Feb 1 1969 letter Upendra
Regarding your question, maya comes from Krishna. Everything comes from Krishna, but when something is found in Krishna it is just as good as anything can be. Just like Krishna has the stealing propensity. As such He is called the Butter Thief, and he is worshiped as the Butter Thief. He is worshiped by His devotees all over the world with love and affection, while the same propensities in us would result in our being handed over to the police. That is the difference between Krishna and ourselves. He being Absolute, everything in Him is also Absolute. In the relative prospective it is very difficult to understand what is the Absolute. From the material point of view, one cannot understand that one plus one equals one, and one minus one equals one. It requires a little time to understand this axiomatic truth. But in time such truths will become revealed to you without any mental speculation.
Please convey my blessings to the others who are so nicely helping you in Seattle. I hope this will meet you all in good health.
July 22 1969 letter
But one point you should not miss is that this life is very important to awaken our dormant Krishna Consciousness, and we should not miss this opportunity in any circumstance. That would be a great blunder. We must be very cautious to not fall prey to the clutches of Maya because in this material world Maya is very prominent although Krishna is everything. Maya and Krishna are just like the sunshine and darkness: the darkness has no independent existence without the sun. But still the darkness is existing in some corner of the sunlight. If we therefore always keep ourselves exposed to the open sunlight, there is no cause of being attacked by the darkness. If you keep yourself faced to the sunlight, you will never see the darkness, and as soon as you turn your back to the sun, then immediately you find in your front a huge shadow of your own body. This shadow is Maya, and if you turn to the sun, to Krishna, then there is no shadow. Therefore, Krishna should always be in the front of us, and Maya will disappear automatically without any separate attention. Yogis and jnanis artificially try to get rid of Maya, but in spite of their much endeavor for spiritual realization they are still in the Kingdom of Maya. The conclusion that God is impersonal or that everyone is God is the statement of a person who is in Maya. In other words, anything which is a setback to the realization of Krishna Consciousness is Maya. Anyone who is not in Krishna Consciousness is supposed to be in Maya, and anyone who is in full Krishna Consciousness is out of the clutches of Maya. This is the statements of the Vedic literatures, and we should try to understand and follow the principles.
I hope this will meet you in good health.
April 28 1970 letter
Regarding your second question, in reference to Isopanisad mantra 15, should a devotee ask the Lord to reveal Himself the answer is yes. Unless the Lord reveals Himself, the devotee cannot see Him, He reserves the right of being exposed or not being exposed. The yoga maya curtain is always covering the Lord, and in the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, “I am not visible to everyone.” Even in the material world, a man in the position of Presidentship is not visible to everyone. So one has to qualify himself by devotional service, then God will reveal Himself. So this Isopanisad mantra is an appeal by the devotee to move the veil of yoga maya or the glaring effulgence of Brahma so that the devotee can see Him face to face. The idea is one has to transcend the material conditions as well as the Brahma effulgence, then one can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Here the word “face” means the Absolute Truth is a Person. That is the most important point, that God is ultimately a Person.
Regarding the disturbing groups of “Christians” so-called, that is alright. Let them follow Lord Jesus Christ. Regarding their dogmatic insistence, everyone thinks like that, so if one is not prepared to advance more, it is better to avoid them. If one is limited by some formulas only, he is described as an animal which is bound up by the chain of the master and cannot move beyond the length of the chain. So we are concerned with persons who are not chained by anything.
Hope this will meet you in good health.——————————————————–
Some Conclusions– In particular, this last letter also contains some useful advice for devotees who are trying to “convince” other devotees about the ritvik system left to us by our guru Srila Prabhupada. How many years has it been now? 45 years since his departure? So many papers written so much testimony of judging by the result?
So these peoples’ “dogmatic insistence” as Prabhupada calls it, should be enough proof for us to avoid them as they have had ample time to understand Srila Prabhupada Siddhanta
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das