701117 - Letter to Murari written from Bombay

Letters by Date, 1970

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

November 17, 1970

74, Marine Drive,
Bombay 20

My dear Murari,

Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter of 27th October, 1970, along with that of Sriman Alan Haiste, and have noted the contents carefully.

I consider that London Temple is one of our most important centers for the propagation of this Krishna Consciousness movement, therefore I am always concerned that it is running smoothly. So far I have received reports you have taken on such great responsibility nicely and this is very encouraging to me. I had considered to send Gurudas and Jamuna back to London to assist you but now I think that this will not be necessary as they are nicely engaged in preaching work in Delhi. Rather I have suggested to Rupanuga and Bhagawan Das that one of them must go to Europe to see what is the situation and report to me, and then we shall see what is to be done.

Now that you are in London please try to eliminate this L4000 debt, the balance of which is unpaid Back to Godhead bills. The magazines and books are in great shortage of funds simply because the temples spend their income from literatures for temple maintenance and neglect the primary work of this Society, which is to print and distribute an increasing number of books. So please try to assist me in this way, by eliminating this debt. I have given you the hint that if you send me $10,000 you may keep the balance of profits from Krsna book to help pay this bill. Now this is my request, that you simply distribute these books immediately and deposit $10,000 in the Bhaktivedanta Book Fund Deposit with Dai Nippon in Japan. Why you have not sent report of Krsna Book sales? Why has no money been sent? This must be done weekly. I understand that Mukund will be assisting in distribution of Krsna Book and I think that he is very qualified to do this. In fact all of my disciples in London center are very intelligent and they should unite around this single task of selling Krsna Book widely throughout Britain and sending the money immediately to Japan.

So far your machinery to print cards, leaflets, and other color pictures. This is very nice if it is not too costly. Better to repay our debts than spend for costly machinery at this point. Also, we shall have only one magazine in our Society so I think that there is no need to print your monthly magazine in London.

One wealthy Indian industrialist has promised a large sum to construct a magnificent temple in or adjacent to Regents Park in London. So I am asking you to help me try for this by finding out some land in Regents Park. I have heard that one mosque has been built there on land given by the government. Please find out and report to me. As soon as you have secured something very nice send me details of the property and I shall come to London to finalize negotiations for it. I think if such a nice place is there, London may become the world headquarters of our Krishna Consciousness movement.

Here in India we are very encouraged by the favorable response of the Indian public, especially in Bombay. We shall begin on December 2nd a tour to Indore, Surat, and other places. Still, Guru Maharaja has instructed me to take this movement to the western countries, and especially he was favorably disposed toward London, so the West must be our first order of business, and I am most pleased that my disciples are opening many new centers there. Why don’t you open some more centers in the British Isles? If you can do this, in cooperation with your zonal secretary Shyamsunder, it will be to your great credit. New centers must be managed by strong men, trained in philosophy, samkirtan, deity worship, cooking and temple business. With these qualifications there is every chance for a successful program in any city of the world. So kindly train up men in your London center to open many centers in England.

I am replying Mandakini’s letter under separate cover.

Please convey my blessings to your good wife, Lilavati, and to your daughter, Subhadra.

Hope this meets you in good health,

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS:sda.