Madness (Letters)

Expressions researched:
"mad" |"madlike" |"madly" |"madness"

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of Indian Union -- Delhi 21 November, 1956:

Please do not think of me as an wonderful or a mad man when I say that I shall go "Back to Godhead" after leaving my present material body! It is quite possible for everyone and all of us.

In the Bhagavad-gita it is said very clearly that whosoever may adopt the specific principle of accepting Sri Krishna the Personality of Godhead, he will be able to achieve the highest transcendental goal of life,—never mind what he is either a born untouchable, a fallen woman, a laborer or a man dealing in rupees annas pies. His being so, what is there difficulty for a pious "Brahmin" and devoted king for going "Back to Godhead"? Everyone should therefore adopt this principle of going "Back to Godhead" in order to get released from the world of miseries, with temporary existence.

Letter to Sri Padampat Singhania -- Kanpur 7 May, 1957:

In the same way we have to combine the different forces of Sociology in men, money, intelligence and field work to make the spiritual movement a grand success. If we do not do that we shall be failing in our duty to serve the complete whole. No partial service or temporary benefit can lead us to perfection. The world is mad after such temporary benefit and partial service and it is our duty to change the face altogether by an authorized spiritual movement. The other day I was very glad to hear your ideas about it and in our next meeting I wish to say some thing about it as I have realized. Hope you are well. With my regards.

Yours sincerely,

Goswami Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Rayarama -- Calcutta 16 October, 1967:

My Dear Brahmananda,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter (dated Oct. 10) & I've also received Kirtanananda's letter. From different centers of our society the news of the activities of Kirtanananda is giving me too much pain. From Rayarama's letter it is clear that Kirtanananda has not rightly understood Krishna Consciousness philosophy & it appears that he does not know the difference between impersonal & personal features of Krishna. The best thing will be to prohibit him to speak in any of our functions or meetings. It is clear that he has become crazy & he should once more be sent to Bellevue. He was in Bellevue before & with great difficulty & with the help of Mr. Ginsberg we got him out. But it appears that he has developed his madness again, therefore if he is not sent to Bellevue then at least he should be stopped from speaking such nonsense. It is clear from his activities that he has been attacked by maya; he is a victim. We shall pray to Krishna for his recovery but we cannot allow him to speak on my behalf. I am trying to return as soon as possible & when I return everything will be all right. Hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Rayarama -- Seattle 15 October, 1968:

I have noted with great attention your statement that you are sitting at one desk in a tiny office, room, which is ferociously hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. So people might think you mad if they heard of your crazy work. So spiritual activities are like that. Sometimes my contemporaries from India, they also write that in this age, the age of 73, when people would naturally like to retire, and I am working here. So this is all possible by Grace of Krishna. Krishna can adjust opposing elements. In the material world, yes and no are two opposing elements, but by Krishna's inconceivable power, yes can be no, and no can be yes. That is the law of Krishna. And austerity, Krishna Consciousness, there is some austerity. So we should not be afraid of any condition. Narayana para sarve na kutascana Vivyati—that means, those who are in Krishna Consciousness, they are not afraid of anything.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Uttamasloka -- New Vrindaban 7 June, 1969:

Actually we are eternal family members of the Lord, but due to our misuse of independence we have now forgotten our eternal relationship with Krishna, exactly like a man who is mad forgets his family relationship and loiters in the street. But when he is again in his normal mental condition, he remembers his family members and goes back to them. Similarly this Krishna Consciousness Movement is a treatment for reviving the memory that we all belong to Krishna's family.

Letter to Madhusudana -- Tittenhurst 19 September, 1969:

Now you have a very nice wife, Kancanbala, so my request to both of you is that you work combinedly to push on this Sankirtana Movement of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This will bring perfection to your lives, as more and more you become attached to the Lotus Feet of Krishna. Persons under the grip of Maya are simply mad after sense enjoyment, but our goal is to lose all desire for sense gratification and become simply mad after Krishna. This is the perfection of human life, to have no other desire but to render unalloyed devotional service to the Lord. Now you have very good opportunity for elevating yourselves to this status, and if you go on as you are now doing, rigidly following the rules and regulations which you have heard me speak about, then gradually your life will become more and more sublime.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Bombay 13 March, 1971:

Yes, it is my desire that Isana and his wife and child stay there in Boston temple and Isana may continue as cook there. He should always be kept engaged. He is a bit crazy but he is a very good soul. Please give him my blessings and let me know how he is doing there.

So far as helping youth cases, they should live with us. We cannot devote separate time for them. That is not possible. If anyone desires to be treated, he must live with us. Before admitting him, we must see that he is not a mad man and will not create a disturbance.

Letter to Bhagavan -- Bombay 24 March, 1971:

We are sure anyone who joins us will be free of all material disease including craziness and madness. Actually everyone in this material world is a crazy fellow; he doesn't know the aim of life. Even the erudite scholar doesn't know what is God or how the material world was created; so many things they do not know. So if the government officials want to take our help they must arrange for giving a nice place so we can accommodate the students concerned, according to our method. Such centers should be well equipped with temple, lecture room, sleeping quarters, kitchen, etc. as we have got everywhere. So try to convince the authorities that everyone will come to Krishna Consciousness, following our method, which is pure. Then craziness and madness will automatically disappear. This is practical welfare. So our movement should be very vigorously pushed on. But those who push must be pure; then it will be effective.

Letter to Kirtanananda -- London 22 August, 1971:

Being entrapped in the network of illusory maya, we are simply engaged in false duties. Therefore it is the good advice of Bhaktivinode Thakura that everyone should become mad after chanting the Mahamantra He is requesting everyone to do so.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Balavanta -- Calcutta 18 February, 1972:

Actually, this world is like a hospital. We are all like sons of rich men running mad in the streets. Our Father, Krishna or God, is the wealthiest father, and we are all His sons gone mad. Someone is thinking, Oh, give him food, that will help, or give him house, or clothes, this or that—but the madness is still there.* So this kind of bodily welfare work will not help. The world is supposed to be a place for curing men of their varieties of diseases of madness and sending them back home, like a hospital. But men have now got the mistaken idea to make a permanent settlement in this madhouse! Just like the hog is eating stool and he is thinking, Oh, I am enjoying like anything, and when I am finished, then sex with any she-hog—wife, daughter, sister, it doesn't matter—and for so many children I shall have to have big house, and on and on like this, all because of his madness that he thinks "I am enjoying." So preach like this, and I think many people will appreciate our philosophy and gain respect for this Krishna Consciousness movement. Do everything very cleanly and nicely.

Hoping this will meet you in good health and happy mood.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

*Actually, they have got sufficient of everything from their Father, but they have run off mad.

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Sydney 10 April, 1972:

So far your statement, "Our final success will be when you actually sit tight and translate books and let us manage successfully," yes, that is my desire, but if you can do it or not, that has again disturbed me very much. Now I have given you everything, but I do not see that even the basic principles of advancement in spiritual life are always there, and sometimes there is tendency to neglect what is our real purpose of life, namely, to become mad after Krishna, and instead we become carried away by big big talk. So I am still thinking how things will go on.

Hoping this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Letter to Giriraja -- Honolulu 15 May, 1972:

At the present moment, to speak the truth, the whole population of the world are demons and animals. It may be a very strong aspersion on the people of the world, but this is the fact. But still, because they are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, so originally they were pure and therefore it is the mission of Krishna to get back His parts and parcels to home, exactly like a father likes to get back his son at home because this son had gone out of home for false happiness. But the people are so mad, they are talking so many nonsense things—nonsense philosophy, nonsense science—and our task is to meet all of them and at the same time pacify them in their lunatic condition.

Letter to Tejiyas -- Bombay 19 December, 1972:

By all means we must preserve our spiritual status, that is the point, not that we are mad after big buildings, many devotees, life-members, this, that—no, these are only ways to engage the devotees so that they may apply the principles of devotional living to some kind of work for practical realization of these principles. It is not the result of the work we want. If only one person daily, if we sincerely preach to such one person in a day, that is sufficient, never mind big, big programmes.

Letter to Bali-mardana -- Bombay 31 December, 1972:

Regarding that building in Manhattan, of course we are not very much mad after big buildings, so long there is enough space for our devotees so they may be able to carry on their preaching work, but if you can get such building as you are describing in the midtown area costing between $1-1.6 million, oh, that will be your greatest achievement in Krsna consciousness. Such building being our world headquarters of ISKCON, would facilitate our preaching expansion work all over the world.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Hamsaduta -- Bombay 12 November, 1974:

The report that the newly published books are all selling like mad is very, very encouraging. Now publish more books. Make more translations. You have not yet published Bhagavatam and also Krsna Book Second Part. Is this translated or not? And what about "Leben Kommt Von Leben?" Are they also selling? I have never studied science, but I am challenging them. They may take me as crazy, but I am not crazy. I am right.

I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Sudama -- Honolulu 8 June, 1975:

75-06-08

Evanston, Illinois

My dear Sudama,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 2, 1975 and have noted the contents. Last time, when I saw you in Hawaii, and I saw that you had become mad, I was very surprised how you had become like that. So, I prayed to Krishna to bring you back. Now, be very careful. Don't make any mistakes. Keep company with Bhavananda. He is very sincere. Also keep Gargamuni with you. Now, the scholarly section of society is accepting our philosophy. Perhaps you have seen Professor Judah's book. So, we have got so many things to do, strictly on Lord Caitanya's principle.

I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

1977 Correspondence

Letter to German Disciples -- Bombay May 6, 1977:

A devotee is pleased when there is difficulty, for in these difficulties he is forced to remember Krsna. We cannot expect that the people of Kali-yuga will welcome our attempt to spread Krsna consciousness. It is just like a lunatic asylum: The patients are running around madly and when the doctor tries to give them treatment, they insist that they are not crazy. Sometimes the patient even strikes the doctor. So our task is like that. We cannot stand to see people suffering due to ignorance. What is that ignorance? They do not know that they are not their body. This Krsna consciousness movement is meant to deliver people to the proper understanding that they are not their body, that they are pure spirit soul. We may or may not be appreciated, that is not our concern. We must execute the order of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu which is:

yare dekha tare kaha krsna upadesa

amara ajna guru haya tara ei desa

(CC Madhya 7.128)

"Whomever you meet, instruct them to follow the orders of Sri Krsna as they are given in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. In this way by My order become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land."