Room Conversation -- November 6, 1977, Vrndavana
Kavirāja: (Hindi, asking Prabhupāda questions as he examines)
Bhakti-caru: He says that the swelling is much less than before, and there is no weakness in the heart also. He says that...
Kavirāja: (Hindi with Prabhupāda; mentions Horlicks and fruit juice)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everything is going nicely except that the strength is going away.
Bhakti-caru: Right, yes. (Hindi, explaining to kavirāja)
Kavirāja: (Hindi)
Bhakti-caru: When did Śrīla Prabhupāda take foodstuff last?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Foodstuff? Cāpāṭi? Rice? About four months ago.
Kavirāja: (Hindi)
Bhakti-caru: (Hindi)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He took a little bit about a month ago, but it was very little.
Bhakti-caru: (Hindi, explaining about milk, potol and diet)
Devotee: Four or five months ago Prabhupāda ate more? (whispered background discussion among devotees)
Prabhupāda: (Hindi)
Kavirāja: (Hindi with Bhakti-caru, mentions barley, milk; Bhakti-caru reads list of amounts of what Prabhupāda has been taking)
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Since he left, we haven't done parikramā.
Bhakti-caru: (Hindi, explaining)
Kavirāja: (Hindi) (break)
Prabhupāda: What is the news of Māyāpur?
Jayapatākā: Actually, everything is going very nicely now. Everyone was... When the news came that you were coming, it spread just like electricity. All of a sudden, all gurukula boys, all devotees, they started to cry out, "Haribol! Haribol!" jumping up and down. Just within a few moments everyone was immediately jumping. Now the book distributors, they've been very eager to fulfill your order to do hundred thousand books. So already last month they did almost forty thousand. Last week they did twelve thousand books. One party in Assam, they were selling Bengali, mostly Bengali books. They did seven thousand books in one week.
Prabhupāda: Which one?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Which book?
Jayapatākā: Gītār Gān and Bhagavāner Kathā and...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Seven thousand. That's pretty good, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in one week, just for one party. And they have four parties.
Jayapatākā: Well, now there's two. But... So we are organizing now so that we'll be able to even distribute thirty, forty thousand big books in a month.
Prabhupāda: English?
Jayapatākā: Well, this Vairāgya Vidyā, that will be printed in two weeks, so then we will distribute that. In English there's good scope also, because in my zone, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, they are English-predominated state because the Christian missionary have converted everyone. But they found great reception there, although the Christians are... Even the Christians are buying. There seems to be a lot of land for sale right now. About 60 to 80 bighās of land is for sale, and the people are asking the market rate. So it's... Even if the government... We don't have to depend on acquisition. We can just go and buy.
Prabhupāda: Can you... If you are able to... (indistinct—mic moving), subscribe within our jurisdiction so much land. Otherwise they will sub-note it: why you have purchased agricultural land?
Jayapatākā: We will purchase in the... We'll get a permit from the government to hold more land. And until that time, then we'll purchase in the name of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, Svarūpa Dāmodara.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda? We can also purchase in the name of Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust.
Jayapatākā: A trust can hold fifty bighās of irrigated land, seventy bighās unirrigated. And once we turn that... If we turn that to nonagricultural land, then there's no limit. By paying twice the land tax we can convert to nonagricultural for the purpose of building our temple or building anything, and then it's no longer subject to any ceiling. We will see with lawyer very carefully that...
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So you can purchase in Svarūpa Dāmodara's name.
Jayapatākā: Yes.
Bhavānanda: This land is for sale from whom? The Muhammadans?
Jayapatākā: Yes, both Muhammadan and Hindu.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Should we buy this land, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Why not? You have got money?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yes. There is enough money.
Jayapatākā: We do not want to rest until every home in Bengal has a copy of Gītār Gān and Bhāgavatam.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Gītār Gān is nice. It's attractive.
Jayapatākā: About ten new devotees are there now. Every week two or three new devotees are coming. Four of them are college graduate. They're helping answering letters and transcribing. Subhaga has five books that he had written in England. So we got those, and now they're being copied for printing.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: What kind of books?
Jayapatākā: Small books. Beyond Birth and Death, Easy Journey.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Subhaga is doing nicely?
Jayapatākā: Yes. Same as usual.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Is there Bengali boys, Mahārāja?
Jayapatākā: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So how many devotee..., members are there now, devotees in Māyāpur.
Jayapatākā: I don't know. I didn't take the exact count. Two hundred.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Two hundred. Big āśrama, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: I'm thinking of bringing some Manipuri boys to Māyāpur next time I go.
Prabhupāda: Do it.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Bring some boys from Manipur.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Manipur boys are very good workers. We saw them in Bombay. Remember, Śrīla Prabhupāda? I brought three of them to meet you. They all looked like Svarūpa Dāmodara juniors. Very humble, intelligent, hard-working.
Jayapatākā: That Manipur Mandir in Navadvīpa, when I was gone they had sent an invitation for attending one function. They're very favorable. When the party went to Assam, then they got invitation to go to Tripura, which is next to Manipur. It's eighty percent Bengali-speaking, and also many Vaiṣṇavas. So we expect to distribute many books there. Next month party will be going to Tripura.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Book distribution has hit India, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Jayapatākā: And, Śrīla Prabhupāda, I was thinking that it's very important we want to complete this temple during your stay here on this planet. Then your life's mission will be... There won't be anything that's left uncomplete if we could just complete the temple. The present... Just meditating that what are the obstacle... Actually, we have already enough land for the temple itself, but the temple design... When you first came to Māyāpur, then the temple was going to be 225 feet. Then we asked Saurabha to make a design, and then he made 300 feet. At that time the estimate was fifteen million. Then again he was designing, designing, and it went to 350 feet. Then it went to thirty million. Then it went to 400 feet, fifty-five million. Now it's up to seventy million.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Dollars?
Jayapatākā: Dollars. Every time he thinks about it, he adds fifty feet, and it goes up twenty million. So now all the distributors in the world, they were very eager to see the temple built, but at the present time it requires so much money at seventy million dollars and 450 feet that no one can think of even starting it for five years. But if the temple was 300 or 350 feet and twenty-five or thirty million dollars, which I don't think anyone—it would be the biggest building even in India and the biggest temple in the world—then it could be started immediately, feasibly. Four temples in America said that if they just get five women each—that means twenty women from the Society—then they could each pledge 25,000 rupees a month for..., in collection. That means $100,000, $125,000. Plus BBT's $100,000 a month and Gurukṛpā, that would be enough to immediately, even in the coming year, to start the construction of the temple, simply if Saurabha was asked to just make the temple on a thirty million dollar budget, which would be 350 feet or 300 feet. And this is really inspiring the book distributors to have this temple begun, and to complete it within your lifetime, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Prabhupāda: My lifetime... (laughs) It is now very brief. At any moment I can...
Jayapatākā: We're all praying that Kṛṣṇa will give your strength back. (break) ...neophyte devotees. Without your inspiration, association, it'll be very difficult.
Prabhupāda: That Muhammadan, what is his name?
Jayapatākā: Which one?
Prabhupāda: Back side our...
Jayapatākā: Badusheik.
Prabhupāda: He is selling the land also?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he selling?
Jayapatākā: Right now he's still asking four thousand rupees, but he seems to be weakening. But he hasn't come down yet in his price. He's not coming around so much. They're all a bit... Because now they have to go regularly to the jail.
Bhavānanda: How often?
Jayapatākā: They were going once a day. Now it's once a week. So it's a big trouble for them.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Including him?
Jayapatākā: Yes, he's one of them. He has to go.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's one of the men who was...
Jayapatākā: Oh, yes.
Bhavānanda: He's one of the main instigators.
Śatadhanya: They lose a days work, right?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You should tell him that if he sells at two thousand rupees a bighā that we will not be so severe with him.
Jayapatākā: To say stuff like that is very dangerous. They use that, how to say that, in court.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Kṛṣṇa worked with this man. He was harassing us, and now he is harassed.
Prabhupāda: Up to three thousand you can take. Four bighās.
Jayapatākā: Yes.
Prabhupāda: And make a dighi.
Jayapatākā: Yes. That Praphulla Brahmacari or Prabhupada Das or whatever he's called, next door, he has built a small temple now. The dome has come up. It's about 45 feet high.
Prabhupāda: On top?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Temple with a dome.
Jayapatākā: Very narrow one.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is he friendly or something?
Jayapatākā: He's very friendly. He came by and he said that... He recommended about two months ago that for a while we shouldn't say anything to the Muhammadan and try to get... Then he will bring the price down. Then mutually we can decide that who will take the land.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He wants the land?
Jayapatākā: He doesn't know if he has the money to buy the land, but he has got some interest to get the land.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why?
Jayapatākā: Because he only has one bighā right now, and that land is just next to his.
Bhavānanda: Planting?
Jayapatākā: Now planting is going on. Already many flowers and vegetables have been planted, and now the wheat fields are being plowed for planting. (break) ...if the big temple was thirty or thirty-five stories high, there would be any harm?
Prabhupāda: No harm. It is too much.
Jayādvaita: "It is too much."
Jayapatākā: The present design is too much. Yes, that present design means that every month, six hundred thousand dollars would have to be given, and that's just too much.
Prabhupāda: Too much strain is not good.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Also, the tendency is that when you make an estimate, you're always higher. If you say thirty million dollars, it's very likely that it will go more.
Jayapatākā: Yeah, so then consider. (break) ...his birthday was a couple days ago, and then he invited us. So I sent two brahmacārīs to his āśrama for his birthday celebration.
Prabhupāda: His temple is completed?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: His nātha-mandira?
Jayapatākā: I didn't ask, actually. I think he's a year older than Śrīla Prabhupāda? Or two years older.
Prabhupāda: At least one year. I want to develop Gauḍa-maṇḍala. So in yoga-pīṭha they could not build even a darśana-maṇḍapa in fifty, sixty years. So we can construct a, what is called, hall.
Jayapatākā: Without mandira.
Prabhupāda: Hmm. Yes.
Jayapatākā: Kīrtana hall.
Bhavānanda: No. Bhaktivedanta... Yoga Pīṭha Bhaktivedanta Hall. Bhaktivedanta Swami Hall.
Prabhupāda: What do you think?
Bhavānanda: With book stall. Prabhupāda has formed a trust, the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust, and its purpose is to develop Gauḍa-maṇḍala-bhūmi. Prabhupāda's one idea is to build this darśana-maṇḍapa at the yoga-pīṭha. And another is to finish Śrīdhara Mahārāja's darśana-maṇḍapa at his..., like that, to develop the different..., to encourage cooperation between the different Godbrothers in the temples. The members of the Trust are (indistinct) and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja and Girirāja, Svarūpa Dāmodara, myself, Mādhava Mahārāja and Madhusūdana Mahārāja. Prabhupāda named those members.
Prabhupāda: How do you think the idea?
Jayapatākā: All of your ideas, Śrīla Prabhupāda, are perfect. I am not someone to offer opinion. But if you ask, I think that actually, especially the yoga-pīṭha, nātha-mandira, that's a very dynamic idea, and in general it must do good.
Prabhupāda: We want cooperation.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No more noncooperation.
Jayapatākā: Generally the... Even Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha, they had invited us for the disappearance day of Keśava Mahārāja, but I wasn't present at the time. So generally now they're inviting us, and everyone seems to have the desire for more and more cooperation. Mādhava Mahārāja had talked with one, this leader of the Jana Sangha, now the Janata party constituent, who's Professor Bharati, Haripada Bharati. He's a big orator in the Bidan Sabha. So he's very pro-ISKCON and pro-Hindu. So he's coming out to Māyāpur the 20th and putting on a public meeting. It's being organized by the local Hindus. And in that time he'll be also visiting our temple. So he was told by Mādhava Mahārāja, who happened to meet him somewhere, that he should give us full support also. He mentioned that. And he's going to give a lecture, and in the lecture he's going to tell the Muslims that they should never do anything like this to another Hindu or Kṛṣṇa temple again, otherwise their situation will be very... He said they'll be driven out. (break) Dāmodara Mahārāja, he comes around once in a while. I haven't seem him the last couple of weeks, but he's also helping in his way. Yesterday, from the Central Government, one I.B. officer, Inspection Bank officer, came. He said that he received telegraphic information that regarding my citizenship, the government was having second thoughts, that maybe they would give it after all, and they requested him to find out my background information and give a recommendation.
Bhavānanda: In regard to the three-year visas, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa has secured that.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Actually, he did not secure it, because it's been given to all religious groups in India. Girirāja informed me. It's being given to all religious groups in India, that they can get three years. The government has passed it. It wasn't specially for us.
Jayapatākā: Hindu, Muslim?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Anyone. Any of these groups that have foreign people in it now will be allowed to stay. It's a general decision of the government. It wasn't...
Jayapatākā: Not of ISKCON.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No. Śrīla Prabhupāda, would you like to take rest now?
Prabhupāda: Hmm.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Okay. They must be tired. They traveled all night long. The kavirāja didn't sleep at all, I heard. Is that true, Jayapatākā?
Jayapatākā: Yes. The flight was three hours delayed. Three hours he was sitting, and he didn't leave Calcutta... The 8:00 flight left at 10:30, 11:00, and arrived in Delhi 1:00. Then it took to 5:00 to get here, so he's quite tired.
Prabhupāda: It did not start on time.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: No, three hours delayed.
Jayapatākā: The flight was late.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: So everyone can take rest now.
Jayapatākā: Just seeing Your Divine Grace gives us so much strength.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: If you can just request Kṛṣṇa to allow you to stay, Śrīla Prabhupāda... Everyone wants you to stay. (end)