680601 - Letter to Upendra written from Boston

Letters by Date, 1968

Letter to Upendra (Page 1 of 2)

Letter to Upendra (Page 2 of 2)

Tridandi Goswami
AC Bhaktivedanta Swami
Acharya: International Society For Krishna Consciousness

CAMP: ISKCON RADHA KRISHNA TEMPLE
          95 Glenville Avenue
          Allston, Mass. 02134

DATED .June..1,......................1968...

My Dear Upendra,

Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter of May 25, 1968, and I thank you very much for it. Yes, I received the medicine intact, and I thank you for sending it.

I am going to Montreal on Monday, June 3rd, and if I find Montreal quite suitable, I shall call you and some other students to assemble there to practice Samkirtan in a systematic way. Of course, chanting Hare Krishna does not require any artificial artistic sense, but still, if the procedure is presented rhythmically, then the people may be attracted more by the transcendental music. So, Hansadutta asked me about you and I have said that you will be able to come as soon as I call you, so first of all let me go there, then I shall let you know what to do.

For the present, you endeavor to make the Rathajatra Festival grand successful. You should arrange the procession and procedure so nicely that all the neighboring people may be attracted to join the procession.

Yes, your question about will and the individual and the difference between them: Thinking, feeling and willing is the subtle covering of the individual soul. This thinking, feeling, and willing is accelerated by the individual soul. In material contact, they are manifested in perverted way. When the individual soul voluntarily surrenders to Krishna and acts in a routine method, thinking, feeling and willing becomes purified and at that time, there is no difference between the individual soul and will.

Shyamsundar is a good servitor from the very beginning, and so is Harsharani. I am very much obliged to you all that you are taking care of Jaggannatha so nicely. The more you make the Deity of Jaggannatha attractively dressed, the more you shall become spiritually attractive.

If Jaggannatha desires, then I may also join you, but the idea of making San Francisco as New Jaggannatha Puri is my transcendental dream, and if you fulfill this dream, I shall be so much obliged to you all.

The example of Naradaji, that when he realized Krishna in his previous life, that life and next life, there is no difference. The example is given sometimes in the coconut skin when it is dried up, the fruit within the covering of coconut is hard. And if the coconut is shaken, it is found that the coconut fruit is moving within. Because it has dried up and broken away from the inner walls of the coconut skin. So it has nothing to do with the outer skin, even though it appears that it is within that skin. Similarly, when one is purely in Krishna Consciousness, it may appear that he is within the material existence, but actually he has nothing to do with it. He is dried up, like the coconut fruit; and that process of drying-up is forgetting all sense gratification, and executing Krishna Consciousness full time. So, when one is purely in Krishna Consciousness, his present life and in future life are identical.

Hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

518 Frederick Street
San Francisco, Cal. 94117