700116 - Letter to Madhusudana written from Los Angeles

Letters by Date, 1970

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
CENTER:1975 So La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, Cal. 90034

DATE ....January..16...........19.70

My Dear Madhusudan,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 13, 1970 and your question is very peculiar.
You have admitted that it is something like the tricks of the mind. May I ask you if you are regularly chanting 16 rounds of beads? The tricks of the mind or influence of Maya will infiltrate if we do not follow the regulative principles and regularly chant the prescribed Names without any offense. Perhaps you know that there are 10 (ten) kinds of offenses in chanting the Holy Name. The first offense is not to obey the order of the Spiritual Master, and the second is to minimize the authoritative value of the Scriptures. These things are infiltrating within you as I see from your writings that Vedas or Bhagwatam or Gita seem not so universal.
What is the reason of your thinking like that? What do you mean by universal? Do you think that there is any other Scripture in the world which is more universal than the Vedas and Bhagwat etc.? Is there any literature in the world which is more sublime in knowledge than the Bhagavad Gita? The word "Krishna" means "All Attractive," so where you get the foreign element in Krishna? Does it mean that He is attractive for all except yourself? And if He is not attractive to you, why it is so? So you kindly answer all those questions from me.
You say that you will do as I say and you also prayed to Madhusudan to slay the demon of your doubt but unless you act according to the direction of Madhusudan how can Madhusudan or Madhusudan's father help you. You are with us practically for the last four years and still if you think you cannot surrender to Krishna without any doubt, then what kind of progress you have made by this time?
So this Krishna science can be understood through the process of sincere service, and so far any doubt which may sometimes arise in our mind there are the devotees, the Scriptures and the Spiritual Master. Did you discuss all your doubts with your contemporary God-brothers and devotees? So there are many questions like this about you.
You say that within your heart you know that Krishna is the Original Personality of Godhead but when you think of Krishna or try to feel Him you think Krishna as foreign on account of Sanskrit language. Please, therefore, be careful that Maya is peeping at you and if you do not take care timely it may prove fatal. Please, therefore, chant regularly without the offenses and be steady in your situation without any tottering of the mind. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead without any question. He is accepted as such beginning from Arjuna through all the great Acharyas - Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Sankaracharya, Lord Chaitanya, Lord Brahma, the Vedic authorities Vyasadeva and Narada—like that, down to ourselves.
So this knowledge descends through bonafide disciplic succession. You have accepted this chain of authorities, now you are feeling doubts means certainly you are being attacked by Maya.
So please take care and chant Hare Krishna regularly without any offense.
Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS:db

Sriman Madhusudan das Adhikary
ISKCON Temple
2154 Newport Place NW
Washington. D.C.