Self-sufficient (Letters)

Expressions researched:
"self sufficient" |"self supported" |"self-sufficiency" |"self-sufficient" |"self-supported" |"self-supporting"

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to R. Prakash -- Allahabad 22 June, 1951:

The Government shall only meet the initial expenses only to give a __ of this movement and gradually this will be self supported by public sympathisers. I said in this connection Sri M.S. ___ ___ Governor of Bihar and had along interview on the subject. Dr. Rajendra Prasad also has his good wishes for me. But I could not give the starting for financial difficulties, I want Rs 10,000/- to give it a starting.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Subala -- Montreal 23 June, 1968:

Rest assured that your hard labor and sincere exertion to serve Krishna will never go in vain. I hope that by this time you might have received a check for $100 from Hare Nama Brahmacari. And I have advised him to send you at least $50.00 per month for the next 3 months to help you. In the meantime, you try to become self sufficient.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Brahmananda -- Tittenhurst 3 October, 1969:

You will be glad to know that our center in Tokyo, a few miles away from the capital, in the city of Kyoto, is already established. I think you are in correspondence with Bali Mardan Prabhu. I am so glad to learn that immediately they have become self-sufficient by collecting in the kirtana program. This is very encouraging.

Letter to Madhusudana -- London 23 November, 1969:

In the Brahma Samhita it is said that His parts of the body, or limbs, each of them has got potency of the others. For example, with our eyes we can see only, but we cannot eat. But Krishna's eyes can not only see, but also eat and beget children also. In the Vedas it is said that He put His glance over Maya and impregnated her with all the living entities. Therefore, although He has got genitals, necessarily He does not require to use it for the same purpose as we do. There is another instance that Garbhodakasayi Visnu begot Lord Brahma from His abdomen, navel, and the Goddess of Fortune, Laksmi, was nearby. She was just massaging the Lord's Lotus Feet, but He did not require the help of the Goddess of Fortune to beget Lord Brahma. That is His omnipotence. He is self sufficient. He has got all the limbs for all the purposes, but He can use all of them for any purpose. This is inconceivable by us. We should not therefore compare our bodily function with Krishna's. His conjugal relationship with the Gopis is not exactly in the same way as we have girlfriends, neither the Gopis made friendship with Krishna exactly in the same fashion as here in this material world a girl makes friendship with a boy. They are different spheres of activities.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Tamala Krsna -- Los Angeles 8 February, 1970:

You have written to say that you cannot go to Hamburg or Paris to organize their activities, but actually you were left in London for the purpose of organizing these three centers. If you stick only to London Temple then our former scheme will not be executed. I think, it is proper that you should devote your time for all these three centers and train the local management for being self-supporting. As you are helping London Temple, similarly you should help the Hamburg and Paris Temples also. I think that was our original plan, and you should not change the same.

Letter to Balmukundji Parikh -- Los Angeles 11 February, 1970:

Our movement is for preaching the sankirtana vibration, so while the brahmacaris and vanaprasthas or the sannyasis take to this preaching work, the grhasthas or householders can maintain the temple and institution. In India, you have said, the temples are richest because the grhasthas support them. In this country also the householders support the churches. So for the inmates of the temple, namely brahmacaris or the priests (even though they are grhasthas, householders), they do not work outside. They are maintained by the outside grhasthas. But so far as our London Temple is concerned, it is not yet self-supported, although the expenditure is very high. I think you are also one of the important members of our London Temple, so you can suggest to the directors how the expenditures can be minimized.

Letter to Candanacarya, Bharadraja -- Los Angeles 9 May, 1970:

So it is very nice. Lord Caitanya has introduced a very nice system of self-realization through arts and songs. Both of you are expert in singing and musical science as well as painting work. Now by the grace of Krsna your talents are being utilized in His service. That is what we require in Krsna Consciousness. We do not require to qualify very extraordinarily to serve Krsna. Krsna is Self-sufficient, He does not require anyone's service, but still the more we render service unto Him the more we become happy.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Kaliya Krsna (John Moffat) -- Los Angeles 8 July, 1971:

I have given you the spiritual name Kaliya Krishna Das Brahmacari. Kaliya Krishna was a great devotee of Lord Caitanya. Similarly you become a great devotee of Lord Caitanya and help Him to push on this movement to every nook and corner of the globe. Then Caitanya Mahaprabhu will be very much pleased upon you and your life will know success.

Actually Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, or Krishna, doesn't need our service. He is completely self sufficient. What service we can do for him? But if we are sincerely trying to render some service, it is to our benefit, and He becomes pleased with us also. Just like the father, when he receives some service from the son. What service he requires from the such very young boy? Yet, still because it is done out of natural affection, the father is so much appreciative. So that is our position. We should never think that oh, my service is so much valuable to Krishna; I am performing such nice service. No. But we must take our service seriously because it will be to our benefit and Krishna will be pleased. That's all.

Letter to Krsna dasa -- Vrindaban 30 November, 1971:

You may organize your travelling party on the lines of a festival which moves from city to city, and if there is good field, a camp may be set up and you may carry on with our Hare Krishna Festival as long as there is good response. In this way, you may move from country to country as the weather permits. And you can equip yourselves to be completely self-sufficient—sleeping, cooking, everything. This program is very very pleasing to me.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to All Temple Presidents -- Tokyo 22 April, 1972:

Letter to: All Temple Presidents

—

Tokyo

22 April, 1972

72-04-22

ALL GLORIES TO SRI GURU AND GAURANGA TO ALL TEMPLE PRESIDENTS

Dear Prabhus,

Please accept my most worthless obeisances. I am presently in Japan with Srila Prabhupada and we are meeting conjointly with Dai Nippon to organize book production. As a follow up to Srila Prabhupada's letter to all Temple Presidents of April 9, His Divine Grace has instructed me to inform you all of the following:

The formula for ISKCON organization is very simple and can be understood by everyone. The world is divided into twelve zones. For each zone there is one zonal secretary appointed by Srila Prabhupada. The zonal secretaries duty is to see that the spiritual principles are being upheld very nicely in all the Temples of his zone. Otherwise each Temple shall be independent and self-supporting. Let every Temple President work according to his own capacity to improve the Krishna Consciousness of his center. So far the practical management is concerned, that is required, but not that we should become too much absorbed in fancy organization. Our business is spiritual life, so whatever organization needs to be done, the Presidents may handle and take advice and assistance from their GBC representative. In this way let the Societies work go on and everyone increase their service at their own creative rate.

Now, so far the BTG and Book Funds are concerned, these matters shall be managed separately from the GBC by a body known as The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. The Book Trust shall be comprised of Srila Prabhupada, Karandhara dasa, and Bali Mardan dasa. They shall combinedly collect the sales proceeds from each Center and utilize all funds for the printing of Srila Prabhupada's books and the construction of ISKCON Centers all over the world. Not a farthing is to be spent for any other purpose.

The Book Trust shall see to the printing and distribution to Centers of books and magazines and it will be the serious responsibility of each Temple President to see that the billed amounts for these are paid to the BTG and Book Funds regularly. The billings and collections shall come from and to Los Angeles where Karandhara dasa will collect and keep accounts. We request that everyone will take these formulas to heart and execute them very conscientiously. In this way we shall certainly be successful in pushing on this movement.

All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga

APPROVED: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Founder-Acarya of ISKCON

Your lowly servant at Prabhupada's lotus feet,

Karandhara dasa Adhikari

c.c. To all ISKCON Temple Presidents

Letter to Giriraja -- Los Angeles 24 May, 1972:

I am glad to see that all of the other programs are going on nicely, especially that the deities are being cared for again properly. Now you give our ladies full facilities and help them by giving them money and other things wherever required by them so that our deity program will not be lacking. I am especially also engladdened by your report of book distribution there in Bombay. You can distribute our men there to other centers—to Gurudasa and Bhavananda—if they shall require our help. Yes, we can become self-supporting in this way by distributing our books in Bombay and in India in general. I shall be interested to hear the result of your experiment whether to lower the prices on books.

Letter to Giriraja -- Los Angeles 24 May, 1972:

So far the temples in India are concerned, the independent and self supporting method does not apply in India. In India Bombay is the headquarters and all other centers shall send their funds for centralizing in Bombay. In return you shall supply everyone with enough books and you shall pay construction bills as required by them. I had asked you in one letter previous if you are interested in accepting the GBC post for India and central Asia. I have not yet heard from you in this connection but I shall be glad to hear your opinion.

Letter to Madhudvisa -- New Vrndavana 7 September, 1972:

Yesterday I have seen one Sankirtana bus presented by Rupanuga Maharaja, complete with kitchen, shower, and deity room. It is completely self-sufficient and can keep 8 to 10 men. Their program is to remain on the road going from town to town and village to village. Lord Caitanya wanted this business, so by the parampara system through my Guru Maharaja and my humble self, the matter is handed over to you. Now it is up to you American boys and girls to do the needful.

Letter to Karandhara -- Bombay 22 December, 1972:

Regarding your points about taxation, corporate status, etc., I have heard from Jayatirtha you want to make big plan for centralization of management, taxes, monies, corporate status, bookkeeping, credit, like that. I do not at all approve of such plan. Do not centralize anything. Each temple must remain independent and self-sufficient. That was my plan from the very beginning, why you are thinking otherwise? Once before you wanted to do something centralizing with your GBC meeting, and if I did not interfere the whole thing would have been killed. Do not think in this way of big corporation, big credits, centralization—these are all nonsense proposals. Only thing I wanted was that books printing and distribution should be centralized, therefore I appointed you and Bali Mardan to do it. Otherwise, management, everything, should be done locally by local men. Accounts must be kept, things must be in order and lawfully done, but that should be each temple's concern, not yours. Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and action, not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled. There must be always individual striving and work and responsibility, competitive spirit, not that one shall dominate and distribute benefits to the others and they do nothing but beg from you and you provide. No. Never mind there may be botheration to register each centre, take tax certificate each, become separate corporations in each state. That will train men how to do these things, and they shall develop reliability and responsibility, that is the point. I am little observing now, especially in your country, that our men are losing their enthusiasm for spreading on our programmes of Krishna Consciousness movement. Otherwise, why so many letters of problems are coming, dissatisfied? That is not a very good sign. The whole problem is they are not following the regulative principles, that I can detect. Without this, enthusiasm will be lacking. Even mechanically following, and if he gets gradually understanding from the class, he will come to the point of spontaneous enthusiasm. This spontaneous loving devotional service is not so easy matter, but if one simply sticks strictly to the rules and regulations, like rising early, chanting 16 rounds, chanting gayatri, keeping always clean—then his enthusiasm will grow more and more, and if there is also patience and determination, one day he will come to the platform of spontaneous devotion, then his life will be perfect. All of this I have told you in Nectar of Devotion. So I do not think the leaders are themselves following, nor they are seeing the others are following strictly. That must be rectified at once. Each centre remain independent, that's all right, but the president and other officers must themselves follow and see the others are following the regulative principles carefully, and giving them good instruction so they may understand nicely why this tapasya is necessary. And GBC and Sannyasis will travel and see the officers are doing this, and if they observe anything lowering of the standard, they must reform and advise, or if there is some discrepancy I shall remove it.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Damodara -- Bombay, India 9 January, 1973:

Regarding the several smaller temples being dependent upon the central temple of Washington D.C., that is up to you to decide, but so far I am concerned, I have not got much stock in such centralized management or organization. I never wanted that any of my temples shall be dependent upon the other temples. Rather, our main business is to train up men to be self sufficient and competent in many ways to carry on the preaching work, not to make them into specialists or to minimize their responsibility by centralizing everything. If each center must rely upon its own strength to stand, that will be better training ground for the devotees. We must learn how to do all kinds of varieties of engagements on Krsna's service, not that we shall expect anyone else to act for us and thus avoid something ourselves.

Letter to Hladini -- Calcutta 28 January, 1973:

This modern civilization is always artificial. You are actually learning in New Vrindaban the self-sufficient mode of living, simple living, high thinking, that is our policy, and as long as Krsna remains in the center of all these activities, then you are actually in Vrindaban. And the more you please the Deities there with your service, the more they shall reciprocate by bestowing upon you love for Sri Sri Radha Krsna.

Letter to Tamala Krsna, Jayapataka, Bhavananda, Gargamuni -- Melbourne 10 February, 1973:

While travelling here to Melbourne I was thinking how wonderful our Mayapur project is and how it can be developed in the future. I want that Mayapur be self-sufficient by having its own production of grains, vegetables, fruits and milk products etc., to the extent that you will be able to feed at least 500 men daily. This will be better than trying to arrange for maintenance funds to come from outside. So we can make some scheme for purchasing sufficient quantity of land.

Letter to Jayapataka, Bhavananda -- Los Angeles 9 May, 1973:

So Mayapur inhabitants can be engaged in such a small manufacturing enterprise as well as farming to become self sufficient. Side by side increase our spiritual consciousness by attending to the temple routine work, Deity worship sankirtana, attending class. The idea is we must have the necessities of our life as far as possible independently. But we should not be business minded. Our main business is to develop our dormant Krsna Consciousness. Side by side we may take to such enterprises as will maintain us very nicely.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Jagadisa -- Frankfurt 18 June, 1974:

Yes, the farm plan in New Orleans is fine. But one thing is if we get land we must first be sure we will be able to fully utilize it, otherwise, if we cannot use it what is the use? I want the world to see by our example that life can be lived naturally, peacefully if one is self sufficient with land, some cows and chanting Hare Krishna. That is the idea of purchasing land. It is not necessary that every temple have a farm, but as many as can be efficiently managed locally is all right. Let them see our centers are self sufficient. Whatever can be managed conveniently. If they can manage a farm in Detroit also, what is the harm?

Letter to Hamsaduta -- Vrindaban 7 September, 1974:

Regarding the farm, the exhibition is there in New Vrindaban. Kirtanananda Maharaja has organized very nicely. The same principle you can follow and organize it in Germany. Let the people be happy with self sufficient food grown in the field with milk products. When I was in Frankfurt round our place I was so happy to see the farms and the cows.

Letter to Hamsaduta -- Vrindaban 7 September, 1974:

Regarding the farm, the exhibition is there in New Vrindaban. Kirtanananda Maharaja has organized very nicely. The same principle you can follow and organize it in Germany. Let the people be happy with self sufficient food grown in the field with milk products. When I was in Frankfurt round our place I was so happy to see the farms and the cows.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Mahamsa -- Bombay 19 January, 1975:

So far the Nellore property is concerned, that is a nice proposal. Now, we should have self-sufficiency. This means to make our own food grains grow and to weave our own cloth—like in Mayapur. If we have food grains, milk, and cloth life becomes easy and we can save time for preaching and chanting. Not that everyone should do these activities of farming, but if one is less intelligent, or not intelligent enough to preach nicely, he can do. If one is capable, then he should preach. On the whole, our society should be divided into 4 divisions, but such divisions are not material. Just like Krishna belonged to the Vaisya community, but he is worshiped by the brahmanas. We shall utilize everything for Krishna's service.

Letter to Nityananda -- Denver 1 July, 1975:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 28, 1975 with the enclosed photos. Your farm appears very nice, open plain land. The cows are very nice and so are the sheds. This farm project you should consider very important. The idea is that people can be self sufficient and raise their own foodstuffs and have sufficient milk to save time and chant Hare Krishna. Why should they work so hard in the hellish factories? Let everyone live simply and be Krsna conscious.

Letter to Minister for Land & Revenue -- Vrindaban 31 August, 1975:

If you could kindly give over these lands to use we could develop it into a self sufficient community producing foodstuffs, grains and vegetables, milk products, and cloth involving the local peoples for their greater benefit, as we are already doing at our Mayapur Candradaya Community Development Project in West Bengal, Dist. Nadia, and which we are now planning near Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh.

Letter to Aksayananda -- Bombay 9 November, 1975:

Regarding the Life Member collection, Rs. 20,000/- collected locally is not a joke. To collect so much from visitors is Krishna's grace. This is very good. If you simply please the visitors, you will get so many Life Members. Simply I want that by the local collection and the receipts of the Guest House you maintain everything. We are considering to get a temple in Kuruksetra, so the collection from Delhi may be employed there. So it is a good sign that the visitors are becoming Life Members. So follow this policy, and very soon your temple will become self-sufficient.

Letter to M. N. Chaudhuri -- Bombay 17 December, 1975:

The bearer of this letter is my secretary of our Mayapur establishment, and he will explain to you about our activities there. It will be a great satisfaction if you kindly visit our Mayapur establishment to see how things are going on there. We are developing a plan there to be self sufficient. Namely to produce our food grains, maintain cows for drinking milk, and weave cloth for garments, and for this purpose we want a considerable tract of land. For this purpose I wish that the government may acquire some land for us so that we may develop our plan, and I hope you can help me in this connection.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Sri Chaudhuri -- Mayapur 23 January, 1976:

The bearer of this letter is the secretary at our Mayapur establishment, and he will explain to you about our activities there. I am presently at Mayapur and it would be a great satisfaction if you could kindly visit our establishment and see how things are being conducted. We are developing a plan to be self-sufficient. Namely, to produce our food grains, maintain cows, for drinking milk, and weave cloth for garments. We have plans for erecting a magnificent international city based on this Vedic culture. For this purpose we want a considerable tract of land, and I therefore wish that the Government may acquire some land for us so that we may develop our plan. I hope you can help me in this connection. I would be very glad if you could come to Mayapur, see our activities, take noon-day Prasadam and discuss with me.

Letter to Sri Kashinath Mullick -- Delhi 24 March, 1976:

I do not know how many devotees are staying there for taking prasadam, but I want at least 25 devotees to stay there regularly for taking prasadam, occasionally holding festivals also for distributing prasadam to anyone who visits the temple. I am thinking in this line. I am hoping that you can give me your considerate opinion as to how it can be done. Furthermore, I wish to be enlightened to know how much land the mandir possesses for cultivation because I wish the temple community to be self-sufficient by producing their own food grains. In foreign countries we are organizing our centres on this principle. Here also in Mayapur we are doing the same thing, and we have just taken on another place, Haridasapur, the place of Haridasa Thakura. There are 6 bighas of land and they have donated it to us, and we are trying to develop it according to the above mentioned program.

Letter to Haihaya -- Honolulu 29 May, 1976:

The daily collections from the temple should be counted before 3 persons together. The accountant has nothing to do with these things. He simply notes down the figure in the books. This is how it should be done. Yes, the collections will increase as people come more and more. The temple should become self-sufficient, that is wanted. However, see that stealing is stopped. I am doubtful that things are being stolen, otherwise how is the expenditure so high.

Letter to Bhagavan -- Vrindaban 7 November, 1976:

Have there been rains at New Mayapur? There should at least be rains in our area. Yes, increase the flowers. You have got sufficient space. Produce flowers, fruits, vegetables and grains in ample quantities. We should be fully self-sufficient. I like New Mayapur very much.

Letter to Syama Sundarji -- Vrindaban 15 November, 1976:

By the middle or end of November I may be going to Hyderabad. There we have got 600 acres of land to develop a farm project. We have got one very nice temple in Hyderabad City. As we are doing in Mayapur and many other places, I want to develop self-sufficient centers with cloth and food production by the devotees locally and save time as much as possible to devote themselves to chant Hare Krishna.