My Dear Tamala Krishna,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 5, 1969, sent along with the article printed in the Cosmos, and I have noted the contents in both of these items. The article was very nice, and I can appreciate how you are assimilating this Krishna philosophy and conveying it nicely to others. Your descriptions of the Dadhibhanda Celebration sounds very thrilling, and here in New Vrindaban there is also nice supply of butter, ghee, milk and cheese due to the cow that they are keeping here. Regarding the draft lawyer, please try to expedite the matter, because there are many of our boys who may take advantage of this facility of being excused from the draft service. So when you are able to arrange for this it will be a very important achievement for our society. Regarding your suggestions for my travel plans, your ideas are very nice, and if I do not go to London, you can expect me to come to Los Angeles directly from New Vrindaban by the 10th of July.
So I hope this will meet you in very good health and cheerful mood.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note from VANIPEDIA: For the last 43 years, until the 17th of October 2012, the article printed in the Cosmos edition of February 1969, that is refered to by Srila Prabhupada in the above letter, has not been in the possession of the devotees. Now we have aquired one original copy of the newspaper/magazine and are reproducing the full article with Srila Prabhupada below. We will also be sending the original newspaper/magazine to the Bhaktivedanta Archives for preservation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEMI-GODS ON THE MOON?
An Interview with Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta
COSMOS had the pleasure of interviewing A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in his temple on La Cienga Boulevard in Los Angeles. The Swami heads the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY for KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, which he founded in July 1966. The society has established centers in major cites in the United States, as well as Montreal, London, and Berlin, and is in the process of establishing it's own community in Wheeling, West Virginia.
One of the basic premises of the Society's belief is that in the chanting of the absolute names of God as contained in the Maha Mantra or Great Chanting - Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare - one's life will become sublime.
- The Following are newsworthy excerpts from our interview with the Swami.
COSMOS: Would you please comment on the seemingly great numbers of Indian religious leaders who claim to be Avatars and who come to America and get a lot of publicity.
SWAMI: They are all nonsense. I can say, furthermore, they are all rascals.
COSMOS: The Mahareshi, for example.
SWAMI: He is Rascal Number One. I will say publically. From his behavior, I can understand he is Rascal Number One. I cannot understand how people in your country, who are supposed to be advanced, how they would be fooled by this rascal.
COSMOS: I think people believe what they want to believe. They are looking for something, and he comes along.
SWAMI: They want something very cheap; that is their fault. Now for our disciples, we do not give anything cheap. Our first condition is character, moral character. Unless one is accepting moral character, we don't allow him in this institution. But, this Mahareshi says, "do all you do, and do whatever you like, you simply pay me $35 and I will give you some mantra" People want to be cheated, and so many cheaters come. People to not wish to undergo some disciplinary action. They have got money, so they think if they pay immediately, they will find God.
That is like people are trying to go to the moon planet. This chance is very remote. In your country you have some quota for immigrants, within this country if somebody comes without your Immigration Department approval, nobody can enter. So how do you expect in that planet where the people are more advanced, they are called Demi-Gods, they have been living for 10,000 years, how do you expect that you go out there immediately to the moon planet?
COSMOS: Are you saying that there are people on the moon?
SWAMI: Yes
COSMOS: And they are Demi-Gods?
SWAMI: Yes
COSMOS: How do you know this?
SWAMI: From scripture, from Vedic literature.
COSMOS: From that Vedic literature, it is stated in that, that there are people on the moon, but they are Demi-Gods?
SWAMI: Demi-Gods means they are more highly advanced than the human being. They are also living entities, like us, but their division of life, their standard of life, their civilization and so on, is so advanced that they are called Demi-Gods. They have godly qualities. They are controllers of the atmospheric affairs. Some of them are controlling the raining seasons, some of them control the heat. Don't you think that in this Cosmic Manifestation there is a great brain behind it and there are department directors and there is management? People do not accept this by nature.
COSMOS: What do you mean by nature?
SWAMI: Such nice things, such wonderful things going on. How do you think it can happen without control?
COSMOS: I know this is a question that one asks oneself all the time, its part of man's quest to find himself.
SWAMI: Man should have common sense. There you are trying to float a sputnik and so many scientific brains are watching. Millions of wonderful sputniks which are called plaents are floating in the air, and there is no brain behind it? What is this? Is that very good reasoning? There must be a very big brain behind it up there working.
COSMOS: Would you say so that the moon is, so to speak, headquarters where these Demi-Gods are?
SWAMI: No, there are many planets on the same level, the moon is one of them.
COSMOS: Have any of these Demi-Gods visited the earth?
SWAMI: Formerly, they used to because at that time, people would walk (want?) to see them.
COSMOS: When you say formerly, do you mean thousands of years ago?
SWAMI: At least 5,000 years ago.
COSMOS: You mean 5,000 years ago would be the last time that we would know of it? Are they in human form?
SWAMI: Yes, sometimes great sacrifices were performed. Demi-Gods from other planets used to come.
COSMOS: Your authority for this statement is based in the Vedic literature?
SWAMI: Yes, it is in the Vedic literature. In The Bhagavad Gita, there are discriptions of these things.
- The balance of the interview was a general discussion of the philosophy of the movement which is masterfully expressed by the Swami in his translation and commentary of The Bhagavad Gita.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------