Letters to the editor

Hare Krsna Maharaj,
    Please accept my humble obeisances.
    All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
 
    Please find my comments in Blue.

    HpS - Jaya!!!!      President Radhe Shyama Das wrote to me and said that he is not familiar with you.   
    I said that you had told me that you were arranging a meeting with him through another devotee.  
    He answered to have you to send a copy of your letter to me to him.      
    So please write to [email protected] with your introduction and petition  for
    initiation.

    Your news of travel and preaching in India is super, super inspiring. We feel we can leave our body
    now in peace knowing that ISKCON is in such good hands!

    Gopal - Sorry Maharaj. I should have been told you in detail about the Pune councilor System
                  (Hierarchy System to reach Temple President).

            Correct, he does not know me.

            There is a hierarchy system to reach Temple authority/Top authority in Pune temple. we can not
            approach Temple President/Top authority directly in Pune.

            Suppose if i have to reach or approach Temple President/Top authority then i have to approach
            my Shiksa guru, he (Shiksa guru) will take me to the Temple President/Top authority.i can not
            approach directly or indirectly (if my shiksa guru are available).

            So in my case, it is true, he (Temple President, Pune) does not know me directly or indirectly. we
            do our all activity under the guidence of Shiksa guru.

            So you have to tell him(Temple President) that i am under the guidence of H G Sri RadhaKunja
           Bihari Das, ISKCON, Pune.then he will inform and call  my shiksa guru H G Sri RadhaKunja Bihari
           Das and will inquire about me then he will meet me with my Shiksa Guru. Then there will be
           question/answer session. and if he satisfy then he will issue letter otherwise i will have to wait
           next 1 and half year for approaching him again.

            So this kind of hierarchy or councilor System available in Pune.

            My local Shiksa Guru H G Sri RadhaKunja Bihari Das, ISKCON, Pune. Other then i know the below
            brahamachari with whom i assoicate.
              
             i. H.G. Gopendra Das (bramachari & Pujari of Sri Krsna-Balaram, Krsna-Balaram Temple,
                 Vrindavan, India)
             ii. H.G. Balaram Hari Das (bramachari, Sri Sri Radhakunj Bihari Temple, Pune, India)
             iii. H.G. Gangapati Nimay Das (bramachari, Sri Sri Radhakunj Bihari Temple, Pune, India)
             iv. H.G. Sri Keshav Das (bramachari, Sri Sri Radhakunj Bihari Temple, Pune, India)

           Please advice me.

Your aspiring servant,
Gopal Biswas

HpS - AGTSP   Your letter is very informative.   We get to learn something about the details of Indian ISKCON big temple function.   It is nice.   O.K.   We write to Radha-Shyama Prabhu.

PAMHO AGTSP!

BG 3.33 - "Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows his nature. What can repression accomplish?…It is better to be situated in one's position and to try to attain Krsna consciousness under superior training. Thus one may be freed from the clutches of maya."

Sometimes Srila Prabhupada would say stuff like this, but, as far as I can see by studying all SP's books lectures and audio I have found that Srila Prabhupada clearly emphasized book distribution over everything else. Even though sometimes he would make statements like the above. So how are we to understand all this???

I often times meet devotees, and I, being a servant of Srila Prabhupada, want to stick to his instructions as close as possible, and naturally as a result feel fired up to talk about the wonderfulness of transcendental book distribution with others. But - most of the time other devotees do not feel that book distribution is the most important service. And it seems that also MOST of the time, it seems that they are simply annoyed by me being fired up about it and cannot relate to me at all due to them being so not fired up, and me being fixed on it. So I feel like they are in maya, and serious illusion, for not being fired up about book distribution. All this depresses me and makes me sad.

What am I supposed to think?

Any way, every time I write to you something you tell me "post it on the blog" so here I am posting it on the blog lets see what happens...

DISCLAIMER - let me make it implicitly clear that I am not, nor do I think I am any type of advanced devotee! Nor am I very fixed up, I am just some dufice that is trying to some-how-or-other do some service for Srila Prabhupada. 

I am just posting this because I am sick of being disgusted by seeing other devotees. I want to be ecstatic when I see other devotees! But how can I when they have no enthusiasm to do sankirtana! and when I tell them about how important it is they basically tell me to go to hell.   

- To have some lazy devotees twiddle some incense in the temple and eat nice overly spicy prasadam with too much chillies in it so it becomes doubtful if even Krishna likes it - is NOT why Srila Prabhupada traveled all over the planet and worked so hard!  

Sankirtana means going out of the temple and preaching through book distribution and Harinama. Not sitting in the temple waiting till sunday when the #$%%^  come and stuff the hundi (donation box), bring some cheap GMO rice, and pull their ears.

I get frustrated that this is the pitiful condition that Srila Prabhupada's movement has come to. and want to be happy and have nice fired up devotees to associate with that also can get the simple fact that Srila Prabhupada wanted us to not sit in the temple on our @#$ and twiddle some incense but get our #$% out on sankirtana!

So what am I to think when people say to me that they do not want to distribute books???

The following list of quotes are just a few I dug up to prove my point, but if necessary, I could give much much more quotes and instances to substantiate that Srila Prabhupada placed book distribution clearly above EVERYTHING else.

(still want me to contribute to this forum?)

it is explicitly directed that one should perform sankirtana-yajna and nothing more.

SB 3.13.36

if a person is not interested in others' welfare, he should be considered to be condemned by the Personality of Godhead 

SB 4.17.26

Preaching is our first-class engagement, including Sankirtana party, selling books, speaking, like that. But if for some reason a devotee is unable to do these things, then I say that they are allowed to live outside and work as a concession. Our service for Krishna is voluntary and can never be forced. And whatever position in life one holds he can serve Krishna in that way. But yourselves being such qualified and experienced preachers, what is the benefit of engaging in the second-class activity when there is so much preaching work to be done?

Letter to: Vamanadeva, Indira  -  Delhi 8 December, 1971

So that is the real preaching, selling books. Who can speak better than the books? At least whoever buys, he will look over. If you have to sell books, do it by hook or by crook. The real preaching is selling books. You should know the tactic how to sell without irritating. What your lecture will do for three minutes, but if he reads one page his life may be turned….the success of your preaching will be substantiated by how many books are sold.

Letter to: Bali-mardana  -  Los Angeles 30 September, 1972

ASA - Jaya!   AGTSP       paoho.       Esteemed, Fired-Up Dufice.       Yes!              Definitely please continue contributing.  Of course you see we erased the following 27-pages of letters that you quoted because we feel that some of your passions are just to  #@$%  to put in print.   Haw!      Haw!      Haw!

Your contribution is super.     Please write more, but because it is a Blog please keep the letters short and then frequent - a dialog rather than a mono-log.

In those parameters we have many things to say but can only say a few.

1)   Basically you seem to be right-on.    So please keep writing.

2)    We spent two intense hours with Vaisesika Das yesterday discussing the Bhakti Sastri, Bhakti-vaibhava courses and his Sankirtana.   He has taken an average ISKCON Temple plagued with the faults you described and now they distribute thousands and thousands of dollars of books.  So, what do you think about you following his example to improve things.

3) What about the citation, "...sell without irritating...", huh?   You didn't highlight that.   Why not become a clever Dufice for Prabhupada than a    @#$%%  Dufice for Prabhupada?

O.K.   Are you still gonna write to the Blog!!?   Haw!    Haw!    Haw!                  Such fun.     Buy 'em.   Stack 'em up where you can see them and get 'em out. 

I

pamho, Maharaja, AGtSP!!

Now am taking advantage of your blog, though prefer the intimate times, such as Nityananda's Appearance day in San Jose, nectarian.

Am grateful for any association, even on-line. Just needed to thank you for tolerating my "Grha-disastah's". Seems in any ashram we have trials and tribulations, then in association with the Vaisnava's our problems seem to minimize. Now am restored to again do battle in this existence with sadhana re-charged, so to speak. Keeping on the path of Bhakti is constant till we're back where we belong, once there our position is permanently secure, until then I'm holdin' d' "Mala'.

While biding our time here is the danger and my main concern. Is there a time where fall downs become impossible ? When does Maya become an ally and not our deviator? And in pursuance, is it not greed for this, that too binds?  Please pardon these un-certain quandries from a puffed up servant, who feels entitilement for their advancement and is over-confident in their practice. I'm sure I'm just waiting to get smashed, but that too can be blissful, it just confirms our relationship with the Supreme. I'll take anything I can get!

Guess the real question is; At what point does devotional service become spontaneous and does it become infallible? ... ( I want it now!! )

your unqualified servant in training,

caitanya caritamrta das, das anu das

pamho, Maharaja, AGtSP!!

Now am taking advantage of your blog, though prefer the intimate times, such as Nityananda's Appearence day in San Jose, nectarian.

Am grateful for any association, even on-line. Just needed to thank you for tolerating my "Grha-disastah's". Seems in any ashram we have trials and tribulations, then in association with the Vaisnava's our problems seem to minimize. Now am restored to again do battle in this existence with sadhana re-charged, so to speak. Keeping on the path of Bhakti is constant till we're back where we belong, once there our position is permanently secure, can't wait!

While biding our time here is the danger and my main concern. Is there a time where fall downs become impossible ? When does Maya become an ally and not our deviator? And in pursuance, is it not greed for this, that too binds?  Please pardon these un-certain quandries from a puffed up servant, who feels entitilement for their advancement and is over-confident in their practice. I'm sure I'm just waiting to get smashed, but that too can be blissful, it just confirms our relationship with the Supreme. I'll take anything I can get!

Guess the real question is; At what point does devotional service become spontaneous and does it become infallible? ... ( I want it now!! )

your unqualified servant in training,

caitanya caritamrta das, das anu das

HpS -  Jaya!    AGTSP    pamho!       So, nice to hear from you.   Really, really nice.   Was so nice to be with your here in San Jose.   This Blog is nice so that the old duffs like us can discuss stuff and the young whipper snappers can see what is ahead of them.

At the level of Bhava there is no posibility of accidental falldown.   Read NOI Text Seven starting with the paragraph, "The conclusion is....".      Even now Maya is our friend.  She is our trainer.   She is not doing anything that is not for our good. She just teaches us externally.   The problem is ALL our negation of Krsna.   As soon as we see all problems from the Witch as good then we are in super lane for more progress, no?

More....

[NOTE:   CCD is from Modesto, California. He is like the 10th devotee we were honored to initiate.   He makes tombstones if you need one.]