a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1967 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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24 Dec 2004 Sunday, December 24, 1967 San Francisco, Calif. My Dear Nandakisora, Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to accept you. I am in due receipt of your letter of Dec. 24, and I am very glad to accept you as one of the servitors of Krishna. You are right when you say our past life is a dream only. Just like at night we see so many dreams and in daytime we forget everything. Similarly we forget everything of our past life and as such so long we do not be reposed to our spiritual factual life, all these changes of lives one after another are considered to be dreams. Less intelligent persons are very much interested in dreaming life, but one who is intelligent enough he searches after eternal life. The modern civilization does not understand what is eternal life. They are busy with the spot life of 50 or 100 years. Fools cannot think that one is not for 50 or 100 years, but one is for eternity. Krishna consciousness is the life of eternity and I am glad you are interested in it. So I am sending you beads chanted by me and your name is Nandakisora Brahmacari. Please follow the rules and regulations and ask Brahmananda about these rules and regulations. He will help you. Krishna consciousness is the process of eternal life. The process is simple and the results are sublime. You follow it and you will be happy in this life as well as in the next. I do not know whether you sent me these beads from N.Y. with stamped envelope; if you sent it, that is all right. Otherwise someone has sent them and I am missing his name. Anyway you can chant on these beads and inquire if anyone is missing his beads. Then I can send another (if these are not sent by you.) Hope you are well, Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Labels: initiation, philosophyt letters | 24.12.04 |5 May 2004 5 May, 1967 New York, N.Y My dear Ballabhi, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated April 27, 1967. 1 am very glad to learn that you are making advance in Krishna Consciousness very sincerely. While chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna you should always feel the presence of Krishna in Person and as soon as you remember Krishna in Person you can remember also about His talks with Arjuna. If you cannot remember Krishna in Person you should try to hear attentively the word Krishna, Hare as you go on chanting. The correct spelling of your name is Ballabhi. The meaning of this word is that one who tries to please Krishna in all respects. The spirit soul does not evolve like the body. The body has got six transformations, namely, the body takes its birth, it grows, it remains for some time, it produces some by-products and it dwindles and then it vanishes. All these six changes of the body are not applicable to the soul. The soul is permanent. It has no development, no decrease, no destruction, nothing of the sort as compared with the body. The only difficulty of the soul is that in the conditioned state of material body, the soul is supposed to forget its identity; by chanting Hare Krishna gradually the soul revives its identity or it comes out from the forgetfulness. This is not exactly development, but it is reviving one's consciousness. Everything will be gradually clear as you go on chanting Hare Krishna. Please try to chant at least 16 rounds of the beads and while chanting try to hear each and every word. That will make you advance in every respect. If you analyze yourself very scrutinizingly then you will find that you are spirit soul. How can you do it if you think of yourself, what you are, you will analyze that you are not this body, you are not this hand, you are not this leg, you are not this mouth, but you are something. And what is that something? That something is continuing. When you were a child that something was there, when you were a little more, a girl, then that same something was there and now you are a young girl,, the same something is there, and when you will be old enough, the same something is there. Therefore, this same something is there even you have changed your body in so many ways. Therefore next conclusion should be that even if you change to another body, that something will continue. Therefore that something will continue. All this truth about the soul will gradually develop as you go on chanting Hare Krishna. If you try to follow my instruction you will feel that my body is in your presence always. I know that you all devotees of San Francisco are very much anxious to get me back there and I am also trying to go back there as soon as possible, in the meantime go on with your chanting and hearing and everything will be all right by the grace of Krishna. I hope this will find you all right. Your ever well-wisher, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Labels: initiation, philosophyt, San Francisco letters | 5.5.04 | |
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