I had the privilege of thumbing through the first issue of the publication and was very satisfied to note the contents. I would be very happy to get it on a regular basis at my residence in Calcutta. Please be informed that Calcutta may very well have the largest population of Prabhupadanugas and you have me as your sympathiser in India.

Kaviraja das, Calcutta, India

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I'm just writing to thank you for all the effort you have put into the new magazine. It's splendid and I was thrilled to receive my copy. It stikes a blow for the truth and is well presented and a pleasure to read. This is a very positive step in the right direction and I have every confidence in the editorial team. We can justly be proud of this publication - it says what needs to be said. My very best wishes for future issues. And my sincere appreciation to all concerned. Jaya Prabhupada.

M.Sharma, Manchester, UK

Please find the enclosed donation for 'Back To Prabhupada'. I found the first issue's articles very stimulating, enlivening and full of very personal realisations from devotees. I am satisfied to have such a Krsna Conscious magazine. Thank You. All the best.

Svarupa Damodara das, Dowra, Ireland

Thank You for the first issue of Back To Prabhupada. I congratulate you. I think it is an important publication and I wish you all success in your effort. It is wonderful that you are distributing it free of charge. Please accept my humble donation and keep me on your mailing list. I was initiated by Kirtananda in 1978 and left New Vrindaban after 16 years. I am currently finishing my Masters in Music composition and plan on working toward a PhD next fall with a view to teaching at college level. Enclosed is my Vyasa-Puja offering.

Hrishikesh das, Pittsburgh, USA

Hare Krishna to all the Prabhupadanugas who are sincerely trying to bring back Srila Prabhupada's precious wishes which were so badly neglected at first. May we never forget Lord Krishna and his eternal servant. Please find enclosed my homage to Srila Prabhupada.

Cintamani devi dasi, Auckland, New Zealand

I am in due receipt of a copy of 'Back To Prabhupada' magazine and am in grateful debt for your kindness. I found Nara-Narayana's article (as well as his son's) to be most enjoyable reading, and look forward to seeing future issues of this 'su-periodical'. Thank You and consider me at your service. Srila Prabhupada Ki Jaya!

Srimad Bhagavatam das, Los Angeles, USA

Hello. Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Please put my name and address on your mailing list for 'Back To Prabhupada'. My favourite article in the first edition was 'Stupid Mad Elephant'. I can't hardly wait to read her book. Keep on truckin'. God bless you.

Bh Kevin, Florida, USA

Thank you all very much! Hare Krishna; All Glories to Srila Prabhupada. I would like to thank you from the bottom of my stoney heart for your kindness' toward us all by way of your fine magazine. Please keep up the good work,and I pray for your success. Yours in the Service of Srila Prabhupada.

Gaura-Nitai das, British Colombia, Canada

Haribol Prabhus, Please accept my humble obeisances. Congratulations on your first issue - very impressive, please keep it up. May I suggest a letters and e-mail column for the next issue.

Mrgapati das, London, UK

Thank you for a great magazine, it's certainly long overdue. I've kept away for many years because of what happened. This seems to be a positive step forward.

E Johnson, London, UK

This magazine is extremely wonderful. Nandini devi dasi's article was so concise and meaningful to me that I immediately felt separation from Srila Prabhupada. I am anxious to read her book "Betrayal of the Spirit". How to get one? Damaghosa dasa - like a most serious emperor-general, leading the people on to victory. Bhakti lata devi dasi - like a highly intelligent, diligent and creative being, making so much out of everything given. I laughed and cried through the entire second half of her article.

I've recently heard that one famous GBC person has stated that he will eat only what he is offered at a farm community. And this is good to encourage everyone to eat simply and to try to stick to foods produced on their own farm. From another point of view, there are possibly millions of people in this world who might take the same vow for one year, knowing that first, they would not starve to death and that, second, they would not exactly have to work to earn their food. For them it would not be an austerity, but an extremely good deal. Austerity being the wealth of the brahman; a brahman only grows in Krsna-consciousness by reducing sense-gratification. Srila Prabhupada once joked that for missing mangal arotik, one should distribute one Krsna Book and then he said "Is that OK?" So ... as for vows that please Srila Prabhupada, they would concern book distribution (his books); hari nama; preaching events; new devotees made.

The day after joining the Florida temple in 1969, I found myself alone, on the side-walk, Main Street, Miami, with shaved head, dhoti etc; self-consciousness arose for a brief moment only, as conviction in Srila Prabhupada's words and my desperate need to be saved, carried me into absorption in the Hare Krsna movement, which ecstatically meant rise at 3.30am, arotik at 4.00am, japa, Srimad Bhagavatam class, prasad, hari nama Monday to Saturday, 10.00am to 4.00pm, evening programme, take rest. Sunday was for the feast preparations, execution and clean-up.

Going through the painful departure of Srila Prabhupada and very slowly realizing that the movement was no longer the same, and that the persons who were there for initiating new devotees fell dramatically short of Srila Prabhupada's mark, was the beginning of a new chapter in my life. Sadness, frustration, disillusionment, and finally, back to Srila Prabhupada's words and his sincere disciples' association. He said we are all pure devotees, but we all know the difference when dealing with persons not free of false ego: the tests are continual in this material world.

Srila Prabhupada's disciples were persons who gave their lives to following his words. They put all else on hold - university, jobs, trips, job-training. They cared not for the security everyone else worked towards. Thanks for the wonderfully inspiring magazine. Please put us on your mailing list.

Satyahit & Keli Lalita, British Colombia, Canada

I very much appreciated your magazine. I certainly look forward to further issues! Please make sure to place me on your mailing list.

R Sondhi, London, UK

The following is my submission for an entry in your section of corrections. In the introduction to "I am Living Proof..." you wrote, "We invite devotees to send us their remembrances and appreciations of Srila Prabhupada. Even those devotees who may not have physically met Srila Prabhupada are also invited to send their realizations and appreciation of how Srila Prabhupada is continuing to affect their lives". I submit this correction: "... especially those devotees who may not have physically met Srila Prabhupada are encouraged to send their realizations ..."

The significance of altering the word "even" to "especially" is self-evident as supported by other parts of BTP. However, let us relish some Srila Prabhupada katha on this point.

By the year 2100, all of us who fortunately had the direct vapu association of Srila Prabhupada will have disappeared. Does the fortune stop there? Of course not. It is on the strength of our conviction to ignite our upcoming generations of bhaktas that Srila Prabhupada's legacy will rule for the next 10,000 years. Let us examine this quote, "...Srila Prabhupada told me directly on my third day in his Krishna consciousness movement, 'So it is up to you to follow.' " So it is up to us to perpetuate protecting the wealth of Srila Prabhupada's legacy for those who are fortunate to follow him, here, now and in the future. Just as Srila Prabhupada said, "I submit one correction that needs to be made for article, Lord Krishna never told Arjuna", similarly, it is up to us to inspire those succeeding us, by delivering his siksa intact, and it is the foremost responsibility of these who may never have seen Srila Prabhupada in this particular lifespan to become inspired to follow his teachings. Srila Prabhupada's recorded kirtanas are the source of all our inspiration, since he is giving the "anta" or end of "veda" or knowledge which is engagement in bhakti to Lord Sri Krishna. We act as his representatives by enthusing others to become inspired by him to come home. Back to Godhead means eternally serving Sri Gurun. By serving the one mahabhagavata who Lord Sri Krishna has so kindly sent to us, we are actually being given access to all the residents of Krishna Loka who are all potentially our siksa gurus. Srila Prabhupada is inspiring us to accept our dayabhak, our great fortune of devotional service, and so we are indebted to him. Therefore we must please him by becoming convinced moons of his radiant wealth of siksa to others. In the future, billions of vaishnavas who bow with reverence to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada will be the living proof that he lives forever by his divine instruction. We, the Prabhupadanugas, live with him ... at his lotus feet.

Jahanva dasi, Alachua, USA

I would like to offer a very humble thought in response to your editorial in Volume I. I don't believe that anyone but ourselves, individually, can bar us from "the house that Prabhupada built". This "house" is not a physical building. It is not a house for which a deed or title of ownership can be flaunted, or transferred after a monetary transaction to a new owner.

Srila Prabhupada gave us knowledge of our true identity beyond this dream-like existence, and as much as and as often as we absorb our mind and heart and soul in meditation on Srila Prabhupada and Krsna, we build our own room in that house. No person on earth can prevent us from entering our own Srila Prabhupada's house, nor any material condition such as disease, poverty, blindness, etc.

Only the disease of ignorance, the poverty and blindness of the soul by which we blame others for our lack of relationship with our guru and Krsna, can keep us out of that house.

So let us turn our thoughts not to those who would want us to feel that we are 1st, 2nd or 3rd class tenants, or who might foolishly believe that they have the power to slam the door on us. Let us seek out and associate with devotees who understand the truth, as given in Bhagavad-gita 5.29.

"The sages, knowing Me as the ultimate purpose of allcrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries".

Let us pray for strength to somehow open the doors of the heart of more and more conditioned souls, so that the "house in which the whole world can live" becomes an increasingly stronger reality, day-by-day. Sankirtan yajna ki-jay!

Mahalaksmi dasi, Badger, USA

Thank you so much for your efforts in co-ordinating the excellent production of "Back to Prabhupada" magazine. I especially appreciate the article of Yaduraja das, entitled "Sticking with Srila Prabhupada's Teachings" that all knowledge comes to us by the descending process from Krsna Himself, the source of all knowledge; and that it comes most clearly when it is transmitted through the perfect via media, the self-realized souls who comprise our parampara.

It astounds me when I see how many devotees are addicted to other sources of information like "educational television" or newspapers. If the father in the family is chaste to Srila Prabhupada, then his wife will be chaste to him, and their children will be chaste to them. If he corrupts his spiritual intelligence by taking instruction from those very persons who are in the employ of the demoniac propagandists, then he cannot expect obedience from his dependents.

May Lord Jagannatha, Lord Baladeva and Lady Subhadra smile upon you in your efforts to uplift the spiritual intellectual life of the devotees. The people in general need spiritual leadership. Srila Prabhupada has written that he wants each of his disciples to become a sadhu just to give an opportunity for the common man to associate with a saintly person.sa yat pramanam kurute

"Whatever a great man does, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues".

Krsna-Balarama Swami, Badger, USA

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