701219 - Letter to Satsvarupa written from Surat

Letters by Date, 1970

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

CAMP: c/o Kailash Seksaria; 74 Marine Drive; Bombay; India
December 19th, 1970

My Dear Satsvarupa,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters dated November 30th, December 3rd and 8th, 1970, along with a correspondence with one E. Michael Kelly. I have read your reply to Mr. Kelly and I find it very nice. Such important persons shall be carefully instructed so they may aid us in spreading Krsna consciousness.
I have seen the layout proposal for the first pages of our new edition of Bhagavad Gita As It Is and it is fully approved by me. I shall immediately write one preface to the enlarged edition as you have requested and send it as soon as possible. I have written to Karandhar that the money for printing according to Advaita's estimate of $17,000 should be realized from London. London book sales have nothing to do with my book fund. They have got 2,500 copies of KRSNA or in other words $20,000 worth of books, so they can send $17,000 for printing of Bhagavad Gita, immediately. It is a good proposal to print 10,000 copies; 5,000 for India and 5,000 for U.S.A.
I am very much pleased with the two latest chapters from Srimad Bhagavatam--The Process of Creation and The Cause of all Causes. They are so much satisfactory and I am very eager that they should be produced by ISKCON Press at a regular pace.
I have written one letter to Advaita requesting him to take up his duty again unflinchingly and print our books especially the enlarged edition of Bhagavad Gita at this moment. I have great hopes that our ISKCON Press will continue and expand by the grace of Krsna. I have advised him that he must attend daily classes regularly, but there is no need of his attending other functions like Aratrikas etc. I have given him this special permission in this case, so you also please let him do anything, but let him be always engaged in printing our books and other required literatures. It is my opinion that he should remain as individual manager of ISKCON Press because of his experience and ability in the matter practically. I do not think that you are able to be the manager because you have got too many other very important duties. So the management may be returned to Advaita and the GBC may cooperate in this way for the continued uninterrupted function of our press department.
The pictures on the Srimad Bhagavatam Chapters are very nice. My sincere blessings are to Jadurani and the art department. If our books are printed in this standard, that will be very, very good. I do not aspire to any more efficiency in printing, but simply the printing must go on regularly. Offer my blessings to all the workers of ISKCON Press because that is my life. Next time when I go there, I shall first go to Boston. In future, if we get some nice place, some of the workers may come and start our own press here also.
You may inform Jadurani that the picture she has sent is alright with necessary adjustments. Krsna is of course to be pictured in the same dress in all the scenes of the Kuruksetra delivery of Bhagavad Gita because the episode took place all within about one half hour. Some ideas are: 1) Duryodhana and Dronacarya conferring in a tent just before the battle. 2) A ratha with four horses drawn before the ranks of soldiers and akshouhini carrying Krsna and Arjuna. 3) Arjuna morose; leaving weapons aside he is almost crying. 4) A man pictured dead and also living. Krsna says to Arjuna, "the wise mourn not for the dead or the living." 5) pictures of an individual from babyhood to youthhood, in manhood and in old age and death. The figure of the soul in each different body remains the same indicating that the body changes, not the soul. 6) Krsna instructing the Sun-god; Vivasvan instructing Manu (his son). I will send you more ideas later if required by you.
Hope this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Sriman Satsvarupa Das Adhikary
ISKCON Temple
38 North Beacon Street
Boston, MA, 02134

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
c/o Kailash Seksaria
74 Marine Drive
Bombay-20
India