Although he is not very much qualified from the worldly point of view, still his struggle for existence in Krishna Consciousness is advancing him more and more in spiritual realization. So far I know about you, you are intelligent, qualified, and willing worker for Krishna Consciousness, and I hope if you try to establish a center of our society in Sydney or any one of the important cities, of Australia, it will be a record in the history of Lord Caitanya's movement. I hope with this seriousness, you will go there, and always pray Lord Caitanya to help you. He is very kind, and He is always ready to help a willing worker. And as soon as you establish one center, it may be that I may go there for some time and try to help you in your organization. But before starting you should make an estimate of the procedure of your working there, as well as you must be assured of getting a job there. Here in America you are working and you are getting some money, but in Australia if you do not get immediately some occupation, it will be risky. So you must consider all these pros and cons intelligently and then, depending on the Grace of Krishna, you can go there, chanting all the ways, Hare Krishna.
Sydney (Letters)
Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. I am very much glad to receive your letter dated the 11th Oct., and it is good news that you have got a nice room for residential purpose. And you have got now good assistant, Mahapurusa, so combined together, try to establish a very nice center in Hawaii. You organize the center in such a way that we can in future open centers in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Fiji, Bangkok, Sydney, and New Zealand, and all neighboring Pacific islands. And Hawaii will be our center for spreading Krishna Consciousness in the Pacific.
1970 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. I was in due receipt of your letter and two price quotations while I was in London, but, because I was busy in so many engagements, I could not reply you earlier. The price quotation from Dia Nippon is accepted, but as soon as I make arrangement for the money I shall confirm it and send the manuscript. In the meantime, I learn that you are going to Australia and you have already got the visa to Sydney. You want to take with you Upendra, and I have advised him to follow you. Both you and Sudama went to Japan, now Sudama has taken charge of Tokyo center, and if you take charge of Sydney center, it will give me the greatest pleasure. My ambition is to open centers as many as possible. At least, I want to see that centers are opened in very important places. Now you have seen how practically our students are opening centers here and there. All the new centers recently opened in California and central states are improving very much. I have received one letter from Bamanadev from St. Louis. It is very much encouraging. I now you are very sincere Krishna conscious preacher and Krishna will surely help you in your great adventure. So by this work not only you will be blessed by Krishna, which is a spiritual gift, but also your name will be recorded in the history of the Krishna Consciousness Movement, which I am sure is to grow to the largest volume of expansion. I shall always pray for your long life for preaching work in the service of the Lord.
You will be pleased to know that very recently we are going to send some preachers to Australia. We have got already our center in Tokyo; and I am sending two devotees, one from Tokyo; and another from here, Los Angeles, to Sydney (Australia). I hope you will kindly bestow your blessings for successful execution of this new adventure.
N.B. You will be pleased to know that our next attempt will be to open our center in Sydney, Australia. We have already opened in Tokyo, Japan. The address is as follows:
ISKCON Temple
6-16, 1-chome, ohhashi
Meguru-ku
Tokyo, Japan
So we require many pairs of Deities. Already 24 centers are there, and the next attempt will be in Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, etc.
At the present moment the preaching work is going on from Hamburg to Tokyo, crossing over the two big oceans, Atlantic and Pacific, covering 14,000 miles on the Northern side and again from Tokyo to Sydney, Australia, covering another 5,000 miles. I am enclosing herewith a newspaper clipping published in Sydney, and you will appreciate very much how Sriman Bali Mardan Brahmacari, who is a graduate of the New York University, is nicely working there since the last fortnight. In the meantime, I have sent another assistant, Sriman Upendra das Adhikari, to assist him.
Please accept my greetings. I thank you very much for your letter dated 26 February, 1970, and noted the contents. You will be pleased to know that recently we have opened a center in Sydney. The newspaper-cutting is sent herewith.
For the present, I have got ambition to start at least 108 centers. My disciples are already scattered from Hamburg to Tokyo, and from Tokyo to Sydney. And more youngsters are joining us daily in this movement. By the grace of Krsna this Society is purchasing a very big church estate on the Venice Boulevard, one of the important highways of Los Angeles, and we shall remove there next April. When we go there, we shall be able to invite many important men of the city and try to convince them about our high philosophy. The atheist class of men foolishly inquire "Where is God?" And we present them Krsna—here is God, and if you have got sense and intelligence just try to understand Krsna, whether He is not God.
For being legally organized, I think if you open a branch of the ISKCON Ltd., incorporated in England, it will be easier for you. Australia is a Commonwealth property, therefore an organization already registered in England can open its branch in its dominion without any difficulty. You can simply take the registered number and date from Mukunda and get it noted by the Registrar in Sydney, and it will be alright.
I talked with Gargamuni about dispatching Upendra's wife as early as possible. For the present, he is collecting all money for payment of the church property, $50,000 to be paid on or before 1st April 1970. He says that to send Upendra's wife means another $1000 at least. It is understood that Upendra was to send back $1500. He has taken $2000; out of that $500 would go for his travelling expenses. It was so arranged that as soon as he reached Sydney, he would send back $1500 out of $2000. Now I understand that he has sent you a wire for returning back the money because it is required in connection of purchasing the church.
As soon as a center is open and my disciples conduct it nicely, it gives me Vaikuntha bliss. Vamanadeva is doing very nicely in St. Louis, and I am sending herewith some pictures of his activities. So Bali Mardan and Upendra are doing in Sydney also. All these newses are to me life-giving ambrosia, so the more you open branches, the more I increase my duration of life. Therefore, if you all my students want me to live for some days more, go on opening nice branches as many as possible.
Sydney
My Dear Bali Mardan,
Please accept my blessings and offer the same to Sriman Upendra. Your informative letter dated "nil" is encouraging. For the service of Krsna you are already in the jail for a few hours, so if possible try to put this movement as cultural instead of religion.
Sydney
My Dear Bali Mardan,
Please accept my blessings and offer the same to Sriman Upendra. Your informative letter dated "nil" is encouraging. For the service of Krsna you are already in the jail for a few hours, so if possible try to put this movement as cultural instead of religion.
Sydney
My Dear Upendra,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated 20th April, 1970, with newspaper clippings enclosures, and they are all every encouraging.
Bahulasva Berkeley Rshi Kumara New York
Satsvarupa Boston Umapati Paris
Harer Nama Boulder Subaladas Philadelphia
Rupanuga Buffalo Sridama Providence
Jaya Gopala Columbus Vamanadeva St. Louis
Bhagavan dasa Detroit Madhudvisa San Francisco
Hamsaduta Hamburg Citsukhananda San Jose
Gaurasundara Hawaii Revatinandana Santa Barbara
Durlabh Laguna Beach Gajendra Seattle
Gurudasa London Bali Mardan Sydney
Sripati Montreal Sudama Tokyo
Hayagriva New Vrndavana Jagadisa Toronto
Cidananda Vancouver Damodara Washington
My Dear Damodara,
Please accept my blessings. I hope everything is going on well in your center.
As each and every ISKCON Center is my life and soul for preaching this movement, I hope you are doing your best to conduct the regular routine duties of the Temple—chanting regularly the beads, observing the restrictive regulations, taking Sankirtana Party to the streets, and selling our magazines and books.
Sydney
My Dear Bali Mardan and Upendra,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated by Post 5th May, 1970.
So it is very encouraging that people are coming to the extent of 40 heads, and they are trying to understand the importance of this great movement, and any sane man will be able to understand that. But I do not know why our students who are supposed to be the leaders of this movement will fight amongst themselves for supremacy. Our whole process is of surrendering.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 14th May, 1970, and noted the contents.
I am very glad to learn that you have decided to live in Sydney. Sydney is your jurisdiction, so you cannot leave this place unless there is very urgent engagement in other place. You have got to organize this center very nicely and Krsna has sent you already some help in the shape of a nice actress who is willing to help us in any way. Please try to convince this girl about our Krsna philosophy. You are already experienced and sincere worker, if you try to convince her, Krsna will help you from within. Our Isopanisad book will be easy for anyone to understand about God-consciousness, then there are other small books like Three Essays, Krsna Consciousness: the Topmost Yoga System, Easy Journey to Other Planets, etc., so let her read all these things.
So as you have no resort than myself, so I have no other disciple than yourself who can take care of organizing Sydney center. Please do therefore everything with enthusiasm. That will satisfy me, and Krsna also, and as a result of which you will be satisfied transcendentally—this is our position.
While posting this letter I have received your letter dated 22nd May, 1970, and I am so very much pleased to know that everything has been resolved so nicely, and Sydney center has moved to a larger and better location. All these are very good news, and I beg to thank you very much.
Similarly I am initiating just now one student from Armenia. Most probably I shall send him either to the Soviet countries or to Egypt. Our preaching in Japan is going on nicely. Similarly in Sydney it is going on nicely. So by the Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura we are expanding all over the world and we are getting good response. Now for India I am counting upon you. So far you have done it is very satisfactory to me, but we should always be careful about our responsibilities. It is said in the scriptures that spiritual life is just like handling a sharpened razor. If we handle it nicely we become cleanly shaved, but a little inattention causes bloodstain. So you will always remember these maxims and depend on Krsna and the Acaryas, and make your life progressive.
Sydney
My Dear Upendra,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated June, 1970.
We must stick to our Krsna consciousness business at all circumstances. This determination will make us successful. Although according to Vedic system there is restriction that boys and girls should not freely mix, the brahmacaris are strictly prohibited to talk with young women, but in the Western countries this rule is not valid. As such, we have to accept both boys and girls in the same standard. But if each of us follow the regulative principles and chanting of the mantras hardly there will be any chance for sex indulgence. So we have to be little careful about it and Krsna will help us.
Sydney
My Dear Tirthapada,
Please accept my blessings. I am so glad to receive your letter undated and to know that you have gone to Sydney to execute Krsna consciousness there.
Now you three combined together are strong trio, so just push on Krsna consciousness movement in Australia. You have seen in London all kinds of fluctuation in establishing our temple there. You have got sufficient experience in this connection. Now you can utilize your talent and experience in establishing a very nice temple in Sydney.
Sydney
My Dear Upendra,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters (2) dated 8th July, 1970, and noted the contents. Janne is still staying here and she is enjoying the company of the devotees. I know that Tirthapada is a very nice and good boy. He is ready for all kinds of service. Now you are three strong male devotees and many girls are also helping you, and I hope you have now full strength for preaching work. In future if it is so required you may have one or two more from London, but the best thing will be to recruit devotees locally—that is the success of preaching work.
Gradually it developed and at the present moment we have got 32 branches all over the world. We have got very huge expenditure for maintaining these establishments for example in Los Angeles, we are spending near about $3000 per month, which is in Indian exchange Rs. 24,000 per month. Similarly we have got expenditure in London, New York, Hamburg, Sydney, Tokyo, etc. The source of income is generous contribution by the public and a little profit out of selling our magazines and books. We do not get any lump out of sum contribution from any of various foundations, but our boys and girls work very hard and we maintain our establishment. The main source of income is Hare Krsna.
Please accept my blessings. Thank you for your letter dated July 30, 1970. I am glad to hear that our Sydney Temple is going nicely.
Please accept my blessings. Herewith please find four pages of poems written by Tirthapada dasa Brahmacari who is working at Sydney very diligently. If our Vyasa Puja pamphlet is not yet finished, you may add them there or conveniently they may be published in BTG. He is a good worker in Sydney; he should be encouraged.
Sydney
My Dear Upendra,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 12th August, 1970.
Yes, for the present I am in Tokyo and arranging to reprint some of our books and magazines to the extent of 70,000 copies and I am also awaiting the manuscript of KRSNA, Volume II, as well as Hindi magazine. So altogether there will be about 100,000 copies of different books and literatures which will all be carried to India for distribution.
The idea of going to India is to organize our Mayapur center tributed by a number of subordinate branches in a number of cities in India. We have already got invitation from various places like Mt. Abu, Nainital Hill Station, Gorakhpur and many other important cities. With my party at the present moment we are five Sannyasis and one householder. In India there are two Brahmacaris. So if we actually work together we can factually do something substantial there in India. So arrangement is being made for this purpose.
Yes, I shall not be able to attend New Vrndavana meeting and the picture kindly sent by you will certainly be properly utilized and placed somewhere for worshiping.
Yes, I received one letter from Bali Mardan which I have replied to Sydney address, but today I have received one letter from him from L.A. He is on the way to New Vrndavana. I understand on his way he was on Fiji Island and there is a very good prospect to open a branch at Fiji.
I received the pictures previously along with your letter and I have replied the same to your Sydney address. Now in New Vrindaban you will be meeting all your God-brothers, especially the GBC members and try to make a strong program for pushing this movement on. Our immediate program is to send a strong party of sankirtana to India. By Krsna's Grace our place to stay is already arranged both in Calcutta and Mathura. If the GBC members can arrange to send at least twenty initiated devotees to India. I think by your exemplary character the Indian public will be surprised and they will take to your way of life. This is the second phase of my missionary activities. I want to take some of my exemplary character devotees for performing sankirtana in India so that they may see what is their defect. Your spiritual strength will depend only on the basis of unflinching faith in Krsna and the Spiritual Master, chanting sixteen rounds on beads and following the restrictive items.
You have already opened up several branches like Tokyo and Sydney, so please continue this opening of centers as many as possible in Fiji, Melbourne, etc. While we were coming through the Philippines on the way to Calcutta from Tokyo we learned that in Manila they are also interested in our Movement for Krsna Consciousness, so that is another open field.
Sydney
My Dear Upendra,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your very encouraging letter dated Sept. 21st, 1970, along with some nice photos of your Sydney activities and some favorable reports from the local newspapers. All this publicity is very nice for our Movement and people are beginning to seriously appreciate our work. I have had good reports also from Jagadisa in Toronto and he says that in Canada the people are very receptive to our Krsna Consciousness philosophy.
Sydney
My Dear Tirthapada,
Please accept my blessings and offer the same to all the devotees of our Sydney Temple. I am so glad to receive your letter dated 14th October and have noted the contents.
Your enthusiasm for starting centers for educating the people of the world in this sublime Krsna Consciousness process is very good. You are actually authorized agent of my Guru Maharaja and through Him, Lord Caitanya. He predicted that in every town and village of the world His Name will be well known and you are trying for fulfilling His mission, certainly He will give you all strength and blessings. We simply have to work sincerely and automatically all other things will come. Recently one very responsible Indian gentleman was in our Temple in Sydney and he has given very good certificate for our activities there.
I have also received encouraging reports from Sydney and Fiji. So long our students remain fixed up to the regulative principles without deviation they will be enthusiastic for spreading this sublime movement. Please keep close contact with the centers in your zone and see that everything is going on nicely. If you can travel from center to center conveniently, that is very good.
Regarding the two students in Sydney, I shall arrange to initiate them as soon as possible. I am very glad that Janne will soon be joining Bhurijana and they will open our branch in Hong Kong. This is the greatest service that you are all rendering in the matter of spreading Krsna Consciousness and Krsna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu will certainly bless you all my sincere students more and more in Krsna Consciousness.
1971 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 24th December, 1970, and noted the contents gladly. I am very happy to know that everything is going on well in Sydney Yatra, as well as in Hong Kong and Singapore. I am very eager for you to develop your area and so far there is good promise of our successful preaching work there.
Sydney
My Dear Bali-mardana,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 18th March, 1971 and have noted the contents. In the meantime I have received one letter from Hanuman that one lady is prepared to donate a nice piece of land and $50,000 for erecting a Radha-Krsna Temple. That is very encouraging. If it is a fact, then I can go there for laying down the foundation stone and from there it may be easier to go to Sydney. So after hearing from you, I shall let you know definitely.
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 3rd March, 1971 and have noted the contents. I have received one letter from Air India and they are prepared to give the tickets for going to Sydney. But your assistant in Sydney writes that he cannot spare the money for other passengers. So I am prepared to go alone. But you are not in Sydney, so how can I go there at this time? Also, what is the position of the temple to be donated in Kuala Lumpur? If you so desire I am prepared to go to Sydney via Kuala Lumpur, stay for one week and come back. The summary is that because you are not in Sydney, I am hesitant to go there. So please give me your instructions what to do.
I have already consented to attend Calcutta ceremony. I am not going to Russia immediately, but to Kuala Lumpur by the 30th April instead and I shall be going to Calcutta from Sydney by the 14th May. In the Sankirtana festival pandal if a very big kitchen arrangement can be made, then we shall distribute prasadam daily. Try to make this arrangement. Puri, halava, kitri—whatever can be arranged as much as possible. Tamala Krishna and Giriraja have all the ideas. Some professional men should be engaged 24 hours preparing prasadam. There are many volunteer organizations in Calcutta. They should come forward and help us distribute prasadam.
Yes, Revatinandana and Madhudvisa Swami will go there just as soon as you send money for their passage, and they will take the marble Deities with them also. And I shall be going there also by the 13rd May via Kuala Lumpur and Sydney. For the throne design you will have to write Gurudasa in Delhi (c/o S.K. Joshi; 4-A Kamala Nagar) about it. There is no such photo here. You have got idea of the length and breadth of the throne already. It should be as you have done in Gorakhpur.
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 19th April, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. So far as recording record albums is concerned, I can go there by the end of May, at the present I am going to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 30th April and then I shall be going to Calcutta via Sydney, Australia by the 14th May. They are having one Hare Krishna Festival similar to the one just held in Bombay up until the 24th May. So at that time if Mr. Duffy is still offering, then he should send me tickets for three men and I shall go there. In the mean time I shall try and send some tapes.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 22nd April, 1971 from Penang, and I have noted the contents carefully. Yes, the registered documents have been dispatched to you and I hope you have received them by now. So far as a $50,000.00 donation from Kamala Devi, I was informed by Hanuman Dasa in that way.
This plan to go to Russia is still underway and it may be that after returning from Sydney and attending one large function in Calcutta from 14th to 24th April, at that time I may be going to Moscow. So my going to Kuala Lumpur is certain, as was confirmed by telegram in reply to your telegram which arrived 22nd April, 1971. I shall be starting from here 6:30 a.m., 30th April, 1971, arriving Kuala Lumpur airport by 2:30 p.m.
When the date is fixed up, you can write both Hamsaduta and Madhudvisa so that some men can come and join you there in Vrindaban. Perhaps you know that Hamsaduta is now in Ahmedabad. His address is as follows: c/o Chimanlal M. Soni; Manekchawk Sankdhishere; Kehjdapol Vithal Niwas; Ahmedabad-1, Gujarat. Probably I will not be able to join you since I am going to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then on to Sydney Australia, and will be starting Monday morning.
P.S. Today going to Malaysia & then to Sydney.
Please accept my blessings. Please inform me about the purchase of our house in Bombay. Send a telegram to Sydney as follows:
ISKCON
118 Oxford Street
Paddington
Sydney, Australia
I'm expecting some letter from Russia. So, if such letter comes, you can keep the original letter, but send me a copy. From here the program is I shall go to Sydney and then to Calcutta. So, I asked Tamala to let me know when they want me there. I hope this will meet you in good health.
Another point is that from here I shall be going to Sydney, and then from there I shall be going to Calcutta. So, when you expect me there you can write me immediately. I hope this will meet you in good health. Offer my blessings to all others.
Please accept my blessings and offer the same to all the Press staff. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 27th April, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. Yes, I have sent off the Preface to the enlarged edition of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, sent from Sydney, and you should have received it by now. So far as the dummy is concerned, I have not received it as yet. When did you send it, and where? But there is no need of sending another. Whatever you have selected is all right. So far as the cost of printing, one girl in Baltimore has donated $15,000 and I have advised that it immediately be sent to the Press; the remaining $5,000 will be sent by Karandhara.
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 19th April, 1971 and have noted the contents. I have been so long in answering because just recently I went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Sydney Australia also, and have just recently returned to Calcutta. Here we held one "Hare Krishna Festival" as we held in Bombay, and it was even more successful.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 11th September, and have noted the contents. My instruction to you is that you stick to Japan. Even by the present process when the visas are finished, still you can go to some neighboring country like Korea or Hong Kong or Sydney or India or wherever and then again come back to Japan. And instead of asking for missionary visas the others can follow the same process. They can go for some time and exchange and in this way Japan center can be maintained. Advise Bhanu in the same way also. So we have to somehow or other push on and Krishna will give us a chance. For yourself also you can try and take a visa as a teacher and some of your students may demand your presence. We have to play some tricks for Krishna's sake. What can be done?
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 5th October, 1971 and have noted the contents. So we all combined together have taken a great task of this Krsna Consciousness movement so I am very glad to learn that you are all gradually understanding the importance of this movement. So let us execute this task very cautiously so that the human society may take advantage of it and make their life successful. It is not that everyone will be able to understand this philosophy. Still if some intelligent section of the human society understands it, there will be tremendous change in the atmosphere. So I am glad to understand also that there is good chance for opening a branch in New Zealand. I think that you may remember that when we were coming from Sydney to Calcutta we were talking on the plane about opening a branch in New Zealand country.
This will be the greatest preaching program if you can travel and distribute literature. I have experience in Sydney when I spoke at the University, the students bought my literature.
That is all right if Mohanananda wants to go to Sydney, provided you GBC men agree and if there is suitable replacement.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of December 12, 1971, and I am pleased to hear from you. I have received yesterday one phone call from Mohanananda in Sydney, inviting me to come there when I leave from here in March. I shall be very glad to come there, via Hong Kong. You should make arrangements for two tickets from Hong Kong to Australia and then to Tokyo.
I am encouraged to hear from you that Melbourne Temple is even better than Sydney Temple, so I must surely come there to see it. Go on like this, transcendental rivalry, just like San Francisco and Los Angeles, this pleases me very much. But it is not that we are envious! No, material envy is not like that. Even the gopis, they were envious of one another, in a transcendental sense. They were thinking, Oh, she has attracted Krishna more than me, that is very nice, she has given Him more pleasure than me, now let me try more to please Him. That is the process, how to improve in Krishna Consciousness.
1972 Correspondence
P.S. My itinerary is tentatively that by the 12th January I am going to Jaipur for a five day festival, then I will return to Bombay and leave for Nairobi by the 25th January. Then I have to return to India to go to Mayapur for the celebration of Lord Caitanya's Appearance Day. From there I am planning to go to Hong Kong, Sydney, Tokyo, Hawaii, and then return to the U.S.
Please accept my blessing. I am in due receipt of your letter from Sydney dated December 24, 1971, and I am very, very happy to note that you want to go back to your native place of Sweden, along with your good wife and some other Swedish boys, devotees, from Germany and other places, for opening our center there. That is a very good proposal. I think Krsna das tried to start something before in Stockholm, but he could not do anything. His wife is Swedish girl, and she has got two sisters who are also our disciples in London, so you may correspond with them whether they can assist you in some way. I think Vegavan is there also in Australia, he is also Swedish boy, whether he can assist you as well?
Our Madras programme has been fixed from 11th to 14th of this month, then on the 16th I shall be free to come to Vishakhapatnam along with a party of some of my American and foreign disciples. From Madras to Visakhapatnam will be much easier than to go to Calcutta and then again come back; besides, that it is quite probable that I shall be returning to Los Angeles the first week in March, visiting my Centres in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, and Honolulu on the way.
I will be coming to Australia by end of March, or perhaps sooner, because it is more economical than to go first to Hong Kong. When I have fixed the date, I shall inform you to fix up tickets for two persons from Bombay to either Sydney or Melbourne. You consult with Sydney Temple and Upendra and others and fix up your programme in Australia for at least two weeks.
Please accept my blessings. I am so much thankful to you for your letter dated nil, and for the telegram wherein you have requested that I shall return to Los Angeles immediately if possible, and all blessings to you for Lord Krishna that you are endeavoring to propagate the message of Krishna Consciousness so widely and diligently. This television program is very much encouraging to me, and I wish to take part in it immediately. I wanted to cancel all other engagements and go direct to Los Angeles, but if I go in that way my promised visit to Sydney and to Japan especially will be frustrated.
Sydney
26 March, 1972
72-03-26
Los Angeles
My dear Lilavati,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 3, 1972 and I have noted the contents. I am very glad to hear that you are happy in your service in Los Angeles. Your letters show that you are very much talented in writing, so my proposal is that you engage yourself in editorial work. Or if you like, you can learn elementary Sanskrit, and when I come there we shall see how it can be put to use. Your book distribution program is very much encouraging to me. The more such literatures are read and distributed, the more auspicity will be there in the world. Please continue this program with ever-increasing enthusiasm.
I am leaving on the 31st of this month for Australia, and I plan to be in Los Angeles by the end of April.
Please offer my blessings to the others there. Hoping this will meet you in good health.
Sydney
27 March, 1972
72-03-27
Toronto
My dear Jagadisa,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated February 15, 1972 and March 11, 1972 and I have noted the contents. I am so glad to hear how you are expanding the book distribution program so rapidly. The more this literature is read and distributed, the more the world will be filled with auspicity. Please continue this program with ever-increasing enthusiasm and this will please my Guru Maharaja very much.
Sydney
2 April, 1972
72-04-02
Vrindaban
My dear Gurudasa and Yamuna,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated March 22, 28, and 29, 1972, and I have carefully noted the contents. We are now in Australia and I am very glad to report to you that everything is going extremely well here, and I am much satisfied with the progress being made in western countries like Australia. Now in India you must develop things also very nicely, especially for attracting overseas visitors to come there and enjoy Indian special atmosphere of spiritual life. Our Indian boys and girls are not very much interested to become devotees, but I am seeing that these fair-skinned Americans and Europeans are like angels by coming to Krishna Consciousness increasingly more and more, and that very soon the whole world will become filled with such angels, and so I am very optimistic that if we continue in this way by sticking very tightly to our pure standards that the Lord Caitanya's prediction will very soon be realized all over the world. So I am very much encouraged by our program in Vrindaban, especially the plan to cooperate with Cox and King's and have guided tours for foreigners, to be led by you. The main point is to acquaint by explaining them about Krishna and trying to sell them Krishna Book. So receive them nicely, and do same work as the pandas do. We have got our panda there, so you can take help from him. you can take help from Purusottama Brahmacari also. Whenever you go out with the tourists, take one known panda with you. but sight-seeing is secondary. We may advertise sightseeing to attract them, but main thing is to give them nice prasadam and instruction, then try to sell them our Krishna book. Then you will be successful with this program. We are now propagandising Krishna consciousness, so that many here will be interested to come to Vrindaban. So just like there is Dalmia dharmasala for foreigners, so we shall now have also such place, and we may eventually get bus and offer all facilities to them.
Sydney
2 April, 1972
72-04-02
Hamburg
My dear Hamsaduta,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 17, 1972, forwarded to me in India from Nairobi. Now we have finished our business in India for the time being, so I am stopping here in Australia for some time and then I shall return to Los Angeles for my translating work.
Your idea for printing books with Dai Nippon and concentrating on distributing is very good idea, so I very much approve of your techniques for selling our literatures, and this have very much relieved me to know that this program is progressing rapidly under your control. Also, you ideas for travelling SKP are very much liked by me. Here in Australia they have got one double-decker bus, like you have seen in London streets, and they have painted it very brightly, and as it moves there is kirtana party chanting very loudly inside, and on top floor there is sleeping space and kitchen. On the whole, it is so nice that I am suggesting Dayananda that he supply you and Krishna das with information, how you may purchase such busses in London and drive them all over European continent, and these "Hare Krishna Movement" busses will make us famous all over the world. I am enclosing one photo of their Australia bus in Sydney.
Sydney
2 April, 1972
72-04-02
Calcutta
My dear Tamala Krishna and Jayapataka,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your joint letter dated 19th March, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very much encouraged by your progress in reporting the stockpiling of materials. It appears that things are progressing at a good rate, and if you are determined enough to make a very perfect scheme there in Mayapur, Krishna will give you all encouragement to make all necessary arrangements. So continue in this way, but try to persuade these men for giving us more donations of money and goods. The newspaper report of Hindus and Moslems eating together which has been printed in Amrita Bazar Patrika will persuade many rich men to help us. I am very glad that Amrita Bazar Patrika is helping us in this way by printing these articles. So if you can show this handbill you have printed and these articles, so many men will give for human welfare basis. I am enclosing one card given to me by one man in the Calcutta airport just as I was leaving there last time, and this man has got a brother in the steel business in Calcutta and he has promised me to help us secure free steel from him. So try for it.*
Sydney
2 April, 1972
72-04-02
Vrindaban
My dear Ksirodakasayi,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated 18 and 28 March, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. The fencing estimate, sometimes you say Rs. 4000, sometimes Rs. 5000, so I think you have no good idea about these things, because it will not cost more than Rs. 1500. I understand that you have taken quotation from contractor. Don't go through contractor. So anything to be sent in this connection must be done personally and in conjunction with Gurudasa. The cost shall not exceed Rs. 1500 for the fencing.
The first thing is that I am very much anxious for Hindi BTG composition. It must done immediately, otherwise how you can get it from Japan? It will take three to four months for each issue, so layout should be done four months ahead. Then in due time the printed copies will be received. So you concentrate on this point very seriously, and if Dr. Ramananda Rao is not sending translations, then you should translate and ask Radharamana Goswami to translate. This is the most important task.
Sydney
2 April, 1972
72-04-02
Hamburg
My dear Mandali Bhadra,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 12, 1972, and I am very much pleased to hear that your German BTG distribution has gone up to 50,000 last issue, and I very much approve of your ideas for improving it more and more. In the editorial section which you plan to have for the beginning, the point should be stressing on the position of the living entities, as it is stated in Bhagavad-gita that a learned man observes everyone on the same level, that is, on spiritual understanding. So our Society's position of vision is from that platform. We want to see all living entities as parts and parcels of Krishna without giving any consideration to outer skin, and that is real education. So you can expound on this idea. The modern civilization is based on bodily designation—American, India, German—but our proposition is to become free from these artificial designations, and unless one becomes free from these artificial designations there can't be any God-consciousness, and without God-consciousness there is no possibility of any peace in the world.
Sydney
2 April, 1972
72-04-02
London
My dear Revatinandana,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 3/10/72, and I am very much pleased upon you for taking up the matter of preaching work in England especially, and also other places. I am happy to hear that new centers are being opened by you and others in Europe. This is our best field, and practically I am observing here in Australia that you western boys and girls are becoming angels by taking up this Krishna Consciousness process, and that our Indian boys and girls will not take it up. They think that to have a good wife and sufficient income, bas, that is the goal of their life. But you all are joining me and you are coming out very nicely by Krishna's grace, so I am very much thankful. One thing, if we are not very careful to always stick to the point of regulative principles and purest standards of high living, then everything will spoil very quickly and the whole show will be a farce. So impress this point in your preaching for training the younger devotees, they will follow your example in all respects.
Sydney
April 3, 1972
72-04-03
New York
My dear Bali-mardana,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 20, 1972, and I am very much pleased by the latest books from ISKCON Press. Many, many such small booklets may be produced by you, make them very attractive, and they will sell like anything. There is no other literatures like ours in the world, and this information like "Here is God, just see Him, can you give any clear picture of God," this clear understanding of God is not available anywhere else but from our books, so if you are convinced on this point, then produce books voluminously. But one thing is you must also increase facilities in your New York and that side for distributing also, because I have heard that this program is being very much neglected in the eastern part.
Sydney
4 April, 1972
72-04-04
My Dear Bhavananda,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 27, 1972, and with great sorrow I have noted the contents. I had also very much affection for Amrtananda, but if, as you report, there was some connection with Krishna at the last moment, then we have not to doubt that he will get good opportunity to advance further in Krishna Consciousness, so let us not lament. I understand there was some unstoppable attraction to the material glare, but at the same time he was strongly attracted to Krishna, so there was some very great conflict, and because he was weak in his mind he succumbed. So I think he may now get better opportunity to take it up, because he has become my disciple and has rendered some good service to Krishna.
Sydney
4 April, 1972
72-04-04
My Dear Rupanuga,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due reciept of your letter dated March 30, 1972 and the contents have greatly surprised me.
YOUR MATERIAL LEGAL FORMULA WILL NOT HELP US ONLY OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE CAN HELP US I HAVE NO APPROVAL FOR ANY THESE PLANS STOP YOU REMAIN GERMANY DON'T LEAVE AGAIN STOP ATREYA RISHI HAS NO AUTHORITY FROM ME TO MANAGE ANYTHING REMOVE HIM ACKNOWLEDGE CABLE URGENT 26 RENNY STREET PADDINGTON SYDNEY
YOUR MATERIAL LEGAL FORMULA WILL NOT HELP US ONLY OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE CAN HELP US I HAVE NOT APPROVAL FOR ANY THESE PLANS STOP HAMSADUTA MUST RETURN GERMANY IMMEDIATELY DON'T LEAVE AGAIN STOP ATREYA RISHI HAS NO AUTHORITY FROM ME TO MANAGE ANYTHING REMOVE HIM ACKNOWLEDGE CABLE URGENT 26 RENNY STREET PADDINGTON SYDNEY
On April 6, 1972, the following message was dispatched by cable, one copy each to Karandhara, Rupanuga, and Hamsaduta:
YOUR MATERIAL LEGAL FORMULA WILL NOT HELP US. ONLY OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE CAN HELP US. HAMSADUTA MUST RETURN GERMANY IMMEDIATELY AND DON'T LEAVE AGAIN. ATREYA RISHI HAS NO AUTHORITY FROM ME TO MANAGE ANYTHING. REMOVE HIM. I HAVE NO APPROVAL FOR ANY THESE PLANS. DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING. ACKNOWLEDGE CABLE 26 RENNY STREET PADDINGTON SYDNEY.
BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI
On the following morning, April 7, 1972, three replies were received:
1. JAI! ALL MY MISGIVINGS CONFIRMED BY YOUR TELEGRAMS. RAISED STRONG OBJECTIONS AT GBC MEETINGS. LETTER SENT TO YOU ON 30TH ABOUT THIS. DETAILS TO FOLLOW. HAMSADUTA LEFT 30TH FOR GERMANY. ATREYA RISHI NOTIFIED. GBC NOTIFIED. NOTHING SIGNIFICANT CHANGED YET. DO NOT WORRY. HARE KRISHNA.
RUPANUGA.
2. I WILL REMAIN IN GERMANY AND FOLLOW YOUR INSTRUCTION. WILL REMOVE ATREYA RISHI.
HAMSADUTA.
3. HAMSADUTA HAS RETURNED TO GERMANY. ATREYA REMOVED. AWAITING ANY FURTHER INSTRUCTION.
KARANDHARA.
cc. All Temple Presidents.
ACBS/sda
APPROVED: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Founder-Acarya, ISKCON
Sydney
8 April, 1972
72-04-08
Pittsburgh
My dear Bibhu,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 10, 1972 and I have noted the contents. I am so glad to know that your temple is growing and you are expanding your programs. If we simply remain very sincere, then Krishna will give us all facility for serving Him nicely. This college program is very good, and you should continue in this way, giving all these student an opportunity to learn this Krishna consciousness philosophy and culture. They are all seeking after some knowledge, but they are being misguided by their blind leaders. It is our duty to give them real knowledge and understanding of the purpose of life.
Sydney
8 April, 1972
ISKCON Sydney,
83, Hereford Street, Glebe,
Sydney, Australia 2037.
My dear Puri Maharaj,
Please accept my greetings. I beg to acknowledge your letter of 18/3/72, and I have noted the contents carefully. You will be happy to know that our centers in Australia are expanding very rapidly, and many many young boys and girls are surrendering their lives in rich country to Lord Krishna. Now I think I have got about 100 disciples in Melbourne, and Sydney, exactly like those you have observed with me in India. So there is very good scope here because we have opened up our preaching here less than two years back. The other day I was invited by some Christian monks to come to their very large monastery in the countryside near Melbourne, and they were so much appreciating our Krishna Consciousness philosophy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and they read our Bhagavad Gita every night, and they are all very nice persons and have stopped eating meat. So practically they have become our allies, and with their co-operation there is immense work to be done. Then last night we had a meeting in the Melbourne Town Hall in the central part of the city, and there was very ecstatic kirtan with more than one thousand persons and many of them joined us by dancing on the stage. So in every respect these western countries are the best field for our Vaisnava culture to spread and take effect, that has been demonstrated.
Sydney
8 April, 1972
72-04-08
Pittsburgh
My dear daughter,
Please accept my blessings. Upon the recommendation of Bibhu I have gladly consented to accept you as my duly initiated disciple. Your beads have been duly chanted on by me and they are sent under separate post. Your spiritual name is Tarkikchuramoni Devi Dasi.
Sydney
8 April, 1972
72-04-08
Vrindaban
My dear Gurudasa,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to inform you that very soon I shall be going to Tokyo from here, and I wish to arrange with Dai Nippon to send many of our books to India, via Bombay, for selling in India. It has proven to be very troublesome to send money from America to India, but you can get books as many as you like, sell them there to the public at large, and in this way you can raise funds for our Mayapur, Vrindaban and Juhu projects. So I do not know about our CCP license, whether permission further is needed to import these religious textbooks? So kindly enquire in Delhi what is the present position, and if there is further work to be done to get the permission, please do the needful and inform. I shall be sending the books very soon, so we should be certain that they will allow them without any difficulty like last time.
There is one Ish Kumar Puri, who is at the firm of Atma Ram & Sons, Kashmere Gate, Delhi-6, and I think you and Tamala Krishna have had some dealings with him before, and I think he has promised to help us in this respect, so kindly also visit him and take his help. In this regard, you please correspond with Mahamsa and Giriraja in Bombay, and with Bhavananda in Calcutta, and all of your work conjointly.
I am very much happy with our Australian programs, and in few days we are flying to New Zealand, where Tusta Krishna has opened up a new ISKCON center. Then we shall go to Hong Kong and Japan, so you may reply me at the Sydney address until 18th April, 1972, at Tokyo from 18th to first of May, and after that c/o Los Angeles. Keep my informed very regularly all that is happening, especially with Vrindaban scheme, because I am very much pleased with you both for working there and I think you are the best persons to manage there nicely, because Krishna has wanted you to live there all along.
Sydney
8 April, 1972
72-04-08
MEMO TO ALL ISKCON TEMPLE PRESIDENTS:
My dear ___
Please accept my blessings. I beg to inform you that recently some of the Governing Body Commission members held a meeting at New York on 25th through 28th March, 1972, and they have sent me a big big minutes, duplicated, for my consideration and approval, but in the meantime they have decided some appointments without consulting me. One of the items which struck me very much is as follows:
"Atreya Rsi das was selected to be the Secretary for GBC and receive all correspondence including monthly reports." I never appointed Atreya Rsi member of the GBC, and I do not know how he can be appointed Secretary to GBC without my sanction. "He was also appointed to be on the Management Committee with Karandhara for the purpose of supervising ISKCON business and implementing the decisions reached by GBC." This has very much disturbed me.
Sriman Atreya Rsi das may be very expert, but without my say he has been given so much power and this has upset my brain.
Sydney
9 April, 1972
72-04-09
My dear Bhakta dasa,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 19, 1972, and I am very much pleased to note that you are making steady growth in all aspects of devotional service, especially in the department of selling so many books monthly. But always remember that we are selling books not for making business but for pleasing Krsna, and by preaching we should sell books, not by cheating. If this simple method is followed, there will be tremendous success in selling of our books, and the public will appreciate and take great benefit from our preaching and publications.
Sydney
10 April, 1972
72-04-10
(To Mahatma)
"So far your thinking about things and making so many plans, that is all right, but our first business is Krishna's plan. That is the only plan, and no matter how many schemes we employ to adjust things in this material world, if they have no solid basis in Krishna's plan, they remain merely dreams of phantasmagoria. So in this Krishna Consciousness Movement, I am training boys and girls all over the world how to act nicely by practically serving Krishna in their everyday lives. That is more important than trying for something which I may like to do but which will never happen. Just like Sudama Vipra, he did not want to offer something very small, but his wife insisted so he offered Krishna only a small bowl of flaked rice, and Krishna took it with great pleasure, and when Sudama vipra returned home to his poor hut, he found a huge palace made of jewels. So the point is to make use of what we already have. That is most important, and if Krishna sees that we are using is properly for pleasing Him in loving attitude of devotional service, then Krishna gives every facility in reciprocation of love. So if you have talent for musical achievement, that is nice; but if you nourish some idea of becoming famous by playing some music, that will be a source of frustration—the end. So it is better if you play your music for Krishna by having very ecstatic kirtanas in your center in Vancouver, and in this way, as I have introduced it, all of the devotees and also the general public as well will be able to join together cooperatively in the glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not that we shall glorify anyone else. Let the materialists operate in their own way, but we have got Vaisnavism stand and we should train the general public to accept it and come up to our platform of process of doing things, not that we should reduce to their standard."
Sydney
10 April, 1972
72-04-10
Dallas
My dear Satsvarupa,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 17, 1972, and I am very much pleased to hear from you that everything is going nicely at our Gurukula school, and also that two travelling SKP parties from Dallas are having such good success by turning in $3000 to my Book Fund in one month only. That is such nice service to Krishna, and it is news that makes my heart gladdened. Actually, I have very great hope for these travelling parties, our Gurukula school, and all our other projects, that by engaging ourselves in these ways, so long we do not forget the purpose of such activity then we shall very much revise the nasty situation in the world as it exists present moment, and we shall observe that angelic persons like you all nice devotees will be very much prominent in public life everywhere. That is my hope. But I have been very much disturbed recently by the meeting which you all have had in New York, wherein you have passed so many resolutions and elected Atreya Rsi to GBC Secretary, and made so many other changes. I am very much puzzled by the whole business. Therefore I have not approved of it, and you may by now have received my letter why I have temporarily suspended the GBC. Let us not revive this old matter, but I want to know from you what is your opinion of the matter, and how is it that Hamsaduta and Atreya Rsi were able to persuade you all senior leaders of the Society to follow their foolish activities? Kindly inform.
Sydney
11 April, 1972
72-04-11
Hamburg
My dear Hamsaduta,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 7th, 1972, and I have noted the contents. The meeting of the GBC appeared to be very unconstitutional, because all the men were not informed or invited. Syamasundara was not invited, Sudama was not invited, Krishna das was not invited, Tamala Krishna was not invited, neither I was informed. Why? You cannot hold meeting of 8 persons without inviting the others. Seven may be a quorum, that's all right, but you cannot convene without a general announcement to all the members and myself, giving a proposed agenda, like that, the topics to be discussed, why the meeting is being called, etc. Then there is correspondence for deciding these things, and if there is great necessity, then meeting may be called, but not whimsically, only after much thought is given and there is clear intimation of all the members plus myself. Anything whatever is done is done, but the whole thing appeared to be giving all power to Atreya Rsi. I cannot understand why, instead of one GBC man, a person outside the Commission was given so much power, and there was to be immediate action without divulging the matter to the devotees. And I am surprised that none of the GBC members detected the defects in the procedure. It was detected only when it came to me. What will happen when I am not here, shall everything be spoiled by GBC? So for the time being, let the GBC activities be suspended until I thoroughly revise the whole procedure. In the meantime, you do your duty as president of Hamburg Temple, and try to improve spiritually. Our spiritual way should strictly observe the following points especially: (1). Neatness and cleanliness of all personal bodies. (I still see those who are initiated as Brahmins, they do not wash their hand after eating even; of course, there may be so many defects due to your births in non-Brahmin families, but how long it shall go on? It is very easy thing.); (2). Chanting 16 rounds daily. (I don't think everyone is following these principles.); (3) Temple worship, which should be performed rigidly between four and ten a.m.)
Sydney, Australia
12 April, 1972
72-04-12
My Dear Anuttama,
Please accept my blessing. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 10, 1972, and I have noted the contents. I am very pleased to know that you are feeling happy in your execution of devotional service. Service of Krishna's devotees is the highest stage of spiritual perfection, so your desire to render service to the other devotees is very nice. You keep this humble attitude always, and your example will be a source of spiritual inspiration for everyone.
Sydney
12 April, 1972
72-04-12
Bombay
My dear Giriraja,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 5, 1972, and I have noted the contents with great pleasure. It appears to be very encouraging. Regarding the pandal, I do not know why they have not removed it yet, because we have ordered them to take it away, so if they have not done it, that is their business, we are not going to pay more that you have already paid. But if they are willing to sell the whole things at cost price, we are willing to purchase the whole thing. If possible, negotiate in this way.
Madhudvisa has written one letter to Syamasundara expressing his desire to come to this side. So if you think that you can manage without his help, then he is welcome to come this side. There is very good scope this side for Sankirtana Party. The Sydney and Melbourne people are doing especially nice.
Sydney
12 April, 1972
72-04-12
Varanasi
My Dear Niranjana,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 18, 1972 and I have noted the contents. I am glad to hear that you reached your destination safely and are determinedly chanting Hare Krishna without any fail. If one simply follows the four regulative principles and regularly chants Hare Krishna, there will be no question of falling down from devotional service.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 20th April, 1972, and I have noted the contents with great pleasure. It appears that things are going very nicely there in all respects, and I am very much relieved. I did not hear from you in Sydney, as you have mentioned, but anyway I was also writing to you and Acyutananda that my godbrother in Jessore district was very much anxious for us to come there and I was suggesting for you to go there. So now I think it is a very good opportunity, so you may go with your party immediately. If possible see Sri Mujibur Rehman, president of Bangladesh, and show him evidence that Parsis, Jews, Christians, Muslims, all parties are participating in this Krishna Consciousness Movement—so why they Bangladesh Muslims should not join? We want to unite everyone culturally. Without this, every society is imperfect, but with it, society is perfect. All intelligent leaders of society should try to understand in depth this fact. So take the help of Sri Bhakti Turyasrami and implant one center there at Jessore. He has land but no money, so we should invest a little money and open one center. Have a huge prasadam program. Gurudasa has secured foodstuffs from the American government, and I think he has acquired an excessive amount, so balance can be distributed, part to Jessore, part to Bombay, where they are also having a successful prasadam distribution program. Now there are many devotees coming from London and USA, so utilize them for vigorous propaganda in India and Bangladesh. All these reports are very much encouraging to me. Thank you very, very much.
You can go to Australia, there you have got enough field for your dancing. Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland are very good field and you will have very good assistance from Mohanananda. In New Zealand we have already got one land of 3 acres. You are now a veteran devotee and very sincere, so you organize everything in Australia and New Zealand. Here, Sudama is taking sannyasa to overhaul the whole of Japan. I see these Japanese as better than the Americans, they offered me their obeisances immediately.
I am very glad to hear that you have got one Life Member there in Melbourne. He is helping you to get that press, but I do not think your getting another press will help. You claim that Sydney press is not working; similarly, if you start a press and there is not sufficient work, you will suffer. If you want literature, it will be sent. If there are different small presses, the work will not be of good quality. So this opening of small presses here and there, I am not in favor. Of course, if you utilize that store for a kirtana hall and book store, that is another matter—then many people will be attracted to actually learn about our movement and join us. That is a good proposal.
Mohanananda has not yet come, so do not do anything new until we have discussed, and when I hear what he wants to do, I shall contact you then.
Hoping this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
cc: Mohanananda/Sydney.
Sydney
My Dear Syamananda,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter undated in your very nice handwriting. Do not bother yourself for designing for Vrndavana Temple. The work has been taken up by one very qualified architect in Delhi and also Saurabha is assisting. So I can understand that you are very talented boy from your wonderful script, so I think you should apply your talent for painting nice pictures of Krishna and the acaryas in our line, and also you may help Mohadananda in designing work for his press operation there in Sydney.
Now I understand that Madhudvisa Swami is there with you in Sydney so you may give him all assistance also. He can give you good direction how to best employ yourself in the service of the Lord. And if you get opportunity for sometimes travelling with him for doing Sankirtana all over Australia that will also be nice.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter from Sydney dated May 16, 1972, and I have noted the contents with great encouragement. Your plan for traveling in Australia and New Zealand is very good. Sydney is naturally the center for that zone and if you have constantly traveling sankirtana parties roving in Australia and New Zealand, that will be first class proposal. Your letter to Tusta Krsna is very nice and just to the point. I had just written to Amogha in this connection. I had told him that purchasing another press in Melbourne was not very much required at the present moment. So if you think New Zealand can be fully reliant upon Sydney for printing work and that Sydney temple can become very responsible in this matter, then they should not purchase any press. New Zealand is first class dairy and farming country in the world, so if you can establish some nice asrama there for raising and protecting cows, that will be a great service.
Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter from Sydney dated May 30, 1972, wherein you have expressed some hesitation to become the GBC Secretary for the Pacific zone. Actually you may be misunderstanding the present position or policy of this GBC. I have instructed all of the GBC men to give up their staying in one place and to remain always constantly traveling throughout their zones from temple to temple. Recently, I have given Sannyasa order of life to Rupanuga, Satsvarupa, and Bali Mardan, and I have made Brahmananda the GBC man for Africa, and I wanted that you should be GBC man for South Pacific zone. So being Sannyasi is no hindrance for being also GBC. In fact, the duties of the GBC men are now to be just like the duties of the Sannyasis. I want that the GBC men should leave the management of the individual centers to the local presidents and concentrate themselves upon preaching work. They should be constantly traveling from one center to another center to see how the students are learning and to give whatever advice is necessary for improving the temple standards. In addition, the GBC men will open new centers, distribute literature, and they should always be traveling with a sankirtana party to accompany them. So practically there is no difference between the Sannyasi duty and the GBC duty, and because you are my veteran disciple and you have had very good experience, I think there will be no trouble for you to accept the GBC position, I do not think it will in any way inconvenience you program of traveling. But for the time being, if you prefer, Mohanananda can work conjointly with you for managing. We shall decide finally after some months.
Please accept my blessings. I am in receipt of your letter dated June 9, 1972, from Melbourne, and I don't think you have yet got my last letter to you at Sydney. I am very pleased to hear that you are utilizing your good experience for introducing the Ratha Yatra Festival in Australia, I shall be very pleased to see the photos how it is going. I fully approve of your program for traveling, now you combine the sannyasi requirement for traveling extensively, and at the same time as GBC man you shall be my personal secretary for maintaining the highest level of Krishna Consciousness amongst the devotees in your zone. I am very much concerned that the devotees should be given all good instruction and knowledge of Krishna Consciousness, that is the duty of the GBC man. (?) better to utilize time and train the devotees, especially the responsible officers, and they can go out for preaching to non-devotees and making new devotees. But if they do not have any knowledge, how can they go out and preach? So you GBC men are my selected few for insuring that what I am doing will be carried on very nicely for the pleasure of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So now you must all my senior disciples and leaders become very, very much aware of your grave responsibility to the human society for delivering them from the clutches of catastrophe, and be always cool-headed and utilize every moment in the best manner possible. I am successful only because I am following strictly the orders of my Guru Maharaja, and I do not deviate. Therefore people respect what I am saying and they listen because I do not say one thing and do another. So now you are doing my work and you shall be like me and be yourselves the worthy representatives of our disciplic succession.
Sydney
My dear Amogha,
Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated August 3, 1972 and I have noted the contents. Yes, that is a good idea if you want to return to Djakarta for again opening our center there, along with your wife. It is very encouraging that the citizens in Djakarta have donated for your airline tickets, so that is a good sign. If Madhudvisa has agreed, then you may go there immediately. It is better if you take some men with you for the preaching work and other things. We should not open centers with only two persons, we shall have at least four men. I remember once before you wrote me from Djakarta and informed me that you were going to Australia to find a wife and then you were going to Indonesia. So now your plan is coming true and I think Krsna will give you all facility for continuing as you have proposed.
Sydney
My dear Upendra and Citralekha,
Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter dated 6 August, 1972 along with the balaclava hat. The hat is very nice and it is now cold in London it also had some immediate use. But now I am in Los Angeles and the weather here is very warm so I have kept the hat in London for my use whenever I shall go there.
Please accept my blessings. I have received your letters dated August 13 and August 15 respectively and have noted the contents with some dismay. I do not like to hear these things, but whatever is done, is done. What you have is all right, now go on preaching as you are doing. So far the presidents are concerned, they should not be abruptly changed in future. If there is any complaint they should be first of all informed to me. One thing we should always remember is that all of our devotees picked up here are accustomed to all of these bad habits in their past life, so if sometimes they reveal their old characteristics, instead of rejecting them, it is up to us to rectify them as far as possible. So try to reform Mohananandan there. What he will do by coming here? Amogha has indicated he has already shaved his sikha and has left everything. do you think U.S.A. is a magic place, simply by coming here he will become reformed? If possible you can send to the U.S.A., but it is better to correct him to the standard point by friendly gestures. We can reject anyone, that is very easy, but to reform him that requires great skill and tact and if you can reform him there by kind words and dealings, that is best. When I was there in Sydney, I observed that Mohananandan is very, very good boy and he has great intelligence and talent, simply it has become little bit misguided due to circumstances. Now you both big leaders in Australia, along with the others, you make a very concerted attempt to help Mohananandan over his difficulties and persuade him that everything is all right; that I am not angry or displeased in any way. These things will sometimes happen even with the best devotees, and in this way try and persuade him to become engaged with his previous enthusiasm for becoming once again a great devotee. He is young boy, so we should not take his actions too seriously, better to forget the past and try to reform him. His service can be once again very much valuable there in Australia, I know he is very good boy. Do not drive him away, that will be the discredit to all of you leaders. But if there is great difficulty, he may come and live with me here in Los Angeles for the time being, I have no objection. But he has done very nicely in Sydney up to the present time, so if you can utilize his experience and talents there, that is the best plan.
Sydney
My dear Upendra,
Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter dated Wednesday, 6th September, 1972, and I am very glad to hear that you and your good wife want to go to Perth, Australia, for opening one ISKCON center. There is no doubt about it that I shall sanction your endeavor in this respect. I am always praying that my disciples will gradually increase our war against maya on all fronts. But I do not think it is necessary to take money from Karandhara for opening that center. From our experience we have found it is always in the long run more stable and better situation if local people can be persuaded to help from the very beginning. So you may solicit money from them in small amounts and gradually collect in that way enough to open a center in involve or engage all of the local people from the very beginning. You are the pioneer in Australia so I shall expect the Perth center to be first class in every way, and next year when I return from India I have been invited to Djakarta and New Zealand so I shall be very glad to stop at Perth, Australia, also and see you then.
I am very much pleased to hear that you are distributing so much of our literature and books and I think if you go on like this that very soon you will become the number one book distributers in the whole world. At least I want that. I have already advised Caru in the matter of the legal business in Sydney, and I do not think there is any need for going to court and spending so much money. We are prepared to hold sankirtana on the street or in the jail, it does not matter, wherever we are, we are able to vibrate Krsna's name and be happy. So gradually they will grow tired of persecuting us and just like in London and other places we shall become established with our sankirtana party.
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of you letters dated December 6 and 13, 1972, and I have noted that you have sent two airline tickets for my coming there along with my one assistant. If that is so, where are those tickets sent, with which airline, where to pick them up? I am prepared to come there, as you have made such enthusiastic arrangements, but I shall be holding our Hare Krishna Festival again in Cross Maidan from January 12th to 21st, and after that there are a few programmes in Calcutta, so I may leave from Calcutta round about January 25th or so, go first to Djakarta, then as you suggest me. But one thing is, I must travel at least with two secretaries, Srutakirti and Syamasundara. So you may send three tickets to Bombay, informing us name of airline, etc. But I think your programme is bit strenuous. We should not work strenuously. Whatever can be done easily, that will be better. However, I am prepared to do as you think best, but flying here and there, so many places, that will be little troublesome, what do you think? Better a few programmes with many persons attending of high interest and intelligence, instead of many programmes here and there if there is chance nobody may come. At any rate, I shall be very glad to come there under your invitation to see all those nice boys and girls and how the things are going on. You mention Mohanananda, now he wants to stay there in Sydney. I had requested him to go to Gurukula school because he desired to do it. They very much require a Headmaster there with his experience and enthusiasm, so I do not know if he still wants to do it. Somehow or other our children in Gurukula may not be neglected due to our mismanagement. But we shall discuss further when I come there.
1973 Correspondence
One thing to consider before we take any action is that if we buy lots of land, the government may become envious to feed so many men without them working etc. and the communists there are notorious for confiscating property. So I am concerned that if we develop this scheme the government may take some action against us. If you can develop an educational institution, that may help to pacify them.
I shall be in Sydney until the 18th, and shall then be going to New Zealand and Indonesia. I shall return to India during the first week of March. Hoping this finds you all well.
I shall be in Sydney until the 18th, and shall be returning to India by the first week of March after visiting New Zealand and Indonesia. As Sudama Maharaja has indicated his desire to remain in U.S. Japan may be included in your GBC zone for the present. I hope this finds you well.
Sydney
14 February, 1973
73-02-14
My Dear Ramesvara,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 5th. and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very much pleased to hear of your increased book distribution and it gives me great pleasure to hear of your increased eagerness to distribute my literature. Through the distribution of this literature, we can completely annihilate all the bogus yogi groups in the world. Of this fact I am sure. Therefore there is no need for us to directly attack these charlatans but simply by this distribution of books the sunlight of Krishna consciousness will prevail. It has been brought to my attention that some of my students are not studying. I do not know if this applies to you or the devotees under your care, but I must stress again that we must have our classes one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening and the devotees must also chant regularly their sixteen rounds and follow the principles. The rest of the time they may go on distribution of my books. So I hope you will do the needful in this regard. Still again I must express my appreciation for Sriman Tripurari Prabhu's outstanding service, as well as all the devotees in your party. So my request to you is to go on in this way with more enthusiasm. This is the key. Always remain enthusiastic and inspire others and your life will be glorious and at the end you are sure to go back to Home, back to Godhead. I hope this finds you in good health.
Sydney
14 February, 1973
73-02-14
My Dear Rupanuga,
Please accept my blessings. I am in receipt of your letter dated 31/1/73. After conferring with my various GBC representatives I have concluded that polygamy must be strictly prohibited in our society. Although it is a Vedic institution still there are so many legal implications. Neither are many of our men fixed up enough to tend for more than one wife. Polygamy will simply increase the sex life and our philosophy is to gradually decrease the sex life till eventually there is no sex life. The policy should be that all the women are given the utmost protection. Women are looking for husbands because they feel unprotected so it is up to the senior members to give all protection to the women.
Sydney
15 February, 1973
73-02-15
Los Angeles
My Dear Satsvarupa,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated nil and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very pleased to hear of your determination in spreading this Krishna Consciousness philosophy on all these campuses. This is a very important program. Right from the beginning of my mission, I have always stressed and encouraged my disciples to work with the college students. You should not be discouraged if people are not coming to your meetings. We are trying to please Krishna. That is all. We simply must go on with our business, to the best of our ability. We must always sincerely try to do our best with great determination. This is the transcendental position. Success or failure, this is not our business. We leave that up to Krishna. My Guru Maharaja said, it does not matter if anyone comes to hear. You go on with your chanting. If no-one hears you the walls will hear. But this does not mean that we should sit down someplace and simply chant Hare Krishna for our own benefit. We should be always anxious to save the cripple minded people with the science of Krishna Consciousness. This is the position of a Vaisnava. One disciple of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Vasudeva Datta prayed to Lord Caitanya, please Caitanya Mahaprabhu, take all these people back to Home, back to Godhead and I will suffer for their sins. Like this, this is the attitude of a pure Vaisnava. Actually the true Vaisnava, he is the only true humanitarian in the world today, for he is interested in the well-being of all living entities. So you will continue on and consult with Karandhara and the other GBC men and formulate some program to preach this Krishna Consciousness in the colleges and this will please me very much. I am approving of the initiation of John Favors who is now to be called GHANASYAMA DASA. From your description he is to be a very nice and intelligent boy so please train him up properly. You may send his beads on to Kirtanananda Maharaja for chanting. I hope this meets you in good health.
Sydney
16 February, 1973
73-02-16
Caracas
My dear Citsukhananda,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 4th of February and I have noted the contents carefully. I am very much encouraged by your work in pioneering this movement in South America and I pray to Lord Sri Krishna that he will protect you in all your endeavors. Hanuman and yourself appear to be working so nicely as a team that I am writing to you as a team so you please discuss the points I have mentioned in Hanuman's letter and do the needful in this regard. I hope this meets you in good health.
Sydney
16 February, 1973
73-02-16
Los Angeles
My dear Son,
Please accept my blessings. On the recommendation of Satsvarupa I am herein accepting you as my initiated disciple. Henceforth your name will be GHANASYAMA DASA. Now you must agree to very rigidly follow the rules and regulations, i.e. chanting sixteen rounds of beads daily, rising early and attending Mangala Arati, observing the four principles, attending the classes, eating only bhagavata prasadam as well as working under the instruction of my representatives, such as your GBC representative and Temple President, and if you follow this procedure very strictly then your life will be glorious and you will go back to Home, back to Godhead, this I can guarantee. I hope this meets you in good health.
Sydney
16 February, 1973
73-02-16
My Dear Sudama,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of 6/2. and I am very much joyful to hear that you are enjoying you preaching activities there in America. Actually this is our real business, preaching, chanting, distributing prasadam and book distribution. This book distribution is especially an important program and it is first class preaching work. So I encourage you to work with all the senior men there in America and encourage them to distribute more and more of this transcendental literature.
Sydney
17 February, 1973
73-02-17
My Dear Govinda dasi,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 31st. and I have noted the contents carefully. I thank you very much for sending me the nice monogrammed shirts and I am wearing them daily. I am thinking of you and your husband and of the nice devotional service you are performing and I pray that Krishna will give you more and more intelligence to continue in this way.
Sydney
17 February, 1973
73-02-17
My Dear Hamsaduta
Please accept my blessings. While in India last it was brought to my attention that our Sriman Hayagriva das has become deviated from the four basic principles which I have given to all my students for adherence to when they are first initiated. I do not know why he is living in such a way but I feel that he must be brought back to the standard immediately. So I am requesting you as my Governing Board Commissioners to help me bring him back to the standard. He has very good talent, but he is spending it by living such an unrestricted life.
Sydney
17 February, 1973
73-02-17
My Dear Karandhara das,
Please accept my blessings. While in India last it was brought to my attention that our Sriman Hayagriva das has become deviated from the four basic principles which I have given to all my students for adherence to when they are first initiated. I do not know why he is living in such a way but I feel that he must be brought back to the standard immediately. So I am requesting you as my Governing Board Commissioners to help me bring him back to the standard. He has very good talent, but he is spending it by living such an unrestricted life.
Sydney
18 February, 1973
73-02-18
Vrindaban
My dear Gurudasa,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 6th. and have noted the contents carefully. My heart has become very joyful upon seeing the progress in Vrindaban construction. When this Vrindaban Temple is completed, it will be a great boon to our Krishna Consciousness Movement and devotees from all over the world will come to see Krishna and Balarama. I am very pleased also to see that you are keeping such an orderly account, and as far as further financing is concerned I have arranged with Karandhara das, and he is sending 5000 copies of Bhagavad-gita As It Is to India, and Karatieya Mahadevia in Bombay, one of our life members, has agreed to distribute 3000 of these Gitas at no less than 50 rupees apiece. So that is one and a half lacs and I am sending one letter to Karatieya informing him that all money collected for these Gitas should be sent on to you in Vrindaban and it is up to you along with the other GBC men in India to arrange the sale of the balance of these 2000 Bhagavad-Gitas and I think this will provide the necessary finances. I will be travelling here in Australasia for a few weeks then I will be returning to Calcutta by March 2nd. So when I return to India we may discuss this matter in more detail. But in the meantime you should work with the senior men there in India to get some concrete plan to finance this program. I have sent you the books and it is up to you to devise a program for distribution.
Sydney
18 February, 1973
73-02-18
My Dear Kirtanananda,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 20th. and February first along with your enclosed plans of the Radha Govindaji Temple in New Vrindaban. From these plans everything seems to be in order except the domes are making the temple look like a mosque. Therefore you please eliminate these domes and consult the Mayapur plan which can be obtained by writing Calcutta for design of the domes. The Deities should be facing East. If you are laying the foundation stone to this temple there is a ceremony which you can observe. First you may have one fire ceremony with four Brahmins surrounding the fire, reading from Bhagavad-gita, Nectar of Devotion, Srimad-Bhagavatam and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. This reading should go on during the entire ceremony. You may also dig one pit about 15 feet deep and have one golden Ananta form prepared, about two inches, put at the bottom of the pit. All during this, Kirtana should be going on. And then five types of various items should be placed in the pit, 5 types of jewels, 5 types of metals, 5 types of fruit, 5 types of grains, 5 types of amrta, like this different panca. These all should be carried down the ladder by the various Brahmins, and as they put each one at the bottom of the pit, the various fruits, flowers, etc. all of the Brahmins should one by one climb to the bottom of the pit and make their offering and chant the first verse of Gayatri Mantra. After this, you may lay some bricks down on top of everything and then begin to fill up the pit with dirt again. When the pit is filled up with dirt again you may put one foundation stone on top of the pit and this pit should be located at the exact corner of the Temple building. The idea of this is that the entire building will be resting on the hoods of the Ananta snake, and this is very auspicious. After this program you may have several days of Kirtana and feasting.
Sydney
18 February, 1973
73-02-18
New Orleans
My dear Nityananda,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 5th. with the enclosed daksine and I thank you for the same. Again I am feeling overjoyed at hearing of your increased distribution program and I request that you increase more and more. There can be no limit to our distribution because Krishna is unlimited therefore devotional service to Krishna is also unlimited, so you may instruct the devotees there about this.
Sydney
18 February, 1973
73-02-18
Los Angeles
My dear Bhaktin Toni,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 1st. with the nice pictures of the Sri Sri Radha-Kalacandji Deities in ISKCON Gurukula. I am very much pleased that the Deities are worshiped so nicely and as this continues, the children there will become more and more purified. These children in Gurukula are the most fortunate children in the world, because right from the beginning they are having the association of Radha and Krishna. This was the case in my childhood also. My father was pure Vaisnava and he gave me and my sister the Radha Krishna Deities to worship and in this way we were trained. And still to this very day my sister is worshiping these very same Deities in Calcutta. So like this the children must be trained.
Sydney
19 February, 1973
73-02-19
Buffalo
My dear Kirtika devi dasi,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 5th and have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your questions. If your prayers are sincere then Krishna will accept them and if Krishna accepts them then automatically I accept them, and if I accept them then automatically Krishna accepts them. So like this Krishna is everywhere. He is even between the atoms. So therefore wherever you are He will accept your prayers, and therefore I automatically accept. But the most important part again, the prayer must be sincere.
Sydney
19 February, 1973
73-02-19
Miami
My dear Sankarasana,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated January 26th. and have noted the contents carefully. All of your programs sound very pleasing to me and I request that you write and consult with Visnu Jana Maharaja and the local GBC men, in order to bring about the realization of this proposal. I am here in Australia at the moment and will be returning to India by March 2nd. and then to America in mid-April, and I hope to see you then. I hope this meets you in good health.
We have four places which I have visited—Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, and Jakarta. The preaching was very satisfactory. Sriman Amogha dasa is trying to learn the local language and print some books in the Dai Nippon branch here. So cooperate with him.
Now as I have been delayed in Bombay I wish to get leisure from this business by the 25th(?) instant. Then I shall go to Vrindaban and Delhi, and stay until the 18th November, then go from there to Nairobi. Brahmananda is there and we shall go with him for the installation ceremony and remain there until the end of Nov. Then I go to south Africa until Dec. 10, then Sydney, and remain say up to 15th Dec., then Hong Kong, and if your Japanese program is fixed I can go there or I can go to Hawaii on my way to L.A. by Dec. 20th.
Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your telegram dated October 29 reading as follows:
"DEAR SRILA PRABHUPADA, PLEASE ACCEPT MY HEART AT YOUR FEET RECEIVED YOUR LETTER AND TELEGRAM TODAY TEMPLE WILL NOT BE SOLD ALL PAPERS TO BE SIGNED OVER TO YOU NEVER INTENDED TO CLAIM PROPERTY OR MONEY AS MY OWN DETAILED LETTER FOLLOWS PLEASE FORGIVE ANY CONFUSION OR ANXIETY MY BLUNDERS HAVE CAUSED YOU—YOUR SERVANT TUSTA"
I am at present in New Delhi awaiting for our festival here, so your telegram has been redirected from Bombay. I am so much pleased to read it because I know that all of you, Siddha Svarupa Maharaja, Sudama Vipra Maharaja, and yourself, are all good souls, and so I also know that Gaurasundara is also of this same level, but I do not know why this disruption has taken place.
If there is any misunderstanding with the GBC men, that can be readjusted by mutual understanding. I wanted to see you all to mitigate this misunderstanding, but I was very busy in Bombay for the same Juhu land of Mr. Nair. Perhaps you remember that you introduced Mr. Nair to me. Now he is dead and gone, but he created so many obstacles. So I had to pay them so many lakhs of rupees black, but now the position is that it is purchased, but still there is a little discrepancy. I hope this will also be squared up without delay.
So kindly take my word and do not leave our society. If you cannot agree with the GBC, I can take up your matter personally and do the needful. I love you all very much, and if you go away and stay independently that will be a great shock for me. I want to meet you all together. Let me know where I shall go to meet you. Just now I have received the news that in Hawaii the tulsi plants are drying for want of watering. How has Govinda dasi left the tulsi plants which she nourished so lovingly? Please therefore all of you go to your respective positions and revive your devotional activities without any further delay, and if you cannot cope with the GBC men, which I suppose there must have been some disagreement, I shall deal with you directly. But, do not leave the Krsna consciousness movement, at any cost.
If possible kindly let me know where is Gaurasundara. On my behalf please request him to come back to the temple and save the tulsi plants. Ask Govinda dasi also on my behalf to do this without delay.
Kindly treat this letter as very urgent and do the needful. Awaiting your early reply.
I hope this meets you in good health.
Your ever well wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
cc: Karandhara Das, ISKCON, Los Angeles, Madhudvisa Maharaja, ISKCON, Sydney
1974 Correspondence
Sydney
Dear Madhudvisa Maharaja,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 7, 1974.
Regarding the confusion you have about receiving book from India, you may go ahead and send ghee in exchange for the books. I have already discussed this with Karandhara. The books were given to India. From India there was no possibility of sending money. Therefore if you get the books you should send ghee in return.
I am glad to hear, although there were many difficulties, that Madhudvisa Maharaja will be able to return to Australia with permanent residence status. Please have him write me as soon as he returns. I do not have the exact date of your Rathayatra in June, although I think it is June 21. As for going there my present itinerary is that I am going to Rome on May 23 for a week, then a week in Geneva and then a week in Paris. So I may not be in London when it is time to go to Australia. You have written that you are arranging tickets for London-Sydney-Delhi. It is a little difficult to make exact arrangements at this time. But I plan to leave for Australia from Europe. Then from Australia I plan to go to San Francisco via Honolulu, in order to attend the July 8 Rathayatra in San Francisco.
Tamala Krsna Maharaja said that you are not following the regulative principles. I do not know why you should do like that. Anyway, if there was any discrepancies in that way I hope you will rectify it and fully cooperate with Karandhara Prabhu. I am coming to India on my way to Sydney to stop for one day in Bombay on June 23rd. If you so desire you can see me in Bombay on the 23rd. Further, Brahmananda Maharaja wanted to remain in India and act as my secretary, but there is no proper man to replace him. Sometimes back you also wanted to go to Africa. If you still feel like that you can consider on the matter and I shall call Brahmananda here in India to act as my personal secretary. Hope this will meet you in good health.
Since you left Bombay, I had been to many places in Europe such as Rome, Frankfurt, Paris, Sydney, Fiji, Honolulu, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, New Vrindaban, New York, London, and then here to India. I was thinking of you, but was missing your address.
1975 Correspondence
Please accept my blessings. I am writing this letter to inform you that I am now sending Bhagavata dasa brahmacari there to Fiji to be co-manager with your good self. This man is very experienced in the Gujarati communities. He has preached in Africa to the Gujaratis there in Kenya, Tansania, Zambia, etc. for over 3 years, as well as London and Gujarat. He is I think capable of working with you very nicely there. If you would be so kind as to send him a ticket from Bombay to Fiji, he can leave Bombay immediately upon arrival of the ticket. He is very eager to make Fiji an established Krishna Conscious center and to work with you co-operatively. Please send the ticket to his Christian name, Joseph M. Selvester, passport number Z1964356. He is waiting here in Bombay at our Hare Krishna Land. I think you can send the ticket by wire through one of the airlines there that has their branch office in Bombay.
I hope this meets you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
N.B. Please make the ticket one-way and if possible via Sydney.
Mr. R. Van den Tak
60 Liverpool St.
Paddington, 2021
Sydney, Australia
My dear Mr. Van den Tak,
Please accept my greetings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 1-6-75 and have noted the contents. Your endeavor to prove scientifically the existence of re-incarnation is not very practical. It is like bringing a cannon to kill a mosquito. It is not required to bring a cannon to kill a mosquito, similarly any sane man can understand the principle of re-incarnation. There is no need of giving some long so-called scientific explanation. Explanation is already given in the Bhagavad-gita, as it is. Krishna, the Supreme Authority has already explained, and you should accept and understand His explanation and then try to make others understand. You should visit our temple in Sydney. The address is: Corner Wrights Rd. and Drummoyne Ave., Drummoyne N.S.W.
Regarding Sydney, that the President has left, if one does not follow the regulative principles, then he will leave. That is a fact. Has somebody else been elected? This is the function of the GBC, to see that one may not be taken away by maya. The GBC should all be the instructor gurus. I am in the initiator guru, and you should be the instructor guru by teaching what I am teaching and doing what I am doing. This is not a title, but you must actually come to this platform. This I want.
1976 Correspondence
Sydney
My Dear Jayadharma das,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 26 July 1976 with enclosed daksine of Rs. 2000/-and have noted the contents. I am pleased to accept on your recommendation the following as my disciples;
Mark Phillips—Mahotsaha dasa
Jane Phillips—Jagat-priya dasi
Greg Jay—Gaura Kesava dasa
nb—If you have already done business with their bank in Calcutta, then you can send the funds directly, otherwise, if you do not know the details of their account, then you can transfer the funds to my account at the American Express International Banking Corp. Calcutta, in my name, account no. 5416.
cc: 4 c/o Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, & Hawaii
With the grace of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by and by ISKCON's 40 temples in America's important cities were constructed and throughout Europe in England, France, Germany, Italy and in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, New Zealand, Auckland, Africa, Canada and Tehran and other places as well in the world all total of 102 such centres of ISKCON for distribution of Krishna cult were established. Amongst all these the very big temples in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit can be specially mentioned. In these temples the minimum number of devotees attached is 50 and maximum 250 and they are engaged to distribute Krishna hymns leading an austentious life. Everywhere the Deity of Radha and Krishna is being worshiped. From India a large number of renowned persons frequently visit these temples throughout the world and they have made remarks to the effect that in each and every temple arrangements for daily worship and functions relating thereto are remarkably done smoothly and methodically. The artistic way of make up in all respects are exceptionally good and for all these a lot of expenses made towards everything are unparallel. The devotees attached to these temples out of natural devotion frequently visit to have a glance of the holy birthplace of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at Mayapur, Navadvipa, and that of Shri Krishna at Mathura and His lila-ksetra at Vrndavana, and that they do so in thousands.
Your proposal to purchase a new temple in Sydney is good. I remember the bay side, it is the best side. It's a very nice bay. It will certainly increase the preaching to have a center there.
1977 Correspondence
Even amongst the Vaisnavas you are a rare jewel set in the purest gold. The brightness of your devotion to Krsna outshines all others, and while they stay at home with the Deity and their bhajan, you boldly set forth to preach the message of Lord Caitanya and your Guru Maharaja. In recognition of this the Supreme Lord has agreed to live amongst the mlecchas and accept their poor hearted offerings. Without your devotion He could never have agreed to do this. Once in 1971, after you had installed Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krsna in Sydney in a 'temple' that was actually a converted garage, you prayed to Krsna that "Now I am living you in the hands of these rascals, so You kindly look after Yourself and see they serve You nicely." The following year you told us that story and commented that now you could see that He has done this and you encouraged us to go on increasing our service to the Lord more and more.
Yes, I prayed like that in Sydney: "I can't do anything good to them. But somehow or other I have brought them to You Sir. Now You make them Krsna conscious. Otherwise, how can I do anything? It is beyond my power." When I left Krsna in that condition and when again came back I saw Krsna was doing everything. He is so kind. Krsna can do wonderful things. In Bombay He has done the most wonderful things. Everyone, the whole Bombay appreciates how wonderful. If Krsna likes He can do anything. Now in our New York court case the judge has declared that Krsna consciousness is a genuine religion and has dismissed the case. Is it not Krsna's great blessing?
| Page Title: | Sydney (Letters) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 18 of Dec, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=130 |
| No. of Quotes: | 130 |