671212 - Letter to Brahmananda written from Calcutta

Letters by Date, 1967

Dec. 12, 1967

My dear Brahmananda,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of Your letter Dec. 2, 1967 with great pleasure. I am so glad to learn that we are receiving orders for our records from far distant places. It is all Krishna's mercy. You will be pleased to know that I have purchased my ticket for New York via Tokyo and San Francisco. I am starting tomorrow morning at nine-thirty. By evening reaching Tokyo via Bangkok and Hong Kong. I shall rest 24 hours in Tokyo and on the 14th at night, I am starting for San Francisco. By local time I am reaching San Francisco on the same day, the 14th at 12:45 p.m. by P.A.A. 846. Yesterday I have sent one telegram to this effect, and I hope I shall reach there safely as scheduled. I am so glad to learn that Satyabrata and yourself are trying to get the teachings of Lord Chaitanya published. You do not know how pleased I am to hear this news. When one book is published I think I have conquered an empire. So try to publish as many books as possible and that will enhance the beauty and prestige of our society. The Ramakrishna mission has nothing to say substantial but because they have money and have published so many rubbish literatures they have become very cheaply popular. You can just imagine how much powerful our society will become when we have as many substantial literatures published. We should not only publish in English but also in other important languages such as French and German.
I've also noted down your program for European tour. I am very glad that you are preparing the ground work for starting our centers in London, Amsterdam and Berlin. It may be that we can add another in Tokyo. Yes, we must have hundreds of such branches for preaching Krishna Consciousness all over the world. I have already made arrangements for supply of Sarees, incense, musical instruments, Mridangams, kartals, spices, etc. I am also arranging to print 2 volumes of Srimad Bhagawatam in Delhi. Achutananda and Ramanuja are going back to Vrindaban on the 15th after sending me off for San Francisco.
I am already in negotiations with the government of Rajasthan for securing one palace in Vrindavan. This house is perhaps the best house not only in Vrindaban but also it is one of the best palaces in all of India. When you arrive in India you will see it and you will be pleased. I am leaving behind my dictaphone and when you come here you will take it back to me. I quite appreciate your program for contributing $3,000.00 in the matter of publishing Teachings of Lord Chaitanya. Please finish the contract with MacMillan, take $1,000.00 from them, add $1,000.00 from the reserve fund to you, and take $1,000.00 from Satyabrata and get the book published immediately. You should not waste too much time for editing as we have done in the matter of Gita Upanishad. If there is good English it is welcome but we should not edit as Hayagriva has replaced "devotional service" with "knowledge of self". Knowledge of self is not complete until one is actually engaged in devotional service. There are many citizens who have complete sense of national knowledge but out of many of them, one who is engaged in national service like Washington or Gandhi, he becomes the most prominent with national consciousness. Similarly, when one is mature in knowledge of self, he must know what is the duty of the self. The impersonalist due to poor fund of knowledge, forgets of the self. They are much concerned for being freed of all duties which is not possible by the living force. The living force is always dynamic, therefore the living entity cannot stop discharging duties. Real duty begins in Krishna Consciousness. The impersonalist cannot accommodate such spiritual activities of devotional service therefore they are satisfied only by so-called knowledge of self. I shall expect your reply in San Francisco. With Blessings for all your God-brothers and sisters, I am [text missing]

Your ever well-wisher

A.C. Bhaktivedanta, Swami

Brahmananda das Brahmacary
26 Second Ave
New York City 10003
United States of America

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
518 Frederick Street
San Francisco, Calif. 94117
USA