690903 - Letter to Gopala Krishna written from Hamburg

Letters by Date, 1969

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

September 3rd, 1969

My Dear Gopal Krishna das,

Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated August 30th, 1969 with enclosure of your money order check for one hundred dollars Canadian. Another check for fifty-five dollars for my book fund was not enclosed. I think you are sending it by separate mail. If you have not sent it as yet, you can deposit it in The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce at Sherbrooke and Aylmer Branch. I have got a savings account there under A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. You can find out the number from the teller, deposit there, and send me the receipt. I am so glad to read the portion of your letter where you say "I would have continued to live in ignorance and darkness, thinking I would have known how to approach God." At the present moment, the modern education has taught everyone either not to think of God or everyone can think of God in his own way. The result is people have become Godless atheists. So to approach a bona fide Spiritual Master and to understand the science of God from him is the Vedic way of understanding. Even Lord Krishna, Lord Chaitanya, and what to speak of other acaryas, all of them accepted a Spiritual Master, even if some of them were incarnations of God. The Vedic way of receiving knowledge is called avaroha, against aroha . Aroha means to try to understand God by one's own effort, and avaroha means to understand God by disciplic succession. Therefore we find in Vedic instruction that one must approach a bonafide Spiritual Master to learn that transcendental subject.

I thank you very much for your solemn assurance that you shall try to follow my teachings throughout your life. It is very encouraging. Regarding dress, I have already written to you that you can dress as smartly as possible to deal with the public, and dress is immaterial in Krishna Consciousness. Consciousness is within. I am a sannyasi, but if some important work requires I dress myself just like a smart gentleman, I would immediately accept it. So it is not a problem. Acyutananda Prabhu is in correspondence with Gargamuni, and I have already sent one trial order to the Bina Musical Instrument Company in India, of which you have sent me a catalog. I don't think your Montreal center will require many musical instruments, so you may not send order separately.

Regarding Murtis, you will have to prepare a nice altar and throne. The LA temple has done it very nicely, and I am sending herewith the specific design in picture. So your next business will be to construct a throne and altar, and as soon as they are ready, the Deities will also be received, and maybe I shall go and install Them. But when the Deities are installed in the temple, you have to take personal care. Deity worship is very regulative. You have to follow the regulative principles very rigidly. I shall be glad to know how many initiated members are there in Montreal, so I can chalk out the program for Radha-Krishna Deity worship there.

Regarding Scindia Navigation, correspondence will not be fruitful, but if somebody sees Srimati Sumatee Morarji personally, then it will be at once done. By correspondence the underhand clerks and secretaries do not sometimes like the proposal. That is the envious nature of the human being in conditioned state. Regarding your correspondence with the leading men in India, I don't think it will be very much fruitful. Personally I have no faith in them, but if you decide to open correspondence with them, I have no objection. But my personal opinion is not very hopeful. I thank you very much for your submissive mentality, and as it is stated in the Bible that God is for the humble and meek, similarly, Vaisnavas are taught by Lord Chaitanya to become humbler than the grass and more tolerant than the tree. Thus one can seriously execute progress in Krishna Consciousness.

I hope this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami