770316 - Letter to Subhavilasa written from Mayapur

Letters by Date, 1977

Tridandi Goswami
A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for Krishna Conciousness
CENTER Sree Mayapur Chandradoya Mandir,
P.O. Sreedham Mayapur,
Dist. Nadia, West Bengal, India

DATE ....16th..March,..........19.77..

My dear Subhavilas,

Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your good wife Ashalata, and to your very nice children, Minakshi and Indresh. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 3rd, 1977, with enclosed photos.

The farm you describe sounds nice and if you can supply grains, butter, etc. to Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa as you suggest, it is very good. From the photos it seems that it gets very cold there. Whether the weather will hinder the farming as happened at the Vancouver farm? There they were forced to sell the farm. The farm may be called "Subha Farm". I have already given general guidelines for our other farms.

Whatever is available easily we can use. There is no objection to using electricity. But we should not be dependent upon it. Produce oil from castor seeds and stock the oil sufficiently. It can be used in so many ways—for burning, grease, cooking, and as a purgative to cure all diseases. And oxen can be used for driving carts and go preaching village to village. What is the question of killing them? Here in India our Lokanatha Maharaja has successfully organized such a program and it is a great success. He has traveled all over India and everywhere they distribute books, prasadam and perform kirtana. Each night they stop at a different village. We can introduce many millions of such carts all over the world.

As far as possible try to adjust to a natural way of life free from dependence on machines. But our principle should be that we are against nothing and for nothing. Only for Krishna. We want whatever is favorable for Krishna. From the farms we should get sufficient foodstuffs and these can be sent to be used at our restaurants. Along with the restaurants there can be "Bhaktivedanta Reading Room" where all my books can be kept and people can come and sit comfortably and read. The people will like these restaurants and reading rooms. They will take them as non-sectarian.

Why should anyone work at a place where meat is served? Are there no other jobs? There is never any good reason for this. There is no unusual circumstance for eating where meat is served. Such places should be avoided altogether.

So far my coming to North America this year, that I cannot say yet.

I hope this meets you and all your family well.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Sriman Subavilas Adhikary
(Subash C. Batra)
Oner Veery Place
Don Mills,Ontario
Canada M3C2C9

ACBS/tkg