751204 - Letter to Aja written from Vrndavana

Letters by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

December 04, 1975

My Dear Aja Prabhu,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 17, 1975. I am very pleased to note that you are attempting to preach seriously in the schools and colleges. Prahlada Maharaja, a great devotee and authority in our line said, Krishna consciousness should be taught from the beginning of Childhood. The defect of modern education is that the children are taught all nonsense things. They do not receive even the first point of knowledge, that I am pure spirit soul part and parcel of God. Everyone is interested in the body only, which is compared in Bhagavad gita to a dress, "As a person puts on new garments, giving up the old and useless ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones." (BG 2.22) this simple fact they have yet to learn. So if you can teach them just this one point it will be a great success, because this is the basic platform of advancing in spiritual understanding. If we want to read and write, then it is essential to learn first of all A, B, C's.

Whatever knowledge they have got now is on the platform of this body, which is a lump of matter only, there is no knowledge of the soul which is entrapped within the lump of matter, and so people are suffering because of ignorance of this simple point. So try to enlighten them on this point and make them happy, that will please me and krishna, and thus you will become perfect yourself.

My blessings to Sivananda Prabhu, he is a good boy, he singlehandedly started the European movement. I hope this letter finds you well.

Your ever well wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami