Training of Harer Nama dasa (Letters, 1968 - 1971)

Expressions researched:
"Account" |"Activities" |"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" |"Harer Nama" |"ISKCON" |"Initiate" |"Initiated" |"Initiates" |"Initiating" |"Initiation" |"Initiations" |"Iskcon" |"Kirtana" |"Language" |"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"

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Harer Nama -- Allston, Mass 28 May, 1968:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 24, 1968, along with the news article published in the Daily Californian, p.9, on Wednesday May 22, 1968. The pictures and the statement are very appropriate and I hope this article will attract the attention of many students.

Actually this Krishna Consciousness movement is the greatest need of the present day situation of the world. It is authorized approved and very old, and practical. It can be accepted by any person in any part of the world; that is already tested. Now each one of us has got a great responsibility to spread this movement as far as possible and that is the greatest service to the suffering humanity. You are a student of psychology, so you can study this movement more clearly than others, and try to spread it to your best capacity.

Regarding your 2 questions: For offering prasadam simply prayers to the Spiritual Master is sufficient. The process is that everything is offered to the Spiritual Master, and the Spiritual Master is supposed to offer the same foodstuff to the Lord. When a thing is offered to the Spiritual Master, he immediately offers to the Lord. That is the system, and as we come by parampara system, it is our duty to go through the right channel—namely, first the Spiritual Master, then Lord Caitanya, and then Krishna. So when we chant prayers, we do this, Bande ham Sri Guru . . . and gradually to the Goswamis, then to Lord Caitanya, and then to Radha Krishna. That is the praying system. But offering the prasadam to present everything before the Spiritual Master whose picture is also in the altar, means that the Spiritual Master will take care of offering the foodstuff to the Lord. Therefore simply by chanting the prayer to the Spiritual Master, everything will be complete.

I think a copy of the Daily Californian in which the article has appeared may be sent to each center of our society, and by that they will be encouraged. If possible, kindly arrange this.

I am going to Montreal, sometimes next week after June 2nd. So you can write me letters at the Montreal address as follows: ISKCON RADHA KRISHNA TEMPLE; 3720 Park Avenue; Montreal 18, Quebec, Canada. Also, please send copies of the news article to our different centers, the addresses are as follows:

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Letter to Aniruddha -- Seattle 27 September, 1968:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated Sept. 24, 1968, and it is very encouraging. May Krishna bless you all. I am so glad to learn that Nandarani and her husband are all so enthusiastically trying to render service to Krishna and you have got very good assistants—Harer Nama, and Varaha Murti. It is so encouraging to learn that Varaha Murti has got permission from his Hiranyaksa-father. Perhaps you know this story of Varaha Murti. Hiranyaksa put the earthly planet within the water, and Lord Varaha lifted the merged earthly planet by His big tusks. So Krishna has given you all a good chance for developing Hollywood, and I hope in the near future all the artists will take to Krishna Consciousness movement, and Hollywood shall become a holy place.

Letter to Harer Nama, Tosana Krsna -- Seattle 18 October, 1968:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated Oct. 12, 1968, and I thank you very much for your invitation. Please offer my blessings to other members of the temple who are residing there. And I have decided to go to your temple by the 26th October. On the 23rd of October, 1968, I am going to Montreal to keep one appointment with the Consulate General of United States, and then by the 26th instant I wish to go to Santa Fe directly. I hope you have already talked with Jayananda in this connection. And now you can arrange for that.

I thank you once more for your assurance of service to Krishna and it is very enlightening for me that we have got so many nice souls to serve the cause of Krishna, and in the matter of pushing Krishna consciousness in this country and all over the world. I beg to remain,

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Letter to Harer Nama -- Los Angeles 13 November, 1968:

I am in due receipt of your letter, undated, and thank you so much for it. Yes, your place is very nice, don't try to change it, but try to improve it. Better try to have Sankirtana and get one mrdanga from New York by paying them, and in this way try to improve the attendance of the temple. Your ideas you mention are very good. Try to search out jobs, and eventually if you can establish your own means of income that will be very nice.

Please keep me informed at least once in a fortnight of your progress there, and I shall be looking to hear from you all, and hoping you are well,

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Letter to Patita Uddharana -- Los Angeles 20 November, 1968:

P.S. The enclosed note was sent to me by error, so you can hand it over to Harer Nama and he will do the needful, as it is urgent, and has to be done before the 29th of Nov.

Letter to Harer Nama -- Los Angeles 1 December, 1968:

I have received your letter dated November 22, 1968 and I thank you for it. It is very nice that you are preparing these puppet stories of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Such program will not fail to have an uplifting effect upon the viewers as well as the players. So do this nicely, it shall be very good. I also understand from your letter that you and Tosana working outside to support the Santa Fe temple. This is all right and you should continue with this. Our program is that no matter what our engagement may be, we shall perform it in Krishna Consciousness, chanting Hare Krishna and thinking about something of Krishna, His Name, His Form, His Beauty, etc. This will bring the highest benediction of our life and by executing the same we shall elevate not only ourself but similarly we will elevate those with which we come into association.

So far as explaining my letter to Kris, I have listed the ingredients which may use for preparing prasadam but these various varieties of foodstuffs may be prepared either in the given recipes or if you like you may invent nice new formulas for offering. The important thing is that your preparations be palatable for Lord Krishna and that the ingredients be within the groups of ingredients already listed. You have asked me about sassafras and yes, it may be offered. Mushrooms are generally not offered, but there is no prohibition, there is no harm in them.

I hope that this has answered your questions. Please keep me informed as to the progress of your temple. Hope you are all well.

Letter to Harer Nama -- Los Angeles 21 December, 1968:

I have received your letter dated December 10, 1968 and have noted the contents carefully. I was very happy to read how you are keeping nicely engaged in giving lectures at schools and preparing for a puppet show of Krishna Consciousness stories. This is very nice and if you continue to accelerate with engagements such as these then I am sure that you will be very successful in propagating this movement of Lord Caitanya. When Krishna sees that we are trying very sincerely to preach His message to others He becomes very pleased and showers all blessings upon the devotee. So please continue to progress in this spirit and I am sure that Krishna will arrange to see that your future in Krishna Consciousness will be very nice.

Regarding your question about Krishna recommending the chanting of His Holy Names, probably you have not marked it in your study of the Bhagavad-gita, but in chapter 9, verse 14, Krishna describes how His devotees are always chanting His Names. Lord Caitanya, although He is Krishna Himself, is even more merciful than Krishna in that He has shown to the fallen living entities of the kali yuga how the chanting process can immediately elevate one up to the spiritual atmosphere.

Your second question about falling down from the brahmajyoti is answered that it is not that one must fall down, but that they generally fall down. There is a verse in Srimad-Bhagavatam, 10th canto, 2nd chapter, verse 26, which says: "My Dear Lotus Eyed Personality of Godhead, persons who are very proud of becoming one with the brahma effulgence and thereby consider that they have become liberated are factually in a contaminated consciousness on account of the absence of devotional service unto You. Such persons may rise to a high level of spiritual understanding as far as the impersonal brahmajyoti but on account of the lack of devotional service unto You, they generally fall down again into material contamination."

The final question which was asked by Tosana about the validity of the story of the sparrow and the ocean, you should know that everything that is found in these scriptures is factual. There is nothing allegory. But you must not depend upon your own limited experience. What happens in different corners of the Lord's Creation no one can say. But we can hear from the authentic Vedic sources such as the Puranas. This story of the sparrow is found in the Puranas.

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1969 Correspondence

Letter to Tirtha Maharaja -- Los Angeles 7 February, 1969:

I have already established the following centers:

1. New York INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS

61 Second Avenue

New York, NY

President: Brahmananda das Brahmacari (Bruce Scharf)

2. London ISKCON

22 Betterton Street

London WC 2

ENGLAND

President: Mukunda das Adhikari (Michael Grant)

3. Hamburg Internationale Gesellschaft fur Krishna Bewusstein

2 Hamburg 19

Eppendorfer Weg 11

WEST GERMANY

4. President: Sivananda das Brahmacari (Samuel Greer)

5. Hawaii ISKCON

4 Leilani Bldg. 1649 Kapialani Blvd.

Honolulu, Hawaii

President: Gaurasundara das Adhikari (G. McElroy)

6. Montreal ISKCON

3720 Park Avenue

Montreal 18, Quebec

President: Hamsaduta das Adhikari (Hans Kary)

7. San Francisco ISKCON

518 Frederick Street

San Francisco, Calif.

President: Cidananda das Brahmacari (Clay Harold)

8. New Vrindaban

RD 3

Moundsville, West Virginia

President: Kirtanananda Swami (Keith Ham)

9. Vancouver ISKCON

271 East Georgia Street

Vancouver 4, B.C. Canada

President: Ananda das Brahmacari (Eric Cassidy)

10. Seattle ISKCON

5516 Roosevelt Way N.E.

Seattle, Washington

President: Upendra das Brahmacari (Wayne Gunderson)

11. Santa Fe ISKCON

4113 West Water Street

Santa Fe, New Mexico

President: Harer Nama das Brahmacari (Harlon Jacobson)

Letter to Harer Nama -- Los Angeles 17 February, 1969:

I am in due receipt of your letter dated February 13, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. I am so glad to hear that you are having nice response now and soon you hope to hold some feasts. If by the summer you feel that the center has urgent necessity of some other brahmacaris, then we shall arrange for this. At present I think that Tosana may go to North Carolina immediately and help Bhurijana with the center there. In the meantime, you try to keep the temple maintained somehow or other, so when the summer arrives some helper may go to give you assistance.

Please let me know if Kamalasana arrives there in Sante Fe. He has left the temple here all of a sudden, and no one knows where he is. I am very much anxious for him, so please let me know if you have any word from him.

Thanking you again for your letter. I hope that this will be meeting you in good health and cheerful mood.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

P.S. In case of urgent work somebody may go to help you from here. ACB.

Letter to Prabhavati -- Hawaii 24 March, 1969:

So I am very much pleased to learn that you are chanting and reading Bhagavad-gita, and also helping with the temple activities of cooking and cleaning. This is very good. Please continue in this way, and gradually you will become more and more advanced in this spiritual consciousness, and become happy. If you can paint nice pictures of Krishna and His devotees, then that is also a nice engagement for you. Help Harer Nama in running the temple smoothly, and always remain engaged in Krishna Consciousness.

I hope this meets you in good health, and happily chanting and dancing in kirtana.

Letter to Harer Nama -- Allston, Mass 30 April, 1969:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 21, 1969, and I have gone over the contents very carefully. I am pleased to learn that your mother is willing to pay for your schooling expenses, and I think that you may take this opportunity of completing your education. I have enclosed one letter to Prabhavati, and you should see this letter also. Regarding your request to sing prayers in English, this is nice suggestion, and you may do it. So far as the songs that you have written, you may send me a copy of them and I shall see them. In Montreal also they are writing songs in the popular Western style of music and it is coming very nicely.

I hope this will meet you in good health.

Letter to Harer Nama -- New Vrindaban 23 May, 1969:

I thank you very much for your letter dated May 14, 1969, and I congratulate you and your good wife, Prabhavati, for your marriage. Live peacefully, husband and wife, and now you will be happy in the management of the temple. Both of you are initiated, and as it is necessary for you to work, your wife may take care of the temple in your absence. I am glad that you have received some money from your grandmother, and you wish to send it to me for my book fund. In the meantime, there is Rathayatra Festival propogation, and Tamala Krishna wishes that all branches on the Western Coast may conjointly perform this ceremony very pompously. I do not know if you have got any news already, but if you have, please cooperate fully to make the Rathayatra Festival a grand success.

I hope this will meet you and Prabhavati in very good health.

Letter to Harer Nama, Prabhavati -- New Vrindaban 17 June, 1969:

I am in due receipt of your letters of June 10, 1969, and I have noted the contents of both with much encouragement. I have also received short letters from the new people who have come to help you in the Santa Fe temple, and their nice appreciation of our movement is a great pleasure for me to note. Keep them very nicely, and as you consider that one or all of them are ready for initiation and are desiring like that, then they can send their beads to me to be chanted upon. You have invited me to come again to visit the Sante Fe temple and this idea is nice, but at present I am planning to be going to London by the latter part of July, so I do not see any immediate opportunity. From London most probably I will be returning to Los Angeles, so let us see if there will be any opportunity at that time. The pictures you have sent are very, very nice, and I am hopeful that under your guidance the Sante Fe temple will spread the chanting of Hare Krishna throughout that area.

Please convey my blessings to your nice wife, Prabhavati, and to the very nice new people who are fortunately taking to Krishna Consciousness, I hope this will meet you all in good health.

Letter to Harer Nama -- London 6 November, 1969:

I beg to thank you very much for your letter dated November 3, 1969 and have noted the contents with pleasure. For some time I have been anxious to hear from you, and now that you have written I am encouraged to learn of your nice activities in Colorado. I am pleased also that Bhavananda, Palika Dasi and Prabhavati Dasi are all working so sincerely and steadfastly to promote this Sankirtana Movement, and surely Caitanya Mahaprabhu will bestow His full blessings upon all of you. This is a qualification of activities in Krishna Consciousness that if one renders even a small amount of sincere devotional service, Krishna becomes obliged to elevate such person; and what to speak of one whose entire life and soul has been dedicated to Krishna's service. So continue to push on as you are now doing and as far as possible distribute our books and magazines. Now that our press is ready in Boston, we have more than one dozen books which are ready to be printed, so with your help I wish to overflood the marketplaces with our literatures. Now people are reading all kinds of nonsense books, and thus their reading capacity is helping to pave their way through the circles of birth and death. If they will simply take to reading this transcendental literature we are presenting, the same reading capacity will elevate them to the highest perfection of spiritual life. So this is very important task we are doing, and all of you push forward in Colorado with increased enthusiasm.

Here in London things are going on nicely, and at all of our meetings, hundreds of people join in with us in the chanting and dancing. Similarly, from all of our centers we are getting very good reports, and I think that before long your center will develop into a very important center for our movement. Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you all in good health.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Harer Nama -- Los Angeles 15 January, 1970:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 31 December, 1969 and have duly noted the contents. I have just arrived here in Los Angeles from London via Boston and your letter was forwarded to me here.

I am glad to learn that there is one boy, Neal Delmonico, now staying with the devotees at the Temple. Now I am in Los Angeles, and many students will be initiated next Sunday, January 25th. So if you recommend, he may be initiated at that time. If he sticks to the principles of our devotional service, it will not be difficult to save him from the draft.

We have been recognized by the draft board as a religious society and if our student seriously understands the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita or Science of God, follows the regulative principles strictly with clear heart without any doubt, then naturally he is promoted to the ministerial status. So our Society is authorized to award the ministerial status but the students must be equally serious in understanding the philosophy.

We require hundreds of bona fide students in Krishna Consciousness. The world is in need of this function. People are going to hell for want of proper guidance. No other religious institution are so much serious about God consciousness as we are. So you must train your contemporaries in such spirit of alertness, then we shall be able to open hundreds of centers, and the people in general shall be saved from being misguided.

Hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

N.B.—Regarding Professor Srivastava, please encourage him to participate in understanding our movement, and show him our literatures.—ACBS