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

68-7-18
Montreal
14th July, 1968
My Dear Hayagriva,
Please accept my blessings. I am in
due receipt of your two letters dated July 6
and 8, 1968, respectively, along with one
letter from Kirtanananda Swami. My first
request to you is that as you are getting a
job again, in the Ohio State University,
you must accept it without hesitation. In
the Bhagavad Gita you have read that one
should fully utilize one's talent for the service
of the Lord. Arjuna was a military
man and he utilized his talent fully for
executing the purpose of Lord Sri
Krishna. So, by the Grace of Krishna, you
have got some educational talent, and
wherever there is opportunity to get some
money, you must accept it, but spend the
money for Krishna. As you are projecting
to develop New Vrindaban, you will require
money and I would advise you to
purchase land there instead of taking on
lease. If you want to take on lease, then it
must be on long period, say 99 years; but
first hand lease is better, that is from the
government. I do not understand what is
the position of Mr. Rose there, but I shall
advise you not to make any big plans on
the land of others. There is a Bengali
proverb that if one is a poor man, he can
go to some friends' house and accept food
and then come back, but one should never
accept residence in other's house. That is
very inconvenient. Of course, for a Sannyasin
like us, we can live anywhere and
everywhere, rather we shoud not have our
own place. But for the New Vrindaban
project, I would advise you to purchase
land as much as you can because it appears
that the atmosphere and situation is
very nice there. Another thing, I shall not
advise you to purchase horses for conveyance.
It will be a botheration for you, because
now you have not got sufficient
assistance. If you keep horses you have to
JULY, 1968 463
take care for them and for a little convenience
of transportation, you have to take
so much botheration to keep the horse fit.
I am so pleased to learn that you have
got a Deity Room and you are performing
jointly Kirtan, assisted by a newcomer,
Harold Olmstead. He may be called
Hrishikesh, there is no objection, but generally
a Holy Name after Lord Krishna is
offered to a devotee after his initiation.
Anyway, you can call him Hrishikesh, and
the same name will be continued after his
initiation also. In the meantime, let him
be trained up in our line of activities to observe
the rules and regulations and chant
Hare Krishna jointly with you.
In your letter of the 8th instant you
write to say, "but it would be difficult to
spread the Mahamantra to the inhabitants
here." Our principal aim is to preach the
importance of chanting the Holy Names
of God. And if there is no such opportunity
then the place will be specifically
meant for persons who want to retire from
activities. To retire from activities is not
very good idea for the conditioned soul. I
have got very good experience, not only in
our country but also in your country, that
this tendency of retiring from activities
pushes one down to the platform of laziness,
and gradually to the ideas of the hippies.
One should always remain active in
Krishna's service, otherwise the strong
maya will catch him and engage him in her
service. Our constitutional position being
rendering service, we cannot stop activity.
So the New Vrindaban may not be
turned into a place of retirement, but
some sort of activities must go on there. If
there is good prospective land, we should
produce some grains, flours, and fruits,
and keep cows, so that the inmates may
have sufficient work and facility for advancing
in Krishna Consciousness. In India
actually the Vrindaban has now
become a place of the unemployed, and
beggars. Kirtanananda has already seen