680111 - Letter to Rayarama written from Los Angeles

Letters by Date, 1968

A. C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI
Camp: I.S.K.C.O.N. Radha Krishna Temple
5364 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, Cal. 90119

January 11, 1968

My Dear Rayrama,

Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter of January 3, 1968, on ISKCON PRESS stationary. It is so nice and attractive and all the credit goes to you and your assistants. Please convey my sincere thanks to your two assistants, JaiGovinda and Purushottam, for their sincere service in the cause of Krishna Consciousness. Please take it for granted that I have sanctioned for all your schemes. Because you are sincere worker Krishna is dictating from within yourself as He has promised in the Bhagavad Gita, and things are coming so nicely. May Krishna grace you more and more and in your advance service of Krishna Consciousness. You have very nicely stated that I am your life. This means you are my body and so neither life nor body can be separated because on the spiritual platform there is no such distinction. On material platform sometimes life is separated from body, but in the Absolute platform there is no such distinction. Dr. Radha-krishnan foolishly makes such distinction on the Body of Krishna, and therefore when Krishna says that one should become His devotee, he commends that it is not to the Person Krishna, but to the Light within Krishna. He does not know that in the spiritual platform, there is no such distinction of life and body.

I am very sorry that Satyabrata has left us on some petty sentimental thing. Please ask him to come back and excuse me if I have struck his sentiment. I think he should be permanently on the editorial board and you can give him any serious engagement as you please. He may be replaced in the place of Hayagriva if he is not going to join us. Recently I received one letter from Hayagriva and I replied it promptly. The thing is, everyone of us should think as servant of Krishna. In the service of Krishna there may be sometimes transcendental competition but there cannot be any disruption. Please call Satyabrata and give him serious engagement as he likes to take. He is a good soul and he must be satisfied.

I wanted Teachings of Lord Chaitanya to be immediately printed, therefore I said that it may not be delayed by further editorial work, but if you think that it needs further editorial work, please do it through Satyabrata, and forthwith prepare the manuscript ready for printing.

You will be glad that two parts of Srimad Bhagwatam is already in the press in India, and I have sent money for purchasing the paper. In my opinion the Bhagwatam work should be immediately resumed. I am preparing tape recordings and sending them to Satsvarupa for typing, and after his typing, the copies may be edited, either by you or by Satyabrata, or combinedly, as you think best. And immediately final copy should be submitted for printing in India, one after another. In future, if McMillan or any other company, takes our publication work, it is well and good, but at least one edition should be printed without further delay. Kindly think over this matter and chalk out program for progressive work. I say once more that both you and Satyabrata may take up this editorial work. I shall be glad to hear also about your health and how you are feeling now about your appetite and general health. And I hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher,