a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1975 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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9 November 2008 9 November, 1975 Bombay My dear Karuna Sindhu das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated October 24, 1975 and I have noted the contents. I am very glad to receive your letter. I can understand this cunning Purusottama das has taken advantage of your simplicity. So any one of my godbrothers cannot help me in this way of book writing because they are unfortunate in the matter of preaching work. They are simply trying to infiltrate our society to so something harmful by their attempt. So please do not have any correspondence with this Purusottama or any of my godbrothers, so-called. And do not do anything without consulting me. You can inform this instruction to everyone and send back to me the sheets of corrections sent to you by Purusottama. I was very much anxious to know how Purusottama entered in our camp. Now the matter is clear. Be careful for further dealings with such men. I hope this finds you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/BS/mdd Labels: Gaudiya Matha, infiltrate, Los Angeles letters | 01:53 |17 October 2008 17 October, 1975 Johannesburg My dear Ramesvara das, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 19, 1975, and I have noted the contents carefully. If Dr. Wolf has become envious then we must simply avoid him. What is his complaint? The idea of the nursery school is very good idea. I have instructed Pusta Krishna Swami to issue one newsletter to the temple presidents, GBC, and sannyasis concerning the nefarious activities of Swami Bon. Kindly copy this and send out to all the temples accordingly that they should have no dealings with Swami Bon or others who are envious. You will find this letter enclosed. I hope that this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/pks Labels: Gaudiya Matha, Los Angeles letters | 02:02 |2 September 2008 Tuesday, 2 September, 1975 Vrindaban Sri Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha, Secretary Sri Caitanya Gaudiya Math 35, Satish Mukherjee Road, Calcutta-26 My Dear Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha: Please accept my best wishes. I am in due receipt of your invitation card for the Annual Sri Krishna Janmastami Celebration and I thank you very much for it. I am here in Vrindaban where we are holding our Janmastami and Vyasa Puja ceremony at our Krishna Balarama Mandir. I hope this meets you in good health. Yours faithfully, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami N.B. I am enclosing herewith a copy of the latest Hare Krishna Explosion which is published from our Hyderabad branch for your perusal. ACBS/bs Labels: Gaudiya Matha, Janmastami letters | 03:16 |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 |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 |10 June 2008 10 June, 1975 Honolulu Sri Caitanya Gaudiya Math, Puri My dear Ananga Mahan dasa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 31-5-75 and have noted the contents. I am returning to Vrndavana by October. At that time, you please see me, and we shall talk about your program. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: Gaudiya Matha letters | 19:46 |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 |11 May 2008 11 May, 1975 Perth, Australia Sri Caitanya Gaudiya Math Puri My dear Sri Ananga Mahan dasa, Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter in Bengali dated 16-4-75 and have noted the contents. It is understood that you are arranging for passport for going to the foreign countries and if you will get it, there will be no difficulty to see our temples in the foreign countries. I hope you have at least 7,000 rs. for your ticket along with return ticket. There will be no difficulty to stay in our different temples and when you are ready, you can write to my Honolulu address as follows: 51 Coelho Way, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. I will reach there by the end of this month. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: Gaudiya Matha letters | 04:49 |9 April 2008 Wednesday, 9 April, 1975 Mayapur Indupati Brahmacari Sri Caitanya Gaudiya Math Mathura Rd., Vrndavana My dear Sripada Brahmacariji, Please accept my humble obeisances. I am in due receipt of your letter (in Bengali) dated 29-3-75. I am advising my men in Vrndavana to begin the function from the 16th of April as desired by you. Thanking you for your suggestion. Yours respectfully, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: Gaudiya Matha letters | 06:20 |8 March 2008 Saturday, 8 March, 1975 Bhaktivedanta Manor Personal My dear Sripada Madhava Maharaja, Please accept my humble dandavats. I thank you very much for your letter dated Feb. 5th, 1975, addressed to our Hawaii temple. I started from Bombay on the 24th of January, and then via Hong Kong and Tokyo, I reached Hawaii on the 29th of January. Then, I left Hawaii for Los Angeles and Mexico. From Mexico, I went to Caracas, South American countries, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, and New York. And just last night I arrived in London at the below address. Your letter arrived in Hawaii after I had already left that place and I received your letter redirected to New York only two days ago. So, just now, I am getting the opportunity to reply your kind letter. A similar letter was addressed to Sripada Sridhara Maharaja inviting him, but he has not objected to the temple being open on the Srim Rama Navami day. Sridhara Maharaja on account of his uncertain health condition will not be able to take any active part in celebrating the ceremony, but he has promised to come provided his health permits. I have therefore entrusted the matter to a learned pandita, brahmana, Bhimasena Vedacarya, a great astrologer and learned brahmana. He has agreed to conduct the ceremony. Details may be discussed as soon as I return to India by the 16th of March in Bombay, then we will have a detailed program. Another thing is that I have invited the Governor of U.P., Mr. Channa Reddy and he has also agreed to join the ceremony. Under the circumstances, I don't think it will be possible to change the scheduled date. If we change the date, the Governor may not be available because he has his program fixed up. On my return to India, I shall again try to revise the whole situation as far as possible and let you know. I hope this meets you in good health. Yours obediently, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Svami ACBS/ps Labels: Gaudiya Matha, Vrindavan letters | 12:25 |14 February 2008 Friday, 14 February, 1975 Mexico City My dear Sripada Sridhara Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. I thank you very much for your kind letter dated 1-1-1975 and I have noted the contents with great pleasure. I left India on the 26th January from Bombay and I went to Hong Kong and Tokyo. Then I went to Hawaii and I received your letter there. Then I went to Los Angeles. Now I am staying at our Mexico City temple at the address below. Here the Mexicans are taking part in sankirtana and Deity worship very nicely. They have become very good devotees. In the neighboring countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic we have also got our temples. So, I am touring in these temples to see how things are going on, and by the grace of Krishna, everyone is becoming Krishna Conscious. I shall be reaching India by the 15th of March and by the 20th of March, I shall be in Calcutta. If possible, Sriman Govinda may see me in Calcutta in our temple at 3 Albert Road, near Camac St. off of Theater road. At that time, I may be informed about your health and then I shall do the needful. As you have mentioned in your letter under reply that you cannot take any active part in executing the performances, I have asked my assistants in Vrndavana to take help from the local panditas in Vrndavana to do the needful. I have asked them to invite all different categories of saintly persons and devotees to take part in the ceremony. I am very much thankful to your Holiness for your good wishes in the matter of my preaching work. Factually, it is all being done by the grace of Prabhupada and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, otherwise it was not possible. Srila Prabhupada was very much fond of publishing books and he especially advised me to preach in English language. So, by his blessings, we have now about 30 big books of 400 pages and more than 20 small booklets in English and all of these books and booklets are being translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Swahili, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Italian, etc. Thanking you once again for your kind letter and more when we meet. Yours affectionately, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Svami ACBS/ps Labels: Gaudiya Matha, Navadvipa, Vrindavan letters | 18:38 |15 January 2008 Wednesday, 15 January, 1975 Bombay My dear Sripada Sridhara Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. I beg to inform you that I have arranged for the opening of the temple in Vrndavana on Sri Ram Navami day by the 20th of April 1975. Perhaps you know it that the ceremony was to take place on last Janmastami, but as the temple was not finished at that time, it could not be. Therefore, it was postponed. I wish to know whether your Holiness will kindly participate in this ceremony during that time to install the deity properly according to the Hari-bhakti-Vilasa regulations. His Excellency, the Governor of Uttar Pradesh has kindly consented to join us during the ceremony. So, I shall be very glad to hear from you in this respect by return post. I am obliging. I hope this meets you in good health and thanking you in anticipation for an early reply. Yours obediently, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Svami ACBS/ps Labels: Gaudiya Matha, Navadvipa, Vrindavan letters | 17:19 |14 January 2008 Tuesday, 14 January, 1975 Bombay Puri My dear Sripada Madhava Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. I understand from the letter of Asita das that he has gone to your place in Jagannatha Puri. He has asked permission from me for taking initiation from you. I have given him my permission and you can initiate him if you like so that he may increase his devotional service there. By the by, I beg to inform you that I have arranged for the opening of the temple in Vrndavana on Sri Ram Navami day by the 20th of April, 1975. Perhaps you know it that the ceremony was to take place on last Janmastami, but as the temple was not finished at that time, it could not be. Therefore, it was postponed. I wish to know whether your Holiness will kindly participate in this ceremony during that time to install the deity properly according to the Hari-bhakti-Vilasa regulations. His Excellency, the Governor of Uttar Pradesh has kindly consented to join us during the ceremony. So, I shall be very glad to hear from you in this respect by return post. I am obliging. I hope this meets you in good health, and thanking you in anticipation for an early reply. Yours obediently, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Svami ACBS/ps Labels: Gaudiya Matha, initiation, Vrindavan letters | 15:34 | |
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