740700 - Letter to Dr. Kapoor from Ramesvara

Dear Dr. Kapoor,

I hope this letter meets you in the best of health. My name is Ramesvara das Brahmacary, a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and I serve His Divine Grace by acting as Secretary for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. I would like to thank you very much for allowing us to print the article in our “Back to Godhead Magazine” (issue #62) entitled “Vrndavana, the Highest Paradise”, which was an excerpt from your recent book. Please find a copy of this issue enclosed herein.

I have been informed that you have considered allowing the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust to publish your new book and we are honored to have this opportunity. Your writings have always been held in great regard by us and you are a dear friend of our Guru Maharaj. If I may, I would like to describe something about the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. We are considered a non-profit organization and as such, funds collected by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust are used in two ways: 50% of our funds are re-invested in publishing Vaisnava literatures and the other 50% is spent for construction of Temples. Another interesting aspect of our book distribution is that we do not sell primarily to commercial accounts, but rather we send our literatures to our own Temples at the lowest possible prices and they distribute to interested people who meet our Samkirtan parties. I have described all this because I wanted to explain that the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is not actually in a position to give royalties for books or articles that we publish. In fact, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada does not receive any royalties from his own Book Trust. You see, our position is such that even though we would like to offer royalties, we are simply not permitted to do so.

I feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity to write to your good self and I pray that by Lord Krsna’s grace if I am able to one day to Sri Vrndavana Dhama I might be able to personally offer my appreciations for your work. Hare Krsna.

Your servant,

Ramesvara dasa Brahmacary

Secretary

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

/kdd