710226 - Letter to Satsvarupa written from Gorakhpur

Letters by Date, 1971

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
CENTER: ISKCON: Akash-Ganga Bldg, 7th Floor
89 Bhulabhai Desai Road
Bombay-26, INDIA

DATE .......February..26th,......19.71..

My Dear Satsvarupa,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 29th January, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. I am so glad to hear that you have just returned from a successful touring of the temples in Southern U.S.A. and had an occasion to meet and speak with our sannyasis also. The sannyasis are trying their best. So let them go on as they have been doing and let them do in their own way. There is no trouble.
So far as my translating of the rest of Srimad Bhagavatam is concerned, that is my next program. After returning from India I shall be seriously engaged in translating work. I shall continue as before and shall record two tapes daily. Time is short and I am aging but I want to publish all of Srimad Bhagawatam and as you are doing now. Publishing Srimad Bhagavatam chapter-wise is very nice and it should be continued and as soon as all the chapters of a canto are finished, we make it into a book, either in Japan or U.S.A. as is suitable. But my only request to you all is that the two tapes, regularly sent every day must be finished being transcribed, edited, composed, layed out and printed all in one week. In this way two tapes daily must be ready for printing. Then it will be nice. So far I am concerned, although I am getting old, I guarantee I shall give you two tapes daily provided you guarantee to finish printing two tapes daily. That will encourage me more and more.
So far as securing $50.00 for each initiation into Hare Krishna Mantra, that is not compulsory. The system is that after initiation, each devotee should collect some alms to the best of his capacity either cash or something else and make a presentation to the Spiritual Master. This is called daksina. Without daksina the initiation ceremony is not perfect. The collection of alms is not necessarily to be $50. It may be $500.00 or $5.00; it doesn't matter. It depends on the capacity of the initiated person. But he should try and collect to the best of his capacity and try to collect and give to the Spiritual Master.
I have given further instruction to Gargamuni Maharaj concerning the Pakistan affair today. A copy of that letter is enclosed herein. So far as your being replaced as President of Boston temple, I have no objection. For better management of the whole institution, the governing body commission is responsible. So I shall be simply pleased to see that things are going on very nicely.