710424 - Letter to Jaya Jagadisa written from Bombay

Letters by Date, 1971

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
CENTER: P.O. Box 387, Fort,
Bombay-1, India
(89 Warden Road, Akash- Ganga
Bombay-26, India) DATE....24th.April...................19..71..

My Dear Jaya Jagadisa,
Please accept my blessings. I was glad to see your letter addressed to Sriman Gurudas and Srimati Yamunadevi regarding your recommendation for initiation by Mukunda Prabhu. I have decided to accept you immediately as my initiated disciple as you have requested and I have enclosed your set of beads herewith as well.
I have duly chanted your beads and given you the spiritual name Jaya Jagadisa Das Brahmacary. I am very pleased by your humble attitude, so if you will kindly continue to execute your devotional practices in such state of mind then you are sure to achieve perfection of Krsna consciousness very quickly as it is stated by Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His third verse of Siksastakam, "In such humble state of mind one can chant the Holy Names of the Lord all day long."
Please regularly chant the Hare Krsna Mahamantra sixteen rounds daily and follow the regulative principles faithfully. By observing the four restrictions and avoiding the ten offenses to the Holy Name (i.e. blaspheming the Lord's devotee, considering the Lord and the demigods as being on the same level, neglecting the orders of the Spiritual Master, minimizing the authority of the sastras, interpreting the Holy Name of God, committing sins on the strength of chanting, instructing the glories of the Lord to the unfaithful, equating the chanting of the Holy Names with material piety, inattention while chanting of the Holy Name and maintaining attachment to material things while engaged in chanting the Holy Names) you will become qualified to receive the mercy of the Lord and thus advance yourself in His transcendental loving service, which is the perfect stage of transcendental life of bhaktirasa life. When one is factually experiencing existence of pure spiritual service to Krsna, he enjoys fullness of eternal life full of bliss and knowledge. So one should always strive for this end and thus be released from the grips of material happiness and miseries which characterize the conditional, mundane life within the temporary cosmic manifestations.
Hope this will meet you in very good health.
Your ever well-wisher,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS:ds

Sriman Jaya Jagadisa Dasa Brahmachary (Josh Wagner)
Sri Sri Radha Krsna Temple
7 Bury Place, London W.C.1 [handwritten] U.K.
Tel: 242-0394 [handwritten]