I am so glad to receive your letter No. 02481, dated Feb. 20, 1968, posted late, as on Feb. 27, 1968. I thank you once more for your appreciating my mission of one God, Sri Krishna; one scripture, Bhagavad-gita; and one mantra, Hare Krishna. This idea is not manufactured by me, but it is authoritative statement in the Gita Mahatma Skanda Purana. You have asked me to let you know about the concrete plan for Bombay and I beg to submit as follows.
Some years before, when I was staying in your Prem Kutir you expressed your desire to organize a SANKIRTAN party, and I wish that it may be done now to help me in my mission. If you have got opportunity to purchase one copy of Life Magazine, published Feb. 9, 1968, you will find there on page 56, how nicely the American boys and girls are dancing and chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. A Sankirtana party as they can be organized in India is not possible here. Here the boys and girls, they are very serious about chanting, but they are not trained singers, or singers in the tune we chant in India. Therefore, I wish that if you organize a Sankirtana party there, completely trained in spiritual ways, and the American students combine with them, I think a very nice Sankirtana party can be organized to travel all over the world. I have tested it definitely that melodious vibration of Sankirtana, if they are performed by serious devotees, can attract people from the very spiritual platform, and it at once makes the spiritual background very smooth, when a spiritual instruction from the Bhagavad-gita can be implemented very nicely. So my first concrete program is that if you agree to organize such a Sankirtana party, a batch of American students may join, and I can combine these American and Indian devotees together under discipline. The American boys are being trained up strictly on spiritual line, which I have already explained to you in my last letter. Similarly, the Indian boys or girls must be spiritually trained; it is only by spiritually trained vibration can implement spiritual seeds in the heart of the audience, not otherwise. So, if you agree to cooperate with me in this direction, then I wish to go with a batch of American students to your care and stay in Bombay for some time, and try to open a branch in Bombay of our society. Here we have got six temples already, and they are nicely being managed by the American Vaisnavas under strict discipline, without their being born in any Hindu family. Similarly, in Bombay, we are inviting all classes of men to join us; we have no distinction of caste, creed, color or religiousity. Anyone can join us, never mind whatever he is. (We shall entertain Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, or whoever may come. We shall have no restriction. In that Temple, everyone will be welcome. In other words, in our secular state and international feelings of God-consciousness will be introduced, where no one will be restricted.) And I am glad to inform you that this principle is accepted by everyone working under me. So, the sum and substance of the concrete program is to organize a nice Sankirtana party in combination of Indian and American students. I want your cooperation in this adventure.