Letter to: Dinanatha N. Mishra
Laguna Beach 26 July, 1975 75-07-26
My Dear Dinanatha:
Please accept my greetings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated June 27, 1975 and have noted the contents. Regarding seeing your book on Lord Ramacandra partly translated into English, I am very much eager to see it. I am returning to India by the month of October, therefore there is no hurry. When I return I shall be glad to see your book either in Bombay, Vrindaban, or Calcutta.
I do not take any royalty or any profit out of it. Similarly if you agree not to take any profit or royalty then our Bhaktivedanta Book Trust will publish your book on Lord Ramacandra.
I have a great desire to translate the Valmiki Ramayana because that is authorized. Tulsi das' Charit manas is already translated into English by some clergyman, but I do not exactly know his name.
I therefore suggested in my last letter that now you are in ripe old age, so you can accept vanaprastha life which is your duty as you are born in a brahmana family. According to our Vedic principle a brahmana is supposed to accept the four asramas, namely brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha, and sannyasa. Others are not do not accept sannyasa, but a person who is a brahmana must accept sannyasa at the end of his life.
So I would suggest that you now retire from family life and accept at least vanaprastha order of life keeping your wife with you as assistant and fully engaged in translating the Vedic literature as far as possible.
It appears that in the Western countries there is a great demand for real knowledge of Vedic literature. So you are a learned scholar both in English and Hindi, and you can do this completely devoted to the service of Lord Ramacandra.
I have opened many temples all over the world, numbering 100. Enclosed herewith are some of the photos of some of the Deities in some of the temples.
Very recently we have established our temple in Vrindaban at a cost of 50 lakhs of Rupees or more. The Governor of U.P., Dr. Channa Reddy was present for two days for the opening ceremony. All the goswamis and sannyasis like Akhananda Swami all attended the ceremony. We have got a guest house there containing about 80 rooms, and the recent report is that not less than 500 men are coming daily to visit the temple. Prasad is being distributed to the poor, and others are purchasing prasada (pakki) to the extent of Rs. 100/- per day. We are selling our books also.
Now I wish to establish some temple of Ramacandra, Sita Ram. Of course it depends on the mercy of Lord Ramacandra.
More when we meet. I hope this meets you in good health.
Your ever well wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami N.B. What is the criminal charge against a public man who decorates himself as D. Lit., D.D. etc?
ACBS/bs Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/letters/laguna_beach/july/26/1975/dinanatha_n_mishra Previous: Letter to: Aksayananda -- Los Angeles 26 July, 1975 Next: Letter to: Niranjana -- Los Angeles 26 July, 1975
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