a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1947-64 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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30.5.09 1958: November Jhansi My dear Brother, Please excuse me if I have offended you by calling you my dear Brother. Actually you are my dear brother and when you know me you shall be pleased that I have called you as such. You are my brother in relation to our common and Eternal Father the Almighty Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna the revealing Author of the great book of Philosophy "Bhagavad-gita." And from this book of transcendental knowledge, I have known that you and all other living entities, in whatever form they may be, are all my brothers. But I know some other less intelligent brothers, who are now in the animal kingdom, will not be able to recognize me even if I address them as my dear brothers, for the reason of their being grossly enwrapped in material consciousness. But as you are a human being and as you have developed the consciousness of a human being, I have ventured to approach you and address you directly "My dear brother." Please therefore do not mistake my endeavor. You may be, although I do not believe it, one of those other brothers who do not believe in the existence of any Person like Godhead our eternal Father. But if you so believe, I shall tell you that you are mistaken. Your conviction as such is due to your either being misled by another waylaid brother or due to your failure to make communion with our Eternal Father. You are not therefore in the right consciousness if you do not believe in Him. I am prepared to convince you in every respect that there is our Eternal Father and He wants you and all of us to go back to our permanent home. If you argue that there is no such Father God at all, then I am still more prepared to argue with you in all seriousness. In that case you may kindly let me know your definite view points relevantly so that I may try to reply these points one by one. And should you desire to argue with me, then my only request to you will be that for all such arguments we must be always very sincere and serious. Once we are convinced in that way, we must be prepared to act accordingly. You may also argue that if there is any God at all, let Him be peacefully at His pleasure at any place He likes and we have no business with Him whatsoever. In that case I shall again say that you have every business with Him by re-establishing your forgotten eternal relation with Him. Suppose you are a rich man's son and you have left your home, forgetting your father's property, home and happiness. And if some body gives you information about your paternal property of immense value which you can inherit by your birthright claim, will you neglect that friend? I am sure you will not. I am able to give you such important information. I can challenge you that you are not happy in the present set up of your affairs. You may have in your possession your so called accumulated material wealth, health or happiness but still you are always feeling some insufficiency and frustration and thus you are not happy as you ought to have been. If you do not feel like this, then you must be either an abnormal man or a liberated saint or in gross ignorance of lower consciousness. Should you feel yourself abnormally happy, I shall ask you the following plain questions. They are as follows: 1) Do you like to die? 2) Do you like to take your birth again? 3) Do you like to be an old man? 4) Do you like to be a diseased man? I am sure you shall reply to all these questions by saying the only word "No." If you think yourself happy then have you solved all the above problems in any way? Have your vast resources of material knowledge helped you in solving these seemingly common but very big problems? Do you think that you shall ever be able to solve the above problems at any length of time? If you say so, I shall again call you in abnormal condition. So do not become a madman in false conviction. Do not remain in ignorance for your problems. Be just like a fully developed conscious man and acknowledge that you have never been happy in the true sense of the term neither your ideal of happiness has ever been fulfilled. The way in which you are seeking to be happy or trying to make others happy in your manufactured ideology--is called "Maya" or illusion. By such illusory way of making yourself and others happy, you have simply been credited with creation of much disturbances and entanglement for all concerned. That is the record of history of the material world. Empire may come and empire may go, the problems of life remains the same. Please therefore be cool headed and patiently ask within yourself if you are really happy. The happiness which you are hankering after is possible to be attained as soon as you learn to introspect yourself within yourself. You are yourself your friend and you are yourself your enemy. You can raise yourself by your self effort and you can down yourself by the same effort. It is simply to know the direction and the way. In the right direction you can make yourself happy in the right way. Please therefore contact us and we shall help you to raise youself to your normal happiness. It is no dream neither any bluff. You shall know yourself how far you have made progress in that path and our duty will be to help you only. Thinking that you shall be a prospective member of our League of Devotees, I am sending you herewith a copy of the Prospectus and I wish most sincerely that you should become an active member of this great institution. Pay or pay not you can become a member without obligation and the League welcomes you always accepting you as the Divine child. Yours Sincerely, For the League of Devotees, Abhay Charanarvinda Bhaktivedanta Secretary. letters | 04:49 | 24.5.09 1958: August 26 Bombay Sri Jugalkishore Birla, Birla House, Albukark Road, New Delhi. Dear Sir, Please accept my respectful greetings. I beg to inform you that it is a matter of great satisfaction for us especially and for all generally that your honour is very sincerely anxious to preach the universal truth of Bhagavad-gita all over the world. We know it also that you have spent much of you valuable energies for this purpose but so far it has not been to your satisfaction. The purpose of the Bhagavad-gita can be preached only when it is taken up by real devotees of Krishna the Personality of Godhead. One of the real devotees of Krishna was Arjuna during the appearance of Lord Krishna and as such the parampara of the Bhagavad-gita, which was broken prior to the occurrence of the battle of Kuruksetra, was reestablished at the battlefield and Arjuna was authorized to understand the purpose of the Bhagavad-gita. We should not miss this important point if we are serious about preaching the gospel of the transcendental literature. As such it is understood in the beginning that one who does not follow the foot prints of Arjuna, cannot enter into the mystery of the Bhagavad-gita and therefore nobody can preach the gospel of Geeta without knowing its mystery. There are thousands and one scholars in India and abroad but very few of them have followed the foot prints of Arjuna except the Vaisnava Acaryas such Sri Ramanuja, Sri Madhya, Lord Caitanya, Sridhara Swami, Madhusudana Sarasvati, Vishvanatha Cakravarti, Baladeva Vidyabhusana, etc. and many others who have followed the bonafide Acaryas. The League of Devotees, is registered to train preachers and missionary workers for preaching the pure cult of the Bhagavad-gita not only in India but also throughout the whole world--exactly on the line of the bonafide Acaryas as it is recommended in the very Bhagavad-gita. And that is the right way to successful preaching of this Universal Truth for the benefit of all without any distinction of caste creed color or nationality. Every one is open to approach the Personality of Godhead Krishna not only from the species of the human kind but also from the species of life other than the human kind. This is clearly stated in the Bhagavad-gita. So far the system of Varnasrama is concerned it is no one's monopoly business and any qualified man can be classed in the Varna and Ashram as it is described in the Bhagavad-gita. The cult of Hinduism or the system of Varnasrama are not being utilized in the spirit of the Bhagavad-gita and as such the abovementioned cult is waning day by day. We should take serious note of this kind of deterioration of the Arya Hindu Dharma and shall request you to come forward to help this institution determined to preach the pure cult of the Bhagavad-gita. You should not allow anymore the gross misuse of the cult of Sanatana Dharma at the risk of world peace and prosperity but come forward forward to co-operate with us in this noble mission and help us with all your strength. I hope you will not misunderstand the position of the Acarya who is so important a figure in the matter of learning the transcendental science. The Acarya is the direct representative of the Personality of Godhead. And no body can claim to become a bonafide Acarya if he has not strictly followed the footprints of the previous Acaryas authorized in the matter. The whole thing has been disturbed in the set of Sanatana Dharma only by violating this principle of following the Acarya. So far the Bhagavad-gita is concerned every one, let him be a very great scholar in the mundane sense, must be in confirmed position along with the mode of understanding of Sri Arjuna. That is the crucial point of testing an Acarya false or real Sri Arjuna is the first man to understand Geeta and the mode of his understanding is clearly defined in the Bhagavad-gita. So there is no difficulty in testing an Acarya whether he is false or bonafide. Our determination is to preach the Bhagavad-gita strictly on that parampara system as it is recommended in the Bhagavad-gita. In the last portion of the Bhagavad-gita the necessary qualification of understanding the Bhagavad-gita is clearly stated. According to this formula of qualification one who does not accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead--is unable to understand the Bhagavad-gita. Such devotees of Krishna are actually Mahatma. Such Mahatmas are very rare. They are seen always engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord especially in the preaching work of the Lord's glories in His different energies namely the material as well as the spiritual which are described in the Bhagavad-gita as the Para and the Apara Prakrtis. These Mahatmas are always anxious to preach the universal message of peace mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita and it does not matter in whatsoever Ashram he belongs to. Arjuna was a householder Ksatriya and was fighting for the interest of the Lord and as such he was the first Acarya in the parampara line. Arta, Artharthi, Jnani and Jijnasu are the beginners in the line of understanding the Geeta. The Mahatmas are above all these four classes of men and they are the post graduate men in the line. We know also the Ashuras who are divided into four classes namely the Duskrtinas, the Mudhas, the Naradhamas and the Foolish scholars. In order to preach the Bhagavad-gita we have to create the Mahatmas and not the Foolish Scholars who have unauthorizedly taken up the Bhagavad-gita without following the parampara line. That is an important point. Please therefore join this League of Devotees and try to preach the Bhagavad-gita through the bonafide Mahatmas. Any one who follows strictly the footprints of Sri Arjuna is certainly a Mahatma. It does not mean that a red-dressed man is a Mahatma and a noble householder like your good self is otherwise. We can find out Mahatmas like Arjuna in the householder life also and in this age of Kali we should find out More Mahatmas in the householders life than in the other camp. We are struggling very hard to give the mission a practical shape for want of money. It has not yet come to the point save and except publication of two papers only one in Hindi and the other in English. And if your good self joins, many other richmen of the world will certainly join. The minimum expenditure is estimated to be Rs.3000.- a month to begin with. Three hundred members of this noble mission can at once raise this sum for training the preachers and other necessary expenditure. Please therefore come forward and become the headman of this League. See that the money is properly being utilized and see the result also side by side. I am sure you will be encouraged to take interest in this missionary work more and more by the practical result of the work. Awaiting your early reply and thanking you in anticipation. For the League of Devotees, Yours faithfully, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Founder Secretary. letters | 04:44 | |
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