690216 - Letter to Vamanadeva written from Los Angeles

Letters by Date, 1969

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

February 16, 1969

My Dear Vamanadeva,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your special delivery letter dated February 14, 1969, and I have carefully noted the contents. The best thing I can advise you is that you should insistently try to classify yourself under 4-D section which is your actual position. In case they do not accept it, then you will have to go to court. Similar cases are pending in the matter of Dindayal as well as Kartikeya. Actually, our students are divinity students; there is no doubt about it, and there is a law that divinity students can not be called by the draft, so why should you not take advantage of it?

According to the Bhagavad-gita of which you are a serious student, a person who belongs to the military class must fight. Arjuna belonged to the military class, and he was persistently engaged by Lord Krishna to fight. So we don't refuse the principles of fighting for the sake of country or for the good causes, but we recognize that fighting is not the business of students engaged in training of God consciousness. The modern civilization is one-sided, and we do not approve of this program. Civilization without God consciousness scientifically is animal society. Our students are preaching this philosophy under authorized version of Bhagavad-gita, so they must be classified under the 4-D section. We must fight for this cause.

In the meantime you should study Bhagavad-gita very seriously, and try to assimilate the following points of our philosophy. God is one. He is the Father of all living entities. There are innumerable living entities residing in different planets, the majority of which are spiritual planets, and some of them are material planets. Those who are in material planets, they are conditioned by the laws of material nature, and, due to their forgetfulness of relationship with God, there is always struggle for existence. Therefore there is war and other miserable conditions of material life. We are trying to educate people how they can be transferred to the spiritual world, so this is an essential movement, and we require many preachers to present this case all over the world. So our students may not be unnecessarily called for fighting, which is not at all suitable occupation for them. So ultimately, if you are required to fight this case let us see how Krishna will help us.

Please convey my thanks to Gaurasundara for the nice lecture he gave at the University of Hawaii. He is doing very nicely.

I hope this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami