711009 - Letter to Upendra written from Nairobi

Letters by Date, 1971

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

CAMP: c/o G.N. Shah; P.O.Box no. 41442; Nairobi, Kenya; E. Africa
9th October, 1971

My Dear Upendra,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter 28th September, 1971 and have noted the contents. Also I have received newspaper clipping. So it appears that things are going on very nicely in Melbourne. Please now stick there and develop that center. There is no question of leaving our society. One may think like that but I cannot allow you to leave. That is my aspiration. Those who have left the society I am always thinking of them. Especially for you there is no question of leaving. Stay in Melbourne and preach with steady determination. I am glad to learn that you are in steady correspondence with Karandhar and am sure he will give you all good direction. So don't be agitated by anyone's so-called demand but you stick to your preaching work, husband and wife, chanting and following the regulative principles. Don't be agitated by trifle things. Remain steady and go on with preaching work. Krishna will help you in every way. I am so pleased with you that you have done so nicely in the service of the Lord to your best capacity. That is required. It is not that everyone should be equally expert. But the thing that is needed is that we should be serious and sincere in our engagement. Nobody can adequately serve Krishna because Krishna is unlimited. But Krishna so kind that even a small leaf or flower offered to Krishna by the poorest man in the world, Krishna accepts such thing. Krishna is so opulent that he is not even slightly benefited by any presentation but he is so kind and merciful that he accepts a little bit of leaf or flower or water from his devotees, and because a devotee comes to him with such love and affection he becomes very much satisfied. As a father is always sorry for the son is out of home, similarly Krishna is not very happy on account of so many bewildered fallen souls in the material world. He therefore comes personally to ask them to surrender again to Him. But the conditioned soul is so much illusioned that it is very hard to make him surrender to Krishna. Therefore each and every one of us, if we can give service to Krishna by making another man surrender to Krishna, then He will very much appreciate that service and that is our gain. Try to follow this principle and preach vigorously to your best capacity and everything will be all right. Don't worry.
So far your question, the soul is fundamentally pure but he has an aptitude to come to the impure state of material contamination. He is therefore called tatastha or marginal. He has got the liberty of staying within the pure state or becoming contaminated. That is his choice. This marginal point can be understood in this way; just like you are standing on the shore of the sea. So you can remain on the land or sometimes you can jump into the water to enjoy as you will see on the beaches. So many young boys are enjoying. But that is dangerous at the same time. One who does not know swimming expertly well he may become drowned. Similarly the soul from the spiritual platform sometimes jumps over the material ocean of nescience. The Vedic knowledge gives him specific instruction how to swim over but if he is a rascal, he does not take the instruction through the bonafide representative, the spiritual master, and he becomes drowned. That is the position. The Vedic instruction is so nice that the soul, when he jumps over this material ocean, the Vedic instruction teaches him how to swim and come back again to the shore. This swimming process, according to Vedic instruction, is called sacrifice, charity and penance. One who learns these techniques of swimming over the ocean of nescience, he goes back to home, back to Godhead. One who does not take to this swimming process, he becomes drowned. In the Bhagavad Gita this is stated iccha dvesa samutthena...svarge yanti parantapa which means deluded by desire to enjoy the material world and becoming envious of Krishna, one comes to this material world. (Bhagavad Gita, 7/27). So read our literature profusely and you will get sufficient knowledge.
Hoping this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

P.S. I have received your second letter also. [handwritten]

ACBS/adb

c/o ISKCON Melbourne

Sriman Upendra Das Adhikary
c/o ISKCON
79 Station St.
Carlton, Victoria
AUSTRALIA 3058

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
c/o G.N. Shah P.O. Box 41442
Nairobi Kenya E. Africa