Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa

So this should be minimized, and we should be engaged twenty-four hours. If we remain engaged in that way… We have got so many engagement. We are daily singing—I do not know whether you understand the meaning—śrī-vigrahārādhana-nitya-nānā-śṛṅgāra-tan-mandira mārjanādau, yuktasya bhaktāṁś ca niyuñjato ‘pi vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam **. We have got śrī-vigraha. The śrī-vigraha-sevā—all rising early in the morning, arrange for maṅgala āratrik, then dressing, then offering food, then āratrik, so many hours. The whole day can be used in that way. Then reading books, class, taking care of the temple. Tan-mandira-mārjanādau. Don’t think that if one is engaged in the Deity worship and if one is engaged in the gardening work there is distinction. No. The one who is working as a gardener, he is as good as the one who is dressing the Deity, because it is Absolute plane. There is no difference between…

. Just like in the material world, if one is working as manager and the other is working as menial servant, there is difference of pay or difference of service. No. In the spiritual world there is no such thing. In the spiritual world even a small ant who is serving Kṛṣṇa by chance… Suppose if there is an ant and the flower is thrown into the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa and the ant kisses the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, he is as good as the pūjārī. This is spiritual world. So we should give everyone chance how to serve Kṛṣṇa. Then he will remain on the upper platform. Samatītya. Atītya mean transcending. Etan guṇān. Etan guṇān means because the material world is complicated with the modes of material nature, so this is called guṇa. So anyone who is engaged constantly in devotional service, sa guṇān samatītyaitān [Bg. 14.26], he immediately transcends the influence of the material qualities. Sa guṇān samatītya etān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. 

Please accept my blessings. Thank you very much for your letter postdated Jan 25, 1968, and I thank you very much for your proposal to come here and see me. I shall be so glad to see you and Danny personally as soon as possible. I requested you take charge of the Santa Fe Center because you were doing the job very nicely, and I still hope that your presence there will solve all the problems recently created. Mistakes there may be in our life, but if we stick to Krsna Consciousness, Krsna will surely put us on the right path. Your husband Sriman Subala das is living with me very peacefully, and he is carving Radha and Krsna, from hard wood. So this life of material existence is just like hard wood and if we can carve Krsna out of it, that is the success of our life.