770406 - Letter to Morarji Desai from Tamal Krsna and Giriraja
6 April, 1977
- From: Tamal Krishna & Giriraj
- Shri Morarji Desai,
- Prime Minister of India,
- “Oceana”, Netaji Subash Road,
- Bombay
Dear Shri Morarji Desai:
We thank you very much for allowing us to meet you to explain our mission. Our Guru Maharaj His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is pushing on this Hare Krishna movement throughout the world, with great difficulty. But he cannot stop this movement in spite of all the difficulties because Krishna wants this movement to go on. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita:
- ya idam paramam guhyam
- mad-bhaktesv abhidasyati
- bhaktimmayi param krtva
- mam evaisyaty asamsayah
We are servants of Krishna. Every servant wants to please his master. We are therefore, requesting you to give our Guru Maharaj the following facilities in India.
In India Srila Prabhupada has very big establishments for the Krishna consciousness movement – in Bombay, in Vrindavan, in Mayapur (District Nadia, West Bengal), and in Hyderabad, and small establishments in Calcutta, Delhi, Ahmedabad and other places. We invite you to visit at least his Bombay project. To manage these affairs properly he requires assistants. As far as Indians are concerned, they are not practically coming to help our Guru Maharaj. So Srila Prabhupada has to manage these establishments by getting some foreign disciples.
Therefore we have to request you to kindly arrange for assistance for foreign disciples to live in India as permanent residents. In America Srila Prabhupada received permission for permanent residency, along with other Indian members, and he does not require any passport or visa. Similarly, the devotee assistants who are coming to help Srila Prabhupada in India should be allowed to stay as permanent residents without visa problems. Our Guru Maharaj will guarantee that his disciples will never participate in politics or the internal affairs of India, and if any discrepancy is found in them, they can be immediately deported. In addition, Srila Prabhupada is getting Rs. 10,00,000/- every month for construction and other expenditures in his different establishments, so these devotees will not touch Indian money, even by one paisa.
At the present moment, Srila Prabhupada’s assistants are coming to India and the Government is allowing them three month visas, with a maximum extension of further three months. In this way after six months his disciples have to go away and then again come back with new visas. This process of going outside India and then coming back costs Rs. 10,000/- for each devotee. In this way our Guru Maharaj is losing about Rs. 5,00,000/- to Rs. 6,00,000/- per year for nothing. And an assistant who is trained up is checked from his prescribed duties and is forced to go away. If the Government allows these foreign assistants to stay as permanent residents, as Srila Prabhupada has been allowed in America, then there is no loss for the Government but it will be a great benefit and relief for our Guru Maharaj.
Kindly help our Guru Maharaj to continue this Krishna consciousness movement to prove to the world that there is God and that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krishna.Krsnas tu bhagavan swayam. So kindly immediately favor us with this help and we shall remain thankful to you forever. Hoping this meets you well.
Yours in the service of the Lord,
- Tamal Krishna Goswami
- Secretary to His Divine Grace
- A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
- Giriraj das Brahmachary
- President ISKCON Bombay
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