740608 - Letter to Damodara written from Paris

Letters by Date, 1974

Letter to Damodar

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

CENTER       4 rue Le Sueur
                   Paris 16 France
DATE June 8, 1974

My dear Damodar,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of June 5, 1974.
I have asked you to stop the political program because actually you cannot organize as the others can. We cannot manage with separate money, separate brains from our regular ISKCON propagation. It is not so easy to do politics, moreover it is a filthy atmosphere. So do not indulge in it. I am glad to hear all the participants have stopped. So you convey to them my instructions in this matter. We have an immense field of work in distributing books, in reading and chanting and working for Krsna in many fields. And the aim of it is to always remember Krsna. Some philosophers think that in response negatively to the nasty consciousness of material life we should become "thoughtless" but this is not Krsna Consciousness, nor is it possible to become void or like a stone. Our process is to purify the thinking by always thinking of Krsna, actively and positively.
You have asked about Rupanuga. So I have asked him to not remain secluded but to work vigorously as grhasta now that he has returned with his wife. There is nothing wrong in his preaching as you are and so many GBCs, as grhasta. So although it is officially a falldown from sannyasa, there is no loss if he will become more enthusiastic by this way. So please continue to cooperate with him and implement all our regular programs.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/sdg
ISKCON
2015 "Q" Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20009

P.S. Yes you should give up the political offices and our men should return to working in the ISKCON centers.