So I am trying to open a temple here because Srila Prabhupada wanted it. Kindly therefore help me in this direction as far as you can. I am thankful to you for taking so much trouble in taking the estimate of deities. But before having the Deities there is great stumbling block of Exchange difficulty. My money in India is ready but I must have the exchange, by special sanction of the Government of India. I was so hopeful to get it because Lal Bahadur Shastri was known to me and he was to visit America. I arranged an interview with him during his visit in America through the Embassy here but his sudden death has put me into great difficulty. As soon as the temple is started, I am sure to get help locally but to start the temple I must have Indian money first. I am therefore asking your cooperation and help in this connection. I am requesting you to see Dr. Radhakrishnan and get me the sanction for Indian exchange for this cultural mission. This is not an ordinary temple of worship but it is an international institution for God consciousness based on the Srimad-Bhagavatam. This is standard Indian good will mission. "Lokasya ajanato vidwams cakre satvata samhita" The Government of India has its own department of culture and goodwill mission which is utilized for dancing parties to make show in the foreign countries. Here is the real culture and I am not asking any money from the Government but I am simply asking permission to transfer my money here for this great cultural mission of Srila Vyasadeva the Father of Vedic wisdom which is real Indian culture. When Dr. Radhakrishnan was vice president of India I had lots of personal correspondence and meetings with him and at that time he promised me help in this connection. I hope he will remember all these and I am requesting him through your good office to help me now to get the requisite exchange from India for this great and noble work. He is more or less acquainted with the activities of the Gaudiya Math preachers like your holiness, Srila Tirtha Maharaja and he know me also in this connection. We are all sincere workers for respiritualising the whole world situation and Dr. Radhakrishnan being man in the line and being in the highest position of the Indian Government, he must help us in this critical moment. It is not personal but for the welfare of the entire humanity and considering all these he may be kind enough to sanction this exchange immediately so that I may start it without delay.
So much trouble (Letters)
Expressions researched:
"much trouble"
|"so much bodily trouble"
|"so much hard trouble"
|"so much more trouble"
|"so much quarrel and trouble"
|"so much trouble"
Correspondence
1966 Correspondence
1967 Correspondence
I am in due receipt of your letters of the 16th and 2nd of Sep. As you are all feeling my separation, similarly I'm also anxious to return as soon as possible. I think I'm fit to go back to your country at present and as scheduled previously I'm sure by the end of October. I must be fit to return, but before this there are many things to be done. I'm not yet assured of the permanent visa. The best thing will be that from each center an invitation should be sent that my presence is urgently required. Regarding the American House, as I told you previously, I'm trying to get a nice house in Vrindaban and unless I'm sure of that I can not advise anyone to come here incurring so much expenditure and undergoing so much trouble. Students at Swami Bon Maharaja, can come only if they are very much eager and serious about study. He has already given me a letter that 10 students can be accommodated with food and rooms. In this connection Acyutananda wishes to submit a report by practical experience. Presently I'm very much anxious to begin printing here if Macmillan company does not take up the work. Please therefore let me know yes or no from Macmillan; if he is serious or not, then immediately send the manuscripts, finished or not, to the following address:
Pundit Hitsaran Sharma c/o Dalmia Enterprises, Scindia House, New Delhi. After dispatching let me know and I shall do the needful.
1968 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. Hope you are well. I am so much pleased that you are studying seriously our Krishna Consciousness philosophy. Please continue with your sincere efforts for Krishna. Now, regarding your question about Brahma, he may be chosen either from the liberated or the conditioned souls. In this case Brahma is a liberated soul from the beginning; therefore there is no contradiction that Brahma can be Haridasa Thakura. Those who are conditioned souls are eternally so, which means that it is never possible to trace out how long ago the conditioned existence began. We simply say that misuse of the little independence we have got creates so much trouble for us. But now by adopting Krishna Consciousness, we may finish this conditioned life immediately. That is Krishna Consciousness.
1969 Correspondence
Sivananda is also a very good soul like you and he is sure to help you. I have already written one letter forbidding him to quit Hamburg for New Vrindaban because there is no work for him presently in New Vrindaban due to the winter season. So surely he can work in Hamburg for three months more, and I am glad that he is engaged in temple construction work. Let him do this without any interference. You do not interfere in any of his work. Let him do what he likes and at his own discretion, and you simply respect him as your older brother. I am sure that he will be peaceful there shortly. It may be due to so much bodily trouble that he was becoming distressed but this has subsided and he will continue to work as usual.
It is very happy news that your are getting a bus, but purchase it new. Second-hand machine is not always reliable. It may give so much trouble. A similar attempt was made previously by Rupanuga. He spent $600 and was practically cheated. So be careful about all these unfair business dealers.
1970 Correspondence
Regarding color pictures in Nectar of Devotion, this will be nice because Advaita has improved. Even the quality of Easy Journey will do, but I hope he will improve more. Please offer my thanks to Advaita and all the others for taking so much trouble for Krishna Consciousness literature.
1971 Correspondence
If you leave, who will look after St. Louis? You are a householder with wife and children. You can't move very often. Better you stick to one place and develop it nicely. Whenever you move you have to take so much trouble to move your whole family. I do not know what is the situation there in St. Louis but in every center there is potential to improve more and more. My opinion is that you stick to St. Louis and develop it more opulently. Of course I am in favor of opening new centers but not at the cost of taking from our already established centers.
Our policy should be for maintenance to take from many persons. Big donations should go to the building and book funds. Our policy is "madhukari" or the profession of the bumblebee. The bumblebee does not eat all the honey in one flower. It goes from flower to flower and takes little. The purpose is that saintly persons, Vaisnavas, if they take something from many men, everyone is benefited. We should not follow the policy that one man gives us everything and we become idle. This is a material policy. Whatever Mr. Jayan is contributing should go directly to the building fund and for maintenance we should collect from many persons as monthly subscription and big donations should go to the book and building funds. And so far your idea for giving the bank instructions to deposit 50% in each account, the bank will not take so much trouble. Better you do it. Already there is book and building fund accounts. As soon as the money is there, you should deposit 50% in each.
If it is not too much trouble, kindly write to me and let me know what you think and what is your present position.
1972 Correspondence
Regarding your question about thinking about sex, is that also one form of illicit sex or against our four principles? Yes, even thinking sex is the same as illicit sex, but one who is not advanced cannot avoid it. But that does not disturb our regular procedure. We should strongly follow all the regulations and principles and chant and these thoughts will come and go away. Thinking will come; even great saintly persons like Lord Siva are not free of thoughts that come, so what to speak of you. So we must say that such thinking is no offense because you are accustomed to this habit. But beyond thinking are feeling and willing, so even thoughts of sex connection may come, that is difficult even for saintly persons to avoid, still, in the further stages of feeling and willing we can easily conquer over this sex urge. Willing should be avoided and acting stopped, or else there is offense of breaking this basic prohibition of illicit sex-life. Because thinking comes I shall give it practical shape: that is nonsense, but because it is an old habit we are unable to check it unless we can understand the nature of feeling, willing and then action, and how by proper use of intelligence and prevent thoughts which must come from maturing into actions—that is the practical application of Krishna Consciousness regulative principles. Even Lord Caitanya Himself said that sometimes when I see a wooden form of a woman, my mind becomes agitated but that does not mean that we should give it practical shape, that is intelligence. One must be convinced that sex-life without exception means trouble, therefore he is able to stop it at the thinking stage by not allowing it to be felt, much less willed and acted. I am so much disgusted by this troublesome business of marriage, because nearly every day I receive some complaint from husband or wife, and practically this is not my business as sannyasi to be marriage counsellor, so henceforward I am not sanctioning any more marriages, and those who want to marry must know in advance and be prepared to make outside income to support wife and home separately from the temple, and in the temple husband and wife shall live separately, that must be or what is the meaning of spiritual society like ours? I made a concession, but how can I encourage something which has proven to be so much trouble?
It appears that in Germany we have got very good possibility, and I am glad to hear from Hamsaduta that he has expanded more centers, and that all programs are increasing. That is his success and your success. Actually, everyone in the world can accept this Movement very easily. My angle of vision is that throughout the whole world everyone is good and innocent, only they have been misled and corrupted by rascal leaders. If you can organize everything nicely, the Americans and Europeans of the future will come out very nice, that is my opinion. I have just seen one Sanskrit dictionary of Pradyumna's, and it is compiled by one Englishman, Williams, and he has taken so much trouble and he has made thorough study and it is very nice and scholarly books, so this dictionary is proof of the superior nature of this Indian Vedic culture. This great European scholar, he has not taken so much pains for Greek or Latin or any other old language, and because he has chosen Sanskrit language for his study, therefore it is the highest example of scholarship and knowledge.
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated July 18, 1972, and I have noted the contents. One thing is, Sriman Lalita Prasad Thakura has not fulfilled his promise to give us that place in Birnagar for our ISKCON Temple. So I don't want you to mix with him further. I have just got one letter from Acarya das, wherein he requests to live with Lalita Prasad Thakura for taking instruction from him. I do not like this idea, I don't know where these ideas are coming from. No one should go there any more. Let Yadubara take his photos as he has taken so much trouble and they may be valuable for the future, but besides Yadubara no one else should go there, and Acarya das should not go there either.
Kindly accept my humble dandabats. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind letter dated September 21, 1972, and I have noted the contents with great encouragement. I am coming to India by the 15th of October and will stay during Urja-vrata at the Radha-Damodara temple in Vrndavan. It will be a pleasure if you will come and stay with us at Vrndavan during the urja-vrata period. So I thank you very much for taking so much trouble. If we get that house we shall celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada a little pompously. In my last letter to you I also requested you to take permanent permission from Visvanath Das, the chief minister, for permission of admission for my devotees in the Jagannath temple. At present I am here in San Francisco and your letter addressed to London is just now received by me.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated October 22, 1972, regarding the supply of deity for Chicago centre. I am told that the Bharatapur deity is more than 200 years old and is made of solid silver, and therefore it will be very difficult to get government permission to export it from India. It will be too much trouble, so if nice deities can be gotten from Jaipur as we have done before, that is better.
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated December 10, 1972, and I am very much disturbed to hear from you that you have become disturbed in your mind. Do not be disturbed. There is no cause for anxiety. You are doing your best to serve Krishna, that is very much appreciated, so do not lose enthusiasm out of frustration, that will spoil everything. Krishna Consciousness means we should always be satisfied and happy, not that we must work something impossible, becoming overburdened, and then because we are unhappy by so much trouble we lose enthusiasm altogether and give up all hope. No, if too much endeavour is there, that is to be avoided. By all means we must preserve our spiritual status, that is the point, not that we are mad after big buildings, many devotees, life-members, this, that—no, these are only ways to engage the devotees so that they may apply the principles of devotional living to some kind of work for practical realization of these principles. It is not the result of the work we want. If only one person daily, if we sincerely preach to such one person in a day, that is sufficient, never mind big, big programmes. So my request to you is that you do not be bothered by these things, and I have instructed Tamala Krishna and Syamasundara to send you men, so they will do it, rest assured. Krishna does not like to see His sincere devotee suffer or become frustrated or depressed. He will not stand idly by in any such case, so do not fear on that account. Krishna has got some plan for you, always think in that way, and very soon He will provide everything to your heart's desire.
1973 Correspondence
Regarding the activities of the Vaikuntha Players, it is very nice to hear that you are taking information from our Srimad-Bhagavatam and Krsna Book for presenting everything very authoritatively, without any deviation from the sastras. Yes, one or two of the girls may learn this Indian dance technique, but we cannot take too much endeavor for such things. If they can do it without too much trouble that is all right. Now you continue executing your Krsna Conscious activities, chanting 16 rounds, studying our books, going on sankirtana, worshiping the deity, etc., and in this way you will become advanced more and more. Also as you are senior devotee you must set a nice example for the others to follow. Here also in India we are making drama, and at our Bombay Pandal on the last evening we had one drama about Krsna and the gopis in which the gopis gave the dust of their feet for curing Krsna's headache. This was very much appreciated by the audience. So in this way we can present the philosophy of Krsna Consciousness very nicely for everyone to relish.
If Mrs. Nair is not going to sell us the land then what next step we have to adopt? you cancelled the sales agreement on the condition that she would return our money and damages which she has not done till now. On account of her failure to return our money can we not withdraw our letter of cancellation and thus take specific action on the sales agreement? We fixed a criminal case against her for attempting to dispossess us from the land, and what happened to that case? The idea is that if she is not going to sell the land to us, and at the same time does not return our money with damages and interest, and occasionally tries to dispossess us from the land, then what steps we have to take? Our clear point is that either she must sell to us, and we are prepared to pay cash 12 Lakhs Rs/., or she must return our money with damages which amounts to 5 Lakhs Rs/. We should stick to these two points in consultation with your legal committee. She has given us so much trouble and botheration, she must pay at least 5 Lakhs Rs/. for our money due from her principal interest and damage.
1975 Correspondence
Let me first of all finish Srimad-Bhagavatam, then we can take up others. So I wish to also thank you for your cooperation. Because of your cooperation, therefore I has been possible. For me to publish alone the first three volumes, I had to take so much trouble, but by the cooperation of you American boys and girls now this has become possible.
Upon your recommendation I accept the children of Rasa-lila as my disciples. There spiritual names are Radhika devi dasi and Sanatana das Brahmacari. You can chant on their beads. I know the devotees there are working hard, especially as you have mentioned Prabhanu, Sharma, Dinanath, Jnana das, Caitya-guru, Jalakara das, and Pusta Krishna Swami. Because you are all cooperating with me, so much has been done. When I was alone I was taking so much trouble, but now there are so many assistants. But now you have to manage things very carefully and relieve me from the management so I can translate my books. But I do not want to see that everything deteriorates by your management. If you cannot increase then you should at least maintain what I have established.
1976 Correspondence
We cannot be forced to follow the standards of the mlecchas and yavanas. One may build so many buildings to follow this and that code, but the basic principle of such codes is sense gratification which we are against. There are so many thousands of buildings in the west which are filled with illegalities, but how is it that we must come to a perfect standard or be closed down? This is not the standard of law, but prosecution. If in illusion we think that we must spend money to come to that standard what guarantee is there that they will not simply find another standard for us to follow which will cause so much more trouble and cost so much more money and ultimately they will pass some law making the gurukula illegal.
Only by the yogic process can one prolong the life. By stopping the breathing process, keeping in samadhi, the breath period is not being misused, and he increases the life span. Therefore, destiny can only be changed by devotional service or yoga. Otherwise, what you must suffer, you must suffer, and what you must enjoy, you must enjoy. For a devotee however, whatever it may be, he takes the opportunity to chant Hare Krishna, and if by Krishna's Grace destiny is changed, then it is alright. Nature's law will work. We cannot change that, but Krishna, the Supreme Controller, He can change it; just like if a man is sentenced to be hanged, no one, not even the judge can pardon him, except the king or president. He only can excuse the offender. Similarly, I have to execute Krishna's order, and suppose I have to suffer to execute this order. Therefore, devotional service and the devotee is so dear to Krishna. The devotee is prepared to die at any moment, but he simply wants to be engaged in Krishna's service. "I am suffering, I cannot carry out the order of Krishna. . ." This line of thinking is sense gratification. Suppose a devotee had to suffer in preaching work, just like Haridasa Thakura or Prahlada Maharaja. Prahlada's father, Hiranyakasipu was giving so much trouble, but to Prahlada it was not trouble. He was simply concerned to see that others who were suffering might take to Krsna Consciousness. That is the Vaisnava's concern. For myself, let me go to hell, I can chant Hare Krishna, but the Vaisnava is simply lamenting for the nondevotees who must go immediately from the room? No. The living body or the dead body, either way it is the same, simply earth, air, water, fire, and ether.
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 6th August 1976 and your very nice donation. Your desire to please me is very pleasing and your preaching program in Spain sounds very nice. Please push on this movement in the Spanish and Portuguese languages with great enthusiasm and certainly Krsna will bless you for taking so much trouble to preach His glories. A Vaisnava always feels himself incapable to repay his debt to his spiritual master therefore he works very hard in order to try and repay that debt. He knows that without the mercy of the spiritual master one cannot preach this Krsna consciousness and therefore he always tries to act in such a way that he may please his guru. Please continue in this way and keep very strictly the regulative principles and chanting the prescribed number of rounds on the beads and you will clear the way for success in your preaching work.
| Page Title: | So much trouble (Letters) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 19 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=22 |
| No. of Quotes: | 22 |