700621 - Letter to Pradyumna written from Los Angeles

Letters by Date, 1970

3764 Watseka Avenue
Los Angeles, Cal. 90034

21st June 70

My Dear Pradyumna,
Please accept my blessings and offer the same to your good wife, Arundhati, and your firstborn son, whom you may give the name Aniruddha. This is very good news. Now you must take the responsible post of both husband and father to guide both these good souls, your wife and son, to the perfection of human life in Krsna consciousness. You and your wife are both intelligent and advanced in devotional science, so work conjointly to raise your son in the best atmosphere of ideal family blessed by Krsna in Krsna consciousness.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated 14th June, 1970, and have read it carefully. So your efforts in the matter of our Sanskrit editing are effectively improving our books more and more with scholarly standards. All your work and programs are approved by me as you have listed them. So please continue to develop your capabilities by careful work as you are doing. Your corrections of the discrepancies found in the Gita Press editions of Srimad Bhagavatam are alright. On page 39, verse 24, the word vyajyate is correct. The style of Srimad Bhagavatam just as I had printed earlier in the First Canto editions is very nice. Go on with this style for all our Bhagavatam editions.
Regarding the missing verse #13 from the manuscript of second chapter, Second Canto, I give you the following:

Second Canto, second chapter, 13rd verse:

Synonyms:

ekaika - one to one, or one after another

angani - limbs

dhiya - by attention

anubhavayeti - meditate upon

padadi - legs, etc.

yavat - until

dasitan - smiling

gadabhrtah - the Personality of Godhead

jitanjitan - controlling the mind gradually

sthanam - place

apahya - leaving

dharayet - meditate upon

paramparam - higher and higher

suddhyati - purify

dhir - intelligence

yatha yatha - as and as

Translation

The process of meditation should be beginning from the lotus feet of the Lord up to the smiling face. The meditation should be placed upon the lotus feet, then to the calves, then to the thighs, in this way up and up, one after another, as and as the mind becomes fixed up on the different parts of the limbs, and thus the intelligence becomes purified.

Purport

The process of meditation recommended in the Srimad Bhagavatam is not to fix up one's attention on something impersonal or void. The meditation should be concentrated on the Personality of Godhead, either take Him as Virata Rupa or gigantic universal form, or take Him as His Sacidananda Vigraha as described in the scriptures. There are authorized descriptions of Visnu forms and there are authorized presentations of Deities in the temples. So one can practice meditating upon the Deity, concentrating his mind on the lotus feet of the Lord gradually rising up and up to the smiling face.

According to Bhagavat school the Lord's Rasa Dancing is the smiling face of the Lord. As it is recommended here in this verse that one should gradually rise beginning from the lotus feet up to the smiling face, so we shall not at once jump to understand the Lord's pastime in Rasa Dance. Better we should practice to concentrate our attention by offering flowers and tulasi on the lotus feet of the Lord. In this way as we become purified by arcan process gradually we dress Him, bathe Him, and all these transcendental activities help us in purifying our existence. So when we are on the higher standard of purification, at that time if we see the smiling face of the Lord or relish the Rasa Dance pastimes of the Lord, then we can relish His activities. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, therefore, Rasa Dance pastime is delineated in the 10th canto.

The more we concentrate on the transcendental form of the Lord, either on the lotus feet or on the calf or on the thighs or on the chest, the more we become purified. In this verse it is clearly stated "as and as the intelligence becomes purified," which means as and as we become detached from sense gratification. Our intelligence at the present moment in the conditioned state of life is impure on account of being engaged in sense gratification. So the result of all meditation on the transcendental form of the Lord shall be manifested by our detachment from sense gratification. Therefore the ultimate purpose of meditation is purification of our intelligence.

Those who are too much engrossed in sense gratification cannot be allowed in the matter of arcan to touch the transcendental form of Radha Krsna or Visnu Deities. For them it is better to meditate upon the gigantic Virata Rupa form of the Lord as it is recommended in the next verse. The impersonalist and the voidest are therefore recommended to meditate upon the universal form of the Lord, whereas the devotees are recommended to meditate on the Deity worship in the temple. So because the impersonalist and voidest are not sufficiently purified in their spiritual activities arcan is not meant for them.

So if there are any other missing parts, please let me know immediately so that the work can go on unhindered.

Hope this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS:db

Sriman Pradyumna Das Adhikary
ISKCON Temple
38 North Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02134