Letters from Srila Prabhupada Vol.1 1947-1969 (in pdf) - Krishna Path

ehaviour. He is a neophyte and so he may
commit so many mistakes, but Bon Ma­
haraj should not have committed such
mistake. It is not approved by Vaishnava
etiquettes.
Hoping you are both well.
Your ever-wellwisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
P. S. How is Janaki? Please offer blessings
to her as also to Valadeva his family,
Woomapati and Sankarsan. shall be glad
to hear from them. ACB
68-4-9
San Francisco
9th April, 1968
My Dear Satsvarupa,
Please accept my blessings. I thank
you very much for your letter dated
4/6/68, and have noted the contents. So
far your being given work, there is no
need for you to feel concern; you are already
helping on Srimad Bhagwatam, and
permanently you can do so. So you are
certainly included as worker and editor
for Srimad Bhagwatam already.
Certainly we are not going to say
these things about the negro people publicly;
we have no distinction between
black or white, or demon or demigod,
but at the same time, so long as one is demon
or demigod, we have to behave in
the proper way. Just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu;
He had no distinction between
a tiger and a man. He was so powerful
that He could convert even a tiger to
dance. But so far as we are concerned,
we should not imitate and go to some tiger
and try to make him dance! But still,
tiger is equally eligible like a man. So,
you can understand that these talks are
not for the public, as they have not got the
APRIL, 1968 379
ability to understand. Basically we have
not got hatred for anyone, but when one
is demoniac or atheistic, we should try to
avoid their company. A preacher's business
is to love God, to make friendship
with devotees, to enlighten the innocent,
and to avoid the demons. This principle
we shall follow. But in higher devotional
life, there is no such distinction. The topmost
devotee sees everything in Krishna,
and Krishna in everything. Generally, as
preachers, we are middle class devotees.
So we should not remain as neophyte
devotee. Neophyte devotee does not
know how to preach. He simply goes to
the temple, and offers everything with
devotion to the Deity, and he doesn't
know anything else. So our devotees of
the society should not remain in the neophyte
position; neither should they try to
imitate the topmost devotee. Best thing is
to remain in the via media of middle class
position, namely to love God, to make
friendship with devotees, and to enlighten
the innocent, and to avoid the demons.
These differences of body
according to Karma are there, but a devotee
divides them into the above groups,
and so we have to divide them into these
different groups and behave differently
with each of the groups. It is true that we
should not be attached to the differences
of material bodies, but practically, in
practical field, the behavior should be as
stated above.
So far standard Sanskrit transliteration,
that which Pradyumna is doing will be our
standard. The spelling should also be standard,
and based on his work. So far the
word "Kshatriya", this is the correct spelling.
All these discrepancies are happening
on account of my students being unaware of
Sanskrit language. Therefore, I requested
Pradyumna to learn Sanskrit very seriously.
He has got the aptitude, and I hope
he may come out very successful.
Yes, everyone of us should be ideal to