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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1974 |
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16 May 2008 16 May, 1974 Bombay My Dear Bhima dasa, Krsna Das, Sanat Kumara, Nityananda, Samba and Joseph, Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letters which were sent to me by Paramesvari Das Brahmacari on the 15th of April. All of the sentiments expressed in all of your letters are just according to the Vaisnava parampara. This means that you are understanding the Krishna Consciousness philosophy rightly and I am very pleased. It is a fact that by serving the spiritual master one becomes free from material life and makes spiritual advancement. I have not done anything personally, very wonderful. I am simply serving my spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja and all the acaryas in the disciplic succession. If I have done anything of credit it is that I have not changed their teachings. I have not added anything of my own interpretation. So I am very happy that you are finding Krishna Consciousness very blissful in the Nairobi temple and this will be the key to your success. That you also follow exactly as I have instructed in my books to my disciples such as Brahmananda Swami. That means to rise early, clean the body and clean the clothes. I have seen films of the Deity worship in Nairobi and it is very gorgeous. Proper Deity worship means to be clean, punctually and nice offerings of foodstuffs. Brahmananda Swami can teach you these things. You are fulfilling my great hope. Because you are native Africans, you are the best ones to convince other Africans to become Krishna Conscious. Unless they become Krishna Conscious they can never end their suffering. We can not expect every single African to take to it. But if only a small population can take it seriously it can do real good. Therefore you are the real leaders of the Kenya nation. Please take seriously what you have learned and help spread this happy life to everyone you meet in Africa. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: Africa, Nairobi, preaching, spiritual master letters | 09:23 |4 May 2008 4 May, 1974 Bombay My dear Bhavatarini, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 23, and I have noted the contents. Your enthusiastic response to my instructions is very encouraging. Actually the disciple is supposed to find relief from all his problems just by carrying out the orders of the spiritual master. Just as Arjuna in the beginning was completely confused and lamenting, but after accepting Krsna and hearing from Him he said, "Now my illusion is over, and I am prepared to do whatever you say." If the guru is a representative of the Supreme Lord in disciplic succession and the student is sincere, only then he can get him out of the clutches of the material energy to become situated in spiritual happiness above all material desires, in Krsna Consciousness. As you say you have on hand a check for $41,880.83, I request you deposit that in the Mayapur Vrindaban Trust Fund. The last time I was in Hawaii I established an account in this name in one Honolulu Bank. You will find a Savings Deposit slip enclosed. You can just fill in the exact amount and deposit it with the main branch of the Liberty Bank in Honolulu account 35785, in the name of Mayapur Vrindaban Trust Fund. As for the $150 you will be receiving each month for the next five years, I think that will be sufficient tuition for your two children at Gurukula, and that will oblige your debt to Gurukula. As for Sudama Maharaja, it is better that he write to me separately; I will send him money from here for his projects. If you like to come to India you will be most welcome. The sites at Mayapur and Vrindaban are just for my American and European students who can come and get the benefit of these holy places. You seemed to have taken a new grasp on Krsna Consciousness when you say, "As for where to live, my only concern now is to live where I can best serve you." A pure devotee actually has no problems for himself; wherever he is he can read books like Krsna Books and chant Hare Krsna, get some prasadam and always think of Krsna. Prahlada Maharaja prayed like that: I have no problem for myself. The only concern of the devotees is that so many rascals are suffering in the concocted civilization of illusory sense enjoyment, how can they be saved? So our Krsna Consciousness movement is made for that saving the rascals. This donation you are making in all sincerity will also help us to push on and make some effect in bringing persons back to home, back to Godhead. I will be glad to hear from you, how you have disbursed the money and how you are settling up your personal situation. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: disciple, gurukula, Hawaii, spiritual master letters | 08:56 |3 May 2008 Friday, 3 May, 1975 Bombay Dear Trista Hubbarth, Please accept my greetings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 25th, which I have only received recently due to touring. You have very thoughtfully asked me what do I think of the Self Realization yoga and meditation. We are not concerned with other religions or yogas in terms of competition or sectarian spirit. Actual spiritual knowledge is to take the authoritative statements from the scriptures and from the great acaryas, spiritual masters in disciplic succession. Other's opinions are not important. For example, in the Bhagavad gita, Lord Krsna gives His opinion, but He is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by all the great sages of the Vedic philosophy including Vyasadeva the compiler of all the scriptures, as well as Narada, Brahma, Siva and in the modern time, Ramanuja, Sankaracarya, Lord Caitanya, etc. They all confirm that Krsna is the supreme truth, the Personality of Godhead. Although this is plainly described throughout the Vedas, you will not find it in the teachings of the so called swamis and yogis who are teaching nowadays. Therefore you have intelligently discovered that in my Bhagavad-gita the approach is very different from what you have found elsewhere. That is because I am not trying to avoid Krsna or give some misinterpretation, but I have accepted the actual Bhagavad-gita, wherein Krsna says, Mattah parataram nanyat [Bg. 7.7], there is no higher than Me. Nowadays so called gurus are promising us that we ourselves can become equal to God or that God is impersonal, or that everyone is God, but nowhere is this stated in the Bhagavad-gita or any other Vedic literature, nor is it taught by any of the great spiritual masters above mentioned. My point is that when we say "self realization" it does no means that one should realize that He is the Supreme. Real self realization means to understand that you are the eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and perfection is to develop love or bhakti, loving service in relationship with that Supreme Personality of Godhead. One who teaches other conclusion from that of the Bhagavad-gita and the succession of acaryas is certainly not a guru, and in fact according to Lord Krsna, he is a fool, (the word Krsna uses is mudha, ass, rascal). So we have to examine whether the person who is presenting himself as our guru is actually in knowledge of the science of Krsna. Or we have to examine whether he is leading us away from Krsna, or leading us to hell in the name of yoga mysticism. In this connection, the chanting of Hare Krsna is very efficacious because it develops personal relationship with the Personality of Godhead and cleans the heart of sinful reactions. Please go on reading our literatures and pray to Krsna to give you the right direction from within how to approach a bona fide spiritual master for advancing in spiritual life. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: Detroit, spiritual master letters | 09:44 |12 February 2008 Tuesday, 12 February, 1974 Vrindaban Dear Ravendra Gupta, Please accept my blessings. I have only recently received your letter of February 6, 1974, due to travelling. I am very glad to hear you are following my instructions by chanting 16 rounds daily. In order to chant offenselessly, so that the chanting will have the greatest effect, one must avoid the four sinful activities. You have asked "How serious would it be for me if I should miss the golden opportunity to become your initiated disciple?" You should know that the value of accepting a bona fide spiritual master is more than we can calculate. It is not a mere formality. Of course everyone is encouraged to chant Hare Krishna, but until one gives up sinful activities and becomes determined to serve Krishna through His representative then the firm fixing up of devotional service will not take hold, and there is every chance that one will fall prey to all sorts of material desires and have to come back again in the next life - and one cannot guarantee that he will be born in the form of life he may desire. I know you have been attending our temple in Boston sometimes, and that you wish to be a sincere devotee of Krishna. So go on faithfully with you chanting and pray to Krishna to give you strength for advancing in His service. It is a fact, however that we must become free of all material desire before going back to Godhead, and this can only be achieved by following the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami sdg Labels: Cambridge, initiation, spiritual master letters | 18:34 | |
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