670922 - Letter to Prabhus from Achyutananda

Delhi,

22 September, 1967

From Achyutananda

[Included in 670922 letter to Brahmananda]

Jai Prabhus,

In my opinion anyone who wants to come and study at the Institute of Oriental Philosophy to learn Vaishnava philosophy will be disappointed. Right now the place is run by scholars, not at all interested in devotion but only for some extra letters after their names. The living quarters are not so bad, but the food is simply not substantial. Chapaties and dahl is all he provides. This might be alright for the Indian boys but not for Americans. However if anyone is seriously interested in learning Sanskrit and living in Vrindaban one can have an extremely beneficial spiritual education. Simply ignore the scholarly philosophers and study sanskrit. Swami has said that if you see a piece of gold in a filthy place, pick it out. One can easily arrange living at a temple or at one of Swami’s godbrother’s maths. With extra money for supplementing the prasadam the life is quite fertile to nurture transcendental conciousness. Being brahmacharys and devotees of Krishna the people give all respects and are so friendly and kind. Sometimes we judge a places spirituality with a good or bad bowel movement.

[ ? ] had some “Maya-misgivings” and I must again say [ TEXT MISSING]

will find it most incompatible and I don’t advise any of our godsisters to come until better accommodations can be made. Incidentally those little unidentifiable creatures that scoot across the floor are mostly mice, mongooses, weasels and unidentifiable furry little creatures. Krishna protects his devotees so its all in His hands but I thought perhaps I could try to give some precautionary measures to those who wish to enter Krishna’s dham during the present Kali yuga.

All glories to Guru and Gouranga,

Achyutananda das

P.S. Please Please send BTGs & Prospectus. Other literature if possible we haven’t got anything