701218 - Letter to Krishna dasa written from Surat

Letters by Date, 1970

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

December 18th, 1970 CAMP: c/o Kailash Seksaria; 74 Marine Drive; Bombay-20, India

My Dear Krsnadas,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 1st December, 1970 and I thank you very much for your kind sentiments for me. Actually I cannot claim any credit for myself, but I say if any credit is due, it is due to the fact that I have not deviated from the original instructions. Whatever I have learned from my spiritual master I have presented before you and similarly whatever success you are having only it is due to the purity of the message which you are carrying. So continue to see to the management of ISKCON and keep up the standards of devotional service and this Krishna Consciousness movement will be accepted all over the world.
I am very encouraged to see your enthusiasm for preaching this message to the Russian people, and your idea to send letters with the help of Dr. Bernhart is very good. He is a big scholar and he also appreciates our movement. So if you arrange a tour of Russia for me, I am prepared to accept. Let us see what Krishna desires. Why not Dr. Bernhart join this great movement. [handwritten]
Amsterdam sounds like a good place for our movement. The hippies are not bad souls, because soul is part and parcel of Krishna. So in fact everyone is good, because everyone is spirit soul. But by demoniac association they have been mislead. Try to save these boys and girls. That is our duty. If you can arrange for a Dutch BTG it will be very nice.
Yes, as GBC member your task is very responsible. You must always keep yourself pure and in this way your preaching work will take effect. Others are also speaking Bhagavad Gita but their speech has no effect because they are not following the regulative principles of devotional service. Also, always maintain Sankirtan Party, prasadam, chant 16 rounds and read all our literature. These things keep you always in touch with Krishna, and Krishna will give you intelligence more and more how to spread this movement. "I dwelling in their hearts destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance." (BG 10.11).
I am glad to hear Mandali Bhadra and Haripriya are working so hard to translate my books. They are both sincere souls and combinedly I am confident that they will do their duty. Husband and wife engaged in the service of the Lord is real marriage, and man and woman combined without service to Krishna is animal life. So their example is very encouraging and instructive.
Himavati is also eager to go to Russia and she also speaks the language. If we can go to Russia with our World Sankirtan Party, I am certain that it will be very much appreciated and people will see the real peace movement is chanting process—chanting the Holy Names Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. So try for it.
I hope you and your good wife Indrani are well. Please convey my blessings to all the other devotees and tell Vasudeva to write me about how he is progressing with his painting work.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/adb

Sriman Krshnadas Adhikary
2 Hamburg 6
Bartelsstrasse 65, GERMANY