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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1974 |
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23 December 2008 Monday, 23 December, 1974 Bombay Tiruchy Junction 1, India Dear Sri Srinivasan, Please accept my greetings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 19-12-74 and have noted the contents. Your life will become perfect if you can engage yourself fully in the devotional service of Sri Krsna. As stated in your letter now you are retired from your job and your daughters are getting married. This means that your grhastha life is almost finished. Therefore, according to Varnasrama Dharma you should spend the rest of your life simply engaged in there devotional service of the Lord. It has been the ancient custom that the man in the later years of his life, usually after the age of 50, prepares to leave home and takes the order of vanaprastha, taking pilgrimages to different holy lands. Then eventually he may take sannyasa, the renounced order of life, with no connection with family whatsoever. This is actually necessary as it is recommended by Sri Krsna Himself. So you have asked my advise and I think the best thing is for you to either go to our Vrndavana center or our Mayapur center or our Bombay center and live there for the rest of your life, chanting Hare Krsna, feeling the bliss of being fully engaged in the service of Sri Krsna. By association of devotees and eating Krsna prasadam, constantly engaged in the service of the Lord you will become purified from all unwanted things and it will be very easy for you to absorb yourself in thoughts of the Supreme Lord only. Then when it comes time to leave your body at the end of life you will go to Krsna. You will not have to take another birth in this material world. But you will go to the spiritual world, the Vaikuntha world. I was also grhastha but now I am sannyasi. As grhastha I was thinking it would be very difficult to leave my householder life and take up preaching full time. But actually it has become very easy by the grace of Sri Krsna. Now there are no difficulties. So I recommend that you also take up this life. Now that your household duties are more or less finished I think this is your best alternative. All great previous personalities such as Arjuna and the Pandava brothers, Maharaja Rsabhadeva, King Bharata, so many great kings and great saintly persons all finished the last part of their lives living as mendicants, sannyasis. Therefore following in the footsteps of the authorities we should understand the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna. If there are any difficulties concerning my request to you to leave your home then if you like you can write me for further advise and it will be my duty to serve you in this way. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: retire, sannyasa, vanaprastha letters | 01:32 |17 November 2008 Sunday, 17 November, 1974 Bombay Gyan Bhawan 22, Minto Road Allahabad My Dear Dr. Ghosh: Please accept my greetings. I am very much thankful for your nice letter dated November 8, 1974 and the presentation of the copy of Pancamrta written by you. I saw the verses formally also. If anyone reads these verses regularly certainly he will make progress in his spiritual life. I have now advised my secretary to send you immediately one copy of my Caitanya Caritamrta. by registered post. Since you left Bombay, I had been to many places in Europe such as Rome, Frankfurt, Paris, Sydney, Fiji, Honolulu, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, New Vrindaban, New York, London, and then here to India. I was thinking of you, but was missing your address. Regarding the charitable dispensary, I am not very much enthusiastic for this enterprise because nowadays to keep a proper dispensary pushing on requires much attention and money also. I have heard from the authorities of the Rama Krishna Mission that their charitable dispensaries of hospitals are mostly run by paid men, as formally no intelligent medical practitioner was joining them to run it on. Therefore I may suggest that if you are really inclined to retire, you are welcome to live with us. We have got three very nice places in India in Bombay, Vrindaban, and Mayapur. We have spent many lakhs of rupees for constructing these centers, and if you live with us in any one of them, you are welcome. You can live with your good wife as vanaprastha, and when you decide to do so, we may maintain a small dispensary for taking care of our own men. But for the general public opening a charitable dispensary is not in our program at least for the time being. I shall be very glad to hear from you at your convenience. Further I beg to inform you that all my temples and centers here in India are being managed by my foreign disciples. I want that they should be admitted as immigrants. They have embraced this Vaisnava religion and have given money for constructing these temples and are managing them. Although we have got a few Indians to join, they are neither educated or expert. In Allahabad you are known to so many lawyers and judges. Kindly consult with them how my foreign disciples can get immigration status in this country. If they were forced to leave, I will be in a great disturbed condition how to manage all these centers. Kindly find out immediately some good lawyer. I think Sir Tej Bahdur's son maybe helpful in this connection. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: dispensary, vanaprastha letters | 04:46 |17 March 2008 Sunday, 17 March, 1974 Vrindaban Dear Dr. Ghosh; Please accept my greetings. I am in due receipt of your letter of 10 March 1974 and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very much pleased to learn you are so much advanced spiritually. I have seen your book, Pancamrta, and found it very interesting. I can understand you are following the impersonal aspect of the Absolute Truth, but I am glad to see you have chanted the Holy Name of Lord Krsna. This is the only process: kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet [SB 12.3.51] In this age of Kali yuga everything is full of faulty things and the only remedy is to chant the Holy Name of Krsna. That is the injunction given in the Vedas. In any condition anyone can chant Hare Krsna Maha Mantra and by doing so one can be elevated to the highest platform. Param vijayate Sri Krsna sankirtanam This is a verse of Siksastakam by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I am also very glad to hear you want to retire completely from materialistic life and devote yourself fully to the service of the Lord. The service of the Lord can be done directly as Krsna says, Sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vrajam [Bg. 18.66]. There is no need of rendering service to the daridras in order to reach Krsna. Of course we can show our mercy to the daridras, there is not objection, but this philosophy that Narayana comes in the form of daridra to receive our service is against our philosophy. Daridra is daridra and Narayana is Narayana. Narayana demands service directly not through daridra. But we can show our mercy to daridra, that is a different thing. There are philosophic differences between other schools and the Bhagavad-gita. I wish that you live with us for some time. Wherever you like, either Mayapur, Vrindaban or Bombay. We have books, about 20 in number, about 400 pages each, especially on the basis of Srimad Bhagavad gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta, Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu etc. I know you are very studious and I request you to become a member of our society so you can get all the books free of charge. Anyway, it will be a great pleasure for me if you can come and live with me for some time. From here, Vrindaban, I am going to Bombay, at the following address: Hare Krishna Land, Gandhi Gram Road, Juhu, Bombay. Conveniently you may try to come and live with me for some time. Our philosophy is Krsnas tu bhagavan svayam. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krsna and by His instruction we can become the supreme perfect: mam ca yo 'vyabhicarena bhakti yogena sevate sa gunan samatityaitan brahma bhuyaya kalpate [Bg. 14.26] You are also a devotee of Krsna, if you kindly try to understand this philosophy of bhakti yoga as stated by Rupa Goswami: anyabhilasita-sunyam jnama-karmady-anavrtam anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttama [BRS 1.1.11]. You have written to say you are 79 years old. I am also 78. You are such a learned medical man, if you preach Krsna consciousness to people it will be well received. yad yad acarati sresthas tad tad evetaro janah sa yat pramanam kurute lokas tad anuvartate [Bg. 3.21] I wish that in the fag end of life if you and I together can preach Krsna Consciousness all over the world, people will be benefited and all problems of the world will be solved. That is my conviction. I take the opportunity of sending this letter with your cousin-brother Mr. Zazumdar. He is a nice gentleman, almost of our age. I talked with him and felt great pleasure. Sometimes I think of going to Allahabad. So whenever I shall get the opportunity I may go, as I like the place. I am obliged to you for your remembering me even after so many years passed when we were together in Prayag Pharmacy. I am advising my men in Calcutta to send one copy of Gita Gan in Bengali and in the meantime I am presenting to you one copy of our Krsna Book Trilogy. You will find a list of my other books printed in the Krsna Book. I hope this will meet you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: Prayag Pharmacy, vanaprastha letters | 14:21 |9 January 2008 9 January, 1974 Los Angeles Dear Sukadeva, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 4, 1974 and I have examined the contents. It is good news for me that our Seattle, Washington temple is growing under your able guidance, and I am much obliged to you. It would not be possible for me to preach all over the world except for your cooperation, you and your Godbrothers and sisters who are maintaining centers all over the world. Your plan, therefore, to leave and take Vanaprastha is not advisable now. Better you remain there and go on with the preaching work, maintaining the devotees and approaching innocent persons. I think you have already a good preaching field there. After you are fifty years of age you can consider this move. Please consult with Karandhar who is GBC for your zone, in this matter. Your ever well wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/sdg Labels: cooperation, Seattle, vanaprastha letters | 15:16 | |
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