750724 - Letter to Bon Maharaja written from Los Angeles

Letters by Date, 1975

3764 Watseka Ave., Los Angeles, Ca.
90034 USA
July 24, 1975

His Holiness Swami B.H. Bon Maharaj, D.Lit., I.Ph.D., D.D., D.D., D.Theos., D. AEH.
Institute of Oriental Philosophy
Vrindaban, Dist. Mathura
U.P., INDIA ......................

My Dear Sripad Bon Maharaj:
Please accept my dandabats at your lotus feet. I thank you very much for your kind letter dated July 15, 1975 and have noted the contents carefully. Your letter was addressed to our San Francisco temple, and it is forwarded to me here in Los Angeles. The day after tomorrow I am going to San Diego via Laguna Beach. Then I shall go to Dallas, New Orleans, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, New York, and then New Vrindaban, West Virginia. From there I shall go to Europe to London and Paris, and then I shall return to Bombay perhaps via Africa by the month of October.
Regarding your proposal for a guest house, we have already got it, a guest house of 75 rooms well equipped. The Governor Dr. Channa Reddy was very pleased with it, but we can extend the guest house program more if we get suitable land. So I can immediately accept your proposal for Gurukula and guest house provided you give us the vacant land in front of our temple. This land is lying vacant without any use. So if you spare this land just behind your college building, we can immediately begin the construction work.
The best thing will be that if you charge some nominal price for the land or as you like it. Then we can use the land independently according to our plan. Immediately we do not require any guest house, but in expectation of a future influx of guests we can construct another house along with the Gurukula building. So either in the newly constructed guest house or the guest house already constructed our scheme is to receive paying guests. So for the Gurukula it will be very suitable if you spare the front land or back side of your college building. That will be very kind of you.
Our Philadelphia Ratha Yatra was very attractive and successful; similarly the San Francisco Rathayatra was also. Some of the Indian saints Shushil Muni Maharaj and Yogi Bhajan and many others attended the ceremony. They also appreciated our activities.
I have not received any report from Saurabha das about his meeting with you in Vrindaban. Nowadays the construction of a guest house is a very costly affair. We have spent about Rs. 50 lakhs for our temple and guest house in Vrindaban and with great difficulty.
Regarding the library building, I am only interested in Chaitanya philosophy. As it is stated in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, "sri krsna caitanya daya karaha vicara/ vicara karile citte pabe camatkara." If you are indeed interested in logic and argument, kindly apply it to the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. If you do so, you will find it to be strikingly wonderful. (CC Ādi lila 8.15) But, in the library other books may be kept for comparative study by the scholars. I have no objection, but our main purpose will be to accelerate the grandeur of Chaitanya philosophy. On this basis I have full cooperation. Besides that I have got about a half a dozen students

who are Ph.Ds in different subjects, but they are all expert in Chaitanya philosophy. If you so desire, their service can be utilized in this connection. If we fully cooperate on this Institution plan, I can attract students from all over the world such as America, Europe, Canada, Australia and the Middle East. In all these places we have got our centers and there are many students.
So when I arrive in Vrindaban we shall discuss these things in detail, and if possible we can take up the library program at that time. In the meantime if you decide to give us the land in front of our temple we can immediately begin the construction.

I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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