750101 - Letter to Ramesvara written from Bombay

Letters by Date, 1975

[handwritten] January 1, 1975

Los Angeles, Calif. 90034

My dear Ramesvara,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters dated Dec. 15th and 27th and have noted the contents. Hansadutta is here and we have discussed many of the points and questions in your letters. You can discuss with him for the details. You are secretary so, you should go on with normal business, budget the money and write regular reports.

Your idea of letting New York have the 200,000 dollars worth of books to help them get the building is good. Do it.

Regarding the length of books, it is alright if it goes a little over 400 pages, but don't let it become 500.

Whatever fund is collected for food distribution should be sent to India. Why is it not sent? The other funds coming from sales of books can be accounted for properly, so where is there any fraud? Sometimes a salesman can say something extraordinary in order to sell something, but that is not fraud. Just like they are selling this oil, saying that if you rub it on your bald head, hair will grow. Where is the case where a bald man's hair grew from this oil? But the government is not charging with fraud. Don't use these UNICEF cards, that will not be good. You can make ISKCON FOOD RELIEF cards. But the money collected using this card must be sent to India where we are actually feeding people. If we simply speak nicely to a person and try sincerely to get him to take the book, he'll take it. Why should we adopt unfair means? We should not do anything which will create a bad impression or make us unpopular. People are after these books, they are hankering for them. We don't need to take cheating method. I never had to use any cheating method when I first began. I simply presented the real thing.

Basically and practically speaking everything that is done sincerely for Krishna's satisfaction is perfect. But we have to be very very careful in our dealings with others so that they will not take the wrong view. Just like the gopis. They left their homes in the dead of night to go and meet this young boy Krishna for kissing and embracing. To the ordinary person, this is sinful, but to the devotee, it is worshipable and it is considered the highest form of devotion even by Lord Caitanya who was himself a very strict sannyasi. Therefore we are very careful not to discuss this rasa-lila in the presence of ordinary men because they will only misunderstand and commit offense. While dealing with the ordinary men, we must spread this movement in such a way that they will not misunderstand us and take offense. Try to sell as many of my books as possible to your best ability.

I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/ps