701117 - Letter to Stan written from Bombay

Letters by Date, 1970

Tridandi Goswami
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

CAMP: Ram Sharanam; 18th Road; Chembur, Bombay-71; India
November 17th, 1970

My Dear Sriman Stan,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your nice letter dated nil. I am very pleased that you are in New Vrndavana for some time now and you are feeling the benefits of the transcendental atmosphere there. Actually it is my dream to have such a perfect community established fully in Krsna Consciousness so that the people of your country may have a right example what is the natural way of life or pure spiritual living.

Your attitude of determination to progress in your transcendental knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna and perfect your devotional service to Him, is very praiseworthy. Ramananda Roy has explained that there is nothing so glorious or worth of fame in this world for a person who knows the true value of life other than to be famed as a devotee of Krsna.

We are all originally situated on the platform of Krsna consciousness in our eternal personal relationship of love of Krsna. But due to forgetfulness we become familiar with the material world or Maya. As soon as one chants the Hare Krsna Mantra with sincerity and without offence (you know there are ten kinds of offenses to the Holy Name which we are to avoid very, very carefully) his original Krsna consciousness is immediately revived. Krsna consciousness means to be always remembering Krsna in some way or other, just like we are immediately thinking of Krsna when we chant His Name, Krsna, and we are always thinking how we can do something nice to please Krsna with some service or other, or we are reading literature about Krsna or speaking about Krsna. In this way we are always remembering Krsna and that is our natural conscious [handwritten] state. So naturally everything about Krsna is originally known to us all and as soon as we begin to associate with the devotees of the Lord and chant His Holy Name, this memory gradually becomes stronger as we remember our constitutional position of always serving Krsna in different ways.
The first step, so you have noted is that the dirty things which are clouding our spiritual senses must be cleansed by the Samkirtan process. So Krsna Consciousness is a purifying process. If you follow the regulations of our Society very strictly you will quickly become completely purified and thus achieve the highest perfection of life, Krsna consciousness or Love of God.
Hope this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami