720725 - Letter to Sri Joshiji written from Paris

Letters by Date, 1972

Letter to Sri Joshiji (text missing)

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
CENTER:     ISKCON London

DATE ...............July..25,....19.72


My Dear Sri Joshiji,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 15, 1972, and I have noted the contents with great interest. From London now I am staying in Paris, and from here I shall go to Amsterdam and then to Edinburgh, again to London, and from there I shall go to Nairobi for installing Radha-Krishna deities in our own temple there. Your letter under reply gives me great pleasure when I understand from your childhood you are a great devotee of Lord Krishna, and now in your old age you are still anxious to preach the doctrine of Lord Krishna, namely, to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Actually, the whole world requires to understand the Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Although the Bhagavad Gita is a very popular book, widely read all over the world, unfortunately unscrupulous sannyasis and yogis presented the gospel in a perverted way so that people could not come to become a devotee of Krishna, instead they have become impersonalists. This infectious disease is spread in India, especially by the Mayavadis sannyasis and philosophers, therefore we have got greater task in India than in the western countries. In the western countries they have lost practically any religious system, and Christianity is declining. I was in London and practically I saw hundreds and thousands of churches are for sale because nobody is going there. The same position is in America also, but still a section of persons there are interested in church. But in Europe especially I see they have lost all respect for religious life. The same thing is there in India also. I therefore suggest that when you return to India next time, that you take sannyas in your ripe old age without any family responsibility, and let us together do something tangible in India. In 1970 I went to Amritsar, invited by Swami Nirmalananda, and I saw the people of Amritsar are greatly devoted. We were invited by many temples and private persons, and we were made very much welcome, and somebody wanted to give me some land also. Anyway land is not very difficult to gain, but we require some men to work for this great mission. The educated younger sections are required to join this great movement.
We have already got our land in Bombay, in Vrindaban, as well as in Nabadwip. Gradually, we can open a centre in each and every important city of India. I shall request you to think over this proposition very seriously and make some tangible program, then when you return to India in October, by that time I shall be there also, and jointly we can do something tangible in India also. I shall be very glad to hear from you your reaction on this proposition. Thank you very much.