“Shrila Satswarupa’s Vyasa Puja”

BY: HASYA MUKHI DEVI DASI

Dec 12, 2010 — USA (SUN) —

Holy Offerings You Didn’t Get to Read

A very happy 72nd to the Go Swami Go! This year the Holy Birthday Celebration of His Divine Grace Shrila Satswarupa Goswami Gurupada, a one-time “zonal acharya” for ISKCON and now “retired guru”, will be held on Dec. 18th in Philadelphia. We know all the readers of the Sun wish him well and are eager to share his special day with him. What devotee would not want to be there with him, perhaps even picketing the event outside and talking to the press! This year, we’ve found a few offerings that may not be read at the ceremony, so we’ve decided to include them here to spread the joy.

“To Shrila Gurupada”
From Bhakta Phredd

O Literary Giant,
It is the Day of Worship for the Vantasi,

Once, you had an entire army of researchers for the Lilamrita project.
You simply compiled the information, burned their research,
And, in a great bloodless coup
While the world was grieving the loss of a pure devotee,
You declared yourself acharya as the Great Biographer.
Giving not a nod to those who served the project selflessly.

But we knew you were the acharya.
Your business cards and letterhead said so.

You went on to nearly foul the entire sampradaya with insane ramblings,
In the guise of pure devotional service.
You remained silent as your sannyasa widow
Was brutally beaten in New Vrindavana.
For fearlessly speaking out about you;
Thereby giving a new meaning to ex-wife beater.

The spiritual mask which you don,
Is an excuse for your deplorable lack of talent.
It is a poor façade for your cold and calculating interior.

You helped create the rittwics
Because rittwicism appeared to be the only solution to degraded swamis.
And you also created obstacles,
For sincere devotees who, unlike you, would rise as genuine representatives,
Who serve Prabhupada by preaching Krishna Consciousness As It Is.

On this day, we hope that you will come to your senses,
And stop trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes
With pretended saintliness, like some tinsel pope.
We join together to pray, O Gurupada, that you
Please get down from the balsa wood high horse,
That you ride,
And clean the floor and pots like everyone else.

~Bhakta Phredd

“Dear Gurupada”

From Bhaktin Nancy

Dear Gurupada,
On this day, let us not just remember you,
But all the other Vaishnavas, too,
Whose lives you ruined.
Which you did when you demanded feet worship,
With flower petals and rosewater,
From your very peers.

Let us recall the married lady disciple you ruined,
After eight years of internet seduction.
What of her tears, Satswa Mighty Rupa?

By pretending to be her Guru,
You destroyed her life with your impotent folly.
And still yet today you don the color of renunciation,
So that other poor fools can wash your feet.
On this day let me offer you a bar of soap,
So you can go wash your own feet.

Thus, on this day, let us recall,
How upon annihilating,
The lives of so many,
You called your
Tryst with vomit eating a “bump in the road”.
And then went about your life,
Your free meal ticket held tight,
While others starved.

~ Bhaktin Nancy

“Jai Shrila Gurupada”
Bhakta Ramesh

Jai Shrila Gurupud
You landed with a thud.
One who is nothing but a fraud
Why does he demand this laud?
OK, so my poetry is terse,
But yours is far worse,
With your free verse.
That you freely share
Like gum you’re stuck in our hair.
You wrote the worst book in the world,
Chotu, I read it and hurled.
Instead of some literary rant,
Why not put away your pen and simply chant?

-Bhakta Ramesh

“I Saw A Movie”
Bhakta Rinaldo

O Gurupada,
I saw a movie with you in it.
It was called “At Home With Satswarupa Maharaja.”
It was a DVD you made about your art studio in Ireland.
In your very own private bungalow
Where only select devotees were allowed,
For your holy darshan once a week.
Right in the film you made figures of wooden women,
To lust over as you garlanded them with necklaces,
While your “disciples” were out begging for you
On street corners.
Preaching your invisible glories.
You and your whatever-he-was both looked into the camera,
With amply dilated prescription drug eyes.
Fortunately, the Irish devotees finally saw through you,

And, recognizing your terrible art,
Your lousy writing
And phony sannyasa,
For what they were,
They threw you out on your ear.

But you were undaunted,
Even today, you continue to sign books for fools.
At gatherings where suckers congregate.

Let me offer
My sympathies for every art critic and book reviewer,
Who ever was forced
Into the disgusting experience
Of seeing your worthless garbage.

I just hope that the DVD of your movie surfaces on You Tube,
So that everyone all over the world
Can know what I am talking about.
You stand as the best example of exactly what not to be.
And a lesson for others,
Who might be tempted into
Ripping off innocent devotees.

So turn off your television, Satswarupa,
You watch too much football.
You have described yourself as a “writer of pieces.”
Pieces of what??
$#!+
I’d hate to have to say it like it is.

~Bhakta Rinaldo

“A Multi-faceted Personality”
Bhaktin Heidi

O Shrila Gurupada,
When I read your wondrous Chhotu the Mouse books,
I become positive that you are Hans Christian Anderson incarnate.
When I read of your road-y adventures, you become Jack Kerouac.
When I read your poetry, I see the great Allen Ginsburg before me.
When I see your art, I see Marc Chagall or Matisse or Picasso.
When I read you narrations like Radio Days,
You smack of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woobegon Days.
When I read your novel Sanitorium,
You sound like some sicko wacked-out hack,
Have you ever done anything original-
Other than your unique methods of boring your audience;
And ripping off others for you own benefit?

Through all your multi-faceted-ness, I wonder who you really are.
And if your psychiatrist knows that there is a difference
Between multi-faceted and bi-polar.
While we wish to know the difference
Between a retired diksha guru,
And a retarded one.

~Bhaktin Heidi

2010 Dec 14th VYASA PUJA INFORMATION
from SDGonline.org

You are invited to attend the functions starting with kirtana at 9:30 A.M. on December 18 2010, at Philadelphia South Street temple above Govinda’s Restaurant, 1408 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, at the corner of Broad Street and South Street in Philadelphia.

Volunteers are invited to help in the kitchen. If you are interested in helping, please contact Temple President, Haryasva dasa (tele.: 267-242-4805; email: govindasvegetarian@gmail.com). For more information, updates and detailed schedule please email vyasa.puja.2010@sdgonline.org or call Visnu tele: 215-844-3229 or cell: 267-307-5770.
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INSANE RAMBLINGS FROM SATS’ WEBSITE

R e s t i n g – a t – M e n d o c i n o

Anecdotes and Poems of a Patient at a Private Health Care Unit

by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

(Download in PDF)

Chapter 1

Herbie Hancock plays “Speak Like a Child.” “Out of the mouths of babes come gems.” I am the only patient here. Three caretakers endure as my nurses around the clock. They are my friends. Nara gave me a full body massage today. Otherwise, I rested and slept in bed, couldn’t take my walk. I asked him to read to me out loud from The Dark Cloud of Unknowing, but he had some trouble with it. He kept wanting to compare each point in the Catholic mysticism with the Krishna conscious siddhanta. The points did coincide almost identically, but I preferred not to play that game: “If you already read this, then why are you reading again?” It was nourishing, but you have to be confident in what Prabhupada says. I liked hearing some different angles that enliven you, refresh you in explaining mysticism. Sometimes some different words are used, but the goal is the same: always love Krishna and think of Him at every moment, no matter what you are doing.

Slow always man? No he’s not saying
that but don’t keep driving too long at it.
Just when I finished so many
big books in a rush, and then I’ve
thought what to do—thought of mysticism but then Doctor
said, “Stop all books and everything, just rest.”

No passion to plot no passion to shift plot, invent a
character twist a pretzel from the
sixteenth century to the eighteenth century and
push, push to prove you are a good
boy who gets 4.0 on
the exams even though he wore flashy
clothes.

Experimenting like Gertrude, and
“the story of how she bowed to her brother.
Who has whom as his.
Did she bow to your brother. When she saw him.
Any long story. Of how she bowed her brother.
Sometimes not.
She bowed to her brother. Accidentally. When she
saw him
often as well. As not.
She did not. Bow to her brother. When she. Saw
him.
This could happen. Without. Him
everybody finds it in a sentence that pleases them
this is a story included in. How she bowed to her
brother. Could another brother have a grand daughter.
No. But. He could have a grand son.
This has nothing to do with the other brother of
whom it is said that we read she bowed to her brother
there could be (human?) and reading and
learning.”
(from Gertrude Stein’s poem She bowed to her brother)

#2
“If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I
told him.
Would he like it? Would Napoleon and would Napoleon
would would he like it.
If Napoleon if I told him if I told him if Napoleon.
Would he like it if I told him if I told him if
Napoleon. Would he like it if Napoleon if Napoleon
if I told him. If I told him if Napoleon if Napoleon if
I told him if I told him would he like it would he
like it if I told him.”
(From If I Told Him: A Completed portrait of Picasso, by Gertrude Stein[1])
I am not writing like her
but use Krishna and Caitanya in
every poem and you’ll get a respectable
“pass” mark for sure. But do not be a
braggart or ladder climber.
Even if no one reads mine he said, and he really meant it.

Rest, a caretaker looks in the door taps
his wristwatch and chases me back to bed. Good I am glad.

I think I should be elected president because I believe in the first person singular. Ultimately He is Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His parts and parcels, primarily Srimati Radharani—are all His expansions. All living beings are His parts, first persons singular. I do not believe we merge into an impersonal void or Oneness. This is verified in Bhagavad-gita: “Never was there a time when I did not exist nor you nor all these kings, nor will there be a time when they will cease to exist.” Patricia Hampl quotes Anne Frank: “I hear the approaching thunder that one day will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions.” Hampl goes on to state, “It was in the homeliness of her diary and the vision she achieved there that she came to be the voice of the holocaust…. Knowing the fragility of life as it faces the brutality of racial hatred and rigid ideology of all kinds, feeling the suffering of millions, intuiting one’s own imminent destruction—is this what the frail first first person pronoun can carry on its back? . . . We trust the first person now more than we ever did—more than we ever had reason to. It is not a trust literature will let us soon abandon. That singular voice—it not only has the evidence, it is the evidence.” (From the Introduction to “One Blood,” Alaska Quarterly Review[2])

We don’t forget weeds falling stardust I never never
the dark I clear see in bed. I see leaves with me in
bed we were outvoted. They said stay in
bed, receive visitors.

I spun around and not knowing were I
was neither did they did they only a few where they were in
the Concertorium where they usually are more well
behaved in classical music than at Oberlin.

Oh I’ll never get better. Maybe if I wore nice
clothes. “You can’t wear a tie on the West Coast,
that’s not the dress code here.” In a supermarket
a boy bagger in NYC wears a clip-on
bow tie. But California it’s open shirt.

No don’t doubt about it but she will. Bush will win and Heinz
Kerry will be relieved to return to her billions.

Buy the country, cheat the voters and kill
the countries who menace our stars and stripes.

We have no flag but—ISKCON? Yes the flag
of our master Prabhupada who comes down from
the parampara on a misty or bright

night. He is pretty. He said there is enough
ugliness and pain in this world so he wants
to add beauty, Tad Dameron, picture of seabirds
on the beach but
no human persons—the birds are “soul mating.”

Soul mating is something different—I call
from atma
to Super-atma, I have been taught,
it can be transformed from the beautiful
as the most beautiful in this world.

The more jivas keep their talking forgetful
of God. Because if they
tell the wrong persons they will be killed.

Learn the secret and how to pass it on to—
first you must be qualified and then
pass it on from the silent speech to
inner speech of the one with adhikari how to learn these
slowly, I must learn to say NO. I learned to say no. I pray to learn
to say yes inside.

The first point is our recent major discovery that my headaches are due to exertion. The second major recent discovery is that I agree to slow down now. The third point we are working on in consultation is whether I should slow down on visitors.

I discovered, however, that if you slow down in bed, it doesn’t mean your mind slows down. God no. It goes and goes and goes. John Barrymore, Jr., in the cowboy movies, can’t race faster or the Japanese single’s error, or those who collect money for President Bush. My mind goes round and round.

Last night I dreamt of girls I had romances with. In a surprise upset, the one I thought I was supposed to love was the underdog and I didn’t love her. Suddenly one came forth whom I hardly ever thought of, although she was the most beautiful. She was pining after me, coming after me. But all my actual romances have been impossible in my life. That’s a true story. I came to that conclusion. They’ve all been impossible for one reason or another.

Drifting, drifting on the boat, the huge boat where the mind tries to slow down on the motors, but they never slow down and therefore the headaches, which may still be due to being too busy, can’t slow down.

How can you slow down to meditate? How can you always think of Krishna? It is nice that the cat is in bed with you. I don’t think I’ll get up, although it would be good to walk, I suppose. Accentuate the positive. Accentuate. Overdo it. Extend. Don’t rush too hard, you’ll get a headache. You can do. We’ll be sorry with you.

But there’s no exertion that doesn’t bring on one.

Maybe practicing the presence of God. But I’ll have to read it again. How do you do that?

Bhima’s song, which he liked to sing to his Guru Maharaja. “It never entered my mind.”

It Never Entered My Mind

Once I laughed when I heard you saying
That I’d be playing solitaire
Uneasy in my easy chair
It never entered my mind

And once you told me I was mistaken
That I’d awaken with the sun
And order orange juice for one
It never entered my mind
You had what I lack, myself
Now I even have to scratch my back myself

Once you warned me that if you scorned me
I’d say a lonely prayer again
And wish that you were there again
To get into my hair again
It never entered my mind

Once you warned me that if you scorned me
I’d say a lonely prayer again
And wish that you were there again
To get into my hair again
It never entered my mind
(Lyrics by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rogers, 1940)

Just back off and don’t do anything. Maybe someone could read to me. But the sister in frilly dress, 1770s, after America became a free country. But then they had to fight the Civil War around 1860, one of the worst of wars. Battlewheel ship on the Mississippi. Sister read to me the same book.

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Lest we forget, hereunder is the official statement on Satswarupa by the GBC, etc.

-Hasya Mukhi devi

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami Agreement for Continuing Service in ISKCON

From Dandavats Jan. 2008

10,043 Views » Satsvarupa dasa Goswami Agreement for Continuing Service in ISKCON

The following points formulated by a committee of ISKCON devotees who were delegated by the GBC Executive Committee to liaise with Satsvarupa Maharaja regarding his service in ISKCON. The following conclusions have been approved by the GBC EC.

* SDG will continue as a sannyasi in a low key profile and will assume the status of “retired” diskha guru. This means SDG will no longer give initiation nor present himself as an initiating guru. The GBC would like to encourage SDG to participate in Srila Prabhupada’s movement according to his capacity, but he will do so humbly, giving classes and traveling, but not accepting high-profile service. Disciples may refer questions to the monitor committee (see below).

* SDG has agreed to have his future publications peer reviewed prior to publication or posting.

* A monitoring committee will be formed to monitor SDG’s progress and compliance with the GBCEC approved recommendations. This committee will serve for one year and at that time provide a report to the GBC. Malati dasi, Ravindra Swarupa Prabhu and Giriraja Swami have agreed to serve on the committee (others may be added). The contact info for the monitor committee is: monitor@pamho.net. This committee will monitor his progress in accordance with these recommendations. This will include:

a) Regular contact with a committee member with a follow-up written report to the others.
b) Open door policy for godbrothers who want to visit SDG’s ashram in Delaware.
c) Report on pastoral activities including following the regulative principles, chanting, traveling to preach, receiving guests, programs, writing letters and books for disciples, visiting the Holy Dhamas, etc.

Closure: This case concerning SDG’s relationship with Pranada is closed and not subject to reinterpretation or reopening as long as the monitor committee report indicates compliance with these measures.

Letter of Satsvarupa Das Goswami

Dear Maharajas and Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I understand that many devotees still have questions about my past behavior. They doubt why I continue to have a position as an ISKCON leader. Therefore I would like to clarify my falldown in 2002, my recovery, service, and relationship to ISKCON.

First of all I would like to apologize to Pranada and Nagaraja Prabhus, whom I deeply hurt and whose trust I betrayed. I genuinely apologize to all my disciples, my godbrothers and godsisters, and all members of ISKCON. I am beginning to understand the depth of the damage my behavior has caused for everyone, and the compounding of the damage by initially understating the matter.

The reaction to this fall has been devastating to the spiritual lives of so many devotees and created much mistrust in myself. As I have held a position of high honor in ISKCON my misbehavior naturally throws doubts upon other leaders in the movement. This is a disservice to ISKCON and its leaders. For this, too, I apologize sincerely. I have been praying that Lord Krsna and Srila Prabhupada forgive me. I realize that many Vaishnavas want me to be transparent and accept responsibility for my actions, so I am opening my heart to them in an attempt to bring closure to this sad chapter in my history.

When I first wrote about my relationship with Pranada Dasi, I understated the length and seriousness of it. I was frightened and wanted to protect my reputation, Pranada’s reputation, and not cause unnecessary damage to the faith of many devotees who counted on me to provide a proper example of Krsna consciousness. In retrospect this was a mistake, and I hope this letter serves to clarify matters.

As a young sannyasi I developed a secret attraction for Pranada Dasi in 1978 in Los Angeles. Later, I gave her and her husband at the time, Vadiraja Dasa, second initiation. I never revealed this attraction to her or anyone. In 1980 when Pranada Dasi’s marriage to Vadiraja dasa failed I suggested she move to Gita-nagari. Sometime later she began managing Gita-nagari Press, my tape ministry, and assisting me in a secretarial role as my typist for letters to my disciples and other duties required to fulfill my GBC responsibilities. From 1980 to 1985, due to my ongoing attraction to her, I instructed her, as her spiritual master, to do many things that were quite difficult for her. These included moving away from Gita-nagari, leaving her son behind, and getting married (I had previously insisted she vow never to remarry). After she married and moved away from my home zone my attraction subsided. Therefore, my attraction lasted about seven years.

In December of 2001, I was at a medical and spiritual low point in my life. I had wanted to tell Pranada Dasi, before I died of my old feelings for her because this was a part of my life. Naively I told her of my prior attachment to her. I did not anticipate the result of my confession, which was a revival of the old feelings. Thus began an illicit and intimate romantic phone, e-mail, and letter exchange lasting over a year. During this year she also visited me three times in Ireland, and during one such visit, there was physical intimacy.

During this time I was diagnosed with anticipatory anxiety disorder. Pranada became involved with my care team since she has some expertise in handling this disorder. Of course, this was a formula for further falldown.

However, my relationship with Pranada Dasi wasn’t the sum total of my spiritual life being at a low point. I was exhausted from the constant migraine pain and reaction to the doctor’s supervised medical regimen. This low point also manifested in several ways including reduced japa.

My simple spiritual analysis of this fall is that Krsna saw some pride in me. As a spiritual master, sannyasi, and man I failed miserably before Prabhupada and Krsna.

In November 2002 we decided to end the relationship.

The way I dealt with Pranada over the years has shaken her to the core and left her physically and emotionally devastated. I am chagrined by my behavior towards her and hope that this letter of my taking responsibility is a step toward her healing. Since then, I have undergone four-and-a-half years of professional psychological counseling, continuing medical psychiatric care, and spiritual introspection. Over the years my medicine intake has been reduced by the doctor, so I don’t suffer from the side effects anymore—lethargy, memory loss, confusion, etc. For the sake of honesty and spiritual improvement, I feel it is necessary to make some adjustments in my service and position in ISKCON.

I am back in America (Delaware), living in a humble asrama with several men and devotee neighbors. We have a regular morning program and chanting hours. There is facility for devotees to visit, and I welcome this in a scheduled way as my improved health is allowing. I have felt the importance of senior association for my continuing recovery. I have established an open-door policy, which may be contrary to my reclusive nature, but I think it is important to implement. I will start visiting the holy dhamas in India as of January to beg forgiveness and accelerate my purification. I will occasionally travel to see devotees who may not otherwise get a chance to visit me, but in general I will remain retired from the forefront of ISKCON preaching. I will now voluntarily implement a peer review system for my publishing efforts—presently, I am continuing the series A Poor Man Reads the Bhagavatam, which should go on for the rest of my years.

I will no longer give initiation nor present myself as an initiating guru. I would encourage those who wish to take shelter of senior Vaishnavas in ISKCON for their spiritual growth to do so. Those who wish to continue as my disciples can hear from me through my books and website, through personal correspondence, and whenever possible, in person.

I am now sixty-eight years old. I wish to continue my recommitment to the sannyasa-asrama that Srila Prabhupada assigned to me.

In closing, I hope this communication will help heal the wounds and serve as a warning to others who may become lax in their Krsna consciousness as I did.

Your servant,
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

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Letter of Clarification by Brahmatirtha dasa

January 12, 2008

Dear Vaishnavas,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

From September to December 2007 I served with several other devotees on a GBC-mandated committee deputed to investigate and make recommendations concerning allegations of improprieties on the part of Satsvarupa dasa Goswami.

Since Satsvarupa dasa Goswami wrote his letter of apology several weeks ago, I have received several inquiries from devotees with questions about the process and the mission of our committee and the GBC Executive Committee (EC). I will share my understanding of the context of our Committee with the caveat that I am speaking for myself rather than the entire Committee or the GBC EC.

Some devotees had questioned whether the 2002 illicit liaison had been properly investigated. In August 2007 Pranada wrote a letter of elucidation to her local GBC and ISKCON Resolve. The Alachua GBC and ISKCON Resolve referred this matter to the GBC EC, which formed our Investigation Committee to investigate the situation and make recommendations. I served on this committee.

We interviewed witnesses knowledgeable about what had happened and corroborated the facts with Satsvarupa Goswami and Pranada Dasi. Vaishnava precedents were reviewed, and after much consideration our committee agreed that seeking transparency from a person in a position of authority in our Society is a service to Srila Prabhupada and his movement and must be done if we are to maintain ISKCON’s integrity, honesty, and the high moral standards Srila Prabhupada set for us. We also thought that transparency was important to SDG’s followers due to the weighty nature of the guru-disciple relationship.

One difficult part of developing the recommendations for the EC was in regards to Satsvarupa Goswami’s ashrama. Some felt that his deviation from the sannyasa code of behavior warranted a change of ashram. SDG, however, felt strongly that he wanted to maintain the order given to him by Srila Prabhupada, and he indicated that he had returned to the sannyasa mindset for some time now. There was much back and forth, with ultimately the feeling being that with the various restrictions in place that SDG had volunteered to follow, Srila Prabhupada would give him another chance.

The other difficult part in developing the recommendations relates to Satsvarupa dasa Goswami’s position as diksa-guru. After much discussion and consideration it was decided that Satsvarupa dasa Goswami will assume the position “retired diksa guru” and will not present himself as an ISKCON initiating guru.

To ensure transparency, as a crucial condition of Satsvarupa dasa Goswami remaining in his sannyasa position, our committee asked Satsvarupa dasa Goswami to write a letter of apology and explanation to the Society.

The committee concluded by making recommendations to the GBC EC, and both Satsvarupa Goswami and Pranada dasi agreed with the recommendations. The full list of recommendations and Satsvarupa dasa Goswami’s letter is available at: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=5000. According to the GBC-EC the case on this issue is closed as long as the monitor committee reports compliance with the recommendations.

In her letter to the GBC, Pranada Dasi apologized sincerely to all of Satsvarupa Maharaja’s disciples and to the entire Vaishnava community for her misbehavior. Though she has given me permission to share this apology, she chooses not to speak publicly on this topic out of respect for Satsvarupa Goswami’s followers. From her letter of August 2007:

“I pray the Vaisnavas, especially Satsvarupa dasa Goswami’s disciples, will forgive me for my serious offenses and transgressions. I am deeply sorry for my behavior. I daily live with deep feelings of repentance.”

As Satsvarupa Goswami has explained, a Monitor Committee has been formed to liaison with the Vaishnava community and to work with Satsvarupa Maharaja during his one-year probationary period. They can be reached at monitor@pamho.net.

Please note that an incomplete rough draft of the recommendations and Satsvarupa Goswami’s letter was sent out from Satsvarupa Goswami’s office to his followers, and without his intent was published on the Sampradaya Sun website. The final and approved document was published on both Dandavats and Chakra.

I hope this note assists the Vaishnava community in understanding why Satsvarupa dasa Goswami issued his letter at this time.

Your servant,
Brahmatirtha dasa