Training of Amarendra dasa (Letters, 1972 - 1977)

Expressions researched:
"Account" |"Activities" |"Amarendra" |"Amarendra's" |"BBF" |"BBFD" |"BBT" |"BKF" |"BTG" |"Back to Godhead" |"Bhaktivedanta Book Trust" |"Book Fund" |"Book Trust" |"Book Trust," |"Book" |"Books" |"Branch" |"Branches" |"Business" |"Center" |"Centers" |"Check" |"Checks" |"Consult" |"Consulting" |"Cooperate" |"Cooperated" |"Cooperation" |"Cooperatively" |"Dai Nippon" |"Debt" |"Debts" |"Deities" |"Deity" |"Deposit" |"Distribute" |"Distributed" |"Distributing" |"Distribution" |"Duty" |"Festival" |"Finances" |"Financial" |"Funds" |"GBC members" |"GBC" |"Governing Board Commission" |"Governing Board Commissioners" |"Governing Body Commission" |"Governing Body Commissioners" |"ISKCON" |"Initiate" |"Initiated" |"Initiates" |"Initiating" |"Initiation" |"Initiations" |"Iskcon" |"Kirtana" |"Language" |"Languages" |"Leader" |"Leaders" |"Leadership" |"Leading" |"Literature" |"Literatures" |"M-V trust" |"M-V" |"M.V trust" |"Macmillan" |"Magazine" |"Magazines" |"Manage" |"Managed" |"Management" |"Managers" |"Managing" |"Manuscript" |"Manuscripts" |"Mayapur-Vrndavana Trust" |"Mayapura-Vrndavana Trust" |"Meeting" |"Mission" |"Missionary" |"Money" |"Movement" |"Organize" |"Our society" |"Preach" |"Preacher" |"Preaching" |"Press" |"Print" |"Printing" |"Program" |"Programs" |"Publication" |"Publications" |"Publish" |"Publishing" |"Rathayatra" |"Report" |"Reports" |"Sankirtana" |"Temple" |"Temples" |"The society" |"Translate" |"Translated" |"Translating" |"Translation" |"Translations" |"Zonal" |"Zone" |"Zones"

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Amarendra -- Calcutta 4 March, 1972:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 22, 1972, and have noted the contents carefully. I am very much pleased that you are expanding our position at Gainesville temple, especially I am glad that you are entering politics to try for city commissioner position. This will be good opportunity to preach widely and sell our literatures, so take advantage. But one thing, our platform must be very simple, that there is no other sacrifice necessary for the well-being of the citizens save and except this Sankirtana yajna. Regularly the town citizens can everyone congregate and chant Hare Krishna and hold festivals of celebration continually, with widespread distribution of tasty foodstuffs—who will not be attracted by such program? This is our simple method, nothing else. Any other political programs proposed by politicians will simply spoil everything. Actual government means to give the citizens the highest welfare, that is, spiritual fulfillment and access they should provide to obtain without any difficulty the perfection of this human form of life. Otherwise, government means democracy, so now instead of one king who could rule piously, there are thousands of kings, each one interested in taking only some taxes for his spending, not for welfare. Nowadays, politician means pick-pocket, fooling the people who are innocent into voting them and then picking their pockets, because in two or four years they know they may be replaced by some other king so they take as much as they can. The people are innocent, we have seen this everywhere, even in Russia, it is only these rascal leaders who have spoiled everything by fooling the people for their personal advantage. So I am very much serious that you all boys and girls should expose these Nixons and remove them, there is ample scope for protest in this Sankirtana Movement, and you yourselves be president, that is my hope for saving the misled mankind from total chaos.

Popularize this movement in the world, but better to avoid talk of slaughterhouses, illicit sex, etc., and give the public instead the positive approach to life of Krishna Consciousness.

Kindly keep me informed how your election comes out or any publicity you will get in the newspapers. Hoping this will meet you in good health and happy mood.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

n.b. Upon your recommendation I have accepted the three boys as my duly initiated disciples, and I have replied them on back.

Letter to Gadi (Joseph Magyar), Bhudara (Marc Malcomb), Sridhara (Richard Whitenhurst) -- Calcutta 4 March, 1972:

Upon the recommendation of Amarendra I have gladly accepted all of you as my duly initiated disciples.

Letter to Gadi (Joseph Magyar), Bhudara (Marc Malcomb), Sridhara (Richard Whitenhurst) -- Calcutta 4 March, 1972:

I am so glad to learn that all of you have been such a great help to Amarendra there in our Gainesville center.

Letter to Amarendra -- Los Angeles 12 June, 1972:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated 5-30-72, along with newsclippings about your attempt to get the political post in Gainesville, Florida. I am very glad to hear from you that you are enthusiastically pushing forward with our Krishna Consciousness programs there.

I was very pleased to see in the newspaper clippings that you were voicing our Krishna Consciousness platform very nicely and that the public was given opportunity to understand something. As you are so much eager for this political activity in Krishna Consciousness, you may go on endeavoring to utilize this activity for preaching to the public. If Satsvarupa and others have encouraged you to make settlement in the Gainesville city and thus become well known as a political figure, that is a good proposal but you may do as you see fit in this matter. You are correct in thinking that simply by this full-time preaching activity all other problems will be solved very easily in the matter of financial and other problems. What is that financial security? Real security is only there at the Lotus Feet of Krishna, and Krishna is most pleased of all upon His devotee who is always preaching His message. It is recommended in Srimad-Bhagavatam that simply by engaging your tongue in the service of Krishna that He becomes revealed unto you, so in this way we can understand that all of your questions will be answered more and more as the preaching work progresses. I was also at one time interested in politics and Gandhi's non-cooperation movement. But now-a-days I am not too much familiar with the politics of your country, so whatever you consider the best thing, do it very nicely and always remember Krishna. In this way by your sincere preaching and engaging of the tongue all of the right answers for your questions will come out.

It is a fact that Krishna desires to have His own men in the top posts. That is why after so much fighting in the Battle of Kuruksetra, only the five Pandavas remained, because they are devotees of Krishna and He likes it when His own men are serving in the top positions of leadership. So gradually we shall also try to influence the leaders of this country and other countries to base their political activities upon a God-conscious platform. It is the duty of the brahminical class to advise the leaders, not that they shall themselves serve as leaders. So more and more I am urging my students to recognize the grave responsibility which is theirs for saving this fallen human society from gliding down into hell. Actually, it is the fault of the rascal leaders that the conditions in the world today are so topsy-turvy. In your country many fools elect the biggest fool to be their leader, it is like one blind man leading so many other blind men. But for the most part, the ordinary citizens of the society are innocent enough, they simply require good leaders and everything can be rectified. So it is our great responsibility to become very serious in the matter of executing Krishna Consciousness, and if we are sincere and go on expanding this movement all over the world, gradually we shall induce the leaders to accept our philosophy more and more. You are the pioneer in this matter amongst the devotees in your country, so whatever experience you have gained you may pass on to the others who may also attempt to engage in political activities. I am very thankful to you for your bold attempts, may Krishna give you His all blessings.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Amarendra das -- Calcutta January 31, 1972:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 9, 1973, and I have noted the contents with great care. Whatever you can do to turn the minds of the people towards Krsna Consciousness, that is very much appreciated by me. You are intelligent boy. In consultation with your Godbrothers you can decide how to effectively run the campaign. I want to turn over now the management to my disciples as I am desiring to devote my time now simply for translating the books like Srimad-Bhagavatam. So if you study my books very carefully, then I am sure you will find out the means for applying this Krsna Consciousness philosophy in all spheres of life. There is no limitation. Simply it requires a little common sense practicality. The main point is that Krsna is the center of all activities, whatever is going on. Whatever the activity may be, if Krsna is the center, that is all right. The details simply require a little common sense. So you are there in Dallas, and you have al the details of the situation. So now, with the help of your Godbrothers there, you decide exactly how to execute the thing. After all, the result is given by Krsna. So the main point is simply to execute everything with complete sincerity and enthusiasm, without deviating from the principles that I have given you in my books. So I have seen the news clippings and they are very nice. Now you go on making more and more propaganda for informing people of this philosophy of Krsna Consciousness. If we push this propaganda very strongly and at the same time remain completely pure by following all of the regulative principles very strictly, by chanting sixteen rounds, reading the books, attending mangala aratrika, etc., then everything will be all right.

Hope this finds you in the best of health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/bmdg

Amarendra das Adhikari

Gurukula

Letter to Amarendra -- Los Angeles 19 April, 1973:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 4.17.73. You are asking me to advise what should be your program, but now I wanting to leave these matters in the hands of my disciples. I have created GBC specifically for this purpose. If you the elder disciples cannot manage things, then what is the future of the society? My business now is to sit down and write my books, and I am requesting you all to please cooperate with me in this endeavor. So I think you can take advice from Rupanuga Maharaja, as he is my authorized agent. So I am sending him your letter and a copy of this letter in this regard.

Both you and your wife are nice Krishna conscious devotees. You have all good talents to use in Krishna's service. My request is that you simply remember Krishna always and I will pray for your ever increasing advancement in Krishna consciousness.

I hope this finds you in good health.

Your ever well wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/bs

cc: Rupanuga Maharaja

Letter to Bhakta Don -- Los Angeles 1 December, 1973:

You study our books very carefully under the guidance of Amarendra Prabhu and preach our philosophy from Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam in your scientific language.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Amarendra -- Bombay 21 March, 1974:

I have accepted the devotees recommended by you for first initiation, and their spiritual names are as follows:

Don Ronsse—__ das Adhikari

Lisa Ronss—Candrt devi dasi

Heidi Ranebhy—Nagari devi dasi

Their beads may be chanted on by Rupanuga Maharaja. You may hold a fire yajna and speak about avoiding the ten offenses in chanting. Please instruct these students in all ways so that they can advance nicely in your care in Krsna Consciousness.

Letter to Damodara -- Bombay, India 23 March, 1974:

Your political sankirtana Godbrothers, Balavanta and Amarendra are here in Bombay helping us for some time, but I have informed them that their real work is in the USA.

Letter to Balavanta -- Tirupati 28 April, 1974:

Your work in America with the God We Trust Party is very inspiring to me. If anywhere they will take seriously the principles of Bhagavad gita As It Is, that will be America. We are getting good response and being taken seriously as I have seen in the reports from Amarendra there is even prospect that we may capture some post.

Letter to Amarendra -- Bombay 29 April, 1974:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your recent undated letter along with enclosed new paper clippings and I thank you very much.

I have studied your statements in the papers and you have repeated my ideas and at the same time sounded like a politician, and this combination is very effective. You are certainly the right man for this preaching work. They have taken you as a serious candidate and according to your statement, you feel you may even win. So I am very much encouraged by this political field in America. The people there are very intelligent and they take your statements seriously. I do not need to tell you to push on with this work in serious concentration because I see you are already very determined. In this connection you may see a letter I have just sent yesterday to Rupanuga Goswami in which I have described the need for our political devotees to always stay firmly fixed up in the regulative principles so they will be actually brahmanas. Preach on the basis of the division of the society into four orders, as without this the society is useless and people cannot be happy or even have the necessities of life. I am keeping your newsclippings in a special scrap book and reading them to my important guests in India to show them the potential of this movement. Unfortunately in India they do no take it very seriously; it is up to you in America to actually accomplish something in terms of introducing the principles of Bhagavad gita As It Is into government.

Letter to Amarendra -- Paris 10 June, 1974:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated 6/6/74 and have carefully noted the contents.

I can understand that you want to run for political office, but we can not spend money even if we have money. If you have money of your own and you want to spend it for running for office you can do that. But for running we not only have to draw on the society's money but also on our men. This is not desirable. By competing with the politicians we may drop from our spiritual ideal. Our actual business is to become brahminical. We want to train some ksatriyas but that we can do in our own communities. Where is the money for this political work, that is my main question. And also, so much attention paid in this area is a diversion from our spiritual life.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Amarendra -- Johannesburg 21 October, 1975:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated 9-22-75 with enclosed Guru-daksina and I thank you very much.

On your recommendation I am accepting the following devotees for initiation:

1st. initiation: Robert Tarjan (Dronacaryaguru), Keith Consbruck (Manusrestha dasa)

2nd. initiation: Bhusaya das Brahmacari, Jagannatha Tirtha das Brahmacari, Ekadasi das Brahmacari, Mahaprabhu das Adhikari, and Jalangi devi dasi.

You will find enclosed 4 brahmana threads and you should perform fire-sacrifice for all of the new initiates stressing the responsibility involved. Everyone must follow the four regulative principles and chant minimum of 16 rounds japa daily. There is no question of falldown if one seriously follows these principles.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Mayapur 22 January, 1976:

Yes, I approve Amarendra's program to have the men go out on book distribution and distribute the feast at the Temple instead of at the college.

1977 Correspondence

Letter to Amarendra -- Bombay 3 January, 1977:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated 12-8-76.

Yes, civil disobedience will be the only method in this circumstance. But there are so many judgments in our favor. We should bring the matter in the court. We have the opinions of so many scholars. Bring the matter in the court. But if it is a state policy to cut down this Movement, then civil disobedience. What can be done?

As far as your wife is concerned, the only solution is that she become Krsna conscious. She should live in association with devotees, and strictly follow the regulative practices of Krsna consciousness. If you feel competent to give her the spiritual strength she needs then let her return to Gainesville, otherwise she can go to another temple. Let her read Bhagavad-gita every day.

Upon your recommendation I am pleased to accept the devotees you have recommended for second initiation; Manusrestha dasa, Vaninatha Vasu dasa, Akincana Krsna dasa, Sranti dasi, Garuda Pandita dasa, Brhanti dasi. Now hold a fire sacrifice for devotees only. Play the tape of me chanting Gayatri mantra into the right ears of the devotees and teach them how to count on their finger divisions.

Regarding your question as to when the soul leaves the body, it is when the heart stops beating. Even if the brain has stopped functioning, if the heart is beating that means the soul is present.

Letter to Amarendra -- Bombay 2 April, 1977:

You may be knowing that we have formed one party of scientists under the leadership of Sriman Svarupa Damodara prabhu. Also we have formed the Bhaktivedanta Institute for organizing scientific presentations of Krishna Consciousness. This party is our most important preaching arm with which we will be able to destroy the bogus speculation and cheating which goes under the banner of scientific advancement. Therefore I have got great hope for Svarupa Damodara and his colleagues. I want them to travel vigorously throughout the world to lecture in all universities and other institutions. There is no lack of financial resources and we shall spare nothing to see to this party's success.

Svarupa Damodara has approached me that he likes to have you join him for making arrangements and engagements for his lectures. I know that you are intelligent and very energetic so kindly try to arrange things in consultation with your GBC so that you may be spared for this most important work. You may contact Svarupa Damodara who is returning to America for more details.