Los Angeles
14 May, 1970
70-05-14
c/o George Harrison
Oxfordshire, England
My Dear Syamasundara
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 7th May, 1970, written on Hare Krishna stationery of George Harrison. My hearty thanks are to George Harrison because now he is chanting Hare Krishna so enthusiastically. May Krishna bless him more and more, and he may advance in Krishna consciousness.
So as suggested by you I am deleting the words “of the famous Beatles”, and simply putting his name and his present transcendental change by chanting Hare Krishna. In the Preface the one paragraph is being replaced by the following words, suggested by him.
“If there is a God, I want to see Him. It’s pointless to believe in something without proof, and Krishna Consciousness and meditation are methods where one can actually obtain ‘God perception.’ You can actually see God, and hear Him, play with Him. And He is actually there, actually with you.”
Regarding your invitation to visit you in England, in this connection you can read my circular letter recently sent to all the Presidents. But when there is absolute necessity, there will be no difficulty.
It is very encouraging to hear that you have converted the very nice chapel to a splendid Temple and you have arranged to hold public kirtana one night a week in Henley.
Please continue to expand these developments because the outlook is very bright. Yes, the village folk are not so much contaminated. The great English poet, Mr. Cowper, said, “Town is made by man, and village is made by God.”
So if from your center the surrounding villages are drawn to the attention of Krishna consciousness simply by the distribution of Prasadam and chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra, it will be a great success. It is not necessary always to be officially initiated, but if they participate in the group chanting of Hare Krishna Mantra and taking of Prasadam weekly or daily as it is possible, that will fulfill our mission.
Thank you very much for sending me the two Apple posters for “GOVINDA”, it is a very good advertisement and I have suggested that it may be shown in the temple bookstore here. I have noted the french newsclippings also and they are very much encouraging, so I am satisfied that everything is going on well there.
Regarding your question about the term “unmanifest” in the Bhagavad-gita 8/21, there are two words in Sanskrit—aprakata which means “unmanifest” or “nonmanifest” and prakata which means “manifest”. Krishna’s Lila in Vrndavana is prakata or manifest Lila, and the same is going on eternally in the spiritual realm which is known as aprakata or nonmanifest.
Actually Krishna’s planet and Krishna’s pastimes are going on eternally, and the same is manifested before the conditioned souls at certain intervals, that is to say once in one day of Brahma, exactly as the sun is visible for 12 hours once in a 24 hour cycle of day and night.
When the sun is visible it is called prakata, and when the sun is not visible that is called aprakata or unmanifested. Nonmanifested therefore does not mean there is no existence, but the terms are used in relation to the visibility or nonvisibility to the limited conditioned souls.
Krishna by His causeless mercy manifests Himself along with His form, name, qualities, entourage, and pastimes in order to attract the conditioned souls to the eternal blissful life of knowledge. Thus by understanding Krishna in His manifest Lila one is attracted to His eternal Lila, and that is the highest success of life which is explained in the latter part of the verse
yam prapya na nivartante
tat dhama paramam mama
“Going, no one ever returns from that, My Supreme Abode.”
Please offer my blessings to Sriman George and all the other Prabhus there. I am marking that George has the serving spirit, and that is making him advance gradually.
Hope this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
ACBS:db
SPRINGTIME FOR HARI’S SON
At the time the letter was writen, Shyamsundar stayed in George’s house at Friar Park and helped him with a few new devotees to renovate George’s great magic Mansion.
Here a few lines out of the nice book ”Here Comes The Sun” by Yogesvara das.
”Springtime 1970 arrived. Frair Park blossomed into a methaphor for George’s exploration of the spirit: a place of discovery that was wild at first, then yielded its secrets one by one. Occasionally he would still come across a Frankie Crisp homily carved on a stone or on a rusty old plaque, like this ( Scan Not a friend with a microscopic glass, you know his faults – now let the foibles pass ) George savoured Frank Crisp’s oddball bits of wisdom and incorporated them into his songs.
Another homily says ( Do not stay of the grass ). Sometimes George would sit on a wall or on the steps to his house, guitar in hand, playing on of these new tunes.
What’s another word for “contaminated” George called out. ”Polluted”?
Shyamsundar ventured. Yeah, ”polluted” George said. He added the word to a verse he was composing ( Not Guilty )and streched his voice higher and higher until it cracked and he shook his head at his own silliness. George talked about how being a rock star wasn’t glamorous any more, Gurudas remembered, and how he didn’t like hanging out with rock musicians because they were looking for ”unending pleasure“. He mentioned that really good friends like Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan were more in the mode of goodness, and so those were the people he surrounded himself with.
He did say how he was feeling empty and that ”that’s what happens in material life” any how he didn’t want to make any ”nonsense records” any more. We agreed that a soul without God is on the wheel of birth and death like a hamster going round and round in circles, ( Circles ) not getting anyplace. While circulating in the material world, George wore around his neck a thin string of beads carved from India’s sacread Tulsi bush.
At every glance in the mirror, the discret collar reminded him of the self within himself and helped him maintain that awareness throughout the day. While beginners in the Krishna tradition wore one string of Tulsi beads, initiated disciples wore three. George wore two strands, positioning himself as serious about Krishna but not exclusively so. He was keeping his spiritual options open.”
Few lines out of the book ”Here comes the sun” giving us a little inside of the wonderful pastimes with George Harrison. If you dear reader would like to dive deeper into the magical mystery tour of George Harrison’s life, than you may click yourself into http://harigeorgeson.com/ – there you find more information about his songs and his pastimes with the devotees of Lord Krishna!
Do you know a secret…
Well let me tell you one i know, George Harrison by heart was a devoted gardener, he loved to hang out at his garden in Friar Park and in his garden in Hawaii.
There are so many storys about his love for gardening, and as we know, this love can come to everyone. Here few lines i found in ”Here comes the Sun”, the book that shows George’s love for the devotees and for Sri Krishna!
”From time to time, George walked down the hill from Friar Park to a nearby nursery, and sometimes to the home market where Konrad Engbers had a stall. George would wait in the line and take his turn, not expecting any preferential treatment.
Seeing his friend, Engbers would take a break and the two would sit in a nearby cafe in their dirty overalls and talk about herbs and plants. ”Such a kind man“, Engbers recalled, ”With no airs and graces – a man with a truly big heart.”
At other times, George roamed the grounds of Friar Park, keeping his own company, singing to himself or chanting the name of the Lord.
Depending on his mood, he hoisted one of two flags over the tower on his castle: an Om symbol on good days, a skull-and-crossbones on others.”
We see a man who was a hero for a hole generation in the sixties and seventies, a kind of beatle of the people, and who was living realy in the material world, who found peace and happiness in gardening and in chantig the holy name.
Reading about him on this webside http://harigeorgeson.com/, we understand more his quest about spiritual life and how he came to it, after being a new age popstar.
This year is the 10. anniversary of George going back home back to Godhead.
So fans and lovers all over the world celebrate this special event in many ways.
Two special presents for his fans and devotees come out for this, a Film and a book with the wonderfull title ”Living in the material world“, what whas also the title on one of his album’s in 1973 with a nice picture of Srila Prabhupada’s Gita inside!
This is why we could say – please sweet Lord dont let us go astray, show us your way since in Sri Krishna, Srila Prabhupada and Sir George we can trust!
thanks for the secret..
Very nice point Bhanumatinath, you remember George’s deep
love for gardening, yes, he was the Lord’s gardener, a real garden freak
so to say. His biography ”I ME MINE” he signed cheerfully
to all the gardeners, of the world. And said something very meaningful.
”I am just a very simple guy, who dont like to be all the time
in somekind of business, since I am a gardener by heart. I like to plant
trees and flowers, and luckily enjoy how they grow. I dont go to clubs
and parties, I rather like to stay at home and watch the river flow!”
Sir George pointed it also out in an interview, that was
taken from the song of Bob Dylan, ”Watching The River Flow“.
He was a good friend of Bob Dylan since 1966, when Bob gave
the Beatles a benediction, Dylan was the mystical Dr. Robert
on the Revolver album, the Beatles’ 1966 best album they ever made.
Yes, this Robert Zimmermann aka Bob Dylan from Eastern Germany
was a real magic blowing in the wind for George and the other Beatles.
George used to say, ”create and preserve the image of your choice”
and thats from Mahatma Gandhi. But a ”great soul” is always
in love with others, who are also awake, this why they like to glorify
others rather than themselves- thats the sign of a mahatma-like person.
And in this regard we can call Sir George a new age Mahatma!
On this nice little website, http:// harigeorgeson.com/, they also say
In George We Trust, right on the end of the 3. chapter. So I understand
that they also see him as a kind of modern day Mahatma, and that’s good.
A person who likes the holy Name and chants the magic Maha Mantra.
And as we all know, he was Srila Prabhupadas most beloved spiritual son,
he called him 1977 in Vrindaban his archangel!
Wow, archangel meets mahatma, the hero and his guru, a magical Beatle
leads us to the mystical sweet lord Krishna, what a story, to good to be true.
This is why, the dark evil forces, were trying to kill Sir George on the millenium night,
to turn out the light that has lightend the world!
That’s the world we live in, just listen to ”Living in the material world”
the song Sir George composed 1974, it says it all, it’s loving poetry,
what Srila Prabhupada taught and taught him.
You find in all his songs, the answers at the end, you could trust his words,
since he whas a devotee of the Lord, a good example for us,
how a new age Mahatma should be…
Yes In George I Trust, next To Srila Prabhupada!