680118 - Letter to Jaya Mazo 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. 90019

January 18, 1968

My Dear Jai Mazo,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your nice letter dated Jan. 12, 1968, and have noted carefully the contents. And because you are already acquainted with Krishna, I have no objection to accepting you as my disciple. Practically, I do not have any disciples; I select so many masters to train them in the service of the Lord. Your natural attraction for Krishna makes it show that in your previous birth you have cultured this science of Krishna Consciousness. In your Poetry, last line, I have changed the word "beautiful transforming Being" into "beautiful eternal Being." Krishna does not transform, but He has millions and billions of expansions which are all eternally existing simultaneously. Just like the sun at noon, and the sun at morningtime, and the sun at eveningtime; they are simply by names and they are eternal. To the sun there is no morning or evening or noon, still we say morning sun, evening sun, noon sun. There is a nice verse in Brahma Samhita--that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and has multi-expansions like Rama, Nrisinghdev, Vamana, etc.

Your letter is very interesting to me and when I shall meet you in N.Y. sometimes in March or April, we shall talk frankly and I shall officially initiate you. In the meantime, please go on attending classes in N.Y. as usual and do it regularly and you will be benefited.

I thank you very much for your appreciation of my disciples in N.Y. and you will be glad to know all my disciples in different centres are being so trained. The four principles of restriction, namely, no illicit sex relations; no animal food; no intoxication; and no gambling, are acting on their character. Character building is the groundwork for seating Krishna Consciousness and the Vedic injunction is that one can advance in spiritual life by following the rules of austerity and celibacy. We do not bluff our students that he has liberty to do all sorts of nonsense, and at the same time advance in spiritual understanding. And because we are a little bit strict in this matter, we have not a very large number of followers, neither do we want any large no. nonsense followers. We want only one moon at night, and we do not care for millions of stars. When we meet we shall talk further on this matter, and I hope you shall be initiated. I thank you very much for your nice letter, and hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher,

Jai Mazo
600 East 21 Street
Brooklyn, New York, 11226.