770120 - Letter to Gupta from Ramesvara

Additional Chief Engineer,

20 January, 1977

Nayapalli

P.O. Bhubaneswar-12

Dist. Puri, Orissa

Mr. Gupta

Additional Chief Engineer

Central Indian Railways

c/o Iskcon Center

Bombay

Dear Mr. Gupta,

Please accept my respects. Srila Prabhupada has requested that I write you thanking you for the wonderful assistance you gave His Divine Grace in helping arrange for his travel from Bombay to Kumba Mela, and then to Calcutta. Srila Prabhupada said that you have arranged so nicely for him, just like a father arranges for his son. So all our thanks to you. Srila Prabhupada has also requested that I extend a special invitation to you and your family to be our guests at our annual Gaura Purnima Festival celebrating the birth appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. At this festival, Vaisnava devotees from all continents of the world gather at our center in Sree Mayapura, Dist. Nadia, West Bengal, from February 28th through March 5th (which is the actual day of Gaura Purnima), and then attend our festivities at our Iskcon center, Krsna-Balarama Mandir, Vrindaban, Mathura, U.P. up until March 15th. There is a full program of kirtan, darsan of His Divine Grace as well as morning lectures given personally by Srila Prabhupada on the Bhagavata philosophy, kirtan, sumptuous prasad, bathing, guest speakers, sadhu satsang, etc. At both places we have very modern guest accommodations, and Prabhupada will be very pleased if you can attend. Please inform Sriman Giriraj Prabhu at our Bombay center what days you can schedule so that we can have the pleasure of reserving your room, etc.

You will be happy to know that Srila Prabhupada approved of your plan to have us design a special train car, with kitchen, sitting room and altar, bedroom suite, and rooms for his secretary, etc. just as we envisioned. This will be a very good advertisement for the Krsna consciousness movement, and will make it possible for Srila Prabhupada to travel all over India for preaching the message of Lord Caitanya, without too much strain or interruption of his translation work. Everyone is very excited about this plan, but it can only be possible with your kind help and advise. This will be a great facility for helping Srila Prabhupada, and I hope we can begin serious thinking and design work of the car so that possibly by the time of our Festival, we can shop Srila Prabhupada the proposed plans for the design. I have asked Avhirama Prabhu, who is our President of our Calcutta Mandir, to assist in any way in this project. Anyway, we can hopefully finalize everything when we all meet together at our Mayapur Festival. I hope this finds you in good health, and always advancing in Krsna consciousness.

Yours faithfully,

Ramesvara Swami

Personal Secretary to

His Divine Grace A.C.

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

cc: Sriman Giriraj Prabhu, Bombay:

Sriman Avhisrama Prabhu, Bombay