a.c. bhaktivedanta swami
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| Prabhupada Letters :: 1966 a.c. bhaktivedanta swami |
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24 January 2004 JOURNAL: Monday 24 January To see Mr. Larry Boghart morning 9 am. Saw Mr. Larry Boghart in his office. He advised me to write to Mr. Felix Morrow* for an appointment to see. So I am writing him & sending some literature of Srimad Bhagwatam. Bus fare -- .30 letters | 01:58 | 23 January 2004 JOURNAL: Sunday 23 January N.Y. Today due to snow fall the whole day, I did not go either to Dr. Mishra's apartment nor outside the studio. My managed my things here in the studio. No expenditure today. letters | 17:56 | 22 January 2004 JOURNAL: Saturday 22 January N.Y. Salt -- .15 Banana -- .22 .37 Letter sent to Surya Kumar Joshi of A.I.C.C.* office for help in getting sanction. So also letter sent to Beney Bhushan Dutta if he can help in this matter. The cleaner sent by Neena came to Doctors apartment and cleaned it. I gave him some cold drink and he was glad. letters | 17:13 | 21 January 2004 JOURNAL: Friday 21 January N.Y. Postage -- .25 Sugar etc. -- .90 1.15 Letter received from C.C. Doctor of Bombay. He has gone back from his promise. This is not good. Better late than never. Mr. Boghart* asked me to see him on Monday morning in his office 866 United Nations Plaza. letters | 01:58 | 20 January 2004 Thursday, January 20, 1966 New York, New York My dear Sripada Bon Maharaja, Please accept my humble dandabats. I beg to thank you for your kind letter of the 14th instant. I am very glad to learn that your first part of Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu is now out and shall be glad if you send me one copy so that I can show to persons who are interested in my Srimad-Bhagavatam. I am also glad to learn that you are now thinking of New York on receipt of my letter and it may be that you have to come here again if there is the Radha Krishna Temple as contemplated. The money is there, the Deities are there, the house is there, the men are there but the sanction is not there. Your residence was somewhere near the Columbia University I think. Temple idea is prompted in me because I feel that Srila Prabhupada wanted to open some temples in the foreign countries. Personally I have no aptitude to open temples neither I have done it in India although there were many great opportunities. But here see there is necessity even from the point of Hindu cultural view. There is not a single Hindu temple here at least in New York or all the places so far I have travelled in this country. Regarding management of the temple is concerned for the present I have called for one of my of my disciples from Delhi. If other persons from our so many camps want to come here I shall welcome and I think after the temple is started some men even from America may be available as I see there are in the Ramakrishna Mission as well as in so many Yoga societies. So I am trying to open a temple here because Srila Prabhupada wanted it. Kindly therefore help me in this direction as far as you can. I am thankful to you for taking so much trouble in taking the estimate of deities. But before having the Deities there is great stumbling block of Exchange difficulty. My money in India is ready but I must have the exchange, by special sanction of the Government of India. I was so hopeful to get it because Lal Bahadur Shastri was known to me and he was to visit America. I arranged an interview with him during his visit in America through the Embassy here but his sudden death has put me into great difficulty. As soon as the temple is started, I am sure to get help locally but to start the temple I must have Indian money first. I am therefore asking your cooperation and help in this connection. I am requesting you to see Dr. Radhakrishnan and get me the sanction for Indian exchange for this cultural mission. This is not an ordinary temple of worship but it is an international institution for God consciousness based on the Srimad-Bhagavatam. This is standard Indian good will mission. "Lokasya ajanato vidwams cakre satvata samhita" The Government of India has its own department of culture and goodwill mission which is utilized for dancing parties to make show in the foreign countries. Here is the real culture and I am not asking any money from the Government but I am simply asking permission to transfer my money here for this great cultural mission of Srila Vyasadeva the Father of Vedic wisdom which is real Indian culture. When Dr. Radhakrishnan was vice president of India I had lots of personal correspondence and meetings with him and at that time he promised me help in this connection. I hope he will remember all these and I am requesting him through your good office to help me now to get the requisite exchange from India for this great and noble work. He is more or less acquainted with the activities of the Gaudiya Math preachers like your holiness, Srila Tirtha Maharaja and he know me also in this connection. We are all sincere workers for respiritualising the whole world situation and Dr. Radhakrishnan being man in the line and being in the highest position of the Indian Government, he must help us in this critical moment. It is not personal but for the welfare of the entire humanity and considering all these he may be kind enough to sanction this exchange immediately so that I may start it without delay. I strongly wish that I may take possession of the house for the temple on the day of Srila Prabhupada's Abhirva Teethi and if your holiness will at once see Dr. Radhakrishnan and take the sanction, I think my desire to take possession of the house on the above mentioned date will be possible. As I am out of India it is not possible to see him personally and therefore I am requesting you to see him. Besides that the matter being concerned directly with service of Srila Prabhupada both you and I are equally interested and I hope most sincerely that you will do this act very promptly and seriously. If need be you can show this letter to Dr. Radhakrishnan in order to convince him and offer him my good wishes and respects for him. Thanking you in anticipation and awaiting your early reply. Yours affectionately, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami letters | 03:40 | Thursday, January 20, 1966 New York, New York My dear Sir Padampat, Please accept my greetings and blessings of Sri Sri Dvarakadhisa Maharaja. With thanks I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind letter dated 14th January 1966 and I have noted the contents very carefully. The two points of difficulties as shown by you are quite right because without sanction of the Government we cannot proceed a step even in this connection. And as pointed out in my last letter I have full responsibility for this. I was almost certain to get this sanction from our Late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who was personally known to me in connection with my publication Srimad-Bhagavatam. He was to come here in America and in New York on the 4th of February next and I arranged for an interview with him by negotiation with the local consulate General. The copy of the letter addressed to our late Prime Minister is also enclosed herewith for your perusal. Now as soon as I came to know about the sudden death news of Shastri, I thought of the President Dr. Radhakrishnan as the next man to get the sanction because he is also personally known to me. I have already approached him through some mutual friend to get this sanction and I am awaiting the result sooner or later. And as soon as I hear of the sanction, I shall at once let you know the result. I am very glad to learn it that you wish to construct a Temple of Sri Sri Radha Krishna with nice architecture and the idea is quite appropriate for a personality of your position. You are a great devotee of Lord Dvarakadhisa traditionally. Lord Dvarakadhisa exhibited His opulence at Dvaraka with sixteen thousands of queen and it is understood that He built up as many palaces for each and every queen and the palaces were so made with jewels and stones that there was no necessity of artificial light in the palaces. So your conception of building temple of Lord Krishna is in opulence. But we our residents of Vrindaban and Vrindaban has no palaces like your Dvaraka. Vrindaban is full of forest and cows on the bank of the Yamuna and Lord Krishna in His childhood played the part of a cow boy without any royal opulence as you people inhabitants of Dvaraka think. So when the Dvarakawalas and the Vrindabanwalas meet there may be a via media. The thing is that the idea of constructing a magnificent Temple in New York quite befitting the first city of the world, will cost you not lakhs but crores. Because here the cost of land and other materials and the labor charges all are fabulous. The labor charges here is not less than 12 dollars a day i.e Rs 60. per day. Besides that you cannot get a vacant land in the New York city. You have to purchase a constructed house then dismantle it and then construct a Temple of your liking. I know it very well that by Grace of His Lordship Sri Sri Dvarakadhisa and by the mercy of Laksmiji Rukmini devi, your honour is quite competent to spend even crores and crores for this purpose but we must remember the difficulty of Exchange. At this stage of critical hours the Government will hardly allow us to spend such huge amount. If they at all sanction the exchange they may allow for lakhs only and therefore I have suggested the estimate as seven lakhs only. I have in view a very nice building for sale which is just the suitable for a temple to start with. The land of the house is about 19' x 100' and although it is two storied it has a basement under ground and therefore it can be taken as three stories. It is nicely built with air conditioning and heating arrangement with marble staircase brass railings just suitable for a temple. The whole area is about 450 sq. feet and they are asking for 100,000 dollars that is five laks of rupees. And after purchasing the house we can build another story upon it with temple dome and cakra etc. So the estimate is about seven lakhs of rupees and for the present let us start in such way. The place is very important in the city. As your Dvarakadhisa Temple is situated in very important part of the city so this house is also situated in very important part of the mid city. Here in New York city there are three divisions namely the up town the mid town and the down town. The down town is full of business houses and office buildings whereas the down town is inhabited by most employees and middle class of men. The mid town is in between the two and the house I have selected is approachable easily from both sides of the town. The situation is very important on account of stores, subway station, post office, buses, banks everything all at hand's reach. If however cash is paid immediately the owner may come down to lesser price. This is ready building and we can start immediately the Bhagavatam preaching work and worship of the Sri Sri Radha Krishna simultaneously in this house. The house has to be nicely decorated for attracting men and philosophical topics on the basis of the Bhagavatam Philosophy has to be preached for the learned scholars and high grade men. As we get popularity so can get local sympathy for the temple also. And it will be built up step by step and I am sure they will be very glad to receive the message and the training as well if not by all but some of them. The owner of the house is prepared to accept the following terms as I have talked with them. Immediately 20,000 dollars cash and the balance by suitable arrangement of mortgage with 6% interest on the amount I think we may pay him cash outright and reduce the price as far as possible. Now taking for acceptance that Dr. Radhakrishnan will give us the exchange sanction, we have to decide whether to pay outright cash or to accept the proposal of installment. You may decide this in the meantime. And as soon as I receive the news of sanction, I shall let you know. If your man is to come here you may let me know the name and occupation of the persons so that I may arrange for his no objection certificate without which passport will be issued. I will have to find out some sponsor for him otherwise no P form will be issued. So pending the sanction let us be prepared for all these paraphernalia. In the future if circumstances changes, and we get the opportunity for spending more money, at that time we can sell of this or keep it as the circumstances allow. For the present let us begin in this small scale and let be grown up in the natural way. Your honour is a great business magnet and you know better than me. J.K Organization started by your grand father was increased by your father and under your management it has grown more than expectation by the Grace of Dvarakadhisa Maharaja. As the Pandavas were all devotees of Lord Krishna and thus in fields of activities they were victorious in spite much difficulties were put forward before them by the Kurus, similarly you are also always glorious because you and your family all are devotees of Lord Dvarakadhisa. Your good mother is just like Kuntideve. The mission of Bhagavatam with which I have come here is altogether a new thing for the American. Still the most astonishing thing is that whenever and wherever I speak they take it very nicely. That is good sign for them. After my lecture they come to me and offer their thanks for the nice speech and accept the philosophy when they are spoken with human understanding. There is great difference between these people and our Indian people. In India people are automatically taught spiritual life by tradition and these people are automatically taught to be materialistic. They are sincere undoubtedly but because they have no information of the Bhagavatam life, they appear to be different. It is the duty of every Indian to preach the cult of Bhagavatam in every part of the world and your cooperation in this attempt will be highly appreciated by Lord Dvarakadhisa. Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita has said that one who helps in the matter of preaching the principles of Bhagavad-gita is the most favorite of the Lord. So this knowledge should be distributed systematically and we Indians specially the Hindus and more specially the Vaisnavites must abide the instruction of Lord Krishna to distribute the knowledge all over the world. America is just in the middle. On one side of America is Europe and on the other side is Asia. So we can expand the Bhagavatam mission bothwise. On one side towards England, Germany, Italy etc and on the other side towards China Japan etc. If we sincerely do this work Lord Krishna will help us in so many ways and because you are a sincere devotee of the Lord, you have very kindly responded to my humble call. I am advising my man in Delhi to send you one set of my books (Three Volumes) of Srimad-Bhagavatam English version and I hope you will relish them with great interest. I shall request you to find our some time for it and see it how I have been able to present the Bhagavatam Philosophy for understanding of the common man. Hope you are well and thanking you once more for your good cooperating spirit in the transcendental service of the Lord. Yours sincerely, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Enclosure: Copy of the letter addressed to the Prime Minister of India. By air mail. letters | 03:34 | JOURNAL: Thursday 20 January N.Y. Bon Maharaj's* letter replied and he is requested to see Dr. Radhakrishnan* for sanction of Exchange. Now everything depends on the Supreme Will of the Lord Sri Krishna. Sir Padampat Singhania replied Chandra Sekhar replied and asked to send one set Bhagwatam to Sir Padampat Singhania letters | 01:56 | 19 January 2004 JOURNAL: Wednesday 19 January N.Y. By the Grace of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga an encouraging letter is received today from Sir Padampat Singhania* of Kanpur India. Temple hopeful. To see the Publication Sale office U.S. Government office of Education 110 Livingston St. (Burohouse Station) Phone No 596-3106 Seen Mr. L. Mehotra* at the New India House. Submitted Chandra Sekhar's case for transfer of his office in New York. He said to consider. Two sets of books taken back from Paragon Book Gallery*. This makes altogether seven sets taken back. Balance with them 18 sets. letters | 01:51 | |
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