720100 - Letter to Svati written from India
January 1972.
My dear Svati dasi,
Please accept my blessings. I have duly received your letter undated and have noted the contents carefully.
Best way to maintain enthusiasm is by regular chanting with the devotees together in the temple and by having festivals. So you should immediately have one festival then everyone will be busily engaged. There are so many festivals that I can give you one for every day.
Regarding your other questions: Children may be recommended for initiation when they are twelve years old. We should avoid as far as possible any physical punishment to train children. It is better to use sweet words or if it is absolutely necessary to punish then you may bind with ropes in one place or show the cane, but do not use--like that. I have recently explained to Aniruddha in Dallas school and you may write to him for details. The most important thing however is to see that somehow or other the children are always engaged in some kind of Krsna conscious activity, then they will naturally develop a taste for it and think it great fun even to work very hard for Krsna's pleasure.
So in this way you as mother and father must take responsibility to deliver these nice children and that will be a very great service for Krsna.
Hoping this meets you in good health and happy mood,
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami