770814 - Letter to Giriraja from Tamal Krsna

Vrndavana,

August 14, 1977

From: Tamal Krishna

My dear Giriraja Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your feet. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 12th August, 1977 as well as the carbon copy of the letter sent to Aksayananda Maharaja.

I read your Letter to: Srila Prabhupada as all of the contents I knew would be of interest to His Divine Grace. Srila Prabhupada appreciated your dealings with Sri Rungta, and will be most willing to meet with Sri Rungta and his donor friend if they should come to Vrndavana. Regarding the Rs. one lac donation from Sri Damodar Chanari, Srila Prabhupada asked, “Why not begin the Gurukula building with this donation?” The idea sounds very good to me. Perhaps you could approach Sri Chanari and have him help you to do a little fund-raising on behalf of the Gurukula building amongst his friends. It is the kind of a project that anyone would be glad to donate for. I think that this would be much better than asking Srila Prabhupada for a loan or asking the BBT in LA for a loan. It is easy to collect for Gurukula, since it's a social welfare project, and I know if you put a little effort into it that many men will donate for it. When I read to Srila Prabhupada that Sri Thirani is indicating that he will resume his donation, Prabhupada remembered and said, “He wanted to give 7 lacs.” So I think when you see Mr. Thirani next time you can mention that when you informed Prabhupada of your meeting with him, Srila Prabhupada remembered him, how he had fixed Srila Prabhupada’s watch and how they traveled together to Switzerland. And of course Srila Prabhupada also remembered how he had promised to raise Rs. 7 lacs.

Your ending paragraph revealed your beautiful devotional nature and I relished reading it to His Divine Grace. Srila Prabhupada commented, “He is very fortunate. People like him.” Whenever I hear Prabhupada saying how people like you, I always remember our walk on the beach with Dr. Patel in which Srila Prabhupada said, “Giriraj makes so many friends and our Tamal Krishna is expert in making enemies.” I pray that by the association of such good souls as yourself that I also will learn one day to make friends with everyone.

I cannot promise that the Vrndavana temple will be clean enough to get the stamp of approval from Sri Mandelia. The management here is very weak and it is not the cleanest of places. However I will assure you that if I know of Sri Mandelia’s presence, that I will try to take as much personal care of him as I can, and certainly bring him to see Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada said your thought of flying to Vrndavana for Vyasa Puja day if He is not going to come to Bombay was “a good idea.” Hoping this meets you in the best of health and Krishna consciousness and looking forward to seeing you soon.

Your servant,

Tamal Krishna Gosvami

Secretary to Srila Prabhupada

His Grace Giriraj das Brahmachary

c/o ISKCON Bombay