770202 - Letter to Radhaballabha from Hari Sauri

Mayapur,

Frebuary 2, 1977

From: Hari Sauri

Los Angeles

Dear Radhaballabha prabhu,

please accept my worthless obeisances at your feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada who is specifically empowered by the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna to deliver all the fallen souls back home, back to Godhead.

This is just a short note to ask you to please bring along an a/c adaptor for the pocket calculator so that I can work it directly from the mains power supply. Also I have several times asked for some vegetable salt for Prabhupada so I hope that you can also remember to bring that along as well.

As you can see we are now in Sri Mayapur Dham, having arrived this morning from Calcutta. Everything in Bhubaneswar went off alright and the foundation stone for the temple was duly laid on Nityananda’s app. day and at least one thousand people were fed sumptuous prasadam. Another highlight was a transcendental trip to Puri lasting two days during which time Prabhupada picked some land for our future temple there and also took a bath in the sea with all the devotees!

In Calcutta His Divine Grace visited Raghava Pandit’s house in Panihati and also the scene of the chira and dahi feast given by Raghunath das Gosvami. The same banyan tree under which Lord Nityananda and Lord Caitanya sat with the devotees is still there and many thousands of people come there every year to mark its anniversary. Now it will be managed by ISKCON and we shall build a temple on the site starting immediately. Already Prabhupada has opened up a bank account for that purpose and the local people are very enthusiastic for the project, and Prabhupada said it will be an important center for us as it is right on the banks of the Ganga. He also plans to have a ferry from one side to the other and boat trips to Mayapur.

On the way here we also called in at the samadhi of Sri Mahesh Pandit and saw his original Deities of Sri Nitai-Gour which are still being worshipped. We have also been offered this place to manage but Prabhupada is not so keen for it because we have no men.

Swarupa Damodar also came while we were in Bhubaneswar and Prabhupada has told him to arrange the Manipur trip for Immediately after the festival for one week. One other major event took place on the morning of Jan 30th at 2:50am when Prabhupada began work on the Tenth canto (“this is the canto where one can hear Krishna’s flute”). As far as his health goes Prabhupada is not really any better. The swelling is still there and digestion is still bad although his appetite is picking up now that his sister is doing some cooking. He is still avoiding ghee and salt though so that vegetable salt is very important.

Anyway that’s it for now, I look forward to having your association in the near future,

your most wretched servant,

Hari Sauri Das.