720228 - Letter to Harsarani written from Mayapur

Letters by Date, 1972

Letter to Harsharani

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Date:   February 28, 1972
Camp:  ISKCON Sridham Mayapur
           (Reply: ISKCON Bombay)

My dear Harsharani,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated February 5, 1972, and I have noted the contents. You have mentioned that your father of your two children has left you and you are forced to live outside the temple. But I cannot understand what is the trouble. If you are getting government welfare help, then you can live separately, take the children to the temple every day and bring them up in Krishna Consciousness, and when they are old enough you may send them to our new school in Dallas. There is no question of losing father, now they shall have dozens of fathers and mothers, simply engage them in our regular KC programme of routine rising early, cleansing, chanting, eating Krishna prasad, looking at books, street Sankirtan, like that, and let them associate nicely with other devotees in such programme daily, and automatically they will be trained up nicely in Krishna Consciousness.
This brahmachary system is there, but if one is not so strong, then he is allowed to marry, but he must expect that the after effects will always be troublesome. Everywhere I see people, man and wife with family, and all of them they suffer, but still they go on producing more. Sex means trouble. Therefore one should become dhira and don't be attracted by this sex-life.
Henceforward, anyone proposing to marry must produce some outside income and live outside the temple, they must know this in advance and be prepared to carry such burden. Let them be married, but at their own risk. I cannot sanction anymore. My Guru Maharaj never allowed, but when I came to your country it was a special circumstance so I gave concession, but I am not so much inclined anymore, so I shall not sanction, but they may marry on their own risk of knowing that such arrangement is always troublesome.
I Hope this will meet you in very good health and happy mood.

Your ever well-wisher,



A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Harsharani dasi
1815 15th Street,
San Francisco, Calif.

ACBS/sda