a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1975 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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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 |11 June 2008 Wednesday, 11 June, 1975 Honolulu Professor Stillson Judah Graduate Theological Union Library 2451 Ridge Rd., Berkeley, California My dear Professor Judah, Please accept my greetings. Your kind letter dated June 6, 1975 in hand, I thank you very much for this. The chapter five of Caitanya-caritamrta is already dispatched yesterday by post. It is my great delight that you have realized how Krishna Consciousness has transformed lives from drug addicted hippies to loving servants of Krishna and humanity. Loving service of Krishna is so exalted, that it automatically turns loving service to humanity. Krishna is just like the root of the tree and if you pour water on the root, it automatically reaches other parts of the tree. It is said in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, yasyasti bhaktir bhagavaty akincana sarvair gunais tatra samasate surah harav abhaktasya kuto mahad-guna manorathenasati dhavato bahih [SB 5.18.12] If a person has unflinching devotion at the lotus feet of Hari (God), then all the good qualities of great personalities like the demigods, automatically becomes manifest in the person of a devotee. Whereas a non-devotee, even he is decorated with material qualities, he is forced to act on the material plane and he stays in temporary field of activities. The idea is that spirit-soul is eternal and the material body is temporary, or for the sake of sense gratification. The mental plane is also material. People being forced to stay on the material platform, they are planning for temporary happiness, and being frustrated, they are jumping from one platform to another which are all temporary. But, fortunately, if one becomes situated on the platform of Krishna Consciousness, then his jumping over material platforms becomes ceased. It is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita as follows: yam labdhva caparam labham, manyate nadhikam tatah - upon gaining this, he thinks that there is no greater gain. So, at the present moment, there is great necessity to give to the human society Krishna, or God. Everyone speaks of God, but nobody has clear idea what is God, or where is God. We Hare Krishna people are trying to do our best to say, "here is God, Krishna." So, please try to co-operate with this movement and I am sure the world will be happy. I am coming to Los Angeles on the 20th of June, and more when we meet. Yours very sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: Srimad Bhagavatam, Stillson Judah letters | 03:50 |10 June 2008 10 June, 1975 Honolulu My dear Jagadisa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 5, 1975 and have noted the contents. Yes, when you go to the court in Mexico, show them a copy of Professor Stillson Judah's book, Hare Krishna and the Counterculture, and a copy of the letter from him to me which I have enclosed. Our movement is a genuine movement and we are being accepted as such by the higher educational circles all over the world. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: Dallas, Stillson Judah letters | 02:02 |8 June 2008 8 June, 1975 Honolulu My dear Sudama, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 2, 1975 and have noted the contents. Last time, when I saw you in Hawaii, and I saw that you had become mad, I was very surprised how you had become like that. So, I prayed to Krishna to bring you back. Now, be very careful. Don't make any mistakes. Keep company with Bhavananda. He is very sincere. Also keep Gargamuni with you. Now, the scholarly section of society is accepting our philosophy. Perhaps you have seen Professor Judah's book. So, we have got so many things to do, strictly on Lord Caitanya's principle. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: become mad, Chicago, Stillson Judah letters | 03:41 |3 June 2008 Tuesday, 3 June, 1975 Honolulu My dear Jayananda dasa, Please accept my blessings. The book, Hare Krishna and the Counterculture, written by Professor Judah, the copy of which was presented to you was lying here at Honolulu temple. I have read it with great interest. Just to congratulate the Professor, I am enclosing herewith a letter to him. I do not know his address therefore I am sending it through you. I wish to present him also one copy of the book titled, Lord Caitanya in Five Features. So, kindly immediately see him with my letter and the book and congratulate him on my behalf. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps Labels: San Francisco, Stillson Judah letters | 05:23 |3 June, 1975 Honolulu My Dear Professor Stillson Judah, Please accept my humble greeting and blessings of Lord Krishna. Since I have come to Honolulu from Melbourne, I got the opportunity to read your nice book, Hare Krishna and the Counterculture, with profound interest. I am also very much obliged to you as you have shown to me so much mercy, even by illustrating my photograph instead of your goodness. The presentation has been done just fit for ready by all scholars and educationists. If you so permit I can ask my assistants to publish some important extracts from your work in our magazine BTG for benefit of all our readers. Besides that we can sell your book also along with our other books by arrangement. I don't know what is exactly your address and therefore I am dispatching this letter through my disciple Sriman Jayananda Adhikari. I shall be very glad to meet you again when I go to the mainland. You have taken so much pain for writing this book and I thank you very much again & again. May Lord Krishna bless you more & more. Yours very sincerely N.B. I take this opportunity to present you one chapter of my translation of Caitanya Caritamrta under the caption Lord Caitanya in Five Features. Labels: Caitanya Caritamrta, San Francisco, Stillson Judah letters | 05:22 | |
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