Anyone who wants to become a brahmana will have to sit for an examination once a year at Mayapur
In answering his mail, Prabhupada reiterated to Nitai in Vrindavana that he wants all his students to take Bhakti-sastri examinations. He requested Nitai to prepare a guide to Deity worship called Arcana-paddhati based on the Hari-bhakti-vilasa by Sanatana Gosvami. He asked him to have it ready by the Gaura Purnima festival.
Nitai reported that the plans for the new gurukula are being drawn up and will be submitted soon, and that already some highly qualified men have applied for the position of principal. Prabhupada said that he would consider who to appoint later, when the school is actually built.
There was also a long letter from Tushta Krishna Swami in New Zealand. He and his men are preaching vigorously and have launched several new projects as well as developing their farm. He has opened a vegetarian restaurant with money that a boy inherited from his family's beef farm. They had good publicity from the press and on television, and he also has plans to start a Vedic University as part of his development of a varnasrama community.
In one short paragraph he also affirmed his desire to distribute Prabhupada's books, although he mentioned some devotees were "hesitant due to previous pressure put on them to collect certain quotas each day." (A main point of contention between Tushta Krishna's faction and the body of devotees is that they dislike the major emphasis that ISKCON leaders and devotees place on the importance of book distribution, and the pressure sometimes applied to encourage devotees to distribute the books).
Pleased with their preaching efforts, Prabhupada sent a long letter in reply, dealing with the report point by point. He especially stressed the importance of book distribution. "So far the devotees being hesitant to distribute books on account of pressure, sometimes pressure is required, especially when one is not so advanced. Of course it has to be applied properly, otherwise there may be some bad taste. But spontaneous service can only be expected from advanced devotees. It is vaidhi-bhakti-vaidhi means 'must.' Sometimes devotees are promised a plate of maha-prasadam for the biggest distributor. There is no harm. Actually one should try to serve Krishna to his or her full capacity without thought of reward service is itself the reward. But this takes time to actually realize, and until that platform is achieved some pressure or inducement is required."
He was pleased about the opening of the restaurant but cautioned him that it should not be seen simply as a place for promoting vegetarianism. "We should not waste time encouraging vegetarianism as opposed to meat eating. We want to encourage prasadam taking, and that is automatically vegetarian."
Happy about the proposal to start a Vedic University, Prabhupada outlined to Tushta his recent plans for instituting examinations within the Society and explained that anyone who wants to become a brahmana will have to sit for an examination once a year at Mayapur.
At the same time he also pointed out that, "In our Vedic Universities we will not encourage anyone to become merely a bookworm ... There must be life rising early in the morning, attending mangala arati, taking prasadam etc. The man who is studying will be brahmana, the farmer will be vaisya. In this way there will be divisions, but they are all one in the service to Krishna."
Prabhupada felt a little better this morning. He took his walk following the usual route along the beach and enjoyed a long and interesting talk with a local movie director. Bombay is the center of India's film industry, the third biggest in the world. Many people connected with the movie trade are now becoming interested in the activities of ISKCON. This particular man was polite and receptive but had many philosophical misconceptions about spiritual matters, which he allowed Srila Prabhupada to correct.
Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 1 by Hari Sauri Dasa
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