a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1975 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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11 August 2008 Monday, 11 August, 1975 Indre, France Swami B.H. Bon Maharaja Rector, Institute of Oriental Philosophy Bhajan Kutir, Madan Mohan Ghera P.O Vrindaban, Dist. Mathura U.P. INDIA My Dear Sripada Bon Maharaja: Please accept my humble dandabats at your lotus feet. At the present moment I am staying in our French castle in the village of Lucay-le-Male. We have purchased recently 250 acres of land with a big palace. Some photos are enclosed herewith. I am now organizing in Europe and America many farm lands so that my devotees can live there peacefully, grow their own foodstuffs, produce cloth, and save time for chanting Hare Krishna. This scheme has been successful in New Vrindaban, West Virginia; New Orleans; and Pennsylvania. So the same attempt is being made here in France. This place is a little interior from Paris about 180 miles, and there are about 100 devotees already. They are growing vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and keeping cows with great enthusiasm. They are chanting Hare Krishna also village to village in buses, so the propaganda work is going on nicely. I have received recently one letter from Dhananjaya in which amongst other things he gives me the following information: "Now Bon Maharaja is prepared to make a proposition regarding allowing the construction of the Gurukula on two acres in his college property. He has assured us that the land will be registered in the Society's name." I have received your letter dated July 15, 1975, and I have replied from Los Angeles. I am very much anxious to start this Gurukula scheme immediately, and as you have kindly agreed to give us the vacant land for our Gurukula, I am starting for India immediately by cancelling other programs. From here I shall go to London for one or two days, and from there I shall take one Quantas plane which goes directly to Bombay in eight hours. Then I shall see Bombay affairs where we are constructing a very big temple and residential quarters. There are six houses of two stories already on a spacious land of 20,000 sq. yards. We have already constructed one floor more on each house to accommodate our devotees, and still we are constructing another two towers for receiving guests, as well as a very big temple in that land. After inspecting for a few days how things are going on there, I shall go back to Vrindaban via New Delhi, and if you kindly give us the land I shall begin the constructing of the Gurukula building immediately. I am coming here via Toronto and Montreal, and it was a great pleasure for me to know that you saw our temples there. Next time if you kindly come either to Europe or America please visit all our temples. Especially I will request you to visit our temples in Los Angeles, Detroit, London, and Paris (Lucay-le-Male.) I hope this meets you in good health. Affectionately yours, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Bon Maharaja, Gaudiya Matha, gurukula, land letters | 03:54 |11 August, 1975 Indre, France My Dear Dhananjaya das: Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters both dated July 30th, 1975 and have noted the contents. Regarding the plot of Bon Maharaja, I will speak with him personally. I am returning to India, and shall reach Bombay by the 14th instant. After seeing Bombay affairs I shall come to Vrindaban via New Delhi. Regarding men for Vrindaban, when I was in Toronto one British householder with wife and child has agreed to come. Please send me the list of all devotees there in Vrindaban giving their passport names, nationality, and passport number, and date of arrival in India. Send this list to Bombay. Krishna will arrange more men for you there. Do not worry. I have requested them to send more men from Canada. I am very glad to note that you are having the Phool bangla. It will be very popular. Tell me how it was held. That you are expecting 30,000 people for Jhulana Yatra is wonderful. You should distribute liberally prasadam. Aksayananda Maharaja will supply money. Let each man be given prasadam. That is our special program. I thank you very much for the photos you have sent. The translation specimen is all right. Please arrange to have this man come and see me when I come there. Navayogendra can also personally guide the translators. The temple there should be kept very nicely. Some one was saying that the front well has been spoiled. Regarding the adjacent land for sale, yes, it is not to be done in this indirect way. Let them take money from us openly and give us the land. We are prepared to pay for 5,000 sq. yards Rs. 20/- per sq. yard. If Bon Maharaja gives us land, still we can purchase this land for future expansion. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Bon Maharaja, land, Vrindavan letters | 03:53 |3 August 2008 Sunday, 3 August, 1975 Detroit My Dear Saurabha das: Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 25, 1975 with enclosed sketch and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the land offered by Bon Maharaja, if it cannot be in our name then we shall not take it. Why he cannot lease the land, or sell it to us? He wrote me that I can develop the Gurukula "as I desire," but who will possess the land? I am prepared to cooperate with him, but if our money is there, then also our management must be there. What does it mean that he would like to come with me for preaching? Does he want to travel with me? Regarding the east side adjacent land, why don't you purchase it? The price has already been settled at Rs. 20/- per sq. yard. You should immediately purchase. The money is there in the bank, so go to the bank. Why there so much delay? So many men are there, Gopala Krishna, Pranava, etc. What is Pranava doing? The M-V Trust will pay, so do not worry about Vishvambar. What is his family business? Anyway, purchase the land first, then we shall see about the scheme. If there is some difficulty about investigation of the sellers properties, then go together to the D.M. and arrange for the seller not to be investigated if possible. You are all simply writing letters to me. Without my personal presence there you cannot do anything. Simply correspondence. Anyway, be careful there is no underhanded dealings in this transaction. It is very much risky, so be careful. Regarding Bombay, yes the tenants have no right for recreation area. They are paying for the rooms at much less price, so they can remain in their rooms. They cannot have playing ground. This is not in the Rent Act. We cannot spare any land. We will construct land on all available space. They can go to the public park for playing. All vacant land should be developed with buildings. We want sufficient income. Yes, please send me regular report of the Bombay construction. I am very much anxious and will be glad to receive your regular reports. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Bombay, Bon Maharaja, negotiation, Vrindavan letters | 09:22 |25 July 2008 25 July, 1975 Los Angeles My Dear Saurabha das: Please accept my blessings. I have received one letter from Swami Bon Maharaja regarding his meeting with you to show you the land he is willing to spare for our Gurukula project. Which land did he show you? What is the area of the land? Is it suitable for Gurukula? I want the land just in front of our temple. The entrance to the Gurukula will be on the road, and we shall partition this land from the rest of the land with a wall. I shall talk further in detail with Bon Maharaja personally when I return there to Vrindaban. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs cc: Bombay Labels: Bon Maharaja, Vrindavan letters | 03:45 |24 July 2008 Thursday, 24 July, 1975 Los Angeles His Holiness Swami B.H. Bon Maharaja, D.Lit., I.Ph.D., D.D., D.D., D.Theos., D. AEH. Institute of Oriental Philosophy Vrindaban, Dist. Mathura U.P., INDIA My Dear Sripada Bon Maharaja: Please accept my dandabats at your lotus feet. I thank you very much for your kind letter dated July 15, 1975 and have noted the contents carefully. Your letter was addressed to our San Francisco temple, and it is forwarded to me here in Los Angeles. The day after tomorrow I am going to San Diego via Laguna Beach. Then I shall go to Dallas, New Orleans, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, New York, and then New Vrindaban, West Virginia. From there I shall go to Europe to London and Paris, and then I shall return to Bombay perhaps via Africa by the month of October. Regarding your proposal for a guest house, we have already got it, a guest house of 75 rooms well equipped. The Governor Dr. Channa Reddy was very pleased with it, but we can extend the guest house program more if we get suitable land. So I can immediately accept your proposal for Gurukula and guest house provided you give us the vacant land in front of our temple. This land is lying vacant without any use. So if you spare this land just behind your college building, we can immediately begin the construction work. The best thing will be that if you charge some nominal price for the land or as you like it. Then we can use the land independently according to our plan. Immediately we do not require any guest house, but in expectation of a future influx of guests we can construct another house along with the Gurukula building. So either in the newly constructed guest house or the guest house already constructed our scheme is to receive paying guests. So for the Gurukula it will be very suitable if you spare the front land or back side of your college building. That will be very kind of you. Our Philadelphia Ratha Yatra was very attractive and successful; similarly the San Francisco Rathayatra was also. Some of the Indian saints Shushil Muni Maharaja and Yogi Bhajan and many others attended the ceremony. They also appreciated our activities. I have not received any report from Saurabha das about his meeting with you in Vrindaban. Nowadays the construction of a guest house is a very costly affair. We have spent about Rs. 50 lakhs for our temple and guest house in Vrindaban and with great difficulty. Regarding the library building, I am only interested in Caitanya philosophy. As it is stated in the Caitanya Caritamrta, sri krsna caitanya daya karaha vicara/ vicara karile citte pabe camatkare. "If you are indeed interested in logic and argument, kindly apply it to the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. If you do so, you will find it to be strikingly wonderful." (Adi lila 8:15.) But, in the library other books may be kept for comparative study by the scholars. I have no objection, but our main purpose will be to accelerate the grandeur of Caitanya philosophy. On this basis I have full cooperation. Besides that I have got about a half a dozen students who are Ph.Ds in different subjects, but they are all expert in Caitanya philosophy. If you so desire, their service can be utilized in this connection. If we fully cooperate on this Institution plan, I can attract students from all over the world such as America, Europe, Canada, Australia and the Middle East. In all these places we have got our centers and there are many students. So when I arrive in Vrindaban we shall discuss these things in detail, and if possible we can take up the library program at that time. In the meantime if you decide to give us the land in front of our temple we can immediately begin the construction. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Bon Maharaja, guest house, gurukula, Vrindavan letters | 03:42 |18 July 2008 18 July, 1975 Berkeley My Dear Dhananjaya das: Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 14, 1975 and have noted the contents. Yes, if you get guests there in the asrama you can easily make them Life and Patron members. For a gentleman who stays with us there is no difficulty in paying one or two thousand Rupees for this purpose. They come there to Vrindaban to spend for religious purpose their money. But, those who stay with us must be well behaved. From our side we will attend to their needs and make them comfortable, and from their side they must be clean and attend the aratis. Somehow or other they must be induced to take interest in spiritual life. Then it will be successful. You will get money and they will get spiritual profit. Both will be benefited by the grace of Krishna Balarama. Continue your prasada distribution. This is very important. Yes, make the whole place full of gardens. Especially the small separation wall between my quarters and the temple should be filled with plants and creepers where there are the holes for putting in the plants. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami N.B. You should go see Swami Bon Maharaja and ask if he has replied to my last letter to him, a copy of which is enclosed. You should take a copy of his reply and send it to me c/o Los Angeles address. ACBS Labels: bhetnama, Bon Maharaja, Vrindavan letters | 05:39 |7 July 2008 Monday, 7 July, 1975 Evanston, Illinois Rector, Institute of Oriental Philosophy Vrndavana My Dear Sripada Bon Maharaja: Please accept my humble dandavats. I thank you very much for your letter dated June 18, 1975 and I have noted the contents carefully. I left Honolulu on the 30th of June for Los Angeles where I stayed for one week, then I left for Denver where I stayed for one week, then I have come to Chicago, and I am staying in our temple at the above address. Enclosed are two newspaper clippings from the Chicago newspapers concerning my arrival. Here we shall observe the Ratha Yatra festival on the twelfth of July and grand arrangement is being prepared with the cooperation of the local authorities. The Ratha will be taken downtown to Chicago as usual. So after making all these arrangements I shall have to go to go to Philadelphia where I shall attend the Ratha Yatra ceremony, and then I shall go to San Francisco where as usual our Ratha Yatra will take place for the seventh year. The Mayor of the city of San Francisco has declared two days local holiday for this particular ceremony. This will take place on the 20th of July. If you could have found the time to come to Hawaii, I thought I would take you with me to all these places and surely you would appreciate my humble attempts. I thank you very much for your appreciation, "A wonderful job in this country." Sripada Sridhara Maharaja also appreciated my service. He said that Caitanya Mahaprabhu's prediction: prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama/ sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama, would remain a dream only, but he congratulated me that I have done it practically. I do not know how things are going on automatically by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, because I have no other assets except his causeless mercy. I am glad to know that you visited some of our centers in Canada. Prof. O'Connell is well known to me. Last he met me in London. He sent a copy of his review of Prof. Stillson Judah's book, Hare Krishna and Counterculture. This book is a favorable presentation of our movement of Hare Krishna in this country, and he has done it very scholarly. I have seen in the book that your good name and Sripada Tirtha's name are also there. We are also having good sales of our books about 50 in number amongst educated circles both in America and Europe with good appreciation. Enclosed is one pamphlet published in Dutch. We are publishing in all languages. Last time we met in Vrindaban in that matter of your institution. I gave you my decision, and you were to reply your decision, but I never heard from you in this connection. If there is any possibility of co-operation I am still ready for it. Apart from this, I wish to start a Gurukula Institution in Vrindaban for educating small children attached to my temple. You have enough land still vacant. Therefore I request you to spare some land in the front of my Krsna Balarama temple. It will be a great mercy upon me. I hope by this time you have gone _______ can reply this letter to my San Francisco address which is as follows: [Text missing] Labels: Bon Maharaja, Gaudiya Matha, gurukula, Stillson Judah letters | 05:08 |5 June 2008 Thursday, 5 June, 1975 Honolulu His Holiness, Sri Srimad B.H. Bon Maharaja c/o Joseph T. O'Connell St. Michael's College University of Toronto My dear Sripada Bon Maharaja, Please accept my humble dandavats. When I was in Vrndavana, I was informed that you were staying in New York, but I do not know what is your address. Now, I understand that you are staying with Professor Joseph T. O'Connell. So, I am addressing this letter to his care and I hope you will receive it. One of my disciples informed me that you had been in our Toronto temple. Now, I invite you to come to Hawaii. The climate is very nice here and I wish that we may pass a few days together in this nice climate. I hope this meets you in good health. Your obedient servant, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: Bon Maharaja, Hawaii, Toronto letters | 04:26 |4 June 2008 Wednesday, 4 June, 1975 Honolulu My dear Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 31, 1975 and have noted the contents. Thank you very much for working so hard to distribute my books in the Libraries. This is very much pleasing. You will make your whole country Krishna Conscious in this way. Regarding the book review booklet, it can be included in another small booklet which I have just told Ramesvara to print called, The Hare Krishna Movement. The Miami situation is a great discredit for us because we have made such a bad impression on the neighbors that they have had us kicked out. This is because of nasty management. Rupanuga was the GBC, and now you are, why it cannot be made clean? Abhirama has proved his poor management, so he must be replaced. If you sell the old buildings and buy some land as proposed, it may be very nice. One thing is though, if the management continues to be so nasty, then that place will also be ruined. Management must be done very nicely otherwise it is useless. Regarding your staying in Houston, yes, but do not neglect your other business. Jagadisa can take over New Orleans management. Yes, you will be my GBC traveling secretary in August. Regarding, Bon Maharaja, I am actually authority accepted by authority. In the Caitanya Caritamrta it is said, krsna sakti vina nahe nama pracar. So, now the Hare Krishna movement is world known, and learned scholars, etc. give plaudits to me as Professor Judah has. So, then why I am not authority? Nobody says Bon Swami has done it, or Vivekananda, or any other swami. There are so many yogis and swamis coming, but nobody is giving credit to them, they are giving the credit to me. So, why I am not an authority? If Krishna accepts me as authority, then who can deny it? Besides that, in 1933, Bon was given the first chance to preach Lord Caitanya's movement in London. He remained there about four years and not a single person could be converted to become a Vaisnava and he was receiving regularly RS 700 per month for his expenditure, being supported by the whole Gaudiya Math institution, and still, as he could not do anything appreciable, he was called back by Guru Maharaja. Then where is his authority? Our authority comes from Parampara system. If the Guru was not satisfied with him and called him back, and since then, he gave up connection with Gaudiya Math and started his own institution, then how he becomes authority? And in spite of all these things, if he is still authority by his own imagination, then people should ask him what he has been doing for the last 40 years, about the objective of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Even if he thinks that he has done, certainly he has not done better than me. Under the circumstances, accepting him as an authority, I am greater and better authority than him. So, all Vaisnavas are authorities to preach Krishna Consciousness, but still, there are degrees of authorities. On the whole, if his motive is to suppress me and if that is why he has come here, how we can receive him? He has already given one Professor a wrong impression. He may be treated as a guest, if he comes to our center, give him prasadam, honor him as an elder Vaisnava, but he cannot speak or lecture. If he wants to lecture, you can tell him that there is already another speaker scheduled. That's all. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: authority, Bon Maharaja, Gaudiya Matha, GBC, Los Angeles letters | 03:28 | |
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