Prabhupada and Hladini devi dasi

Expressions researched:
"Hladini" |"Hladinidevi" |"Linda"

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Linda Ryon -- London 13 November, 1969:

I beg to thank you for your letter dated October 26, 1969 and I have noted the contents with pleasure. I am so glad to learn that you and your husband, Michael, are finding your lives very happy and satisfying due to the influence of Lord Krishna. This is the position of Krishna Consciousness that if anyone will take to it seriously, he will find instant improvement in his life's condition. By nature every living entity is joyful and in Krishna Consciousness, but due to association with material contamination certain souls have gotten their joyful spiritual nature covered up by the cloud of Maya. The purpose of our centers for Krishna Consciousness is to give everyone the opportunity to remove this cloud of Maya from their consciousness and resume their natural, blissful life of rendering devotional service to Lord Krishna. The process is very simple: chanting, dancing, eating Krishna Prasadam and associating with Krishna's nice devotees. And these four items will make one advance very quickly. We are offering to everyone everything that is nice: nice food, nice family life, nice music, nice philosophy, nice association. Only a rascal will not accept this gift of Krishna Consciousness. So please continue to follow the procedures as you have been doing under the guidance of Bhagavan das, Jagadisa, and their wives. When I return to Boston sometimes in December, perhaps you and your husband will be able to meet me there.

1970 Correspondence

Letter to Linda -- Los Angeles 19 February, 1970:

I am in due receipt of your nice letter dated 10 February, 1970, and I am very glad to note how you are eager to understand this science of devotional service to Krsna or Krsna Consciousness.

Regarding your questions about the difference between the picture of Krsna and the Deity, Krsna is equally there in both these forms. Krsna is so kind that he agrees to appear, for the benefit of the conditioned soul, in eight different kinds of forms. Such form is called arca or the form of the Lord manifested through material agency as metal, earth, wood, painting, stone, jewel, drawing, and mind. The arca is accepted as incarnation of God, and is worshiped by regulations. Generally the installed Deities are so worshiped and the regulative principles should be strictly followed in regard to Them.

I am very happy to learn that you are finding the Detroit atmosphere so blissful, and actually the more you engage yourself in the sincere service of Krsna, the more you will find yourself always blissful.

So far your dreams are concerned, it is very nice that you are thinking about Krsna Consciousness even while sleeping. Krsna is so nice that we want to remember Him even more than twenty-four hours daily. Regarding instructions from the Spiritual Master, there is no need of taking instructions spoken in dream while the Spiritual Master is still present. Lord Jagannatha is very kind, and He can also appear in mind in His own form, so why not in your dream.

I hope that you are trying to follow the regulative principles and that both you and your husband are chanting your beads regularly daily. These two duties are essential for advancement in Krsna Consciousness, and if they are made the center of our activities, then Krsna will begin to answer all questions from within how to become further advanced in His loving devotional service.

Please offer my blessings to your husband, Michael. Hope this will meet you both in good health and Krsna Consciousness.

Letter to Hladini (Linda) -- Los Angeles 29 March, 1970:

I am in due receipt of your nice letter dated 26th March, 1970, asking to become my initiated disciple in Krsna Consciousness and also your beads for chanting. I am very glad to know that your are strictly observing the rules and regulations of Krsna Consciousness faithfully and now I am very glad to accept you as my initiated student. I am returning your beads herewith duly chanted by me.

Your initiated name is Hladini devi Dasi. Lord Krsna's Pleasure Potency is called Hladini, so this spiritual energy of Krsna's pleasure potency, Hladini, is Srimati Radharani Who is always increasing the transcendental pleasure of Krsna by Her super-excellent loving devotional service. Radharani is the most confidential servant of the Lord and Hladini Dasi means the servant of Radharani. So please always be engaged in chanting Hare Krsna mantra at least sixteen rounds daily and work sincerely and eagerly in the service of the Lord observing the regulative principles and thus be happy.

I am also pleased to know that you will be married with Sriman Mahananda in Krsna Consciousness and that you offer your children to Krsna is very, very nice. May Krsna bless you both to work combinedly for mutually advancing in Krsna Consciousness more and more.

I have written to Mahananda that my suggestion is that after some time training in Detroit with Bhagavan das you can try to expand our activities by opening a branch in some suitable place. That will be very nice. So please chant Hare Krsna and be happy, that is my desire.

Letter to Mahananda -- Los Angeles 27 April, 1970:

Your appreciation of our Krishna Consciousness Movement is very nice, and if you will carry this practical philosophy to the people of your great nation you will know the result for sure that this movement is the solution to all the problems of life. So I am glad that you are now going to our Washington center with your good wife. Please work there combinedly with great enthusiasm in advancing in Krishna Consciousness. I am very glad also that you and Hladini Dasi are now married in tilak by Sriman Bhagavan das. Please take my blessings for your spiritual marriage, and be happy in Krishna Conscious life.

Letter to Hladini -- Surat 29 December, 1970:

I am in due receipt of your very nice letter dated 28th November. I am glad to learn that the Deities are being cared for there in Chicago so nicely by your good self. I personally gave instruction to Silavati how to care for the Deities properly when I was in Los Angeles and you were trained up by her. So I am confident that everything is going on nicely.

Proper Deity worship, with all attention to cleanliness, is of the utmost importance. If you can please the Deity by your sincere service, then your temple will flourish. To be able to personally serve the Deity is a great privilege and such a person is very fortunate indeed. So you continue in this way and Krishna will surely bless you.

1971 Correspondence

Letter to Hladini -- Gorakhpur 16 February, 1971:

I thank you for your kind letter dated 21st January, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully.

Yes, the mind is subject to so many impressions from past activities as well as so many past lifetimes, so when disturbing thoughts enter your mind you should simply ignore them. Actually the process is to always remember the Lotus Feet of the Lord, but this is not an automatic thing. It takes so much practice due to our conditioned state. The process is to follow the regulative principles and regularly chant 16 rounds. That is our strength in spiritual life and gradually all such problems will be resolved. And because you are sincerely desiring to serve the Deity, you can be sure that Krishna will help you in all respects. So simply be persevering and go on chanting attentively and all these temporary manifestations will come to pass.

Presently our Indian preaching program is going on so nicely and wherever we go, we bring our Deities. And the people are so attracted by the purity of the arati ceremony. By March 1st I shall be going to Bombay where we will be having a one week Deity installation ceremony at our new Bombay temple, the address of which is given above. I shall be returning to U.S.A. by the first week in April.

Please offer my blessings to your good husband Mahananda as well as all the other Prabhus there. Hoping this will meet you in good health.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Hladini -- Calcutta 28 January, 1973:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 1, 1973, and I have noted the contents with great pleasure. It is so nice to see how enthusiastic you are in executing this process of devotional service and how much you like your engagement there in New Vrindaban. So you continue in this way, always thinking of Krsna, chanting 16 rounds, reading the books, and doing your daily chores all on behalf of Krsna. As your devotional service becomes mature you shall see Krsna more and more, and more and more you shall realize the qualities of the holy land of Vraja. This modern civilization is always artificial. You are actually learning in New Vrindaban the self-sufficient mode of living, simple living, high thinking, that is our policy, and as long as Krsna remains in the center of all these activities, then you are actually in Vrindaban. And the more you please the Deities there with your service, the more they shall reciprocate by bestowing upon you love for Sri Sri Radha Krsna. So I am always looking forward to coming back to New Vrindaban, and I remember very fondly the sandesh, milk, and other nice products that the devotees are preparing there. Thank you very much.

1974 Correspondence

Letter to Hladini -- Bombay 26 July, 1974:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 17, 1974 with enclosed photographs of Lord Jagannatha. I can see that you are very nicely taking care of the Deities, and this is much appreciated by me. Now you stick to this process of worship of the Deity and you will advance more and more in Krishna consciousness. I very much enjoyed my stay in New Vrindaban, and was glad to see everything going on very nicely. So now just cooperate with the leaders there and expand it more and more.