710121 - Letter to Satsvarupa written from Allahabad

Letters by Date, 1971

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

January 21, 1971

My Dear Satsvarupa,

Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your good wife Jadurani. I am in due receipt of your letter dated 7th January, 1971 along with the enclosed articles, as well as the ISKCON Press newsletter dated 5th January, 1971.

I beg to thank you very much for the magazine interview. You have so rightly said, "It's a hellish life without Krsna." These words of yours have pleased me so much. Actually it is a fact and one who has become so disgusted with material life is actually advanced in Krsna Consciousness. This is first class propaganda and it will be a hammer-blow to the proponents of materialism and atheism. I am so glad that you are feeling and speaking like this and I thank you very much. The article appears to be in a nice magazine, so if you can get further articles and interviews published in the magazines, that will be a great boon to our Movement.

It is nice to hear that the sannyasi staying there is sacrificing his Mayavadi philosophy and willing to accept the regulative principles of devotional service. I have received his letter and will reply it separately.

So far as ISKCON Press moving to N.Y. is concerned, if Advaita feels it will benefit the press, then why not? From your description it appears that Advaita has found a better place and if he is taking on the responsibility of expanding the Press, then he should definitely go there. For technical matters, let Advaita go on working independently. He is certainly competent. So far as decision making regarding contents of publications, etc., that can be done conjointly.

It appears from the press report that progress is going on with Gita and 2nd Canto, but slowly. It will be nice if you please accelerate it.

In answer to the artists questions:

1) Simply paint the Visnu Murti in the heart. You can make the individual soul a very small spark, or spark-like.

2) Visnu has more than thousands of arms but for this picture of the tortoise avatara. where Visnu is sitting on top of the hill, he should be shown with four hands only. We should only paint four-handed Visnus and not consult Kalayana-Kalpataru, which is not always authorized.

3) Yes, if you would like to send the painting of my Guru Maharaja here to India, why not.

4) Yes, Krishna can be shown seated next to Arjuna on the chariot when universal form is displayed.

[PAGE MISSING]