a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1969 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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24 June 2005 Tuesday, June 24, 1969 Los Angeles, Calif. 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 letters | 07:37 | June 24, 1969 Los Angeles, Calif. 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 letters | 06:33 | June 24, 1969 Los Angeles, Calif. 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 letters | 05:47 | June 24, 1969 Los Angeles, Calif. 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 nice 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. And 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 letters | 04:40 | 21 June 2005 Saturday, June 21, 1969 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 letters | 08:58 | June 21, 1969 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. 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 letters | 07:57 | June 21, 1969 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 letters | 06:56 | June 21, 1969 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 letters | 05:55 | June 21, 1969 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 letters | 03:53 | 20 June 2005 Frday, June 20, 1969 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 letters | 07:52 | June 20, 1969 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 letters | 05:51 | June 20, 1969 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 letters | 04:50 | |
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