Letter to: Dr. W.H. Wolf-Rottkay
Honolulu 18 June, 1975 75-06-18
My dear Dr. Wolf-Rottkay,
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 14, 1975 and have noted the contents.
In this connection Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, purusah prakrti-stho hi bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan karanam guna sango'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu [Bg. 13.22]. Purusa means the living entity, or the soul. He is subjected to be infected by the modes of material nature. There are 3 modes of material nature, sattva-guna, raja-guna, tama-guna. And when they are mixed up, they become 3 x 3 = 9, and 9 x 9 = 81, and in each quality, there are millions of forms. Therefore the total number of forms is 8,400,000.
So, the diseases are there and the forms of disease are also there. Material form means diseased form. Therefore, one has to change this formdeath. And he carries with him the infection and he develops another disease. In this way, the soul although part and parcel of God in diseased condition, they are forced to change body. That is transmigration of the soul from one body to another.
To be more clear, the disease is there. Just as the Small-pox disease is there. One has to become diseased, being infected. Similarly, the forms of the body are there. One has to infect the form and it develops. karanam guna sango'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. Because he is infecting different diseased forms, therefore he is developing different forms of body. There is no such case of Small-pox changing into Malaria. Small-pox is Small-pox, and Malaria is Malaria. By the desire of the living entity, he becomes infected with a certain disease or body. Krishna Consciousness is the vaccine for all the diseases (different forms of material bodies).
Krishna says,
mam ca yo 'vyabhicarena bhakti-yogena sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhuyaya kalpate [Bg. 14.26] Brahma-bhuyaya is the immune stage or Krishna Conscious stage when one is always fixed in Krishna. When one reaches this perfectional stage he no longer has to accept these different types of diseases, or bodies.
Regarding the German translation work, if you feel difficulty because there is no good scholar there in Germany in our temple, then do whatever you can. Do not feel pressured. Whatever you can do is very much appreciated by me.
I hope this meets you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/ps
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