Prabhupada Letters :: 1967
a.c. bhaktivedanta swami

13 Nov 2004
Monday, November 13, 1967  

Calcutta, India

My Dear Gargamuni,

Please accept my blessings! I am in due receipt of your letter dated Nov. 8, 1967. You have written to say that your wife and you have a problem on which you require my help.

The whole world, beginning with the highest planet to the lowest in this material world is facing this problem. Combination of husband and wife is a necessary satisfaction of the sex urge. The foolish people see everyday this problematic situation, still thy are not intelligent enough to avoid it. Training of brahmacari life is especially meant for this purpose, and a student is advised not to indulge in sex life just to avoid these problems.

It is very difficult to satisfy a woman by a person who has no good income, neither very good health. The woman as a class wants sufficient means to eat, and decorate and at the same time full satisfaction of sex. Any husband who cannot satisfy his wife by these three items, namely sufficient food, sufficient dress and ornament, and sufficient satisfaction of sex, must meet all these problems.

And as soon as one becomes engaged in solving these problems it is very difficult to make any progress in Krishna Consciousness. If one is serious to make any success in the matter of Krishna Consciousness, one should avoid the association of woman as far as possible. Married life is a sort of license to the incapable man who cannot avoid sex life. On this statement, you can understand your real position.

I do not agree with your wife's statement that New York is unfit for human habitation. A real Krishna Conscious person can adjust things nicely even in hell. A fully Krishna Conscious person is always in transcendental position and he is not afraid of any place which is so called, unfit for human habitation. A Krishna Conscious person is always satisfied whether in Vaikuntha or in hell. His satisfaction is not the particular place but his sincere service attitude towards Krishna.

I have no objections if your wife and you go to San Francisco and live there peacefully as man and wife concentrating your attention for Krishna Consciousness.

Hope you are well

Your ever well-wisher
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

letters | 13.11.04 |

12 Nov 2004
Sunday, November 12, 1967  

Calcutta, India

My Dear Subala,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated Nov. 4. I am very soon coming to San Francisco. I will let you know the exact date sometime next week.

In Krishna Consciousness there is variety but there is no discord. We may fight with one another on the point of serving but that is not a discord. We must stick to the service of the Lord very seriously & that will help us make progress. In this connection I have written one letter, to Brahmananda the portion in which you may be interested is sub-joined herein.

"I do not want a crowd of Kirtananandas, but I want a single soul like Brahmananda, Mukunda, Rayarama & Satsvarupa . . . I have seen your statement regarding opening centers. I am not in agreement with Mr. Altman that we are expanding very thinly. In my opinion a single sincere soul can maintain a center. You know, I started the center at 26 2nd Ave. alone. I took the risk of $200. rent.

"At that time there were no assistants. Mukunda was a friend, but there was no responsibility for him for maintaining center. Gradually Kirtanananda, Hayagriva joined but they did not take any responsibility. Still, I was maintaining the establishment simply depending on Krishna and then Krishna sent me everything; men & money.

"Similarly, if a sincere soul goes out and opens a center in any part of the part, Krishna will help him in all respects. Without being empowered by Krishna nobody can preach Krishna Consciousness. It is not academic qualification or financial strength which helps in the matter, but it is sincerity of purpose which helps us always.

'Therefore I wish that you will remain in charge of Boston. Let Mukunda be in charge of San Francisco. Let Janardana be in charge of Montreal, Nandarani and Dayananda be in charge of Los Angeles. And let Subala das be in charge of Santa Fe. In this way, you will follow my example as I did in the beginning at 26 2nd Ave. That is preaching, cooking, writing, talking, chanting, everything one man's show.

"I never thought about the audience. I was prepared to chant even if there were no men present to hear me. The principle of chanting is to glorify the Lord & not to attract a crowd. If Krishna hears nicely then he will ask some sincere devotee to gather in such place. Therefore be advised that thousands of centers may be started if we find out a sincere soul for each & every center."

More when we meet.

Hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

letters | 12.11.04 |

November 12, 1967  

Calcutta, India

My Dear Krishna devi,

Please accept my blessings. You will read the letter of your husband & try to know my mind. I am coming very soon to see you when everything will be adjusted.

Hope you are well.

Yours sincerely,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

letters | 12.11.04 |

11 Nov 2004
Saturday, November 11, 1967  

Calcutta, India

My Dear Brahmananda,

Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to see your letter dated Nov. 3, in which you have sent the good news that MacMillan Co. has agreed to publish my Gita Upanisad and the contract has been prepared. This service is done by you is a great asset for our society's future activities. The quotation as you have given from my letter of Oct. 11, just stands.

I do not want crowd of Kirtananandas but I want a single soul like Brahmananda, Mukunda, Rayarama, and Satsvarupa. The same example is always applicable that one moon is sufficient for the night as not thousands of stars.

Please carefully handle the dealings with MacMillan Co. which was begun by your good self. If publications are there we can work from one center only like New York or San Francisco for propagating our cult all over the world. Let us stick to the publication of BTG more and more nicely and publish some Vedic literatures like Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya Caritamrta, etc.

I've received one telegram from Mukunda, reading as follows: SWAMIJI BRAHMANANDA AND I AGREE YOU START IMMEDIATELY ADVISE EXACT ARRIVAL--MUKUNDA in reply to this, I may say that I am expecting my P-Form sanctioned and most probably I shall be starting sometime next week.

If I stop in Tokyo for a day to probe if there is any possibility of starting a center. From Tokyo I shall let Mukunda know by telegram when I am exactly arriving in San Francisco. From San Francisco I shall try to go to see our two new centers, namely Los Angles and Sante Fe.

I have read your statements regarding opening centers. I am not in agreement with Mr. Altman that we are expanding very thinly. In my opinion, a single sincere soul can maintain a center. You know I started the center at 26 2nd Ave. alone. I took the risk of 200.00 dollars per month for the rent. At that time there were no assistants. Mukunda was at that time a friend but there was no responsibility for him for maintaining the center.

Gradually Kirtanananda and Hayagriva joined but they did not take any responsibility. Still I was maintaining the establishment simply depending on Krishna and then Krishna sent me everything--men and money.

Similarly, if a sincere soul goes out and opens a center in any part of the world Krishna will help him in all respects. Without being empowered by Krishna, nobody can preach Krishna Consciousness. It is not academic qualification or financial strength which helps in these matters, but it is sincerity of purpose which helps us always.

Therefore, I wish that you will remain in charge of New York, let Satsvarupa be in charge of Boston, Let Mukunda be in charge of San Francisco, let Janardana be in charge of Montreal. Let Nandarani and Dayananda be in charge of Los Angeles. And let Subala das be in charge of Santa Fe. In this way you will follow my example as I did in the beginning at 26 2nd Ave. That is preaching, cooking, writing, talking, chanting everything one man's show. I never thought about the audience. I was prepared to chant if there were no man to hear me.

The principle of chanting is to glorify the Lord and not to attract a crowd. If Krishna hears nicely then he will ask some sincere devotee to gather in such place. Therefore, be advised that thousands of centers may be started if we find out a sincere soul for each and every center. We do not require more men to start. If there is one sincere soul that is sufficent to start a new center.

With this expectation I wanted to send Kirtanananda to London but he has proved himself unworthy. When I arrive in your state, I may ask Rayarama to go to London and your good self to Russia and Gargamuni to Holland. The incident created by Kirtanananda and Hayagriva may not disappoint us in the least.

Let us remain sincere to Krishna and His bonafide representative and we are sure to carry out our mission successfully.

Hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

letters | 11.11.04 |

November 11, 1967  

Calcutta, India

My Dear Mukunda,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated Nov. 5, including the air waybill but before this, I had cleared the record player paying a duty of 120.oo Rs. So there is no more any chance of getting back this money. But your timely dispatching the machine is very much appreciated by Krishna and I thank you very much for this prompt service.

Regarding your telegram; I may inform you that I am starting sometime next week. I shall inform you as soon as I book my ticket of my time of arrival (ETA).

Regarding your business, I have seen many merchants who will supply us incense, frankincense, saris, musical instruments, dancing ghungru (jingle bells for feet) etc.

Hope you are well

Your ever well-wisher
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

letters | 11.11.04 |

9 Nov 2004
Thursday, November 9, 1967  

Calcutta, India

My Dear Rayaram,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated. Oct. 28, 1967.

It certainly is very good news that MacMillan Co. may now agree to publish Gita Upanisad in a soft cover edition and is considering the hard cover very seriously. In one other letter Brahmananda writes that there is not yet contract signed. So I do not know what exactly is the position. But under any circumstances, the MSS must be made ready.

I do not follow you when you write to say that Hayagriva won't deliver the MSS. If he does not return it then how are you going to publish it and how are you going to edit it. In two previous letters you write that he has already returned it. In letter of Oct. 21, you write "Hayagriva has left the manuscript of Gita with me and I am going to have it typed and sent to you, a few chapters at a time." In letter of Oct. 25 you write "I've been working on the manuscript which Hayagriva returned to me". In this letter you wrote to say that he is trying to obviously punish us by not returning same.

The quarrel amongst yourselves, the Godbrothers is not very much palatable. I am now thinking about our society. We were very smoothly going on but this disruption created by Kirtanananda has plagued and disturbed the situation. The best thing is to do our duty nicely with faith in Krishna and everything will be adjusted. You are nicely doing BTG.

The separation of Kirtanananda and Hayagriva is not a very happy incident. I was practically in tears for their attitude of separation on such flimsy grounds. In other words it is my incapability that I could not save these two souls, but this a great evidence that every soul is individual. The nonsense theory of oneness becomes null and void by the evidence presented in this incident. But we should not be angry with these poor souls. Try to convince them by argument and reason but do not become angry with them.

Lord Nityananda when he was dealing with Jagai and Madhai maintained the maximum amount of tolerance and patience in spite of the greatest provocation. The two brothers, Jagai and Madhai, committed violence on Lord Nityananda. Even Lord Caitanya, the author of Siksastak, became agitated. But Lord Nityananda Prabhu in the matter remained calm and quiet and delivered the two rascals to the highest elevation. We should always try to represent Lord Nityananda Prabhu in the matter of preaching work.

Kirtanananda is a crazy man. That is proved. He says that he has become equal to the spiritual master but he is such a fool that he does not understand the principle of disciple even in ordinary worldly affairs. Even if one becomes equal to the spiritual master in education and knowledge, still one has to maintain the disciplinary principle of obeying one chief man in any establishment.

If such discipline is not maintained, no establishment can make any progress.

Hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

letters | 9.11.04 |
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