670827 - Letter to Mrinaline written from Vrndavana

Letters by Date, 1967

27 August, 1967

My Dear Mrinaline,

Please accept my blessings. I have your letter of 8.22, and thank you very much for it. I am so glad that you have returned to Krishna. Krishna is kind that He does not let us go, anyone who sincerely takes to Him. And therefore you do not wish to leave Him anymore. This decision will lead you to your eternal life of bliss and knowledge. Certainly in your past life you must have had been a devotee of the Lord, otherwise you wouldn't have felt like becoming a nun at such a young age. Anyone who has a natural tendency for rejecting sense-gratification is considered to be advanced or liberated in spiritual life. Your appreciation of Maya as false and Krishna as the only reality is a great asset. Nobody has ever gained anything by becoming a tool in the hands of Maya, but everyone has become eternally happy by serving Krishna.

The feeling which you had by becoming compassionate to the fallen bum is very good, but the best way to deliver a bum is to revive his dormant Krishna Consciousness. If you can do that then give the bums good food and shelter. If you cannot do that, then simple supplying food and shelter, is serving the Maya. But there is no benefit to serving Maya, as you know, as it is all false, temporary or illusion. We are concerned with Reality, not Maya, and that should be the object of life.

I am very glad to learn that many of my devotees are coming to India. Students who will come here for studying Krishna philosophy as scholar and devotee will have ample opportunity. My god-brother Swami B.H. Bon, has agreed to give them free boarding, lodging and tuition, at least for ten students at a time. So they are welcome. I am also trying for their concession of passage as well as a permanent home in Vrindaban. Let us depend upon the Will of Krishna.

Your letter is certainly full of sense, and a K.C. boy or girl cannot be "nonsense". I am proud to have disciples like you, who think freely, but correct their mistakes by consulting me without any reservation. I am always feeling separation for you all. Let Krishna help us meet again.

Your ever well-wisher

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami