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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1974 |
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29 December 2008 29 December, 1974 Bombay My dear Mahamsa, Please accept my blessings. Upon Acyutananda Swamis recommendation I have accepted the following as my duly initiated disciples: Rangacari--Radhasaran dasa Amarnath--Aradhana dasa Chalapati--Chandrodaya dasa Asoka--AmiyaVilasa dasa There beads have been chanted on by me and have been sent by __ das brahmacari to Hyderabad. Please make sure that these boys follow the 4 regulative principles very carefully and chant 16 nice rounds daily. They must rise early, attend mangala arati and all classes. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: Hyderabad, initiation letters | 16:47 |2 December 2008 Monday, 2 December, 1974 Bombay My Dear Yasomatinandana das: Please accept my blessings. I have received one letter from Sucarudev das, a devotee there who has some complaint, that he is left in charge when Mahamsa Swami goes out on tour, and no one cooperates with him, just sleeping and eating. So please enquire and let me know actually what is the situation there, and how things are going on. Also let me know what is the program for Hindi publishing there. Here in Bombay they are going on daily Sankirtana in Fort and selling 100 BTG's (English) daily, and they get requests for Hindi literature. I have also received a letter from a diseased man, but what can I do? Please read the letter enclosed. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Hyderabad letters | 05:08 |25 November 2008 25 November, 1974 Bombay My Dear Mahamsa Swami: Please accept my blessings. If you have got a copy of Bhavan's Journal, Diwali Number, No. 8 November, 10, 1974, you can see on page 197 under the heading, Our Reader's Page, there is a question: "Should non-Hindus who have adopted the Hindu way of life e.g. the followers of the Hare Krishna movement, be allowed to enter Hindu temples?" So immediately you reply to the Editor of Bhavan's Journal, Dr. K.M. Munshi Marg, Bombay, enclosing the letter of Swami Cinmayananda's letter about the approval of learned panditas and sannyasis about the Hare Krishna movement members entering into Hindu temples. You can mention also that we are allowed to enter into the biggest temple in India, Tirupati, as well as Nathadwar where the head of the temple received us very well and presented some gifts. Except the Jagannatha temple in Puri no where have we been checked admission. This time we wish to go to the Jagannatha temple again, and let us see what they do. The Hindu Vishva Parishad approves us as rigid Hindus as it it will be clear from the letter of Swami Cinmayananda. So immediately write a letter and send me a copy of your letter as well as Swami Cinmayananda's letter. We shall request them to publish the letter of Swami Cinmayananda in this connection as well. Last night your mother came to the temple and talked with me. Sometimes you can send her some news of your health, but not very much correspondence, after all she is mother. Lord Caitanya used to also please His mother by sending prasada and men with news. I Hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Hindus, Hyderabad, sannyasa letters | 02:11 |20 September 2008 Friday, 20 September, 1974 Vrindaban My Dear Syamasundara. das: Please accept my blessings. Enclosed find a copy of a letter received from Swiss Credit Bank which will speak for itself, but it is not at all desirable. Similar many letters are being received in London. So I shall be glad to hear from you how you are going to adjust things. I do not know where you are now, but I am supposing you are in Hyderabad. I am forwarding this letter there. I hope you will reply this letter with a proper explanation. It is understood from London that you are a debtor there for many, many pounds, and you are also a debtor to the Society for so many pounds. But, we can wait for repayment, but do not lose your credit of the bank, and immediately write them a letter to keep your credit, as well as our prestige. I hope this meets you well. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs letters | 04:41 | 19 September 2008 19 September, 1974 Vrindaban My Dear Mahamsa Swami: Please accept my blessings. I have seen your letter to Bhagavan das and upon your recommendation I am pleased to accept the following as twice initiated brahmanas: Sriman Vasugosh das and Madhavendra Puri das. Enclosed are their mantra sheets and sanctified threads. You can hold a fire sacrifice and they can hear the mantra from my tape recording through the right hear. The mantra must be murmured at three times daily. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: brahmana, Hyderabad, initiation letters | 04:37 |20 August 2008 Tuesday, 20 August, 1974 Vrindaban Dear Mr. Rameshchandra Lalidji: Please accept my blessings. I have received a report of the progress of Hyderabad. I am pleased to note that the construction has already started and the columns have come up to beam level. I appreciate very much your interest in propagating the teaching of the Bhagavad-gita, and it is because of the assistance of men like you that we are constructing a temple in Hyderabad. I am pleased that the work is proceeding now at good speed and request that you assist in completing the temple by next Janmastami, and I will come to inaugurate the opening ceremony. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: construction, Hyderabad letters | 21:17 |20 August, 1974 Vrindaban My Dear Mahamsa Swami: Please accept my blessings. I am enclosing herewith a bank draft on Punjab National Bank No. 224835 dated 20/8/74 for the amount of Rs. 60,000/-. Please acknowledge receipt. The balance Rs. 40,000/- will be forwarded to you at the end of this month. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Hyderabad letters | 21:16 |20 August, 1974 Vrindaban My Dear Panalalji: Please accept my blessings. I would like to thank you for the Rs. 15,000/- that you have pledged towards the construction of the Hyderabad temple. I am also pleased to hear from Mahamsa Swami that the construction has started and the columns have come to beam level. Since you are the most elderly devotee, I request that you please overlook the construction and fund raising from time to time. If the temple is completed by the coming Janmastami, I will come for the installation ceremony. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Hyderabad letters | 21:16 |20 August, 1974 Vrindaban My Dear Sri Badruka: Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 7, 1974 and have noted the contents. I am very pleased to hear about the progress of Hyderabad centre preaching and construction. With your active interest I am very confident that everything is going on very smoothly. I have sent to Mahamsa Swami Rs. 60,000/- so that the immediate construction may not be hampered. In the meantime please see that the life members there start collecting. If the temple is completed by next Janmastami, I will be pleased to come to inaugurate the opening. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: construction, Hyderabad letters | 21:06 |16 August 2008 16 August, 1974 Vrindaban My Dear Mahamsa Swami: Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated August 12, 1974. Regarding the initiations I have accepted them as my disciples and their spiritual names are as follows: Krishna das--Kauravesvara Ravindra--Raghavendra You may hold a fire sacrifice and chant on their beads and impress upon them they are taking vows before Radha and Krsna, the spiritual master, and the Vaisnavas. They must always chant 16 rounds daily and avoid the four sinful activities. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Hyderabad, initiation letters | 15:44 |14 June 2008 Friday, 14 June, 1974 Paris My dear Acyutananda Maharaja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your most recent undated, letter. I am glad you have received my letter and mailed it to Swami Cinmayananda; so we shall see if they are able to help us so that we may enter Jagannatha Puri Temple with our disciples. Regarding your philosophical question, if the Bhagavad gita is part of Mahabharata which is considered smrti, how can we claim Bhagavad gita to be GITOPANISAD, or one of the Upanisads which are sruti? Actually because the Gita is spoken by the Supreme Personality of Godhead it is sruti. But people take it as smrti because it is part of the Mahabharata. We take it as sruti as far as we are concerned. The purport of sruti is to make one advanced in understanding the Absolute Truth. Here the Absolute Truth is explaining personally, therefore the Gita should be taken as sruti. But they take it as smrti because it is part of the Smriti (Mahabharata). In one sense it is both sruti and smrti. Please yourself and Mahamsa Swami work in full cooperation with Karandhara Prabhu who is leaving Paris today for Bombay. You may send him regular reports as he is taking over from Tamala Krsna Maharaja, as GBC of India. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: Bhagavad-gita, Hyderabad, questions letters | 16:05 |30 May 2008 31 May, 1974 Geneva My dear Acyutananda Maharaja, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of May 25th, and I have noted the contents. It appears there is good chance we may get permission for our men to enter Jagannatha Puri temple if we can present the right documents. My idea is that you present the enclosed statement proving our men are bona fide Hindus to Swami Cinmayananda who you say is sympathetic to us on this point. Have him copy this statement on his own letterhead and sign it. In addition, take a similar signed certificate from Mr. Sujya Narayana Rajooa who is the Endowment minister of Andra Pradesh and who came to receive us at Tirumala. I think with signed statements from these two this will be enough and that we do not have to get the government sanction. So if you can take these statements from these two men it will be an important achievement for our society. Try for it in earnest and Krsna will help you. I am glad to hear the Hyderabad temple is so enthusiastic for preaching. Please keep me informed. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: Hindus, Hyderabad, Jagannatha Puri letters | 03:44 |16 May 2008 Thursday, 16 May, 1974 Bombay Dear Sri Pannalalji, Kindly accept my greetings. I beg to thank you for your letter of 11th May, 1974 and I have noted the contents. Your suggestion that "a few learned persons well versed in sanskrit and English be enrolled as members of the Society and then sent to foreign countries to preach" - is a very good suggestion. We are of course increasing the number of centers all over the world, but the difficulty is that as soon as foreigners accept the cult our men in India especially the rigid Brahmin society does not accept them as regular Vaisnavas. In some temples they are not even allowed to see the deity. The learned sanskrit scholars with English education must be well versed in the Vaisnava sastras, especially Bhagavad-gita and Srimad bhagavatam. In the Bhagavad-gita it is clearly said that anyone even from the lowest papayoni can be elevated to Krsna Consciousness and thus go back to home, back to Godhead. Similarly in the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said by Krsna's mercy and the unlimited potency of Lord Visnu, anyone can be purified as a Vaisnava and elevated to the Supreme position. Unless one learns this philosophy thoroughly he cannot become a preacher however learned and educated he may be. Regarding the article published in Back to Godhead No. 53 there was nothing wrong in that article rather it was the same statement as you said, "in a holy place sins are magnified four fold etc." But some interested persons who come within this category are making malicious propaganda taking advantage of the article. Anyway, we have published a Corrigendum for being published in Back to Godhead, the copy of which is enclosed herewith please find. Regarding religious sentiment, according to Srimad-Bhagavatam there is no question of religious sentiment but religion. Religion is described as codes given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.* dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam. Anything not given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not accepted by the Bhagavat school as religion. In the beginning of Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said, dharma projita kaitavo. This kaitavo religion means cheating religion. Sriman Sridhara Swami, the original commentator of Srimad-Bhagavatam, says religious systems up to the idea of liberation are cheating. So to preach Bhagavat religion sometimes we have to quote from the sastras what is not palatable to unscrupulous so-called religious persons. But in preaching we cannot do without quoting the proper verses. Sometime they take it adversely and we become subject to unwanted criticism. Actually there is no religion in the world accept Bhagavat religion, namely surrendering to the lotus feet of the Lord. This means the bhakti marga is the only religion. Sa vai pumsam paro dharmo [SB 1.2.6] Sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66] Our Krsna Consciousness movement is to accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna as the Supreme Being and act everything for His satisfaction only. We do not accept the principle of as many gods as one can imagine. God is one and He cannot be imagined; He is fact. Of course, sometimes we feel a little difficulty preaching this cult in India but we do not feel such difficulty outside of India. Although Indian people are by culture God conscious yet on account of vigorous preaching of the Mayavadi philosophy that god is impersonal and can be imagined in anyway by the fertile brain of a person as he likes, the whole Mayavadi philosophy is based on this imagination. We don't imagine God. Krsna is not imagination. He presented Himself 5,000 years ago as He is, and we are presenting Krsna as He is. We are presenting Krsna's philosophy and teaching as it is and what can we do more? But this process of presentation has become fortunate and we have become successful. I do not wish to change the process. I hope you will appreciate this process of preaching to please the facts as they are confirmed by all Vaisnava acaryas. We are publishing our books thoroughly on the basis of this philosophy and recently the report is that in highly educated circles of scholarly people in the universities they are taking interest very rapidly in our Krsna Consciousness movement. Here is an excerpt from a recent letter from our propaganda office: "Yale University and Temple U. have now ordered 60 volumes of your Divine Grace's Bhagavatam set, and Yale also ordered 12 volumes of your Divine Grace's Caitanya Caritamrta set . . . Professor McKinnon of St. Joseph College in Philadelphia is planning to have the college order the entire set of Bhagavatam." I am going the day after tomorrow to Vrndaban, and from there I shall go to foreign countries, Rome, Geneva, etc. I am coming back before Vrindaban will celebrate Janmastami and I invite you cordially to our opening ceremony. When I go to the USA I shall try to send you Articles of our Society, but we have different memorandum in different countries, they are not one and the same. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg *Dharmam tu saksat bhagavata pranitam Na vai vidur rsaya napi devah Na siddhya mukhyah asura manusyah kutanu vidyadhana caranadayah Labels: dharma, Hyderabad, religion letters | 09:25 |4 April 2008 4 April, 1974 Bombay Dear Tejyas, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of March 27th with check book and statement. In your footnote you have given discouraging information about the land in Kalkaji. The best thing is if you three, Saurabha, Gurudasa and yourself jointly inspect the land and see if you can utilize it for our purpose. We can use any land, but if you think it will be very, very difficult then what is the use of accepting it. You say I will have to go in person to the registrar office, but that is not a problem. In Hyderabad they gave me land and a Power of Attorney was given to Mahamsa Swami and he took delivery. So the three of you inspect and give a joint report. If it is useless then don't bother. For the time being we are paying Rs 2,500 monthly and no sufficient water and the neighborhood is opposing. In consideration of this, I wanted the Kalkaji land, which is developing equal to Connaught Circus. Kindly send me an exact site plan. The road and access plan may be hand-drawn, it doesn't matter, showing the length and breadth, the surrounding neighborhood etc. The point is, we are not going to make any big scheme anywhere else unless we have sufficient manpower. At present we have to import men from foreign countries and manage in that way. It is not possible to accept any big scheme in New Delhi. Therefore if we could get even small land just to keep our office, for the purpose I thought the land was nice. Visit, and if you all think even for that purpose it is no good then give up the idea; what can be done? But at Kalkaji there is a big Anandamayi asrama and surrounding colonies are inhabited by Bengalis. Anyway, you see and examine further and send me a report with site plan and we shall finally decide. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: Hyderabad, management letters | 21:00 |5 February 2008 Tuesday, 5 February, 1974 New Delhi My dear Baja Panalalji, Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter dated December 28, 1973 regarding a change of plan. I understand from different sources that you want to construct the Temple portion by your choice, so I accept the plan submitted by you in place of the original plan. Krsna is Bhavagrahi Janardana. Krsna has many Temples big and small, besides that He has his own abode in the Spiritual Sky, Goloka Vrndavana, so all our plans are under the jurisdiction of Bhavagrahi. To serve Krsna under a certain transcendental mellow according to one's spirit of service, everything is accepted by the Lord. So your decision to improve the first plan is certainly very much appreciated by Krsna. The work will go on and further advance with your full cooperation in order that we may be able to fulfill the job as soon as possible. I am thinking to go to Hyderabad by the end of March and certainly it would be great pleasure to me to stay under your shelter and I am looking forward to this opportunity. Hoping this will meet you in good health and my all good wishes for all your family members and servants, and my sincere regard for you. Thank you once again. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: construction, Hyderabad letters | 17:03 |5 February, 1974 New Delhi My dear Mahamsa Swami, Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated December 26th, 1973. I have come back from Europe and America on tour and am now in New Delhi. I have seen both plans. After taking into consideration all of the points in all of your letters, the points in Sri Raja Sahib Panalalji's letters are all very good. So I prefer his plan the most, particularly I understand from different sources that he may like to construct the Temple portion. So we shall follow Sri Raja Panalalji's plan and under his leadership I think all members will be very much encouraged. Now in cooperation with all life members of Hyderabad, immediately begin construction and make this one of the great temples of the south. Hoping this meets you in the best of health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: construction, Hyderabad letters | 17:03 | |
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