you must have the machine and begin immediately composing. If credit reference is required, Hayagriva will give. I have already talked with him about this. So do it immediately. I want the Bhagavatams should be entrusted to you four; Hayagriva and his wife, and you and your wife. If need be we shall purchase two machines, but the work must go on without delay. So please do the needful immediately and let me know of your progress. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees there. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** June 16th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Pradyumna, I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 11, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. You may immediately arrange for purchasing the machine. Make a contract, and I have advised Brahmananda to pay you the $503 when you need it. So when the transaction is completed, immediately call Brahmananda and he will pay you. Now Arundhati and Syama Dasi shall be in charge of composing at least four hours alternately. In this way, the machine should be used from 7:00 in the morning till 10:00 at night. Syama Dasi may type from 7:00 in the morning till 11:00 o'clock. Then Arundhati will type from 11 till three. Then Syama Dasi from three until seven o'clock, and Arundhati from seven o'clock until ten o'clock. In this way, you and Hayagriva shall guide them so that the machine will be fully utilized. I am sure that the monthly payments shall be arranged by you, and this is very good. Special care should be given to keep the machine in a safe room which is always closed and always locked. The property is worth about $6,000, and you will be responsible for the payments, so very much care should be taken to protect it from any damage or theft. Of course your quarters there are nice, but all necessary precautions must still be taken. Please write to inform me what you are going to do. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** June 20th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of June 17, 1969, and I have noted the contents. It is all right to have the changes made on the two type fonts because it will be suitable for our purposes. I have already written you a letter that you have to maintain the machine. That means the monthly installments shall be arranged by you, and the cash down shall be paid by me. I have already advised Brahmananda in this connection so you can do the needful. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** June 27th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of June 25, 1969, and I beg to confirm herewith my approval of your going ahead for arranging for the Bodoni Book type face as I have already instructed you. Please inform me when the negotiations are completed. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** July 4th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of June 28, 1969, sent by Special Delivery, and I am replying as follows. If Mr. Vora is going to Bombay, he can find out some reliable supplier of musical instruments. One friend gave me the following address: M/s D.S. Ramsingh & Bros., Harmonium Manufacturers and dealers in musical instruments; 344-48, Manchram Bldg., Sarder Vallabhai Patel Road, Bombay-4. He quoted for musical instruments as follows: Harmonium of double reed @Rs 260, Harmonium of triple reed @Rs 350, Tanpura @Rs 100 to Rs 200, mrdangas (wooden made) @Rs 150, khanjani @Rs 10 to Rs 15. What I want Mr. Vora to do is see this firm, or any other reliable firm which can regularly supply us with first quality instruments. The price quoted by the party appears to be high, so Mr. Vora has to inquire from other sources also, and he may purchase a sample transaction of one harmonium, one Maha-rashtrian mrdanga (wooden made), and a few first class kanjanis. He may bring with him as his personal property or he may see the director of the Scindia Steam Navigation Co., Sumati Morarji. If she takes charge for dispatching the goods on her ships, that is very good, but because it is a very small quantity, it may be better to bring them personally. If Mr. Vora sees Srimati Sumati Morarji, she will at once know me by my name, and she'll arrange everything. The sum and substance is that we want some reliable commission agent or supplier who can supply us regularly these things. If Sumati Morarji gives us the facilities of free shipping, that is all right. Otherwise we shall get them sent, freight paid by us. Regarding Baroda Bank, although I have got money, if the goods are dispatched through customs, then we will have to send the money from here. But if Mr. Vora either brings them personally or delivers it to Sumati Morarji as a free gift, then there will be no customs botheration. In that case I can give Mr. Vora a check on the ___ Otherwise, we will have to send American dollars. I am stressing again that we have to find out a reliable person who can regularly supply us with goods from India. This is the sum and substance, and now you can do the needful. If Mr. Vora wants to be our supplying agent, we have no objection. Let him make arrangement for supplying these goods as I have described, first quality and good price, and book it through a reliable shipping agent or through Scindia Steam Navigation Co. There will be regular business, and he will make good profit. But ask him not to make more than 10% profit over purchasing price. You may also ask him to bring with him a pair of cookers which are available in Pydhani brass utensil shops. The cost will be about $3.00, so if he can bring with him at least two cookers, that will be very nice. So things are explained above as far as possible, and now you can arrange with him. Regarding Gayatri Mantra, Arundhati's insistence is not very good. If she wants to offer prasadam to the Deities, she can simply chant Hare Krishna Mantra. There is no need of chanting Gayatri Mantra. One has to be formally accepted by the Spiritual Master for this, so you can tell her this fact. That is not the system. For the time being, if Arundhati wants to offer prasadam, the Hare Krishna Mantra will do. I hope this will meet you in good health, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. You have written nothing about Arundhati's training for the Compositor machine ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** July 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 14, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to note that everything is going on very harmoniously in your temple, and this is a symptom that you are all executing your Krishna Conscious duties nicely. You mention that you are fixing up your temple for nice Love feast program and this is cent per cent approved by me. Try to have very nice Love feasts, because here in Los Angeles they are constantly attracting more and more members to join them, and the Love feast program is one of the very strong attracting influences. This program of offering grand scale quantities of prasadam amongst the general people was encouraged by Lord Caitanya, because if someone partakes of the remnants of offerings to Lord Krishna, then he is sure to come back to Krishna Consciousness again at one time or another. So propagate our processes of Sankirtana, sumptuous Love feasts, and reading literatures of Krishna Consciousness, and surely many persons will be attracted to join this sublime movement. Regarding the Composer Machine, let things go on as quickly as possible, and when the earliest time can be set up, then Arundhati and Syama Dasi will learn how to operate the machine. This Composer is a vital part of our book program, so if you can do it combinedly very nicely, it will be the greatest service to my Guru Maharaja. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- N.B.: I have spoken with Tamala Krishna, and he will soon arrange to send you one brahmacari to help you in your Sankirtana activities ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** July 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 22, 1969 with enclosures, and I have noted the contents. So far as devanagari character is concerned, you can correspond with Remington Typewriter Company. In India, in most of the government offices devanagari type is used for correspondence, and Remington Typewriter Company has got contract with the government to supply the typewriters. So I am sure they can supply you with a devanagari typewriter. I am expecting this printing of our literature, especially Srimad-Bhagavatam, with devanagari type and diacritic transliteration will be completely entrusted to you. So you cannot type everything from the IBM. That is not possible. In the IBM machine you shall do the English work and the diacritic transliteration work. So far as the devanagari type is concerned, you have to do it with the help of another machine, and either you will have to paste on the lines or adopt some other device so that they can be joined. That shall be the process. But if we publish our Srimad-Bhagavatam exactly in the way I have already begun it, it will be a unique contribution. The scholars only require diacritic marks. Then it is all right. That should be very correct and standard. If there is devanagari character it is still better. Otherwise, correct transliterations will do. So you think over this matter seriously and train your wife for composing, and help her to the best possible way. I am glad that you are also holding a Rathayatra Festival. I am going tomorrow to San Francisco to participate in the same Rathayatra Festival there. We received report from New York that they have collected last week $1,000, and they are selling at a rate of 200 copies of BTG daily, on weekends especially. I have received report also that they are selling 60-70 copies daily in Boston and collecting $50 or $60 on the average. Your Columbus center is very nice, and the place you have got is a very suitable place. So you try to organize your center very nicely. What did you do about the mrdanga supplier from Bombay as you were discussing it with Mr. Vora? The beads referred to in your letter have not yet arrived. As you recommend this boy, Jim, so highly, surely I shall chant on them and send back to him. Last night we initiated here one dozen new devotees, both boys and girls, and they appear to be very, very nice. Last week also I initiated about seven devotees and installed the Radha-Krishna Murtis on the 16th of July. So make propaganda nicely amongst the student community, and there is very good chance of your center being developed as one of the important centers of our society. Please offer my blessings to Arundhati. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** August 6th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of July 31, 1969, along with Arundhati's letter, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the Remington typewriter typeface, it is better to purchase an original Bhagavatam from India and cut the slokas out and paste them appropriately. You can get for one dollar two small books of Bhagavatam published by Gita Press, and if you cut out the slokas in this way, the question will be finished. So if by spending $5.00 we solve the question, why should we spend $500.00 or $600.00? If you like the idea, I shall order these Bhagavatams, or you can ask Mr. Vora to bring with him the Gita Press edition in two small copies and in "black type." This will save much time and money. So far I have not heard anything from Mr. Vora. We want from Bombay one good order supplier of all kinds of goods from Bombay, and a good shipping agent. So far as payment is concerned, I shall arrange it that as soon as the shipping documents are delivered to the bank, the bank will pay immediately. So ask Mr. Vora to assist us in this respect. Regarding your idea for opening a store, don't bother with it. Let Gargamuni do it; not others. You have got more important business than selling. Both your wife and yourself are meant for publication department. Arundhati asked me whether the two pictures she has described in her letter are bona fide. The answer is no. For a picture of Nrsimha Murti, she may refer to the one painted by Jadurani. That is very nice. You may inform Vamanadeva that I have duly received his letter of July 24th, and as soon as my time for being in New York is fixed up I shall inform him. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** August 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your two letters, one dated August 5th and the other dated August 14th, and I have noted the contents. I understand that the machine is already in the IBM office in Columbus and it will be delivered by the 22nd instant. I do not know why you arranged for rental payment. You say "if the machine works satisfactorily." Does it mean that there is chance of the machine not working satisfactorily? Now if you make experiment for the first month, does it mean that if the experiment fails we lose the first month's rental? I could not follow what does it mean. In the beginning we thought and consulted in so many ways and then settled up to purchase the machine. Why have you now decided to rent it and make an experiment? This is puzzling. I think the machine must work satisfactorily, and therefore, from the beginning you can purchase it as already settled up. Thus you can purchase without delay, and upon receipt of the machine you immediately begin composing the book, Nectar of Devotion. If there are no diacritic marks, we can put the diacritic marks by pencil carefully. That will not be difficult. So immediately on receipt of the machine the book composition must begin. I am asking Hayagriva to come to Columbus along with his wife immediately to begin the work. I am very much anxious to get my books somehow or other, so don't delay the matter. Immediately you should not bother about the Sanskrit typewriter. Regarding the church on 16th Avenue, if it is possible to take this on rental, it is very nice place, and you can organize a similar temple as the one in Los Angeles. Yes, as suggested by you the householders should take charge of the maintenance of the temple. Jaya Gopala is very enthusiastic boy. He should be given all sorts of encouragement. Then he alone can manage the whole thing. I have got Bengali Caitanya-caritamrta in New York, so don't order anything present. I do not know why you want to subscribe to the Gaudiya paper. Rather you ask Brahmananda to send them a copy in exchange of our copy. But their behavior is not at all satisfactory. We are sending our BTG in three places and they haven't got even the etiquette to send even one almanac. If you want to learn Bengali, there are many sources. Simply Caitanya-caritamrta will be sufficient. I shall deliver to you my old copy when I go to New York on the way to Europe. Don't worry. Your immediate attention is to make the book composition perfect, in cooperation with Arundhati, Hayagriva and Syama Dasi. When it is nicely done and it is in due course, then you can divert your attention to other subject matters. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. If possible get our books reviewed like the one enclosed herewith ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** September 28th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 23rd, 1969 with enclosures. I shall keep the letter of Mr. Manu Vora in my file. The composition which you have sent me, although it is incomplete, it appears to be nice. I do not find any mistake in the composition, but sometimes you have spelled Caitanya as Caitanya, and sometimes you have spelled it Caitanya. so why there should be two different spellings? On page #3 you will find this difference. Otherwise, I do not find any difficulty. Regarding Isopanisad, I have no books here with me, so I cannot actually refer to the book what is Mantra #9. This is the difficulty of editorial work. I do not know in the absence of the book how I can help you. But the way of English synonyms given by you on page #3, under heading "Sri Isopanisad English Synonyms, Invocation and Mantras I-V" is set up very nicely. If you follow this principle throughout in all our books, it will be very, very nice, super-excellent work. But if you sometimes refer me on my touring program, it will be difficult for me. Of course, after my return from Europe I am sitting down tight for book work, and then it will not be very difficult job for me if you refer any sentence for correction. In the meantime, I think you are doing nicely. Just pray Krishna and do your best. So far as your family life is concerned, the description given by you is nice. You should always remember that sex life should be avoided as far as possible, and simply it can be utilized for begetting Krishna conscious children. So you are all grown up boys and girls, advanced also in Krishna Consciousness; so you will do the necessary thing even without consulting me. Regarding the pages of Nectar of Devotion which were sent to you from Germany, it may be delayed so you will have to wait for some days. It was sent by registered mail, so I am hoping it is not lost. When you receive it, please let me know. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. In every page the name of the book over the left page and the subject matter on the head of the right page must be mentioned ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** October 13th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated October 8th and 10th, 1969 and I have noted the contents carefully. I understand from your letter of October 8th that there is a struggle with the Kazi. This obstacle by the Kazi is not new to our Krishna Consciousness Movement. It was there even during the time of Lord Caitanya, but we must steadily go on with our activities without caring for these so-called custodians of law. We are the most lawful citizens in the world, but if some demon Kazi gives stumbling to our execution of duties, we cannot abide by such order. I am very glad to learn that some of the Catholic priests are sympathetic with our movement. The government says "In God we trust", and we are preaching the message of love of God, pleading with the people to become servants of God. So where is the cause of breaking the public peace? I am enclosing herewith a declaration of our Krishna Consciousness Movement which you may present in court if necessary. You depend on Krishna, try to face the charges by your best abilities and surely Krishna will help you. A similar charge was brought against our men in Philadelphia and the learned judge found that we are not culprit. Regarding our books, the scholarly way should be followed. That means as Dr. Radhakrishnan and Bon Maharaja do it, and as Dr. Singh recommends. In all our books and magazines henceforward the whole process should be changed. Whatever is done in the past forget. Now everything should be revised and presented in the scholarly way. That means throughout Krishna should be spelled Krsna, Visnu should be spelled Visnu and Caitanya should be spelled Caitanya, etc. I think this will clear the whole thing and there will be no more Maya impediment. I am sorry the NOD manuscript has not yet reached. This is another ill luck that the Post Office has not delivered. So whatever you have got finish it. If the manuscript does not reach, then we will will have to rewrite it again. If there is such need, I shall send you the duplicate. If it does reach, however, please inform me immediately. Your idea that our books should be read by scholars is quite appropriate. Without following the diacritic marks according to scholars they will think it inefficient. Yes, we want that businessmen, economists, religionists, students, etc. will all be carrying Bhagavatam and Gita. Yes, do every word of our books meticulously and perfectly accurately transcribed so the most erudite and deep thinking men of the world can enter into the intricacies of meaning in each verse. Your idea is nice. Please help all our literatures in that way and Krishna will bless you. Never mind what has been done in the past. You follow these principles steadily, chant Hare Krishna, and everything will be all right. There is no question of being frustrated. Regarding Nectar of Devotion, although it has been little procrastinated, things should be done slow but sure. Your questions certainly are not stupid. They are very intelligent questions and I am just pleased to discuss all these matters threadbare. I quite approve of your way of thinking. So do the work and Krishna will help you. Enclosed herewith is a schedule for my lectures and one good news is that our temple which was being checked by the planning commission for possession has now been released and we are now able to possess it. So our temple at 7, Bury Place is now fixed up. Where is Hayagriva and Syama Dasi? Please combinedly expedite the printing matter composed by the IBM machine and let me know of your progress. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna **Date:** November 27th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Pradyumna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 20, 1969 and I have noted the contents. Prior to this I received one letter from Arundhati explaining why things were delayed, and you have also kindly explained it. So everything by Krishna's Grace is all right. Regarding your dismissal from the job, I think it is Krishna's indication that you are not meant for such kind of service. Now you can freely and completely engage yourself in Krishna's service as He has very kindly allotted to you in the matter of editing, transliterating and helping your wife in composing. This is sufficient engagement for you. Besides that, as you have now improved in speaking you can do nice preaching work. I think you must have improved in that way because you are going through so many transcendental literatures, so you must have your ideas and philosophical notions in the matter of Krishna Consciousness. So it will be a great advantage if you get occasion speaking engagements in various schools, colleges and universities, provided they pay for it. In your country, if somebody accepts a service free of charges or at lower rates, he is considered to be third class. So although we are prepared to render our services free of charges, still, for the prestige of the society we must charge. And if you get some scholarship stipend from the foundations, that will be a great achievement. Not for the money, but the foundations will gradually recognize what valuable service we are rendering to the human society. The next point is centralization of our publication department in one place. Krishna has given us now a nice press in Boston, and you are now free from your job, so it will be very nice if you and your wife move to Boston conveniently. As you have written that Brahmananda has almost agreed to pay for the machine, so you have no anxiety. We have already discussed about purchasing another machine. So far as Syama Dasi is concerned, I do not know how it will be possible for her to live alone without her husband. I think her husband also requires her help in so many ways. So I am not very much sure about Syama Dasi's moving to Boston. But you and Arundhati can do it immediately. I am also going there, so we shall sit down together and call also Hayagriva and Syama Dasi to hold a nice meeting of all the editors, printers, etc. We will chalk out a nice program so that our work may go on very smoothly without any impediments, and surely Krishna will help us. So far as I am concerned, I would have been very glad to stay with all the editors and press workers in my presence, but the only consideration is the climatic influence. Now so far as your composition work is concerned, it is very, very nicely done, save and except there are some typographical misplacements of letters. I see there are some marginal marks, and I think these are marking the mistakes. Anyway, the composing is first class, and the transliteration is also very nice. If you can maintain this standard of composing and transliteration, that will be quite sufficient for my satisfaction. I see that your letter was posted sometimes on the 20th November, and you sent it by Special Delivery air mail. But unfortunately I received it only today and the envelope was torn out. Anyway, although it was delayed I have got it now, and I shall go through it critically and let you know in my next letter about my criticism on it. Thank you very much for your letter and be blessed by Krishna. Offer my blessings to Srimati Arundhati. She is a very nice girl, sincere servant of Krishna, and I shall always pray for her advancement in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this will meet both of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Pradyumna, Arundhati **Date:** November 14th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Pradyumna and Arundhati, Please accept my blessings. I am very much anxious to hear from you. In my last letter I was informed by you that you were going to send me some specimens of the composed version of Nectar of Devotion, but I have not received anything till now. Besides that, you have not called for the remaining portion of the manuscript. This means the major portion is not yet composed. In the meantime, the press is ready. The press has already begun to print, and without having any book ready, they are printing other materials. But the press is specifically meant for printing my books. So far as I can understand, 12 or 13 books are ready for going to the press. Simply they require to be composed. So please let me know what is the exact position why the work is going slowly. Here some respectable friend has promised to publish my book, Krsna, in two parts. The manuscript is also ready. So after Nectar of Devotion, I want to take up this work immediately. Formerly the plan was that Arundhati and Syama Dasi combinedly will compose at least 20 pages daily under the guidance of Hayagriva and Pradyumna; Pradyumna will be responsible for the diacritic marks and Hayagriva for correct English and grammatical composition. This was the arrangement. The press is ready, the manuscripts are ready, but I find from your department things are not up to the standard. So please let me know what is the position whether it is possible for you to take this responsibility. If you take the responsibility, what is the difficulty that things are going so slowly? I shall await your reply to this letter and shall thank you very much in anticipation. I hope this will meet you in good health. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prahladananda **Date:** February 14th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Prahladananda Das, Please accept my blessings and the blessings of my Guru Maharaja also. I am very pleased to accept you as my disciple, and your spiritual name is Prahladananda. This means one who is as cheerful as Maharaja Prahlada in all kinds of critical tests. With these chanting beads, this Hare Krishna Mantra is coming down by disciplic succession, so you receive it, and chant at least 16 rounds daily, and follow the prohibitive regulations. Take assistance from your godbrothers there, and engage yourself purely in the business of Krishna Consciousness. You are right when you say that we are trapped souls in a state of forgetfulness of Krishna, and Krishna is giving you the chance now to re-establish your relationship with Him by this chanting process. So take full advantage of it and be happy. I am so glad to learn that you are already lecturing in the University of Buffalo, and I have received good reports about this. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prahladananda **Date:** March 14th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Prahladananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of March the 5th, along with your check for $30.00 for my book fund. I thank you very much for your this contribution of love. I am just trying to disseminate this message of my Spiritual Master and if there's any credit for this service, everything goes to Him. This message of Krishna Consciousness is coming down from Krishna Himself, and we are all servants of the Supreme Lord working under the consecutive disciplic succession. Please try to understand our philosophy through various books that I have already published and sometimes after you will have to carry out this order of disciplic succession. I am very glad to inform you that I am keeping well here in the atmosphere at Hawaii. The atmosphere here at Hawaii is quite suitable for my health. I am staying on the sea beach side, and the place is also very congenial. I hope this meets you in good health, and happily executing Krishna Consciousness. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prahladananda **Date:** July 29th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Prahladananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 21, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very pleased to learn that you have been nicely assisting Rupanuga, and now the Buffalo center is gradually becoming very successful. It is very encouraging. It is a fact that wherever we go, if we simply let the people hear our chanting and if we repeat what we have heard from the bona fide Spiritual Master, then surely many, many sincere souls will become attracted to our movement. This is because Krishna Consciousness is lying dormant in every living entity, just like fire is dormant within a match. If we simply strike the match, then the fire within will come in blazing light. Our method of striking the match is Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. This vibration is sufficient to awaken the sleeping spirit soul to the fact that Krishna is there, and if we try to remember Him always and spread His message of Bhagavad-gita, then our life becomes perfect and we are perfectly executing our position as part and parcel of the Lord. So if you let all the residents of Buffalo hear the sound of Hare Krishna and read our literatures, then there will be the greatest all-around benefit. This past weekend in San Francisco there was a gigantic Rathayatra Ceremony just on the order of the one held at Jagannatha Puri, and at least 10,000 people were chanting and dancing along with us in full transcendental ecstasy. The boys and girls of America are generally good souls, that is why they have taken birth in such a nice country, and now they should make perfect all of their opulences by engaging everything in Krishna Consciousness. This will be the finishing touch for all the nice qualities found in the American people. In New York I understand that they have sold 3,000 copies of BTG in just two weeks, and I understand that in Buffalo you are also selling BTG very nicely. So please continue in this way and your success in life is assured. As Krishna sees that you are working very seriously to bring His other children back to the Spiritual Kingdom, then He will become very pleased and will bestow all blessings upon you. Krishna is never ungrateful for our efforts to serve Him, rest assured. Regarding your question about Bhava Shakti developing into Prema, this is covered in our book, Nectar of Devotion, and there is no necessity for you to trouble yourself over such advanced topics at the present time. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prahladananda **Date:** October 5th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Prahladananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated September 11th and the contribution check for the Bhakti-sastri examination. You have asked me for suggestions of what to say to different persons on Sankirtana Party, but there is no specific saying to any person. Whatever we say we say to everyone. It doesn't matter what is his age. Krishna Consciousness teaching does not depend on the age. It is the eternal platform of the soul. This is the meaning of transcendental; that is is beyond any consideration of material qualifications such as age or intelligence. Just like thunder in the sky does not need any explanation to any old person or to a young child, similarly, the transcendental sound vibration of Hare Krishna and preaching of Bhagavad-gita philosophy will act on everyone, regardless of whether or not they are understanding at first. When preaching you only repeat what you have heard from the disciplic succession and this will act. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Prosanta Mukherjee **Date:** September 1st 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg > Sri Prosanta Mukherjee Imlitala, Mahaprabhu's Gadi Seva Kunj, Vrindaban INDIA Dear Prosantaji, Please accept my greetings and blessings of Lord Krishna. This is to inform you that in spite of my writing to so many Mukutwalas and Murtiwalay I am receiving no reply to my letters. Last Month I wrote some reminding letters to Ram Natha Murtiwala, but this also has gained no reponse. I am wondering if you have any information as to what is the difficulty in this connection. I shall be glad to receive your letter by return of post. Sincerely yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Purusottama **Date:** March 6th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Purusottama, Please accept my blessings. I am glad to inform you that we have reached Hawaii in due time on Monday afternoon and immediately we met the devotees who came to receive us and I have come directly to Govinda dasi's residence. This place is very nice. It is just on the seashore and from the room on the second floor we can always see the seaview, so it is both scenic and healthy atmosphere. But it is a very distant place from our temple. It takes almost two hours to come and go by car. Therefore I am giving you the following address for mailing of my letters and redirecting our mails. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.O. Box 506Kaawa, OahuHAWAII 96730We performed Lord Caitanya's Birthday ceremony, not very gorgeously, but amongst ourselves, and Govinda dasi cooked very nice Ekadasi foodstuffs. The next day I expected some big ceremony but it couldn't be performed. We are looking out for a better place where the Brahmacaris and the temple can be united. At the present moment, it is very scattered and actually the temple management is impossible to be in order. So, for the time being you can redirect all my mails to my above post box address in this village. Please offer my blessings to all and I shall be glad to hear from you how the things are going there. Awaiting your early reply, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Purusottama **Date:** March 10th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Purusottam, Please accept my blessings. I hope you have already received the the tape No. 36, Today I am sending the tape No. 37. You need not send me the typed copies. You can keep them with you. Dindayal wants me in San Francisco for a few days. So I have agreed. You can talk with him by phone & ask him to send me the passage money. As soon as I get it I shall start for San Francisco because here there is no serious engagements. Of course the climate is nice & I am keeping nice here. Kartikeya is ill for indigestion. Hope you are well. Please offer my blessings to all there. The condition of the centre is not very satisfactory. So I am trying to rectify it. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. BhaktivedantaP.S. Please send me a few copies of the photostat "Krishna Chant Startles London". ### Letter to R. Chalson **Date:** June 12th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear R. Chalson, I beg to thank you very much for your kind letter dated June 8, 1969, addressed to our New York temple and forwarded to me. I am very pleased to read the contents. My Spiritual Master, Om Visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja Prabhupada, sometimes used to say that if after selling all of my property I can convert one person to Krishna Consciousness factually, then I shall think my mission is successful. Similarly, I am also thinking like that after reading your letter that if I could induce even one person to Krishna Consciousness through my publication, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, then I shall think my labor is successful. So I am very much encouraged to read your letter, and I have received many such letters from others also, so I am very hopeful. I am sorry that many of the important verses in Bhagavad-gita As It Is were left without purport explanations, but the MacMillan Company wanted to minimize the volume of the book. I am not satisfied with this, so my next attempt will be to publish the same with explanations for all the verses without any exception. Actually, our Krishna Consciousness Movement means to propagate in the human society the transcendental understanding of Krishna. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that out of many men, only one is interested in self-realization, and out of many thousands of self-realized persons, only one may understand Krishna. But if one understands Krishna as to what He is, what are His transcendental activities, then such person immediately is eligible to enter into the Kingdom of God, and not to come again in this miserable world. People in general do not even understand that this world is miserable for the conditioned soul. Neither are they very interested in the Kingdom of God. They want to make this miserable world as the Kingdom of God without God. So there is a great necessity of propagating the Krishna Consciousness Movement. As you appear to be very intelligent and interested in this connection, I shall request you to help this movement as far as possible. Thank you again for your kind letter. Sincerely yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Raj Dewan **Date:** March 8th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii Dear Sriman Raj Dewan, I am so pleased to receive your letter dated Feb. 20th, 1969, Swami B. D. Madhava of Sri Caitanya Gaudiya Math has kindly requested you to contact me so I am so much thankful to both of you. He is my God-brother. The books mentioned by you can exactly be had from Gaudiya Math, Kali Prasad Cakravarti Lane, Bagh Bazar, Calcutta-3, India. Some of the books mentioned by you are sometimes imported by my New York center, and the manager in charge is Sriman Brahmananda Brahmacari, ISKCON Temple, 61 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003.There are other books also, namely, Srimad-Bhagavatam in 3 volumes, Bhagavad-gita As It Is-published by MacMillan company, and Teachings of Lord Caitanya, etc. written by me. I am forwarding your letter to Sriman Brahmananda and you can also contact him in this connection. Thanking you once more, Yours in the service of the Lord, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Raktak **Date:** September 25th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Raktak, Please accept my blessings. I beg to [indistinct] receipt of your letter dated September [indistinct]. I have noted the contents. Regarding [indistinct] have mentioned in your letter, if [indistinct] and good for protection, there is no [indistinct] my part. The idea is that dress has to be accepted according to the taste of others and foodstuffs are to be accepted according to the eater's taste. So if you think this kind of dress will attract more people, you can dress yourself in that manner. But our real dress is the tilaka and sikha. [indistinct] always present there. So consult with [indistinct] and decide what is to be done in this [indistinct].Please offer my blessings to the others [indistinct] this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Raktaka **Date:** May 31st 1969 — **Location:** Moundsville My Dear Raktaka, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of May 26, 1969, sent along with your beads. I have duly chanted upon these beads and have initiated you as my disciple. Your spiritual name is Raktaka das Brahmacari. Raktaka is a cowherd boyfriend of Krishna. I am very pleased that you have become very attracted to and serious about this Krishna Consciousness Movement. As you continue to follow the regulative principles and thereby as you continue to advance in your understanding of Krishna Consciousness, you will find that your attraction for Krishna and spiritual life will increase more and more. The main regulative principles for brahmacari life are four in number, and they are 1) no illicit sexual connections, 2) no intoxication, including coffee, tea and cigarettes, 3) no nonvegetarian diet, and 4) no gambling. So if you will follow these principles, chant 16 rounds each day upon your beads, avoid the ten offenses which Hansadutta will give to you, and help propagate this chanting of Hare Krishna as far as possible, then you will see your life becoming more and more sublime. From your letter I can understand that you are an intelligent boy, so now you may make the best use of your intelligence in perfecting your life in Krishna Consciousness. Please continue to be very serious about this endeavor, and surely Krishna will give you all facilities for serving Him nicely. If you have any further questions you should ask Hansadutta, or if you like, I am always ready to help you in whichever way I can. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Raktaka **Date:** September 6th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Raktaka, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of September 1st, 1969, and I have noted the contents. For the time being there is no need of going to India. The first thing is that you do not know the Indian language. If you want to be really helpful to the society, at least for the time being you should remain in a place to take training to assist our society's work. I do not know what is the disadvantage for you in Montreal. If you feel some disadvantage, then come to Boston or Los Angeles for some time. In the meantime I am corresponding with Acyutananda in India. If he actually requires some assistance, I shall advise you later on. If you have got money, keep it carefully as it may be required later. Regarding the two books you have mentioned, Sri Ramacharitamanasa by Goswami Tulasi das is not very authorized, and Ramayana is authorized. One thing is though, you have got enough other books to study. Did you appear in the examination held on Janmastami Day? Why should you go to Ramayana when you have got Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam and Teachings of Lord Caitanya? Don't divert your attention in that way. The author of Ramacharitamanasa, Goswami Tulasi das, has a tint of Mayavadi philosophy. He belongs to the Ramananda Sampradaya. They are mixed up combination of personalist and impersonalist. Therefore, the author is not considered as pure Vaisnava. Pure Vaisnava is free from all material contamination of fruitive activities and mental speculation. The pure Vaisnava is simply, purely disposed to transcendental loving service to Krishna. The pure Vaisnava rejects anything which has no pure idea of serving the Personality of Godhead. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ranadhir **Date:** October 15th 1969 > Tittenhurst Park Tittenhurst House Ascot, Berkshire, ENGLAND My Dear Ranadhir, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 10th October, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. In my opinion Hayagriva should maintain New Vrindaban. As an ideal grihasta he should spend at least 50% of his income for New Vrindaban. So if he has got money, you should not ask other centers for maintenance of the cows. Things are coming along nicely in London, and last week we were granted permission by the authorities to occupy the building at 7, Bury Place. So more and more Krishna is giving us facilities to push on this Krishna Consciousness throughout the world. Tonight there is to be held an engagement at Conway Hall in London, and in previous engagements I have marked that many of the English are very intelligent and nicely disposed toward our movement. By the Grace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the boys and girls of the Western countries are eagerly accepting this Samkirtan Movement and gradually making perfection in their lives. You are a sincere soul, so continue to chant Hare Krishna the prescribed number of rounds, depending on Krishna in all instances, and surely He will be pleased to bestow His blessings upon you. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ranadhir **Date:** December 7th 1969 My Dear Ranadhir, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated November 23, 1969. I am so pleased to learn of the increased development of New Vrindaban. Please now try to organize a children's school. This is one of our programs in New Vrindaban, and there is Hayagriva, Kirtanananda, Satyabhama, Shama Dasi, Paramananda and yourself. You can form a school committee and get it recognized by the Education Board. Then more children will be sent. There is one small child in Berkeley, and if you so desire, you can ask Hansadutta to send the child in your care. Your mother has very kindly spoken about me, and she is herself a good lady. Otherwise, how could she have a nice child like you? So please keep in touch with your good mother and try to bring in Krishna Consciousness gradually. That is also one of your duties. As your mother's duty was to raise you till you got strength, similarly when a child is grown up, it is his duty to see to the spiritual welfare of his mother. In the Srimad Bhagavatam the example is Devahuti and Lord Kapiladev. Lord Kapiladev appeared as the Son of Devahuti, and in the absence of Kardamuni, the father of Lord Kapiladev, the Divine Son instructed His mother, Devahuti, and she got elevated to the transcendental position. Any boy who comes there, please take special care of them. As it generally said, the child is the father of the man. So if we can train little boys to Krishna Consciousness, it will be a great help to our future activities. I was fortunate to get birth in such family, and my father trained me in this line. I am reaping the fruit in this old age for that training. So let New Vrindaban be an ideal spot for Krishna Consciousness population; self-dependent on the local production and cow's milk. That is my ideal. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Ranadhira **Date:** October 8th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Ranadhira, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 28th, 1969, and your attitude of a humble devotee is very much appreciated. Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught us to be humbler than the grass on the street and more tolerant than the tree, and thus chant Hare Krishna Maha Mantra without any impediments. I have seen you when I was in New Vrindaban, and you are quite fit to take charge of New Vrindaban asrama. Take especially nice care of the boys there. They are our future hopes. I have not heard anything from Satyabhama or Paramananda for some time, so please inform me of their whereabouts at present. In Hayagriva's letter I understand he doesn't want much to be interfered with by others, so you do the management very nicely so that everything may go on smoothly. Thanking you once more for your letter, I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** January 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents with care. I am so glad to hear that you were enjoying your visit in Los Angeles last week, and you should know that I was similarly very glad to have you here with me. As you are sick with the flu now, I think it best that you do not exert yourself by working too much strenuously but rather you rest as much as possible until you are feeling better. I have noted with pleasure that Jaya Govinda* has sent you a nice Govardhana Hill article for printing in Back To Godhead. I have already instructed Jaya Govinda to arrange for going to Hamburg and let us see what will happen with this boy. I have been requested by Janardana in Montreal temple to immediately send him the original manuscript of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and I think that you are keeping this manuscript in New York so kindly send it to Montreal as soon as possible. Janardana will require this manuscript to translate into the French language for publication, so it is important business, and please do the needful in this connection. Thanking you once more for your letter. I hope this finds you improving in your health. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- * I have received one letter from Jaya Govinda which suggests that he and Acyutananda are being poisoned like Hrsikesa. Will you send me the last letter of Jaya Govinda which you have said is not very good. Will you send it to me? ACB ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Unknown Place My dear Rayarama, please accept my blessings. I am writing by hand so that you may know that I am better than before. Your programme as you have let me know in your letter of August 4, 1967 is nice. Follow it with faith in Krishna and everything will come out successful. I have taken leave from you for six months but Krishna willing I may be with you in the month of November next. If in the meantime your London Branch is opened then I shall stop in London before going to U.S.A. We have tremendous task before us. Vrindaban is an inspiration only but our real field of work is all over the world. Even if I die you are my future hopes & you will do it. I am feeling very much for you all. Please let the ball roll on just as it is set. Make the Boston center still more powerful because it will be an important center. What about Washington? I am anxious to know if Brahmananda met the Ambassador of U.S.A., Mr. B. K. Nehru, with my books. If so how he was received and what talks were exchanged. He is very important man for our future activities. Please ask Brahmananda to write about Ambassador Nehru & the MacMillan contract. Gargamuni may be informed that I am in receipt of his letters regarding marriage with Karunamayi. I have already sanctioned the urge in Brahmananda's letter. I hope Brahmananda has already managed the affairs nicely. Convey my blessings to all my sons & daughters. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** January 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 24, 1969, and I have noted the contents with care. Just yesterday I also received Back To Godhead, no. 22, and it is looking very good. This issue is very nice, and I thank you and all of your hard-working press men for their sincere efforts in this connection. I am confident that this magazine will be improving more and more under your direction. Regarding your need for more manpower, I have already asked Arabinda to go there, and he will be writing to you soon about this. Regarding the securing of advertisements, this responsibility should be divided among three centers, namely New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Purusottama has already gotten some advertisements for you, and he is teaching Sudama to help him also in Los Angeles. In San Francisco, both Cidananda and Dindayal will be trying for this also. In New York, Gargamuni and Nayana Bhirama should work in this way also. Nayana Bhirama did nicely in securing advertisements for this last issue, so I think he is skillful enough to be very helpful for the next issue also. If advertisements are sold in many different cities, it will add prestige to the magazine, because people will see that we are getting advertisements from all over. Similarly, the sales of Back To Godhead should be divided more evenly amongst our centers. Not that one or two temples do all of the selling and all of the others should simply sleep. Los Angeles can sell 1,500 copies, and similarly, New York and San Francisco should sell at least an equal amount of copies a piece. The other centers should sell the remainder of the copies, and if necessary, you can print more. Also, you should have the centers pay for their copies immediately upon receipt. If they do not have the money, then they must secure it by working, but somehow or other this system must be introduced so that you will not always be in financial difficulties for printing future issues. Also, I would be very much interested to see records of how much you are spending and earning in production and sales and advertisements for Back To Godhead. Thanking you once more for your letter and the very nice new issue. I hope this will meet you in improving health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: I do not understand why there is no word from you about the Prahlada Maharaja pictures which are to be printed here. Please inform Purusottama what is the difficulty ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** February 9th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I am very much anxious to know how is your present condition of health. Please let me know if you are improving or if there is some disturbance still. We should always remember that our body is not for sense gratification; it is for Krishna's service only. And to render very good sound service to Krishna we should not neglect the upkeep of the body. We learn from an instance of Sanatana Goswami. He was sometimes very much sick on account of eczema, and he was therefore sometimes bleeding. But whenever Lord Caitanya met Sanatana Goswami, He used to embrace him in spite of Sanatana's request for Him not to touch him. Because of this. Sanatana Goswami later on decided to commit suicide so Lord Caitanya would not embrace him in his bloody condition. This plan was understood by Lord Caitanya, and He called Sanatana Goswami and said to him, "you have decided to end this body, but don't you know that this body belongs to Krishna? You have already dedicated your body to Krishna so how can you decide to end it?" So you must not neglect the upkeep of your body. This is the lesson we get from Lord Caitanya and Sanatana Goswami. Try to take care of your health in the best possible way. Regarding Back To Godhead, the advertisements which you are now getting, especially the hippie advertisements, are not very good. Therefore, I am thinking of avoiding these advertisements. But so far as I understand, if we stop the advertisements immediately, the publication would be stopped altogether. So I do not wish to take such drastic way. I will be glad to know if you will submit to me an account of what is the actual expenditures and income for our Back To Godhead publication. Then we shall try to find out the money by some other means and then stop the advertisements. Eventually we wish to publish only purely Krishna Consciousness articles up to 48 pages per month. So please inform me of the actual expenditures, income, and also exactly how many hands are engaged in putting together an issue. Please list the names of your helpers and what is their specific duty. So far as I understand, the number of regular subscribers is not very satisfactory. Back To Godhead is being distributed by individual canvassing only. So if that is the position, then there is no need to publish something which is not pure Krishna Consciousness. Purely Krishna Consciousness means as you have published the article Isopanisad, and similarly we can publish all the Upanisads, the Vedanta Sutra, and many similar articles. The articles like Dr. Spock, the Beach Boys, or nonsense book reviews should be completely avoided. I know in India, the Kalyana Kalpatu paper and similar other papers do not take any advertisement, neither do they review any book unless it is published by them. So I think we should follow this policy. I shall be glad to hear from you in this connection at your earliest convenience. But for the time being, things may go on as it is regarding advertisements, so long as you avoid the hippy advertisements as far as possible. I hope this will meet you in improving health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** February 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I have received your very long letter dated February 9, 1969. I have to read it very carefully and reply you in due course, but I wish to inform you that the advertisements are not very congenial to our prestige, especially the hippy kind of advertisements. So we have to think over how we can avoid the advertisements and publish at the same time. The hippy advertisements referred to by Purusottama was written to you on my consent. When I look through the back issues, the comic pictures of Vamanadeva, of the hunter, of the bride-groom party, such things are very instructive. I think instead of engaging our pages in the matter of book reviews with which we do not agree, we should utilize these pages for such comic pictures. On the whole, I wish to present Back To Godhead purely in the line of Krishna Consciousness throughout and criticism of too much materialism, as you have written many articles already. That is very nice. Anyway, the whole thing is depending upon you because I can not possibly divert my attention. But if I receive some contribution from each center for publishing Back To Godhead regularly, that will be a nice program so that we may not have to depend on advertisements or sales. Each center should take responsibility of contributing some money towards the publication of Back To Godhead, instead of depending upon each center for selling Back To Godhead. For example, if a center contributes $100, we send them copies at cost price to the amount and it doesn't matter whether they sell it or not. It doesn't matter if they sell it or not. But we must have the monthly contribution. The copies which are not sold may be distributed free to schools, libraries, influential gentlemen, etc. This will greatly further our propaganda, and I am thinking in these terms. I have received one letter from Subala regarding his circular letter to different centers, and the reply is enclosed herewith. I can induce Los Angeles to pay $750, and we can deliver them 5,000 copies of Back To Godhead. Similarly, if San Francisco contributes $750 we can deliver them 5,000 copies. So far as Los Angeles and San Francisco are concerned, I can ask the boys to work and pay $750 positively every month. Similarly, if New York is agreed to work and pay $750, then the whole question is solved, and we can print 20,000 copies immediately from Dai Nippon. I do not know if it is practical, but to my mind, if New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles agree to pay $750 each month, there is no problem. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** February 20th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 16, 1969. The letterhead is very impressive with the picture of Lord Caitanya dancing, and just below His Lotus Feet is the word, Back To Godhead. According to Narottama das Thakura, one has to worship the Lotus Feet of Nityananda, and by His Grace one is able to worship Lord Caitanya Who transfers us back to Godhead. So the picture and the arrangement is very nice. The most concerning part of your letter is about your health. You write to say that by 3 o'clock in the evening you get a slight fever, and your head begins to ache, and you feel tired and wish to take rest. This is not a very good sign. The immediate program is that you will have to be relieved from these symptoms. So the first thing is that you should take complete rest. So far as New York is concerned, I don't think different engagement there will allow you to take rest. I would have advised you to go to New Vrindaban immediately but it is cold there like in New York. Under the circumstances, if you like to come here and take rest you are welcome. But wherever you like you may take rest and not be strained at all. That is my opinion, and I shall be glad to know what you are going to do in this connection. Regarding your fraternal quarrel, these departmental management sometimes creates such trouble. When I was in New York in the beginning of our activities there was no departmental management. The account was very clearly kept by Gargamuni, corroborated by regular vouchers. That is the true system of keeping accounts. Now whatever is done is done. I am glad to know that Subala is making good show of business and responsibility, and he is supposed to keep quite accurate accounts of bookkeeping. So you can advise him to follow the system of vouchers. That is the perfect system of account. Regarding printing 20,000 copies of Back To Godhead, I have appealed to 4 centers, namely New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London to contribute $750 monthly. I have got confirmation from Los Angeles, so I shall be glad to hear from New York also whether this center is going to hand over to me $750 per month. I have no objection if this $750 is collected in the way of advertisements from New York, but charges will be increased because we are going to print 20,000 copies henceforward. So we shall charge $100 per page and we shall not accept any advertisements from the hippies. So who is going to pay me this $750? If I get $750 from the 4 centers, then I shall take charge of distribution; because Brahmananda has already taken responsibility for distributing the books. I simply want this contribution continually at least for 6 months against delivery of 5,000 copies of Back To Godhead. If I am able to print 20,000 copies continually for 6 months, perhaps I will no longer require the contribution from the different centers. Therefore, please ask Subala or any one else in New York center who is going to collect this $750 and pay me. So far as your fraternal quarrel is concerned, I may recite in this connection one story: An old father required massaging so all the children wanted to serve the father. The father divided the right and left portion of his body to be served by the children. Later along with the service, there was some quarrel between the children, and they were competing by hitting the parts of the father which was assigned to the opposing party. So the father said that you are hitting my different parts due to your opposition to one another, but I am therefore dying. Similarly, either this department or that department, if you quarrel amongst yourselves it will be detrimental to my missionary ambition. Please therefore stop this unnecessary strain. If there is any misunderstanding, it will be solved when I am present there in April. In the meantime, please live peacefully, and things may go on as it is going on. My letterhead is already sent back to you. I hope that by now you have sent to Janardana the Bhagavad-gita manuscript. At last I may inform you that if you are thinking of transferring your department to San Francisco, I have no objection, but before you do so please come here to Los Angeles first. Then you may either remain here or proceed to New Vrindaban, San Francisco, Seattle, or Sante Fe as you think is best for you to take rest there. Also, regarding another editor to work as co-editor, I wish to invite Hayagriva to again become joint editor. I shall be glad to hear from you at your earliest convenience on the above matters. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** February 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 19, 1969 and I am so glad to learn that the New York temple will be able to meet the $750 monthly payments I requested. So far as Dai Nippon's quotation at $2,100 for 20,000 copies with a sixty day period before delivery, please send me the original letter if you have received anything. But I had understood that Brahmananda was negotiating to lessen the amount to $1,500. From your letter I see you did not understand that I meant the typesetting and layout work to be done by Dai Nippon within the quotation. But now I understand that they are going to charge more for this work. If we have to pay them more for the typesetting and layout, then there is no question of stopping our own men from doing this work. So it was clearly misunderstanding. Now our policy should be as follows: 1. the layout should be done by us, 2. there should be no advertisements, 3. under different headings we shall publish articles from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Brahma Samhita, Nectar of Devotion, Vedanta Philosophy, Upanisads, etc. as well as comic pictures when possible. Besides that, if some of our students write as they have assimilated the philosophy, that also should be welcome. You say that Rohini Kumar is an artist, so he can do comic work. There are other girls there such as Indira who can also do this. So we shall fill up the pages simply with Vedic ideas. Now the policy should be straight that this Back to Godhead is completely different from all other magazines. As there are different magazines for different subject matters, this magazine will be simply devoted for Vaisnava philosophy, or Krishna Consciousness movement. That should be our policy. So immediately you can arrange for two months layout. How are you going to select the articles? I would like to know. We should lay out the subject matter as nicely as possible to our intelligence and capacity, and without any ambition that it must attract customers. They may attract or not attract, it doesn't matter. We are selling Back To Godhead through the personal approach, through the Sankirtana Party, so I expect each center to sell 50 copies daily on the average as we have practical experience here. In this way, if four centers sell on an average 200 copies daily, then we come to the point of selling 6,000 copies directly which will cover the expense of printing and other charges. The balance 14,000 copies can be sold by the temples simply on profit. If they are not sold, then we distribute free to different societies, libraries, public institutions, respectable gentlemen, schools, etc. In this way we shall make propaganda. The idea is like that of a Bible society in India which distributes millions of dollars in the shape of biblical literature without any consideration of return. Similarly, we have to sacrifice each $750 on this principle. If there is return, that is alright, but still we have to do it on a missionary spirit. That is my idea. So try to think on this program and do the needful. I have received the booklet known as Paramahamsa Sarasvati Goswami issued by the Gaudiya Mission of London. I can understand that this brochure was written by my godbrother, Professor Sannyal, but the essay is not very practical. It contains some ideal discussions only, and I know that this Professor Sannyal is personally deviated from all of these ideas. So I don't think it is very much valuable for publishing in Back To Godhead. So I hope the above has answered all of your questions. Please keep me informed how things are progressing, and also about your health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** March 6th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of Feb. 27, 1969, and I am so glad to read it. Keep your health in good condition and work very hard for Krishna. That is our motto of life. I am so glad to learn that you felt too much inconvenience in the company of the karmis in your last tour to Los Angeles. There is a verse in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu in which it is stated, the more you advance in Krishna Consciousness, the more you become disgusted with the material modes of life. When the American boys are disgusted with cigarette smokers, or listening to rock music and meaningless chattering, it means there is Krishna's Grace. May Krishna bless you more and more, as you advance in Krishna Consciousness. You wanted one assistant editor, and I can understand that you may feel inconvenience with Hayagriva, but would you like to have as your assistant editor, Gaurasundara? So he can help you in editing work even from such distant place. But the difficulty is that he is working here to maintain the establishment. I have advised Govinda dasi to think of this and he may write you. Regarding Bhagavad-gita manuscript: If you have got two copies then you can send one to Janardana. Otherwise you have to send him a copy only, and keeping one copy with you. Because in future I am thinking of publishing a revised and enlarged edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. You know that we have to cut short the book because the MacMillan Company wanted within 400 pages. So you know that the majority of the verses in the back portion of the book were not given purports. Therefore in our next publication we shall give purport for all the verses.* So you should keep one copy with you before you send the manuscript to Janardana. That Rohini Kumara is assisting you in artistic abilities is very gratifying. So you are preparing for the Japanese issues. In fact, from the number when we begin our Japanese issue we shall stop advertisement altogether . . . either hippies or dhippies. You select your articles according to your best choice but I shall recommend to publish the article of Hayagriva, "Hare Krishna Movement Exploded." I have received suggestion from Dindayal—he is getting good response from Berkeley and he is expecting that the whole quota of 5000 may be completely sold. In Hawaii, however, they have no Back To Godheads, and receipt of them is very much delayed and sporadic. So if the shipping is closed they can be sent by air cargo. So we have to organize the transport means also. I think there is some special postal rate for 50 lb. lot. So with the assistance of Subala please do the needful and make Back To Godhead a successful Krishna Consciousness magazine. My program is to stay here up to the end of March, but in San Francisco they also want me for a few days there. So before going to New York I may go to San Francisco from here. Of course, you think you cannot leave your office just now, but this place is very nice. I think if you could manage to come here a few days then you can directly exchange letters with Govinda dasi. Please care for your health nicely, and convey my blessings to all the devotees there in New York. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *As well as word to word meanings ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** March 20th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. Your letter dated March 11, 1969 is in hand, and I have noted the contents. regarding Hawaii: Certainly it is very nice place, the climate is milder and there is much fresh air from the ocean and sunshine, and the sceneric position is also beautiful. I would have immediately developed a colony for press operation, but unfortunately there is no facility for conducting a press here at present. But so far I can think, your editorial staff must be situated where we have got our own press. I do not know whether it is Krishna's desire that we should start our press immediately—but the circumstances give me to understand that we must start our press immediately. Because the negotiations with Dai Nippon are very much prolonging. I am thinking very seriously if we can print the 20,000 or more copies of BTG in our own press, as well as at least 4 books (the size of my Srimad-Bhagavatam) in a year. That should be our future program, backed by our Sankirtana parties moving all over the world. So for this proposal we have got our land already in New Vrindaban; so I do not know whether it is feasible but I wish to concentrate there in New Vrindaban the major portion of our activities. These Hawaiian islands are very beautiful but at present there is no facilities for working out our scheme—whereas we have land in New Vrindaban. I am encouraging Gaurasundara and Govinda dasi to try to develop in this side another place, as New Navadvipa. So just immediately there is no possibility of operating our press in the islands, but in future we shall see. But if there is too much difficulty to work out the Navadvipa plan then I may call back Gaurasundara and Govinda dasi to New Vrindaban, for working as part of the BTG staff. In California there is also good place for working for operating press, but we have not got our own place there either. I have heard it from Dindayal that it may be possible to get a house in San Francisco Bay Area, expected to be donated by a devotee lady. So I am going there and see how that is possible. So far your staff arrangement is concerned I think you have got nice staff to assist you, and Hayagriva has also written you to consult how you can work jointly. I think for Krishna's sake we shall try to work together even at the risk of little personal inconvenience. Our foremost concern is Krishna. If Krishna's service is well done, then we should try to forget our personal inconveniences. I know you are already advanced in this type of Krishna Consciousness, and Krishna will give you intelligence more and more, but you stick to this principle as you have taken your life's vow to improve BTG. That is my request. That will make you victorious in achieving Krishna's blessings. So I am coming very soon to New York by the end of the first week of April, and we shall chalk out our program. In the meantime try to recoup your health, depending on Krishna, because after all, He is the ultimate Master of all situations. It is not the doctor, or the medicine, or the place, but it is ultimately Krishna Who is the Master to do every thing. With this viewpoint we shall go forward. It will also be better if Gaurasundara and Govinda dasi are within the staff of BTG activities, but to adjust these things, we require Krishna's help. Your index idea for Bhagavad-gita is very nice. If we continue to get our printed matters from Dai Nippon then certainly it will be very much convenient if the whole staff comes here to Hawaii, as it is nearer, but if we have to change the printing work to our own press, then we have to reconsider the whole idea. So let us depend on Krishna and hope for the best arrangement by Him. I hope this meets you in better health, and please convey my blessings to all the boys and girls there in N.Y. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Enlist the following name in the list of complimentary BTG in IndiaTridandi Swami B.R. Padmanabha MaharajaP.O. Bouria DR: Howrah. West Bengal, India. Also jointly carry on the Sankirtana Party and forget all other part spirit. On the other side you will find a poetry composed by me in 1935 on the occasion of my Spiritual Masters birthday. This poetry was found in the India House Library at London by Gurudasa. I was searching after it and my master has rewarded me of this after so long a time (34 years). Please publish it in BTG.ACBS ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** April 2nd 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated March 25, 1969, along with the two magazines. These are very excellent both in appearance and in reading matter. This should be the standard of our Back To Godhead. As in the next issue there will be no advertisements, we shall be able to give substantial reading matter like that of Bhaktivinode Thakura, "Teachings of the Golden Avatara." We have got many such informations from the Vedic literature. The mayavadis reject the Puranas, but actually the Puranas are supplementary to the four Vedas, the Upanisads and Vedanta. This is confirmed by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura. Srimad-Bhagavatam also is considered amongst the Puranas, but because the subject matter within is purely transcendental, it is called the Maha Purana. So from the Puranas we can give many, many instructive articles with nice pictures. Similarly, we can give many valuable articles, even from political or social points of view (although they are not our business), so much so, that the people of the world will have completely novel spiritual ideas. As people in your country are very much receptive to new ideas, I think we can place Back To Godhead very nicely with sensible layout. The present issue is excellently done. It is rich in all respects. Your article, "Nine Points," is very instructive. I do not know whether people will take our advice, but we must go on presenting these ideas to the human society. If you are not going to print any more issues in the interval period between this issue and the Japan issue, then I think you can reprint another minimum 10,000 copies for continuing the sales propaganda. I am glad to learn that you are trying to work out things with Hayagriva. I have advised him that he may come also as co-editor. In your previous letter you wanted that the final words in the management of Back To Godhead will rest on one person, either on you or on Hayagriva. I think that for management it is better to have two heads than one. But even there will be two heads, I still wish that you shall continue as the managing editor as you are doing now. Naturally, the final decisions will rest upon you. And if there is actually any controversy, I think there will not be, then I am always at your service. In a recent letter from Hayagriva, I understand that he is feeling little disappointment because there was no invitation from your side. I think now you shall invite him and work jointly as you were doing before. I am still sanguine that my decision in the beginning about you and Hayagriva working as editors for Back To Godhead was very appropriate. I wish to see that both of you, being so intelligent and sincere devotees, shall work together, and then Krishna will help us to propagate this Sankirtana Movement magazine so nicely. I am going to Los Angeles on the sixth morning, and I am thinking of starting for New York on the ninth morning. The tickets may be sent directly to the Los Angeles temple address. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Enclosed find one nice article published in Hawaii while I was coming here. I think you can utilize it for your BTG.ACB ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** May 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated April 28, 1969, and I was very glad to note the contents. Regarding the IBM Composer, I think Krishna desires to have this machine because printing of our books in Japan is gradually fading due to the Japanese people's changing their words. I understand from Brahmananda that negotiations were going on between $5,000 and $6,000, and now they want to increase the price to $8,000. I do not therefore wish to deal with them. We must find out some other source for printing our books. But one thing, if we can present our composed pages, why not print them in New York? Behind my apartment, 26 Second Avenue, there is one press, Glen Press. Sometimes they printed our Prospectus. So why don't you take quotation from them about printing our books in 8 page sheets or as they can suitably print on their machine. You can immediately go and see the press, and take price, saying that we shall give the composed pages and select the paper also and provide it. What will be their charges for printing four pages or eight pages on one side? That means eight pages a form or sixteen pages a form. Then we can get it printed there and do our own folding and binding. So immediately take quotation for this, either from Glen Press or any other press. Then the problem of printing will be solved. If we can get the printing done in New York it is the best. In the meantime, you negotiate for the IBM Composer suitable for all of our purposes, books and magazines, and I shall ask Brahmananda to pay $600.00 when the negotiation is complete. Regarding the boy, Birbhadra, I am glad to learn that you are taking proper care. The boy is very intelligent, but you should not only be kind upon him, that is understood because we should always be kind, but at the same time you should be very strict on disciplinary method. I have seen your notes of the meeting held in Buffalo, and surely they will be useful. I am pleased that you are working on Nectar of Devotion, and please try to have it ready as planned. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** May 15th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 10th, 1969, and I have gone over the contents carefully. Regarding the IBM Composer, please have the IBM Company send me one letter stating that $660.00 should be transferred to their account, such and such account number, on the completion of the negotiations. Then I shall advise my bank to transfer the money to the IBM's account upon completion of your talks with them. Regarding your proposed program of editing, the Bhagavatam First Canto is already edited, so when making final typing, you shall simply see it for proofreading. I do not think that you need take too much burden because you may fall ill with too much work. Now you are editing Back To Godhead, and when we get the Composer there will be so much proofreading for you. So I think this will be sufficient work for you. Regarding Birbhadra, when I go to New Vrindaban soon I shall see if the situation is all right for him to go there. For the present, he need not go out, and you should simply teach him history, geography and mathematics. His history lessons will take care of his reading and spelling instruction. So far as your question about how to think of Radha-Krishna, your present process of visualizing the Deities is nice. You have written for me to press the temples, namely London and San Francisco, to send their $750 for the printing of Back To Godhead, but this project should be referred to Brahmananda because he is in charge of dealing with Dai Nippon Company in this connection. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** May 17th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 14, 1969, and I have received a similar letter from Brahmananda also that you are finding some difficulty in keeping pace regularly with the routine work. My advice to you under the circumstances is that at least for one hour you must all go to have Sankirtana outside on the streets or in the park. That is your life and soul, first business. The next business is completing the chanting of 16 rounds every day. The next business is your editing, and if you find extra time, then you can attend the temple ceremonies. Otherwise you can stop these activities, but outdoor kirtana, your editing work and chanting of 16 rounds must be done. Outdoor kirtana must be done, even at the cost of suspending all editorial work. That is your first and foremost business. Temple worship is not so important. If need be, the whole temple can be locked, but the outdoor kirtana cannot be stopped. Regarding Birbhadra, Kirtanananda is not here now, he is in North Carolina, but when he returns I shall talk with him about taking our boys to New Vrindaban. Otherwise, they will be returned to their mother in Los Angeles. Regarding the two books you mentioned, they are all right. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. When you come to New Vrindaban, please bring my tape-recorder (in white box) lying in my closet ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** May 27th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 21, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the Composer machine, there will be no difficulty in transferring the money to the Iskcon Press account. But in Columbus they are already so negotiating for a similar IBM Composer, so let me see what is their terms here. After comparing I shall definitely instruct you on this matter. Regarding Sankirtana, you can go out four days in a week, but try to go out as much as possible. So far as Birbhadra is concerned, he may immediately come here to New Vrindaban, and I shall also call his mother here. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** June 16th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. Sometimes ago you proposed that you would remain with me constantly and help me in editing my books specially Srimad-Bhagavatam. But now the situation is different. You are busy in some other way. This has given me much pain. However, if you still desire to remain with me and help me in editing my books, it will be a great pleasure for me, and if you so decide, you can go with me to London also. Back To Godhead is now simplified and if you only send the edited matter, the rest can be managed by others. Now you decide if you can remain with me constantly like Purusottama. I hope you will discuss with me on this when you come here in the next week. As your beloved spiritual master and father, it is my duty to give you all protection; but if you allow Maya to act upon you without any resistance, then it is your own choice. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** June 29th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 26, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding Nectar of Devotion, the balance tapes will be completed today, and he is going to send you the copies by Tuesday. Regarding BTG, I shall be glad to know the subject matters you have inserted in the issue #27. There are two important articles lying with Hayagriva: one interview talks with Ginsberg, and my old homage address to my Guru Maharaja. I think you already have this last one. These are to be published, along with pictures, as many as possible, of our Sankirtana activities and descriptions. From your statement, it appears that you do not expect to do anything with BTG after #29, because it is in the hands of he (Brahmananda). I cannot follow what you mean by this. Everything is Krishna's business. It is not my business, nor Brahmananda's, nor Hayagriva's. It is the business of Krishna, and we want to serve Him in the best way. I wanted to save the monthly expenditure of $600 for some other business, but that does not mean that you shall cease to work as one of the editors of BTG. You say that much of your time will be engaged in earning money, but that does not mean you have to cease your service to Krishna. You are praying for Krishna's blessings in order to serve me better, but when Krishna speaks through me, you hesitate to accept the words. I do not know why you should work at all if you want to remain brahmacari. Here is an ideal brahmacari with me. He works day and night with me. Why don't you become a brahmacari like him and come here? One who is a householder, he has to work because he has to maintain a wife and children at home. But for a brahmacari, why should he take the botheration of working simply for the matter of satisfying the belly? So far as belly satisfaction is concerned, that is already arranged by Krishna. Krishna is supplying food to the birds and beasts, so why should He not supply a brahmacari? Food is not a problem. So my advice to you is that either you become a regular householder, giving 50% of your earnings to Krishna, 25% for family, and 25% for savings, or else you strictly follow the principles of brahmacari life. A brahmacari has nothing to do except serve his Spiritual Master. That is the injunction of the Bhagavata. A brahmacari is supposed to work as a menial servant of the Spiritual Master, and whatever collection he gets, it becomes the Spiritual Master's property, not the brahmacari's. That is real brahmacari life. If a brahmacari earns money for his sense gratification, that is not brahmacari life. Better one should become householder and live peacefully. So far as work is concerned, you have got more than sufficient work with me. You have got a good qualification for editing literary works, and we have sufficient engagement for that purpose. Formerly, you were very much eager to transfer yourself from New York to Los Angeles because of considerations for your health. Now when I say that you may come here, there is a nice room for you, and work here day and night, I do not know what is the cause that you do not come. But still I request you that give up all other engagements, come here, and fully engage yourself in editorial work. So far as eating is concerned, I don't think there will be any scarcity. I think this suggestion will be best for you, and you should come here at once. You say that your mind unfortunately runs away now and then. That is the business of the mind, but if you simply fix up your mind on the Lotus Feet of Krishna, the rascal mind cannot disturb you anymore. My Guru Maharaja used to say that just rise early in the morning and then kick the mind with a shoe one hundred times. Then while going to sleep, one should take a broomstick and strike the mind another hundred times. The mind is so restless, that it can be brought to tameness only by the process suggested by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. So you should try this process and stop the mind from running away now and then. If you follow the process of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, naturally He will help you in controlling the mind and bestow all His blessings upon you. I thank you for your appreciation that you accept me on the superhuman platform and this will compel you to believe in God, etc. So if you are convinced about this fact, then I request you to come here immediately. And if you agree to come here, then you may bring some goods with you, which I shall list for you upon hearing your favorable reply. May Krishna bless you with good sense, and I hope surely He will do so. I beg to remain Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rayarama **Date:** July 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rayarama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 3, 1969, and I have noted the contents. So I am glad to learn that your program is to do some work independently, and at the same time to do work for our Krishna Consciousness Movement. This formula I have already accepted, and I have given you permission according to your leaning. If possible, then try to give the results of your work to Krishna. We do not disapprove of any activities of the world provided the result is given to Krishna. That is the whole instruction of the Bhagavad-gita. You have learned this philosophy for so many years, so try to execute it to your best capacity. So far as I am concerned, I have accepted you as my disciple and you have accepted me as your spiritual father. This relationship cannot be ended anymore. It is eternal. So it will be my duty always to pray to Krishna for your further and further improvement in Krishna Consciousness, so you should go on serving this movement to your best capacity. So far as your coming here, if you get money you can come by the 16th or 17th of July as you have stated, and then return to New York, that is all right. But I am scheduled to go to San Francisco by the 25th, and after finishing the Rathayatra Ceremony, in all probability I will be going to Germany. I understand that Krishna Das has already sent my ticket from New York to Luxembourg, but I have not received it as yet. Probably it is on the way. So my going to Germany is fixed. If you think that when you come for one week we shall be able to finish up the whole book, then take the trouble to come here. Purusottama has sent the most part of the remaining manuscript to Jayadvaita for typing fair copies, and try to finish it as soon as possible. In the BTG henceforward, the pictures of our Sankirtana Movement should be inserted as many as possible. The whole idea is now in BTG complete ventilation of our ideas should be exchanged from devotees to devotees by writing bona fide articles along with the other articles. This paper should now be completely a foreword of our movement. So combinedly make it successful. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Enclosure: one note from Tamala Krishna ### Letter to Revatinandana **Date:** May 6th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Revatinandana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 1, 1969, and I have signed the letter to the draft board as you have requested. If it will be of help to you, I shall also send you one certificate stating that you are my disciple. I thank you very much for the nice sentiments you have expressed, and surely this nice attitude will be a great asset for your further advancement in perfecting your life in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Robert Hendry **Date:** August 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Robert Hendry, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your nice letter dated July 13, 1969, but mailed on July 29th, and now it is in hand. I can understand from your letter that you are a quite fit soldier for fighting with Maya. Our Krishna Consciousness Movement is a declaration of war against the activities of Maya. The real description of Maya is given in a Vedic literature called Markandeya Purana in the chapter Candika. Candika is another name of the external energy called Maya. This Candika is described there as the Goddess who is putting all conditioned souls in darkness. In this material world, every living entity is under the spell of this Candika, almost asleep in darkness of knowledge. Every living entity is part and parcel spirit soul, but in contact with Maya it has developed different types of consciousness, represented by varieties of bodies, beginning from the aquatics and going to the bodies of demigods in higher planets. These different grades of bodies are developing in terms of life. When the consciousness comes to the point of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then life becomes perfect in its original condition. Therefore, in a sense this Krishna Consciousness Movement is declaring war against Candika, who has kept the living entities under her spell. Candika's first spell is to make us identify ourselves with these material conditions. Just like a living entity, because he is born and brought up in American condition, he thinks himself as American, similarly, others are thinking they are Indians, or Canadians, or French and so on. Actually, one is none of these material designations, but he is pure Krishna Consciousness, now covered by the spell of Candika's energy, or the material energy. So your program, seemingly like military men, marching with the Hare Krishna Mantra slogan is very very encouraging to me. I am always dreaming of a world Sankirtana Party, but your idea of marching 300 soldiers all over the world with the Hare Krishna Mantra is almost in fulfillment of my dream. So if you can believe in this adventure, certainly you will be doing a great deal of service to the humanity and therefore satisfying Krishna also. I am also glad to learn that you are interested in Indian philosophy. So far as Indian philosophy is concerned, Vedanta Sutra is the topmost or ____, and Srimad-Bhagavatam is the natural commentary on Vedanta Sutra. Bhagavad-gita is the preliminary study of Srimad-Bhagavatam. In the Bhagavad-gita we understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna as He is explaining Himself. We cannot understand the position of Godhead by our mental speculation because God is beyond our mental, bodily and speaking capacity. But when we are sincere in service mood, just like Arjuna, who surrendered himself to Krishna, then we are able to understand who Krishna is. Arjuna understood Krishna after hearing the Bhagavad-gita submissively that Krishna is the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Source of everything, the Supreme Purity and the Supreme Person. He also confirmed that Krishna is accepted as such not only by him, but also by other great authorities; such as Vyasadeva and Narada, who propagated the philosophy of Vedanta and Srimad-Bhagavatam all over the universe. Therefore, Krishna Consciousness is also a sort of fight; but not with rifles. Our weapon is karatalas. In this age there is no need of fighting with rifles because the population is so poor that they are already killed by so many disturbances. They are short lived, poor in knowledge, slack in advancement of spiritual life, unfortunate, and embarrassed by so many miserable conditions of life; like war, famine pestilence, poverty and so on. So to kill these persons by rifle is like bringing a cannon for killing a mosquito. So Lord Caitanya introduced this fighting principle of Sankirtana Movement to reclaim all the fallen souls, who consist of so-called philosophers, half-educated scientists, misguided educationists and a miscreant society. If you can consolidate a party of soldiers as described by you, chanting Hare Krishna Mantra and claiming everyone of them to Krishna Consciousness, that will be a glorious task, and you have all of my good wishes for you for this purpose. Your question about not chanting while attending class is also welcome. I don't mind if you do not chant Hare Krishna Mantra, but if you kindly sit down while chanting is going on, and if you simply hear with attention, that will also act. Wanting to become Krishna Conscious is also as good as being in a state of Krishna Consciousness. There is no actual difference, but the difference is only just like the difference between green mangos and fully ripened mangos. The ripened mango is not a separate mango, but it is another condition of the green mango. So if the green mango is properly taken care of, it will surely come to the stage of the ripened mango. Therefore, as a mango, there is no difference between the two stages. So far as your dress is concerned, that is immaterial. But as a soldier you know that every soldier has got a uniform dress according to the army etiquette of regulation. Therefore, the army of Krishna Consciousness must have at least the tilak on the forehead in all conditions. For your business you can wear your naval service uniform; similarly, if you have tilak on your forehead as a soldier of Krishna Consciousness, you may not have so much objection, because it is essential. Your ideas are great, and your efficiency is laudable. The best thing would have been if you could come here and live with me at least for a week. We could have discussed it very nicely, so in the future you can become a great commander of the Krishna Consciousness soldiers. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rsi Kumara **Date:** May 17th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Rsikumar, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 14, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I can understand that you are very interested in Sankirtana Party, so you may be in charge of this activity in the New York temple. Because Murari has gone to Boston, I think Brahmananda will feel very much if you also leave, so stay in New York to help in the organizing of New York Sankirtana Party. If you have some time, then help Gargamuni. Otherwise, if you do not like to do it, I do not press you in this matter. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rudra **Date:** November 11th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Rudra das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 3, 1969 along with your beads and contribution of $5.00. The letter head stationery is very nicely printed. Your beads have been chanted upon duly and sanctified and are returned herewith. It is very much pleasing to know that Vancouver center is improving daily. Cidananda is a very good organizing leader, Ananda is a good soul, and you are also a sincere devotee, so combinedly together push on this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Surely you will be successful. Regarding the vows and chanting method you have adopted, it is very nice. But do not impose something which will be difficult to execute. There is no need of fasting once every week. Two days fasting per month on Ekadasi is sufficient. Besides that there are other special fasting days. Spiritual realization depends on austerities and vows, but in this age, by the Mercy of Krishna and Lord Caitanya, we need not undergo very severe penances, as we are unable to do it. The rules and regulations which we have already prescribed, that is sufficient for ordinary men. But as you have increased the chanting of beads to 25 rounds daily, that is very nice. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rukmini **Date:** January 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rukmini, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 23, 1969, and also I have seen your wonderful portrait of my Guru Maharaja. This picture is a great joy to me, and it is now hanging in my room in the temple where I may always gaze upon it. I thank you so much for your sincere service, and i am very much encouraged that you are already a nice artist, and what to speak of the improvements you will make with further practice. Regarding your question about the individual soul becoming all-pervasive, the idea is completely nonsensical rascaldom. Such theory is simply a bluff. Artificially, by means of practical psychology, one can understand very little of another's thinking and feeling. But this is in no way all-pervasive. If any yogi says like that, especially the modern so-called yogis, it is simply falsehood. In however perfect stage of yoga one may be, he may understand something of another's mental condition, but this is never all-pervasive. This all-pervasive consciousness is possible only in the Supersoul. Bhakti Devi is the expansion of Srimati Radharani. I hope this letter will meet you in very good health. Thanking you once more for your nice letter. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. While Jadurani is sick you can continue the work slowly. There is no rush you can paint pictures slowly but surely very nice ### Letter to Rukmini **Date:** August 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rukmini Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated July 27th, 1969, sent along with your new beads, and I am enclosing the beads herewith duly chanted upon by me. I am pleased to learn that Bharadraja has completed the Sankirtana picture and you are now doing a painting of Krishna and Arjuna. All such paintings may be forwarded to me as soon as possible. We require so many paintings now as we are planning to print so many illustrated books and there are so many new temples that are opening of our Krishna Consciousness Movement. So as many nice paintings as you are able to do can be well-utilized. If you would like to go to Boston, husband and wife, you could work conjointly with Jadurani. In Boston they now have a large house with nice accommodations for many devotees, so if you are able to go, that will be nice. Regarding the questions you have asked, it is better to refer such questions to our householder women. If your ailment is persisting, you may consult a physician what you should to. I thank you for the nice sentiments you have expressed, and I am awaiting to see the pictures that you and Bharadraja have completed. Please offer my blessings to Bharadraja and to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rupanuga **Date:** February 14th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 12, 1969, and I am so glad to note the report of your very nice activities. The fact that 72 regular students are attending your class plus visitors means it is a great success. May Krishna bless you more and more for your sincere service. I am sure that your little son, Eric, will come out a great preacher of this Krishna Consciousness movement because he is trained by an expert father and mother, and this will not go in vain. If you can contribute this one son to Krishna for preaching His Glories, you will be doing the greatest service to your family, to your country, and to the people in general. Regarding your desire to take me there for some time, it is long overdue, and if the climate is suitable, I can go now even, if you think it is necessary. For installation of the Deities, it is better to do this when I go there. Besides that, the Deity is too small for temple installation. But anyway, Krishna and Radha have come to you, and we should welcome Them and let working on the altar go on. I am glad to learn that Bhurijana is preparing to leave for North Carolina tomorrow. It is a very good attempt. I want to open hundreds of centers for preaching this Krishna Consciousness, and one who helps me in this endeavor is certainly very dear to Krishna and all of the acaryas. You have nicely written "All Glories to Lord Caitanyas Merciful Sankirtana Invasion of Europe", and you will be pleased to know that there is a newspaper article in a San Francisco paper which has the heading "Krishna Chant Startles London". So I hope that this Krishna chanting will startle the whole Western Hemisphere. Please offer my blessings to everyone at your temple. Hoping this will meet you in the very best of health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rupanuga **Date:** March 14th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated the third of March, 1969, and I think I shall be able to go to your center from Boston. There is an important engagement in Boston on the 24th April, and perhaps next on the 29th and I think after finishing these I can go to your place. So you can fix up your program in consultation with Satsvarupa. The idea of inviting everyone to Sankirtana in a larger meeting hall is very good. Instead of attending small groups of meeting, we can arrange to assemble them at one place—that will be less laborious and more convenient for us. Prahladananda has sent me a check for $30 towards my book fund and I am very much thankful to him. I am enclosing the reply of his letter herewith. Regarding your questions: The spark soul has certainly form which means hands, feet, etc. This we learn from Bhagavad-gita. The body is described there as Vasamsi, which means dress. So unless one has got originally hands and legs, how the dress, coat and pants and shirt, takes such form? Therefore the spirit soul has original form. When he is in the material energy the dress is evolved materially and when he is in the spiritual energy, the dress is evolved spiritually. This is also not very difficult to understand, as our students before coming to my contact, he was supposed to be materially dressed, attached to sense gratification, and after devoting himself in Krishna Consciousness, he is gradually developing a spiritual dress. That means attached to satisfying the senses of the Supreme. Your second question, how the impersonalists mistake the difference between the soul and the Supersoul—The mistake is due to their obstinacy. The impersonalists masquerade as Vedantists, but actually they are defying Vedanta. In the Vedanta it is clearly said, the Original Source of all being; in the Upanisads it is clearly said that the Supreme is the Supreme being of all living beings. So all the Vedas affirm it vehemently that the Supersoul and the soul are two different identities, although qualitatively one. But the impersonalists they accept Vedas as authority, but they go against the verdict of the Vedas. Lord Caitanya has depicted this impersonalist class of men as more dangerous than the Buddhists. The Buddhists plainly declare that they do not accept the authority of the Vedas, but the impersonalists masquerade themselves as followers of Vedas, but actually they are hidden Buddhists. The idea is, if a person is actually fast asleep, it is easier to awake him but if a person pretends to be sleeping but actually is awake, then it is very difficult to wake him up. So from all Sastric point of view, the living entity and the Supreme Lord, or the Supreme Living Entity are always simultaneously different and one. One in quality, and different in quantity. this simple thing is understandable by any common man, but these impersonalists, they will simply invent jugglery of words to mislead innocent people. Therefore Lord Caitanya has warned not to associate with these impersonalist mayavadis because they will spoil one's life by diverting one from devotional service. It is very difficult to bring to reason the obstinate impersonalists. For example, Prahlada Maharaja, such a great authority, could not convert his father to devotional service, who preferred death, and still did not agree to accept that God is different from him. So better to avoid the impersonalists as far as possible. Regarding your third question—"Why are there apparent time-gaps in the line of disciplic succession as listed in the Bhagavad-gita? Is Arjuna an instructor Spiritual Master and not an initiator Spiritual Master and therefore not listed?" The time gap mentioned by you is inevitable, because the disciplic succession sometimes becomes disconnected, as we find from the Bhagavad-gita. This is the influence of material energy, and to link it up again, it takes some time. That some time may appear to our calculation a big gap, but in relation with the eternal time, it is not even as instant. So this big gap or small gap of time is relative. Just like our 24 hours and Brahma's 24 hours, there is much difference. Our 24 hours is not even a fraction of his second. Your fourth question, about the "life force" mentioned in Chap. 4 of the Bhagavad-gita; I do not find that page. Please send me the page number in your next letter and I will explain. Your fifth question, "Is this understanding of verse 18, chap. 4, correct; that the sage sees material activities as zero (inaction in action) and sees the devotee seated chanting as eternally active (action in inaction)?" Yes, action in inaction—action means to do something of which the result is enjoyed by the doer; that is action. But when things are done for Krishna, the result is enjoyed by Krishna. When we put ourselves in the position of enjoying good or bad reaction, then we suffer or enjoy. But action in Krishna Consciousness has nothing to do with such material suffering or enjoying. Therefore action in Krishna Consciousness is inaction, whereas a person doing nothing materially may appear to be inaction to others, but actually he is doing something for Krishna. In other words, the materialist thinks of the devotees as inactive. Similarly, the devotees think of the karmis as inactive—simply spoiling time, building sandcastles. Your sixth, "Is it that the Supersoul controls every movement in this world through the agency of Maya and the inferior energy according to the desires of the dreamer-jiva?" Yes. Your seventh question, "How is it that there is so much material "advancement" in the USA even though there is no formal demigod worship? Is a man after economic development automatically worshiping Lord Siva whether he is making Yajna or not?" Actually there is no material advancement in the USA. Material advancement means there is amply opportunity for eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. Superficially, it appears that in the USA there is sufficient provision of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, but actually nobody is safe even in his good apartment. I have got practical experience in New York. Several times my typewriter and tape recorders were stolen and the police could not take any action. There are many persons in the Bowery street, they have no shelter to live. So if a certain fraction of the people are supposed to be very materially happy at the cost of others, that is not material advancement. Had it been so, then why there are so many persons confused and frustrated? So actually there is no material advancement here. Here, I am seeing practically that Gaurasundara, such a nice intelligent and qualified boy, he has to work hard 12 hours simply for his subsistence. I think there are many instances like that, so this is not material advancement. You can call it capitalist advancement, and the reaction for such advancement is communism. Such movement is simply suppressed in your country, but actually the reaction is this. So the Western type of civilization, industrialism and capitalism, is no material advancement. It is material exploitation. When one gets the bare necessities of life, namely peaceful home, sumptuous eating, necessary sex life, and feeling of security, then it is called material advancement. In the absence of such four preliminary necessities of life, it is not at all material advancement—just try to understand. According to Vedic civilization, a man is supposed to be rich when he has got sufficient grains and cows. Here we have neither sufficient grains or cows, but you have got sufficient quantity of papers only—falsely thinking that it is money. When there is some catastrophe, this bunch of papers will neither supply milk or grain. They will be seen only and the man will starve. Your eighth, "How can I explain how the light and heat from the single sun in this universe is able to reach so far? Is it a question of the receptivity of different planets?" We can see one sun only. So it is simply speculation whether there is one or more suns. But we get from authority of Sastra that there is one sun, in each universe, and the stars and moon reflects the light of this sun. There is one sun in the daytime, and it illuminates so nicely that all darkness is gone. But at night, you may argue, if these stars are so many suns, then why the darkness is still there??Your ninth, "You once said that in case of a strong rush of sex desire to think of the Gopis, the Dearmost to Lord Krishna. Is there another help in case of anger or harshness?" Yes, think of Krishna, how He was angry on Hiranyakasipu and nobody could pacify Him, even Brahma with beautiful hymns. In anger also we can think of Krishna. I hope this meets you all in good health, and I shall be looking forward to seeing Mr. Eric very soon, how nicely he is chanting and dancing. Your appreciation of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is is very much encouraging to me, and I thank you. Hope you are all happy, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rupanuga **Date:** May 17th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 13, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I think that if there is a chance for opening a center in Toronto, then Jagadisa and Kanupriya may go there as soon as possible. You have written that you would like Murari to go there, but he has already left for Boston, so if by mutual agreement you decide with Satsvarupa for him to go there, that is all right. Anyway, I have spoken to Satisuta today, and he has agreed to go there to help you in Buffalo within a fortnight. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Ernestine, and your very nice boy, Mr. Eric. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rupanuga **Date:** June 16th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to hear that you are successfully carrying on the Sankirtana Movement, and Krishna is giving you encouragement by mercifully giving some money also. So rest assured that Sankirtana Movement is specifically benedicted by Lord Caitanya for achieving all kinds of success. Stick to the principles seriously and faithfully, and there will be no difficulty. Now you may please send as many nice photographs of your Sankirtana activities as possible to Brahmananda for publication in Back To Godhead. In each issue of Back To Godhead there shall be sufficient pictures of our Sankirtana Movement with descriptions. I have advised to follow this policy rigidly. I am very glad to hear about Sacisuta's activities. He is very intelligent and serious devotee, but due to his past habits, he is a little flickering. I think if there is any suitable girl, you can negotiate for his marriage, and then he will be fixed-up. He has got various capacities, and he can help our movement very much, but as he is a little restless, try to help him be very serious and get a wife amongst our Krishna Conscious girls. Please convey my thanks to him as he is doing very well in Buffalo. Regarding the draft board, Tamala Krishna is also working on this in Los Angeles, so you can open direct correspondence if there is chance for mutual cooperation. I am enclosing list of Holy Days for the coming months, and also enclosed is a very nice letter I received recently from Sudama in Hawaii. Please convey my blessings to your wife and child. I shall be very pleased to see you again when you come to visit in New Vrindaban. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rupanuga **Date:** July 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your two letters; one dated July 8, 1969 and one dated July 18, 1969. Both of your letters were delivered to me by special air mail. Unfortunately I could not reply you earlier because I was waiting for the help of others. Anyway, I have signed the certificate and sent it to New York for counter signature of the president, entitling you as Bhakti-sastri. The certificate was finally made a little hastily, so the printing is not to my full satisfaction. I have asked Aravinda to make a nicer copy, and if you like, we can give you this nicer copy later on. You remark that in New Vrindaban the capacity is lacking for taking care of the children. If you can organize a higher level school of theology under your care, I shall very much appreciate it. In Los Angeles, although the place is nice, it is already almost congested. We are planning ministerial status documents through the lawyer here, and it is almost prepared. This document will be submitted to the draft board, and copies will be sent to other centers for doing the necessary arrangements. Bhakti-sastri is actually recognition, accepting a person that he knows the principles of devotional service. In issue #25 of BTG, page 14, under "Organization of Society", we discuss why our students must be relieved of this draft obligation. So you read this portion when you receive this issue. If you are planning to perform the marriage ceremony for Jagadisa and Laksmimoni, then you must know the prayers to be said. I think you have a copy of a tape recorded at our initiation ceremony in Buffalo, so the prayers are there. Purusottama tried to transcribe these prayers from a tape we have here, but it was not done at all. So if you are planning to perform this ceremony, then I shall send you further instructions along with a tape and written prayers, as you require. Regarding your question, "what is the difference between the spirit souls comprising the Brahmajyoti and the spirit souls here in Maya?", in the Brahmajyoti the spirit souls on account of their impersonal views are devoid of a body, exactly like here in Maya there are ghosts who are devoid of any gross bodies. The ghost being devoid of a body, he suffers terribly because he is unable to satisfy his senses. The spirit souls in the Brahmajyoti, although they have no desire for sense gratification, still they feel inconvenience like the ghost, and they fall down again in the Maya's atmosphere and develop a material body. In the Bhagavat therefore it is said that persons who are impersonalists and do not develop the dormant devotional attitude, their intelligence is not pure, because for want of a spiritual body, they come down again to the material world. In the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly said by the Lord that the only way of not coming back to the material world is to be promoted to the spiritual planets. For the impersonalists there is no such assurance of not falling down in the whole Vedic literature. The conclusion is that without developing the spiritual body and without being situated on one of the spiritual planets, the so-called liberation is also illusion, or it is not complete. A spirit soul who falls down from the Brahmajyoti to the Kingdom of Maya may have a chance of associating with a pure devotee, and then he may be elevated to the spiritual planets of Vaikuntha or to Goloka Vrindaban. From the Brahmajyoti there is no direct promotion to the spiritual planets, and it is clearly stated in the Bhagavatam that such souls fall down: patanty adha. Regarding Katyayani, it is decided that she will go to Buffalo on receipt of the passage money. Last night I was discussing this in the presence of Tamala Krishna, Katyayani and others. Probably they will talk with you and the necessary arrangements will be made. I think she should go before I go to New York. For the present my program to go to Germany is almost cancelled, but by the end of August I am sure I shall go to London, and at that time I shall go via New York. So all the marriages can be performed at that time, or if you can manage yourself, you can also do that. Please inform me where is your son. Is he in New York? One boy referred about him in a letter from New York. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Rupanuga **Date:** August 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter of August 3rd, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. In further reference to your question about the form of the spirit soul of the conditioned living entity, there is a spiritual form always, but it develops fully only when the living entity goes back to Vaikuntha. This form develops according to the desire of the living entity. Until this perfectional stage is reached, the form is lying dormant like the form of the tree is lying dormant in the seed. Regarding the higher school of theology, according to the Vedic system it is not at all difficult. The students are taught by the Spiritual Master, or the teacher, and the students themselves go from door to door for begging alms, and because everyone's son is in the asrama, nobody declines to give alms. So there is no financial difficulty at all; but I do not know what to do in your country. There are so many laws. We have to adjust things to the circumstances. I think as soon as our institution becomes formal, as Tamala Krishna is doing through the lawyer, it will be easier to start a theological school. Regarding Krishna Devi's proposal, that is too immature now. We have to see the boy's tendencies first. This will be judged when he is at least 16 years old. Before that, up to the 15th year, he should be given all sorts of education and training as brahmacari. We can't impose anything from so early age, because when he is grown up he may not like the idea. So all this contemplation is premature. For the present your duty is to make him healthy and strong, physically and spiritually. Of course, if our Krishna Conscious children are to marry, the marriage must be performed within our group. I am very pleased to learn of your nice progress in Sankirtana and BTG sales. In every temple we are seeing great success in these areas. It is also encouraging that your course is again approved in the university, and I have full confidence in you to do your duties very expertly. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am enclosing herewith a review of our books. Please try for such review in Buffalo papers. This will be nice. ACB ### Letter to Rupanuga **Date:** January 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Rupanuga, Please accept my blessings. I was very much anxious to receive your letter since I did not hear from you for a long period. But I always know that you are doing your duty nicely. Recently, Hayagriva came from Columbus, and he remained with me for more than a fortnight. He was assisting me in editing Srimad-Bhagavatam. Now he is married with Syama Dasi and has returned to New Vrindaban with his many responsibilities. I am glad to learn that you have been helping this boy, Kenneth, and he is now eager to be initiated. So, as recommended by you, I have agreed to initiate him and call him Kanupriya das Brahmacari. Please take care of him and give him impetus to rise more and more in Krishna Consciousness. Regarding the draft problem, I am enclosing a certificate which I have issued to many students, and I think that this will be effective. Within a few days we will have prepared official certificates for both you and Kanupriya which will certify that you are duly initiated disciples of this Krishna Consciousness movement. Please try to introduce the reading of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is in your university where you shall be teaching. I understand that some rubbish commentaries upon Bhagavad-gita are allowed to be studied in every university, so if you can replace our Bhagavad-gita As It Is it will be a great advancement for our missionary activities, and people will thereby be benefited. Please convey my blessings to all others in Buffalo temple. I hope this finds you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sacisuta **Date:** July 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Sacisuta, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated June 23, 1969, and I have carefully gone over the contents. I am so pleased to learn that you are feeling very nicely in Buffalo temple and you are working hard and sincerely to push on this sublime movement of Krishna Consciousness. Regarding your question about marriage, the thing is that as I am a sannyasi, I am not concerned with family life, but because I want to see my disciples very happy in Krishna Consciousness, therefore, those who are feeling some sexual disturbance are requested by me to get themselves married. Another principle is that those who are brahmacaris, they should sacrifice all of their income and collection for the Krishna Consciousness Movement, whereas those who are married should work, earning money as much as possible, and at least 50% should be spent for the Krishna Consciousness Movement. So we have no objection for allowing you to get married, but it is up to you to consider if you will work hard and earn money both for Krishna and for your family. You cannot get married, and at the same time do not earn money. Of course, by preaching Sankirtana Movement, if you are satisfied with a small income, that is also nice. I think that your God-brother, Rupanuga is an ideal householder, and you should try to follow him. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sacisuta **Date:** September 19th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Sacisuta, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 8th, 1969, and I have noted the contents with enclosures. I have very much appreciated the interview article with you in the paper Ethos, and I am so pleased to know that you have given right interpretation of our Krishna Consciousness Movement. Now you have got a nice wife, Indumati, and combinedly together you preach the mission of Lord Caitanya as far as possible. I have seen what you have written about your protection by my humble self, but that is inevitable when a Spiritual Master accepts somebody as disciple. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita that He takes charge of a surrendered soul; so much so that Lord Krishna protects His devotee from all his sinful activities in the past. Similarly, the Spiritual Master, when He accepts a disciple and the disciple surrenders unto Him, He has got the responsibility of absorbing the sinful reaction of His disciples life. This is a great responsibility of the Spiritual Master. We should therefore be very careful not to overburden our Spiritual Master by further repetition of sinful activities. Of course, one who has entered into Krishna Consciousness cannot act deliberately anything sinful. Still, we should always be on guard against such activities. Sometimes we hear that people are going to church to confess their sinful actions for being excused, but as soon as he comes out of the church, he begins the same drama again. This is like the bathing of the elephant, who immediately throws dirt again on his body. We should not follow such examples. Lord Caitanya accepted Jagai and Madhai on condition they would not commit further sinful activities. So all our students should be careful in the matter of violating the four principles and at the same time must carry on the chanting process rigidly. Regarding your question, this is also described in Chapter 9, when Krishna says that whatever you sacrifice, whatever you eat, whatever you give in charity—give it all to Me. Such action is also called Sannyasa yoga. Sannyasa means to sacrifice everything for the Supreme, and if we link up our activities in such way as is enunciated by the Lord, then all the diversities become unified in Krishna Consciousness. Krishna Consciousness is itself Brahma platform, so all our students who are engaged in the service of God, they are not on the material platform. They are already liberated[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Sai **Date:** October 27th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Sai, Please accept my greetings. I am very glad to learn from my disciple, Srimati Govinda Dasi, that you are reading our books and literature with some interest. It has given me much satisfaction, and if you read our Srimad-Bhagavatam you will find there what is the distinction between realization of Brahman, Paramatma (impersonal Supersoul), and the Personality of Godhead. According to Srimad-Bhagavatam, all of these realizations are on the transcendental plane as much as sunshine, the sunglobe, and the predominating deity on the sunglobe are all full of light and high temperatures. Similarly, either in Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan (Personality of Godhead) realization you will always find spiritual light and heat. But as there are different degrees of sunshine, the sunglobe and the sun's deity, similarly there are also degrees of transcendental bliss in the different features of the Absolute. The summary is that the Absolute Truth is the sum total of eternity, bliss and knowledge. Impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth is realization of eternity. Localized Paramatma realization is realization of transcendental knowledge. But above all these as they are described in Bhagavad-gita there is Purusottam, the Supreme Person. That is Krsna. In the Vedas it is stated that one who has understood the Supreme Person has understood everything. This is because everything is subordinate to the Supreme Person. So if you kindly try to understand this philosophy of the Supreme Person as described in Bhagavad-gita, 8th chapter, you will understand our activities more clearly. Or if you so desire, you can write to me for further understanding of this Krsna Consciousness philosophy. Hare Krsna. I thank you again for your interest. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 11, 1969 and have carefully noted the contents. From this letter I can understand that texts number 6 and 7 are missing in the manuscript of the third canto which you have in Boston. The original manuscript is in New York, and when I go there, maybe in April, I will find this for you. In the meantime, you may skip four pages for these missing texts and continue numbering after skipping four numbers which will be filled in latter. Convey my blessings to the three girls who are newly staying at the Boston temple, namely Joy Fulcher, Arlene Warmbrand and Rita. I hope you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** January 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter dated January 28, 1969 regarding Jadurani's sick health. She requires complete rest. All of her work should be suspended, and she should be given liquid foods, just like barley water mixed with milk. Purchase pearl barley from the market, and the recipe is 1 cup of barley and four cups of water to be boiled for at least 1/2 hour. That liquid preparation may be mixed with milk and sugar, and she may take. Jadurani must not exert herself in any way. She should take complete rest and chant Hare Krishna. When she next wants to begin work, she must take my permission. For the time being, all work must be suspended. Regarding your letter dated January 25, 1969, I have already sent to you tapes #2 and #3. As an experiment, I sent tape #3 by ordinary mail at the concession rate for tapes. Please let me know when this tape #3 has reached you. If it does not arrive too late then we can continue to exchange in the mail at this postage rate of five cents. You do not require to send finished tapes to Dinesh. Please send them directly to me. I think that work on the pictures shall remain suspended for the time being. Altogether I have received four pictures for the Krishna book, and two pictures for the temple, one of My Guru Maharaja and one of Gaura Kisora das Babaji. Regarding the two missing verses of the third canto, I shall get them done conveniently. I hope that by this time Jadurani's health must have improved. Please convey my blessings to the others. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** February 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 7, 1969, and I have noted the contents. Regarding Jadurani's diet, let her take fruits, vegetables, milk, capatis, and also when she is hungry she may take a little rice and some thin mung dahl. Please keep me informed of her progress. Regarding your idea of having an installation ceremony for the Deities, it is very good suggestion, and you may also have the sacrificial fire. The Deities should be bathed with milk, and while bathing, They must have covering of thin cotton cloth, and the whole Body and the clothing should be wet by pouring the milk. You can see the picture of this in the new Back To Godhead, and perhaps you saw the ceremony when it was held in New York. The Deities should be decorated with sufficient flowers and nice gorgeous dresses and ornaments. Beforehand, you should polish the Bodies with a mixture of tamorind pulp and fullers earth. Apply the pulp on the Bodies, then rub it and then polish nicely with tissue paper. This will gave a very good shine. Then bath the Deities with milk, and dress very nicely with ornaments, and place Them on the throne with flowers, candles, etc. The throne, if possible, should be coated with silver sheets, and the canopy should be red velvet with gold embroidered work. Before the Deities, on the staircase, there may be some silver polished cups, pitchers, etc. I think the Deities have already helmets and peacock feathers and hair to be dressed with. If not, make arrangements for this also. I do not know how big is the throne, but if it is very big, then within the throne there may be a raised seat to accommodate the Deities. On the whole, everything should be very gorgeous; then it will be successful. Actually, although Radha-Krishna is worshiped in Vrindaban which is like a simple village, but we worship Laksmi-Narayana, and the worship is accepted by the Radha-Krishna Deity. Actually, in our present status, we can not worship Radha-Krishna. But as all the Visnu Murtis are situated in Krishna, therefore, our Radha-Krishna worship is transferred to Visnu, Lord Narayana. Visnu worship is the regulative devotional principles, and Radha-Krishna worship is spontaneous service of eternal feelings. Therefore, as Laksmi-Narayana is the Deity of great opulences, similarly our Radha-Krishna Murtis also should be worshiped with great pomp and dignity. Krishna will give you the proper intelligence to do this very nicely. So far as prayers, you may sing Hare Krishna, Govinda Jaya Jaya, and Govindam Ādi purusam.[TEXT MISSING] ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** February 20th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter—undated—I'm very glad to learn about the installation ceremony. I'm also glad to learn that Boston center is improving and people are taking interest more and more. More important feature is that by Krishna's grace you are given the facility of lecturing in various Universities. Next Spring by the first week for certain I shall be in New York and from New York I shall be glad to visit Boston, say for 15 days and you can give me a tentative program of lecturing in different Universities at that time. It is very engladdening to hear that you have now secured an eight week seminar in Yoga at Emerson College. I'm also glad to learn about Jadurani's health and by Krishna's grace she's improving. I do not give my permission just immediately for regular work but she can come to the temple in the morning and chant her beads silently. So far envy is concerned it can be used only upon the non-devotees. In the transcendental world a devotee is never envious of another devotee on account of his excellence but on the contrary if a devotee finds some excellence in other devotees he eulogizes the devotee admitting his own subordinate position. Although in the spiritual world there is no such concept of subordination still devotees on account of being very humble and meek think that way. In the material world the same thing is expressed in a perverted form. But in the Spiritual world to accept one's inferior position does not mean envious mentality upon the other. Unhappiness experienced by devotee on account of feeling himself inferior is not unusual rather such mentality is impetuous to further development of devotional service. I'm in due receipt also of the Krishna manuscript for the tape no. 3 & 4 and I've also received back the tapes concerned. You can keep the curtains of the deity room open during Kirtana. Lord Caitanya's advent day is on the 4th of March 1969. On that day you should keep fasting up to the moonrise in the evening, and the whole day may be utilized in performances in kirtana and reading of Lord Caitanya's teachings. In the evening after ceremony of kirtana is observed, light refreshments like fruit and milk, boiled potatoes may be taken and the next day general feasting and distribution of Prasadam to public may be observed. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** March 8th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings, and offer the same to my beloved daughter, Srimati Jadurani. I am in due receipt of your letter dated Feb. 2, 1969, as well as of Feb. 5, 1969. I plan to go to New York by the first week of April, so you can arrange your scheduled meetings on the 24th by which time I shall be ready to go to Boston. This climate of Hawaii is most healthy, with sunshine and fresh sea breeze, so I think if it is possible for Jadurani to come to this climate she may improve her health nicely. Consult together on this proposal, and you can correspond with Gaurasundara and Govinda dasi here in this regard. Regarding your question: I do not remember if Rayarama ever chanted very loudly in my room, neither he ever lived in my room, nor I had ever asked him not to chant loudly. I do not know how these news are spread. There is no such requirement that Japa should be silently and chanting should be done differently. Loudly or silently, everything is all right. There is no such restriction. Only thing is that we should chant very attentively, hearing the vibration very distinctly. I have received the typed copy of tape number 6, and I am sending tomorrow tape number 7.*I hope you are well and that Jadurani's health is somewhat better; she must rest nicely. Please convey my blessings and best wishes to all the devotees there. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *enclosed herewith ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** March 19th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I am replying your letter of March 14, 1969. My present program stands as follows: I am starting on the 31st March to S.F. and then on the 7th of (approx.) April I am starting for New York. And from N.Y around about the 23rd of April I am going to Boston. So your fixed program on the 24th, and the 29th of April, and 3rd and 4th of May may be fixed up immediately. So you can arrange for the meeting at the Entertainment club The Ark, and make it as big as possible, as you say that the place can hold up to 1800 people and they saw me in San Francisco, and are eager to see me and have a talk there. On the 6th of May, I think I shall have to be present in Buffalo. And around about the 10th of May, I shall have to be present in New Vrindaban or Columbus, Ohio. Regarding Jadurani: I think she can come here alone and stay with Govinda dasi for around two months. The present place will be changed probably by the middle of May, and things will have to all get set up accordingly. So you can arrange things directly in correspondence with Govinda dasi, and she will be happy to receive her when all is ready. So far as yourself, you have to remain separate from your wife for maybe two months, because you cannot leave Boston. Regarding the tape, you have sent me tape no. 6, so the no. 7 is there, and no. 8 is also there. I am glad to note your arguments with the Yoga meeting people. Actually this so-called yoga system and meditation that is so much popular in your country is bogus. But if we speak the naked truth to the people, sometimes they may get angry. Because unpalatable truth is not tolerated. If we call a black man black, he will be angry because it is unpalatable. So we have to present our case very carefully. The best way of presentation will be like this: (1) Yoga system is recommended in the Bhagavad-gita, (2) It is approved system, (3) But it is not suitable for ordinary man, especially in this age of Kali, (4) The so-called yoga system practiced by the people of this age is not bona fide. They cannot follow all the rules and regulations of yoga practice, (5) Therefore it is conclusive that so called yoga followers are simply cheated and they are wasting their time. I have already explained these points in the Sankhya yoga chapter of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, so you read them carefully and present it, point by point, in suitable occasions. I have already replied Jadurani's letter. Regarding her offenses, I do not remember when she committed offenses, and even though she might have done so, I excuse her 100 times, without any hesitation. So she has nothing to bother about it. I have given her instruction not to work in her last letter, and we shall discuss it further when I shall arrive there. When she shall come to this place Hawaii she will have ample opportunity for Krishna Kirtana on the beach, and the fresh ocean air and warm nourishing sunshine will be good for her. I hope this meets you in good health, and please continue caring for Jadurani nicely and we shall see the position when I shall arrive there very soon. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- N.B. For Dr. ___ letter you may ask immediately Purushotam at L.A. The letter is ___ __ __. ACB ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** March 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter. I am very much pleased to note the list of engagements you have submitted, and I can see you have been working very hard to secure so many opportunities for spreading K.C. Yes, within those days stated in your letter of March 20th you can add more engagements as you like. I have no objection. I have not yet received word from Rupanuga, in this connection, but you can plan on your program as it is set up. In N.Y. we have got engagement and they are paying $100 for a meeting, so you try to settle fees not less than $50 per lecture. So you can engage the whole duration of my stay there, and I shall deliver every day one lecture. Regarding Jadurani's coming here, Govinda and Gaurasundara will consult with you, and when things are duly set up, she may come here for some time. They will write you in this connection. I hope you are well, and that Jadurani is resting nicely; I am hoping she will soon be recovered and be able to again feel in good health, so let us see. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** April 10th 1969 — **Location:** New York My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 5, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I shall reach Boston Iskcon on the 23rd of April, and you can make arrangements accordingly. I have read your transcriptions of the Krishna tapes, and you are doing it very nicely. I am very much pleased with your efforts. Regarding Jadurani's question, hearing the vibration of Hare Krishna automatically reminds one of Krishna's Pastimes. So both of them arise simultaneously in the mind when one is sincerely chanting. So you cannot make any distinction between listening to the sound and thinking of the Pastimes. But the process is to hear, and then Krishna's Pastimes, Form, Qualities, etc. will automatically come to mind: That is very nice. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. I will be looking forward to seeing you once again. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** May 14th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 12, 1969, delivered by Arundhati here in Columbus. This evening Arundhati will be married to Pradyumna, and they appear to be a very nice couple. Regarding your questions about Sankirtana Party, I think you should try to always have Sankirtana going on. All other things are subsidiary. This chanting is our life and soul, so we must arrange our program now so that there will be as much chanting on the streets and at college engagements as possible. On May 12th, we had a very successful engagement at Ohio State University, and over one thousand boys and girls were chanting and dancing along with us. So this policy should be continued as far as possible. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. What about the Omega watch? I have sent you one tape. Have you received any check for the meetings? You paid me two checks (75 & 25) but if there is any more please send. I want to purchase one compositor ($3000.00 Down payment $600.00) ACB ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 17, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I also have received the watch, and it appears to be working properly. Regarding your idea of purchasing a house, if it is possible, do it immediately. When you pay big rent anyway, purchasing a house is nice. Now Murari and his good wife, Lilavati, are there, so this will be a great boon to your Sankirtana activities. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have received your check for $100.00. Please let me know if you have received your money from Columbus? ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** May 31st 1969 — **Location:** Moundsville My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated May 22, and May 26, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very encouraged to learn of your very nice Sankirtana success in Boston. One thing though you are thinking of quitting your job, that means you are already in the job, so if in spite of your working, your Sankirtana Movement is going on nicely, why you should give up your job? But if you think by giving up your job the Sankirtana Party will be organized more nicely, then you can do that. Regarding Jadurani, if she does not improve in a month or two, then she will come back and live with you, chanting Hare Krishna and depending on Krishna. Don't bother; Krishna will take care of her. I don't think that she is very dangerously ill because her face indication was not bad. But after all, we have got these material bodies, and some temporary ailments may come and go, but we have to tolerate. But in all cases, you must find out a nice place as temple, either by purchasing or by renting. If you think that advancing $10,000 will get a nice house, then you can find out and we may find out the money. But first you must let me know how you shall repay. If you purchase one house, even you make down payment of $10,000, you have to make monthly payments of $300 or $400. So these things are to be considered. But if you can find a nice house which will accommodate all the householders and brahmacaris, then that will be very good. But do not take on any big responsibilities now. Concentrate on organizing Sankirtana very nicely and try to sell Back To Godhead. That is our main propaganda. It is very encouraging that you are daily collecting about $50. Now you have got a nice carriage, and thus you can go anywhere you like. Try to keep nice peace with the police as far as possible, because our method is to be tolerant more than the tree and humbler than the grass on the street. We don't mind for so-called prestige. If keeping peaceful we can execute our Krishna Consciousness duties, that is all we want. Regarding the manuscripts which Pradyumna requested you to send him, first of all let Pradyumna get the machine. Then I shall advise. For the time being you keep it as you have been doing. I shall let you know in due course. Two Krishna tapes have been recently sent to you, so you shall receive them soon, if you have not done so already. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for you letter dated June 14, 1969, sent along with Krishna tapes #11 and #12. The tapes are done very nicely as always. The first thing is that I have written to Jadurani today that she may immediately return to you in Boston. There is some inconvenience in Hawaii for accommodating so many people because the landlady has said there are too many living there. So Jadurani will be returning very soon. I have advised her that she may go on Sankirtana Party in Boston. Regarding your present difficulty with the police, things are going by Krishna's desire, and it will be all right. Try to get recognition from the police that we are a non-profit religious organization. In Los Angeles they have got a permit for begging, so you inquire from Tamala Krishna, and get a copy from him of this permit. We are non-profit religious organization and we have so much expenditure, so try to get this permit. Please keep me posted as to how this is progressing. Offer my blessings to the others. I am pleased to note that Murari is such a tremendous boon to your activities there, and you "do not know how you managed without him before." I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** June 20th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept by blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 18, 1969, and I have noted the contents. The pictures you have sent are very nice, and they shall be published in BTG. Regarding Madan Mohan, I understand that he would like to remain in Boston, but previously he was indexing Bhagavad-gita As It Is. If he is able to work there on this project, I have no objection. Otherwise he may come back to New York. Sometimes, out of their own accord, devotees decide to leave a center, but this is not a good practice. If he can continue his indexing work there, then he may remain in Boston. I am very pleased to learn that you are planning for a nice Rathayatra Festival in Boston. Please do it nicely, and take many nice photographs for publication in BTG. Yesterday I received one telegram from London to send them by cable $1,025.00. They require this for their house there. This money was to be for a down payment on purchasing an IBM machine for our books, and therefore I now need some money. If you have got some extra money, you can help me. You have encouraged my writing books, and for printing each book will require not less than 6 or 8 thousand dollars. Under the circumstances, I request all centers that as soon as they have extra money, it should be sent to me. Immediately I wish to publish Nectar of Devotion second edition of First Canto, and first edition of Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. So if you will help me in this matter, it will be very nice. After this, I wish to publish Krishna. In this way I want to prolong the publication work. I am going to Los Angeles to collect some money, and similarly I am requesting you also to help in this matter. Please convey my blessing to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** June 27th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 23, 1969, on which date I have reached here at Los Angeles. Regarding Glen's contribution of $2,000, I may request you to send it to me by return of post. The house contemplated, I don't think is suitable for our purpose. In your country, a house at $19,000, especially in a city like Boston, must not be very large and accommodating. The best thing is to rent a big house if you cannot purchase a big one. But in all cases, I shall prefer a big house which can accommodate our temple and residence quarters. If possible, the book-binding department will be included also. If you purchase a small house, then again you will have to rent some other house for other purposes. Regarding Madan Mohan, I have already written to him, and I am also writing again separately along with this letter that if he finds Boston a suitable place for himself, then I have no objection that he remains there. But he must continue the work of indexing very nicely the original Bhagavad-gita As It Is. As soon as this indexing is finished, I shall publish another revised and enlarged edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is at my own cost. I was not happy to publish it through MacMillan as they have crippled the explanations for so many important verses. Regarding Jadurani, I am happy that she has returned to Boston again. Now let her join with the Sankirtana Party and I am sure she will improve her health more and more. For the time being, she may not revive her painting work until she gets back more strength. Regarding your Sankirtana Party activities, please continue this most important function. The nice pictures you have sent have been dispatched to Brahmananda for publishing in Back To Godhead. I have given instructions that in Back To Godhead the pictures of our activities and short descriptions should be more and more published. So continue to send such pictures as you have already sent. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** July 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for the Krishna Tape #13 along with your letter of July 12, 1969, and I am enclosing herewith Tape #16. Now I shall expedite work on the Krishna book, as I have completed The Nectar of Devotion. Please let me know exactly how far you have finished the Bhagavatam thus far. I am glad that Giriraja is doing very nicely. Krishna has sent a good soul for pushing on this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Please keep him nicely. As of yet I have not received the money which you have mentioned in your letter. Regarding your nice Sankirtana collections, this should be kept in a separate account so that it may help in some great emergency. You should become a little spendthrift. I know that you do this, but still I am reminding you. I am so pleased that you will be holding a grand scale Rathayatra Ceremony, and in London also they are planning a very glorious function with at least 5,000 guests participating. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** July 29th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. While I was in San Francisco I received your letter dated July 25, 1969. The most important point is whether you shall give up your present job, which is bringing at least $125 per week. You cannot give up your job on Murari's request. You have to think yourself. You are more sober than Murari. Simply for whipping into shape some new young boys I do not find any substantial reason to give up your job. You can give instruction to Murari so that he being experienced amongst the group can conduct the job in your absence. You say that in the severe cold there will be no possibility of going out. If others can work at that time, why should you give up your work at this time? My only point is that if you can manage all the affairs through the assistance of Murari and others, you may not give up your job. But if your presence improves the situation, I have no objection for your quitting your present job. Nothing should be done impelled by any sentiment. Everything should be judged frm the practical point of view. My decisive advice is that if you can manage without giving up your present job, that is very nice. I am so glad to learn that you have opened a separate savings account for your daily collections. I have received the transcription of tape #16. You are doing very nicely and improving your editorial capability. Krishna Consciousness is so nice, the more we execute it, the more we become advanced. Yes, I have not as yet received Giriraja's contribution to my book fund, and as you have said, the money can be deposited to my account. The Krsna paintings Jadurani is doing now may be very nicely done very colorfully, and kept in your custody. She may pick up the ideas for pictures from the transcriptions of the tapes. In this way, when the book and pictures are ready we shall arrange for publication. As soon as 500 pages are ready by your typewriting we shall print the first part immediately. So both you and your wife have got very good opportunity for serving Krishna. Make both of your lives sublime, and teach others also how to live by your exemplary life. I have received one long letter from Lilavati, and I shall reply as soon as possible. The last point is that I am not very much in favor of your giving up this service, but if you think it proper, that it will be beneficial for propagating our Sankirtana Movement, then you can do it. The idea in the Nectar of Devotion is explained that we should accept everything which is favorable in propagating our Krsna Consciousness. If something is unfavorable, then we shall give it up immediately. That should be our motto of life. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. The Rathayatra festival was very successful in S.F. I am awaiting report of your festival in Boston. ACB The London advertisement is enclosed herewith ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** August 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of both of your letters, one dated July 31, 1969 and the other August 2, 1969. The letter of August 2nd appears to be a practical proposal. The calculations for the house are nice. But everything should be done very carefully. If the landlord allows you to take possession of the house on payment of $12,000 on the terms and conditions as stated by you, then you must enter the house immediately, and we take it for granted it is Krishna's offer. As far as you having to pay $6,000 down payment by October, from your calculation it appears that you shall be able to pay it. So in that case, the money paid by Giriraja may be deposited in a separate bank account for this purpose. If things go on according to your calculation, this opportunity must be taken; but I am always afraid of persons like Mr. Payne. You know the incident in New York how the real estate man, Payne, entrapped us by $6,000. I think Giriraja's father is a lawyer, so he can help you in this connection, or any other lawyer friend. So if things are done very carefully, this scheme is approved by me. If they will give you immediate occupation of the house, and if there are no other tenants there, then it is all right. But if there are tenants, it will be botheration. We cannot deal with tenants, so if they are there, you may not accept it. But if the house is occupied by ourselves only, then it is all right. I think Giriraja is a very intelligent boy, so do everything carefully, and let me know the result. If this house can be occupied as our own, then the press department may be established in Boston immediately. If I go to New York on my way to Europe, then most probably I will stop at Boston also to see the new house. So do everything very carefully, and I shall await your further report in this connection. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have also received another letter by Special delivery. So everything is Krishna's Grace. Take the risk for Krishna but do everything very diligently. I sanction it ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** August 6th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. In further reference to your letter of August 2, 1969, now that you have procured this big house, I think it will be ideal for beginning our printing department in Boston immediately. You have written that there are two big halls, so do you think one of these halls will be nice for printing machines and workshop? You may immediately write to Advaita and Vaikunthanatha in New York and invite them to go there to Boston to begin printing operations. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: If it is possible, I would like to stop off in Boston on my way to Europe to see this house ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** August 19th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated August 18th, 1969. I was very much anxious to receive your letter, but I did not know that you stopped writing me on account of the memo issued a few days ago. The memo was circulated just to minimize correspondence in minor affairs. I think in ordinary administration the presidents of different centers may consult amongst themselves and make certain general procedures by mutual agreement. But when there is some more important factor, that must be referred to me. I did not mean by the memo that you shall stop correspondence. If you understood like that, then I say that you can send me every day one letter, and it will be welcome. We are now growing in size, therefore, for general administration if you will act conjointly amongst the presidents, that will be a great relief for me. Besides that, you are doing editorial work of my books so you have to correspond directly with me. I never meant that about editorial work also being referred to Brahmananda. I understand that you had some meeting amongst the East Coast presidents of the centers, and I shall be glad to know how you decided to work. I have not heard anything about your joint decision. Regarding the press, I wish this to be in Boston because you are now getting your own house there. In your last letter you also invited many householders to live there. Because all the press managers are householders, and you are also householder, so combinedly if you manage the printing and publication of our books, that will be a great success. If we have got our own press, we can earn some money by outside work when there is on pressure of our own work. So this is very important subject matter and keep me informed about the advancement of the idea. Regarding my going to Boston, yes, I wanted to go there to see the press started before my going to Europe. We must have many books printed, either by ourselves, or through publishers or through any other means. This is more important than my touring in Europe. Regarding Krishna, formerly you were sending me the transcribed copies as early as possible, and if you continue the same process, then I shall also send you the tapes consecutively. I think this book with pictures by Jadurani will come out a unique publication. I shall be glad to know if the pictures can also be printed in our own press. That is also a very important thing. I am very glad to learn that Brahmananda, Advaita and others have gone there and you are doing the needful. If you think my presence will further help in this connection, on hearing from you I shall immediately go. Since Jadurani has resumed her painting work, I think Jahnava may be engaged in joining the Sankirtana Party, because she is a good salesgirl of BTG. Anyway, do things in good sense, without any disturbance. We have to make progress very soberly, and I am always at your service whenever required. I have not heard also what further arrangement is done regarding the house. Has everything been settled up nicely regarding the documents, etc.? You have mentioned nothing of these things in your letter under reply. Also, your telephone has been out of order for at least the past week, and I do not know why this is so. Please offer my blessings to your good wife, Jadurani, and to all of the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Tell Brahmananda that press __ at New Vrindaban is most impractical at the present moment, because there is transport difficulty. For the time being first of all organize the Boston center very nicely & then we shall divert our attention elsewhere. We cannot diffuse our attention in many things all at a time ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** August 27th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I am sure that you know I have come to Germany via New York on Monday morning. It is understood from different sources that Rayarama has written you a letter complaining that the charge of BTG has been taken from him without any justification. But the actual fact is that he was spending 600 dollars per month for maintenance of Iskcon Press with the result that the number of subscribers was only somewhere about 300. Most of the BTGs were being sold by our Sankirtana Party in Los Angeles. Anyway, the 600 dollars were to be saved for other useful purposes. Therefore, the staff engaged in Iskcon Press was dispersed, but Rayarama was there in his original position as managing editor. But since this expenditures was stopped, he is little bit sorry; so much so that he does not come regularly and practically he is inclined to give up our relationship. So I called him when I was in New York, but his attitude is different. I did not see him in the airport on my arrival or departure, neither did I see him at the function held on Sunday. So I think in the future you will have to take charge of managing BTG in consultation with Brahmananda when the press will be started in Boston. I have already decided to start the press, and I am glad to have your assurance that you will help in this respect, even with financial help. I thank you very much for this straightforward offer. Please let me know what is the position of the house at the present moment. You have promised to pay them 6,000 dollars down, and if it is possible, why not pay him the 6,000 down immediately. This will finish the transaction immediately instead of waiting for three months. I shall be glad to hear from you in details about this matter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** September 14th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 9th, 1969 addressed to the Hamburg center. Now I have come to England. Our temple here is not yet finished, so I am staying in the house of Mr. John Lennon. He is very much kind upon us. Here also there is a nice big hall, exactly suitable for a temple, and the devotees are enjoying the opportunity by chanting there twice, thrice daily. I have also begun to give lectures here on specific days, but there are no outsiders coming. I have arrived here on the 11th September at about 2:30, and the devotees arranged for a very nice reception in the airport. There was chanting, press interviews, and nice press reports have come out with excellent pictures. Some of them are enclosed herewith for your reference. The first meeting organized by the devotees here will be held in the Town Hall tomorrow in the evening. So let us see how we can establish Krishna Consciousness in this part of the world. Regarding your judgment in court, it appears that the judge is a learned man, and he has given the right judgment, being graced by Krishna. We have to work sincerely, and because Krishna is in everyone's heart, there will be no difficulty to have the necessary facilities. I hope by this time you have received the three Krishna tapes that were sent to you from Germany, and there will be more coming soon. I am enclosing a picture of the Los Angeles throne which Murari may hold as the standard for constructing the throne there. The throne should be 40 x 40 inches square, and 45 inches up to the canopy. Above that, up to the dome, it is another 12 inches. There should be three pillars as shown on the photograph, and they should be silver colored or silver-plated. I am pleased that the press arrangement is proceeding nicely, and you will be pleased to know that my Guru Maharaja drew a picture in which He gave great importance to the symbolic representation of the press next to the mrdanga. Press means publication of various types of books and literatures and the mrdanga means Sankirtana Party. So now your center will have both facilities, and organize in such a way that you will become the living example to the other centers. When the press is fixed up, I shall go to Boston and see how things are being done personally. I hope you will accept this program. Regarding the house, as you are consulting with some lawyers, perhaps you can also take advice from Giriraja's father, who is also a lawyer. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: I am in due receipt of Giriraja's letter, sent along with $30 for the maintenance fund. Please thank him for this ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** October 15th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 10, 1969 with the deeds enclosed. I do not understand the technical language, but I can follow that there is a property in the name of the society. Yes, Krishna is the Proprietor of not only this property, but all the properties of all the universes. He is the Supreme Enjoyer of everything, and He is the most Beloved, Sincere Friend of everybody. That is a fact. People do not know it or they have forgotten it, and our Krishna Consciousness Movement is trying to understand this philosophy and make others understand it. So you are a sincere devotee of Krishna and He has given you a great opportunity of service, perhaps #1 in all the centers. You are the only pioneer center who possess your own property and press. I am so glad to learn that things are going on nicely and Krishna is giving you good income also. Please therefore manage things very nicely, both husband and wife and other assistants. You are also very fortunate to have an assistant like Giriraja. This boy has so quickly taken up the Krishna Consciousness cause and I am very much pleased with his behavior. Now Advaita should be assisted by some other intelligent man. Jadurani should be given sufficient space for her painting work, assisted by other artists. And Giriraja is the right leader of Sankirtana Party. I am sorry that Murari has left. Pray to Krishna that he may come back again soon. Yes, this Uher tape recorder is very nice. It can act both as tape recorder and dictaphone also. It has got exactly the same speed for direct typewriting, but because you have not got a tape recorder that plays at this dictaphone speed, we send you higher speed tapes. In BTG the rasa lila episode cannot be published. We are writing on the activities of Krishna and rasa lila is one of the most important Pastimes of His transcendental activities. Therefore it must be published in the book, but it cannot be published in any public paper. That is the instruction of my Guru Maharaja. Actually, rasa lila means to curb down the lusty propensities of the conditioned soul. Unfortunately, it acts differently on the conditioned soul if he is not prepared to understand what is Krishna. So do not try to print this. Yes, I am very much anxious to go to Boston as soon as possible, but at the same time I want to see London center well established. Since I have come here Krishna has given us our permanent place which was in dispute at 7, Bury Place. It is very well situated, and perhaps London center will also come out very successful in the near future. The Hare Krishna record is going on in England nicely, and I heard that in Australia it stands 4th on the list of 50 important records. I have heard also from Brahmananda that he plans to spend 3 days per week at Boston, but I have also heard that during his absence 3 devotees have left the temple. So things should be managed so nicely that our devotees may not leave us. We get a devotee after great endeavour, and we must train such devotee in a nice way so that he may not go back and be at large in the clutches of Maya. I think I shall visit Boston in December surely, if not in November, and I shall let you know the exact time and date. As you are talking of myself that I am your only shelter, similarly I am always thinking that you all boys and girls are only my hopes. When I was first in Boston in the same Commonwealth Port I was thinking how I shall be able to establish my mission in this country. Now, by Krishna's Grace, the time has come when I see Boston is the first center and in Boston we have got so many nice devotees. Please offer my blessings to all the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Ask Dayananda to write me. He is so nice boy and I want to hear from him. Recently I got one letter from Nandarani. She is so nice as her husband ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** October 26th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 22, 1969. I have duly made corrections on the Isopanisad glossary you had enclosed, and I shall send it to Brahmananda as requested by you. I want that in all of our books, magazines and other writings the scholarly presentation be given in all instances, so for every Sanskrit word there must be the appropriate spelling and diacritic marks. Regarding your question about BTG containing more than one essay by me in certain issues, you may use your own judgement in this connection. Enclosed is a tape for Krsna, and at the part on this tape where Kamsa is killed, that is the end of the first volume of Krsna. The remaining portion shall be published as the second volume. Now we must make arrangements for its publication. Please consult with Advaita as to the price for 10,000 copies on the style of TLC. There will be approximately 350 printed pages and 50 pages of paintings. So combinedly you determine what the production costs will be and let me know your figures. Regarding your final question, you are correct that Garbhodakasayi Visnu and Karanodakasayi Visnu are not divisions of Paramatma. So you may change the words "divided into" into "is one of". I am so pleased to learn that already the press is ready to begin printing some Krsna Consciousness booklet, and please keep me informed on your progress. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Handwritten: [illegible] sent you separate post ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** October 31st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst House > England My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 28, 1969 with enclosures. The pamphlet sermon is not unfavorable. It is indirectly favorable because in that pamphlet the writer has admitted that the Christian church is waning and people are seeking after some new type of religion. That he has admitted. He says "Suppose the Christian church is waning, suppose even that in 10 years it will have gone out of existence. What then?" So these Christian priest are already feeling the pulse of their religious principles, and they are not very much hopeful. He writes another place that a woman being asked by her friend why she was not coming to church, the woman replied, "Oh, we don't go to church anymore." So far as we are concerned, he has admitted that the boy whom he spoke with was soft-spoken and polite. He seemed intelligent and had obviously been well brought up. In another place he says "What interested me most however was that here was a boy who was obviously religiously inclined. He was trying to find God and was trying to help other people find God, and he had taken up his post in front of a Christian church to preach Krsna." Don't you think that indirectly he is feeling the effect of our preaching work and his whole pamphlet is written as if he is afraid of the Krsna cult, which is spreading like wildfire? So we shall not be at all discouraged by such writings. Rather we should take the real fact that people are actually hankering after the real type of religion. Yesterday we had a very successful meeting at Oxford at the Town Hall. About 350 boys, girls, old men, ladies and gentlemen participated, and we made them all dance and chant with us, every one. After the meeting, many boys and gentlemen came to congratulate me. Out of them, one was an Egyptian gentleman. Similarly, in another meeting in Conway Hall one Chinese boy came and offered his obeisances exactly like my disciples, bowing down to my feet. Negro boys are also taking part. So it is a fact that our movement will appeal to the heart of everyone, and they will join us. If one is not very much sophisticated and overburdened by material contamination, then he must respond to our call. The only thing is that we as preachers must be very, very pure, sincere and serious. The crude example is that when a man is physically very strong, and if he has sex intercourse with a woman, she is sure to become pregnant. When pregnancy fails, it is due to the weakness of the male partner generally. Similarly, if we are full with Krishna vitality, then wherever we go the audience will be impregnated with Krishna Consciousness. Now some of our leading boys, like you, Brahmananda, Tamala, etc. you should be very careful to train your other junior Godbrothers to the right type of preacher, keeping full faith in Krishna and the Spiritual Master, and executing the routine works of chanting and following the regulations. That will make you all great preachers, and wherever you go you will come out victorious. Now coming to some other points discussed in the Cathedral Sermons pamphlet, we may take notice of the writer's statement which may help us in understanding the real position of Christian religion. In one of the statements he says the Bishop Dean, the former Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion, said to the general Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada last month that he gives the church as it exists today ten more years of life. The reason the church was dying he said was because it had become irrelevant. This means that the church people no more can convince the advanced, educated men of the present day. In another place he says in discussing the Ten Commandments of the Bible about the sanctity of (human life). Instead of exactly quoting the commandment "Thou shalt not kill," he replaces by his own words "Thou shalt do no murder". But he does not know how his own words reflect to the then society wherein Lord Jesus Christ was preaching. To say to his audience, "Thou shalt do no murder" means they were very much accustomed to commit murder. So what is the position of that society where the members are accustomed to commit murder, and what class of preaching can be made to such persons? As we see in another religious principle there is instruction that henceforward you shall not co-habit with your mother. So we have to judge such societies where there are murderers and those having sex life with their mothers, what kind of men they are. In the Bhagavad-gita the religious principles are divided into three categories: in the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. Generally, all so-called principles are in the modes of passion and ignorance. Maybe there are some moral instructions, but moral instructions without God-consciousness is impossible to follow. In another place the gentleman quotes one book written by Prof. Charles Smith. The book's name is "The Paradox of Jesus in the Gospels". In this book it is admitted that all the statements in the Bible are not directly spoken by Jesus. Some of them are staged through the mouth of Jesus Christ; and specifically this passage: "I am the way, the Truth and the light. No man comes unto the Father but by me." This gentleman admits that it is put into the mouth of Jesus because that is the literary convention of the author of the 4th Gospel. Such kinds of observations definitely suggests that there are many passages in the Gospel which are later on set up to be spoken by Lord Jesus Christ, but actually they were manufactured by different devotees. So far as our Bhagavad-gita is concerned, we do not find any such thing. Everywhere it is stated sri bhagavan uvāca: the Supreme Personality of Godhead said. And all the acaryas have accepted these words as they are spoken by the Lord. No authorized acharya has ever commented that it was put into the mouth of Krishna by Vyasadeva or Sanjaya or any other person. I give you all these hints not for general discussion, but for your personal understanding to know the respective positions of different types of religious principles. Ours is transcendental because we are not very much concerned with the minor moral or immoral principles, although each and every devotee is a first class moralist. But our religious principles or natural occupational duty is to learn how to love Krishna. We are practicing this and we are teaching this. So let us very steadily stick to our principles and our movement will surely come out successful. I hope this meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** November 3rd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter dated November 18, 1969 and have noted all the points carefully. I can understand that the composing program is not going as planned. Therefore, I think Palika Dasi may immediately be trained to help with this task. For layout work I have already asked Aravinda to come to Boston to do that work. So these two devotees will be posted in Boston for the time being to centralize the activities. Then we shall see how to pick up further men. For editing the Sanskrit words you can send me a list of the words, and I shall send you the correct diacritic marks. You write that you shall send me your changes for the Krsna manuscript pages here with me, and upon receipt of them I shall do the needful. Please also send carbon copies of the tapes you have edited in the past few months. By separate post a new tape is being sent to you. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** November 5th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 30, 1969 with enclosures. I will keep the court documents in your file. Regarding BTG printing, I have already written to Brahmananda that this must be printed in our own press. So far as my books are concerned, I think there are materials for at least ten books which are ready for printing. Now all the manuscripts are with you. So now the editorial department is under you and Hayagriva, and you combinedly please get my books printed, one after another. I think the following management will be nice: I shall pay the book printing price; actual cost plus 10% maintenance charges. Then after the books are printed you will distribute them proportionately to different centers, and they will remit the price directly to me. Purusottama will keep accounts for that so that the responsibility will be lighter on your side. Besides that, if the books are distributed immediately after printing, without payment at first, the centers will be encouraged to stock them and sell them. I have consulted on this matter with Purusottama, and he says that the idea is right. Now you can give me your own opinion also. But continually all the Bhagavatams, Krishna, Nectar of Devotion, etc. must be published. After printing, some of them may be made softbound and some may be made hardbound, according to demand. I have already written to Brahmananda that we shall not accept outside work. That will complicate our situation as a tax-free organization. Brahmananda wrote me that Advaita wants to purchase a wagon, but I don't think the press department will require a wagon just now. You have already one bus, so money should not unnecessarily be spent up. For the present the idea may be suspended, and when I come to Boston I shall see if it is actually needed. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** November 14th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 12, 1969 and thank you very much. Regarding the delay in composing books, I have just now written to Pradyumna and Arundhati asking them the reason why they are delaying the matter. So on receipt of their clear reply I shall take necessary action. I can appreciate also that the matter is being delayed. If they are having difficulty in composing, can you suggest any other boy or girl to take up this work in Boston? Centralized activity is desirable, but because we have not got all workers in a place, there is difficulty. Now gradually it will be centralized. So far as Krsna is concerned, I understand that you did not keep any copy of the manuscript. Generally it is the custom to make at least four copies, so how is it that you have neglected this? In the absence of a second copy it is risky to send you our copy in the mail. Therefore, I am personally glancing over and putting the diacritic marks in the Sanskrit words. Besides that, one respectable friend has promised to get this printed immediately. In my previous letter I asked you to give quotation for this Krsna book. The size should be 7" x 10". I understand that is the standard size of this kind of book. Please also inform me if we have got arrangement for printing color pictures also. So in consultation with Advaita please give me immediately the actual expenditure for printing 10,000 Krsna books on the style of TLC; four hundred pages, including fifty color pictures. It is essential for me to know this because the friend who wants to publish this book should be informed about the cost of production within a week. Also, I have not received any edited versions of the tapes which I have sent you from Europe. So please send them to me as soon as possible, keeping carbon copies with you in Boston. If there are discrepancies in your editing techniques between the beginning and later chapters, please inform me what they are so we can make the corrections here. Regarding Brahmananda, I do not think he may divert his attention to Boston activities. So far I get report from Tamala Krishna, New York is not in proper condition. New York is the most important center, so things should be arranged there very first class. Brahmananda is leading very nice Sankirtana Party in New York, so that should be organized more and more. I shall write to Brahmananda soon. In the meantime, if you meet, you can also say to him. So far as press management is concerned, do you think Brahmananda's presence is required? Or will Advaita and Uddhava be able to do things? So far as I get report from Tamala, the press arrangement is now in due order trough the endeavor of Advaita and Uddhava. So Tamala Krishna will correspond with you in this connection. In the meantime you can send me the production cost of Krsna as described above. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa **Date:** December 13th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Satsvarupa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 7, 1969 along with the article of Acyutananda. Your decision not to publish this article is correct. To the neophyte devotees we should issue instruction that there are four stages of understanding the Absolute Truth. The first stage is re-establishing our relationship with Krishna. This is the first stage. The second stage is after understanding our relationship, to perform devotional service under proper guidance. The third stage is acquisition of the desired Object. The fourth stage is relishing the nectar of perfectional love. So Radha-Krishna Lila belongs to the fourth stage of understanding, and we are publishing BTG for people in general to re-establish their forgotten relationship with Krishna. So we should always remember this and from Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita, and Isopanisad they should try to write how our relationship is revoked from this stage of forgetfulness. They should write articles like this: 1) Krishna, the Omnipotent, 2) How God can be realized as All-Pervasive, 3) The Original Source of Everything, 4) Transcendental Process of Hearing, 5) How one gets out of the Clutches of Maya, 6) Prayers by Arjuna, 7) Prayers by Kunti Devi, 8) Prayers by Bhismadeva They should try to understand Krishna first in so many ways which are described in our Bhagavatam. They should read them carefully and pick up subject matters as above mentioned. What general people will understand about Radha-Krishna Lila? Immediately they will take it as ordinary boys and girls in spite of a thousand warnings, "This is not this, this is not this." So you shall issue instruction that they should write articles on the subject matters as above mentioned. They should read our Bhagavatam. The purports are there: They should assimilate them in their own words in a literary career. I was very much pleased to see one of your articles which you picked up from Daksa yajna. The articles should be very scrutinizingly published. We want to make our BTG an authorized, first class magazine, and the writers and students should be equally responsible. So when we meet we shall talk more about this. Yes, you can expect us on the 21st December, Pan American Flight #55, arriving in Boston at 3:40 pm. Purusottama has already written to Brahmananda about procedures for our tickets, so you may immediately consult with him in this connection. I am glad that you are corresponding with Hayagriva, and when I come there he may also come. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satsvarupa, Brahmananda **Date:** September 4th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Satsvarupa and Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated August 31st, 1969, as well as the telegram dated September 4th. By the telegram, I understand that by Krishna's Grace it appears to be settled up, and you can continue your proceeding, chanting always Hare Krishna. He will always give us protection. I am very anxious to know about Uddhava's condition of health. May Krishna protect you all. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Police must give us special protection on account of threatening ### Letter to Satya Pal **Date:** August 31st 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg Dear Satya Pal, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter addressed to my New Vrindaban temple, and I am so glad to read it. I think this is the first letter I received from you since I met you sometimes in 1959. I am glad to learn that now you are a family man, and you have qualified yourself as post graduate student of economics and are in possession of a government service. But I am sorry to learn that you are pulling on with Rs. 250 per month. It is surely insufficient for a family man. This Rs. 250 means in American exchange as somewhere between 30 and 35 dollars, which is earned here even by ordinary workers in three days. That is the lowest income in this country. Those who are qualified graduates, they are earning at least 500 dollars per month, which means in Indian exchange Rs. 6,000 or more. That is the difference between India and America. Here, people are earning up to 20,000 per month. Those who are independent businessman earn 50,000 per month or more and they are spending also. Therefore, the distribution of wealth here is broader, and as such, every man is well-situated, even an ordinary worker. There is no scarcity of money or material comforts, but still the modern younger generation, they do not feel very happy. They are hankering after some spiritual food, and as such they are relishing this Krishna Consciousness Movement with some taste. There is immense possibility of spreading this Krishna Consciousness Movement all over the Western world, if it is administered properly. You have rightly said "You alone are completing this aim of Caitanya Mahaprabhu by giving your full dedication to Lord Krishna and Radha." I think, however, that all of my Godbrothers should come out of India and preach this cult all over the world to fulfill the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But they are busily engaged in constructing temples all separately, and they are satisfied if there is a temple and a little income to provide them with food and clothing, without any spirit of preaching propaganda. Srila Prabhupada said that it was better to accept some menial service for maintaining oneself then to get some money by showing the Deities to the innocent public and being satisfied thereby. Now there is great necessity to train preachers in all the camps of our Godbrothers and send them all over the world. Of course, they must be impregnated with real preaching spirit, without any material profit. Whenever I ask somebody to take this job, they are silent. They are simply satisfied with some Mathas, and they have forgotten the preaching spirit of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja. When none of them came to preach outside of India, I thought I was to do this humble service to His Divine Grace, and by His blessings, I am getting good cooperation from the local boys and girls. That is my satisfaction. Otherwise, none of my Godbrothers is helping me substantially. So I am not very much hampered by this action. I shall try my best to do this job, and you will be glad to learn that I have got already two dozen centers all over the USA, Canada and Europe. Those boys who are helping me are opening branches very quickly and preaching this cult of Krishna Consciousness very sincerely. You are living in Gwalior, and I have heard that Gwalior is a good place where marble statues are manufactured. Can you give me any information if Radha-Krishna Murtis can be had from Gwalior. If so, can you supply us such Murtis from Gwalior or else brass Murtis from Mathura. That will be a great help for me. I think Mathura is your birth place and your parents are there. So if you can manage to supply me brass Murtis of different sizes, then it will be a great help to me for propaganda work. We may require many other things, either from Gwalior or Mathura, and I shall be glad to hear from you about this. I think Gwalior is manufacturing musical instruments also. For the present I am in Germany at the above address, and my next program is to go to London at the end of September. So if you reply immediately, you can address the letter at the above address. Thank you very much for remembering me after so long a time. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satyabhama **Date:** March 24th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Satyabhama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your very nice letter of March 16, and I thank you very much for it. I am happy to hear that you and your good husband are living peacefully at New Vrindaban and executing Krishna Consciousness. This is very nice, and is a good example for others. In the Western countries there is practically no real family life, and we have to show good example of Krishna Consciousness family life, and others will be attracted to follow your examples. This is my idea. I understand you are now expecting a nice child for raising in Krishna Consciousness. In this connection, you should avoid any spicy foods so long the child is within the womb. So far this soy sauce, I have no personal experience with it. I understand soy beans are nice, but I do not know about this soy sauce. So far natural childbirth is concerned natural delivery is possible if we keep ourselves naturally. And so far I know that a pregnant woman should not eat any pungent food stuffs, she should not move in cars, and she should not sit idly. She should move and do some physical work. These are the general rules and regulations I have seen in India, and they have natural delivery. But so far your country is concerned, and especially the situation of the women here, that is a different thing. I cannot say definitely what is to be done. And under the circumstances, the best thing is to consult a doctor as they usually do. And after all, Krishna is the ultimate master, so if we keep the natural habits and depend on Krishna, then everything will be done nicely without any difficulty. So best thing is for you to consult a doctor and do the necessary. Yes, the idea of beginning children's books for our school at new Vrindaban is very nice. When I shall come there in mid-May then I shall give you instructions how to do it nicely. Yes I received your very nice set of clothes for my Deity, and I thank you very much for them. I hope you are feeling happy and in good health executing Krishna Consciousness. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Satyabhama **Date:** March 30th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Satyabhama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated Feb. 22, along with the Deities dress, and it was received by me just yesterday. I think due to my change of address it was delayed. Anyway, everyone here has very much appreciated the beautiful dresses you have sent for the Deity and today we are changing the dress by putting on your dress on the transcendental Body of the Deity. I think I have replied your former letter also, which I hope you have received by this time, and I am so glad to learn that you are feeling very happy in New Vrindaban. The basic principle of our life in Vrindaban will be cow keeping. If we can keep cows sufficiently and grow our necessary foodstuffs, then we shall show a new way of life to your countrymen . . . completely spiritual life in healthy atmosphere in divine consciousness. And you will have ample opportunity to educate children and write books for them because there is sufficient matter for publishing such books from the Puranas, Mahabharata, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and many other allied literatures. There are thousands of ideal historical events, which if we can put with suitable pictures, it will be a great idea and people will like to have such literature. I have got many ideas for developing the new Vrindaban scheme and if Krishna gives me opportunity I may be able to show something very wonderful in your country. Unfortunately I have no money neither the richer section of your countrymen have taken any serious view of our movement. Otherwise there is more than sufficient money and if one or two men of your country gives a little attention, with this we can develop many New Vrindabans. We are not very much expensive; simply if we get the necessary money, we can play wonderful. Our only hope is books and literature. So we have to start press, and for that purpose, and publish varieties of books and literature for getting some financial help as well as propagating our mission. So as soon as I come to your place I shall give you all nice ideas you have asked for in your letter under reply. And I thank you very much for giving me all these ideas for our future activities. Please convey my blessings to all your God-brothers and God-sisters there, and especially our Syama dasi, I hope she is doing well. So far keeping Deity in your separate house, I think there is no need for this. Because if you keep Him there, you have to take proper care, with aratis and attention, and thus divert attention from the Deity in the temple, and from chanting and so many other forms of service, like your writing and sewing, etc. So I think it best if everyone centers his attention on the Deity in the temple, and in that way the temple worship will pull on nicely. Of course, if the temple is unapproachable, or too far, or something like that, that is different thing, but if the temple is easily accessible then this is the best program—for all to go there and attend arati and kirtana etc. No, I do not think you should give Jagannatha to small children because they will not take proper care and make offenses. In this country their parents do not give them proper example of worshiping the Deity with all respects. Just like in my childhood, I was seeing my father bowing down and offering respects to the Deity and I did the same on seeing him. But this is not done here, so it is better to take some care in giving Jagannatha out. I hope you are all well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Selective Service System (for Tosana Krsna) **Date:** March 20th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii Local Board No. 40Selective Service System100 McAllister StreetSan Francisco, Calif. 94102RE: THOMAS GRITTON ALLIN III 4-40-50-437 (TOSAN KRISHNA DAS BRAHMACHARY)THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THOMAS GRITTON ALLIN III (TOSAN KRISHNA DAS BRAHMACHARY) is my bona fide initiated student. He is being trained under me to become an ordained Minister of Religion in the KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS (God Consciousness) SOCIETY, and he is studying regularly the following books: (1) Bhagavad-gita As It Is, (2) Srimad-Bhagavatam, (3) The Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and other allied literatures. He is also preaching this perfect religious process amongst university students. MY INITIATED STUDENTS ARE STRICTLY FORBIDDEN TO INDULGE in the following principles of degradation: (1) All forms of intoxication, including coffee, tea, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, etc. (2) The eating of animal foods, such as meat, fish, and eggs. Rather, their diet consists of Prasadam, especially offered foodstuffs (vegetarian), (3) Unmarried sex indulgence, (4) Gambling, or idle sports of any sort. Their lives are dedicated to serving God, and as such, they have no time to squander on unbeneficial activities or non-Godly activities. SOME OF MY STUDENTS HAVE BEEN CLASSIFIED IN THE 4D CLASS or Ministerial Order prior to this by the Selective Service System. ACB A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- CHIEF MINISTER OF THEINTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS ### Letter to Sethji **Date:** September 22nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Sethji, Please accept my greetings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 18th August, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. The boy, Sri Arun Kumar, wherever he goes in our centers, he will be welcome. All our centers are accustomed to taking Prasadam, so it will be very nice if he lives with us. Just now we have no center in Pittsburgh, although we have opened a branch in Philadelphia at 4524 Regent Street, Phila., Pa. 19143. Our Tokyo branch is not yet opened, but our men are working there, and as soon as they find a suitable house, we shall regularly establish the center. In the meantime, we have established some new centers in Washington, Detroit, Colorado, and Laguna Beach. Perhaps you have seen in The Times of India and other papers about my London arrival. On the reverse side you will find one of the articles from The Sun, published in London. We have released one Hare Krishna record through the famous record manufacturers, the Apple Company, and by the Grace of Krishna it is being sold on the average 20,000 copies per week in London alone. So the Hare Krishna Movement is gradually becoming very popular in the Western countries. It is great necessity to construct a very big Radha-Krishna temple here, so I am trying to find out some redundant churches to turn into temples. Please pray to Lord Caitanya to help me in this great attempt. You are a great devotee of Lord Caitanya and your prayers will be heard by Him. I hope this will meet you in good health. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: I am forwarding a copy of this letter to Sri Bhaiji (Sri Hanuman Prasadji Poddar). Sri J. Dalmia New Delhi ### Letter to Shyama Dasi **Date:** August 6th 1969 > 1975 So. La Cienega Blvd.Los Angeles, Cal. 90034 My Dear Shyama Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your nice letter of July 28th, 1969, and I am glad that you are working very hard in assisting your good husband. So my idea of combining you as husband and wife is now fulfilled, and you both continue to render your important service to Krishna. I am so glad to learn that you are preparing enthusiastically for the Janmastami Ceremony. The atmosphere in New Vrindaban created by all, especially your husband, is very nice. Almost daily I hear the kirtan sung by your husband and the prayers offered by Paramananda. So you have got a very good combination. Follow the program and gradually you will feel more and more transcendental bliss. Perhaps you have already received the memo, but on Janmastami Day there will be a test on Bhagavad Gita and Ishopanishad. I will send the test to each center, and the devotees or anyone can sit down and answer the questions, consulting Bhagavad Gita and Ishopanishad. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: The prayers by Srila Raghunathadas Goswami which you have submitted to me are very nice, and they may be printed in BTG ### Letter to Silavati **Date:** June 14th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Silavati, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated June, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents therein. Regarding the suggestion that you remarry, I have never suggested such thing, so you need not trouble yourself with this. As I have told you in Los Angeles, I wish that the mother's who have no husband at present should not remarry, but should dedicate their time to seeing that their children are brought up very nicely in Krishna Consciousness. Your boy, Birbhadra, has just arrived here, and he will be taken care of by Kirtanananda Maharaja. Satyabhama Dasi is in charge of educating the children in New Vrindaban, and she is very qualified to do this because she is educated and works very nicely with the children. So there is no difficulty at present in this regards, and as you are so nicely engaged in your activities in Los Angeles, you should continue as you are now doing. Your description of the course you are giving to the interested girls about the role they play in Krishna Consciousness is very nice, and I am pleased that you have begun this project. Actually the role of all conditioned souls is the same; to chant Hare Krishna, tell others to chant, perfect our lives in Krishna Consciousness, and to go back to Godhead when this body is finished. Now if you can induce all the women of Los Angeles to place an altar in their homes and help their husbands have peaceful, happy home life in Krishna Consciousness, that will be very great service for you. The actual system is that the husband is Spiritual Master to his wife, but if the wife can bring her husband into practicing this process, then it is all right that the husband accepts wife as Spiritual Master. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said that anyone who knows the science of Krishna, that person should be accepted as Spiritual Master, regardless of any material so-called qualifications; such as rich or poor, man or woman, or brahmana or sudra. So if you can show the women of the community how to help their husbands and children to perfect their home life, and all aspects of life, in Krishna Consciousness by chanting, aratrik ceremonies, and eating Krishna prasadam, then you will improve the conditions of the neighboring communities to an incalculable extent. So try for this as far as possible. I already have practical experience that many of the American girls and boys are very intelligent and qualified to take up this sublime movement. We simply have to instruct them nicely, and surely many will understand that here is such a nice thing and they must take to it. So I am very pleased with the nice efforts you are making. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sir **Date:** May 27th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban > (?) Khanna Aban Villa,Santacruz East Bombay-55 INDIA Dear Sir: I am in due receipt of your telegram as well as your letter dated May 20, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I do not know why you are so much worried about your son's accepting brahmanahood. Anyway, rest assured that your son will not be initiated in brahmanahood at least for one year henceforward, unless he is so prepared with your sanction. Brahmanahood is not so easy job that one can be turned into a brahmana all of a sudden. We initiate our students into brahmanahood only after seeing their behavior for at least one year, especially with reference to the following principles: 1) one must not indulge in illicit sex, 2) one must not eat anything nonvegetarian, 3) one must not take any intoxicants, including coffee, tea or cigarettes, and 4) one must not take part in gambling. Besides this, even if one is initiated into brahmanahood it does not mean that he shall stop his general work and helping his family. I do not know why you are so upset that he will not help you anymore. Anyway, I am forwarding your letter to your son to negotiate with you further in this matter. But rest assured that he will not be accepted into brahmanahood at least for one year henceforward. Sincerely yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sir **Date:** June 5th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban Dear Sir: I beg to acknowledge receipt of your Hindi letter dated May 27, 1969, and I do not know why Gopala Krsna's father is so much upset. I have received one letter from Gopala Krsna dated May 29, 1969 in which he writes "I don't think my parents will have any objections now because I have assured them in telegrams and letter that I am not going to abandon them." I hope this will clear the whole thing. So far as I remember, I met you in San Francisco, if I am right. I hope you are doing well. Thanking you for your letter. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sir **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban Dear Sir: RE: S.B. a/c 2913 with youI beg to hand you herewith one Bank Draft in your favor for Rs 825.00 for credit of my above a/c. The purpose of sending this money is to purchase Brass Deities from Vrindaban. Arrangement has been mad that Sri Ramnath Mukutwala of Lohi Bazar, Vrindaban, will supply Radha-Krishna Brass Murtis, 24" high, at Rs 825.00 per pair. So please call him and pay him in advance Rs 100.00. After manufacturing the Murtis, he will securely pack and book the parcel to Calcutta by Ry Parcel. On delivery of the Ry receipt to you, along with the invoice you will pay him the balance Rs 725.00, including packing and forwarding charge. This Ry receipt, his invoice along with your certificate to the Reserve Bank of Calcutta that money paid to Ramanath Mukutwala is American Exchange received by you on such and such date, all the documents may be forwarded by Regd. Post with asked due to M/s United Shipping Corporation, 14/2 Old China Bazar Street, Calcutta-1, and they will take care of shipping the package to the U.S.A. The money paid to Ramanath Mukutwala and your commission for this transaction may be charged against my above a/c.Please acknowledge receipt to my following address: ISKCON, 1975 South La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90034, U.S.A. Thanking you in anticipation. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Unknown Place My dear Sivananda Prabhu, Please accept blessings. I have noted your scheme for a greater Sankirtana party in Germany. Your ambition will certainly be fulfilled, but wait till Krishna gives you the adequate chance. You require more men and wait till that time. A.C.B. ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** January 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 14, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I am pleased to note that you enjoy going out into the streets chanting and preaching from Bhagavad-gita. This is a very good attitude and in accordance with the teachings of Lord Caitanya that the process of Sankirtana should be presented to men all over the world. So as you are able you should continue to go into the streets to chant, and I am sure that the others at your temple will appreciate going with you as they are available. Surely this practice will attract many people there to take some interest in this Krishna Consciousness movement. Regarding your request for cooking information, it is best if you will consult Yamuna Dasi in London. She is very expert cook, and will be able to answer any questions you have regarding prasadam preparations. I understand that Yamuna has written a recipe book which they are trying to have printed in London soon, so this also will be available to help you in this connection. Regarding serving your godbrothers, this is a very good practice. The Spiritual Master is never without His followers, so to serve the Spiritual Master also means to be the servant of His disciples. When you want to serve the king, you must also serve his minister, secretary, and everyone who serves him. And to serve his servants may please him more than to serve the king personally. So the Spiritual Master is not alone. He is always with His entourage. We are not impersonalists. We take care of every part of the whole, as much as one should take care of his hat as well as his shoes. Both are equally important for the upkeep of the body. I hope that you will understand this rightly. It is important that we preach the message of Krishna Consciousness exactly as we have heard it from our Spiritual Master. The same philosophy and spirit must be there exactly. Just like we preach in this country exactly as we have heard from our Spiritual Master, but there are changes due to the time, circumstances, and the trainees. The spirit of the disciplic succession may not be changed, but there may be adjustments made to suit the special circumstances. Regarding your last question about the importance of chanting; this chanting process is the only way of attaining full Krishna Consciousness in this age of kali yuga. Lord Caitanya stressed upon this point, and we may take it from His authority that no other method will prove to be successful in this matter. So continue to push on our Hamburg center as far as possible. You have gone to Germany, not even knowing how to speak their language, and you are trying to give to them the rarest jewel, Krishna Consciousness. I know that Krishna is very pleased with all of your efforts there, and surely He will give you all facilities to come out successful in your efforts. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. His Holiness Swami Sadananda, my German god-brother may come to see you. When he comes offer your respect by bowing down as you do unto me. ACB ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** February 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > Hamburg My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 4, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am so glad to learn that you are again accepting work to improve the condition of the temple. This is very nice. Practically, it was you who took the initiative for starting the London and German centers. In London, the boys and girls are doing very nicely, and similarly, you are already three, and Jaya Govinda is coming soon. So you also try your best to startle Germany with the chanting of Hare Krishna. Regarding the draft, I think if you place yourself as my student for becoming a future Ordained Minister of Religion, there will be no draft problem. We are printing so many books, already we have got four or five, so if the government is convinced that you are studying these theistic literatures under my guidance, because I am admitted as Ordained Minister of Religion, then you can be classified in the 4-D section, qualifying you to be a student of religious ministership, and there will be no problem from the draft board. So in the future, when your services are called for in New Vrndavana I think I will be able to give you all protection. But for the time being you have got great responsibility to organize the Hamburg center as far as possible. I think you should make the board of management for your center as follows: President; Sivananda das Brahmacari, Treasurer and Secretary; Krishna das Brahmacari, Editor of German BTG; Uttama Sloka, Superintendent of press; Jaya Govinda das Brahmacari. Regarding your questions about various names of God, we have nothing to do with Jehova, Allah, Jesus, etc. If somebody else wants to chant in this way it is all right, but nobody is chanting Jesus etc. If they like, let them do that but as far as we are concerned, we should be satisfied with the Hare Krishna Mantra and nothing more. We have registered our association particularly under the name of Krishna. God has millions of names undoubtedly, but we are especially concerned with the name of Krishna because we are in the disciplic succession of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu Who chanted this Holy Name, Krishna. Everyone should be particular to his particular disciplic succession or sampradaya's regulative principles. This is required, as much as there are many different political parties, although every one is meant to serve the country. So far as you not completing your chanting, I think this should not be a regular practice. If by chance you miss to finish in one day, that is a different thing. But as far as possible we must try to complete the prescribed number of beads. You should try to chant at least 2 or 3 hours every day. We have got 24 hours at our disposal, so for chanting we can find 2 or 3 hours without any difficulty. Simply we have to adjust things in the right way. Regarding utilizing intelligence in devotional service, intelligence should be confirmed by the Spiritual Master. Therefore we accept the Spiritual Master for guidance. You should not depend on your own intelligence. Just like a child requires a parent to tell him the correct thing to do, similarly, a strict disciple should always use his intelligence in conformity with the instructions of the Spiritual Master. Regarding your dealings with impersonalists, any one who teaches of the impersonal nature should be avoided. If we hear them, it will hamper our progress. That will be the result—no progress. Therefore, rigidly we will try to avoid the impersonal teachings. Generally, it only produces bad effects. As for your question about the ecstasy of chanting and working for Krishna, the ecstasy which is automatically manifest is very welcome, but we should not try to come to the ecstatic status by any artificial practice. You should give more stress on the importance of chanting. Working for Krishna is not different from chanting, but such work would be done under the direction of the Spiritual Master. Please convey my blessings to Uttama Sloka. I hope this will meet you all in very good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** March 9th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your three letters post dated March 5, 1969, and I thank you very much for them. I have noted your points, and one thing is that the instruction given by one gentleman Mr. Somanatha to go to India as agriculturalists is absurd. Don't be carried away by all this nonsense advice. So far Indian authority is concerned for preaching work, I am prepared to go to your center for preaching at any time you call me. Your statement that you will try to organize the Hamburg center very nicely and have a smooth running energetic temple when I go there is also very encouraging. Please stick to this principle without any diversion. Take it from me that I am always praying to Lord Krishna for your success in Krishna Consciousness movement. You're very sincere devotee and if you simply stick to the principles, success is sure for your life. Krishna's Mercy is always bestowed upon one who is sincerely serving Him. You should not give attention to any outsider's advice because they are completely unfit to give you advice. Your situation is different. We do not care for any agriculturist or economist. Our only shelter is Krishna. Stick to this principle and success is sure for you. I shall be glad to hear what about the press matter and printing Back To Godhead in German Language. Chanting 16 rounds without fail, performing Kirtana at least twice daily, morning and evening, discussion on Bhagavad-gita, and Srimad-Bhagavatam in the class, and work diligently and cooperatively amongst yourselves is my fervent request. Kindly follow this and be happy. Please convey my blessings to Krishna das and Uttama Sloka. I have received letter from Jaya Govinda that he is anxious to come back to Germany. I have also advised Krishna das to arrange for his passage, but I have not heard anything from them. Please let me know at your earliest convenience. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** April 13th 1969 — **Location:** New York My Dear Sivananda Prabhu, Please accept my greetings. I am very glad to receive your Bengali letter, and I hope; you will excuse me that I am replying you in English, because it saves much of my time. I have already advised the editor of Back To Godhead to send you copies of the paper regularly. The subscription fee is $5.00 per 12 issues, and you can send the exchange to the following address: ISKCON PRESS, 504 East 6th Avenue, New York, NY 10003. Please include your distinct name and address, so you will get the paper regularly. You have inquired about my books, and the facts are that before I came here from India, I published three volumes of Srimad-Bhagavatam, each of about 400 pages. Since I have come here, many manuscripts are prepared for printing, and I have published Bhagavad-gita As It Is, published by MacMillan and Teachings of Lord Caitanya, published by International Society for Krishna Consciousness. We are selling our books nicely here, and if you can organize a means of selling our magazine and books in India, it will be a great help to our activities. One of my disciples, Acyutananda Brahmacari is already there in India, and if you think seriously to help me in this movement, he will also join you. The difficulty is that the books and magazines are costly in the estimation of the Indian exchange. The standard exchange is 7.5 Rs per dollar, so you consider and let me know if you can help us. You have mentioned about the disagreement amongst our god-brothers, and it is a fact. But so far as I am concerned, I am trying to execute my humble bit, and if somebody disagrees in these activities, what can I do? But so far I get their letters, they fully appreciate the work going on here, and I do not know who is the gentleman against these activities. I will be happy to hear from you again soon. Hope this will find you in good health. Yours affectionately, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** May 4th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter dated "Friday," and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your idea of supporting the temple by Sankirtana collections, it is nice. In Los Angeles, New York, and other centers they are chanting on the streets every day and they are getting good remunerations, better than any job. New York once collected $500.00 in one weekend, and Los Angeles sometimes collects $250.00 in one day. Uddhava and Vaikunthanatha are collecting at least $20-$40.00 daily, so if it is possible to collect it is very good. Simply we have to work and people will give contribution for this good cause. It is better to get money by collections than to work. Regarding your desire to improve your singing voice, by singing you will become an expert singer. Anything you practice regularly you become expert in. There is every chance of my going to London in June, and certainly if I go there I must also go to your place also. Very soon two German souls who were recently initiated, Mandali Bhadra and Vrindabaneshvari, will be starting for Hamburg to give you all sorts of translations of Back To Godhead and other literatures. I am very much anxious to know about Jaya Govinda. I have not heard anything from him since about a month. Please let me know immediately whether he has reached Hamburg by this time. Regarding your need for a warm beverage to drink while you are working, milk is the best. Take hot milk with little sugar, stir it very nicely, and drink it when it is warm sufficiently, tolerable by you, and with bubbles on the surface. That is the best hot beverage available in the world. You can also prepare some halevah. That is also very nice for a cold country. Add to it some raisins, almonds, etc. I hope this will meet you in good health. Please convey my blessings to the others there with you. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** May 5th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Sivananda Prabhu, Please accept my greetings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 23 April, 1969, addressed to the New York temple and redirected here. I am so much obliged to you for picking up the "Jugantar" publication of your activities in London. I understand that you are sending an annual subscription fee for Back To Godhead, but it is $5.00 per year. It is Rs 7.5 exchange for one dollar, so I do not know how you have calculated. Acyutananda's address is c/o Caitanya Saraswat Math, Kolerganj, P.O. Navadvipa, Dist., Nadia, West Bengal. Regarding your questions about my books, we are presently selling six volumes; namely Srimad-Bhagavatam (three volumes), Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and Easy Journey To Other Planets. I am very much thankful for your promise to help me in my missionary activities, and I shall be glad to know about your press, whether you can print first class books in art paper and linotype composition. If so, we can give you so much work. We have got many books to be printed yet. If it is cheaper than in Japan, we can immediately give you some business. From Calcutta we may purchase many articles for being dispatched to our various centers. I do not know whether you can help us in that respect. We are importing many mrdangas and other musical instruments, Navadvipa karatalas also, so please tell me if you can help us in this respect. You can make some profit in this also. I will be happy to be hearing again from you soon. I hope this meets you in good health. Yours affectionately, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** May 8th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 26, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. You have mentioned that you may be interested in marriage, and if you think that you should marry, there is no question of living as an artificial brahmacari. Regarding your wish to open a center in the United States, first of all you have to establish the center firmly in Germany by leading the Sankirtana Party. Now Jaya Govinda is there, he is a very nice and competent boy, and soon the German couple are coming, so when you are all assembled and the Back To Godhead is coming regularly, then you can attempt another center. Practically it is your credit that you went to Germany and first began our movement there. So now it is your duty to help establish it more strongly. Most probably, if I go to London, I shall go to your place also. So then I shall decide if you can go to Chicago or any other place in the USA. In the USA we have so many centers, and now we want to open at least three or four centers in Germany and at least half a dozen centers in England. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** May 21st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 13 and noted the contents very carefully and your ideas are just in accordance with the idea of a preacher. Your proposition to establish a center and then hand it over to the people who come later on and then start another center is the desire of Lord Caitanya. So kindly do this. You have now someway or other brought into some status the Hamburg center and as soon as it is going on nicely, you can start another center in any country of the Central Europe. As far as your decision to remain a brahmacari, it is very good, and if you follow the rules and regulations and chant regularly and pray to Lord Balarama and Caitanya, surely He will give you the necessary strength. And if you can continue as brahmacari then to avoid so much botherations of worldly life. The great sage Narada is a brahmacari and with His Tamboura He is travelling all over the universes without any restriction and chanting Hare Krishna mantra and creating new devotees of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that one who does this service namely go on preaching the glories of the Lord and creating all devotees of the Lord that person is the most confidential and favorite of the Lord. I am so pleased to learn that Uttama is helping to bring in persons in our temple. Now Jaya Govinda is there and Mandali Bhadra and his wife are coming very soon in Germany and so you are already four and when Mandali Bhadra comes you become six. Why six? Seven. Because he has got a little boy. So your center Hamburg will very soon become as large a center as Los Angeles. So far incorporating our center is concerned, I think you should do it immediately. And if you want, you can take a copy of incorporation either from New York or from London and simply present a copy of our incorporation and get it registered. Police permission you must have because this outdoor Sankirtana is our life and soul and we are getting good response from other centers. And surely in your center also the same response will be available. Regarding your question of Paramatma: you are fortunate enough for your sincere service, Krishna as Paramatma Who is sitting within your heart is now dictating. Krishna is so kind that He wants to help us as Spiritual Master in two ways. He helps us from within as Caitya Guru and He expands Himself externally as Siksa Guru (as instructor) and diksa Guru (initiator). So the principle is that whatever you are instructed by the Caitya Guru internally may be confirmed by the instructor or initiator externally. Then your progress will be complete. Hope this will find you in good health. Thanking you once more. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** June 15th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your most recent letter (undated), and I have noted the contents carefully. I am so much encouraged to learn that one very nice German boy has come to live in your temple. This is clear evidence that you are all working sincerely to serve Krishna, and now one sincere soul has been so attracted by this, that he is also coming to join you. Actually, if one true Vaisnava goes any place in the world, then the spiritual instincts of the more advanced souls he comes into contact with will be awakened, and they will automatically be attracted. In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna informs Arjuna that if in previous lifetimes one has begun the path of spiritual perfection but was unable to complete it for one reason or another, then in future lifetimes he will automatically become attracted again to spiritual life, and he will begin his progress from the point where he had previously left off. So throughout the material universes there are many such spiritually inclined souls, and our mission is to present to everyone right knowledge of spiritual life. In this way, those who are already interested may finish up there Krishna Consciousness business in this life, and similarly, those who are not so interested may advance themselves and make perfection of their life, simply by hearing our Sankirtana Party, attending our temple activities with association with devotees, and eating Krishna prasadam. Please take nice care of Oliver, and help him in whatever way you can. In Krishna Consciousness every man is so important because all of the activities of a devotee of Lord Krishna is beneficial to all living entities. So if there are any questions that he would like me to help him with, I am always at your service to help in any way I can. Regarding your proposal to go to Paris, you will be pleased to learn that Janardana has already gone there two weeks ago, and he is thinking seriously how to spread Krishna Consciousness there. For the time being your services are required in Germany, so you must stay there for the present. Let us see how Janardana is arranging things in Paris, and when the time is right, if you are required to go there, then I shall instruct you in this regards. In the meantime, you are in Hamburg, so try to advance the success of your temple there as far as possible. I have received Jaya Govinda's note along with the list of credits for German BTG. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** July 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated by the post office on July 2, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I have received one letter from Krishna Das dated July 2nd, wherein he states "I have sent to you the ticket to Europe on the 23rd of June. Have you received it yet?" As of today I have still not received this ticket, so I hope you have cancelled it already from the German airline office. I do not know what is the position with this ticket, it may be lost in the mail, but if you have cancelled it already, there is no difficulty. Please inform me immediately what is the situation with this lost ticket. Regarding your idea of going to Copenhagen, it is very nice, and I am always anxious to open strong temples where the chanting of Hare Krishna and Krishna Consciousness philosophy will be propagated nicely. So as Janardana is planning to begin the Paris center, you may make investigation for a center in Copenhagen. So if you think you can open such a center in Copenhagen, then please inform of what your exact idea is to begin this project, and I shall advise you accordingly. I think when I come to Hamburg we shall talk about it. I am very pleased to note that Oliver is doing nicely, and he is now completing a Vyasa Asana and a picture of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana. Please offer my blessings to this boy and encourage him as far as possible to continue enthusiastically as he is now doing. I am still considering that I shall be going to Germany by the beginning of August, and I hope your temple is corresponding with the London devotees regarding the plane fare for myself, and if possible, for Purusottama also. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** July 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 17, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. The first thing I must mention is that I have still not received the ticket to Germany which Krishna das informed me in a previous letter was already sent to me. So I am anxious to know what is the position with this ticket. Also, I have written that I am prepared to go to Germany by the beginning of August if you will make arrangements in this way, but I have as yet to hear any further word on this matter. I would like to know what you and Krishna das are planning in this connection so I can make my schedule accordingly. Jaya Govinda was correct in his observation that Radha-Krishna Pastimes should not be discussed at the present time. Unless one is highly elevated in spiritual understanding it is risky to discuss these Pastimes. Caitanya Mahaprabhu never discussed Radha-Krishna Lila with ordinary persons. We have so many other things to discuss; what is the soul, what is bhakti. To understand Radha and Krishna's Pastimes, that is our aim, but we should not indulge in this at present. Then there is sure to be misunderstanding. Regarding Copenhagen, if there is possibility, we wish to open many such branches. But your main business at present is Sankirtana and selling literature, and this is similarly very important work. You write that you are interested in learning how to print, and if you have time for this, then Jaya Govinda can instruct you. I wish that all of our Krishna Consciousness literatures may be available to men of all languages throughout the world, so whatever assistance you can give in this connection is always appreciated. But your main business at the present moment is to propagate Sankirtana to all the people of Germany. This is also very great service. So please inform Krishna das to tell me immediately what is the position of my going to Germany in the month of August. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sivananda **Date:** September 26th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Sivananda, Please accept my blessings. I am so pleased to receive your letter (undated). I have already written one letter to Krishna das, and I am anxious to receive a reply from him. Anyway, I am so pleased to learn you have found out a very nice place. My suggestion is that you take a first class temple site; never mind if the rent is little higher. Krishna will give you strength. But try to find out first class place for Krishna, and make the throne very nicely as per the sample I have given. Then I shall go again and install the Deity. The sooner you do it is better, because when it will be cold, I must leave Europe. I always remember you for your kind personal service and walking with me on the street. So you are so kind upon me, Krishna will bless you with advanced consciousness, and you will be spiritually very happy. Thank you very much. Please offer my blessings to all and let me know about the progress with Zuruck Zur Gottheit. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sraman Maharaja **Date:** January 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Sripada Sraman Maharaja, Please accept my humble dandabats. I thank you very much for your kind letter dated December 31, 1968, I am so much grieved to learn the news of our revered god-brother, Swami Bhakti Sadhak Niskincana Maharaja, and I am so glad to learn that he passed away in full sense chanting "Krishna, Krishna". This is a glorious death. As it is said in the Srimad-Bhagavatam; Ante Narayana Smriti—this is the successful termination of our material existence. We do not know what will happen to us, but there is a Bengali proverb that everything will be tested at the time of death. So it is glorious for Swami Niskincana Maharaja that he has so gloriously passed away. I see that Sripada Bon Maharaja was present at that time but I do not see any mention of Sripada Tirtha Maharaja's name. Anyway, we have already held a condolence meeting on this occasion in our Los Angeles temple in the presence of about 100 devotees, and we passed a resolution of our aggrievement which will be duly published in our next issue of Back To Godhead. As desired by you your name has been registered on our mailing list and Back To Godhead will be duly mailed to you. In our resolution we have mentioned about Swami Niskincana Maharaja's contribution both in English, Sanskrit, Hindi and Bengali, and everyone has appreciated this. You will be glad to know that our London center is working for the last 5 months, and by the Grace of Srila Prabhupada, some English man there has agreed to donate a house for our temple there which is worth not less than Rs 800,000. The preaching work in other parts of our activities are going on, especially in Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Boston, London and Hamburg. We have an invitation from Guyana, So. America, as well as from Hawaii where we have already got our own temple. Back To Godhead is being published both in English and French language and very soon He will appear in the German language. Our disciples in Hamburg are proposing to purchase a printing machine, and they have sent me the news for my approval. So by the Grace of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, His mission in this part of the world is progressing slowly but surely. Your previous letter was duly received by me and was replied to by me, and I hope you have by this time received the same. In both of your letters you have mentioned about grand preparations being made for the celebration of Golden Jubilee for Sri Caitanya Math from 7 February through 6 March. Prior to your information, our god-brother, Y. Jagannathan also informed me about this impending ceremony but so far as I concerned, I have received no official information from Sripada Tirtha Maharaja. I do not know why. If it is thought however that my preaching work in this part of the world is not connected with Sri Caitanya Math, I do not think this is correct because I was authorized to do this work by Srila Prabhupada, and I am trying to do my humble bit.[TEXT MISSING] ### Letter to Sri Balmukundji **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Sri Balmukundji, Please accept my greetings. I beg to thank you very much for your kind letter of January 14, 1969. There is a verse in Srimad-Bhagavatam which says:yasya asti bhakti bhagavati akincanasarvair gunais tatra samasate surahharav abhaktasya kuto mahata gunahmanorathena asato dhavato bahih[SB 5.18.12]The purport is that if somebody acquires Krishna Consciousness, then all of the good qualities of the demigods develop in his person. On the other hand, what is the value of all kinds of material qualifications for a person who is not in Krishna Consciousness? His only business is to hover on the mental speculative plane, and he is sure to come back down to the platform of the material external energy. So I am very glad and proud that you have so much appreciated the character, discipline and devotional service to the Lord of my six young disciples who are working there with faith and confidence. You will be pleased to know that all of my disciples are trained from the beginning to build up character, and such character is built up by following the restrictions of no illicit sexual connections, no meat-eating, no intoxication, and no gambling. So this Krishna Consciousness movement is meant for a complete overhauling of the whole social, political, religious, moral, educational, and hygienic principles. Human society without following these principles cannot rise to the spiritual platform. As an Indian, Hindu, educated gentleman, it is not unknown to you how these principles were active in India even 50 years ago. Gradually things are deteriorating, and the cause of all unhappiness in the modern human society is this lack of Krishna Consciousness. By the Grace of Krishna there is no scarcity of anything in this world, but there is a scarcity of Krishna Consciousness. Therefore there is a great necessity of spreading this transcendental message all over the world. It is very encouraging to me that you are now in London as a retired gentleman and your cooperation in this movement will be highly effective. I hope that by this time you have already secured my book, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and there are other books also. If you will kindly join our movement it will surely be a great stride. My students there are awaiting the opportunity when I shall be coming to London. In the meantime, please try to help them in establishing a temple for Radha-Krishna. They are already advanced in this attempt, and try to coordinate the members of all other Hindu centers in this great attempt. In vanaprastha life, one can live with his wife without any sexual connection, and the most important factor in all orders of life—brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa—is to chant the Hare Krishna Mantra. This is the basic principle, and for more detailed information please keep in touch with me, and I shall be glad to serve you to my best capacity. Thank[PAGE MISSING] ### Letter to Sri Goswami **Date:** July 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Sri Goswami, I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 5, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the plot of land you have mentioned, I do not think it will be big enough for our purposes because we want at least 10 bighas and not 10 kottas. If you have got any land around this larger size, then please write to us. Another possibility is, as you say there are many Vaisnava temples in Serampore, if any big temple is in difficulty financially, we can take charge of this temple and improve it and maintain it nicely. So if you know of any prospective temples where this could be arranged, please inform us. You will be pleased to know that in the Western World also there will be held several grand scale Rathayatra Festivals. Our temples in San Francisco, London, Boston, Buffalo and New York are all planning very gorgeous parades and ceremonies very similar to the ones held in Puri. I thank you again for your letter, and I await your reply if you will be able to help us in obtaining a plot of land of 10 bighas or a temple for us to take charge of. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb ### Letter to Sri K. L. Goswami **Date:** August 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Dear Sri K.L. Goswami, Replying your letter of July 23rd, 1969, I beg to enclose herewith some newspaper cuttings for your information how we have performed Rathayatra Ceremony in San Francisco, London, Buffalo, Boston and Ohio. Regarding the land, we are already negotiating for some land on the bank of the Ganges in Navadvipa. The price is cheaper there. I think Serampore being an industrial center, the price is very high. So anyway, I beg to thank you for your kind information. If our negotiations in Navadvipa are not fruitful, then I shall again write to you about this. Thank you very much for your kind letter. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sri Parikh **Date:** October 20th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Sri Parikh, Please accept my greetings and blessings of Lord Krishna. As you know that my mission is to spread Krishna Consciousness in the Western part of the World, I wish to establish one permanent Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in London. In this connection I beg to invite you in a meeting as follows for the purpose. Please join and encourage me. Meeting on Monday the 27th day of October 1969 at 7:30 P.M.Place: English speaking union Main Luncheon Room. 37 Charles Street West 1 near Berkeley Sq. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sridama **Date:** September 22nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Sridama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter (undated), and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased that you are doing nicely in Philadelphia temple, and Subala has written to me that you are a great help to him there. Regarding Rohini Devi, don't worry about her. Perhaps Krishna wishes you to remain brahmacari. You were not willing to marry, but she insisted. Now she has been taken away by her father; so you may take it as Krishna's Desire. If you decide to remain as brahmacari, then I may call you back for my personal assistance when I return to the States. I was very much pleased with your service. May Krishna bless you more and more. On the reverse side you will find an article which was published in The Sun, a popular English newspaper. Please convey my thanks to Subala for his letter to me dated September 15th, 1969. I am very much encouraged to see how he is gaining skill in managing a temple nicely. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sridama **Date:** November 5th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Sridama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 29, 1969 from Philadelphia along with your check for $642, and I thank you very much for your kind contribution. I am surprised to know that the actual collection was $1,750 and the doctors and lawyers, etc. have taken more than $1,000. Anyway, something is better than nothing. Whatever we have got will be used for Krishna's service. Yes, I always remember you for your kind personal attention upon me, and most probably, if you are not engaged otherwise, I shall call you when I return back to the States. I hope this will find you in good health. Please keep yourself always chanting regularly. That is our only strength within this whirlpool of the ocean of nescience. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sridama **Date:** December 4th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Sridama, Please accept my blessings. I was very much shocked to learn that you have again met with some motor accident on the way, and perhaps this is the second time you have broken your leg. So I do not know why such things are happening. Anyway, whatever calamities happen we should take it as Krishna's blessings, as a token punishment for our past misdeeds. That is the observation of a devotee. Whenever he is put into a dangerous position, he takes it as a blessings of Krishna, and the opportunity is used for remembering Him very strongly. So you are now in the hospital, and you have good opportunity for chanting. Do it nicely. I understand you are eating Prasadam from the temple. That is all right. By Krishna's Grace everything will be all right. Don't be worried. Chant Hare Krishna, and when you come out from the hospital let me know. I hope this will meet you, by Krishna's Grace, in improved condition. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sridhara Maharaja **Date:** December 7th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Sridhara Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances. I hope you are keeping good health and everything is going well there. Srila Prabhupada desired that a temple should be established in the center of London, so you will be pleased to know this is going to take place on the Odansasthi Day, December 14th, in a 5-story house situated in the most important quarters of central London, in the vicinity of the British Museum and London University. It is very, very respectable quarters, and we have invited many hundreds of people, both Indians and Europeans, in this ceremony which will continue from the 14th till the 21st of December, 1969. I am submitting herewith our humble invitation for your blessings. Another point I beg to inform you is that His Holiness Yayabar Maharaja has got land in Ishodyan and he wants Rs. 10,000 for it. He says that he wanted to construct some Math, but for want of sufficient resources he could not do that, so now he wants to dispose of it. I have requested him to donate this land to our institution because the land was meant for some service to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Since he could not utilize it by constructing a temple or building there, I am prepared to do it for the service of the Lord and in pursuance of the desire of Bhaktivinode Thakura. If he donates that land to our institution, we can immediately invest Rs. 200,000 minimum for constructing a temple and home for the European and American students. I know Sripada Yayabar Maharaja always abides by your good advices. So if you think it is proper, you can advise him in the above manner so that we can fulfill the desire of Srila Prabhupada by mutual cooperation in the matter of discharging His Mission. I hope you will kindly understand me right and do the needful. Thanking you in anticipation. Yours in the service of the Lord, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Srimati **Date:** November 11th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Srimati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated October 28, 1969 and have noted the contents with pleasure. I am so glad to learn that with the help of Durlabh and the others you are making progress in our Laguna Beach center. Any new brahmacaris who come with good faith should be helped. We are living in the Kingdom of Maya, so Maya's influence is very great in the material world. It is just like an epidemic. So one has to become immune very carefully by Krishna Consciousness. So you are experienced now in association with devotees, and you are very sincere also. Try to help any newcomers as far as possible. Regarding worshiping uninstalled Deities, generally this is not done. But you can aratis with Lord Jagannatha. He is very kind. I hope you are all chanting regularly and keeping in good spirits. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sripati **Date:** May 28th 1969 — **Location:** Moundsville My Dear Sripati Das, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated May 18, 1969, sent along with your prayer beads, and I have duly chanted upon them and initiated you as my disciple. Your spiritual name, Sripati Das*, means the servant of Lord Narayana, or Krishna. If you will simply continue to develop your Krishna Consciousness as you have been doing, then surely you will be an expert servant of Lord Krishna. Our process is to faithfully follow the rules of no illicit sex life, no nonvegetarian diet, no intoxication, and no gambling activities. Also, we must chant at least 16 rounds each day, trying to avoid the ten kinds of offenses. You have very nice association with your nice godbrothers in Montreal temple, and you should help them to propagate Krishna Consciousness in that area. So please consult with Hansadutta, and there will be ample engagement for you in this connection. If any questions or difficulties arise, you may consult with the older devotees there, or if you like, I am always at your service to help you in any way that I can. So now you have great opportunity to make perfection of your life, and please always be serious about this. Then Krishna will surely give you all facilities for nice advancement. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- *Sripati = the husband of the Goddess of Fortune ### Letter to Steve **Date:** June 16th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Steve, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter, and I understand from your one simple question that you are now serious about perfecting your life in Krishna Consciousness. You have asked me to tell you everything that you should know, and this, of course, is a great subject matter. We now have published several books which delve deeply into the topic of the Absolute Truth, so you should read them very carefully, and gradually the knowledge will become revealed to you. The first book you should study carefully is the Bhagavad-gita As It Is. The sum and substance of Bhagavad-gita is that we should surrender ourselves wholly and completely upon the Lotus Feet of Krishna. When one is not Krishna Consciousness, then he is Maya conscious, or in illusion. Just like when one is not in light, he is sure to be in darkness. Because absence of light means darkness. Similarly, to be forgetful of Krishna means one is in Maya, the darkness of ignorance. Just like when you turn away from the sun, you see the darkness of your shadow; but when you turn your face to the sun, then there is no question of a shadow. The whole principle of spiritual life is to turn our attention back to Krishna, and thus immediately be freed from all entanglements of Maya. There is no necessity to practice the various yogic postures, pressing the nose, and there is no need of becoming a great learned scholar to advance in spiritual life. Simply we have to turn our attention back to the Lotus Feet of Krishna, and then all spiritual perfection is automatically there. The process of turning to Krishna you are seeing practically everyday because you are now staying in the temple. You chant Hare Krishna; 16 rounds daily, follow the regulative principles, read Bhagavad-gita, and help your Godbrothers push on this movement as far as possible. I understand from Brahmananda that you are a very sincere boy, and now you are helping by working in the kitchen, preparing Krishna prasadam. So continue in this way and attend Sankirtana Party as much as possible; this will help you to advance without any doubt. When questions arise, you consult Brahmananda or the other older Godbrothers and they will help you. Of course, if you would like to question me upon some point, I am always at your service in this connection. So practice Krishna Consciousness very sincerely and surely Krishna will bless you. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Steven Hebel **Date:** December 6th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Steven Hebel, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your nice letter dated November 27, 1969 and have noted the contents. I am pleased to learn that you are regularly attending all of our classes and you are serving nicely in the New York temple. Continue on in this way and try to understand our philosophy as far as possible. Krishna gives assurance in the Bhagavad-gita that if one is very serious to perfect his Krishna Consciousness, then automatically, out of His Causeless Mercy, Lord Krishna gives such sincere soul the intelligence by which he can enter again into the Spiritual Sky. Actually, Krishna offers this intelligence freely to everyone, but only the fortunate persons will take to it. Unfortunate persons will speculate upon the words of Krishna and concoct some meaning according to their own sense gratification. But Krishna and His bona fide representatives are giving this knowledge freely to everyone. Now it is our duty to assimilate this knowledge and practice it. Just like the electric current is equal on all points of the electric system, but different light bulbs will take different amounts of energy. This depends upon the capacity of the bulb to accept the electric current. Similarly, the Lord is not partial to anyone, but according to one's sincere desire to render unalloyed devotional service, so will He respond to enlighten such devotee. So the way for you to increase the capacity of receiving Krishna's Mercy is to chant Hare Krishna regularly, at least 16 rounds per day, to associate with devotees of Krishna, and to follow the rules and regulations. In this connection Brahmananda and the others will be able to give you good guidance. My request to you is that you stick with this process sincerely, and I am sure Lord Krishna provide all facilities for your advancement. I shall be returning to Boston around the 21st of this month, and I hope you shall come to visit me at that time. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Subala **Date:** July 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Subala das, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated June 25, 1969, and I am pleased to note the contents. By Krishna's blessings surely you will find a nice place soon, and your enthusiasm for Krishna's service will be fulfilled. Srila Rupa Goswami has recommended six principles for advancement in Krishna Consciousness: enthusiasm, patience, conviction of success, executing the regulative principles, honest endeavor, and association with devotees. So these six principles you try to follow very rigidly, and wherever you go you will be successful. I am confident that Krishna will help you, because two centers, Los Angeles and Santa Fe, were given start by you, and they are still existing. But this time, Philadelphia, you should not leave half finished. Philadelphia is a very nice place, one of the most important places in your country, so try to stick there, and all facilities will be given to you by Krishna. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Subala **Date:** July 8th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Subala das, Please accept my blessings hundreds upon hundreds of times for your successful attempt. I appreciate your service very much. Now organize the center in Philadelphia very nicely as you have got a good place, and it will be my pleasure to visit whenever there is an opportunity. Now you will have good assistance in the persons of Lalita Kumar and Gopinatha, and if you require more men, you can ask Tamala Krishna and he will help you. The LA center is now specially meant for training devotees and dispatching them in different centers wherever they are required. So open correspondence with Tamala Krishna, and I also will tell him to assist you as far as possible. Regarding your arrest by the police, it was Krishna's desire, so that it is now authoritatively admitted that we are not guilty. You can take a certified copy of the judgement. This will help not only your center, but other centers also. It will be of considerable aid in getting permission from the police. You take this copy immediately and make several photostat copies, and send to every center and one copy to me. Get mrdangas and karatalas from New York. Keep our books and magazines sufficiently, and make propaganda. You are now a veteran devotee, so you can help others and yourself nicely. Simply you have to execute the principles very rigidly and faithfully. Then everything is there, and all success is at your command. Regarding you taking a job, I hope if you properly execute your activities, you will have no lack of money. In the beginning there may be a little hardship, but everywhere it has proved successful. I have information from Brahmananda that last month they collected about $2,400. So after all, it is all Krishna's money. When He sees us very faithful and trustworthy, He gives up His money for expenditures. Simply pray to Krishna that you may be able by His Grace to serve Him nicely. Our prayer of the Hare Krishna Mantra means addressing Radha and Krishna for being engaged in Their service. Hare Krishna means "Oh Hare, Oh Radharani! Oh Krishna! Please engage me in Your service so that I can get relief from the service of Maya." Just like a person resigns from an inferior quality of service and accepts a superior quality of service, similarly, our prayer to Krishna is to give us relief from the inferior quality of service to Maya, and to be engaged in the superior quality of service to Krishna. Service we have to render, and the whole process is to accept the superior quality of service in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Subala **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Subala, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 26, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am glad to learn that the Philadelphians are quickly taking some interest in our Krishna Consciousness Movement, and you are simply standing on the corner wearing robes and the people come to purchase copies of Back To Godhead. So if you can continue in this way, letting them hear your chanting and selling Back To Godheads, then all success is automatically there. I remember that my Guru Maharaja would often send young boys out to sell literature of Krishna Consciousness, and if they would come back having sold only a few issues, Guru Maharaja was very, very pleased. Now you report that you have sold 300 issues of Back To Godhead in just a few days, so I know that Guru Maharaja is very, very pleased with your work. Actually, in all of our centers our Sankirtana Party and Krishna Consciousness literature is becoming more and more popular. Perhaps you have heard that Brahmananda has already made arrangements to increase the number of copies printed from 20,000 to 25,000. This is all very encouraging, so continue to increase your sales of Back To Godhead as far as possible. You are a serious worker, and Krishna will reward your efforts with success. This Monday I returned from San Francisco where they performed the Rathayatra Ceremony, and it was tremendously successful. There were about 10,000 people who joined us for the day, beginning from 12:00 in the afternoon, and lasting till around 10:00 at night. All through the day these people were feeling the bliss of Krishna Consciousness through chanting, dancing taking Prasadam, watching puppet stories about Krishna, and hearing us speak on Bhagavad-gita. The local papers printed nice pictures and stories about our Festival, and when we have them reprinted I will send a copy to you. Please offer my blessings to the others, and continue in the nice way you are doing now. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Subala **Date:** August 6th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Subala, I beg to thank you very much for your letter of August 2, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I am glad to learn that you are selling BTG increasingly, and it is giving me pleasure increasingly. Now in Boston they have decided to make profit of $1,000 per month by selling BTGs, and similarly you try to do that. Satsvarupa has now purchased a large house on the strength of this profit. So in selling BTG not only are we doing first-class propagation work, but also we are making profit to support the temples and facilitate other activities. You have mentioned that Chris has contributed $500, and you are considering sending this to me. This idea is nice, and you may do it. I am thinking that the press department may immediately be begun now in Boston in the new house, so there is necessity for funds for purchasing printing equipment and the necessary paraphernalia for printing our many books. Any extra money you have you can send to me, and when you require some money, I shall supply it. But try to become rich by selling BTG. There is possibility of making profit of at least $1,000 per month. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Subala **Date:** August 19th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Subala, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of August 14th, 1969. You have got some good souls assisting you, and that is a good sign. Please take care of these boys and keep them fixed up in Krishna Consciousness. In our lifetime, if we can fix up at least one soul in Krishna Consciousness, Krishna immediately recognizes the service. The spell of Maya is very strong, and to save a living entity from such clutches is the greatest service to the humanity. Please go on with your work with enthusiasm and faith in Krishna. He will give you all assistance. When I go to New York I shall like that both you and Chris may come to see me there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Subala **Date:** September 9th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Subala, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter of September 2nd, 1969, sent along with a contribution of 100 dollars for my book fund. I am pleased to learn that Sridama and Rohini Devi are there with you in Philadelphia. Sridama is nicely trained for Sankirtana activities so he will be a great boon to your center. He is a very good boy, and I am always grateful to him for the nice personal service he rendered to me while I was in Los Angeles. On Vyasa Puja Day, the Vyasa Puja booklet was read aloud in the ceremony at the temple, and your article was very much appreciated by all. This Thursday I am going to London, so future correspondence may be addressed to me there. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I shall be glad to hear from Sridama also ### Letter to Subala **Date:** October 16th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Subala, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated September 26, 1969, October 3, and October 12, 1969, and have noted the contents carefully. I thank you very much for your contribution of $500 to the starting of our press in Boston as well as your $15 contribution to the maintenance fund. I am always encouraged to hear of your nice activities in Philadelphia, and gradually I expect that our Philadelphia temple will play more and more an important role in the propagation of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. The people of the world are looking for some way of being happy and making solution to their problems, and we are presenting the best and easiest method of making final solution of all the discrepancies of life and achieving the highest bliss, which is eternal. So if we are persistent in our propaganda methods, then surely many, many persons will have the good sense to take advantage of our movement, and thereby attain the highest goal of life, unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Lord Krishna. In London things are going on nicely, and last evening we had a meeting in Conway Hall and several hundred persons were joining us in chanting and dancing. After the meeting one reporter from the biggest London newspaper came behind the stage to get further information about our movement for publication in his paper. So I am very encouraged to see the nice reception that the people and the news medias are giving to our activities in London. Last week we were given official permission by the city authorities to have our temple at 7 Bury Place. Already there has been great public interest in this temple, so by Krishna's Grace there shall be a very successful temple established in London very soon. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sucandra **Date:** December 8th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Sucandra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 3rd, 1969, and I am very glad to learn that you are feeling very strongly for Jesus Christ. You have already mentioned the exemplary character of Lord Jesus Christ that he sacrificed everything for God. This example should be taken. The process should be to follow the example, not to imitate the exact activities. For example, Lord Jesus Christ wanted to preach amongst some persons who were practically against the principle of accepting God as the Supreme, and the result was that these people crucified him. At the present moment, the world situation is more dangerous than before. People have become actually Godless. So if you follow the footsteps of Lord Jesus Christ to preach God-consciousness against Godlessness and dedicate your life in that way, that will be the real purpose of following Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ revealed that he was the son of God, and Krishna revealed that He is God Himself, the Supreme Father of all living entities. So if you dedicate your life to the service of Krishna, the Supreme Father, don't you think that Lord Jesus Christ will be pleased with this? At the present moment we have to preach in an enlightened society. So Krishna Consciousness has got inexhaustible treasurehouse of philosophy, logic and science to convince people about God-consciousness. So if you are actually serious about following the footsteps of Lord Jesus Christ, you should take advantage of the great philosophical background of this Krishna Consciousness Movement and make people God-conscious, dedicating your life. One should try to make progress. One should not try to remain satisfied at a point which awaits further advancement. For example, the Commandment says "Thou shalt not kill". This means one should be non-violent. This is a good principle, but in the actual field, for want of sufficient knowledge, even this Commandment is being misinterpreted and misused. In the Bhagavad-gita you will find there are 20 items for advancing in knowledge. Perhaps you have read in the 13rd Chapter. Out of the 20 items, this non-violence items is one. But devotional service is so potent, that if one is engaged in devotional service to Krishna, automatically all good qualifications are there. Thus, from the practical point of view you can see the distinction between our disciples and any other group of religious faith. We do not indulge in illicit sex-life, which includes not to covet with another's wife or daughter; We do not eat meat, and that means automatically we are non-violent. We do not indulge in intoxication, and that means we are sane in considering things in their true perspective. You have asked to know what is the difference between Jesus Christ and Krishna. That we have several times explained in many meetings, that Krishna is God and Jesus Christ is the son of God. And as there is no difference between father and son, so there is no difference between Krishna and Lord Jesus Christ; but still the son is never equal to the father. So you have got advantage of reading our many books for advancement of knowledge. The best thing will be for you to engage your time more in Sankirtana Party and reading our Krishna Consciousness literature. You write that you loved the Deities some time ago, so why don't you love Them now? What is the reason? Let me know the reason how you liked to worship the Deities, and why you are not liking this now. Then I can explain the situation to you. The best thing is that whenever there are some doubts you should ask me or some senior student. We shall try to explain. But don't try to make any compromise and be agitated. I know you are a sincere boy, so try to understand everything very clearly. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sudama **Date:** May 8th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Sudama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your two letters, sent Special Delivery, dated May 5th and May 6th, 1969. I was very much anxious for Kartikeya after receiving the first letter, so now that he is somewhat improved, try to protect him. He is a very nice boy, but sometimes he gets crazy. You should treat him as your younger brother and with kindness. In the meantime, if he wants to go to the New York center, then he can go there, and Brahmananda can take care of him. Or if he wants to go to New Vrindaban, I will be going there soon, and he will be glad to remain with me as usual. But try to keep him from getting upset. I do not know why he becomes at intervals like that. I can only pray that Krishna will save him from this upsetting business. The proposal that you shall have a cart moving in the Japanese Fair with Deities, kirtana and selling books is very, very nice proposal. If you can get sanction for it, it will be a very nice thing. I thank you very much for your constant and sincere efforts, and surely Krishna will bless you more and more for this. I have received one letter, sent along with beads of the girl, Jill, and I will send them back to her, initiated upon by me, very soon. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sudama **Date:** May 20th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Sudama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 19, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I understand that Kartikeya has left for San Francisco, and there is no grudge. I hope in the association of the devotees there, he will feel jolly, and his moroseness will be cleared off. So far as you are concerned, I do not think living alone in Honolulu will be very good. If there is possibility of your living in the temple along with the other devotees, then live there. Otherwise you may also return, either in Los Angeles or San Francisco. You can work anywhere because you have got abilities, and from anywhere you can start for Tokyo. So for going to Tokyo it is not very much necessary that you have to remain in Honolulu alone. I do not advise any of my disciples to live alone; that is not good. If Vamanadeva would have lived with you, that would also have been better. So live in the temple, or with Vamanadeva, or else go to Los Angeles or San Francisco. When the time is mature, Krishna will help you to go to Tokyo with some other devotees. We shall see later on. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sudama **Date:** June 7th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Sudama, All Glories to Sudama das Brahmacari and the Hawaii devotees for their excellent work. I have appreciated so much your letter of June 2, 1969 that I am making copies of this letter to send to different centers to show them how much potency is this Sankirtana Movement. So for the time being as you are working enthusiastically in Hawaii, try to establish a very good center there. There is nice potential there I know, and I think Krishna is already giving impetus for this purpose, because Gaurasundara and Balabhadra have gone to find a nice place on the Hawaii Island. So all of you work conscientiously and jointly, you are all good souls, and you will be successful if you can transform Hawaii into New Navadvipa. Lord Caitanya will shower His blessings and you will be happy, not only in this life, but you will be promoted to Krishna Loka. Concentrate your energies now in Hawaii center, and in the future we shall establish a center in Japan. I think the roar of your Sankirtana in Hawaii will soon be heard in the neighboring places, including Japan and Hong Kong. The ocean is the father-in-law of Visnu, because the Goddess of Fortune, Laksmi, was born by the churning of the ocean. So the Goddess of Fortune, Laksmi, being the daughter of the ocean, the ocean also will help in spreading the glories of the ocean's daughter and son-in-law. So please keep me informed of your activities, and this will engladden me. I am glad to learn that Govinda Dasi, in spite of her sick health, is going out on Sankirtana Party, and this will cure her of all disease. Don't be worried. I always think of Govinda Dasi and Jadurani, such sincere workers in Krishna Consciousness. So please convey my blessings to all the devotees there, and you all should do things very enthusiastically. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sudama **Date:** September 19th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Sudama, Please accept my blessings, and all Glories to the devotees dispatched to Tokyo, Japan. Tamala Krishna has forwarded your letter to me, and I am so much pleased to read it. I quite appreciate your method of working. Now you are contacting some influential men there, and it is very enlivening that Mr. Sharma of the Embassy is trying to help you. Now one thing is that there you have got our magazines, and simply by selling our magazines you can maintain yourself. There will be no difficulty. In all our centers this magazine has given a new impetus for solving the economic question. You will be surprised to know that in Boston they are collecting on the average $120 each day. So depend on Krishna and try your best. Use your intelligence properly and chant Hare Krishna. Then everything will come smoothly and easily. I understand that in some quarters houses are available for only $50 or $60 per month, so immediately you can occupy some such place and hang up the signboard for "International Society for Krishna Consciousness".Messrs. Dai Nippon and Company have given you a good reception, and that is very encouraging. I shall be glad to also know if there are other presses also in Japan like Dai Nippon. I understand that Japan is growing in press industry and paper industry. Tamala has suggested me to go to Japan next year, and I am very much anxious for this. If we establish a strong center in Japan and subsequently in Hong Kong—and from this side we have already in Germany and two, three in the middle east, like in Tehran and Cairo, then there will be regular belt all over the world for Krishna Consciousness Movement. I am enclosing herewith some paper cuttings showing the reception we had in London. Already we have held one very successful meeting in the Town Hall, and the BBC television station had an interview with us on a very popular program for forty minutes. So things are progressing very nicely in England as in our other branches. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sudama **Date:** October 31st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Sudama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of October 15, 1969 and have noted the contents with much encouragement. I understand that Tamala Krishna has sent you a pair of Deities, and when you get Them please decorate the dias just to the standard of Los Angeles—at least the throne of Radha-Krishna, with good dresses, ornaments, helmets, etc. I understand that Japan is full of flowers, so everyday decorate the Deities with as many flowers as possible. Please take quotation for printing a book to the specifications as described above in my letter to Bali Mardan. Kindly offer my blessings to your good wife, Cintamani, and I hope this will meet the both of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sudama **Date:** November 18th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Sudama, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 13 November, 1969 and have noted the contents. Sriman Tamala Krishna das Brahmacari is staying now in London, and I have already handed him your letter for necessary action in the matter of sending more men there. He will also directly correspond with you. In the meantime, I may inform you that Bali Mardan also wrote me to the effect for changing your headquarters to Tokyo, and I have already confirmed this idea. From the very beginning I wanted to open a branch in Tokyo because when I was in Tokyo on my way to the States from India, I saw it exactly a duplicate city like New York. So another feature I note from your letter is that the Hare Krishna Mantra is being chanted by some Japanese boys. Sometimes back Syamasundara showed me one picture from a Japanese music paper about our Hare Krishna Mantra. So I think Hare Krishna Mantra is already known to the Japanese youngsters. If you take this opportunity in cooperation with them, I am sure it will be successful. I am glad they are offering you free residential quarters at least for one month. That is a good opportunity. In the meantime, find out a nice suitable temple. We shall send you men from here, you are already 3 there, and if you can induce some of the Japanese boys to join you, surely it will be a grand success. Do it carefully and nicely. Please offer my blessings to Cintamani and Bali-Mardan. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sudama, Kartikeya **Date:** April 19th 1969 — **Location:** Buffalo My Dear Sudama and Kartikeya, Please accept my blessings to the both of you. I was very much anxious to receive your letters, so now I am pleased to acknowledge receipt of them. I can understand that things are improving all around, and that is very satisfactory. So depend upon Krishna, work very sincerely, and everything will be complete without any doubt. On the kirtana nights you should all assemble together in the temple and if this is not possible then you can chant in your apartment. I am pleased that you are working for our activities in Japan, and in three months you should be able to gather at least $1,500.00 together. Don't spend money needlessly. Try to save as much as possible, because you have very important work to do for the service of Lord Caitanya. Regarding Kartikeya's question about worshiping Lord Jagannatha, He should always be worshiped with awe and reverence. Krishna's picture as a Naughty Child should not be treated by us as a naughty child. We should always worship Krishna as the Supreme Lord. I hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Sumati Morarjee **Date:** January 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles Madam Sumati Morarji Baisaheba, Please accept my greetings. I hope everything is going well with you. You will be pleased to know that this year two of my books have been published. They are as follows(1) The Bhagavad-gita As It Is Published by MacMillan Company of New York and London(2) Teachings of Lord Caitanya Published by International Society for Krishna ConsciousnessThe first book is already received in stock, and the second is expected next month. I have the greatest pleasure to present to you the first one sending by separate air mail, and I shall be glad to hear from you how you like it. Yours in the service of the Lord, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Suridas **Date:** December 26th 1969 — **Location:** Boston My Dear Suridas, Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your good wife, Jotilla, and the others. I request you to simply translate into the French language our Back To Godhead and send the matters to Jaya Govinda for composing. In due course of time you will get the magazines, by selling which you try to pay part of the composing machine that Jaya Govinda is going to purchase. So you begin this business immediately and open correspondence with Jaya Govinda I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Swami B. S. Bhagavata Maharaja **Date:** August 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles His Holiness Swami B.S. Bhagavata MaharajaRevered Sripada Bhagavata Maharaja, Kindly accept my humble obeisances. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated 8th July, 1969, postmarked the 8th of August, 1969. I see this letter was addressed to me in New Vrindaban, and from there it was redirected to Los Angeles. I understand that you addressed another letter to me dated 6th June, 1969 addressed to my New Vrindaban address, but I did not receive that letter. Probably it is missing. I was expecting your reply of my letter dated May 23rd, 1969, and I am so glad to receive your letter in hand. I have also gone through the Memorandum of Articles of Association of your Mission and particularly seen the specific portion referred to in your letter in reply. I see it is in order, but similarly, we have also incorporated our International Society for Krishna Consciousness pursuant to the religious corporation laws of the state of New York. The main purposes of this institution are as follows amongst others: 1) To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all peoples in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world. 2) To propagate a consciousness of Krishna as it is revealed in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. 3) To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, and thus develop the idea, within the members and humanity at large that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna). 4) To teach and encourage the Sankirtana movement, congregational chanting of the holy name of God as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So practically there is no difference of opinion in our missionary activities, especially because we all are deriving inspiration from His Divine Grace Prabhupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja. I think all of our Godbrothers are doing the same missionary activities without a doubt, but still the regrettable fact is we are doing all separately, not in conjunction. I have also read specifically your articles on the matter of acaryas, wherein on the 14th Paragraph I see the acharya shall be entitled to nominate in writing his successive acharya. But we do not find any record where our Srila Prabhupada nominated any acharya after Him. Different persons have interpreted on this point, and every one of our Godbrothers are acting as acharya, so this is a controversial point which I do not wish to enter into while we are proposing for cooperation. I think now we should cooperate fully for preaching the Mission of Srila Prabhupada. He very eagerly desired that the message of Lord Caitanya should be preached all over the world. About 40 years before, Sripada Bon Maharaja, guided by our senior old Tirtha Maharaja were sent to London, and perhaps Gaudiya Mission was established at that time. Since then, activities in foreign countries was practically stopped altogether. Although I was intimately connected with the Gaudiya Math institution, I was a householder. But when I first met His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, He instructed me to preach in the foreign countries, but I could not do anything tangible on account of my family attachment. So after taking sannyasa in 1959 I prepared myself for coming to the foreign countries. As soon as three books were ready, Srimad-Bhagavatam, I started for New York in 1965. This was out of my inspiration in receipt from Srila Prabhupada, and it appears that my attempt in the foreign countries has become successful to a great extent. By my personal attempt I have established preaching centers numbering about two dozen, beginning from Hamburg to Tokyo. I think if my Godbrothers would have attempted similarly, preaching centers would have been established all over the world by this time. Therefore, I wish that Gaudiya Mission should send their preachers and establish different centers in different parts of the world. That will fulfill the Mission of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja. I know there is some difficulty in the matter of getting the passport and visa for preaching in foreign countries at the present moment, but if the Gaudiya Mission decides to send their representatives in all other parts of the world, I can help them in this matter. Similarly, I would also expect cooperation from all our Godbrothers in the matters where I require their help. This mutual cooperation can be established immediately. Apart from the point of the acharya question, I think everyone is working in his individual capacity. That may not be disturbed at the present moment, but if we concentrate our energies for spreading the message of Lord Caitanya all over the world, that will be right missionary activities on behalf of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. I thank you very much for inviting me to your head office in Calcutta for heart-to-heart talk and discussion. I shall be always glad to abide by this suggestion, but the thing is if I go to India, it will cost me at least Rs. 25,000 to go and come back. In this old age, wherever I go I take with me one personal assistant. This means if I go to India, I will have to take my secretary, and that means two return tickets also, as well as other expenses. But if something is tangibly understood on the line of cooperation, it will be not difficult for me to go and see the acharya of the Mission for the final decision. I am going to Germany the day after tomorrow via New York, and therefore my next address will be c/o Internationale Gesellschaft fur Krishna Bewusstein, 2 Hamburg 19, Eppendorfer Weg 11, West Germany. In the meantime I shall request you to cooperate with my missionary activities to supply me 10 mrdangas (kholes), first class and 50 pairs of karatalas, Navadvipa made, first class, every month to our different centers like New York, Los Angeles, London, Hamburg and Tokyo. Also I would request you to arrange for supplying Radha-Krishna Deities made in Vrindaban or Calcutta, 24" high, for our different centers. We can also cooperate in selling your books in our different centers, and similarly you can cooperate by selling our books in your different centers. So there is ample opportunity of cooperation in good will, and if we continue like that, in the near future it may be possible that we completely amalgamate both our institutions. I hope you will give your due consideration to my proposals and shall be glad to hear from you at your earliest convenience. Also please let me know if personally I can become a member of your society under Clause 3 on page 19 of the Memorandum. Please offer my humble obeisances to His Divine Grace Sripada B.K. Audulomi Maharaja and other Vaisnavas of the Math. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- enclosures: copies of news cuttings of our Rathayatra Festival, which we held in San Francisco, London, Boston, Ohio, and Hamburg ### Letter to Swami Bhaktivedanta **Date:** March 14th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii [LETTER TO ALL TEMPLES]CALIFORNIA HEADQUARTERSSELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEMFEDERAL BUILDING801 1 StreetSacramento, California 95814International Society for Krishna Consciousnessc/o A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- 450 1/2 N. Hayworth AvenueLos Angeles, Calif. 90048Attention: Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta SwamiDear Swami Bhaktivedanta: This office is charged with the responsibility of making an administrative determination concerning the status of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness as a religion within the meaning of the Military Selective Service Act of 1967. This question is and will be of importance to your organization and to many of its members. We therefore request that you advise us specifically concerning tenants and principles of your religion and specifying the body of scripture or teachings upon which your organization relies as authority. If your sect is successful in establishing a "religion" qualification, then it will be necessary for us to determine what constitutes a "minister" and a "ministerial student" within your religion. Since we already have one application for that classification, we would appreciate receiving from you information concerning the following:1. The names and locations of all seminaries of the church.2. The names and addresses of all heads of your religious schools.3. Copies of your offered curriculums.4. A statement as to the requirements for particular diplomas certifications, or titles, indicating courses to be mastered and the time involved for each diploma, certification and title.5. A statement as to the rules of conduct and personal standards required by your religion of its ministerial students.6. If your church has affiliation with any other organized religious body this information should be given.7. If your church or school has been recognized by any public or institutional accreditation, by whom, and where.8. Please let us know what your requirements are for a ministerial student in your school in the two following categories: (a) full time and (b) part time.9. Please state the date your ministerial school began operating, as such, the number of students presently enrolled in each of the categories specified in question 8 above, and the number of students in each particular year or level of advancement.10. If your ministerial school is co-educational, we would like to know the present number of students of each sex.11. Please send a roster of your school faculty and indicate the degrees and academic or religious accomplishments possessed by each instructor. We trust you will understand the nature of this inquiry and will appreciate that such information is essential if we are to accord to your members, that have dealings with this agency, their just rights under the law. FOR THE STATE DIRECTORMALCOLM F. MILLER Lt. Colonel, USAF (ret.)Manpower OfficerThis is my idea of the general plan for the questionnaire: You can work it out more elaborately as may be required. Q. 1. The names of all seminaries and their locations, as follows: Q. 2. Heads of religious schools (presidents of temples) and addresses. Q. 3. Curriculums: Study of Bhagavad-gita As It Is; Srimad-Bhagavatam; (3 vol.); Nectar of Devotion; Teachings of Lord Caitanya; Vedanta Sutra. (In this way, arrange the curriculum program around these our books, and the professors, those who have been with us ample time, such as Brahmananda, Hayagriva, Kirtanananda, and have also academic qualifications). This is the complete course requiring to study 7 years. When the first exam is given the student making passing grade is given the title of Bhakti-sastri, second exam, Bhaktivaibhava, 3rd exam, Bhaktivedanta. Q. 4. (answered above)Q. 5. Personal conduct: Our four principles of restriction, no illicit sex, no gambling, no intoxication, no meat eating. Q. 6. Yes, Gaudiya Vaisnava Society in India. 60 missions. Hqtrs. P.O. Mayapur, Dist. Nadia; West Bengal, India. Q. 7. ?Q. 8. Requirements are as follows: They should attend class in the mornings from 7 to 8 a.m., then during lunch hold kirtana, then from 12 to 4 sankirtana party, evening arati, and MWF evening classes. Q. 9. July 1966;/?. Registration of the society in New York under the religious act of the state and the copy was submitted to your officer who came to inquire in Los Angeles, and here is the copy of the letter wherein it is admitted that the certificate of incorporation is seen by Mr. R. E. Davis, LTC, AGC, Assistant Area Coordinator. Q. 10. Yes coed. List to be submitted. (list all members of all temples to be sent by all temples, as you request.)Q. 11. Faculty and degrees and academic or religious accomplishments: (list all names of members who have such, as Brahmananda, Hayagriva, Satyabhama, Kirtanananda, Lilavati, etc. who have academic background qualifications).Our religious principle is as old as 5000 years and the whole thing is explained in our recent publication of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, published by MacMillan, of New York and London. If required, a copy of this book may be secured and the whole idea may be grasped. And this is a missionary society for enlightening the people about God-consciousness, which we are preaching as Krishna Consciousness. Our main principles are as follows: God is the Supreme Lord. The living entities are qualitatively one with God, or in other words, living entities and God are one in quality, but by quantity, God is great. As such the living entities are eternal servitors and subordinate of God maintained by the Supreme Lord. This relationship is eternal, therefore time is also eternal. There are two kinds of natures, the spiritual nature and the material nature. Material nature is temporary and spiritual nature is permanent; Material nature is simply temporary manifestation within the jurisdiction of spiritual nature. The living entities somehow or other being entrapped by material nature are meeting all kinds of material conditions. His birth, death, old age, and diseases are due to his contact with this material nature. The living entity is evolving different kinds of material body numbering 8,400,000 different forms. The human form is a great opportunity for the living entity to understand God, the living entity, time, nature, and different activities. The material activities are temporary, therefore if the living entities are trained to transform his activities from material to spiritual he regains his original spiritual nature. And after such achievements he is promoted to the spiritual world, which is far beyond this visible material sky. All these understandings are based on authentic Vedic knowledge. The Krishna Consciousness movement is for enlightenment of all human beings without any sectarian understanding of faith. Our principle is that the human being has to awaken his dormant love of God. Any religion or faith which teaches this development of dormant love of God is considered as first class religion. There are various types of religious faiths in the world but they are imparted according to the students, or followers, time, place, circumstances, etc. The principle religions of the world are Hinduism, Christianity, Mohammedanism, and Buddhism. Every religion as a matter of principle accepts authority, God being the supreme authority, and His representative also as authority. So we have no quarrel with any type of religion but we simply teach that awaken your dormant love of God which is technically called God consciousness or Krishna Consciousness. We think the whole world or the entire human society is dwindling their faith in God so much so that some of them are declaring God is dead, and some of them are in frustration, manufacturing different kinds of isms, under different names. This state of affairs in the world is not very satisfactory at least for the advanced and civilized human society. It is essential therefore that scientific God consciousness which we are preaching under the name of Krishna Consciousness, should be broadcast very widely. I came to this country with this mission, because I know that America, although richest nation in the world, still there are so many frustrated youngsters both boys and girls. I started this movement in 1966, single-handedly, but by the Grace of God, I have now hundreds of intelligent young student disciples, who have taken up this movement seriously. They are executing the rules and regulations as described in statement 5. And they are feeling happy. Many of them have taken to household life and they are living very peacefully with wife and children, and some of the married couples have gone to England and they have been preaching Krishna Consciousness movement very creditably. So this movement is very precious missionary activities for the present society. I request the government should very scrutinizingly and wisely study this movement without being biased to some stereotyped ideas. It will be good for this country, and for the whole world at large if this movement is seriously taken up and broadcast all over the world by the American people, joined by the English as well. I think my idea and plan is coming to be true very soon because I have many intelligent and sympathetic disciples, both from America and England ### Letter to Swami R. S. Bhagavata Maharaja **Date:** September 27th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst To His Holiness Swami R.S. Bhagavata MaharajaRevered Sripada Bhagavata Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances. I beg to inform you that in reply to your letter dated 8th August 1969, I sent my letter dated 21st August 1969 when I was in Los Angeles. Since then I have received no letter from you. I gave you my address in Germany, but I did not receive any letter there. So I am confused whether you have received my above letter or not. Anyway, now I am staying in England, a few miles from London, at the above address. I came to England on September 11th, 1969, and the reception was very pleasing. Perhaps you might have seen some of the pictures in Calcutta papers. I am sending herewith two pictures and newspaper reports for your reference. In your letter dated 8th August 1969 you proposed to send a copy to Srimati Vinode Vani Dasi (Miss O.C. Powtell), Superintendent of your Vasudeva Gaudiya Math, London. Besides that, you invited me to talk with your Acarya of the Mission. Now I am staying here, and if you authorize your representative in London, Srimati Vinode Vani Dasi, to talk preliminarily, then I will welcome the idea. Anyway, I shall be very much pleased to receive your reply by return mail to my above London address. Thanking you in anticipation. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syama **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Syama Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of January 14, 1969, and I was very glad to hear from you. You have asked me some questions about the functions of sex life in Krishna Consciousness, and the basic principle is that it should be avoided as far as possible. However, if it is unavoidable, then it should be utilized only for begetting Krishna Conscious children. In that case, the husband and wife should chant at least fifty rounds before going to sex. The recommended period is six days after the menstruation period. I am glad to hear that you are helping out in tending the Deities. This is very spiritually beneficial engagement and, along with chanting the required number of rounds of Hare Krishna, Krishna is sure to give you all facilities to perfect your life in full Krishna Consciousness. In this connection, the recipe for the caranamrta is enclosed here by Kartikeya. Please continue to inform me of your progress in remaining at New Vrindaban. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I have not heard anything from Hayagriva since he has left. I am anxious to know how far the revision is advanced in the 1st Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam ### Letter to Syama **Date:** February 21st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Syama Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 10, and February 16, 1969, and I thank you so much for them. Regarding the ailments with your finger, I am describing here a treatment for it. Take turmeric powder and add the same quantity of limestone. Then mix with water and boil it to a paste. Then apply that paste while it is hot. I understand that Hayagriva had some backache so for him you take one part of a crushed to a powder red-pepper and add to it five parts of rubbing alcohol. Keep this for twenty four hours, then strain and add one part camphor. When it is mixed, just apply it on the painful part of the back three times daily. Regarding your next two questions, you may not put the initiation beads on the cow. Nor is it necessary for grhasthas to recite the Gayatri Mantra aloud. It should be silent or whispered. I think that the symbol which you have seen by the left arm of Lord Jagannatha must be either a flower or a disc. The translation of the Om Ajnana prayer is "I offer my respectful obeisances unto my Spiritual Master who has opened my eyes from the darkness of ignorance with the torchlight of knowledge."Please convey my blessings to Hrsikesa and Ranadhira. I hope this will meet you all in very good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syama **Date:** March 24th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Syama dasi, Please accept my blessings. I an in due receipt of your nice letter, and I thank you very much for your kind sentiments. You are very nice girl, and just suitable for working together with Hayagriva on the Srimad-Bhagavatam. This very much encourages me. I want such Grhastha couples in this movement to set examples for others to follow. I am happy to hear you are very much liking living at New Vrindaban, and that you are anxiously awaiting receipt of your first cow. I am also very much concerned about you health; I have written Hayagriva in this connection. But I do not know what could be the cause of this illness. Please let me know what are the reports given by the doctor. But it is good that you are keeping even greater amount of faith in Krishna, and are chanting 35 rounds daily. Keep up this good attitude and surely you will be saved from all dangers. I hope you are by this time feeling stronger and I shall be awaiting your letter how you are doing, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I shall see you at New Vrindaban by 10th May, 1969 ### Letter to Syama **Date:** March 30th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Syama dasi, Please accept my blessings. I have received your note along with Satyabhama's letter. I thank you for your very nice sentiments. I hope by this time you must have improved your health and very soon you will be able to work fully along with your good husband. I think by the will of Krishna you two good souls, Hayagriva and yourself, are combined now to fulfill my mission of publishing the whole of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Krishna is sufficiently powerful and able to give facilities to His devotees provided a devotee works very sincerely to please Him. We shall always keep this motto in our view, and it is very nice to hear that you are feeling separation from most beautiful Syamasundara, but you are satisfied by chanting His Holy Name. Syamasundara is not different from His Name. Krishna's Name, qualities, form, fame, abode and paraphernalia, all are identical with Krishna. So if we take advantage of associating with any one of them that makes us fixed up in our eternal relationship with Syamasundara. I hope you are feeling well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** January 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 7, 1969, and before this I had also received your letter of January 2, 1969, and have noted the contents with great encouragement. Although nothing is settled as of yet, I can understand that things are progressing well and as you write in your letter under reply, the meeting was very successful, and we shall soon be able to have a nice temple in London. Today I received letters from Guru das and Mukunda, and it is understood that Mr. George Harrison is arranging for a first class temple, better than the one to be had on Baker Street. In the meantime I have received a letter from Petamber Dindayal in Guyana, and he has invited me to go there. There is an invitation to go to Hawaii also, but above all I am very much anxious to see a London temple established first. So please let me know by return mail if there is an immediate chance of my going to London. Then I shall make my program in that way. I do not mind any climatic condition there; I am quite fit, and whenever required, I am prepared to go there. You have mentioned a very encouraging invitation that my visit there will be the biggest event in London since the time of the Roman Invasion. Actually this will be so. This time there is no question of invasion, but this time, if England is prepared, they will receive something sublime which they cannot produce in their country, neither in Manchester, Glasgow, nor Edinburgh. As I stated in my last letter to you that London is still a leading city of the world, and if Mr. George Harrison cooperates with us, certainly we shall be able to deliver something sublime to the world by joint endeavor. I am so glad that Mr. Harrison is composing songs like "Lord which we so long ignored". He is very thoughtful. When we actually meet, I shall be able to give him thoughts about separation from Krishna, and they will be able to compose very attractive songs for public receptions. The public is in need of such songs, and if they are administered through nice agents like the Beatles, it will surely be a great success. In your previous letter you advised me that Mr. Harrison has desired to have me live in the house which they are counting to give us because he has many questions to ask me. I am very much pleased to meet persons who put sincere questions in the matter of Krishna Consciousness. So it will be a great event if the Beatles try to understand this science of Krishna Consciousness with intelligent questions and try to understand it seriously. Anyway, I am expecting your next letter wherein you will mention "at last, at last", as you had mentioned in your letter dated January 2, 1969. Please convey my hearty blessings to the others there with you. I hope this finds you all in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** January 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Syamasundara Prabhu, Please accept my humble dandabats. I understand from a letter of Upendra Brahmacari in Seattle that you have inquired about me from him after your return from Vrindaban. I welcome your suggestion to open a branch of our Iskcon society in Bombay, and you want to help me in this connection. There are two of my disciples in Vrindaban. I do not know if you met them while you were there, and I am awaiting for their letters because one of them was recently advised to go to our German center in Hamburg. Please, therefore, let me know of your suggestions how to open a branch of our Iskcon society in Bombay. If it is possible to get a place free of charge for holding kirtana and discussing on the Bhagavad-gita in some quarter where there are mostly English-speaking people, that will be very much convenient. So if you can find out some suitable place for holding English classes along with short kirtanas please let me know immediately. While expecting your good suggestions of what to do in this matter I am also thinking of it and will let you know in my next letter. I understand that Sripada Prabhupada das Brahmacari is in correspondence with Upendra das Brahmacari in Seattle. May I know who is this brahmacari? If we open a branch in Bombay is he willing to join us there? But I am sure some of the brahmacaris from various centers in India will join us if we open a branch in Bombay. Regarding the mrdangas, certainly you have already given me some quotations but it is better to take fresh quotations in your next letter. It is understood that your books are already received in New York, and Brahmananda das Brahmacari is in charge. I shall advise him to send you the money soon. Do you think the money order should be sent to your present address? Upon hearing from you I shall do the needful in this matter of sending the money to you. I hope this finds you in good health. Yours affectionately, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** April 5th 1969 — **Location:** San Francisco My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I have received one letter from your devoted wife, Malati, dated April 2, 1969, and there is a new return address written on the envelope. I wish that you inform me as to the position of this new address. I also understand from Malati's letter that you have been feeling some disturbance. Perhaps this is because there is difficulty there in finding a temple that you feel that you are not doing nicely, but this is not a fact. Your efforts there are especially nice and pleasing to me. Actually, Sankirtana Party is our main business, and even you do not find a temple there for some time it is not cause for any disturbance. Continue to propagate Krishna Consciousness through Sankirtana Party, and surely you will come out fully successful. I understand that Mataji Syama Devi is back there in London, so she will also help in your efforts. I hope you will contact me soon by post to inform me of the position of the new address and how you are. I hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Enclosed is one letter for Mataji Syama Devi ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** April 16th 1969 — **Location:** New York My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your encouraging letter dated April 14, 1969, and I am very glad to learn that Mr. George Harrison has given a letter of guarantorship to the Camden Council. One other thing is that Mr. Harrison is purchasing 172 acres of land near London, and it is expected that he will construct a temple of Radha-Krishna there. This is also very encouraging news. If you think that he is serious about it, then I shall send you a nice plan for a Radha-Krishna temple, a facsimile of Govindaji's temple in Vrindaban. It is very expensive, with stone work, and if Mr. George Harrison at all constructs a Radha-Krishna temple, it should be unique in this part of the world. He has got the money, and he can do it. So when he is serious about it, I shall give a nice plan for the temple. Enclosed is one draft scheme circular letter so please read it and do the needful. I hope this will find you well and in cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** May 6th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. Your letter dated May 1, 1969, delivered by special express mail is very much thought-provoking. Actually, if we get that church in negotiation, it will be a great achievement. Mr. George Harrison is sometimes coming forward to help us and sometimes he is not straightforward. But because he is chanting Hare Krishna and he has some faith in Krishna, a little respect for me, I am sure he will come forward to help our movement. The Rathayatra may be fixed up from the 20th July to the 27th July, seven days continually. In the meantime, if you get the church in contemplation, it will be very, very nice. I am sending the papers which may help in this connection. Enclosed is a short history of my previous life in continuation with the present life, and copies of certificates from different institutions which have developed since the departure of my Spiritual Master. We are all students of His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja Prabhupada. I am recognized as Ordained Minister of Religion in the United States of America, and in that status I am given permission of permanent resident, immigrant. So if these copies of certificates will help you to secure a church, then our London Yatra will be a grand success. I am sending herewith also a rough plan of the proposed temple to be constructed by George Harrison. The plan is for inside temple structure and courtyard. This is only one side of the temple. Three other sides may be surrounded by living quarters. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Malati, and your nice child. I hope this will meet you all in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am very pleased to read your letter dated May 21, 1969. Your anxiety for my health may not be increased, because I am keeping quite fit nowadays. There was a little backache in Boston for two or three days, but now I am walking in this hilly tract up and down. So don't be anxious. There about 16 centers now, so we have to take care of at least 16 centers daily. Otherwise, how these branches can be conducted? But gradually I am trying to divide the responsibility to departmental heads. I am so glad that you are trying so strenuously for success of our London Yatra program. I am sure our London program will be very successful because you are all sincere workers. In our Krishna Consciousness Movement, anyone who has got full blessings and confidence of the Spiritual Master, and therefore Krishna, his success is sure. In the Caitanya Caritamrta it is said "guru krsna krpaya paya bhakti lata bija [Cc. Madhya 19.151]."I am so glad to note that you are tackling very consistently a great personality like George Harrison, and he is becoming gradually inclined to our movement. I am very satisfied to learn that he has recently made one record along with you of Hare Krishna. If possible, send me one tape recording of it so I shall play it here. Regarding Rathayatra, this must be done at any cost. I may go or not go; that is not important. But Rathayatra Festival, as you have already made program, somehow or other it must be done. A grand program is being made in San Francisco, organized by Tamala Krishna, and with the full cooperation of all Western Coast centers. They are inviting public from all the neighboring places, and they expect a big assembly of people. If I do not go to London to take part in the Rathayatra Festival there, then I shall go to San Francisco to take part in that Festival. But if you want me to go there and invite me, then I am prepared for that also. Mataji Syamadevi has invited me to go to London and she says that she has fulfilled my desire by starting an asrama in Leicester and the Deity has arrived. She stresses that I must go there and wants me to inform her when I shall be able to go. So you can let her know that I am expecting to go to London by the middle of July. Please convey my blessings to Malati and the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am starting a formal school here in N.V. and your daughter grows, she can be sent here. ACB ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** June 3rd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban > London My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 29, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I am very glad that the Queen has consented the Redundant Churches Bill, and there is good chance of getting one church for our temple. There are many redundant churches because the Christian people are gradually deviating from their religious beliefs on account of stereotype presentation of the Bible by sophisticated priests. Modern youths are educated in advance, so they are no more interested in repetition of the same static mottos. They want something dynamic, progress in spiritual understanding, but the Christian priests could not satisfy them. In comparison to all these dogmatic principles, our KC movement presents everything in the right perspective, even from scientific and philosophical point of view. So if you can secure one church in England for utilizing in our movement, I think we shall be able to secure many such churches all over the world. We have great respect for Lord Jesus Christ. We accept him as powerful incarnation of Krishna, as much as we accept Lord Buddha. We can adjust the Buddhists, Christians, and even the Mohammedans to our KC movement, so if the religious heads of these faiths try to understand our philosophy, certainly there will be great impetus in the matter of spiritual rejuvenation of the world. So try to convince the Archbishop of Canterbury and implore him to give us this chance of spreading God-Consciousness in the world's greatest city, London. If my presence is required, I am prepared to go at any moment within the month of June, because I am thinking of going to San Francisco in July for Rathayatra which Tamala Krishna is arranging. This Festival was successful in San Francisco in the years 1967 and 68 because of your presence there, so now they are feeling your absence, but they are courageous to do it successfully somehow or other. Tamala has called Nara Narayana to do carpentry work, so he will be going there. So I shall see Rathayatra either in SF or in London. If arrangement is made to call me to London I will go there as first preference. So as you let me know the day to day progress, and if this progress is suitable, then I shall go to London. Regarding brahmacaris, two may go there immediately, but how will transportation be arranged? They may also be required to arrange for money deposited in the bank to show the immigration department. That is one impediment, and also you yourselves are all scattered, so how shall you accommodate them? Your work is already hampered by no suitable living places, so if two more join you, what is the benefit? Another point is that what is the difficulty of the newcomers getting trained by you who are all elderly members. From other centers, practically every day someone sends his beads, along with letter of appreciation and some money for initial expenses. I chant on his beads and return them to him as initiated student. Why don't you follow this same principle? If these boys are serious, let them be initiated, and follow the rules, and whatever guidance you can give them they should accept. It is not good idea to invite brahmacaris for training some other brahmacaris in London when there are six already present there. If you cannot train them, how can you take it for granted that someone from here can? Training is not imposition. It is voluntary accept by the trainee. Anyway, when you secure a larger place to accommodate everyone, you will have as many brahmacaris as you want, and I shall arrange for that. I can send even Purusottama, who is personally assisting me, provided it helps your propaganda there. Similarly I can ask Subala or someone else, so that is not a problem. Regarding Mataji, I have noted your remarks, and actually we do not want to create a group of prakrta sahajiya, or devotees who do not know the science of Krishna and do not know the science of devotion, but simply worship the Deity with no depth of knowledge. That is called materialistic devotee, but it is also not rejected. It is a beginning, but a preacher must be above this. Anyway, keep friendship with her. She is trying to love Krishna and that is good. Why not ask her to help you perform the Rathayatra? If she can give financial help, all other help will come. Please thank Malati for her nice letter of May 30th. If you can please take quotation from some Holland printer how much they will charge to print a book exactly like TLC we can utilize this information. I hope you are well and await your reply. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** June 12th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of June 5, 1969, and with great joy I understand that at last you have secured one nice house which can accommodate twenty or thirty people. I have immediately asked Trivikrama das Brahmacari of Buffalo to go there, and he is sending Mukunda one telegram confirming this. I am also advising Vibhavati and Isana das to go there. Next I shall try to find out some other brahmacaris to go there as you require immediately some men for your great endeavor. You write to say you are too much strained in various ways, but by your such activities, Krishna will be very much pleased. I think because Krishna is pleased, therefore you have got at last a very nice place. I was planning to go to Los Angeles because Tamala Krishna and others are insisting that I attend the Rathayatra Festival that they are performing very pompously in San Francisco. They have secured a wonderful hall at the beach where the festival will be held and the proprietor of the hall has donated the hall for one week's use. They have received promises from many persons contributing grains, fruits and flowers for holding huge prasadam distribution. It is understood that the hall has a kitchen with twenty burners, and it will easily accommodate 5,000 people. So I have not said anything to them yet unless I hear from you finally, but you may know that I am quite fit to go to London as soon as you can arrange for my arrival there. Regarding Rathayatra Festival in London, it is my great desire that you must perform it. I hope you have already secured permission from Scotland Yard in this connection. You will be glad to know that Mr. John Lennon had an interview with Vibhavati, and a nice article was published in the Montreal Star in which it is understood that he also is interested in our Krishna Consciousness Movement. You have already spoken about George Harrison, about his leaning towards Krishna Consciousness, and I understand they are anxious for some peace movement in the world. So when I go there, and if these interested young men talk with me, I think something very important may come by our mutual cooperation. So in your next letter as indicated in your letter under reply, I shall expect your final word as to when you like me to start for London. Accordingly I shall make my plan, but your decision must be informed to me not later than the 25th of June. Regarding the altar, the design which you have submitted is nice, but I wish to add that underneath the Jagannathas a throne of Radha-Krishna should be there. I am enclosing herewith a picture of the throne, and on the back side is my idea of an altar design. I thank you again for your very encouraging letter. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Please inform Mukunda that I have received his letter of the 7th June. ACB ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** June 29th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of June 19, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Here in Los Angeles I have arrived on the 23rd of June from New Vrindaban. I received your telegram for a loan of $1025, and immediately I arranged to have it sent from New York. I understand from Mukunda's letter dated June 25th that the lease agreement has duly been completed. Now I think you are all happy to have a nice place for our London temple, so just organize it to your best capacity. It doesn't matter when I go there. In the meantime, you give your full attention to decorating the temple, and I am very glad to learn you are making the throne and altar according the the design I sent to you. I learned that Mataji has arranged for the Radha-Krishna Deities for our temple. Is this a fact? If not, let me know, I have already one pair of 24" Deities from Vrindaban that will be dispatched, and as suggested by you, by Janmastami the Deities may be installed. I am very glad to know that George is interested in recording some Krishna Consciousness album, and it is very happy news. I request you and, through you, your friends, George and John, to make a nice Hare Krishna record sung by the most popular Beatles and assisted by our devotees. That will be very nice. I have all encouragement for you for this purpose. Try to make this Hare Krishna Movement popular through any source that is possible. That is our business. I thank you very much for your gorgeous, hopeful words that when I go to London, the London center will be pivot for our Krishna Consciousness Movement. I still maintain the idea of a world Sankirtana Party, so we have got men now in Los Angeles, in Montreal, in Boston, in New York, in New Vrindaban, and in London, who can form a nice group of Sankirtana, at least with 25 heads. If we travel, beginning from London, around the world and again come back to London, surely your foretelling will be a factual event. So try your best, and Krishna will help us as He is helping us. Krishna can help us immediately with all of His resources, but first of all He wants to see how much we can work seriously. So the more we become steady and serious, the more help we will have from Him, rest assured. I shall be glad to know of your further progress in the temple attempts and the recording affairs. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** July 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 6, 1969, and it is very encouraging. The best thing is that you have now a first-class building for a temple at 7 Bury Place. It doesn't matter if things are going a little slow; but make everything slow but sure. That is a good principle. To do things hastily and incorrectly is not good. There is a proverb in Bengali sabure mawaphale. This means that all valuable nuts like almonds, macadamias, walnuts, coconuts, etc. all take a long time to fructify. Anything valuable takes a little time to come into existence. Therefore there is no harm in waiting for the best thing. But everything is well that ends well: That should be the principle. I am glad that your friendship with Mr. George Harrison is gradually working, so much so that he is now prepared to spend $3,000 for an altar slab and a block of bluish marble for carving Krishna or Lord Caitanya. For Lord Caitanya yellowish marble or white marble should be used. If yellowish golden colored marble is available, that is very nice. Another thing is that these Forms should be worshiped. Our Deity worship is not heathenism. If we keep Forms of the Lord without worshiping the Deity under regulative principles, it will gradually turn into idol worship, which is an offense. The Deity of the Lord and the Lord Himself are identical. Krishna can act through the Deity perfectly. As I have given several times the example, the mailbox can act perfectly as the post office because it is authorized. Similarly, when the Deity is installed under authorized regulative principles, the Deity is as good as Krishna Himself. So you may advise your friend on this principle. But I am so much pleased that he is coming forward to offer his hard-earned money for Krishna's purpose. I am also glad to learn that George has purchased one nice house for his family, and there he will be building a very rich altar which will be bedecked with jewels and gold work. I have already given you one design for the throne. If such throne is made with golden or silver pillars, platform, ceiling, and canopy bedecked with jewels, and if the Deity is kept within such throne, it will be a super-excellent manifestation. So when you do such work you can consult me, and I shall give you some right directions. I am also glad to learn that you are going to press some records of the Hare Krishna Mantra with the help of the Beatles and Co., cooperated with some of the celebrated artists like Donovan and the Rolling Stones. It is a very good opportunity that you are making friendship with these famous men, and if you can turn them as they are already a little inclined towards Krishna Consciousness, then our Sankirtana Movement through all these famous artists and gentlemen will take a shape which will be appreciated all over the world. I am also glad to know that Rathayatra arrangements are going nicely, and so also in your country, especially in San Francisco, Boston, Buffalo, as well as New York. There also they are arranging nicely. Most probably in Boston it will be as good as in San Francisco. In San Francisco they are making good advertisement, and they are expecting a very good crowd. I am going there on the 26th of July. I hope you will send me the pictures of your world famous parade in London. Send all detailed pictures to Brahmananda for publication in BTG. If possible, invite some Indian press representatives to report to the Indian papers how the Vedic culture is being accepted by Americans and Europeans. I have prepared a nice book, Krishna, and I want to print it in a deluxe edition. If some of your friends finance this publication, it will be a unique presentation to the world. This will contain Krishna's life from the beginning of His Appearance to His Disappearance from this mortal world. It will contain all of His activities throughout. It is full of philosophy, instructions, transcendental pastimes and artistic pictures. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Malati, and your daughter, Sarasvati. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** July 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated July 25, 1969 and noted the contents with great encouragement, but at the same time I received one letter from Gurudasa which was not very encouraging. He told me about the difficulty that was had in performing the Rathayatra Festival, and I am enclosing a copy of the letter to you which I replied to Gurudasa. The purport of my letter is that there is no cause for any disappointment, and you can perform this ceremony on Janmastami Day if you are able. From the description of your letter it appears that the structure of the Ratha was too heavy for the wheels to carry the load. From Gurudasa' letter it was not clear to me if you at all held a ceremony on a smaller scale. But in any event, I think we may take it as Krishna's Grace that the difficulty took place at the very beginning of the procession and not later on when the Ratha was in a more populated area. So do not feel discouraged at all. By Krishna's Plan everything will come out for the best. We have only to work very sincerely, depending fully on the Mercy of the Lord, and in this consciousness we can make very quick advancement in Krishna Consciousness. If you think you will be able to perform the ceremony on Janmastami Day, then I shall give you further instructions on how this is to be done. I am very pleased to note that you have made such a nice recording of Hare Krishna, which may be released by the Beatle's Company. If you are able to send me a copy of this tape, that would be very nice. Also, it is very encouraging to learn that you think Mr. George Harrison will be happy to print our Krishna book. This will be a very great service to the mankind at large, if he can be of assistance in this connection. We are giving a unique contribution with this book; a book which tells of the activities of God. There is no other book that has been authoritatively presented to the Western World up till this time which has given so high a contribution. If persons will simply read this book or even look at the many pictures within, then this alone will bring immense spiritual benefit to their lives. I have written to Krishna das in Germany, and I am expecting their reply as to when they will be able to receive me there. So after I complete my business in Germany, surely I shall come to your temple in London, perhaps by Janmastami Day, and then it will be so nice to see all of you again. Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Malati, and your little daughter, Sarasvati. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** August 13th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 5th, 1969 and have noted the contents. When I first heard that the wheels of the car collapsed it was so great a shock to me that the whole day I was sick and morose, and now after receiving this letter and your pictures I am very much enlivened. The car was on the road and the photo is taken with a multitude of people. That is your success and as a result of this collapse you have got now the sympathy of the Indian community as well as all the people of London—so much so that next year you can timely and conveniently erect three cars like that. Regarding your recording of Nama Om and Hare Krishna, it is very, very good and everyone says that it is technically all-perfect. So your endeavor to induce the Beatles to cooperate with us is successful to a greater extent. Now when I shall go to London I shall carry with me various other recordings sung by me, and if these recordings can be attuned in the same technical perfection, then under my direction we can produce at least one dozen Hare Krishna recordings in varieties of tunes. I am sure people will like them very much when they are presented through Mr. George Harrison and his company. I am very glad to learn that Mr. George Harrison was playing on harmonium and guitar; Digvijaya and Gurudasa were playing karatalas; Yamuna and Malati were singing; and you were playing dilruba. Kulasekhara is so nice khole player I thought it was being played by Mukunda. Why do I not find the name of Mukunda? I am also very glad to learn that this record is being played on some first class radio station all day, and wherever you go people congratulate you by chanting Hare Krishna. This is very encouraging. Similarly, I am encouraged that Kirtana Party led by Trivikrama is collecting $25-50 daily. My going to Germany is not yet fixed up, but it is understood that both Mukunda and Krishna Das have sent two tickets addressed to New York. It is also understood that they have redirected the mail here, but we have not received anything till now. So as soon as I receive the tickets, arrangements for going to Germany will be fixed up. In the month of September I shall be in Germany, and the next month, if you like, you can call me to London. So far as Maya's activities are concerned, it will go on because we are in the kingdom of Maya. Just like in the snowfall season, especially in the Western part of the world, you cannot stop falling of the snow, but for your protection you have to take all possible precautions; similarly, in the kingdom of Maya you cannot stop the onslaught of her activities. The only protective measure is Krishna Consciousness. Otherwise there is no alternative. So we have to engage ourselves always in some sort of Krishna activity, and whenever there is some attack by Maya we shall not be surprised. Rather we should immediately remember that we are in Maya's kingdom. I think you have already got the design of the throne and the measurements also. It should be 40" x 40", and the height is 57", including the canopy. The front pillars are three on each side, and the whole throne is supported by four lion claws. I shall send you very soon a real photo of the Los Angeles throne, Jagannatha altar and Vyasasana. They have done it very nicely and perfectly. So I wish that in every center similar arrangements may be done. Please offer my blessings to your wife and child. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** August 31st 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 27th, 1969, and I have noted the contents with great joy. You are improving in every respect of our London Yatra program, and I think your labor to make friends with the Beatles has been successful in the matter of pressing the Hare Krishna record. I hope by this means many thousands of pounds will flow into Krishna's treasury. We are very poor financially, but by Krishna's Grace we are getting help undoubtedly. That is nice. I came here without any money, singlehanded, and Krishna is sending me so many nice assistants and the required money whenever it is necessary. We should be satisfied with such Grace of Krishna. We do not want any extra money for sense gratification, but Krishna is so kind He is supplying the necessary amount. You will be glad to know that Satsvarupa in Boston has purchased property worth 70,000 dollars. The immediate down payment is 6,000 dollars and monthly payment is 1,000 dollars. So he has taken the courage with my permission, and by Krishna's Grace everything is being arranged. Similarly, in other centers also, including your center, Krishna is sending us all necessary help. I am very glad to know that Sriman George Harrison is nicely cooperating with your endeavors, and this action of him will not go in vain. Any little bit of service rendered to Krishna does not go in vain, so I am sure George will be benefited in the matter of Krishna Consciousness without doubt. Please convey my thanks to him for his willing cooperation with our men. I could not clearly understand what is the reason that you have left the temple to live in a country house 40 miles away from London. I understand that by October 1st everything should be settled, and you may invite me to visit at that time. This morning I had been in the Hamburg Port and Krishna das informed me there is a passenger ship which carries people overnight to London. So I have asked him to inquire what is the real situation. I think we can go to London by that shipping carrier. In October I have no program here, so there will be no difficulty to visit your place at that time. In your last letter you informed me that George Harrison may be interested to publish my book, Krishna, so I am carrying with me the manuscript. I want to print this book with many pictures, and the pictures are also ready in Los Angeles and Boston. So if possible, you can talk further with him about this publication, and if he does so, it will be very nice for him as well as for us. I am also very glad to learn that you are meeting Mr. Harrison for negotiating with the Archbishop for the church. That will be very, very nice. Please try for it very seriously. On the whole, your sincere endeavor for serving Krishna is gradually being accepted by the Lord, and the more you endeavor for such service, the more you'll feel sublime in existence in direct contact with Krishna day after day. I am also very glad to learn that you have already prepared a groundwork in England of the Krishna Consciousness Movement, and if I go there I shall take the opportunity to convince the people in general, philosophers and religionists of London about the importance of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. Sometime back I sent one letter addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, supposed to be presented through Mr. George Harrison, and I shall be glad to know what happened to that letter. If it was not presented before, it may be done so when George Harrison meets the Archbishop for the church. Actually our Krishna Conscious movement is genuine Christian movement. Christ means Krishna, love of Godhead, Who has His face anointed with tilak. There is a word Kristos in the Greek dictionary, and this word is supposed to be borrowed from the Sanskrit word "Krishna," and Christ is derived from Kristos. I find these things in a book known as Aquarian Gospel of Lord Jesus the Christ. Anyway, any genuine Christian will find our movement nice and perfect. We simply want their cooperation in this matter that they allow us to use their many vacant churches in the Western countries for rejuvenation of spiritual life in this part of the world. So if the Archbishop kindly gives us a church through the intervention of Mr. Harrison, it will be a great success for our movement. So try your best for this achievement. Please offer my blessings to all others and especially to your daughter, who I think is growing nicely in Krishna Consciousness. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Syamasundara **Date:** December 29th 1969 — **Location:** Boston My Dear Syamasundara, Please accept my blessings. I reached Boston as scheduled on December 21st, and there was a good reception by the devotees for Krishna's servant. The newspaper article published remarked on this occasion that "in the Logan Airport there has never been anything like this." It was exactly like the reception you arranged in London on September 11, 1969. I hope everything is going nicely in London temple. As advised by George I expected his remittance last Monday or Tuesday, but failing to receive it, I advised Brahmananda to contact you on the phone. He tried four times, but could not do so. I wanted to send the order of Krsna to Dai Nippon, but as I have not received any information of the money, I have not sent the order as yet. Please therefore advise me immediately at the Los Angeles address: 1975 So. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90034. Upon hearing from you I shall do the needful. In case the remittance has not as yet been dispatched, please do it immediately directly for credit in my checking account #3081-61625, Bank of America (Branch No. 308) 8501 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90035, and advise me also. I hope this meets you in good health. My blessings for Malati and Sarasvati. The new child born of Harsarani may be named Govinda Das. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. I am going to L.A. this morning ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** May 6th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your very nice letter dated May 2, 1969, and the attitude which you are now maintaining for rendering service to Krishna will certainly induce Him to bestow you with all His blessings more and more. I am sending herewith one program for the 18th of May which may be called Noukabihar. The song in this connection is also given and you may properly utilize it along with the translation. The next program on the 25th I shall send you in my next letter, and that is known as Rairaya. I understand you want every Sunday some program, and I shall try to help you as far as possible. Your statement that the program there could be to establish a large center for training preachers is very, very encouraging. I want my disciples to preach now. Here in Boston, sometimes I allow the students to speak, and it appears very hopeful. As you are increasing your Sankirtana Movement to cover a great distance of 150 mile-radius it is still more encouraging. I am sure that because you are in serious and sincere attitude of service to Krishna, He is giving you all good counsel to propagate these transcendental activities. I am also so glad to know that the recent plan of observing various kinds of festivals is drawing wonderful results. I wish I would have been present there to see things so nicely going on. Your idea that when I am in Los Angeles I shall simply lecture on Sundays, and on the weekdays the boys will lecture so I shall be free to go on with my translating work is very stimulating. I am also glad to learn that you are going to San Francisco to adjust things there. By the 12th instant, when you are there you should help arrange for the Rathayatra Festival. This is to take place some time after the 15th of July, and you can fix up the days from the 20th of July to the 27th of July. There is every possibility of me observing the Rathayatra Festival in London, because I received one letter from Syamasundara, and they are seriously attempting for this occasion, and they are thinking of inviting me during that period. Syamasundara wants to give me a grand reception, and he is trying his best for this level. But if I am not invited there, then surely I shall return to Los Angeles by the middle of June or earlier. The college courses and university courses should be very carefully taken because there is very, very great hope from those quarters. In Buffalo I have seen Rupanuga has done wonderfully, and some of the sudents are already attracted to this Krishna Consciousness Movement. Similarly, Pradyumna is also doing in Columbus, and I shall see personally when I go there on the 9th of May. So we have to train preachers, and they will go to the students in public institutions to educate them in Krishna Consciousness. So if our men simply study our books and magazines, and assimilate them nicely and clarify as soon as there is some doubt, then surely we shall drive out all these so-called yogis and propagandists who are simply cheating the innocent people to solve their pecuniary problems. Regarding the Radha-Krishna Murtis, they may be kept for the time being, and when I go there I shall take care of them. Regarding my backache, the 10% balance appears to be out of my body, but after all, the material body can be infected at any time, so we should not bother very much about it. We must simply go on with our activities in Krishna Consciousness. Please convey my blessings to the others there with you. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: When you go to San Francisco on the 12th you may bring the 10" Deities with you. When Jivananda goes to Hawaii he should bring these 10" Deities with him. The 12" Deities will be for Los Angeles. NB: I have just received one letter from Upendra, and he is thinking of obtaining a nice church in Seattle. As he may be needing $500 very soon for down payment, your Los Angeles temple may help by loan of whatever money he will require in this connection. ACBP.S. The new big place which you are searching may be sufficiently big so that we can start our Press also. ACB ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** May 13th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated May 9th, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am pleased to note that you are doing nicely for giving the student community to hear about our Krishna Consciousness Movement. Yesterday, at the Ohio State University we had a tremendous meeting, and nearly two thousand students were dancing, clapping and chanting along with us. So it is clear that the student community has a nice potential for accepting this philosophy. I will not be going to North Carolina as I had planned, but I am sending Kirtanananda Swami in my place because they have extended my program here in Columbus. So now I have to create more sannyasis to lecture on our philosophy, and I shall pick these sannyasis from the brahmacaris who are firm in their decision not to marry. Your next festival will be as follows: RAIRAYA—On this day the Gopis played by making Radharani a Queen, and She is seated on a gorgeous throne, and Krishna is made as Her doorman of the palace, so He is standing by the throne-room with a sword. So this is one Pastime arranged by the Gopis, and there is nice feasting, dancing and singing on account of the coronation of Srimati Radharani. You have asked about my travelling schedule, and I shall see if London will invite me, and if not, then I will return to Los Angeles at the utmost by the end of June. Please convey my blessings to all of the other devotees there with you in Los Angeles temple. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: Enclosed is one letter received from Cidananda, which you may read and do the needful. P.S. The Los Angeles consignment from Calcutta is dispatched on 10th May 1969. Take delivery of the documents from Bank of America by the 10th of June 1969 or inquire. ACB ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** May 23rd 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 17, 1969, and I am so glad to learn that your presence in San Francisco has not only settled up the tension, but also has improved the conditions. Krishna is gradually giving you power to serve Him and more nicely, and thus you are one of the future strong pillars of the society. Your idea of training preachers in Los Angeles and my staying there is already approved. Most probably, if I do not go to Europe, I shall return there by the end of June. In the meantime I shall be glad to know what is the position of your finding out a better place. I do not know whether or not Kartikeya has arrived there yet in San Francisco, but it is understood that he has left Hawaii. The Rathayatra Festival program as suggested by you to invite many new people is very encouraging. Please do it very seriously, and make San Francisco a perfect New Jagannatha Puri. I think it will not be difficult because in San Francisco there are many nice devotees such as Dindayal, Cidananda, Makhanlal, as well as new devotees, such as Ojasvi and Devaprastha. The devotee more or less depends on his transcendental enthusiasm, patience and firm conviction. These things will surely help him to reach perfection. Since I have come to New Vrindaban I have not received any new letter from you, but your letter encourages me, so please send one weekly to me. Your proposal to open a center in Laguna Beach is also very nice. You have to open so many centers in the future, so I wish that Krishna may give you a long life to discharge this duty. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. How TLC selling? I have just now received your most recent letter, and I thank you very much for it. The most important point is about the lawyer, and I think you may take advantage of his service if you think he will actually grant us the desired status in Los Angeles. I am very pleased with your schemes for spreading Krishna Consciousness on the West Coast, and I think you should manage organization of our propaganda work on the West Coast. I am sending by separate post a very excellent picture which Muralidhara may paint and which may be used for the next Festival, Dadibhanda. Hope you are well. ACB ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** June 1st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 29, 1969, and I am glad to note that our temple activities are effecting good results. The boys and girls from the neighborhood coming to help the temple activities is the good result of our attempts. The temple center is started just to present example to the neighboring residents how they can make a small temple in each and every home. It is not necessary that hundreds and thousands of people will live in our temple, but if we can make effective propaganda, then the neighboring residents, householders, will be inclined to be initiated and follow the modes of temple life. So you encourage the visitors, boys and girls as well as married couples, to understand the value of life and how they can peacefully and happily live if they follow the routine worship method in the temple and establish this in their home to be happy in all respects. Krishna Consciousness Movement is actually an attempt to make all people happy generally and, becoming liberated in this life from material contamination, they'll be thus eligible to enter into the Kingdom of God after quitting this body. I am very glad to know that one rich Indian, Mr. Raj Anand, is prepared to contribute some money for our temple activities. Of course your idea that when I go I shall talk with him and get some big contribution from the Indian community is all right. But my mission will be more successful if the Americans construct a temple, although we have no distinction as to American or Indian; anyone can do it. The best thing will be that since you are trying for a better place, why not try to purchase a nice church if it is available, or a big land within reach of the city with some old hutments. If you find such a place, then you can ask the Indian gentleman to pay for the down payment amount, which may be 10 or 20 thousand dollars. Then we will arrange for the monthly payments. Or if you think it best to wait until my arrival and then hold a meeting of the Indians, making him the chief guest, that is also nice idea. Your idea of using the Moose Hall is also very nice. During the Rathayatra Ceremony, you invite Mrs. Sumitra Sarkar, who last year reported our Rathayatra Ceremony to India. She is the daughter of the editor of Jugantar, an important paper in Calcutta. I think you should invite her in some Los Angeles Festival also. Her present address is: Barnes 3/G, Escondido Village, Standford, California 94305. If you keep good relationship with this lady, she can help us reporting nicely about our activities. If our Los Angeles people see her for reviewing our books in their Indian papers, that will be also nice. Her great-grandfather, Mahatma Sisir Kumar Ghosh was a great devotee of Lord Caitanya, and their whole family is in favor of Sankirtana Movement. So if you can establish a little intimacy with this lady, she can help us in many ways. The program with Allan Ginsberg sounds very nice, because when Mr. Ginsberg and myself were present in the Ohio State University, it was a grand success. The assembly was more than one thousand people, but you say that you will take a place which can accommodate five thousand people, so it will be a great grand success. I have seen the pictures of your recent Festival, and it is very, very nice. I have enjoyed the pictures so nicely that I am looking always to them; although I have seen three, four times, still I am not satisfied. It is very nice. In all Festivals, if you make such puppet show, then you will be able to attract so many people. Anyway, I can understand things are going very nicely in your temple, and Krishna is giving you good intelligence. So I wish that you will live for hundred years and execute this Krishna Movement so that in this very life you shall enter into the abode of Krishna. As soon as one's service is recognized by Krishna, he is immediately called, "Please come here." That is the verdict of the Vedic literature. So we should work in such a nice way that we can draw the attention of Krishna to call us. You will find in Bhagavad-gita that anyone who takes the task of preaching Krishna Consciousness is the dearmost devotee of the Lord. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Keep extra money in saving a/c ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** June 10th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 5, 1969, sent along with the article printed in the Cosmos, and I have noted the contents in both of these items. The article was very nice, and I can appreciate how you are assimilating this Krishna philosophy and conveying it nicely to others. Your descriptions of the Dadhibhanda Celebration sounds very thrilling, and here in New Vrindaban there is also nice supply of butter, ghee, milk and cheese due to the cow that they are keeping here. Regarding the draft lawyer, please try to expedite the matter, because there are many of our boys who may take advantage of this facility of being excused from the draft service. So when you are able to arrange for this it will be a very important achievement for our society. Regarding your suggestions for my travel plans, your ideas are very nice, and if I do not go to London, you can expect me to come to Los Angeles directly from New Vrindaban by the 10th of July. So I hope this will meet you in very good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** June 12th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am so pleased to receive your letter of June 9, 1969, and I can understand that Krishna is giving you intelligence how to manage the Western Coast branches of our society. I think you should now make an ad hoc committee of management, comprising yourself, Jayananda, Cidananda, Dindayal, Upendra, etc. If in this way you can take charge of management affairs, it will be a very nice thing. So far as a seal is concerned, you can make your own seal exactly like the one we have got in New York. Simply you make the seal replacing the word New York for Los Angeles. That will be nice. I have got full faith in you, so by Krishna's blessing try to improve all the four or five branches there. Trivikrama das Brahmacari from Buffalo wanted to open a branch in Sacramento or Santa Monica, but I have advised him to go to London because recently I received a letter from Syamasundara that they have secured a nice house. It is not yet all settled up, but he wants the help of some brahmacaris. So I shall be glad to know if you can spare some brahmacaris for London. They are of course planning something very gorgeous, but till now it has not been tangible. But because they are working very seriously and sincerely it will be successful. At present my plan is that by the 10th of July either I go to London or to Los Angeles. That is certain. So even if I do not go to Los Angeles, the Festival will be nicely performed there. If I go to London I shall see that the Rathayatra Festival is also performed there, and I have written to Syamasundara expressing my great desire like this. But everything depends on Krishna's disposal. Regarding your questions, it is all right to make up the plates for the feast as you have suggested so the guests will not have so long a wait after the offering. The the first plate made up, Krishna's plate, should be kept in a high place, a separate place, and covered. Then it is all right. Regarding Visala's idea of selling his car, that is all right, and the money may be utilized for Rathayatra Festival. But when I go I must have my car, so you will have to purchase. Regarding Jivananda and Harsarani, whatever you think is best for them is all right. And I approve of the suggestion you have made for them. Similarly, Mahapurusa may go to Vancouver. That is nice. As you see fit, you can manage such things without consulting me first. Now the West Coast management is practically on you. I am sure that Krishna will help you in this regards. I am enclosing a letter for Devahuti, so you may please hand it over to her. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 13, 1969, and I have noted the contents. You write to say in your your letter, "Please come to Los Angeles immediately, Prabhupada. There are so many devotees who are so much anticipating Your Divine Appearance." So considering this urgent call, I may go immediately to Los Angeles as I have not got any important business here. So you can send me passage money, and I shall go to Los Angeles along with Purusottama. The London devotees want me by the end of July, so even from Los Angeles I can go to London, and in this way spend at least one month in Los Angeles. Then after that period, if London wants me urgently, I can go there from Los Angeles. There is no difficulty. Under the circumstances, I am prepared to go to Los Angeles immediately as requested by you. Regarding opening branches in Laguna Beach, you know I am always very much enthusiastic to open branches, so if another branch can be opened for propagating Krishna Consciousness, it is always welcome. If we have got opportunity to open such branch, we must take advantage. So far as the money is concerned, it is not meant for banking, but it is meant for spending. Our policy should be to collect millions of dollars or more than that daily, and spend it daily. That should be our policy. Every morning we shall be empty-handed, get collection of a million dollars during the daytime, and by evening it should be all spent. That should be our motto. But because we are pushing on our activities regularly, therefore some money should be saved to meet emergencies. So if you have got chance of opening a branch in Laguna Beach, do it. When we get a big temple in Los Angeles, Krishna will supply the necessary funds. Regarding the throne, it should be made exactly to the design made by Muralidhara. It is 40 x 40 x 45 (length, breadth and height). I am enclosing this design, so you make the throne in that pattern for Radha-Krishna. I will expect to hear from you soon by return of post. Hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** September 8th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letters dated August 27th and 29th, 1969 and September 3rd, 1969. I am very much concerned why ____ is not complying to the principles of the temple. The first thing is that nobody should enter my room for any other purpose except cleansing. Nobody can stay there or sleep there or anything. If she wants to worship Krishna in her own way, she must find an apartment outside the temple. She does not belong to the Vaisnava principles, therefore we cannot approve her Deity worship within the temple. Her example may be followed by others, therefore it must be stopped immediately. Regarding the house, it is not possible for us to pay such sums: it is untouchable. But if they are prepared to sell the house at 250,000 dollars when complete and finished, and accept 10% down payment, then we can consider to touch it. Regarding the Sanskrit dictionary, keep it there carefully. It is important. Regarding the information you sent from the Bank of America Calcutta, I am little busy now because I am starting for London this Thursday. I shall have to scrutinizingly see what they propose. I shall reply this from London. In the meantime, as you are getting goods from Delhi, there is no worry. This Bank of America in Calcutta will be needed when we begin business with Calcutta. There is no immediate hurry. I shall think it over and let you know from London. I am very pleased that Berkeley has just secured a nice temple, and the rent is also not very much. It is good news. You write that you are introducing our books in a new bookstore, and similarly try to introduce this valuable literature in many such bookstores in the Los Angeles area. I think you may introduce the ceremony of strolling the Deities round about the temple. If not every evening, then it can be done at least one day per week at a fixed up time. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: I am very much anxious to know what is happening to the Tokyo center plans ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** September 14th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated September 7th and 10th, 1969, and I have noted the contents. You write in your letter of September 10th that you have not received my replies, but I reply each and every letter. Especially your letters, Brahmananda's letters, Satsvarupa's letters and Gargamuni's letters I take special care and reply each of them. I hope by this time you have received my reply. Regarding the house, I have answered this point in one of my letters. But one thing I must let you know is that I may be a poor man's son, or a poor man myself, but fortunately I have been transferred to America to become rich man's father. So I wish to live like rich man's father, as there are many American rich man's fathers. Now you can do whatever you like. But one thing I can suggest is that we are now getting our own press, and as we have got so many books, if you can arrange for the selling of these books, there will be no scarcity of money either for the father or for the son. I am pleased to note that you will be giving four classes in Los Angeles universities this year, and everyone is welcome to appear in the Bhakti-sastri examination and take the title. But one must be acquainted with Krishna philosophy at least for one year. So the students may attend class for one year as you have already arranged, and if they learn this philosophy, even if they don't become initiated students, it will be a pleasure for us. Regarding the tests you are holding there in Los Angeles, keep them there, and when I return I shall see them personally. I am encouraged to learn that you now have a very nice place for photography work, and you can send me photographs of the size of TLC of pictures for the Krishna book and Nectar of Devotion. For Krishna you have the pictures by Jadurani, Jahnava and Murlidhara. Then there is the Radha-Krishna picture by Devahuti, the Radha-Krishna picture which was kept in my room on the wall just to my righthand side, and the Radha-Krishna picture which was kept on my altar while I was there on Formosa Avenue. Regarding Aquarian Gospel of Lord Jesus The Christ, I have taken some stray extracts just to support our views, but we don't give any importance to that book. The best thing is that we accept Lord Jesus Christ as a great devotee of the Lord and the son of God. It is better not to discuss in any detail about the Christian religion or any other religion. Your idea for Rukmini and her husband, Bharadraja, to go to Chicago is nice. I understand that Sudama and Bali Mardan have already gone to Japan and I am anxious to get their address. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** September 19th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated September 13rd, 1969, and I am so glad to learn that two new branches are now opened; one in Laguna Beach, another in Tokyo. With great interest I read the letter of Sudama, and I have also sent him a letter of congratulations. You have proposed to go to Japan next year, and I am very much pleased on this point. I wish to go with a big Sankirtana Party from Los Angeles. So if we can overflood Japan with this Sankirtana Movement, it will be a great great achievement in the Eastern countries, and if we move little further more into China and Russia, then we shall build up a strong belt all around the world of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Here in London the activities are going on. The place where I am now staying is a very big garden house, and the place allotted to us is a super-excellent temple site. The only difficulty is it is far away from the city, so the city people cannot conveniently come here. The temple in the city is not finished being constructed yet, neither is there sufficient space. It can be used as office and residence, but as a temple, it has no sufficient space. So things here are not yet very smooth, although the movement is accepted by the people in general as nice. The Hare Krishna record is selling very nicely. Yesterday, it sold 5,000 copies, and this week it is on the chronological list as #20. They say next week it will come to be #3, and after that it may come to #1. So they are very much hopeful of this record. Mr. George Harrison appears to be very intelligent boy, and he is by the Grace of Krishna fortunate also. On the first day, he came to see me along with John Lennon, and we had talks about 2 hours. He wanted to talk with me more, but he is now gone to his sick mother in Liverpool. So if this boy cooperates with our movement, it will be very nice impetus, for after all, he is monied man. These monied men and women have to be very cautiously dealt within spiritual life. We have to sometimes deal with them on account of preaching work; otherwise Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has strictly restricted to mix with them for the Krishna Conscious people. But we get instruction from Rupa Goswami that whatever opportunity is favorable for pushing on Krishna Consciousness we should accept. You write to say that you do not know what is my desire, but my desire is an open secret. I simply want all over the Western countries people may take this simple formula of chanting, dancing and eating Krishna Prasadam, and being happy. I am simply surprised that they should not accept this simple formula and be happy themselves. My only desire is that all people become happy and prosperous in Krishna Consciousness. My predecessors, Vaisnavas, they were so generous that they felt very much afflicted for the suffering of the human society. Sri Rupa Goswami tried to elevate them to real path of happiness by introducing this Govinda Ganamrta, the Nectarine of the Songs of Govinda. That will make them happy. In England there is very good prospect for pushing on Krishna Consciousness. I am trying to make some arrangement with Mr. Lennon to have the facility for having this garden house. Here we can accommodate many devotees, and if the opportunity is offered to us, we can organize a very strong Sankirtana Party here and establish at least four or five branches in England. But the climate is not at all suitable for me. The idea you described in your letter about unifying the temples is very nice. I am enclosing herewith one newspaper cutting of our airport reception for your reference. Last Tuesday night we appeared on one very popular BBC television show for a forty-five minute interview, and it was very successful. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** October 1st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated September 21st and 24th, 1969. Regarding your plan for the house in Beverly Hills, it is all right, but how can you expect $25 per week from all the centers? I already asked them for $15 per month for maintenance fund, but they are not sending regularly. Mostly they are not sending at all. So money depending on others is no money and education depending on books is no education. The cash down price can be arranged somehow or other, but how to meet the monthly expenditures? If it is too straining, I don't think it is advisable to take up the risk. Of course, we must take risk for Krishna, but not to the extent it may hamper our Krishna Consciousness temperament. We can take a risk as long as it can be managed easily. I am very encouraged to learn that Laguna Beach is doing nicely. Similarly, I am getting good reports from Berkeley. But I have not as yet received any letter from Tokyo. Have they secured any place for starting temple? Regarding your proposed center in Santa Barbara, it is nice. If a California center is favorable, we should first open there. Regarding the photographs of the pictures I have asked you to take, yes, these should be of very fine quality for being published in our Nectar of Devotion and Krishna book. So far as the size is concerned, this you must consult with Brahmananda, because he is in charge of setting up the books. The picture by Devahuti which was in my room will be printed on the cover of Nectar of Devotion, so Brahmananda must decide if this picture will cover the entire front cover, with the title printed on top of it, or if there will be some space allowed for the title on an upper margin, as was done in TLC. You may keep the photographs there in LA, and some of them may be published in BTG on the cover. Relationship between Godbrothers must be very genuine and pleasing. Otherwise, the future of our institution will not be very hopeful. After all, very soon you have to manage. As I am getting old, I wish to retire from an active part. Of course, I shall be behind the scene, but I am thinking of writing a constitutional will on my return from Europe. Enclosed please find the proclamation you have requested. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** October 13th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 5, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your question about Govinda Ganamrta, Govinda is Krishna, and ganamrta means the nectar of songs. That means anything sung about the activities of Govinda is nectar. You have mentioned that Srila Rupa Goswami has introduced this. Srila Rupa Goswami, assisted by all other Goswamis have left immense literature for singing about the glories of Govinda. Whatever literature we are presenting, following the footsteps of Rupa Goswami and the others, they are also Govinda Ganamrta. So the more Govinda Ganamrta or the glories of Govinda will be spread the more the nonsense of impersonalism and monism will be defeated. It is said kaivalya nistaraka. This means the Goswamis deliver us from the danger of being lost in the philosophy of monism. As I wrote in my prayers to my Spiritual Master, "impersonal calamity Thou hast moved". So this impersonalism is a calamity for the spiritualist. I understand that you have sent $1,000 to Brahmananda for the press instead of $5,000. So I have completed that $5,000 by sending him another check for $4,000. Whatever you have done is all right, but if you have taken anything from the book fund, you may replace it as soon as possible. I am so glad to learn that the book fund is doing very well. I think the book fund should be immediately deposited to my savings account, and if need be, I shall pay you again. I am very glad to learn about the contribution of Mr. Raj Anand. He appears to be devotee, so deal with him very carefully. Invite him to take Prasadam as often as possible. He must be a very nice gentleman to have purchased 100 BTGs for giving freely to his customers. I have seen the agenda of your president's meeting. This is nice. One thing should be followed, however, as your countrymen are more or less independent spirited and lovers of democracy. So everything should be done very carefully so that their sentiments may not be hurt. According to Sanskrit moral principles, everything has to be acted, taking consideration of the place, audience and time. As far as possible the centers should act freely, but conjointly. They must look forward to the common development. That should be the principle. You are all intelligent boys, and you should be engaged in Krishna's service. Then He will give you all intelligence. So in every action we should always pray to Krishna for His help so that we may act it nicely. Lord Krishna advised Arjuna yudhyasva mam anusmara [Bg. 8.7]. That should be our principle. We should use all our intellect as well as possible, and at the same time we should remember Krishna always. I was very much pleased to hear that Tokyo has so swiftly got a house. Surely upon Cintamani's joining them they will get further strength in pushing on the Movement. I have not heard from you whether or not you have received the consignment from Calcutta and the items all in order according to the invoice. I hope to hear in your next letter on this matter. Regarding Muralidhara's painting of Srila Jagannatha das Babaji, there should be no aura around Him. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** October 18th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 12, 1969 along with the copy of the West Coast president's report of the meeting held at Berkeley. Gradually this meeting should develop into a committee of the West Coast presidents, and similarly there should be one for the East Coast, so in the future we can form a central governing body for the whole institution. Therefore the management should be done very cautiously so that everyone is satisfied in their autonomous managing capacity. Of course, the central point is the order of the Spiritual Master, and I am very glad that you are trying to give importance to this aspect of management. The difficulty is sometimes things are interpreted in a manner dovetailing one's own sense gratification. I have got this personal experience in my Guru Maharaja's institution. Different Godbrothers took the words of Guru Maharaja in different interpretations for sense gratification and the whole mission disrupted. This is still going on for the last 40 years without any proper settlement. I am always afraid of this crack, but I am sure if our aim is to serve Krishna sincerely and the Spiritual Master simultaneously, that will be our success. That means serve Krishna and the Spiritual Master simultaneously with equal faith and serious vow, and then success is sure. Yourself, Gargamuni, Brahmananda and the others are intelligent. You should always deal things so tactfully that people may not fall away. Every living being is important in Krishna Conscious service, and we must take all precautions that one may not fall away. Regarding the booklet you and Gargamuni are sending, in the introductory portion signed by you and Gargamuni you have said that I am "personally instructing John Lennon and George Harrison in the yoga of ecstasy". This is not very satisfactory. Of course, George Harrison sometimes comes to see me and naturally I instruct him on the bhakti yoga. But the statement in the letter gives hint as if I have been invited by them for this. If this comes to their notice, they may take some objection which will not go to our credit. These things should not be publicly advertised, and I do not know why this has been done. Anyway, if you have not distributed many of them, you just try to take out that portion which is not a fact. Regarding purchasing of temples, if within our means and estimation it is possible, that is a good idea. The best example is Boston temple. They have taken responsibility for $1100/ per month, and by the Grace of Krishna they are now collecting at the rate of $120 per day. So if Berkeley is also in that position, they can take that risk. Similarly, San Francisco also, and I understand that both Hansadutta and Madhudvisa are doing nicely. So if the principle of Boston temple can be followed without over-burden and anxiety, that is very good. If they are also collecting daily average $100, they can take the risk of purchasing the house. Regarding the World Sankirtana Party, that is my long-cherished idea, and I wish to see it fulfilled as soon as possible. But do not count on others. If somebody comes forward to help us, that is welcome. But if we at all take the job, we must take it on our own strength. For experimental sake, you can seek out for an agent who can arrange for our Sankirtana Party moving in all the states of America, and then we can think of touring all over the world. Where is my Book Fund being kept? I think whatever money is received from the Book Fund or for my personal account may be immediately deposited in my savings account #12410 with the Equitable Savings Bank at Fairfax and Beverly, and monthly statements may be submitted to me how much you have deposited with the bank. Regarding movement of the members from one temple to another, I think the local president's permission is sufficient. Don't take too much load of individual administration. That will be unmanageable in the near future. I have also instructed Brahmananda in this way. I have also advised Brahmananda to ask for monthly reports, and similarly you may ask for monthly reports. That will be easier. I thank you so much for the new temples that are opening. Please conduct them nicely and enthuse the people to stick to the chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra and following the rules and regulations. Then they will be strong enough to manage things very nicely. Other things will be supplied by Krishna. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** October 25th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated October 17, 1969 and October 22, 1969. The letters were very long; I have read them once and shall read them again carefully. Here things are improving. We have got now practically two centers in London: one in Mr. Lennon's place and one in 7 Bury Place. We are negotiating for a big church in Oxford and there is possibility of this coming out successful too. Besides that, I am negotiating with some local, influential Indian gentleman for the world Sankirtana Party. They have also given some hopes, and the preaching work here is also going on nicely. Yesterday we had a meeting in a law college and all the boys and girls joined us in chanting and dancing. But I think Mukunda is little bit strained managing all the affairs. The most important thing before us immediately is to organize a nice Sankirtana Party here in London for daily work, because there is as good potency of preaching work in London as there is in Los Angeles. But I do not know if it will be possible for you to come here for some days. Mukunda likes your assistance for coordinating all these opportunities. So please consider these points, and if you think that your absence in the West Coast will not cause any mismanagement, then I would advise you for some days to come here. So I shall be glad to hear from you in this connection by return mail. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** October 30th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated October 17, and October 23, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. Enclosed is the letter for you to hand over to the draft lawyer. I am pleased to note that there is interest in having our Sankirtana Party perform in various public engagements. The same thing is going on here, and they have been invited to such places as Amsterdam and Germany. So if you can also do this, it is nice. But do not change our principles. Practicing is already done by kirtana. It is not required for us to become artists. Our main point is service to Krishna, not to please an audience. We shall not divert our attention too much to adjustment of musical sounds. People should not misunderstood that we are a band of musical artists. They must know that we are devotees of Krishna. Our devotional practice and purity shall be so strong that wherever we chant there will be immediately an impression in the audience for devotion to Krishna. Regarding management of the society, I have already described this to you in letters to Brahmananda and yourself. So far as the maintenance fund is concerned, that may be sent to me directly. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** November 4th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated October 30, 1969. A two-way ticket is being sent to New York for you to come to London, so you may go to New York as soon as possible and do the needful. At least if you remain so long as I am here, then we can return back together. Regarding Los Angeles business, for the time being you can entrust this to Gargamuni and Stoka Krishna. So far as corresponding with the other West Coast presidents, that can be done from here also. Here you can talk with Mukunda and others about the World Sankirtana Party. There is good possibility. Simply it requires some good organization. Therefore you are called. So far as I am concerned, as I already told you, after this European tour I am going to retire from active work and retire for writing books. So any place suitable I shall stay and give you directions. I am now confident that at least one dozen of you have understood the philosophy and the matters by which it can be handled. So from the background if I give you some inspiration, the whole society shall run on nicely. We shall talk of these things when you come. So try to go to New York as soon as you are able, and the ticket will be duly sent there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: Address future correspondence to 7 Bury Place, London ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** February 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles ParisATTENTION TAMAL KRISHNAYOUR LETTER 26TH JULY COME LOS ANGELES IMMEDIATELYA C BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** March 8th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I have received one letter from United Shipping Corporation, and the copy of the proforma invoice is as follow:1 pce. First Class Harmonium @$22.00 = $22.002 pcs. First Class Mrdangas @$6.75 = $13.505 prs. Big Navadvipa Karatalas @$2.12 = $10.601 pce. "Panchapradip" for Arati @$2.00 = 2.001 pce. Jahanjh @$3.35 = $3.351 pce. Round "Ghari" @$9.95 = $9.953 pces. Water conch shells @$1.50 = $4.502 pcs. Blowing conch shells @$2.00 = $4.001 pce. Bengali New Year (1376) Panjika @$ .50 = $ .50Subtotal = $70.40Packing, Forwarding & Insurance charges = $27.55Total = $97.95C & I Calcutta(U.S. Dollars Ninety seven and cents ninety five only.)I have advised the bank to retire the bill immediately on presentation. The copy of the letter of instructions to the bank is also enclosed herewith. Please therefore immediately deposit $100 in my account number 03081-61625, with the Bank of America; Pico-La Cienega Branch; 8501 West Pico Boulevard; Los Angeles, Cal. Hope you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** March 18th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 14, 1969 and I am so glad to learn that everyone in L.A. is working very hard. And Krishna Consciousness is so nice that you are aspiring for still more work. That is the sign of spiritual life. In the material world we want to minimize our activities and take rest more but in the spiritual world, there is no rest and there is no limit of activities. Krishna is unlimited, His service is unlimited, and the energy of His servants is unlimited. Although we are in the midst of ignorance, still if we keep ourselves alert there is no place of ignorance. I am glad that you have deposited $100 in the Bank of America for your consignment of goods. A similar consignment is being followed by Honolulu, and it is good that you are saving money for paying me $750.00 for 5000 BTGs coming out sometime in the month of June. Yes, the money if it is paid by the first of June it is all right. As you always desire to help me in my missionary ambition, so also I am praying always to Krishna that the boys and girls who have stretched their helping hand in this country in this connection may always be in good health and continue to assist me in my missionary activities. I am so glad to learn that you are prepared to work even harder, as a forward soldier, to fight the Maya. May Krishna give you more and more strength. Hope your are well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** March 21st 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. Your letter dated March 18th by special delivery is in hand and it is so gratifying that you have already saved $600 for the improvement of the temple. So I am very much pleased. Go on working like this and Krishna will give you ample money—there is no scarcity. Regarding the change of altar, you can do it later on, but your making up the feast room you can take care of immediately, because I understand that 70 or 80 people are coming to eat Love Feast. So if you decorate that room nicely, necessary equipment being there, it will attract more people. Regarding changing altar, I think you should postpone it for the time being unless you get Radha Krishna Deity from India. Immediately there is no need of change of altar—when the Deity is arrived I shall give you suggestion how to do it. In the meantime, a throne may be prepared just on the sample drawing by Muralidhara. My thanks are due to Muralidhara for designing the throne which I have received. Here both Gaurasundara and Govinda dasi have very much appreciated the design, and they also convey their thanks to him. Your decision to fix up the feast room first is approved by me. I think on the receipt of this letter you will be able to finish it by the 30th of March. Yes, perform Lord Ramacandra's Birthday as gorgeously as possible. Some of the particular functions just like Lord Krishna's Birthday, Lord Caitanya's Birthday, Lord Ramacandra's Birthday, and Lord Nrsimhadeva's Appearance Day, all should be observed very nicely. I am also very glad to learn that one Brahmacari has joined you. Please keep him nicely, because Maya's strength is very strong. I have received letter from Birbhadra and I am so glad that he writes so nicely. The certificate of his initiation is enclosed herewith. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** April 19th 1969 — **Location:** Buffalo My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 12, 1969, and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am glad to learn that two new boys, Robb and Kelly, have moved into your temple. Also, it is good news that you now have a weekly course in the University there. Regarding the draft lawyer, I have enclosed the circular which I am sending out to the temples. I thank you for the nice sentiments you have expressed in your letter, and I hope this will meet you in good health. Please convey my blessings also to the other devotees there. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: I have received the twigs which you have sent to the Buffalo temple, and please continue to send them regularly while I am on the East Coast. I have also received the checks both for me and Brahmananda. Please consult Mr. Greene and let me know how shall I reply the letter ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** April 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Buffalo My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated April 18, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Your idea to go to San Francisco for a short time is nice. Yes, the San Francisco temple has deteriorated from its original position, so please try to reinstate it. Jivananda and Harsarani may also go there to help. You may also help to plan for the Rathayatra Festival, because this tradition must be continued. Regarding Girish, until I go to New Vrindaban, Girish may stay there. Otherwise he may be admitted in some school. We should not take any risk of legal implication in this matter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- NB: I am enclosing one letter for Jaya Gopala which you may hand over to him ### Letter to Tamala Krsna **Date:** April 26th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Tamala Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 19, 1969, along with a pamphlet regarding your UCLA meeting. The pamphlet is very nicely done, and you have diagnosed the disease very well, increasing the material temperature to 107 degrees and calling death immediately. I think by the Grace of Krishna you are getting good inspiration from within as Krishna is giving you good wisdom. Your explanation for getting a new place bigger than the present one is approved by me in all respects. I think Krishna's plan is working and as you have already informed Mr. Leo Brown to find out a big place for us, Krishna will help us very soon. The Los Angeles plan as described by you is so nice. The climate of Los Angeles is very much suitable for me, and if by Krishna's Grace we can have a nice headquarters for the Western side as planned by you, I shall be glad to place myself at your disposal. I am now seeking to sit down simply for training preachers and diverting my attention for completing the translation work of Srimad-Bhagavatam, but I do not know where Krishna will like me to do this work. But your nice plan makes me hopeful that Los Angeles may be the suitable place. We have certainly to develop the New Vrindaban plan, but side by side the Los Angeles plan should also be executed. I do not know how Krishna will help us, but your idea is very excellent. From yesterday, since I have come to Boston, I am feeling little backache. There is no unbearable pain, but when I stand up or walk, it is a little difficult. I think it will be cured within two or three days. So without investing further money in our present temple, because it has now become uncertain, we shall carefully save some money for investing in some new place. As our devotees are now coming by cars, we can go to a distant place undoubtedly. I have seen that there is one church just near the Bank of America on La Cienega Boulevard. I do not know to which sect this church belongs, but that church is very suitable for your described purpose. There are many churches everywhere like that, and if some of the proprietors are convinced, we can utilize such churches for this Krishna Consciousness movement for the general welfare of the mass of people. Why not approach the proprietors of such churches? I know it is very difficult, but there is no harm if we approach. Certainly when we have our new place, we must elaborately arrange for the artist department in charge of Srimati Devahuti, the mother of Indumati. She is a very nice lady, and please offer her my thanks for joining this movement. I hope she will take care of the boys and girls as their mother. So all of our ideas can be fulfilled very nicely if we actually get a nice place. Search it out and surely Krishna will help you. I hope this will find you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. The draft board letter must be replied now. It cannot be delayed anymore. ACB ### Letter to Tamala Krsna, Visnujana **Date:** March 15th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Tamala Krishna and Visnujana, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your long letter dated February 10, 1969, along with Purusottama's letter of the same date, and I shall reply conveniently. In the meantime, I am enclosing herewith the certificates and letters duly signed by me, and as you need them urgently I am dispatching them first. Regarding the mangos: Govinda dasi misled me—the mangos are not yet ripened. There are many mango trees, but the fruit will not be ripened until late May or June. So for now there is no abundant supply of nice mangos. So I shall soon be returning to the mainland for my engagements in New York, in Boston, and elsewhere. Hope this meets you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to The Punjab National Bank **Date:** September 22nd 1969 — **Location:** London > The Punjab National Bank Ltd.Vrindaban, Mathura U.P.INDIAATT: Manager Dear Sir, Replying your letter dated the 6th September, 1969, I beg to advise you not to advance Ram Natha Murtiwala anything. I have not yet settled up with any other supplier. Therefore, the money which I have sent may be credited in my account. We are negotiating with some Bombay firm for supplies of musical instruments. Is it possible to open an account in your Bombay branch by transferring part of my credit balance there? I do not know what is the procedure, but I find it necessary to keep some money in your Bombay branch. I shall be glad if you will enlighten me in this connection. Sincerely, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pdb ### Letter to Tirtha Maharaja **Date:** February 7th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > His Holiness Tridandi Swami Sri Srimad B.V. Tirtha Goswami Maharaja Sri Caitanya Research Institute70-B, Rash Behari Avenue Calcutta-26INDIAThe Holy Advent Day of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura ALL GLORIES TO SRI GURU AND GAURANGA!! My Dear Sripada Tirtha Maharaja, Please accept my humble dandabats. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your rubber-stamped circular letter of January 29, 1969 regarding the Golden Jubilee Festival of Sri Caitanya Math. Previous to this I heard about it from Sripada Sraman Maharaja and Sripada Y. Jagannatham, and expecting your invitation, I expressed my desire that during the ceremony a special home for the EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN BRAHMACARIS MAY BE ESTABLISHED AT MAYAPUR. Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura and Srila Prabhupada desired that such American and European devotees may live at Mayapur for studies of Sri Caitanya philosophy, and now the time is ripe when many American, European, and Japanese students working as my disciples are ready to go there for this purpose. In 1967, when I went to India, five American disciples were with me. One of them, Kirtanananda (Keith Ham, B.A.), was given sannyasa by me at Vrindaban. He was sent back to the USA to organize my New Vrindaban scheme in West Virginia, and he is working there along with another of my disciples, Professor Howard Wheeler M.A., in cooperation with Dr. George Henderson M.A., Ph.D., and others. The remaining four disciples were entrusted to live at the Institute of Swami Bon Maharaja, but on account of his canvassing them for becoming his disciples they left him, although one of them, Hrsikesa, is still living c/o Bon Maharaja as his re-initiated disciple (?) Two other of my disciples are still at Vrindaban in my place at Radha Damodara Temple, and Bon Maharaja is still after them to deviate their faith upon me. I have therefore requested Sripada Sraman Maharaja (because you have stopped correspondence with me and I don't know why) to give some place for my disciples at Mayapur. If I get some place at Mayapur, the disciples who are already in India and those who are willing to go there can live peacefully without being disturbed by Bon Maharaja. But on my proposing this scheme, Sraman Maharaja, in his letter of 24 January, 1969 writes as follows: "On hearing the news of Golden Jubilee of Caitanya Math, many people are coming daily to see the place. We can imagine even now how much big crowd will assemble when the actual fair will take place. Although we are constructing many temporary sheds under the circumstances, I do not think we will be able to give accommodations to your American and European students. Even after the ceremony I do not think it will be advisable to call for the American and European students here in Mayapur. Even though we make special arrangements for them, that will not be for many days. Even though you make payment for your students, the other students will feel inferiority complex. You know very well our standard of living, and therefore it will not be possible for us to accommodate your European and American students here in Mayapur. The best suggestion which I can give you is that you better rent one house in Vrindaban and accommodate them there for their education in Sanskrit and Bengali. Srila Prabhupada is so kind upon you that he is causing you to act in such wonderful way, and by seeing your activities I am feeling very much proud of you."This is most discouraging and against the will of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura and Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. I therefore request you to give me a plot of land within the precincts of Sri Caitanya Math to construct a suitable building for my European and American students who are loitering in Vrindaban chased by Bon Maharaja, and who may go in numbers to visit the site of the Birth place of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I can take the responsibility of constructing such building at Sri Caitanya Math and bear all expenses for the boarding and lodging of such students who will go there. Sraman Maharaja says that Sri Caitanya Math is not in a position to meet their standard of living. But that does not matter. If you simply give me a plot of land, I shall arrange everything at my responsibility. Another thing is that I have read the pamphlet on the Golden Jubilee festival in which you have described very nicely about Swami Bon Maharaja in the matter of his preaching work in Europe more than 35 years ago, but you have not mentioned anything about my humble service right now going on in the Western world. There are hundreds of letters of appreciation, including some from you also, but you have not mentioned even a single line about me in the pamphlet. Why?? Personally I don't want any such advertisement, but why this mentality of suppressing the fact? Will you kindly let me know why you have suppressed so many facts? You have also not mentioned in the matter of Bon Maharaja's preaching work why he was called back from this work in Europe, and why the Late Goswami Maharaja was sent in his place. If his preaching was successful then why was he called back? Don't you know the history? Anyway, if you have not mentioned anything about me for want of your proper knowledge about my preaching work in Europe and America, you may kindly now do it and place it before the Patrons of the celebration. I am working single-handed without being supported by my countrymen or the government of my country. You know very well that Sir Padampat Singhania was ready to spend any amount for constructing a Radha-Krishna temple in New York, and you promised to get it sanctioned by the government through Dr. Radhakrishnan who was at that time President. But you could not do anything. The same Dr. Radhakrishnan is now Patron in this celebration. Sri Visvanatha Das knows me very well. Sri Hanuman Prasad Poddar knows very well about my preaching work in this part of the world. Will you induce them to cooperate in my humble attempt? There are many friends in India who will be prepared to construct each a temple here, if the government sanctions exchange. But I don't think the government will sanction changing its policy, even though the retired Presidents or Governors might request this. If it is possible though, please try to do it now, and you will see that we have a center in each and every town and village of the world, as it was predicted by Lord Caitanya. You may please bring the following facts to the notice of the Patrons of the celebration when the session begins. I have already established the following centers:1. New York INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS61 Second AvenueNew York, NYPresident: Brahmananda das Brahmacari (Bruce Scharf)2. London ISKCON22 Betterton StreetLondon WC 2ENGLANDPresident: Mukunda das Adhikari (Michael Grant)3. Hamburg Internationale Gesellschaft fur Krishna Bewusstsein2 Hamburg 19Eppendorfer Weg 11WEST GERMANY4. President: Sivananda das Brahmacari (Samuel Greer)5. Hawaii ISKCON4 Leilani Bldg. 1649 Kapialani Blvd. Honolulu, HawaiiPresident: Gaurasundara das Adhikari (G. McElroy)6. Montreal ISKCON3720 Park AvenueMontreal 18, QuebecPresident: Hansadutta das Adhikari (Hans Kary)7. San Francisco ISKCON518 Frederick StreetSan Francisco, Calif. President: Cidananda das Brahmacari (Clay Harold)8. New VrindabanRD 3Moundsville, West VirginiaPresident: Kirtanananda Swami (Keith Ham)9. Vancouver ISKCON271 East Georgia StreetVancouver 4, B.C. CanadaPresident: Ananda das Brahmacari (Eric Cassidy)10. Seattle ISKCON5516 Roosevelt Way N.E.Seattle, WashingtonPresident: Upendra das Brahmacari (Wayne Gunderson)11. Santa Fe ISKCON4113 West Water StreetSanta Fe, New MexicoPresident: Harer Nama das Brahmacari (Harlon Jacobson)12. North Carolina ISKCON107 Laurel AvenueCarrboro, N. CarolinaPresident: Bhurijana das Brahmacari (Wayne Connel)13. Boston ISKCON95 Glenville AvenueBoston, Mass. (Allston)President: Satsvarupa das Adhikari (Stephan Guarino)14. Los Angeles ISKCON1975 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, Calif. President: Dayananda das Adhikari (Michael Wright)15. Ohio ISKCON1305 No. High StreetColumbus, OhioPresident: Hayagriva das Adhikari (Howard Wheeler)Five thousand (5,000) copies of Back To Godhead Magazine are being published monthly now, and since the demand is increasing, we are arranging to print twenty thousand (20,000) copies starting from next April. You are regularly receiving these copies both in Calcutta and Madras, and I have also instructed to send copies to Sri Caitanya Math for Sraman Maharaja. My books are being published by MacMillan Company, and the first publication is Bhagavad-gita As It Is. I am sending a copy of this book for your personal reading by separate mail. Please let me know of your opinion. Dr. Haridasa Chaudhuri, the President of the Asiatic Studies Institute in San Francisco has opined as follows: "The book is without doubt the best presentation so far to the western public of the teachings of Lord Krishna from the standpoint of the Vaisnava tradition in India—the standpoint of devotional Hindu Mysticism."Besides the above book, my following books are also selling all over America and Europe: Srimad-Bhagavatam (6 volumes), Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Transcendental Meditation Explained, Easy Journey to Other Planets, Isopanisad, Brahma Samhita, and Nectar of Devotion. I shall send you a copy of Teachings of Lord Caitanya as soon as I get copies from Japan in March, 1969. Also, Sripada Sadananda Swami (Earnest Shulze) has sent his congratulations to me through one of his disciples thinking of my successful preaching in America, Canada, and Europe. Please, therefore, encourage me by your cooperation. Don't try to suppress me without mentioning anything about our efforts in your pamphlet. This will not satisfy Srila Prabhupada. Please, therefore, try to present the abovementioned facts before the Patrons in the session meeting, and induce them to cooperate with this movement in the Western World. I am now Permanent Resident or Immigrant in the USA, so there is no need of my Visa, Passport, or P Form trouble for me. I can come and go from India without any formalities. If you simply cooperate with me, I can render some service to the fulfillment of the transcendental desire of Srila Prabhupada and Bhaktivinode Thakura. The summary is that you may kindly give me a plot of land in the Sri Caitanya Math for the proposed building. If you want to lay down the foundation stone for this building during the Jubilee celebration, I am prepared to send you the required money for this special purpose. Or else, on your approval of this scheme, I may at once go to India along with some of my American and European disciples to do the needful. As a bona fide disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja, and because I am trying my best to fulfill His holy desire in the matter of preaching work in this part of the world, I have got the right to ask from you a plot of land for this purpose. Now it is up to you to cooperate with me. I shall be very glad to receive your reply to this letter. On receipt of your favorable reply, I may start immediately for India to take part in the matter of the foundation stone of the building during the Jubilee celebration. Thanking you in anticipation. Affectionately yours, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- cc: Y. Jagannatham, etc ### Letter to Tirtha Maharaja **Date:** December 7th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Tirtha Maharaja, Kindly accept my humble obeisances. I hope you are in good health and everything is going all right. You will be pleased to know that we are going to install Radha-Krishna Deities in our London temple on the Odansasthi auspicious day, December 14th. This 5-story building temple is situated in the central part of London, very respectable quarters, just a few steps from the British Museum and London University. One local devotee has donated Radha-Krishna Murtis, 42" high, and the installation ceremony will go on for one week. Herewith please find our earnest invitation card for your blessings. In this connection I beg to draw your attention to your letter to me dated February 14th, 1969, in which you assured me that I could expect some reply sometime afterwards. I am enclosing a copy of this letter for your reference. I am especially interested in the land which I asked from you within the vicinity of Caitanya Math. This is in pursuance of the desire of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura and Srila Prabhupada. It is not for my personal use or satisfaction of personal whims. So if you would have given me a small piece of land within the vicinity of Caitanya Math, then I would not have tried to make these students home anywhere else. I hope this will find you in good health, and I am awaiting your reply with great interest. Yours in the service of the Lord, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tosana Krsna **Date:** February 17th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Tosana Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents with appreciation. If you have received any letter from Bhurijana in North Carolina, then you can immediately go there. It is on experimental basis for now. If you are successful, it is Krishna's Grace, and I hope that certainly you shall be successful. There are so many students there, and perhaps there is no other organization of this nature. So you shall go there simply to perform kirtana, read from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, and try to sell at least one copy to each student of our Back To Godhead. That will make our propaganda successful. Regarding your headaches, your bowels are not clear. This is the cause of the problem. So you should take more milk and fruits, and eat less wheats and rice. If sandalwood oil is available, you try to massage on your shaved head. Let me know how this trouble is improving. A brahmacari should not have any complaint of bodily disease. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Tosana Krsna, Bhurijana **Date:** March 19th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Tosana Krishna and Bhurijana, Please accept my blessings. I am very happy to be in receipt of your nice letter of March 6, 1969, and thank you very much for it. Yes, you are two ideal ones for preaching there, and I can understand that things are going very nicely. This is very much encouraging to me. Hold kirtana and serve Prasadam, and gradually people will come, more and more. That is the program. And you are both sincere students, and very intelligent boys, and Krishna will supply you all facility for your preaching work if you try sincerely. Please keep me informed how things are progressing as I shall be very much anxious to hear from you. And I hope you are both feeling well and happy, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- N.B. I am sending today the letter to your draft board, and I am enclosing the copy of it herewith, for your reference, and I hope this will serve the purpose nicely ### Letter to Trivikrama **Date:** August 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Trivikrama, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of August 3rd, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to learn of the nice service you are rendering in London, and all of your godbrothers and sisters who have written to me from there have praised your nice endeavors. I have already told Yamuna to put the Deities away for the time being, so this will solve your question. When I arrive in London we shall consult together how to best spread Sankirtana Movement throughout England. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Turya **Date:** June 5th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Turya das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of May 29, 1969, sent along with your beads, and I have duly chanted upon them and have initiated you as my disciple. Your spiritual name is Turya das and this means transcendental. So you are the servant of the Transcendental Lord, Krishna, and when one serves the Transcendental Lord, he also becomes completely transcendental to the laws and contaminations of material nature. In material life, everyone is bound up tightly by the laws of karma, and there is no question of transcending these laws by any material means. The modern civilization is trying to transcend the pangs of material life, namely birth, death, old age and diseases, by advancement of material knowledge, but actually this advancement is only binding them more tightly into the material concept of life. So thus there is no freedom from or transcending of these material miseries. But one who comes to the intelligence to understand that rather than serving the cause of material advancement, he should serve the cause of Krishna, then such person becomes transcendental to the stringent laws of karma. Krishna instructs us in Bhagavad-gita that one who serves Him in loving devotional service is delivered fully from all material contamination. Now you have your beads, so please chant at least 16 rounds daily, and read from Bhagavad-gita As It Is at least one chapter daily. Gaurasundara will instruct you as to the 10 offenses that must be avoided. The four principal regulative restrictions that you must follow are 1) no intoxication, including coffee or tea, 2) no illicit sex-life, 3) no nonvegetarian diet, 4) no gambling. I understand from Gaurasundara that already you are helping the Hawaii temple and that you are a very nice, sincere boy. So with these nice qualifications of sincerity and service surely you will make nice progress in perfecting your life in Krishna consciousness. As you are having questions about this great spiritual science of Bhagavad-gita, please consult with Gaurasundara, he is a very intelligent boy, and I am also always at your service to help as far as possible. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Turya **Date:** November 13th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Turya dasa, Please accept my blessings. It is very kind of you to send your letter dated November 5, 1969, and I am so glad to learn that you are progressing in Krishna Consciousness. The secret of success in this line is to render service. With our present senses, materially covered, it is very difficult to understand Krishna, His transcendental Name, Fame, Form, Pastimes, etc. But if we begin rendering service unto Krishna, then being pleased with our service He will reveal Himself from within. So the more we shall try to serve Krishna the more we will be nearer to Him. All of you there are a good combination, so work conjointly in pushing on this movement. You will be happy, the people in general will be happy, and Krishna will also be very happy and thereby bestow His best blessings upon you. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Uddhava **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Uddhava, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated May 14, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. You have asked about where you will get the money for bookbinding equipment, and I think you may take it from the money you are saving. In Boston you told me the cost will be around $3,300, but why is it now $4,000? Anyway, the printing must be done first class, and with first class paper. Never mind it is $4,000. The important thing is it is done very nicely. The example will be our TLC. For composing I think Rayarama has not given you the right time. It must be ready within one and a half months after the machine is there. By rough calculation, one can compose at least 10 pages per day, so for 400 pages it takes utmost 40-45 days. Anyway, I shall very soon give you the composed pages, so you may become serious for printing work. And you shall be in charge of these printing matters. So far as binding is concerned, if we have to make the binding work outside, then we will have to pay more charges, so you can take quotation what will be the cost of binding 10,000 books exactly on the same pattern as TLC. If you think instead of binding yourself you may earn the money for it being done outside, that is also nice proposal. Regarding your marriage, if Lilasukha is ready, then any day you can come here with her, and I shall perform the function immediately. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Uddhava **Date:** September 7th 1969 — **Location:** Hamburg My Dear Uddhava, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated September 2nd, 1969 along with your check for 50 dollars and the velvet covering for my Bhagavad-gita As It Is, so nicely made. Now you are happy with your wife, Lilasukha, and that is also very pleasing to me. Most of my disciples who are preaching are married couples. As such, I hope both you and your wife will continue to help me substantially in the Krishna Consciousness Movement, and Krishna will bless you more and more. Thanking you once more for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Uddhava **Date:** February 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Uddhava, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 30, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. You have written to say that 8 people will be working under Rayarama and another 8 people will also be there in the printing department, including the baby, Nandini. So even if we are able to get accommodations for all of these people, what is the program for maintenance? These people will require at least $200.00 per month for food, so tell me immediately if you have got any scheme how to get this money for maintenance. So far as accommodations are concerned, Hayagriva has given me information that there is a nice two-story house where both the press and the workers can be accommodated. The rent is only $260.00 per year. I think this house should immediately be occupied so we can gradually begin our work and also construct other structures with the help of Nara Narayana and others. So Hayagriva is prepared to invest money for the press, accommodations are there provisionally. Now if you have any definite program for meeting your maintenance expenditures we can begin the press work immediately. If the house is there and our workers are ready, then what is the difficulty of starting the press immediately? If this house turns out to be not suitable we will have to construct another, but in either case the problem is still there of maintenance. Everything must be practically thought out, and please tell me what yourself and Advaita are planning with this. Thanking you once more for your letter, I hope to hear from you again very soon. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Uddhava **Date:** February 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles [To Uddhava dasa][TEXT MISSING]Regarding your wish to be married with a Krsna conscious family, that is nice. You will have your nice, fixed-up wife, and you will be happy working hard for Krsna together. I never discourage marriage, providing it is for Krsna's service and not for simply sex life. It is always meant for a higher purpose. In God's creation there is male and female even in the spiritual world and there is purpose for such creation. This purpose is so that male and female may join together, not for sex-life, but to glorify the Lord. From Srimad-Bhagavatam we learn that in Vaikuntha the women are much more beautiful in their figure, smiling, dressing, etc., but the men and women there are so much attracted by the chanting of Hare Krsna that they do not get any sex impulse even by intimate mingling. Here also we sometimes get very good example, because when our nice boys and girls are dancing together in chanting Hare Krsna at least for that time they forget all about the sex impulse. This is perfection of life, to be so much attracted to Krsna that all insignificant pleasures are utterly forgotten. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Uddhava **Date:** February 27th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Uddhava, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 25, 1969, and I thank you so much for it. Regarding the pictures in Back To Godhead which you are learning to photograph, they will be of all kinds. When possible we will have nice paintings published, and other times there will be photographs of our devotees and their activities. Krishna will surely give you all facilities and encouragement if you work for Him very sincerely because everything belongs to Krishna. It does not take Him even a second to offer anything we desire provided such thing is engaged in the service of the Lord. So you simply desire to serve Krishna best and there will be no scarcity of anything. Know it certain from me. I think that you may inform Nara Narayana that he can go immediately to New Vrindaban for construction work if he has no business in New York. I can see from your photographs that you are preparing such big Iskcon Bullets. It is very attractive, and unfortunately I cannot share them with you. But I am very satisfied that you are enjoying such thing as the prasadam of Jagannatha Swami. I thank you very much for your simple philosophy of following the instructions of your Spiritual Master. That is the sublime philosophy of Krishna Consciousness understanding; implicit faith in Krishna and Spiritual Master. This will make your steady progress towards the Ultimate Goal of back to Home, back to Godhead. Thanking you again for your nice letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Umapati **Date:** November 18th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Umapati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 8, 1969 with pictures enclosed. They are very nice. I understand the whole situation that you have not yet been able to find out a suitable place for living together, although Janardana is there. I think the same problem was experienced by the London devotees previously. Anyway, you will be pleased to learn that Tamala from Los Angeles has come here, and our Sankirtana Party has got some engagement in Hamburg from the 20th through the 24th of this month, so they will stay in the Hamburg temple for 4 or 5 days. Janardana wrote me in some letter a few days back asking if I can go there, but due to the climatic condition I do not wish to move further from here. So you consult amongst yourselves whether you require Tamala's and the Sankirtana Party's help. You can let them know immediately in Hamburg. The address is Internationalle Gesellschaft fur Krishna Bewusstein, 2 Hamburg 6, Bartelsstrasse 65, West Germany. The sooner you find out a center of our own, the better it will be. Anyway, pull on as you are doing your best, and Krishna will help you in due course. Here the preaching work is going nicely. The London party has now a van for 13 people, and they are going to Germany in that car. If you are eager to receive them, you write to them in Germany immediately. Maybe it will be possible for them to go to Paris and do some propaganda work. I am very pleased that you are finding your life becoming more and more beautiful. Krishna Conscious life is our natural life. Just like a diseased person, the more he comes back to his health it becomes pleasing more and more; similarly, the more we come to Krishna Consciousness, certainly it will be pleasing, because Krishna is the Reservoir of all pleasure. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Umapati **Date:** June 17th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Umapati, Please accept by blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 12, 1969, and I have noted the contents. You could not secure till now a good job, but that does not mean you shall return to New York. Keep yourself in San Francisco for some time more, and if there is no favorable response, then you may go to Paris where there is contemplation of opening a center. This will be settled up, say after a month. Till then you remain either in San Francisco or Los Angeles, and then decide. I think there is a great plan of Krishna that you should not get suitable service till now. It may be that you are required for preaching work 100%. So depend on Krishna, chant Hare Krishna, and everything will work out. I am leaving for Los Angeles on June 23rd, so I am sure I will see you before long. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Unknown **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Unknown Place [text missing]NB: An Indian gentleman, one B. P. Parikh B.A. D. education has written to me to say that being inspired by your "devotion to Krishna and being fascinated by your character, discipline, and devotional surrender to the Lord, he has been drawn to your activities." For this I am very much proud of you. Please maintain this status and certainly you will be welcomed everywhere. Get this enclosed article edited by Mukunda or Syamasundara and then send it for publication in the Times of London or any other respectable paper in London, giving the heading as indicated. ### Letter to Unknown **Date:** October 1st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS: THE SANKIRTANA MOVEMENTThe International Society for Krishna Consciousness is a bona fide religious society strictly following the principles described in the Vedic scriptures and practiced in India for thousands of years. Our basic beliefs are as follows:1) The Absolute Truth is contained in all the great Scriptures of the world; the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc. However, the oldest known Revealed Scriptures in existence are the Vedic literatures, most notably the BHAGAVAD GITA which is the literal record of God's actual Words.2) God, or KRISHNA is eternal, all-knowing, omnipresent, all-powerful and all attractive, the seed-giving Father of man and all living entities. He is the sustaining energy of all life, nature and the cosmic situation.3) Man is actually NOT his body, but is eternal spirit soul, part and parcel of God, and therefore eternal.4) That all men are brothers can be practiced only when we realize God as our common ultimate Father.5) All our actions should be performed as a sacrifice to the Supreme Lord . . . "all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me." (Bhagavad-gita, IX, 27)6) The food that sustains us should always be offered to the Lord before eating. In this way He becomes the Offering, and such eating purifies us.7) We can, by sincere cultivation of bona fide spiritual science attain to the state of pure, unending blissful consciousness, free from anxiety in this very lifetime.8) The recommended means of attaining the mature stage of Love of God in the present age of "Kali," or quarrel, is to chant the Holy Name of the Lord. The easiest method for most people is to chant the Hare Krishna mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare. Our basic Mission is to propagate the Sankirtana Movement (chanting of the Holy Names of God) all around the world as was recommended by the Incarnation of the Lord, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. People in this age are reluctant very much to understand about God consciousness on account of their unfortunate condition of life. They are working hard day and night simply for sense gratification. But this transcendental vibration of Sankirtana will knock at the door of their hearts for spiritual awakening. Therefore, they should be given the chance for this opportunity. It is not recommended that a Krishna Conscious devotee go into seclusion for chanting by himself and thereby gaining salvation for himself alone. Our duty and religious obligation is to go out into the streets where the people in general can hear the chanting and see the dancing. We have already seen practically how by this process many, many boys and girls of America and Europe have been saved from the immoral practices of this age and have now dedicated their lives to the service of Krishna. The state laws are specifically meant for making citizens men of good character, and good character means avoiding the following sinful activities: intoxication, illicit sex life, gambling and meat-eating. We are checking people from practicing these sinful activities. All of our students are applying these principles practically in their lives, and they are teaching others to follow the same principles. Therefore, it is the duty of the government to help us in our missionary work rather than to hinder us. It is hoped that the government authorities will cooperate with our Sankirtana parties in enabling us to perform Sankirtana on the streets. To do this it is necessary that we be able to chant the Names of Krishna, dance, play the mrdanga drum, request donations, sell our society's journal, and on occasion, sit down with the mrdanga drum. As devotees of Lord Krishna it is our duty to teach the people how to love God and worship Him in their daily life. This is the aim and destination of human life. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** January 4th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I have received your nice gift of rose petal preserves and I thank you very much for this. Also, I have just yesterday received one letter from a boy in Seattle named Charles McCollogh, and he has desired to come here to Los Angeles and receive initiation from me. Please inform me of the situation with this boy so I may reply to his letter there after. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** January 6th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 2, 1969 and I have carefully noted the contents. You have expressed the desire to become an Ayurvedic physician but I do not think that this proposal is very good. This science is not so important to us now because in your country there is ample facility for receiving medicines. Besides many of the herbs which are needed for Ayurvedic treatment would have to be sent here from India, and this is not very practical. This homeopathic medicine you have mentioned is not genuine and therefore is a bluff. So the first medicine which you should be concerned with is to chant Hare Krishna and to become increasingly steady in Krishna Consciousness. Study Bhagavad-gita As It Is and Srimad-Bhagavatam and continue to help your god-brothers in developing Krishna Consciousness. So develop your preaching abilities in this way, and this will be the most successful and appreciated endeavor. Regarding the answers which you gave to Bilas Vigrahadas, they were all correct. When you study very carefully all of the literature which is available, especially Bhagavad-gita As It Is, you will have in your grasp answers to all questions that may be put to you. Please encourage the others to read this Bhagavad-gita at least one chapter every day. Please convey my blessings to the others at your temple. I hope that this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** January 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of January 6, 1969 and your letters of January 10th and 11th, 1969. From your recent letters I can understand that you are keeping yourself busily engaged and are improving nicely. This is our process, that you do not let even one minute go by without doing some sort of service for Krishna. Because as soon as there is a little gap of Krishna Consciousness, immediately maya makes an attack to grab us again. So keep up with your kirtanas and outside engagements and always think of Krishna so that maya will not have a second's opportunity to try to conquer you. And Krishna gives all assurance that the sincere devotee will never know defeat, so if you simply try to propagate our movement in the Seattle area, you will be successful, rest assured. Regarding this boy, Charles McCollough, if he is able, I think he may come to see me at Los Angeles so I may discuss with him initiation. So you may inform him in this way. So far as your question about evolution, you should know that the aspects of this theory which are actually correct offer no contradiction to the Vedic version. This whole topic has been very nicely explained in an article in Back To Godhead, "Evolution, the God That's Failing". So I refer you to this article which was in a few issues back. This should clear up your questions. Please offer my blessings to all others there. I hope this finds all of you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** January 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of 20, January, 1969, and I have noted the contents. You have written that you are unable to find a girl who is available for marriage, and so for the present, you have no choice but to hold off on your marriage plans. Anyway, I always recommend that one should try to remain brahmacari if possible, and if you think that this will be possible for you, you should try for it. In your letter you have asked many questions, and I will try to answer them for you herewith. Firstly, the Gayatri Mantra is not to be said loudly. Gayat means to sing, but singing can be done loudly or very softly. The Gayatri Mantra should be sung in a low whispering voice. Regarding the Brahman Pucha stages, this matter is described in the 13rd chapter of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. So far as the 10 sense organs, they are eyes, ears, nose, mouth, touch, these are the five sense organs for acquiring knowledge. The five moving organs are the legs, hands, tongue, genital, and rectum. Five objects of the senses are beauty, taste, smell, sound, and touch. The five gross elements are earth, water, fire, air, and ether. The four subtle elements are mind, ego, intelligence, and consciousness. Above these is the soul, and above the soul is the Supersoul. In tending the deities, you may wash Balarama first, before washing Krishna. Krishna is always non-different from the deity of Krishna. Regarding your request for the Brihat-Sama mantra, this may be given, but a much better proposal is that you concentrate upon improving the quality of your chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra. This is more important consideration for the present time. Regarding the wife of the Spiritual Master being considered as mother, this applies when the Spiritual Master is not sannyasa and he has a wife. I hope that the above will clear up all of your questions. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees in the Seattle center. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** February 1st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 27, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am pleased by your wish to remain as brahmacari, and if you stick to your decision you will be able to go back to Godhead, back to Home, in this very life without waiting for another birth. Please try in every way to stick to this principle, and simply engage yourself in Krishna's service. That will protect you from any attack of maya. Maya can take Krishna's place in our heart as soon as there is a slackness on our part. Otherwise, if Krishna's seated always, maya has no opportunity to occupy the seat. Try to follow this method and you will surely be successful. Regarding your worries about natural disasters in Los Angeles, thank you for your cares for me. But Krishna is always giving protection and there is no cause of concern. There was a slight storm at night for two or three days, but that was not very much of a disturbance for me. I am glad to note that you are making improvements in the temple's paraphernalia. That should be your primary engagement. Please also take good care of this boy Charles. He is new, and you must help him so that he will not be poisoned by the influence of maya. If you will have some time it will be nice if you can come to Los Angeles for a few days. I shall also be very glad to see you. Also you will get ideas from how the Los Angeles devotees are working for their temple. As much as possible you should try to introduce to the colleges our Bhagavad-gita. In every college there is a religion department, and most of them have interest in the Bhagavad-gita. So you can show to the chief man of this department that this is a real presentation of Vaisnava philosophy. I have received a statement from Dr. Haridasa Chaudhuri of the California Institute of Asian Studies that ours is the best presentation of the teachings of Lord Krishna to the Western public. So if they are actually serious to receive instructions from Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita, they absolutely must read this publication of Bhagavad-gita As It Is. If they want some nonsense upon the plea of reading Bhagavad-gita then there is nothing we can do to help them. Everyone is free to act according to his inclination. Regarding your question, maya comes from Krishna. Everything comes from Krishna, but when something is found in Krishna it is just as good as anything can be. Just like Krishna has the stealing propensity. As such He is called the Butter Thief, and he is worshiped as the Butter Thief. He is worshiped by His devotees all over the world with love and affection, while the same propensities in us would result in our being handed over to the police. That is the difference between Krishna and ourselves. He being Absolute, everything in Him is also Absolute. In the relative prospective it is very difficult to understand what is the Absolute. From the material point of view, one cannot understand that one plus one equals one, and one minus one equals one. It requires a little time to understand this axiomatic truth. But in time such truths will become revealed to you without any mental speculation. Please convey my blessings to the others who are so nicely helping you in Seattle. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** February 11th 1969 — **Location:** Los AngelesMy dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 4 February, 1969, and I have noted all of the contents. I thank you very much for the humble sentiments which you have expressed, and I am sure that Lord Nityananda is seeing your sincerity and will be pleased to bless you. Regarding your coming to see me in Los Angeles, you may do this as soon as possible, because I am expecting to be leaving there by the beginning of March. So I will be expecting to see you very soon. Regarding your idea of having the Los Angeles Samkirtan party come to Seattle and Vancouver, this idea is all right, and when you come here you may talk with Tamal Krishna about this possibility. Please convey my blessings to the others at your temple. I hope this will meet all of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** March 11th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of March 5, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Yes, a new man may commit blunders in the beginning, but that does not mean we may be too impatient with him. After all, training means the man does not know, so you should train him nicely. A Vaisnava is expected to be humbler than the blade of grass, so when you train some new man you should not get agitated with him. After all, we are preachers, and we do not expect our audience or candidates completely respondent to our call. If everyone is trained then what is the use of our preaching. I receive daily so many odd letters, still we have to reply them properly. So you are in charge of the Seattle branch. You should try to develop and manage this temple as your life interest. Don't be flickering, thinking of going here and there. Whatever charge given from Krishna through the medium of Spiritual Master you should be carrying out very faithfully. I have come to your country in this old age with this interest. We should not mind where we are kept or where we have to discharge our duties. But we should accept and do them nicely. I wish that the Seattle temple be maintained as the most important thing, and there is no second man besides you to take charge of it. Actually the center was opened by you and Gargamuni. Gargamuni is now engaged in different work, so you do not divert your attention. Please try to occupy the church contemplated and try to improve it like L.A. temple. If you try your best Krishna will give you all facilities. I am glad to hear you are going to teach the university course. This is very good, do not worry about the watchdog Mr. Miller, this trouble will continue always but still we have to do our duties. One thing, Mr. Miller takes objection to Hinduism. He is Christian and he thinks that we are preaching Hinduism. You should clear up this thing that we do not preach any particular "ism." We are simply teaching how to develop our dormant love of Godhead. So what religion is there that does not approve love of Godhead? One may say that all improve our love of Godhead according to our own way, but from practical point of view, in no religious principle the love of Godhead is seen to be enhanced. They make God as order-supplier for their material needs. Or some of them are taught to love God because He is considered to be order-supplier. But our principle is not to make God our order-supplier—we want to execute the order of God. These things are explained in the Bhagavad Gita and other literatures. You try to convince people that this simple method of chanting Hare Krishna and following the easy process; actually one enhances love of Godhead without fail. So why one should be against this principle? In this way, we have to preach, depending on Krishna and showing good examples of ourselves. Instead of join Samkirtan, you just develop a Samkirtan party there, I expect that each center must have a nice Samkirtan party. If you join Samkirtan party, who will maintain and manage the center? You should manage the Seattle temple; that is your principle duty. They also developed the Samkirtan party in L.A. very gradually, not in one day. So you work in this way. Please convey my blessings to all there, and I hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** March 24th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters of March 20 and 21, 1969. I have noted the contents carefully. You should change your habits. You have lost now a good soul, and either he comes back or if you know his address then if he does not like to live with you, he may come at once and live with me personally. And you should try to check such passion. I think Jivananda and Harsarani also left for this reason. So the Seattle branch is in your charge, so as head of the temple you should be so nicely dealing with your assistants. Never mind now whatever is done is done, but in the future you should be very careful and do your duty with full faith in Krishna. Surely Vilasavigraha will come back, so when he comes back you can send him to me wherever I may be. Regarding your Draft Board questions: We are trying at the moment to get our society recognized by them as a bona fide religious institution, and if this is successful, rest assured that there will be no trouble for you. Kartikeya has been classified in 4D ministerial status, because the officer who came to inquire about him was satisfied, but his instance is not generally recognized. We have to submit our bona fides and as soon as we get recognized then everyone of our boys will be saved. In the meantime, you do your duty of management of Seattle branch faithfully, and I hope this will meet you in good health. And please let me know when Vilasavigraha returns; I shall be glad to hear. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** April 19th 1969 — **Location:** Buffalo My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. While I was in New York, I got your colored pictures, and each and every one of them is so nice and captivating that I have kept them for future paintings by our artists. I thank you very much for these pictures, and I hope your center is making nice progress by Sankirtana Movement. I shall be staying here in Buffalo for one week, and then I shall go on to Boston. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** April 29th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 21 April, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Do not be worried that there is only yourself and Gajendra as full time members. You will get more doubtlessly. Don't be agitated. Go on working sincerely and Krishna will surely help you. Both Gajendra and yourself are very sincere souls, and I give you both all blessings. So please continue to try to develop nicely. If you have got a nice place and a Sankirtana Party, then success is assured. That is already experimented in Los Angeles, You have already seen it, and try to organize a Sankirtana Party in that way in Seattle also. Seattle is a very nice place, and everywhere the students are taking part in our movement more enthusiastically. While I was in Buffalo I was very much pleased with the student community there, and similarly I saw good response in San Francisco. I have already invitation from Columbus and North Carolina, so our future hope is this student community. The child is the father of the man, and if the fathers of the children in this country are not taking part with us, the future fathers are surely sympathetic. That is a great hope for us. Regarding Back To Godhead, when we get copies from Japan, I have program to distribute several thousand copies freely. In the meantime, get the concessional rate from the Post Office. They have got such rates in Los Angeles and New York, it is about 2 and a half or 3 cents per copy. So you may select some nice, important names; government men, leading industrialists, businessmen, and when you get the concessional rates you should distribute at least 100 copies from your center freely. The postage and copies will be supplied to you. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** May 8th 1969 — **Location:** Columbus > Ohio My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 4 May, 1969, and I have noted the contents with much encouragement. Regarding the church, I think you should try for it by all means, and if need be I shall see that the funds which you need will be loaned to you. I have already informed Tamala Krishna that the Los Angeles temple may be called upon to give this loan. So try for it, because such a nice church will be a tremendous boon to our Seattle propaganda activities. Regarding your question about the difference between mind and soul, the mind is one of the senses, and the soul is the owner of the senses, including the mind. The mind is material, just like the material body, but when the material coverings are taken away, as we revive our spiritual body, similarly we revive our spiritual mind also. At the present moment, my material mind, intelligence and ego is carrying me in different types of bodies, because mind has different desires, and it carries the soul just like finer air carries the flavor of the flower or some other smell. So the mind is an instrument, and the soul is the worker of the instrument. I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** May 26th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated 14 May, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. Also I have received your check, and I am so pleased that you are so regular in sending it. Regarding your decision to wait until you are more able to handle it before purchasing the church, that is good idea. Try to cooperate with Tamala Krishna as far as possible in preparing for the Rathayatra Festival. Tamala is now managing all the Western Coast centers, so please help him to make the Festival a grand success. But I think that for at least two or three days you must come to San Francisco for Rathayatra. You are one of our old members, so when you come for a few days someone else may stay there to run the temple in your absence. I am very pleased to note that you are holding kirtana programs regularly, and your propaganda efforts are going nicely. Try to propagate Sankirtana as much as possible. This should be our life and soul. In Ohio we held two big meetings, and each one was very satisfactory. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** May 29th 1969 — **Location:** Moundsville My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 27, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I do not know what I can do in these legal matters. You try your best in consultation with Tamala Krishna. I think that perennial watch-dog is playing some mischief. But the best thing would have been to change your location to the church. In the church there is everything as required by the law. So best thing is to consult Tamala Krishna and occupy the church. That is my opinion. You can give your statement to the authorities that it is a private temple, not many people come in cars, so there is no necessity of parking places; and some two or three people only come to the feasts and temple meetings. It is a private temple. Another possibility is that Ananda may be called from Vancouver to help you in maintaining the church in Seattle. You may correspond with him in this connection. Or else if you feel that Vancouver may be a nicer place, then you may join Ananda there. Please keep me informed as to your progress in this connection. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** June 24th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated June 23, 1969. I have reached Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, and I am very comfortable here. The house is very nice, calm and quiet. Yes, for the present my program is to stay here for one month, but if I do not go to London, then I shall stay longer. Surely I shall go to San Francisco to take part in the Rathayatra Festival if I do not go to London. But I also want to see you, if possible, before the Rathayatra Festival. So far as your duty is concerned, you are doing your best. That is your spiritual qualification. The best qualification for a Vaisnava is to act sincerely, and to his best capacity, for the service of Krishna. Otherwise, Krishna is so great, and we are so small, there is no question of our giving any service to Krishna. But Krishna is so great, and He is so greatly merciful, that any small service we offer to Him in devotion and sincerity He will accept. Krishna does not require anyone's help or service, but if we serve Him, even in a very small capacity, He will accept it. So that is our only hope. One who can show the whole cosmic manifestation within the hole of His mouth, what service can we render unto Him? So the best thing is to employ all of our talents and energies in His service. That will help us to progress. So now Seattle is in your charge for introducing Krishna Consciousness, and you are doing your best. Krishna will surely bless you. I beg to thank you very much for your check, and I appreciate that you are the only center who is regularly sending for my maintenance fund. Another request is that now I shall try to publish all of my books. We have arranged for purchasing a nice Composer machine, and also we are going to immediately print 10,000 copies of TLC in paperback. Our sales are not going very quickly, so under the circumstances, if we want to continue publishing our books, we shall require money as much as possible. Therefore, whenever you have got some extra money, you may kindly spare it for the book fund. I hope to see you again when you come here, or else in San Francisco. The pictures you formerly sent are going to be printed in BTG. I have advised Brahmananda of this and have delivered him the pictures. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** July 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 1, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am glad to inform you that I will be arriving in San Francisco around the 25th or 26th of July, and I will see you there during the Rathayatra Festival. Regarding your questions, "Is Subhadra, Lord Krishna's Sister, the same Durga or Maya?", the answer is that originally Krishna's energy is one: that is spiritual energy. But according to different functions, the Maya is represented differently. In the material world the energy is called Bhadra, and in the spiritual world the same Maya is called Subhadra. The only distinction is su and without su. Su means auspicious. So in the spiritual world, the same Maya works auspiciously, and in the material world the same Maya works inauspiciously. This auspiciousness and inauspiciousness is our own choice. The same example that jail life is inauspicious, and free life is auspicious, but it depends on the choice whether we prefer free life or jail life. The energy of the government works in the same way both in the jail department and the freedom department. It is the choice of the person who is relatively concerned with either jail or freedom. Regarding frozen vegetables, they are not bad, but if they are twice boiled, then they should not be used. I do not know exactly, but I do not think it is twice boiled. Anyway, if it is, it should not be used. Now Tamala Krishna will be the supplying agent of devotees to many temples, because he is attracting many new devotees in the Los Angeles temple. So the program is after being trained up here, some of them may go either to open new branches or where they are required. But I wish that you should also attract new devotees from your quarters. Instead of importing devotees, it is better to attract devotees from your own area. And the basic principle for doing this is Sankirtana Party. I hope you have by now received one circular from Brahmananda in which it is stated that you are all requested to write articles of Krishna Consciousness as you have personally realized it, and also send as many pictures as possible of Sankirtana Movement for BTG along with short descriptions. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** August 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated August 15th, 1969, and I have noted the contents. Regarding the persons who have been "throwing the I-Ching," this cannot go on in our temples of Krishna Consciousness. This is to be considered as gambling, and it must be strictly prohibited. So if these boys will come to Los Angeles to follow the discipline as it is practiced here, that will be the best thing. Otherwise, they may not cause this disturbance in our temples. So both of these boys, whoever they are, should come immediately to Los Angeles to be trained up nicely in Krishna Consciousness. Unless one agrees to follow all of our principles, he may not be allowed to live at the temple. This must be our policy. I am pleased to learn that your center and the Vancouver center are cooperating together to propagate this movement. Your idea of joining together on Sankirtana once in a month for large scale Sankirtana Party is nice, and you may do it conveniently. Regarding Mayapur, Acyutananda is now in the process of finding out some suitable land for our society, and whatever Krishna desires in this connection will be done. I am thinking that you will be very nice for this Mayapur center, but first of all you organize the Seattle very nicely. That is your first business. Yes, you are welcome to write to me when you wish to do so. I am always pleased to learn of the nice activities you are performing. But so far as general management questions and difficulties are concerned, these should be first submitted to Tamala Krishna in Los Angeles. I am always at your service to assist in any way that I can, but Tamala Krishna is gradually becoming more and more expert in managing temple business, and if he is able to solve things conjointly with you, that is the best system. So far as my travel plans are concerned, it is not yet settled. When Krishna Das informs me that they have have found an apartment there, then I shall leave for Europe immediately, via the New York or Boston temple. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** September 15th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 10th, 1969 and I have also duly received the Bhakti-sastri examinations from Seattle temple on the same day. I was very pleased to learn of the elaborate way in which you celebrated the Janmastami Day and Vyasa Puja Day ceremonies. The articles in the local papers which you have forwarded to me describing the event are also nice. Last Thursday, when I arrived in London there were more than one dozen reporters to take pictures immediately as we got off of the plane, and then we were led by a special airport attendant to a room where there was nice kirtana and some questions from the pressmen. The next day several articles appeared in the London papers, and I am enclosing one such article for your reference. Regarding the Mayapur center, I am not giving attention just now to Mayapur. I have not heard anything about it from Acyutananda, but I have already given him the necessary instructions. When we actually get land, then we will divert attention to Mayapur, and at that time your services will be required. At present, I am giving all stress to beginning our own press in Boston. The Mayapur center is there, but immediately there is no concern with it. I am very pleased to learn that your temple is making very nice progress, and the devotees there are doing nicely in Krishna Consciousness. Please offer my blessings to all of them. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** October 27th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated October 16, 1969 and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the "Prabhupada's Table", from the next year you will be getting so many books for selling. I have now made a policy that as soon as my books are printed in the press I shall distribute them in all the centers along with the respective bills. You will kindly send me the money for the Book Fund as soon as you sell them. The money may be sent to me or to the coastal president. But I shall overload you with books. I am so encouraged to learn of your nice propaganda work in the local schools. Last Monday we were at a law college and at least one hundred law students were up and chanting and dancing along with us. So there is much potential for organizing the student communities to take part in our movement. I am pleased also that you are decorating your temple nicely, and the more you decorate the temple beautifully the more your heart will be beautiful. The example is that the more you decorate the original the more the reflection automatically is decorated. So our heart is the reflection of the Original Consciousness, Krsna, and the more Krsna and His paraphernalia are decorated the more this will be reflected in our heart and we will feel transcendental bliss. I do not know why you write that you are unhappy. You can join me at any time providing your business does not suffer. You are developing the Seattle temple nicely. If you think in your absence there will be no mismanagement, then you are welcome to stay with me as long as you like. I like your cooking very much, so I shall enjoy nice good foodstuffs. But at the same time I desire that your field of activities may not suffer. Regarding your question, in one sense both you and Mahapurusa are right. The fact is that after the dissolution of the Universe the living entities remain in slumber within Maha Visnu, and again when the creation takes place they are impregnated in their original position and they come out in different species of life. By gradual evolutionary process, when they come to the human form there is good chance of getting out of the repeated birth and death, and one can enter into the Spiritual Realm. But if one loses this chance he is again put into the cycle of birth and death. The conditioned souls are always within the Maha Visnu Form, whereas the liberated souls in Vaikuntha, they are engaged in the service of the Lord. Constitutionally every living entity, even if he is in the Vaikuntha Loka, has chance of falling down. Therefore the living entity is called marginal energy. But when the falldown has taken place for the conditioned soul is very difficult to ascertain. Therefore two classes are designated: eternally liberated and eternally conditioned. But for arguments sake, a living entity being marginal energy, he can't be eternally conditioned. The Time is so unlimited that the conditioned souls appear to be eternally so, but from the philosophical view he cannot be eternally conditioned. Since we cannot trace out when we have become conditioned, there is no use of arguing on this point. Better to take care first how we can get rid of this conditional existence; as much as a patient should take care for treating his disease more, and less waste his time in finding out the cause of his disease. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- PS: I do not think it is a good suggestion that we decrease the number of BTGs printed. If we print the same number of copies throughout the winter months and if they are not all sold, then the remaining issues may be distributed freely to many respectable men and organizations. This will be good propaganda work. We are not interested in making profit; our interest is simply to promote Krishna Consciousness. So all the centers should not reduce their orders for BTG, but should help distribute them as far as possible ### Letter to Upendra **Date:** November 26th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Upendra, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of November 8, 1969. It is very nice to hear that Gajendra is now taking care in pushing on the Krishna Consciousness Movement. Regarding your coming to me, you are always welcome, and your association is always desired. When I was in San Francisco in 1967, December, after coming back from India, you were so kind upon me. But the thing is that if you come to me, there must be somebody equally expert to manage there. I have heard from Tamala Krishna that there are several very nice devotees there now, and things are being managed automatically. So when I return back to Los Angeles you are welcome to come join me. Regarding the boy who is interested in making clay Lord Jagannathas, this is all right, but if he can make Radha-Krishna Deities, that will be even better. We are in need of such Deities. So why not ask him to try for this? I have also received the fresh Macadamian nuts which you have sent to me, and they were very delicious. Please offer my blessings to all of the others at the Seattle temple. I hope this will meet all of you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Uttamasloka **Date:** June 7th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Uttama Sloka, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to receive your letter (undated), and I have noted the contents that you had left the temple but now you have returned again. This is most encouraging, because it means that Krishna is very kind upon you. Although you left Him, He did not allow you to go away. It is His special favor upon you. As individuals there may be disagreement sometimes, but that is quite natural. Even in ordinary family affairs there is sometimes disagreement, but that does not mean immediately the disagreeing members shall leave the family. Similarly our Krishna Consciousness Movement means we are all gathering together in families of Krishna. Actually we are eternal family members of the Lord, but due to our misuse of independence we have now forgotten our eternal relationship with Krishna, exactly like a man who is mad forgets his family relationship and loiters in the street. But when he is again in his normal mental condition, he remembers his family members and goes back to them. Similarly this Krishna Consciousness Movement is a treatment for reviving the memory that we all belong to Krishna's family. So we are trying to establish a replica of Krishna's family in this material world wherein there is no material activities. To avoid the material activities means to follow the four regulative principles and to engage ourselves constantly in Krishna Consciousness activities and to have the association of pure devotees. We should not give indulgence to our senses more than what is required just to keep body and soul together. We should not engage ourselves in very difficult tasks, and we should not talk anything more than what is necessary for spreading Krishna Consciousness. We should follow the regulative principles, regard being had to situation, circumstances and objectives. We should not be greedy and we should not mix with persons not interested in Krishna. In this way, we can make steady progress and maintain our membership in Krishna's family. Thus, at the end of this life we will enter actually into the spiritual world. So your main business should be to spread Sankirtana, becoming tolerant as the tree and becoming humbler than the grass. If you have anytime any difficulty, please try to settle up in the above way, but do not leave the company of devotees. That will not help you, even though there may seem to be some difficulties. I am so pleased to read in your letter that you have unflinching faith in Krishna and in my directions, and this attitude will help you more and more in Krishna Consciousness. Thank you once more for your letter. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vaikunthanatha **Date:** January 18th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vaikunthanatha, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of January 11, 1969, and I thank you so much for it. It was very encouraging. On the very moment I received your letter there was another letter from Jaya Govinda, and I had been very much shocked by this letter. But at the same time, when I read your letter it counter-acted this shock. So I thank you again for this letter. Please try to materialize this idea into practical shape, and I know that Krishna will help you for your sincere endeavors. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vamanadeva **Date:** January 31st 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of January 22, 1969, and I have noted the contents with care. First of all I am pleased to know that you are feeling comfortable in Hawaii and you are keeping yourself busily engaged. I am glad that you and Murari are working on my Vyasasana, and as soon as it is completed, you can call me there, and I shall go. I think that if I am to go to Hawaii, I must go there by March, because in April I have other engagements in Columbia and other places. I am pleased that you have been speaking to educationists and you are trying to introduce them to Krishna Consciousness. Try to introduce our Bhagavad-gita As It Is into every university and college in Hawaii. Along with Gaurasundara try to convince them that our publication is the best. This will be great service. If need be, the chief man in various departments of the colleges may be given a copy of Bhagavad-gita to go through and decide. In this way, try to introduce it into every college and University religious class and book department. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- Enclosures: 1 carbon copy of letter sent to your draft board ### Letter to Vamanadeva **Date:** February 16th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your special delivery letter dated February 14, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. The best thing I can advise you is that you should insistently try to classify yourself under 4-D section which is your actual position. In case they do not accept it, then you will have to go to court. Similar cases are pending in the matter of Dindayal as well as Kartikeya. Actually, our students are divinity students; there is no doubt about it, and there is a law that divinity students can not be called by the draft, so why should you not take advantage of it? According to the Bhagavad-gita of which you are a serious student, a person who belongs to the military class must fight. Arjuna belonged to the military class, and he was persistently engaged by Lord Krishna to fight. So we don't refuse the principles of fighting for the sake of country or for the good causes, but we recognize that fighting is not the business of students engaged in training of God consciousness. The modern civilization is one-sided, and we do not approve of this program. Civilization without God consciousness scientifically is animal society. Our students are preaching this philosophy under authorized version of Bhagavad-gita, so they must be classified under the 4-D section. We must fight for this cause. In the meantime you should study Bhagavad-gita very seriously, and try to assimilate the following points of our philosophy. God is one. He is the Father of all living entities. There are innumerable living entities residing in different planets, the majority of which are spiritual planets, and some of them are material planets. Those who are in material planets, they are conditioned by the laws of material nature, and, due to their forgetfulness of relationship with God, there is always struggle for existence. Therefore there is war and other miserable conditions of material life. We are trying to educate people how they can be transferred to the spiritual world, so this is an essential movement, and we require many preachers to present this case all over the world. So our students may not be unnecessarily called for fighting, which is not at all suitable occupation for them. So ultimately, if you are required to fight this case let us see how Krishna will help us. Please convey my thanks to Gaurasundara for the nice lecture he gave at the University of Hawaii. He is doing very nicely. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vamanadeva **Date:** June 27th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated June 23, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. You idea of going to Columbus for the weekdays and to New Vrindaban for the weekends is very nice, so you may do this. I have just left New Vrindaban on June 23rd, and I think you will be a great asset to the construction projects that will be going on there. Similarly, in Columbus there is much interest in our movement, and as they also are in need of more brahmacaris, your presence there will be very encouraging. So you may execute this plan as soon as possible. I thank you very much for the nice sentiments you have expressed in your letter, and if continue to develop such feelings and engage all of your energy in the service of the Lord, then surely you will come out successful in perfecting your life in Krishna Consciousness. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vamanadeva **Date:** July 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 2, 1969, and I am very glad that you are now in the Columbus center and you are working nicely to help the devotees there. You also write to say that you have a good job that will further train you in carpentry skills, so do this nicely. It is a good opportunity. If you want to marry, you may inform all the centers that you are looking for a wife, and if a girl is willing to marry, there is no objection. It is a nice idea. But if you marry, you will have to work to provide for your family, and try to spend at least 50% for Krishna. Regarding your Gayatri Mantra, most probably I will go to New York for a short time at the end of this month before going to Germany, and I shall let you know the exact day so you may arrange to meet me while I am there. Be very strong in Krishna Consciousness always, and I am sure that Krishna will bestow all of His Blessings upon you. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vamanadeva **Date:** July 23rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 21, 1969 sent Special Delivery, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am pleased to learn that you are situated nicely in Columbus and now Indira Dasi has agreed to become your wife. This is very nice, and I don't think there is any need of worrying about her mother's request that she continues to go to school. She is old enough now, and if she wishes to come to Columbus as your wife, then this is her decision, and I do not see that the mother should object to this. So you may inform her in this way. When this is settled up I shall inform you as to where and when the marriage ceremony is to be performed. Please convey my blessings to the other devotees there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vamanadeva **Date:** October 21st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated October 14, 1969 and have noted the contents carefully. If you can open a center with Indira Dasi, that will be a great pleasure for me. I want that all married couples should open new centers and carry on by dint of hard labor. Every householder, husband and wife together, they require to live in an apartment, so if they have got an extra room, they can immediately start a center. You have seen in Hawaii how Gaurasundara and Govinda are gradually developing from this beginning to a nice center in Hawaii. Wherever we sit down and chant Hare Krishna people will gather and gradually become our devotees and thus the center is developed. So if you want to open a center, that is very good. But at the same time you must be able to measure your strength whether you will be able to do it. In the meantime Columbus center may require your services, so you may remain there, and when you feel strong you can do it with Krishna's blessings. But if you do it sincerely and seriously, you will be successful. In Japan Sudama and his wife are doing very nicely, and I have got encouraging letter that Bali Mardan is desiring to go to Australia to open a temple. Also, Suridas and his wife, Jotilla, with others have gone to Paris. As formerly the Europeans made colonization in different parts of the world, it is the same thing; colonization of Sankirtana in Krishna Consciousness. Please offer my blessings to your good wife, Indira Dasi. I hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vamanadeva **Date:** November 2nd 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated October 28 in which you propose to go with your good wife, Indira Dasi, to St. Louis for opening a Krishna Consciousness center. The proposal is very nice so you try for it. I have all approval. Please keep me well informed of your progress in this scheme. I hope that Lord Krishna will give both of you all necessary strength to execute this service nicely. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vamanadeva **Date:** November 23rd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Vamanadeva, Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter dated November 16, 1969, and thank you very much for your opening a branch at St. Louis so promptly. Now both you and your wife are trained how to arrange for maintaining a temple and center. Please do it nicely. The beginning is sounding so hopeful that I am sure very soon your center will be one of the first class preaching places of our society. Of course not immediately, but you will have another responsibility to send me something for my maintenance as the others are sending. There is no pressure, but when you find convenient, you can also help in that way. Please keep me informed about your progressive march in St. Louis. Kindly offer my blessings in Indira Dasi. I hope this will meet you both in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vasudeva **Date:** November 20th 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Vasudeva, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your nice letter and the beautiful picture of Radha-Krishna which you have sent to me. Immediately upon receipt of this picture, I have hung it on the wall directly above my Deities, and it is appearing very nice there. Thank you very much. I always remember you that you are such a sincere and good boy, and I am sure that Lord Krishna will help you more and more to advance in Krishna Consciousness. Krishna is very merciful to His sincere devotees, but also we have to remember that Maya is very strong. Therefore, we have to always be engaged in serving Krishna. At every moment we should be doing this or that service for Krishna's transcendental pleasure. If we do not remember this, then Maya is right there to grab us. It all depends upon our leaning towards Krishna or towards Maya. If you lean towards Krishna, you will be in Krishna Consciousness; and if you lean towards Maya, then you will be captivated by material nature. Krishna and Maya are just like light and shadow which are directly next to one another. If you move a little this way, you are in light and there is no question of shadow. But if you move a little the other way, you are in darkness. So if we remember to always be engaged in Krishna's service, then there will be no Maya and everything will be all right. Please always remember this great secret of advancement in Krishna Consciousness. So as you are showing promise to be a nice artist, I think you may next paint some pictures of the Spiritual Masters in the line of disciplic succession. Also, continue to fix up the new temple nicely and promote the Sankirtana Movement as far as possible. These, along with promoting our literatures will give you sufficient engagement to fill your time. Also, continue to chant all of your rounds daily, and read our magazines and books as much as possible. In this way your future will be very bright, and surely you will be able to do great service to this movement within your lifetime. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vibhavati **Date:** April 25th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Vibhavati, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated April 23, 1969 sent along with the Panca-tattva painting, and I am so glad to learn that you are also a good painter. Your first attempt has been almost successful, so I request you to continue to practice so that excellent paintings may be drawn by you. We require so many pictures for our temples which are already present and which will be opened in the future. Immediately upon receipt of your picture, I had it hung right above my Deity room. Wherever I go I convert one closet into my Deity room, so I shall always be seeing your picture there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vibhavati **Date:** June 12th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Vibhavati, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your nice letter dated June 7, along with your article published in the Montreal Star on the same day. Everything appears to be very nice, and your service in this connection is recognized. You have done a great service by meeting with Mr. John Lennon. He is an influential man, and at least you have been able to publicize our Krishna Consciousness Movement in a way that the people will understand that the Beatles are interested. In London, Mr. George Harrison is also inclined to this movement and to our disciples, and recently a letter from Syamasundara conveyed Mr. Harrison's respectful obeisances unto me. Mr. John Lennon is anxious for peace in the world, so also is everyone anxious for peace in the world, but it should be known how that peace can be attained. If we keep the human society as it is, there is no possibility of peace. It is not a question of simply accepting God as the center of everything and peace will be achieved, but the question is how to live in God. Mr. Lennon wants to stop war, but the war is the creation of different politicians. So unless on the summit of administration there are actually Krishna Conscious men, we cannot stop war. Therefore people in general must understand the importance of Krishna Consciousness, and they must in this democratic day send their real representatives who can make right decisions whether there should be war or no war. We find from the history of Mahabharata that the battle of Kuruksetra was because of the belligerent attitude of Duryodhana. So such war as is was conducted under the advice of Lord Krishna is not bad, but war declared and executed by demonic politicians is certainly very bad. A Krishna conscious person like Arjuna is not inclined to the activities of warfare, but when there is a necessity for peace in the world to educate men to become Krishna Conscious, a Krishna Conscious person does not lag behind. Therefore the first necessity for peace in the world is to instruct men how to become Krishna Conscious, because as soon as one becomes Krishna Conscious all the good qualities in human society are manifested. So if it is possible that the party of Mr. Lennon and Mr. Harrison cooperate with this Krishna Consciousness Movement, I am sure we shall be able to stop all this nonsensical war. I think by this time, by your sincere practice, you have come to this conclusion that a Krishna Conscious situation is the only means for peace and happiness. I am very glad to see your sarcastic remark in the article where you write, "cigarette smoke hangs heavy in the air." The leaders of the peace movement must be all men of character, and to raise such men of character there must be the four regulative principles; namely, no illicit sex-life, no meat-eating, no gambling, and no intoxication. According to Vedic civilization, these four principles must be followed by persons desiring spiritual advancement of life, persons who want to be public leaders and persons who want to be highly intellectual for understanding God and His creation. So I am very much hopeful of Mr. John Lennon because he has several times chanted the word, Krishna. Now both you and your husband were eager to start for England, so you can now arrange for going there. I have received one letter from Syamasundara that they are soon to occupy a nice house, so you can immediately open correspondence with him. His present address is Syamasundara Das Adhikari, 11 Balham Park Road, London SW 12, ENGLAND. If you have the money, you can immediately start. Their place can accommodate twenty or thirty men, and as they are making very elaborate effort for spreading Krishna Consciousness in London, they require help from brahmacaris, grhasthas, etc. So I think if you go there, not only you shall be assisting them, but you can further talk with Mr. John Lennon how actually peace in the world can be established on the above principles. I understand that both you and Isana das are very sincere souls, so in the future I hope you both will be a great asset in preaching this Krishna Consciousness Movement. I thank you once again for your letter. Hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vibhavati **Date:** July 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vibhavati, Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter of July 11, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your proposal of writing a book about childbearing, I do not think this is required with all the other writings that we have to do. And besides that, you are not the master of this subject, so who will read such a book? I have seen in your article on Mr. Lennon that you have a very nice gift for writing, so better you should utilize this God-given talent for writing articles for our Back To Godhead. There is immediate necessity for this, and for this writing you are qualified because you are a sincere devotee of this Krishna Consciousness Movement. So why not write nice articles of this philosophy as you have assimilated it? This will be a very great service because we are now converting BTG to exclusively contain articles by my disciples and myself, along with many pictures of our Sankirtana activities. So if you can write some words about Krishna consciousness and send them to Brahmananda in New York, that will be very nice engagement for you. Regarding your questions about sex life, the basic principle is that in executing Krishna Consciousness sex life should be avoided as far as possible, and it may be utilized only for begetting Krishna Consciousness children. This is the basic principle that should be followed as far as possible by all married individuals. During the period of pregnancy sex life should be strictly avoided. The basic idea of raising children as they are described in the Vedic literature is that from birth till the age of five years the parents may be very lenient with the child. From the ages six to ten they should tighten the discipline of their child, and from the ages of ten till the sixteenth year the parents should be as strict as a tiger with their child so that he will be afraid to be disobedient at all. Then after the sixteenth year the parents shall treat their child as a friend, and the child is allowed to gradually develop his adult responsibility and independence. Regarding your other questions, yes, you may wear any clothing that you find comfortable; no, it is not very good to use yeast in preparing prasadam. It is better to prepare bread in the process as you have seen done in the temple. I hope this will answer all of your important questions. I have also received one letter from Isanadas dated July 4, 1969, and his camp program sounds interesting. I am anxious to know what are your plans for going to London because now I understand they have facilities to accommodate you and your husband. So either yourself or Isanadas may write to me to inform me. ### Letter to Vilasavigraha **Date:** January 22nd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vilasavigraha dasa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of January 18, 1969, and I have noted the contents. You have asked me how one can know that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead? How do you know that the president is the supreme person in your state? You know this through the government organizations, the constitution papers, and by traditional knowledge. Similarly, to know Who is the Supreme Personality you have to take evidence from the Vedic authorities, great personalities, and the Spiritual Master. Otherwise, what is the use of accepting a Spiritual Master if you can not take His words? Your Spiritual Master says Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna says He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, all the Vedic literature says that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. All great authorities like Narada, Vyasadeva, Lord Caitanya, Siddhanta Sarasvati, Bhaktivinode Thakura, Arjuna, and what to speak of the countless others say that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So to understand these authorities you have to follow in their footsteps. You cannot speculate upon Krishna, neither can you ever know Him by such speculations. You can simply use your judgement submissively; that is all, and this cannot be done in a challenging spirit. Lord Jesus Christ also said that the Kingdom of God is only for the humble and meek. In regard to your next question, self realization means God realization, and God realization means self realization. Just like to see the sun means to see oneself, and to see oneself means to see the sun. Self realization depends completely upon God realization, or else it is not complete. One must know his relationship to the Absolute Truth to fully know his position. The mayavadi school simply discerns spirit from matter, but that is not Ultimate Knowledge. One should know the different manifestations of the spirit also. The highest manifestation of the spirit soul is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna. In this age the mind is so much agitated that it cannot be fixed up on the Supreme Objective. Real meditation means to fix up the mind on Krishna or on Krishna's Expansion, Lord Visnu. The modern so-called meditater has no information of Krishna or Visnu. They try to meditate on something void or impersonal which is simply troublesome. It is clearly stated in the Bhagavad-gita that those attached to the impersonal feature have their path to be very, very troublesome. Not only in this age when everything is troublesome, but it was so in former ages also, so what to speak of this age. Therefore, in this age, to fix up your ears upon the transcendental vibrations of Hare Krishna is the highest form of meditation, and the only one which will prove feasible for you. We may or may not condemn the impersonalists, but they are already condemned by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. Actually, there is nothing wrong with you because you have already come to the platform of Krishna Consciousness. Only by the influence of your past habits is it taking perhaps more time for you to adjust things. I hope that by the Grace of Krishna you will stick rigidly to chanting your 16 rounds or more daily. This will solve all of your questions. Try to engage yourself in the service of Krishna and everything will be revealed to you without fail. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Visala **Date:** June 16th 1969 — **Location:** West Virginia My Dear Visala Das, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I have not heard anything from you for some time so I am very pleased to receive your letter. you have asked three nice questions and I shall give you the answers herewith. Regarding your first question, what is the difference in full between the Spiritual Master, Krishna, and the devotee? The answer is that Krishna is the source of all energies of the spiritual and material creations, the devotee is the part and parcel servant of Krishna, and the Spiritual Master is the transparent via media for leading the conditioned souls back to home, back to Godhead. All living entities are the servants of Krishna, but the living entities who have fallen into this conditioned life are forgetful of their eternal relationship with the Lord. The role of the bona fide Spiritual Master is to lead the conditioned souls out of forgetfulness and back into pure consciousness of serving the Lord in transcendental loving service. In material consciousness one is identifying himself with his particular body, and he is forgetting that he is spirit soul, servant of Krishna. Then by the association and instructions of the purified servants of Krishna, the living entity gradually comes to remember that I am not part of this miserable material world, but I too am the eternal servant of Krishna, and my only business is to give pleasure to the Lord in pure Krishna Consciousness. In this way, such devotee becomes himself eligible to lead other back to the path of devotional service and thus he too may become a Spiritual Master. This process is called parampara, or the line of disciplic succession. Your next question is if Visala Das will be your name eternally. As I have told you in San Francisco, Visala means Krishna, the Greatest, and Das means the servant of. So eternally you are the servant of visal, or Krishna, and thus you are always Visala Das. Krishna has so many different names because He is unlimited in all respects, and you are Krishna's eternal servant. What your name will be eternally is not a very important subject at the present moment, but it is sufficient for you to know that you are always the servant of Visala, Krishna. Your final question is how can you become a pure devotee, and the answer to this is given in Bhagavad-gita. Krishna instructs Arjuna that the mahatma, the pure devotee, is he who has fully surrendered himself unto the spiritual nature. And how can we tell if one is completely surrendered unto the spiritual nature? He is always fully engaged in devotional service to Krishna. So this is the process of becoming a pure devotee. We have to engage all of our words, thoughts, and activities in Krishna Consciousness under the direction of the Spiritual Master. Therefore, at every moment you should be busy in some way in serving Krishna and His pure devotees, and automatically you will become purified in Krishna Consciousness. Krishna is always willing to shower His mercy upon His devotees, so we have simply to become receptive to this mercy by devotional service, and then the path is very easy. I hope this will sufficiently answer your questions. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vrndavanesvari **Date:** April 26th 1969 — **Location:** Allston > Mass My Dear Vrndavanesvari, Please accept my blessings. I am so pleased to receive your letter dated April 18, 1969 here in Boston. I am glad to learn that little Muradvaja is now become recovered from the fever he experienced in Los Angeles, and I am also glad to learn that Mandali Bhadra has already begun the translation work. It is Krishna's desire that we should meet together and cooperate for the cause of Krishna Consciousness movement which is so badly needed throughout the world. You and your husband are quite competent to take up this responsibility and your little child, Muradvaja, is a great hope for our future activities. He is fortunate boy to have such nice father and mother, and if you can raise him properly for this purpose, you shall all be benefited from the spiritual standpoint. I am glad that Ananda is executing the Krishna Consciousness movement there in Vancouver very intelligently with determination and sincerity. Please offer him my blessings, as well as to your husband and child. I think if you can start for Germany in the beginning of July, that will be very nice help. The boys who are working there are sometimes in disagreement, so if you go and take charge of the center, it will be a great service. One boy, Jaya Govinda Brahmacari, is returning back from India, and combined together, the affairs of the Hamburg center will be arranged very nicely. By the Grace of Radharani you are already inclined to Krishna Consciousness; now you have got regular engagement to continue this consciousness to perfection. I understand that Krishna has helped you with some source of income. All the money we require is simply to meet our necessities, and we do not require any more for the purpose of sense gratification. But for our necessities we can always know that Krishna will help us with all facilities. Some way or other if Mandali Bhadra gets the facility of fully working on his translation work, it will be a very nice thing. You have inquired about how we leave our body and enter into the Spiritual Sky. This information is very nicely explained in the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Chapter. The idea is that this universe is just like a coconut fruit, and exactly like the coconut fruit there is covering of several layers. Each layer is said to be ten times more than the other. So when a living entity is eligible and fully prepared to enter into the Spiritual Sky, he merges his different bodily elements which are called earth, fire, water, air, and ether. In those covering layers these bodily elements return, and the living entity goes back to the Spiritual Sky. Pure devotees do not desire to enter into any one of the higher planetary systems of this universe. Sometimes mystic yogis are interested to see the higher planetary systems, and before entering into the Spiritual Sky, they take advantage of seeing the higher planetary systems. But a pure devotee is so much eager to enter back into the Spiritual Sky, especially devotees of Krishna, so they do not try even to enter into the Vaikuntha Lokas. Everything depends on the intense desire of the living entity, and Krishna gives all facilities for fulfilling such desires. So far as we are concerned, we should always be very much eager to directly contact Krishna, following the Footprints of Lord Caitanya. And as you are Vrndavanesvari, you should always pray to Srimati Radharani to engage yourself in Her Service. That will be the fulfillment of your life. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vrndavanesvari **Date:** May 25th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Vrndavanesvari, Please accept my blessings, and offer the same to your nice boy. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 14, 1969, and I have noted the contents with care. I understand from your letter that our revered Godbrother, Srimad Sadanandaji, is again sick and going to be shifted to some other place for medical treatment. He is very sickly from the very beginning since I saw him sometime in the year of 1934. The best thing is that he may not be disturbed by correspondence. Let him peacefully pass his days in Krishna Consciousness. Regarding his suggestion that he is not sure if my activities in Europe will be successful as in the USA, you have written to say that Europe is "quite a different place from USA—mostly in that the people are more approached through the intellect than thru the will. They are more careful, more critical, more 'sophisticated.' " I quite agree with you that Europe is different from America, but when I came from India and first landed in Boston, I was thinking like that, that I have come to a different country from India, and how will they accept this philosophy of Krishna Consciousness in the same way as Indians accept it? Actually there is great difference between India and America, especially in the matter of living standards, social customs and cultural atmosphere. When I landed in Boston, I wrote one Bengali poetry to Krishna that I do not know why You have brought me to such a distant place where everything is opposite number, and how will I be able to convince them about this Krishna Consciousness Movement? But by the Grace of Krishna there was no difficulty. As soon as I started my first center in New York, two or three young men were attending, and gradually they took interest, and now we have got sixteen branches, practically managed by my disciples. So if the USA, which is completely different from India, can accept this philosophy, I do not find any reason why Europe, which may be completely different from the USA, will not accept. Actually, in our London branch, already about six young English men have joined seriously, and although they are not officially initiated, they are exactly following my other initiated, American disciples who are now working there. So I don't think there is any cause of apprehension as suggested by Sadanandaji. Besides that, in Hamburg the boys who are working have reported that German boys and girls are coming to join Sankirtana, and they are getting at least fifteen or twenty guests every Sunday for their feasts. So I don't think there is any cause of discouragement because we are working on a different platform. Recently when I was in Columbus there was a big meeting, and more than one thousand students attended. Poet Allan Ginsberg was there with me for chanting, and all the students were responsive immediately. Therefore I advise you that we are working on a different platform. We are working neither on the sensual platform, nor on the mental platform, nor on the intellectual platform. We are working completely on the spiritual platform. The concept of European, American, or Indian is based on the bodily platform. So long one is under the impression that he is this body, he cannot make much progress in this movement. Lord Caitanya says that factually all living entities are the servants of Krishna. This servitorship cannot be rendered from the material platform, because Krishna is not matter. He is Sat-Cit-Ananda Vigraha. Anyone trying to serve Krishna from the material platform of body, mind and intelligence cannot appreciate this fact. One has to become free from the contamination of matter, represented in gross and subtle forms as body, mind, intelligence and ego. Until then, one is not a pure devotee. In the Narada Pancaratra it is clearly stated that one has to become free from all material designations. So long as one is under the cover of material designations, he cannot serve Krishna. Therefore, we have to transcend this position by cleansing our hearts from such rubbish concept of life that I am American, I am European, I am Indian, I am this or that. Anyone keeping himself under such impression, but at the same time trying to get into Krishna Consciousness is called neophyte devotee, or prakrta. Lord Caitanya has given us a very nice method of chanting Hare Krishna, and if we execute this without any offense, we can transcend this prakrta platform and come to the spiritual platform of serving Krishna. And unless we serve Krishna there is no possibility of getting His Grace, and without His Grace it is not possible to preach Krishna Consciousness. Therefore, we should more depend to receive His Grace then to depend on mental or intellectual activities. So don't be discouraged. If you follow the principles of Krishna Consciousness, your activities may be accepted anywhere. It doesn't matter whether it is in Europe or America because it is all transcendental. You may just continue your attitude to serve Radharani and you can be on the spiritual platform, without any being deterred by material impediments. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto, you'll find that the first class occupational duty is to develop love of God without any motive or impediment. When we shall be able to execute our business of Love of Godhead, unimpaired, at that time we shall be freed from all sophistication. Regarding your question about the other mantras you have been given, I think you should simply chant Hare Krishna regularly and follow the regulative principles. You must complete sixteen rounds at least. Follow the restrictive principles and avoid the ten kinds of offenses. Then everything will be clear gradually. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vrndavanesvari **Date:** June 6th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Vrndavanesvari, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated "Victoria Day", and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I have received letters from the Hamburg devotees, and they appear to be very much jubilant to know that you will be arriving on June 27 at 9:30 am. I am also very also very glad that you will be prepared to go there. In my previous letter to Mandali Bhadra, I already informed him that he will act as the editor of the German Back To Godhead. So when you go please set up everything in a cooperative mood. The workers there are very sincere, and upon your joining them, they will be very much encouraged. I am also glad to learn that you are enjoying reading the book, Teachings of Lord Caitanya, and now both you and your husband have to preach these teachings of Lord Caitanya in the European countries. So please read our books very carefully, and as soon as there is some question you can ask me. In the future I hope that Mandali Bhadra will translate this book into the German language. Regarding the first question in your letter about how do we know of the spiritual abodes since once going there no one returns, you should know that the great liberated souls and incarnations who appear from time to time in this material world are not actually coming back, because they are never subject to material contamination or the laws of material nature. For the purpose of delivering the fallen living entities they come here temporarily and then go back when their business is finished, and this is all under the direct order of the Lord. So the appearance of the Lord or the great liberated souls in the material is different from the appearance of the contaminated living entity who is forced to take birth in the material world due to his desire to lord it over the world. In your second question you asked if we will remember the earth, when in Vrindaban, and the answer is certainly. When Narada Muni was talking to Vyasadeva, as you may have read in first volume of our Srimad-Bhagavatam, he was in a spiritual body, but he remembered his previous life and explained it to Vyasadeva. In material life there is forgetfulness, but in spiritual life there is no forgetfulness. I hope this will sufficiently answer these questions for you. Please convey my blessings to your family. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Vrndavanesvari **Date:** July 28th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Vrndavanesvari, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated July 18, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I was very much anxious to hear from you and Mandali Bhadra since you left Vancouver, and I am very glad to learn that things are going nicely. By Krishna's Will you are all a good combination. So continue to execute Krishna Consciousness very seriously and sincerely and take care of your child, Moyuradwaja. I have a great hope for Moyuradwaja. He is very intelligent with signs of a great devotee. My special request to you is that you take care of this child very nicely, and he will be a great son to glorify his parents. I have noticed that he has all the instincts of devotional life, and it is up to the guardians to take care of him. I am pleased to note that you and Jaya Govinda are learning to speak German language. Please help all of the boys to become a little conversant with with this language. That will facilitate your business there. I think that for American boys it will not be difficult to learn to speak German quickly. You have mentioned about some criticism made by Jaya Govinda which upset you. I do not know exactly what is the point, but if there is some honest criticism, there should be no cause of becoming upset. Krishna has so kindly led you to this path of Krishna Consciousness, and now you have only to follow the prescribed rules and regulations very seriously and sincerely, and surely you will understand how you are making practical advancement in Krishna Consciousness. Actually, Krishna is kind to everyone, but when He sees that a living entity is becoming a little serious to make perfection in life, then Krishna takes special care to give such living entity all necessary facilities. Now you have the greatest opportunity to do very nice service to the Lord, because you are now in a foreign country and are helping to pave the way for a very successful Krishna Consciousness temple in Germany. So continue to take advantage of this opportunity as the Lord has kindly given you, and surely He will bestow all of His blessings upon. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yadavananda **Date:** December 2nd 1969 — **Location:** London My Dear Yadavananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated November 25, 1969 along with your beads. I have chanted one round upon these beads, and I am pleased to accept you as my disciple. Your initiated name is Yadavananda, which means He who gives pleasure to the Yadu dynasty. This is Krishna, and you are Yadavananda das, the servant of Yadavananda. Except for persons who are in Krishna Consciousness, everyone is to one degree or another the servant of Maya, or illusion. The purpose of our society for Krishna Consciousness is to train people in the science of breaking their servitorship to maya and re-establishing their relationship with Krishna as His loving servitor. When we act in this position of Krishna's servitor very soon we understand that this is our natural, constitutional position, and thus we regain our constitutional qualities of eternity, bliss and knowledge. Actually these qualities are always there, but now they have been covered up by material contamination. But as Lord Caitanya has recommended, by this process of Sankirtana which we are propagating throughout the world the heart will very soon become cleansed of all such material misgivings. Therefore, you should arrange your schedule in such a way that at every minute of every day you will be chanting Hare Krishna or serving Lord Krishna in some other way. This will make you advance very swiftly, and Gaurasundara will be very helpful in giving you instruction in this connection. You should chant at least 16 rounds on your beads every day, and avoid the ten offenses to chanting. The four basic regulative restrictions for initiated disciples are that we do not indulge in 1) illicit sex-life, 2) intoxication, 3) meat-eating, and 4) gambling. When you have any questions you should immediately consult Gaurasundara or some other elder Godbrother or sister, or else you are always welcome to question me directly. It is my duty to guide you as far as possible. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yamuna **Date:** March 13th 1969 — **Location:** Hawaii My Dear Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your very nice letter, and I am both happy and unhappy on reading it. I am happy to hear from you, but I am unhappy because I hear that for the last three months you are not keeping your good health. I do not know why you should reduce in your health, but after all, this body is external—we should not be very much disturbed with it. It is advised in the Bhagavad-gita that this bodily happiness and unhappiness are temporary, like seasonal changes, so as we are not very much disturbed even in severe cold or scorching heat, we have to execute our daily duties, we may not be very much disturbed with our bodily pains. But because we are long associated with this material body, sometimes we are afflicted, but by higher knowledge we have to tolerate the pains, wisely thinking that these bodily pains are not mine. But I am very much happy for your nice spiritual sentiments. In London there may be a temple or not, it does not matter; you are doing very nicely, more than having a temple. If Krishna gives us a better temple that is all right, otherwise, your engagement in Kirtana is very very nice. So continue this program in cooperation with your other God-brothers and sisters, and Krishna will make you very happy. You six together are doing so nicely that I am very much proud of you. Be blessed by Lord Sri Caitanya and go on like this. I am giving you herewith the transliteration of the song, Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu, along with the meaning. If you have got the record, please practice it with the tune and it will be very nice. I think you have sent the Prasadam formula for Purusottama but he is not with me just now, he is in L.A. I am in Hawaii, so I am sending the formula to him with my next letter. Another news is that Mother Syama dasi came to L.A. with some of her Gujarati devotees. She appeared to be nice Vaisnavi. And she wants to work in cooperation with me. I have told her that I have no objection but how we shall cooperate, that is to be formulated when we meet next. In the meantime, she has said that she has collected some money from the Indian community in London, perhaps 10,000 pounds, and she is anxious to start a temple there. So you can think over this matter, how we can cooperate with her. You just sit down together all of you. Of course, it is a remote program, but if she purchases a temple, and if we jointly conduct the affairs of the temple, that is not objectionable, but we must strictly follow our principles. Anyway, when she actually purchases a house for the temple and if she invites me I shall go to London and do the needful all together. In the meantime I am just sending you information. She offered her respect unto me just like her Spiritual Master, several times she touched my feet, and her devotees contributed $20. And she contributed $5. She has got Sri Sri Radha Krishna Murti with her always, and she chants Hare Krishna, so if there is any possibility of cooperating then we shall welcome it. She and her Gujarati devotees have invited me to go to Africa so I told her that if I go to London then I may go to Africa from there. I have in my mind to form a very strong Sankirtana Party in London. Namely, the members who are already there, joined by the L.A. party and some others—some from Montreal, some from New York, to make a strong party of not less than 25 boys and girls. We wish to make a world tour with this Sankirtana Party—that is my ambition. I do not know what is Krishna's desire, but if it is successful, I am sure to push our movement very nicely this will be the way. Please offer my blessings to all, and be happy. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- P.S. Inform Mukunda that I have received his letter with enclosure of Mr. Parikh's letter ### Letter to Yamuna **Date:** April 16th 1969 — **Location:** New York My Dear Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I am replying to your nice letter dated April 10th, 1969. The description of your dream is very fascinating. It appears that you are constantly thinking of me and Lord Nrsimha has given you the chance to see Him because of your constant devotion. It is very encouraging. I understand that all of you are not living together. Just today I received one letter from Syamasundara and his return address is again a new address on Balham Park Road. In his letter he says that he is leaving for Leicester (80 miles from London) for preparing an altar for Mataji's new temple. So if you are living at Mataji's, then does it mean that you are 80 miles off from London? I do not think so, but please clarify the situation. I am receiving letters from different sources, and I do not know where to reply home. Regarding your questions about Deity worship, please refer these to Himavati in Montreal or else Harsarani in Los Angeles. Yes, on the certificates you may correct it as Srimatee. I hope this will meet you in very nice health and cheerful mood. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yamuna **Date:** May 27th 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I have received your last three letters, and in the last one, dated 24th May, 1969, you have inquired about the Jagannatha Car. The crimson color with silver decorations is quite all right. There is no strict regulation about decorating the cars. We can decorate the cars very fascinatingly with gold, silver, and other shiny metallic embroidery work as far as possible. The idea is the more we decorate Krishna, who is nondifferent from His car also, the more we become decorated indirectly. We are compared as the shadow of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as it is stated in the Bible also, man is made after God. We understand from the scriptures that Krishna has His Vigraha, or Spiritual Body, exactly like a man who has two hands, two legs and all similar features. If you decorate your face, you do not see directly how your face has become beautiful, but when you see the reflection of your face in the mirror, then indirectly you can see the beauty. Therefore, by serving Krishna directly the result of the service indirectly comes to us. Just like we offer very nice prasadam directly to Krishna, but indirectly we enjoy the nice taste of the prasadam. So we should always remember this, that Krishna is always full in Himself; He does not want a pinch of our help for his satisfaction, but if we try to satisfy Him in so many ways as directed by acaryas and scriptures, indirectly we become benefited by such activities. So try to nicely observe this Rathayatra Festival in London, and Syamasundara has already informed me about the scheme that three cars will be drawn to some park on the Thames, etc. So some way or other, if you can introduce this Car Festival in London, by all means London center will be successful. I doesn't matter if you can or cannot establish a temple there, but if you can introduce the Rathayatra Festival, surely it will be a great success. So try to execute this will as far as possible. I am writing Mataji Syamadasi in Hindi, which letter may be delivered to her. She has invited me to go to London to take part in her temple, but if I go there, the passage money should come from there. Wherever I go the center who invites me sends the passage money at least for two. Besides that, Leicester is far away from London, 125 miles. Of course there are many Indians who may be delighted to have a Hindu temple there, but we are especially interested in something else. Our plan is not to sponsor the Hindus or any other individual group. Our real purpose is to spread Krishna Consciousness. This means that there is one God; Krishna, there is one scripture; Bhagavad-gita As It Is, there is one mantra; Hare Krishna, and there is one work; service of Lord Krishna. We want to preach this cult all over the world, and I am sure people from all groups of religion will join us. If we establish a temple on the principles of Mataji, it is also very nice, we may draw the attention of a section of Hindus, but we cannot really execute our ideals. So we cannot be very much enthusiastic in this connection. She is undoubtedly a good devotee of Krishna, but she has to learn the science of Krishna Consciousness, I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yamuna **Date:** June 21st 1969 — **Location:** New Vrindaban My Dear Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 14 June, 1969, and I have noted the contents. I have already been informed about your London house from the others. The day before yesterday I received one cable from Mukunda asking for a loan of $1,025.00 for depositing three months' rent on the house. I have advised New York to cable the money immediately, and I hope Mukunda has already received the money and the transaction is nicely terminated. Previously, I received one letter from your center, signed by Mukunda, Syamasundara, Gurudasa, and others, inviting me to London by the 20th of July. In the meantime, I have received one urgent letter from Los Angeles to go there, and therefore I am going to Los Angeles on the 23rd instant. But there will be no difficulty for me to go to London from Los Angeles, provided that by that time you are well equipped. Otherwise, there is no need of hurrying. Do everything peacefully and conveniently. I have asked one married couple from Montreal, Isanadas and Vibhavati, to go to London, as well as I have asked one brahmacari named Trivikrama, and probably Sudama will also go there. So nicely organize your Sankirtana Party, and go on with your regular program of preaching Krishna Consciousness. I understand that Mataji is going to donate one pair of Sri Murtis. I do not know what size they will be, but I have also ordered one pair of Sri Murtis, 24" high. I hope your arrangements for Rathayatra Ceremony are going ahead, and I shall be glad to hear from you at my Los Angeles address. I am very much encouraged to learn that your kirtana is going to be held at Oxford University, which is the most important university in the world. At least in India, if somebody is a graduate of Oxford University, he is very highly respected, and immediately he gets some good job in the government's service. So if your Sankirtana program becomes recognized by the Oxonians, it will be a great credit for you. I am enclosing a list of fasting days and festivals days which you should observe nicely. Also enclosed is a letter for Gurudasa, which you may please hand over to him. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yamuna **Date:** July 3rd 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June 28, 1969, and I am very glad that Krishna has after all given you a nice place to remain in London and spread Krishna Consciousness with more enthusiasm. Your successful meeting in Oxford is also very encouraging. There is a verse in Caitanya Caritamrta in which Krsna dasa Kaviraja says that the whole world is busy to enjoy or to suffer by their respective results of karma, pious or impious, from past life. So in this material world, somebody is enjoying material life in some higher planet and somebody is suffering some material inconveniences in some lower planets. But they do not know that suffering or no suffering, this material existence itself is not at all congenial to the living entity. In the Western countries, Europe and America, they appear to be enjoying life in the view of the Eastern people, and therefore they hear so much about the opulences in the different universities and towns of the Western countries. But actually, they have no knowledge how to get out of the material entanglement. The only bona fide engagement is Krishna Consciousness for the all around benefit of the human society. That is a fact. So now we have got very great responsibility to spread this message all over the world, and in London you have got now a good chance to preach in the most important city of the world. Decorate the place very nicely, as far as possible. Your idea for holding the Vyasa Puja Ceremony in London on the 5th of September is very much encouraging. On the 4th September is Janmastami Day, and I have received one letter from Syamasundara in which he suggested that we should have our installation on that day. This is a good idea. On the 4th we open formally the temple, and on the 5th is my birthday, or your Vyasa Puja ceremony. So this idea is welcome. A special Vyasa Puja issue of BTG may be done, and you may open correspondence with Brahmananda, because publication of BTG will now be conducted by Iskcon Book Dept., and BTG will be under the supervision of Brahmananda and Hayagriva. Rayarama das Brahmacari is called by me to live with me here to engage in editorial work, so you may correspond with Brahmananda in this connection. Regarding Mataji Syamadevi, she wanted to give us some pairs of Deities, but since she has left the USA she has not mentioned what she is going to do. So you can ask her straightly whether she is going to contribute the 24" Deities. If not, then we shall have to arrange for that. In any case, if Mataji does not contribute the Deities, I shall take with me some Deities when I go to London. In the meantime, Syamasundara may prepare the nice throne of which I have given him the design. I have received one letter from Mukunda, giving description of various engagements in London when I go there, and the most important is seeing the Archbishop of Canterbury. I have already sent one note for the Archbishop to be presented through some friend, perhaps Mr. George Harrison, as it was suggested by Mukunda. You are trying to love Krishna, following the footsteps of Mother Yasoda, and this is very nice. We should not think in the way of Mayavadi philosophers. The Mayavadis think that they have themselves become Krishna. Similarly, if we think that we are Mother Yasoda, that will be the same philosophy. You should aspire to follow the footsteps of Mother Yasoda and Love Krishna in maternal affection. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami --- FROM: A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI737 North Formosa AvenueLos Angeles, California 90048 ### Letter to Yamuna **Date:** August 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letters dated July 16th, 22nd and 27th, and I have noted all of the contents carefully. I have also received some photographs of your Rathayatra Day ceremony, sent to me by Sri Govinda. It appears to be very, very nice, and I am having these photographs reprinted together on one page so I may show the others how nicely you have done it. I have already told Gurudasa something of the glorious affair that was arranged here, and enclosed please find reprinted news articles from the San Francisco papers. I am pleased to learn that you now have Radha-Krishna Murtis given to you by Mataji Syamadevi. For the time being you should keep Them covered, and when I go there I shall install Them and teach you how to do everything nicely. In the meantime you should not tend these Deities, but a nice throne should be constructed in the same fashion as the picture which was sent to you recently. In Los Angeles temple they have constructed a beautiful throne, just on the measurements and colors as depicted on the picture sent to you, and it has come very successful. In the photographs sent by Sri Govinda I have seen the nice brahmacaris of our London Yatra. I hope that by now they have received their beads, duly chanted upon by me. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yamuna **Date:** August 12th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Yamuna Dasi, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 4th, 1969, and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your questions about details for Deity worship, I have already mentioned in a previous letter that I shall teach you these things when I arrive in London. In the meantime there is no necessity for you to increase Deity worshiping. For the time being these new Deities may be put away nicely until I personally install Them and instruct you very nicely how to tend for Them correctly. For the present you may join Sankirtana Party because I know that your presence will enliven everyone. Actually, temple worship is for the neophyte devotee, and the preacher is in a higher position than the neophyte. That is the definition given in Srimad-Bhagavatam. The advanced devotee should be very much enthusiastic in preaching the transcendental message of Lord Caitanya, and temple worship should be entrusted to the newcomers, or neophytes. Regarding the collapsing of the wheels during Ratha Yatra Ceremony, that doesn't matter. If possible, you may organize another procession on Janmastami Day. Regarding the footprint on Krishna's chest which you say is Radharani's, that is not correct. That footprint is of Bhrgu Muni. As of this moment, my plans for going to Germany are not yet fixed up, but as soon as things are settled, I shall duly inform you. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in very good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yamuna **Date:** February 5th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles > London Dear Yamuna, Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter of January 22, 1969, and I have duly noted the contents. The reply to your points you will find along with your husbands letter. I am very much anxious to go to London, but I do not know why you are delaying to call me. The legal documents being submitted, there is no impediment to rent a nice house. So you should take this risk, and everything will come out all right. How is Mr. Parikh doing? I hope this will meet you in the best of health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yamuna, Gurudasa **Date:** July 15th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Yamuna and Gurudasa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of Yamuna Dasi's letters of July 3rd and 7th, 1969, as well as Gurudasa' letters of July 1st, 4th and 8th, 1969. I have noted all the contents carefully, and I am so glad to know that you are arranging so nicely the temple paraphernalia as well as the Rathayatra Festival. You have got two great responsibilities to function. Do it to your best capacity, and Krishna will give you all facilities without fail. Our principle should be to serve Krishna very diligently with love and faith, and all necessary supplies will come without any difficulties. As you are all sincere devotees, I am sure you are feeling the great assistance of Krishna through your activities, and the more you serve the more you will know how you are making progress in Krishna Consciousness. The same example has to be repeated how when a hungry man is given foodstuffs to eat, automatically he feels three kinds of symptoms: satisfaction of hunger, strength and pleasure. So this Krishna Consciousness Movement is based on sincere service to the Lord. We shall always remember this, and then success is assured. I am glad that you are expecting me there during Janmastami Day, and this is a very nice proposal. Even if I go to Germany in the meantime, it will not be difficult for me to come to London during Janmastami Festival, which takes place on the 4th of September. Please convey my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yamuna, Malati, Janaki **Date:** February 20th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear little mothers, Yamuna, Malati, Janaki, Please accept my blessings. I lost my mother when I was only 14 years old. So I didn't get much of my mother's affection in my childhood. But in my old age, Krishna has given me so many young mothers to take care of me. Another mother Govinda Dasi is there in Hawaii. She is always asking me to go there. So I will go there within this month. But my one appeal is to my fathers and mothers[TEXT MISSING] ### Letter to Yamunacarya **Date:** October 21st 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Yamunacarya, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of October 4, 1969 and I have also duly received your beads sent by Brahmananda. Your initiated name is Yamunacarya. Yamunacarya was a great devotee. Formerly he was a great king, and later on he became a great devotee and acharya of the Ramanuja Sampradaya. There are many such Mahatmas, or great souls, in the past, and if we follow in their footsteps carefully, that is the perfection of fulfillment of our human form of life. To follow in the footsteps of the Mahatmas means to give submissive aural reception to the words and instructions of the bona fide Spiritual Master in the line of disciplic succession from the Lord Himself. When the Lord appeared on this earth 5,000 years ago, He instructed Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, and this purely transcendental message of Krishna has been passed down for the past 5,000 years by the media of sincere disciples giving submissive aural reception to the words of Krishna via the medium of the bona fide Spiritual Master. This acts like electricity, and if you touch a wire anywhere which is connected to the powerhouse, then you will be in contact with the electric current. But if the wire is broken or separated from the powerhouse, then there will be no electric current. Similarly, if we hear the unadulterated message of Lord Krishna from the authorized source, we will immediately be in contact with the transcendental atmosphere; but if we listen to someone who is presenting a broken, concocted version of Bhagavad-gita, that will be useless. So try to understand our philosophy very sincerely and carefully. I am so pleased to learn that you are giving such nice assistance to Kirtanananda, and you continue in this capacity at least for the time being. Please chant 16 rounds minimum every day, and follow the four regulative restrictions which are as follows: no illicit sex-life, no intoxication, no eating of meat, fish or eggs, and no gambling. I am enclosing a page with instructions for executing Krishna Consciousness. When you have questions you consult with Kirtanananda, or else I also will be pleased to help you. Now Krishna has bestowed His Mercy upon you in giving you the opportunity to make final solution to the problems of birth, death, old age and disease, and if you follow the principles strictly, you will come out successful. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yasodanandana **Date:** September 15th 1969 — **Location:** Tittenhurst My Dear Yasodanandana, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated September 5th, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I have also read the poems that you have sent to me, and they are nice. I am pleased to learn that your parents are willing to make a weekly contribution to Krishna Consciousness, and your mother can make bead bags and shirts for the devotees. This is very nice engagement for your parents, and you should encourage them to come to kirtana when they are able to and to read our literature. So far as your propagating Krishna Consciousness while you are in school, you simply speak to the students and teachers there, distribute Back To Godhead and our books as far as possible, and try to arrange for kirtana performances there where many students can hear the sound of Hare Krishna. This is the prescribed formula for propagating Krishna Consciousness. Regarding your question about Yasoda and Devaki, this is all explained in detail in our Krishna book. Devaki is the actual mother of Lord Krishna, but because Devaki's brother, King Kamsa, wanted to kill Krishna because of the omen that he had heard that Krishna would one day kill him, Vasudeva, Krishna's actual father, brought Baby Krishna to Vrindaban to the care of Yasoda and Nanda Maharaja, who acted as Krishna's foster parents. I am pleased that the Montreal center is doing nicely, and please offer my blessings to all of the devotees there. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ### Letter to Yoland **Date:** July 30th 1969 — **Location:** Los Angeles My Dear Yoland, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 26 July, 1969 and your nice poems, and I have read everything carefully. The poems will be submitted to Hayagriva, the editor of Back To Godhead, for his consideration for publication. I am very pleased to learn that you are now living at the Montreal temple, and this association with devotees of Lord Krishna will help you to advance further in Krishna Consciousness. You have asked me, "Could you accept me as your student until eternity?" My reply is that you may discuss this matter with Jayapataka, who is in charge there, and if he agrees, then you may submit your beads to me through the mail. Also, there is some possibility that I will be going to Germany sometime in August, and in that case I will be stopping in New York. So if you are able to meet me in New York, then the ceremony could be performed there. You have asked the question, "What is the difference between a Mayavadi philosopher and a Krishna Conscious person?" The answer is that the Mayavadi philosopher has only imperfect knowledge of God, whereas the Krishna Conscious person can understand Krishna fully. The example is given that a person may know about the sunlight, but that does not mean that he knows about the Sun God within the Sun planet. Within the Sun there is a Sun God, named Vivaswan, and his body and the bodies of the other inhabitants are made of fire. It is the heat from these fiery bodies that gives warmth and light to this universe. So if someone knows something about the sunlight, it does not mean that he has knowledge about Vivaswan. Similarly, from Krishna's Spiritual Body there is the emanation of the Brahma effulgence, but even if they are able to merge into this effulgence emanating from Krishna's Body, are able to merge into this effulgence emanating from Krishna's Body, that does not give them perfect knowledge of the Source of everything. This Source is Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So both the Mayavadi philosopher and the Krishna Conscious person is seeking spiritual advancement, but the Krishna Conscious man is higher because he is going to the Source of everything, including the Brahma effulgence. I hope you will understand this nicely. I am very pleased to note that you are chanting 25 rounds daily. Please continue in this way, and more and more Krishna will be pleased to bless you with intelligence to understand Krishna Consciousness. I hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami