711225 - Letter to Amogha written from Bombay

Letters by Date, 1971

Letter to Amogha (page 1 of 2)

Letter to Amogha (page 2 of 2)

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Date:   December 25, 1971
Camp:  ISKCON Bombay

My dear Amogha,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of December 13, 1971, and I am very pleased to note that you are so determined to spread this Krishna Consciousness movement, that you are remaining alone in D jakarta just to seize the wonderful opportunity we have got there for preaching. That is the sign of the first-class devotee, that he is always willing to sacrifice everything to please Krishna by preaching His glories, even under all sorts of difficult conditions. I am very encouraged by your attitude of sincere Krishna Consciousness. In this way you go on perfecting your life more and more, and very soon, I promise you, you will go back to Home, back to Godhead. Know it for certain.
I am very glad that you are teaching KC in the schools. That is our best field for training people in Krishna Consciousness. Young children have not yet learned an artificial standard of sense gratification, so they accept austerity very nicely as enjoyable. Just see the young brahmachary--he goes out and begs all day on the order of his guru, to collect a little rice and return at night to sleep on the floor without cover--and he thinks this life is very nice! So if children are trained-up in this way, they will naturally grow up to be sober and responsible, the best citizens and a credit to their state. So preach in this way, attract their young children to Krishna by teaching in a very interesting fashion--let them chant, dance, and take prasadam, that's all. Later, when they are old enough to understand, a little philosophy. And always keep them engaged one way or another in devotional service. That way they will become very attached to Krishna and they will not go away to a life of false standard of life. If you can get that couple from America to help you, that will be very nice. Actually, I wanted one householder couple to come there and teach. This I told to Bali Mardan when he was with me in India. So now you are arranging for that, so that is the best plan.
Never mind we have to wait some time for a house. We are Vaisnavas means we can live under a tree. Main thing is preaching, so if preaching is going on, that is enough. But because people want a comfortable place to sit down and chant, therefore we have got our centers around the world. So just to accommodate such public you can get a house whenever it is possible, and decorate it very nicely for attracting the citizens.
We are presently trying for a very nice house here in Bombay, to make our India headquarters in a very rich quarter of Bombay. In February we shall go with full party to Mayapur for holding festival for Lord Chaitanya's Appearance Day.
If Bali Mardan is not very much present in his zone of South East Asia, then how will things be managed? Do you know if he is planning to return to his zone responsibilities? Another thing, how are our books being distributed? I want that our books and magazines be profusely distributed all over the world, and I am very pleased to hear that you have sold so many in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and other places in Asia. So go on in this way distributing books in Jakarta, that is solid work. If we simply sell many books, then our all success is guaranteed. You may inform me your progress there regularly and I shall always be pleased to hear from you. Somehow or other, Krishna has given me such good assistants like your good self, so there has been a little success. Thank you very much for helping me in this way.
I hope this will meet you in good health and cheerful mood.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Amogha Das/ISKCON
c/o Karamchand & Co.
P.O. Box no. 2640
Jakarta, Indonesia

ACBS/sda