Paris

Dear Srila Prabhupada,

France is known as a country founded by revolution, both political and intellectual. Her people are accustomed to war and godlessness. But you have introduced a different kind of revolution. After this, there will be no others. Generally, revolution is followed by reform; those who fight are obliged to rebuild the society they have destroyed. But after your war there will be no ruins, no destruction, no need to rebuild. You train your soldiers to leave everything intact: their target is the heart, not the home, and their weapon is knowledge of Krsna.

We, your disciples of Paris temple, consider our devotional services here unusually important. We are required to prepare ourselves for meeting heavy challenges, for it was here that the Western world's most influential literary figures and schools of philosophy took their birth. If the West is filled with impersonalism and voidism, it was here that these philosophies were structuralized and polished. But your piercing answers to such speculative ideologies and their propounders show the inevitable flaws.

Darwin and his anthropological tribe claim man to be a descendant of the apes. You reply, "Maybe your ancestors were apes; mine were philosophers. If we have descended from the apes, then why isn't there one human-like child born of an ape mother from among the thousands born every day?"

The Existentialists sometimes use the example of the chaotic movement of molecules in a pot of boiling water to show how life is absurd and how the universe has no order. You have taught us how order exists everywhere, and how one must simply have a proper perspective to see it. Looking closely, one can observe that heated molecules do move in a definite way, and that one molecule hit by another must move a certain distance and in a certain direction. Nothing is without meaning in Krsna's creation.

Empiric philosophers claim that it is not by reasoning that one arrives at truth. No scripture or philosophy, they say, can divine any truth more accurately than direct experience. The experience, they say, is more important than the word; the word is just a description after-the-fact of the experience. "That's nonsense," you reply. "Someone has said that? Let him experience my shoe. Then let him use his words to describe how pleasant it was."

If by learning perfectly the lessons you bestow, perfect in all respects, we can help elevate the French people from their extraordinary entanglement in maya, then our mission as your representatives will have succeeded. People here are floating in a sewer of sexual and mental agitation, fed by philosophies and politics that justify such a life. No one has ever shown them as much compassion as you. In time, with proper cultivation, they will come to appreciate what you have brought to them. Until then, please allow our small message of love and gratitude to speak for the thousands and millions of souls who will eventually know the bliss of Krsna Consciousness by your mercy.

Bhagavan dasa / Locanananda dasa / Visvambhara dasa / Bhūgarbha dasa / Yogesvara dasa / Harivilasa dasa / Indradumna dasa / Prabhava Vigraha dasa / Adhibhūta dasa / Dayamrgya dasa / Dvijavara dasa / Rasada dasa / Bhavasindhu dasa / Jagadadija dasa / Bhakta Sergio / Bhakta JoJo / Kapila dasa / Parasurama dasa / Bhakta Claude / Bhakta Pierre / Radhika-Ramana dasa / Bhakta Jean-Marie / Gurugaurahga dasa / Janardradi dasa / Sri Gopala dasa / Bhakta Luigi / Bhakta Carlo / Bhakta Alain / Vaisnava dasa / Arjuna dasa / Caitanya dasa / Jyotirmayee dasi / Alli Krsna dasi / Mondakini dasi / Krpamayi dasi / Annada dasi / Parijata dasi / Jaya Laksmi dasi / Krsna Parayana dasi / Bhaktin Helen / Bhaktin Mary Ann / Bhaktin Carol / Bhaktin Francine / Bhaktin Mara / Bhaktin Danielle / Aditi dasi / Bhaktin Maurine / Krsna Bhamini dasi / Manjari dasi

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