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Merit (Letters)

Correspondence

1947 to 1965 Correspondence

Letter to Sardar Patel -- Calcutta 28 February, 1949:

3. The third item is to take up the harijana movement. This movement is, in the real sense, a spiritual initiation movement and this should be organized in such a manner that people all over the world may take interest in it. The harijana is a word which shall not be used neglectfully as it is done now but attempt should be made to make everybody a harijana. Harijana means the recognized man of Hari the Personality of Godhead and thus he (the harijana) is as important a man as the knight of the king. So harijana movement should be strengthened more scientifically to turn every person who is now mayajana into a harijana. The mayajana is a word which is applicable to a person who is ordinarily engaged in the service of materialistic pursuits, whereas the harijana is the person whose main business is to attain perfection of human life, as Mahatma Gandhi did, by spiritualistic realization. This movement should therefore be conducted under strict disciplinary methods as prescribed by the mahajana or the harijana of accredited merit. In such a movement we shall have full co-operation of the sadhu community in India.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Jadurani -- San Francisco 13 April, 1968:

I am in due receipt of your letter post-dated April 11, and this is the first time I received your letter finished in three lines, so I can understand that you have been depressed by receiving my last letter. The idea is that there is a story, "that, I have lost my caste and still my belly is not fulfilled." In India, it is the custom that the Hindus do not ever take meals in the house of a Mohammedan, Christian, or anyone other than the house of Hindu Brahmin. But a man was very hungry, and accidentally he took his food in the house of a Mohammedan. And when he wanted still more food, the man refused, as the man could not supply. So the Hindu man said, "Sir, I have lost my caste, and still I am hungry!" Similarly, if artistic pictures as they are approved by the people in general in this country can be sold quickly, I have not any objection to present our pictures in such a way. But I know that pictures in this country are sold not on the merit of the picture, but on the reputation of the artist. That system is also current in India. But to come to the point of a reputed artist will require long duration of time. And our time is very short. We have to finish our Krishna Consciousness during our lifetime, and we should not waste a single moment for anything else. According to Caitanya Caritamrta, a man is famous who is known as a great devotee of Krishna. So if there is not possibility of selling our pictures immediately on presentation, I do not think there is any necessity to improve our artistic craftsmanship. We should be satisfied with our pictures hanging in our different temples. But we may not sacrifice our valuable time for becoming famous artists so that pictures may be sold like hotcakes.

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Montreal 16 June, 1968:

Maharaja Dasarath, although he was a great devotee of the Lord, but because he was a Ksatriya king, keeping one's promise is inevitable for him. He preferred to banish Ramacandra on the request of his wife on the principle of keeping his promise. In higher states of spiritual life, one can break even promises also, but they are devotees of comparative merit. In the case of Vasudeva, we find that he was spiritually more advanced than Maharaja Dasarath. Vasudeva was also in agreement with Kamsa that he would deliver all his sons to his hand, as soon as the child is born. But in the case of Krishna he broke his promise. The point is that Krishna appeared as the full fledged Personality of Godhead. But Ramacandra appeared as an ideal king. Therefore in the Lila of Ramacandra, principles of morality and ethics as they are to be followed by ideal king and ruler was followed. In the same sense, He banished Sita in order to prove Himself as an ideal king who wanted to make His subjects always happy. The whole program was on the basis of an ideal king. But in the case of Lord Krishna, He played as full independent Supreme Personality of Godhead.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Hamsaduta -- Los Angeles 12 January, 1968:

Krishna is pleased upon you so that He is responding to your sincere service. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says that He responds proportionately along with the degree of surrender to Him by the devotee. So the spiritual progress that you are making now is duly being responded to by Krishna. Of course it is the duty of the teacher to instruct his pupil rightly, but to pass the examination with a degree and merit depends upon the student himself. But the teacher is always happy when he sees one of his students has surpassed the capacity of the teacher also. That is an occasion of great jubilation. Please therefore prosecute your Hare Krishna vibrations along with your good wife, and certainly Krishna will see that all of your attempts will be successful.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Bali-mardana -- Tokyo 25 August, 1970:

Before Vyasadeva, all the Vedic Scriptures were taught and received verbally by the disciplic succession. Both the students and the Spiritual Master of those ages were so sharp in their memory that once they heard the transcendental message from the Spiritual Master the message was immediately imprinted in their brain as vivid as a written language. For example, Sukadeva Gosvami was narrating Srimad-Bhagavatam extemporaneously. The whole Srimad-Bhagavatam, eighteen thousand verses, very difficult to pronounce even and what to speak of memorizing, were narrated very easily just like reading some printed book. He narrated the whole subject matter of Srimad-Bhagavatam continuously for seven days and Maharaja Pariksit also understood the subject matter very clearly. Both of them were so meritorious that they attained the highest goal of life, namely the Lotus Feet of Lord Sri Krsna simply by reciting and hearing respectively.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Nityananda -- Bombay 25 November, 1972:

This attitude of changing this, changing that, if there is some small thing to make it something very great, changing the leaders three every week—these things are going on, I know. This is not at all good attitude, that if by adjustment, this and that, changing everything, I may create the perfect combination and everything will be all right. I am more impressed if someone has opened one centre and that he has stayed there tightly and developed nicely, not going away whimsically. So you have been leader at New Orleans temple for long time, you are the pioneer there, so why you should be whimsically discharged? Only the GBC man shall be able to make these changes, not any so-called secret meeting of devotees. Why they have misunderstood these things? If they have objection they must lodge it with their GBC, and differences must be discussed openly amongst ourselves, not secret meetings. We are Vaisnava devotees, not politicians. So these things must be stopped, plotting. Your merit stands far above theirs, you have done some tangible work to please me by spreading this Krishna Consciousness message in New Orleans, that is the test. Let them do something first, then we shall see what is their criticism. Simply criticizing and no work, that is the business of inferior men. So do not be disturbed by them, go on with your work, increasing more and more.

Letter to Sri Govinda -- Bombay 25 December, 1972:

So far this making some false story for collecting money or selling book, of course we may do anything for Krishna, but that is supposed to be reserved for very advanced experts in Krishna Consciousness—they know how to catch the big fish without themselves getting wet. So it is not very much advisable to make lies just to sell book. If we simply stick to describing how wonderful is Krishna, then whatever we may lie or exaggerate, that will not be lie! But other things, lies, they will not help us to train ourselves in truthfulness. Lie to some, not to others, that is not a good philosophy. Rather the brahmanas are always truthful, even to their enemies. There is sufficient merit in our books that if you simply describe them sincerely to anyone, they will buy. That art you must develop, not art of lying. Convince them to give by your preaching the Absolute Truth, not by tricking, that is more mature stage of development of Krishna Consciousness.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Mahadeva -- Mayapur 3 March, 1974:

We will present our program at Bhaktivedanta Manor exactly in the line of Lord Caitanya, by kirtana, prasadam distribution and speaking from Bhagavad-gita. We cannot deviate even an inch in order to attract the followers of the ecology philosophy or any other materialistic, utopian movement. You say you know a number of influential leaders of this group, but what is the use of knowing them, since you yourself found them deficient and left them? Our ideal Vedic community will attract everyone on its own merit, and we shall be glad to welcome and accept everyone who comes without our compromising in order to attract them.

Letter to S. K. Roy -- Bombay 16 December, 1974:

Thank you for your kind sentiments and I am very glad that you have appreciated our International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Our actual credit is that we are simply repeating Bhagavad-gita As It Is without changing it, altering it or adding any mundane opinion. We simply repeat what previous acarya have said and that is our merit. Therefore it is being accepted all over the world. Thank you for appreciating our books. Please continue to read them. In regards to you becoming one of our life members I wish to refer you to Gargamuni Swami who is at our Calcutta Mandir at 3 Albert Rd. You can go and see him there and he will make some arrangement for you to become a member of our society. We have many different membership programs and he can discuss them all with you, and show you all the books we have been publishing, etc.

1976 Correspondence

Letter to Jayapataka:

Regarding your meeting me to discuss about the land acquisition matter, I shall inform you later on as to my arrival time in India. For the time being I shall stay at the farm in France. But as far as going to see the Chief Minister is concerned, let him decide on the merit of the report. A full report is there in hand, so let him decide as he likes. I have not seen any one of the officers as yet, but anyone who came I saw. If the Chief Minister comes to Mayapur then that is alright. Otherwise officially whatever he likes he can decide on the merit of the project.

Page Title:Merit (Letters)
Compiler:Visnu Murti
Created:07 of Mar, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=10
No. of Quotes:10