Srila Prabhupada's letters

[Guruvani]

 

I don't agree with `people who say that the disciple is not qualified to hear the truth so Sp gives him a fairytale o whatever you want to call it.

 

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.28.65 purport,

 

 

those who are not interested in hearing directly about the activities of the Lord, or who cannot understand them, can very effectively hear such stories and fables as this one narrated by Nārada Muni.

Maybe Srila Prabhupada just didn't think his neophyte disciples were ready or willing to accept the more complex explanations of the shastra, so he told them something like a fairytale because they didn't appear eligible to accept the more complicated explanations in shastra.

[Guruvani]

 

I trust the MATH in equal proportion.

You don't have enough understanding or information about THE MATH to be jumping to any conclusions.

You are making your judgement based on hearsay.

You are in NO position to pass judgement on the THE MATH as you have no first hand experience to corroborate your opinion.

 

You have jumped to conclusions based upon bad information from misinformed and misguided people.

[sevabhakta]

Letters Shmetters, use your discrimination, be swanlike and strain the milk from the water, and then take some gold from a dirty place. Hari Bol

[suchandra]

 

Letters Shmetters, use your discrimination, be swanlike and strain the milk from the water, and then take some gold from a dirty place. Hari Bol

Thanks Sevabhakta prabhu - this makes full sense, you mean to say if the forum can be brought back to live?

[Guruvani]

I just wonder if in 200 years from now the letters of Srila Prabhupada will have any relevance.

Eventually, time and tide will take the movement of Mahaprabhu so far beyond the letters of Srila Prabhupada that looking at them will be like reading the writings on the wall of a cave.

 

Many gurus will come and go in the next 200 years and eventually Srila Prabhupada will just be seen as one of the old acharyas whose time has passed.

No?

 

Can the ISKCON society maintain it's monopoly forever.

They lost it in 1977.

It's a free-for-all of Vaishnavism now and Srila Prabhupada is rapidly becoming a historical figure who was dated by the letters he wrote.

 

[mahak]

 

Really I dont know why some people doens't accept Srila Prabhupada's letters, because this is the basic plataform between the guru and disciple relationship. The disciple ask intelligent question and the Guru response them, this is the essencial part of this relationship. I don't agree with `people who say that the disciple is not qualified to hear the truth so Sp gives him a fairytale o whatever you want to call it.

 

The point I have tried to make is that Srila Prabhupada may very well have a different relationship with my godbrother than he does with me, so what he says to him may be pertenent, but may not be as well. Again, if its all about submissive inquiry and answers by citing the Lords Version, then lets have the submissive inquiry as well. Otherwise, without knowing the circumstance of the communication exchange, it is all out of context, like the cut and paste preachers, who, like the proverbial devil, use scripture to verify their lies.

 

So, Im the temple treasurer, and my job is to pick up the mail. The local sanyassi has a letter from prabhupada. Hes my guru, can I open the letter? Not if I value my spiritual life.

 

There is nothing in any letter of his that is not fully covered in His books. No extra instruction. To feel a void, that one needs more than his books, this is unfortunate. The problem I think of is interference in guru-disciple relationship. Yes he is my master, but he is also my godbrothers master, and we are not one, we are very different, different perspective, different grasp on His teachings. Maybe he needs more basic stuff, maybe he is told secrets that pertain only to his devotional life, but I am me, He is he, and we are individually seeking guidance from the spiritual master.

 

Again, I agree that the letters are perhaps treasures, but discernment is very essential, and knowing the circumstance of the communication is more than essential, it is life and death, becauswe interference in guru=-disciple relationships is quite suicidal.

 

Hare Krsna, ys, mahaksadasa

 

PS Also, the only thing prabhupada ever said about letters from guru to disciple are negative comments about the recipient's use of such letters to support their bogus claims of authority. He even said such letters were the reason that the GM got stalled for so long on the guru tattwa issue. That said, I like his letters much better than forgeries by bold and ambitious disciples who made directives and got signatures affixed.

[Guruvani]

 

I like his letters much better than forgeries by bold and ambitious disciples who made directives and got signatures affixed.

 

And flying pigs migrate to Michigan for the summer.

[mahak]

cmon, GV, you are supposed to help me break my attachment to good tunes, now you got me floyding again, "after all, were just pigs on the wing". Now I gotta go you-tube this great song:eek4:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T30cQgHoRE&feature=related

 

and

 

 

and (cannot floyd without this one)

 

[Guruvani]

1947: October 21 Calcutta

 

The Proprietor,

Aska Distillery,

Aska.

 

Dear Sir,

 

We have decided to open a branch manufactory of our above laboratory in a suitable locality of Berhampur. We are arranging to approach the local excise authorities to grant us permit for possessing and using rectified spirit for medicinal purposes. But before we do anything finally as would like to enquire from your good self whether it is possible to get sufficient quantity of rectified spirit from your distillery.

 

The bearer of this letter is a messenger on our behalf and we shall be thankful if you will kindly let us know the following points per bearer.

 

1. Whether rectified spirit is obtainable from you at the rate of 100 gallons per month.

2. Whether you distill rectified spirit throughout the whole year.

3. Your usual strength of rectified spirit.

 

Yours faithfully,

For Vimaltone Laboratories Ltd.

Abhay Charan De in chief.

[Guruvani]

1952: September 26 Allahabad

 

My Dear Ramakrishna,

 

In reply to Srimati Suluxmona's letter, I am sending herewith one letter for her which may be delivered to her.

 

I came here to improve my lot but I see that my bad luck is impossible to be improved. For the last two years approximately I have met expenses from this business to the extent of Rs 600.- month. Calcutta, Allahabad, Ranchi High Court & Ry Journey altogether five different items of expenses have been so far met. But all of a sudden my sister opponent firms have designed to remove me from this place.

 

By their trick the Drug Controller has suspended my business for the last one and a half month with the result that about Rs 1000.- has been locked up & sealed and I have been put to shame by my servants. I require immediately Rs 300.- to meet the establishment charges without which I am much humiliated.

 

I am trying my level best to reopen the business but still it will take minimum one week to come to the normal condition. I am awfully stranded and put to much shame. Will you kindly help me as you have done so many times? As a son has no shame to ask his father, so I feel no shame for it because there is no other help at the present moment.

 

If you can, please do send me T.M.O. for Rs 300.- & save my prestige & honour. I expect to return you this sum after a fort night. As soon as my business is opened I shall at once get back Rs 1000.-.

 

May God bless you.

 

Yours affectionately

Father-in-law.

 

N.B. I shall expect your T.M.O. by Monday next or latest Tuesday next.

ACD

[Guruvani]

1955: October 5 New Delhi

 

My Dear Sripada Gosvami Maharaja,

 

Kindly accept my humble and respectful dandabats. I am in due receipt of your letter of the __ __ while you're staying at Howrah Gaudiya Math. I hope by the time this letter reaches your hand you might have come back to calcutta.

 

I was anxiously awaiting your articles for October. Today is the 5th and I thought that by the 15th of this month the paper might be be out. So please send the articles per return of post and oblige. I have noted your instruction for reviewing Netaidas Brahmacari's book. The other book is not available from Sri Kesavanadaji.

 

I am glad that you have purchased one model No 16 Remington Typewriter and I think you have done right in doing so. To conduct the Sajjan Tosani Patrika it is absolutely necessary. This typewriter is to be returned today because the period of one month expires today and as you are bringing very soon the purchased one, I shall return it today with out further rental expenses.

 

I wish to see this paper just to the standard of "Illustrated Weekly" with numerous pictures in order to make it a very popular literature and for this I wish to move myself to secure rs as well as advertisers. I wish to visit good businessmen, insurance companies and Govt. officers in this connection. But I have no proper dress at all. I want two set of good dresses in order to take up this reponsibility and I shall be glad to have you decision on this matter. It is my heart's desire that this paper is improved to the highest elevation.

 

I am glad that Sripada Sridhara Maharaja has advised you to purchase a land at Mayapur. Yes we we must have a temple at Mayapur. If every one of us possess a temple there, the importance of Sridhama Mayapur will automatically increase and we must have this ideal in view always. I am also glad to learn that you are securing some good land on long lease from the Port commissioners for our Howrah Math. Howrah is a good place for preaching our cult and it behoves that we have a decent Math there.

 

Akincana Maharaja has received your cheque for Rs400.- and he is preparing to start for Jaipur as early as possible.

 

Awaiting your early reply.

 

Yours affectionately,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta

 

N.B. Some non-Bengali gentlemen are demanding my Hindi edition of Caitanya Caritamrta. They are prepared to pay any price for this (Rs 32. or Rs 25.- ) your Holiness has already seen the manuscript. I wish to get it out part by part. The first part will cost near about Rs 600.-. If this part is sold out, The other parts will automatically come out. I would request you to invest this initial Rs 600.- for this purpose under any arrangement you like. I shall be glad to receive your reply on this point. I hope you will give this starting & oblige. ACB.

[suchandra]

 

By their trick the Drug Controller has suspended my business

 

 

 

 

 

But this kind of so called material track you can also find out when Krishna Himself appears on earth.

 

".....Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be, but getting mad to find proof that there's karmic activity in My eternal lilas.............."

 

Could be that therefore Prabhupada made such a long purport,

 

PURPORT

From the other explanations of the previous verses in this chapter, it is clear that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although appearing like a human being, is not a common man. The Personality of Godhead, who conducts the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the complete cosmic manifestation, cannot be a human being. Yet there are many foolish men who consider Kṛṣṇa to be merely a powerful man and nothing more. Actually, He is the original Supreme Personality, as is confirmed in the Brahma-saḿhitā (īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ); He is the Supreme Lord.

There are many īśvaras, controllers, and one appears greater than another. In the ordinary management of affairs in the material world, we find some official or director, and above him there is a secretary, and above him a minister, and above him a president. Each of them is a controller, but one is controlled by another. In the Brahma-saḿhitā it is said that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme controller; there are many controllers undoubtedly, both in the material and spiritual world, but Kṛṣṇa is the supreme controller (īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ). and His body is sac-cid-ānanda, nonmaterial.

Material bodies cannot perform the wonderful acts described in previous verses. His body is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge. Although He is not a common man, the foolish deride Him and consider Him to be a man. His body is called here mānuṣīm because He is acting just like a man, a friend of Arjuna's, a politician involved in the Battle of Kurukṣetra. In so many ways He is acting just like an ordinary man, but actually His body is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1] — eternal bliss and knowledge absolute. This is confirmed in the Vedic language also. Sac-cid-ānanda-rūpāya kṛṣṇāya: "I offer my obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, who is the eternal blissful form of knowledge." (Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad 1.1) There are other descriptions in the Vedic language also. Tam ekaḿ govindam: "You are Govinda, the pleasure of the senses and the cows." Sac-cid-ānanda-vigraham: "And Your form is transcendental, full of knowledge, bliss and eternality." (Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad 1.35)

Despite the transcendental qualities of Lord Kṛṣṇa's body, its full bliss and knowledge, there are many so-called scholars and commentators of Bhagavad-gītā who deride Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary man. The scholar may be born an extraordinary man due to his previous good work, but this conception of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is due to a poor fund of knowledge. Therefore he is called mūḍha. for only foolish persons consider Kṛṣṇa to be an ordinary human being. The foolish consider Kṛṣṇa an ordinary human being because they do not know the confidential activities of the Supreme Lord and His different energies. They do not know that Kṛṣṇa's body is a symbol of complete knowledge and bliss, that He is the proprietor of everything that be and that He can award liberation to anyone. Because they do not know that Kṛṣṇa has so many transcendental qualifications, they deride Him.

Nor do they know that the appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in this material world is a manifestation of His internal energy. He is the master of the material energy. As has been explained in several places (mama māyā duratyayā), He claims that the material energy, although very powerful, is under His control, and whoever surrenders unto Him can get out of the control of this material energy. If a soul surrendered to Kṛṣṇa can get out of the influence of material energy, then how can the Supreme Lord, who conducts the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the whole cosmic nature, have a material body like us? So this conception of Kṛṣṇa is complete foolishness. Foolish persons, however, cannot conceive that the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, appearing just like an ordinary man, can be the controller of all the atoms and of the gigantic manifestation of the universal form. The biggest and the minutest are beyond their conception, so they cannot imagine that a form like that of a human being can simultaneously control the infinite and the minute. Actually although He is controlling the infinite and the finite, He is apart from all this manifestation. It is clearly stated concerning His yogam aiśvaram, His inconceivable transcendental energy, that He can control the infinite and the finite simultaneously and that He can remain aloof from them. Although the foolish cannot imagine how Kṛṣṇa, who appears just like a human being, can control the infinite and the finite, those who are pure devotees accept this, for they know that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore they completely surrender unto Him and engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service of the Lord.

There are many controversies between the impersonalists and the personalists about the Lord's appearance as a human being. But if we consult Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the authoritative texts for understanding the science of Kṛṣṇa, then we can understand that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is not an ordinary man, although He appeared on this earth as an ordinary human. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, First Canto, First Chapter, when the sages headed by Śaunaka inquired about the activities of Kṛṣṇa, they said:

kṛtavān kila karmāṇi

saha rāmeṇa keśavaḥ

ati-martyāni bhagavān

gūḍhaḥ kapaṭa-māṇuṣaḥ

"Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, along with Balarāma, played like a human being, and so masked He performed many superhuman acts." (Bhāg. 1.1.20) The Lord's appearance as a man bewilders the foolish. No human being could perform the wonderful acts that Kṛṣṇa performed while He was present on this earth. When Kṛṣṇa appeared before His father and mother, Vasudeva and Devakī, He appeared with four hands, but after the prayers of the parents He transformed Himself into an ordinary child. As stated in the Bhāgavatam (10.3.46), babhūva prākṛtaḥ śiśuḥ: He became just like an ordinary child, an ordinary human being. Now, here again it is indicated that the Lord's appearance as an ordinary human being is one of the features of His transcendental body. In the Eleventh Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā also it is stated that Arjuna prayed to see Kṛṣṇa's form of four hands (tenaiva rūpeṇa catur-bhujena). After revealing this form, Kṛṣṇa, when petitioned by Arjuna, again assumed His original humanlike form (mānuṣaḿ rūpam). These different features of the Supreme Lord are certainly not those of an ordinary human being.

Some of those who deride Kṛṣṇa and who are infected with the Māyāvādī philosophy quote the following verse from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (3.29.21) to prove that Kṛṣṇa is just an ordinary man. Ahaḿ sarveṣu bhūteṣu bhūtātmāvasthitaḥ sadā: "The Supreme is present in every living entity." We should better take note of this particular verse from the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas like Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura instead of following the interpretation of unauthorized persons who deride Kṛṣṇa. Jīva Gosvāmī, commenting on this verse, says that Kṛṣṇa, in His plenary expansion as Paramātmā, is situated in the moving and the nonmoving entities as the Supersoul, so any neophyte devotee who simply gives his attention to the arcā-mūrti, the form of the Supreme Lord in the temple, and does not respect other living entities is uselessly worshiping the form of the Lord in the temple. There are three kinds of devotees of the Lord, and the neophyte is in the lowest stage. The neophyte devotee gives more attention to the Deity in the temple than to other devotees, so Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura warns that this sort of mentality should be corrected. A devotee should see that because Kṛṣṇa is present in everyone's heart as Paramātmā, every body is the embodiment or the temple of the Supreme Lord; so as one offers respect to the temple of the Lord, he should similarly properly respect each and every body in which the Paramātmā dwells. Everyone should therefore be given proper respect and should not be neglected.

There are also many impersonalists who deride temple worship. They say that since God is everywhere, why should one restrict himself to temple worship? But if God is everywhere, is He not in the temple or in the Deity? Although the personalist and the impersonalist will fight with one another perpetually, a perfect devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness knows that although Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality, He is all-pervading, as confirmed in the Brahma-saḿhitā. Although His personal abode is Goloka Vṛndāvana and He is always staying there, by His different manifestations of energy and by His plenary expansion He is present everywhere in all parts of the material and spiritual creation.

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[Guruvani]

The reason that I posted the above letters above is to show how ridiculous and pathetic the LETTERVADIS can get that they have even probed into the private life of Srila Prabhupada as a grihasta having financial problems and begging his father-in-law for money to say afloat.

 

This is where the lettervadi approach ends up.

It is a disgrace and a shameless probing into the past.

[suchandra]

 

The reason that I posted the above letters above is to show how ridiculous and pathetic the LETTERVADIS can get that they have even probed into the private life of Srila Prabhupada as a grihasta having financial problems and begging his father-in-law for money to say afloat.

 

This is where the lettervadi approach ends up.

It is a disgrace and a shameless probing into the past.

 

Well that's correct, these letters shouldn't have been published.

[Guruvani]

 

Well that's correct, these letters shouldn't have been published.

There are many letters that should never have been published.

Letters and their contents have the option to be nullified or revised.

Letters can and DO give people the wrong impression.

 

Srila Prabhupada authorized and instructed to read his books.

The lettervadis are misguided and most often misleading.

[suchandra]

 

There are many letters that should never have been published.

Letters and their contents have the option to be nullified or revised.

Letters can and DO give people the wrong impression.

 

Srila Prabhupada authorized and instructed to read his books.

The lettervadis are misguided and most often misleading.

But the lettervadis will argue that it takes two to have the situation like right now - one who wrote the letters and those who might overestimate the importance of these letters.

Prabhupada surely wrote many letters. This could have caused the permanent impression that these letters are of great importance?