a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1975 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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11 September 2008 Thursday, 11 September, 1975 Vrindaban My Dear Sri Ramchandra Chabriaji: Please accept my blessings. Here in Vrindaban we have constructed one Guest House by our Krishna Balarama Mandir. The Guest House contains 44 Guest Rooms not including the rooms for our own men. I wish that you may kindly come here to Vrindaban to train up my men how to organize and run the Guest House nicely. I think one week will be sufficient. We shall pay all your expenses in coming and going from Bombay. I am here in Vrindaban, and shall look forward to seeing you. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs Labels: Bombay, guest house, Vrindavan letters | 05:36 |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 |10 June 2008 10 June, 1975 Honolulu My dear Caityaguru dasa, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 6, 1975 and have noted the contents. The idea of the Bhetnama system is that the man pays the cost of the room and we make a plate with his name on it saying, "the cost was payed by such and such person." Whenever he may come, he can use the room. And when he is gone we will use the room for other guests, but if he may come the room will immediately be made available. After his death, his heirs cannot make any claim on the room. While staying with us, they must follow the principles and there should be a certain limit to how long they can stay. For the details, I think Giriraja can find out how it is done at Tirupati and other temples in India and let you know. I will ask him to do so and inform you. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Will you kindly let me know what Guru Nanakji has said about Lord Krishna and Lord Rama in his Granth Sahib? How we can cooperate with the sikh community? ACBS/ps Labels: bhetnama, guest house, Nairobi, sikh letters | 02:04 |26 May 2008 26 May, 1975 Honolulu My dear Aksayananda Swami and Dhananjaya, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 17th, 1975 and have noted the contents. I was very much encouraged by this nice report you have given. Continue to organize the guest house. This is very important. Do it very nicely with the co-operation of Dr. Verma. In the evening, you must have many varieties of first class ghee-cooked preparations offered to the Deity and you can sell the prasadam. The L.A. standard is good, but still you should have a better standard. You should make kacoris, samosa, etc. If it is required, a professional confectioner may be employed. The Deity worship must be done very gorgeously. The 24 hour chanting is very encouraging to me. Please continue all as I have given you. I have full faith in both you. Kindly execute the routine work very nicely. Please send me a weekly report of how things are going on. Keep the accounts carefully and occasionally, they may be audited by Vishvambara's brother. Also, what about the Punjab National Bank opening a branch at our temple? Either Syndicate Bank or Punjab National Bank must open a branch on our land and pay 300 rs. rent. If they are not willing, then approach State Bank of Central Bank. Ask Gopala Krishna to complete the negotiations for the 5,000 sq. yds. of land. He's in charge of that. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami N.B. I am very glad to hear that Pradyumna is teaching English and that the classes are going on. Please continue this. ACBS/ps Labels: guest house, Vrindavan letters | 03:19 | |
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