771104 - Letter to Ramesvara from Tamal Krsna

Vrndavana,

November 4, 1977

From: Tamal Krishna

Los Angeles

My dear Ramesvara Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your feet. I beg to thank you for your letter dated October 28th, 1977.

Thank you very much for your encouragement in regard to our decision on developing the Gita Nagari community. I feel very convinced about the necessity for developing a community along the lines which we have planned. The newspaper clipping regarding subsidies for those with solar energy units in their homes I have forwarded to Dhrstadyumna Maharaja. I would be very glad if at some time you can either write him or call him and encourage him to develop this program with full enthusiasm. I cannot be there in America. But you are there and Dhrstadyumna Maharaja and Adi Kesava Maharaja very much respect you, so if you should be able to give them encouragement in various ways as well as guidance, I thing it would be very much utilized and appreciated by them.

The newspapers are simply yellow journalism in regards to connecting us with Alex. None of our leaders are involved, neither we have ever engaged in any illicit activities. It is not our fault if someone criminal chants Hare Krishna or donates money to us. There is nothing legally wrong with this. It is simply that our movement will go through a period now where we will be harassed in various ways, and this is one of them. I think the most important thing of all the newspaper coverage was the little clipping which mentions from Agnideva’s side that these people were not members of our movement because they could not follow the regulative principles. This means that the newspapers have indeed caught up the point that these were not normal participants in our society. At the end I think it will come out clearly that they could not participate in our society because of the fact that they could not follow our rules. Just like in Mayapur the initial newspaper coverage was against us but now in the end everything has come out in our favor. This incident will also come out the same way. Anyway the position with all of these fringe people is now finished once and for all which I think is a relief to everyone.

The new books arrived by way of Chitsukhananda Prabhu. Srila Prabhupada looked at the Teachings of Lord Kapiladeva and the new Bhagavatam and was very happy to see these. He said, “Send Ramesvara special thanks. He is so much enthusiastic.” Srila Prabhupada so much appreciates the service that you are doing. I have never seen such a beautiful book as Teachings of Lord Kapiladeva. Srila Prabhupada has had us read a few chapters of it early this morning and we all enjoyed it so much. Now that Srila Prabhupada has given the go-ahead for producing books based on His lectures and other articles, everyone is very much anticipating so many beautiful books coming from the BBT. To date Srila Prabhupada is up to Srimad-Bhagavatam 10th Canto, 14th Chapter, Verse Number 1.

I had one idea which I would like to relate to you. I think in Los Angeles we should have a Bhaktivedanta Swami Library. Any great personality like former presidents or scholars have a library containing all of their notes, letters, books, etc. Our library could have various shelves devoted to each language with a few copies of each book so that people could come in and read. There could be many tables with chairs for sitting. In addition there could be sections containing all of the Back to Godhead in plastic covers so that people could read them including back issues. There could be a big archive section containing all of the letters and other important documents. I think this library would be very nice. It should be in a nice building, either its own building or else in a large room within a building within the LA complex. What is your idea about this?

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

Your servant,

Tamal Krishna Gosvami

Secretary to Srila Prabhupada

His Holiness Ramesvara Swami

c/o ISKCON Los Angeles

/tkg