(Click to enlarge photo of Srila Prabhupada)
"You ask one question about the nature of books I want you to write as my disciples; on this point, Krsna Consciousness is not limited. Persons like all of the Gosvamis wrote so many books, Viswanath Chakravarty, and all the acharyas wrote books, and still I am writing books. Similarly, also my disciples will write. So any self-realized soul can write unlimited books without deviating from the original ideas.
Sanskrit should be compulsory for all our children to learn, and anyone who has elementary knowledge of alphabet and grammar can begin to teach it. In addition, English reading and writing, a little mathematics, history and geography or we shall be thought fools if we do not know—that's all. Main thing is that by attendance of our routine programme, that is, rising early, cleansing, chanting, eating Krsna prasad, street Sankirtan, looking at books, etc., in this way, if the children associate with their elders in the regular schedule of devotional practices, that is best way to train. Otherwise, hygienic principles must be very much practiced. The future preachers of KC Movement must learn to be suci, absolutely pure in all respects, & for this, practical cleansing is the basic teaching, e.g., not touching anything dirty to mouth. Mouth is dirtiest part, and infection can spread very easily by the mouth. There is word visakanya, or the policy of gradually poisoning a beautiful girl so she will adapt and not be affected, then she will have the potency to assassinate by passing infection by mouth to some enemy. Water itself is most antiseptic, so soap is not always required. The boys should be taught, and also all devotees should also be taught to wash own dishes, hands, mouth—that means always washing. They should be given only what they will eat, so that nothing is left over, and while bathing they can wash their own cloth. Your country, America, will become so much degraded that they will appreciate if we are revolutionary clean. Our revolutionary medicine will be experimented on these children, and it will be seen in America to be the cure. So make your program in this way, and encourage nondevotees or outsiders to enroll their children with us for some minimum fee, and you will do the greatest service to your country and its citizens by introducing this.
There will be so many impediments in pushing on our movement, therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has already advised us to be tolerant more than the tree and humbler than the blade of grass and give all respects to Karmis without expecting any respect. These instructions mean that pushing on this Krsna Consciousness movement is not very easy, but we have to face them and push on this movement."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, February 28, 1972)
"You enquire about the mode of goodness, and why such people do not worship Krishna. Actually, this is not the final stage, one has to go further ahead to suddha sattva. In the material mode of goodness there are sometimes tinges of the modes of passion and ignorance, but in the suddha sattva stage there is only pure love of God or pure mode of goodness, that is the difference.
Regarding Sandipani Muni, he got knowledge from his Spiritual Master, but there is no mention who he is.
Krishna Prasad is always all right. The consideration of spoiling foodstuff after 3 hours, that is ordinary or it is so for persons who are not advanced in accepting Krishna prasada as transcendental, just like Ragunatha Goswami: he was collecting rejected rice from the cooking of Lord Jagannatha and he was eating only that. So this is a higher stage, so for the time being you should know that Krishna prasada is never contaminated by any material source.
Now I am pleased that you are making serious study of this our Krishna philosophy, so I want that you go on like this until you will able to defeat any challenge from atheists and rascals, then your preaching work will have real potency and combinedly with your Godbrothers around the world and at London Temple you shall preach so strongly that one day this Krishna consciousness movement will change the world from the most dangerous condition; that is the wish of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and tomorrow we shall be celebrating the Lord's Appearance Day by laying down the corner-stone for our World Headquarters here at Mayapur."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, February 28, 1972)
"Regarding your questions, 1) The devotee always takes bodily pains as the mercy of Krishna. 2) Everyone who is chanting Hare Krishna is getting benefit. Sanatan Goswami says that one should not hear from an avaishnava, or non-Vaishnava. So people who are imitating are hearing from a Vaisnava. They are not a Vaishnava, because the Hare Krishna Mantra is introduced by us only into the western world, so whatever they have heard is from a Vaishnava."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, April 2, 1972)
"So far my chastising you at Mayapur for your questions it is simply out of love that I chastise any of my students. It is a father's duty to raise his son to be a strong, useful citizen, and sometimes he must reprimand him for some mistake in order to teach him. But this harshness is only for his son's benefit. Similarly, you are all my spiritual children, and my only concern is to see that you all become strong in your devotion to Lord Krishna, so sometimes scolding may be there, but you should always remember that it is done with love and it is only for your benefit. You are an intelligent boy, and I want to train you very nicely so that you will be able to preach this great Krishna Conscious philosophy with conviction, and help to deliver all the spiritually-starving souls in this age. Therefore, you should take this chastisement as an opportunity to advance in Krishna Consciousness and not in any other way."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, April 12, 1972)
"I am glad to know that your confusion has been cleared up, and you have understood the reasons for my scolding you. This is the duty of the father or spiritual master, to simply chastise. By this chastisement, the disciple can realize his mistakes, and become strong and fixed up in devotional service.
In the verse that you refer to, Krishna says to Arjuna, 'Give up all varieties of religiousness, and just surrender unto Me; and in return I shall protect you from all sinful reactions. Therefore, you have nothing to fear.' This verse is actually the essence of the whole Bhagavad Gita. Throughout the Gita, Krishna describes the different processes of spiritual realization to Arjuna - karma yoga, jnana yoga, samkhya yoga - but at the end He says to give up all the different religious systems and just surrender to Him. This is the topmost yoga system, and is the goal of all the others. So this is our process. We don't perform any ritualistic ceremonies for some material gain or economic development, nor do we waste our time in mental speculation to try to find out the Lord with our tiny brain, nor do we perform so many difficult penances and austerities or gymnastic exercises for becoming one with God. We simply surrender to Krishna and His representative, and serve Him with the consciousness that 'My Lod, I am Yours. Please always keep me engaged in Your service and protect me from maya.' This is real religion, and is the natural position of the living being. I hope this will answer your questions."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, May 5, 1972)
"I am feeling the inclination for retiring into the background and simply translating my Srimad Bhagawatam, therefore I have delegated this GBC to manage everything and give me relief. So they shall give you all good guidance, and if there is anything further to know, it is stated that if one is always fully engaged in the devotional service of the Lord with full sincerity of attitude, beginning with the tongue, that Krishna will Himself appear to the devotee and all questions will be answered personally by Him. Of course, if there is some very urgent matter, I am always happy to hear from my beloved disciples.
So far your question about jealousy, spiritual jealousy means to think always that the service rendered by such and such devotee is so nice and pleasing to Krishna, so let me try harder to please Krishna than him and then Krishna will notice me also."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, June 13, 1972)
.
