710222 - Letter to Jitendriya written from Gorakhpur

Letters by Date, 1971

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

February 22, 1971

ISKCON; Akash-Gnaga Bldg, floor 7;
89 Bhulebhei Desai Rd.
Bombay-26, INDIA

My Dear Jitendriya,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated 14th and 28th January, 1971 respectively, and have noted the contents carefully. Also I've received your check for $15.00 for my maintenance fund and I thank you very much for this. You write to say that simply you want to surrender, but according to the preface of T.L.C. you'll find that surrender means (1) to Act favorably to develop Krishna Consciousness; (2) to reject everything unfavorable; (3) to have full faith in Krishna that He will give protection to His pure devotee; (4) to keep oneself as one of the dependent devotees of the Lord; (5) to have no separate interest besides the interest of the Lord; (6) to always feel meek and humble. These six things are surrender, And it is then that there is no question of weakness. Our spiritual strength lies in steadfastly following the regulative principles also, and once stopped, then immediately there is falldown and all that has been accomplished becomes choked up. So to keep ourselves fit in spiritual life, we must strictly follow the principles, and chant at least 16 attentive rounds of beads daily and without fail. Otherwise, everything else loses its potency. At first there may be some inconveniences, and they may appear like poison, but we must tolerate them and Krishna, seeing our sincerity, will surely help us. This material world is such a miserable place that if we were not tolerant, we couldn't stay here for a moment. So simply continue this process diligently and my full blessings are there. So far as your wife is concerned, the wife can be maya and at the same time a great friend. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu remarked that the wife is the goddess of fortune somewhere and somewhere she is a witch. Anyways, you must be a very strong grihasta and, instead of being influenced by your wife, you must influence her to take very seriously to Krishna Consciousness. If you set the example, soon she will follow. That is natural. So simply be determined in your effort and Krishna will give you all the strength necessary to carry on.

I am so glad to note that you are arranging so many outside engagements. They afford ideal opportunity for presenting our books and making life members also. Especially you can approach the influential class in this way. We have got good experience of this in India. So continue whole-heartedly with this program and let me know what progress you are making.

P.T.O.

Please offer my blessings to the others. Hoping this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBD/adb