720612 - Letter to Acyutananda written from Los Angeles

Letters by Date, 1972

Letter to Achyutananda

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Camp:  Los Angeles, ISKCON
Date:   June 12, 1972

My Dear Achyutananda,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter from Calcutta dated June 12, 1972, and have appreciated the contents. I am especially pleased that you have stayed some days and got the tapes of Lalita Prashad Thakur for posterity. If you send them to Shyamsundar immediately, he has all facilities here to transcribe them, and get them printed immediately. As for the manuscripts, you can call Satchidananda from Vrindavan, he can write in Bengali very nicely and can type also with Bengali typewriter. Tell him to bring the Bengali typewriter with him and type everything on good paper. But best thing is, I have asked Yadubara to come there to Birnagar from Bombay for photographing all of the manuscripts in the possession of Lalita Prashad Thakur page by page very completely before it is too late. The pages are in very decrepit conditions, so best thing is to request Lalita Prashad if we may take care of them by treating them against insects and storing them in a tight, dry storage place where they may be preserved for future generations of Vaisnavas to see the actual handwriting and words of such great saintly persons. Treat this matter very seriously and thoroughly, and take all precautions to protect this wonderful boon of literatures forever. Yadubara may photograph every page, never mind Bengali or English or any other language, and later we shall see where to send the copies to different places. You also write to Yadubara at Bombay in this connection and request him to join you in Birnagar immediately. I have also written him. These items are very, very priceless and are a great treasure house of Vaisnava lore, so be very careful in the matter and take all precautions to guard them.
Regarding your questions, no, the descendants from Adwaita are to be considered as [handwritten]] dwijabandhu, that is, unless they are like brahmins, that is, very highly qualified to know the higher values of life in the Vedic traditional way, so in that way even he is long descended from Adwaita, unless he is qualified he cannot be worshipable. Nityananda has no seminal descendants, his son [handwritten] Birbhadra was never married. If someone said he is descended from Nityananda, that means from one of his disciples. These persons may be given some respect, but they are not equal to Adwaita. Dwijabandhu means son of a brahmin father but without the qualifications. Similarly, there are Adwaita-bandhus. So far the Mayapur construction work, kindly send [handwritten] me some photos of the current progress.
Hoping this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well wisher,



A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Achyutananda Swami c/o ISKCON Calcutta
ACBS/sda