April 22, 1972
Gainesville
My dear Dharma,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 14, 1972 and I have noted the contents. Actually, Krishna does not care for how much we give to Him, but He sees how much we are keeping back for ourselves. There is the story of Kholaveca Sridhara, a devotee of Lord Caitanya, who although he was a very poor man, gave half of his meager income for worshiping Mother Ganges, and by so doing, he greatly pleased the Lord. It is not so much important the quantity of books that we distribute, but that we serve Krishna as best we can, and depend on Him for the results. Transcendental competition is nice, but it should not come to the point of making us lose our Krishna consciousness. When you have these feelings, do not mistake it for enviousness, but take it to be an indirect appreciation of the service done by your other Godbrothers. This is spiritual. In the material world, when someone surpasses us in some way we become angry and plan how to stop him, but in the spiritual world when someone does some better service we think "Oh, he has done so nicely. Let me help him to execute his service." So we should always endeavor to keep this attitude, and serve Lord Krishna to the best of our ability. That will make one advance in spiritual life.
Hoping this will meet you in good health and happy mood.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
ACBS/nkd