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Dogmatic (Letters)

Correspondence

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Mahatma Gandhi -- Cawnpore 12 July, 1947:

You might have easily avoided them if you had approached the Guru as abovementioned. But your sincere efforts to attain some Godly qualities by austerities etc surely have raised you to some higher position which you can better utilize for the purpose of the Absolute Truth. If you, however, remain satisfied with such temporary position only and do not try to know the Absolute Truth, then surely you are to fall down from the artificially exalted position under the laws of Nature. But if you really want to approach the Absolute Truth and want to do some real good to the people in general all over the world, which shall include your ideas of unity, peace and non-violence, then you must give up the rotten politics immediately and rise up for the preaching work of the philosophy and religion of "Bhagavad-gita" without offering unnecessary and dogmatic interpretations on them. I had occasionally discussed this subject in my paper "Back to Godhead" and a leaf from the same is enclosed herewith for your reference.

Letter to Raja Mohendra Pratap -- Cawnpore 13 July, 1947:

In that case the eternity and cognizibility of the loved and lover vanish at once. In this way there arises many questions which may be put forward to you for further discussions to adjust your ideas of religion.

Besides you have not quoted any authority for all your statements. So it is more or less dogmatic. If different men put different dogmatic views about religion and its essentials who is to be accepted and who is not be? Therefore the approach shall be and must be authoritative, scientific and universal. Your delineations do not conform to all these necessary things. That is my main contention. If you have time to discuss on it, I shall be glad to substantiate my contentions as far as possible. My basis of arguments will be Bhagavad-gita which is the most authoritative, scientific and universal. To summarise the conclusions of Bhagavad-gita it may be said that,

1) God is one and everything is in Him and He is in everything.

Letter to Sir -- Delhi 15 April, 1961:

This perfection of life will help also in building up the next progressive life after death. The human society is meant for liberal cooperation for this movement of all round perfection of the human society without any bar for class or nation or dogmatic faith. Spiritual culture is not dogmatic faith but it is based on philosophy, reason and culture. This can be introduced very easily through convenient methods of music, dance and refreshment which are acceptable by all grades of human being in all parts of the world. It requires only to be organized by combined effort of the intelligent class of men of all nations. I have tried to explain the human cultural synopsis in fifty pictographical explanation and I wish that these pictographical explanations may widely be distributed. The sponsors of the Congress have taken charge of this and I hope they will do the needful.

1967 Correspondence

Letter to Janardana -- Delhi 30 September, 1967:

I completely support your idea about the preaching method. We are not lacking in philosophy—by the grace of Krishna we have got ample stock to answer anybody's intricate philosophical questions. There is no necessity of stopping questioners by dogmatic statements as it was done in the beginning. I have every hope in you because you are educated and have understood the philosophy completely. You should try to get another newspaper article out explaining the real scientific position of our movement.

I am very anxious to go to Montreal. Therefore you must try your best to get my immigration visa on the basis of my being an authorized Vaisnava minister, based on Srimad Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. I hop you have got the copies of my certificates in this connection. If not you can get the same immediately from N.Y. of S.F. centers. I wish that either from Canada or U.S. I should get my visa for free movement.

Letter to Brahmananda -- Calcutta 5 November, 1967:

Replying your letter dated Oct. 21, I quite appreciate your statement and I am happy that you have now taken care of the Gita Mss. I have already written to Hayagriva that the instructions which I impart are not dogmas. Our instructions are all based on sufficient logic and philosophy. The thing is that while conducting missionary activities it is quite natural that sometimes the situation may become very provocative, but we have to deal in these matters very carefully. The boy who spat upon the person of Kirtanananda must send a letter of regret and apology. That will be nice. You should always try to pacify the living entities in their rebellious propensities. These individual propensities are factual evidence for their becoming individual entities. If everything would have been impersonal there would have been no scope for the individual manifestations. It is understood that Hayagriva will purchase the property at Wilkes-Barr with the help of Dr. Henderson's financial assistance.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Robert Pekala -- Los Angeles 13 February, 1968:

I thank you very much for your inquisitiveness shown in your letter dated Jan. 30, 1968. And I am sorry that I could not reply this letter earlier, on account of being busy in my preoccupation. I am glad that you attended our class at Montreal and tried to understand the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness. It is neither sectarian nor dogmatic. It is the natural relationship of the living entities with the Supreme Soul. The Supreme Soul is Krishna, or the All Attractive; one cannot be Supreme Soul without being all attractive. If God is Supreme, therefore the nomenclature of God to be addressed is Krishna perfectly well.

If you are inquisitive to learn this science personally from me, I have no objection if you come here and stay with me for some days. A school life isn't an impediment for becoming full time devotee, it is the question of devoting oneself sincerely to Krishna Consciousness. To prosecute Krishna Consciousness there is no limitation, no material impediment can stop progress of Krishna Consciousness.

Letter to Roland Michener (Governor-General of Canada) -- Montreal 24 August, 1968:

Members of ISKCON may retain their own respective religious faiths, as ISKCON is meant to establish a clear, practical common formulation of the common ideal of all theists, and to defeat the unnecessary dogmatic wranglings that now divide and invalidate the theistic camp. This common ideal of theism is to develop love of God.

We are following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya to invoke the dormant love of Godhead. The sum and substance of this teaching is that the living entity is eternally the subordinate servant of God, but unfortunately, being sophisticated by illusion, everyone in the human society is trying to predominate over others without accepting the Supreme Predominator. A case in point is the recent Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Letter to Brahmananda -- Seattle 6 October, 1968:

Because they are afraid of their own system of religiosity, because they see so many young boys and girls are taking interest in this system of Krishna Consciousness. Naturally, they are not very satisfied. So we may be facing some difficulty by them in future. So, we have to take some precaution. Of course, this priestly class could not do anything very nice till now, but dogmatic way of thinking is going on. So anyway, we shall have to depend on Krishna, and I think the new center in United Nations, if we make nice propaganda from there, then this tendency may be diminished. In the United Nations center, I have already suggested Purusottama things to be done there, and if possible, we shall hold meeting and kirtana in the church center and distribute Prasadam, invite the prominent members of the United Nations, this is, I am thinking like that. I do not know what Krishna desires.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Govinda -- Los Angeles 10 February, 1969:

The gentleman is disappointed that probably no one will ever know about spirit, but this is not true. We know what is spirit, how does it work, how does it transmigrate from one body to another or from one planet to another. We know these very scientifically, and we are firmly convinced about it. We can refute any dogmatic arguments against this conviction, and how do we do that? Simply because we start our understanding from the data of authoritative sources like Krishna or His representative. In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna speaks about spirit soul from the very beginning. Unless one understands what is this spirit soul, his further advancement of the Supreme Spirit God has no value. So this gentleman is puzzled in his understanding about wherefrom we have come, what we are, and where we are going. But we are certain about it.

Letter to Syamasundara -- New Vrindaban 3 June, 1969:

Modern youths are educated in advance, so they are no more interested in repetition of the same static mottos. They want something dynamic, progress in spiritual understanding, but the Christian priests could not satisfy them. In comparison to all these dogmatic principles, our KC movement presents everything in the right perspective, even from scientific and philosophical point of view. So if you can secure one church in England for utilizing in our movement, I think we shall be able to secure many such churches all over the world. We have great respect for Lord Jesus Christ. We accept him as powerful incarnation of Krishna, as much as we accept Lord Buddha. We can adjust the Buddhists, Christians, and even the Mohammedans to our KC movement, so if the religious heads of these faiths try to understand our philosophy, certainly there will be great impetus in the matter of spiritual rejuvenation of the world.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Unknown -- Unknown Place 28 February, 1970:

Similarly in mathematics beginning from 1,2,3, adding and subtracting, etc. up to higher mathematics, just like calculus, the 1,2,3, adding and subtracting is still there. But basic math taught to children and higher math to the college man. In this way by Krishna Consciousness we can solve all the dogmatic confusions and speculations. This is the greatest need of the human beings and please try to do it as far as possible and Krishna will help you.

Letter to Citsukhananda -- Los Angeles 28 April, 1970:

That is the most important point, that God is ultimately a Person.

Regarding the disturbing groups of "Christians" so-called, that is alright. Let them follow Lord Jesus Christ. Regarding their dogmatic insistence, everyone thinks like that, so if one is not prepared to advance more, it is better to avoid them. If one is limited by some formulas only, he is described as an animal which is bound up by the chain of the master and cannot move beyond the length of the chain. So we are concerned with persons who are not chained by anything.

Letter to Tosana Krsna -- Los Angeles 23 June, 1970:

This knowledge is very clearly defined beginning from the Bhagavad-gita. So if you meet such persons who are staunch Christians you can humbly put this argument before them for consideration. But if somebody is dogmatic and blind follower, then avoid to discuss with him. Better spend that time for enlightening a person who is innocent. Do not try to enter into the details of New Testament, but simply say that we agree on the principle that God is great.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Bhakta dasa -- Delhi 20 November, 1971:

First the student must be able to repeat exactly the words of the guru and then after some time he may be qualified to apply the principles he has learned word-for-word to personal situations. It is not that we are a dry philosophy of dogmas and slogans. No. The language of Krishna Consciousness is ever-fresh and we can explain everything by it, just like my Guru Maharaja once lectured for three months on one verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam. But every precaution must be taken to preserve our basic guiding principles as they are and not change them because we want to hear something new.

It is very nice that you are holding festivals in San Diego center. We are finding these festivals very successful for attracting the citizens to our activities. More and more these festivals may be held, at least very large festival in a year, simply for glorifying Krishna in public places. It is not that a specific holiday or theme has to be chosen. We are simply calling our Indian programs "A Hare Krishna Festival." But if there are some holidays you specifically like, you plan them together with Karandhara by adjusting to the local taste.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Dasarha -- Bombay 4 March, 1972:

Regarding your questions on Christianity, we are not very much keen to engage them in argument because for the most part they are sentimentalists and have no philosophy, therefore they become fanatics or dogmatists, and this type of person we cannot change. But if you find some Christian person who is intelligent to understand philosophy then you may argue that if God is unlimited, how He can be confined to having only one son? The son is the representative of the father, and in that sense he is the same as the father, but also he is different than the father. So Christ is speaking in this sense, that only through the representative of God can one come to God. Just like Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita that one should surrender to a bona fide spiritual master, and then He also says that one should "Surrender unto Me."

Letter to Sukadeva -- Ahmedabad 13 December, 1972:

No, let me come gradually, let me study also Krishna Consciousness and see how it is practical and sublime. Gradually I may get some taste for these other things and agree to do them voluntarily and intelligently. We are not dogma or like army-camp, no. We are servants of Krishna, that means because we understand that Krishna is our Protector under all circumstances, we have no more any anxiety, so we become very liberal and tolerant of all kinds of seeing others' sinful activities, and we see them innocent victims of maya, and we try to help them understand what is the real position of life. So you know this art, how to attract and engage men, so aim yourself at the top-class of men and give them every opportunity and facility to become convinced of our philosophy and engage themselves to their satisfaction. That will be the best contribution.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Trivikrama -- Bombay 1 May, 1974:

It is very good news that you have found Taiwan such a favorable place, with the people and the government inclined towards religious men. Of course only Krsna Consciousness can provide the real understanding of religion beyond sectarian dogmas, and it is the only movement which can really bring benediction in the form of Love of God to everyone, without difficulty. So take it as Krsna's mercy that the atmosphere is somehow favorable and try to recruit Chinese boys to worship of Lord Krsna.

If you require $5,000.00 capital for registration then we shall get it. You should write to Bali Mardan in this connection, but if it is necessary we must have the society registered there, then we must do it.

Page Title:Dogmatic (Letters)
Compiler:Mayapur, RupaManjari
Created:22 of Sep, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=17
No. of Quotes:17