a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1967 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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12 Dec 2004 Tuesday, December 12, 1967 Calcutta, India My Dear Jadurani, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter Dec. 3, 1967. You have described in your letter that my presence again before you will be wonderful. I quite agree with you. Your sincere prayer to Lord Nrsimhadeva is helping me to recuperate my health., and you will be glad to know that I am arriving at San Francisco on 14 Dec. at 12;45 pm by PAA 846. I can understand that you are all thinking of me 24 hrs and therefore Satsvarupa had a dream that I had gone to Boston and was enjoying your company. Similarly, I also think of you all, especially of you because you are so nice and good. I understand also, there was a Kirtana performance given by Sri Purna das. You have rightly remarked whether they are devotees. You are right. These people are professional singers. Krishna Kirtana is not for earning livelihood. Krishna Kirtana is not meant for entertaining the public for demonstration of arts. It is dynamic service to the Lord. We do not therefore mind so much about the artistic presentation of Krishna Kirtana but we want to see how much a devotee is satisfying the Supreme Will. The pictures of Lord Krishna and His expansions are particularly meant for giving chance to the neophytes for offering devotional service. It was very nice that Purna das offered respects to the Sankirtana painting. That will enlarge Krishna Consciousness. Your program for publishing pictures in details of great authorities like Bhisma and others is very much appreciated. I am so glad to learn that Rayarama, Satsvarupa, yourself, Gaurasundara, Govindarani and others are doing so much for improving BTG. I quite appreciate your endeavours and you must continue the Mahajana series, and whenever necessary you can ask me for necessary informations. I would advise, unless there is dire necessity, you should not divert your attention from painting. Somehow or other you have to manage everything in full cooperation, but your main engagement is painting. Your God-brothers, Acyutananda and Ramanuja das are doing well here. We very much appreciate your offering of respects and they wish to convey the same to you. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 12.12.04 | December 12, 1967 Calcutta, India My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of Your letter Dec. 2, 1967 with great pleasure. I am so glad to learn that we are receiving orders for our records from far distant places. It is all Krishna's mercy. You will be pleased to know that I have purchased my ticket for New York via Tokyo and San Francisco. I am starting tomorrow morning at nine-thirty. By evening reaching Tokyo via Bangkok and Hong Kong. I shall rest 24 hours in Tokyo and on the 14th at night, I am starting for San Francisco. By local time I am reaching San Francisco on the same day, the 14th at 12:45 p.m. by P.A.A. 846. Yesterday I have sent one telegram to this effect, and I hope I shall reach there safely as scheduled. I am so glad to learn that Satyavrata and yourself are trying to get the teachings of Lord Caitanya published. You do not know how pleased I am to hear this news. When one book is published I think I have conquered an empire. So try to publish as many books as possible and that will enhance the beauty and prestige of our society. You can just imagine how much powerful our society will become when we have many substantial literatures published. We should not only publish in English but also in other important languages such as French and German. I've also noted down your program for European tour. I am very glad that you are preparing the ground work for starting our centers in London, Amsterdam and Berlin. It may be that we can add another in Tokyo. Yes, we must have hundreds of such branches for preaching Krishna Consciousness all over the world. I have already made arrangements for supply of Saris, incense, musical instruments, mrdangams, karatalas, spices, etc. I am also arranging to print 2 volumes of Srimad-Bhagavatam in Delhi. Acyutananda and Ramanuja are going back to Vrindaban on the 15th after sending me off for San Francisco. I am already in negotiations with the government of Rajasthan for securing one palace in Vrndavana. This house is perhaps the best house not only in Vrindaban but also it is one of the best palaces in all of India. When you arrive in India you will see it and you will be pleased. I am leaving behind my dictaphone and when you come here you will take it back to me. I quite appreciate your program for contributing $3,000.00 in the matter of publishing Teaching of Lord Caitanya. Please finish the contract with MacMillan, take $1,000.00 from them, add $1,000.00 from the reserve fund to you, and take $1,000.00 from Satyavrata and get the book published immediately. You should not waste too much time for editing as we have done in the matter of Gita Upanisad. If there is good English it is welcome but we should not edit as Hayagriva has replaced "devotional service" with "knowledge of self". Knowledge of self is not complete until one is actually engaged in devotional service. There are many citizens who have complete sense of national knowledge but out of many of them, one who is engaged in national service like Washington or Gandhi, he becomes the most prominent with national consciousness. Similarly, when one is mature in knowledge of self, he must knows what is the duty of the self. The impersonalist due to poor fund of knowledge, forgets of the self. They are much concerned for being freed of all duties which is not possible by the living force. The living force is always dynamic, therefore the living entity cannot stop discharging duties. Real duty begins in Krishna Consciousness. The impersonalist cannot accommodate such spiritual activities of devotional service therefore they are satisfied only by so-called knowledge of self. I shall expect your reply in San Francisco. With Blessings for all your God-brothers and sisters, I am Your ever well-wisher A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 12.12.04 | 8 Dec 2004 Friday, December 8, 1967 Calcutta, India My Dear Krishna Devi and Subala das, Please accept my blessings. I am glad to learn that you are going to re-open your Santa Fe temple. Please make it a point that once a center is opened should not be closed. I have already given charge of six temples to six boys. You and your husband must take charge of the Santa Fe center and Krishna will bestow all blessings upon you. I shall be very soon one of your guests. Hope you are all well. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 8.12.04 | December 8, 1967 Calcutta, India My Dear Mukunda, Please accept my blessings. You will be glad to know that after the petty trouble in Calcutta and the city being normal, I have today booked my ticket for San Francisco via Tokyo. I am starting on Wednesday morning (Dec. 13) reaching Tokyo the same day. I shall rest there for 24 hours and then start for San Francisco arriving at 12:45 p.m. on Dec. 14 by flight PAA 846. I have got one general introduction letter from the mayor of Calcutta and it may be that I shall be meeting important people there. You will be glad to know that I have arranged with Messrs. Dwarkin & Son, 8.2 Esplanade East, Calcutta-1, to supply all kinds of musical instruments to our society at a special discount of 20%. Ramanuja has already written you about this thing. There is one company, the "American Mail Line" Navigation Service from Calcutta to San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc. They have got their office in San Francisco at #601 California Street. You can see the manager there and try to get free or concessional freight service for our temple goods. The only thing is that you have to impress upon them that Krishna Consciousness is an international organization for invoking man's dormant spiritual life. You can show him our other literatures, records and activities to convince him in this regard. You can also inform them that on the other side (Calcutta to New York) the Scindia Steam Navigation Co. has already given us facilities. We have also arranged for incense supply with a nice factory in Calcutta. I am carrying with me some varieties of samples. On the whole I have fixed up the carrying co., the musical co., the incense supply co., the cloth supply co., and all other things which you might require from India. You have no difficulty in getting things and you can chalk out your own program. Hope you are well. Your ever well-wisher A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 8.12.04 | 7 Dec 2004 Thursday, December 7, 1967 Calcutta, India My Dear Brahmananda, Please accept my blessings. I'm in due receipt of your letter of Nov. 30, and I duly appreciate your program for European tour, as well as coming to India for doing business. Actually we are experiencing Indian business dealing as not very prompt. The best thing is therefore to purchase goods ourselves from the firm, pack and book it all ourselves. SS Brijbasi has taken so much time for nothing, they do not even reply letters, but on the other hand they have promptly delivered Mukunda's order, this means that business managing is not regular. You can send the copy of the letter to Acyutananda in which they have acknowledged payment. Acyutananda and Ramanuja will return to Vrindaban next week and I am starting for Japan on Sun or Mon positively. I shall try to get some Friends there and also try to meet Prof Rudolf Stein in Hawaii. While I shall try to open some branches in the Pacific you can also try to open branches in parts of Europe as you have suggested in your letter under reply. I'm trying to find out some reliable man who can purchase goods and book them personally. If you come here it will be a nice idea, but you should come with money, purchase the goods and book them immediately. Air cargo will be too costly, we have already sent 1 tanpura to Mukunda and the cost was 106 Rs. but air cargo was 1,100 Rs. So you cannot do business by paying 11 times more than the cost for freight. Regarding books I've already consigned along with mrdangams harmoniums karatalas and beads & bags. I have arranged for supplying incense with a gentleman here and I'm taking samples with me. Similarly I've arranged for sending spices and frankincense. The contact with MacMillan should be finished before you leave. Your journey, as you have suggested is important for your touring in Europe. We cannot expect any tangible help from Miss Bowtell. She is not my godsister but a disciple of my godbrother. The best thing will be to start a center independently. Regarding beautifying the temple, we should always know that every place is temporary, but wherever we live we should decorate and beautify it for Krishna, so go on decorating our temple as nicely as possible. Hope you are well Your ever well-wisher A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 7.12.04 | |
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