690504 - Letter to Sivananda written from Boston

Letters by Date, 1969

FOUNDER - ACHARYA:
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS

CENTER: 95 Glenville Avenue
Allston, Mass. 02134

DATE May 4, 1969

My Dear Shivananda,

Please accept my blessings. I thank you for your letter dated "Friday," and I have noted the contents carefully. Regarding your idea of supporting the temple by Sankirtan collections, it is nice. In Los Angeles, New York, and other centers they are chanting on the streets every day and they are getting good remunerations, better than any job. New York once collected $500.00 in one weekend, and Los Angeles sometimes collects $250.00 in one day. Uddhava and Vaikunthanath are collecting at least $20-$40.00 daily, so if it is possible to collect it is very good. Simply we have to work and people will give contribution for this good cause. It is better to get money by collections than to work.

Regarding your desire to improve your singing voice, by singing you will become an expert singer. Anything you practice regularly you become expert in. There is every chance of my going to London in June, and certainly if I go there I must also go to your place also. Very soon two German souls who were recently initiated, Mandali Bhadra and Brindabaneshvari, will be starting for Hamburg to give you all sorts of translations of Back To Godhead and other literatures.

I am very much anxious to know about Jaya Govinda. I have not heard anything from him since about a month. Please let me know immediately whether he has reached Hamburg by this time. Regarding your need for a warm beverage to drink while you are working, milk is the best. Take hot milk with little sugar, stir it very nicely, and drink it when it is warm sufficiently, tolerable by you, and with bubbles on the surface. That is the best hot beverage available in the world. You can also prepare some halevah. That is also very nice for a cold country. Add to it some raisins, almonds, etc.

I hope this will meet you in good health. Please convey my blessings to the others there with you.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami