770924 - Letter to Hansadutta from Tamal Krsna

Bombay,

September 28, 1977

From: Tamal Krishna

Ceylon

Dear Hansadutta Maharaj,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your feet. I have been instructed by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada to thank you for your letter dated September 17, 1977. As you may know Srila Prabhupada was in London for about two weeks and seemed to be very enlivened there. He underwent a minor surgical operation which seems to have been successful, but then He wanted to return to Bombay to be here for the opening. Since coming back His health has steadily deteriorated and He is very ill now. He has requested that every GBC man must come to Bombay for the opening ceremony which will take place on October 22nd. Thereafter Srila Prabhupada plans to go to Vrndavana Dham where He intends to make a grand Parikrama of the entire Vrndavana area including Nandagram, Varsana, Govardhan, etc. This promises to be the greatest procession of its kind since the days of His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaj. So it appears that we will be able to have each others good association, and of course you will have the opportunity to see His Divine Grace. I know Srila Prabhupada is very keen to see you as He is so much proud of the preaching which you have done, which He tells everyone about.

Srila Prabhupada enjoyed very much to hear your description of how Krishna kills the demons. Regarding paying for the books, Srila Prabhupada said, “We will give these books free to you as a donation. But if you leave then who will take charge for the distribution? Don’t worry about money, I will arrange. You preach.” I don’t think Srila Prabhupada wanted you to take up the responsibility of another zone, but wanted you to concentrate on preaching there. But this is a good question, that if you leave there is there someone who will responsibly distribute these books. And under the situation of such political unrest will the preaching be able to be done? When you come to India I think we can settle up everything regarding your shipment of books. L.A. will ship the books immediately I would imagine. But getting the books from India will be a little more difficult as they have to receive money in return. This can be dealt with by paying for money from America in return for your books to Ceylon. When you come here we can work this out, as all of the GBC will be here. Gopal Krishna told me however that they have got permission from the Indian Govt. to ship the books, so we just have to work out the financial arrangement.

Bali Mardan is the GBC for South India including Madras, so I think it might be a good idea to write him about the preaching programme in Madras. Regarding food relief money, Adi Kesava Maharaj is handling it from America and Jayapataka Maharaj is from India. Money has been sent to Jayapataka so you should write him regarding his sending some share of it to Ceylon. I have already discussed this with him and he knows you were to get some food relief money.

I pray this meets you in the best of health and Krishna consciousness.

Your servant,

Tamal Krishna Gosvami

.Secretary to Srila Prabhupada

tkg/

.His Holiness Hansadutta Swami

c/o ISKCON Ceylon