770722 - Letter to Ramesvara from Tamal Krsna

July 22nd, 1977

From: Tamal Krishna

My dear Ramesvara Maharaja,

Please accept my most humble obeisances at your feet. I thought it would be in order to give some instructions to the 11 disciples of His Divine Grace whom He chose to represent Him for giving first and second initiations. I thought you could photocopy this letter and send a copy to each of them. The system that His Divine Grace has always followed in the case of initiations is that first of all He receives a recommending letter from the temple president. In the case of first initiation requests, His Divine Grace replies by saying: “As you have recommended him I accept as my initiated disciple. His spiritual name is. Now you should hold a fire ceremony and he must vow to follow the four regulative principles and chant minimum 16 rounds daily. Teach him to be an ideal Vaisnava by your example.” His Divine Grace has authorized all of the GBC and senior sannyasis in the past to chant on beads for initiation, so this is already going on.

In the case of second initiation, Srila Prabhupada writes: “As you have recommended him I accept [BLANK SPACE] for second initiation. His brahmana thread, duly chanted on, is enclosed herein along with the Gayatri mantra sheet. Now you should hold a fire ceremony after which he may be permitted to hear the Gayatri mantra tape in the right ear. Teach him to be brahminical, always keeping clean internally by chanting Hare Krsna, and externally by regular bathing.” The process of chanting on the thread is that during one of the times when you are saying your normal Gayatri mantra, you hold the thread to be chanted on (which should remain twisted up, that is not open) in the right hand, and by chanting on your thread the Gayatri mantra, this new thread is considered chanted upon .I would suggest that His Holiness Ramesvara Maharaja may supply each of the 11 representatives sufficient copies of the Gayatri mantra sheet.

I think it would be appropriate in your letter to the president or the person who is being accepted for initiation, to remind him to send Guru-daksina to His Divine Grace. This is no longer being done very regularly, but actually it is the proper etiquette to be followed. I hope this letter is helpful to you, and if there is any further clarification required, please do not hesitate to write. Hoping this meets you all well. Your servant,

Tamal Krsna Gosvami

Secretary to Srila Prabhupada

P.S. Please remember to send the names of all new initiates (1st initiation only) to me for inclusion in Prabhupada’s Initiated Disciples Book. Include former karmi name.

His Holiness Ramesvara Swami

c/o ISKCON Los Angeles

Copies to all rittiks [ritviks]