711117 - Letter to Himavati written from Delhi

Letters by Date, 1971

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Date: November 17, 1971
Camp: 7-D Kamala Nagar
Delhi-7.

My Dear Himavati,

Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter of Nov. 2, 1971 and I have appreciated the contents carefully. I am especially pleased that you are finding great pleasure in serving Their Lordships in Hamburg Temple as pujari. I think that under your care They have become very gorgeous and satisfied. It is the sole aim of life to be constantly absorbed in thoughts about Radharani and Krishna, and because you are so determined to become fully Krishna Conscious, Krishna has given you this opportunity to realize that aim by serving Him directly. I have always instructed that the standard of archan worship must be kept very high, because this will insure that every other temple activity will also flourish. So I am relieved to know that now the Deities are in your care. Thank you for this.

If one simply deposits all of his or her loving propensity onto the Deity of Krishna, immediately they are relieved of anxiety due to material sense agitation. This is Krishna Consciousness. Your prayer that you may be put always in difficulty is just like Queen Kunti Devi. She prayed to Krishna in the same way, because whenever there was trouble Krishna felt the suffering of His devotees and stayed by them to help them. And as soon as the trouble ended, Krishna went away! So let us always pray that Krishna may put us into difficulty so that we may expect that He will also remain by us and not go away.

You have a natural inclination as a teacher of small children, and I think that you should utilize it to instruct the young children of Hamburg in Krishna Consciousness. Children especially are inclined to appreciate Krishna's pastimes, so begin by reading to them from Krsna Book. They are not yet covered by false prestige and will very quickly take to tapasya as if it were amusing like a game! Just see the young brahmacharies in India. The Guru says do this, do that—immediately they do—they go out and beg all day in the hot sun and come back with a little rice, then take rest on the floor with no covering. And they are enjoying, it is pleasurable to them to work very hard. So it is very important to train children to endure all sorts of hardships and restrictions at the boyhood stage. Later, no one will renounce what he has accepted as the standard of enjoyment, to accept a standard of less enjoyment. So I think you should begin immediately holding class regularly and advertising for it. I understand the German people are very fond of kindergarten schools, so let them send their children to us for receiving the highest education.

Because mushrooms grow in a filthy place, they are not usually offered to Krishna. It is very nice that all the men should participate in deity-worship, this will sanctify their all other work. I think you are the most clever manager, better than your husband, because you are organizing temple routine very nicely for serving the deities and this will have very good results for everyone.

I hope this meets you in good health and cheerful mood.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/sda