AN IMPORTANT LETTER

Thursday, November 6th, 2025

Montreal, Quebec

I arrived safely in Montreal for our AGM Annual General Meeting.  I came upon the following letter by our guru, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada written August 24^th, 1968, when he was living in Montreal, addressed to the Right Honourable Michener, Governor General of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.

“ISKCON (The international Society of Krishna Consciousness) is a non-lucrative organization, whose purpose is to promote the well-being of human society, and our members include people from Christian, Jewish, and Moslim, as well as Hindu faiths.  The aim of ISKCON is not to found a new religious sect, but to invoke the living entity’s dormant love of God, and thus provide the human society of all faiths with a common platform of clear theistic knowledge and practice.  Members of ISKCON may retain their own respective religious faiths, as ISKCON is meant to establish a clear practical common formulation of the common ideal of old theists, and to defeat the unnecessary dogmatic wranglings that now divide and invalidate the theistic camp.  This common ideal of theism is to develop love of God.  We are following in the footsteps of Lord Chaitanya to invoke the dormant love of Godhead.  The sum and substance of this teaching is that the living entity is eternally the subordinate servant of God, but unfortunately, being sophisticated by illusion, everyone in the human society is trying to predominate over others without accepting the Supreme Predominator.  A case in point is the recent Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.

I came to Montreal in the month of June, desiring to stay here, and your immigration department has kindly accepted me as a landed immigrant.  As such, I wish to make Montreal my headquarters for this cultural or religious propaganda in the Western world.  I was in search of a nice place in the city, fortunately I have found one at 722 Sherbrooke Street West, and it is understood that Your Excellency is the ultimate disposer of this property.

If by suitable arrangement, this property is handed over to my society, I can very nicely organize its activities as follows:  1.  Establishing a press to publish books and magazines… 2. Chanting, dancing, playing devotional music.  3.  Feasting and distributing.  4.  Training preachers.  5. Holding classes in the philosophy of God realization…

Yours truly,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami”

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU

8,966 FOOTSTEPS