690827 - Letter to Hayagriva written from Hamburg

Letters by Date, 1969

A. C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI
INTERNATIONALE GESSELSCHAFT FUR KRISHNA BEWUSSTSEIN
2 Hamburg 19, Eppendorfer Weg 11
West Germany

August 27th, 1969

My Dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. We have safely reached exactly at the scheduled time in Hamburg, and the journey was quite comfortable. Lufthansa is a very respectable airline, and the ladies and gentlemen and stewardesses and hosts were very kind in their treatment. One girl was insisting that we take some food, and when we refused she was very sorry, but she brought us a sufficient supply of fruit. So everything was nice, and I have lectured in the temple on Monday night. Professor Dr. Franz Bernhard, a learned scholar in Indology, was present. We had a long discussion yesterday evening when he came to see me, and he admitted that all his philosophical talks were simply wasting time. He remarked another thing that he had thought of us as hippies because he saw that Ginsberg on the notice board, seemingly like one of our members. From his conversation I understood that people are very badly impressed about Ginsberg, especially respectable persons, on account of his hippy tendencies. I of course supported our case that Ginsberg is a great friend of our society and we advise everyone to chant Hare Krishna, and I believe he also does so. Anyway, we should be very much careful to publish anything in our paper which will give impression to the public that we are inclined to the hippy movement. In our papers nothing should be published which has even a small tinge of hippy ideas. I must tell you in this connection that if you have any sympathies with the hippy movement you should kindly give it up.

Regarding your coming here, it will be very nice. You will have no difficulty to stay with me. We have got two rooms: one occupied by me and one by Purushottam. So you can stay here or in the temple, as you like. In the case which we left behind with Brahmananda you will kindly find the following items and bring them here with you: one Bengali character Bhagavad Gita and Purushottam's copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is.

I hope this will find you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

PS: When you come here, please also bring with you the original manuscripts for Bhagavad Gita As It Is.
Mandali Bhadra will translate into German.[handwritten]