741024 - Letter to Uttamasloka written from Mayapur

Letters by Date, 1974

Letter to Uttama Sloka das

Sri Mayapur Chandradoya Mandir
P.O. Sree Mayapur, Dist. Nadia
Reply: c/o ISKCON Bombay
24/10/74

Sriman Uttama Sloka das Adhikary
ISKCON
187 Cerrard St. E.
Toronto 225 Ont. Canada
My Dear Uttama Sloka das:
Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 27, 1974 with enclosed plans for the new temple and it is all very nice. You are taking on a big responsibility, and I am very pleased. Toronto I think is a very important city in Canada, and it is fitting that you are contemplating to make a first class temple there. Do everything very carefully, in consultation with Jagadisha Prabhu, and do not spend anything unnecessarily. Whatever money we are getting it is from Krishna, so nothing should be misspent.
You can make the interior of the temple in the same design as the Chicago temple with a balcony and the same type of Deity room. I liked the Chicago temple very much when I was there, so make it like that. We are making our temples very nice and gorgeous so that people will come and take Krishna consciousness. Just like here at Mayapur, because we have this very nice house, people are coming to visit and stay. They attend the aratiks and listen to my lectures, and take prasadam. If we did not have this house, then they would not come. So this is the meaning of a temple. There must always be activity. Not that we have a nice house for comfortable living. We simply want to bring people back home, Back to Godhead. That is the purpose of our temples, of our books, and our festivals, and preachings.
I will like to come and visit your temple the next time I return to USA. I think I can come to Toronto directly from London.
I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well wisher,
     
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/bs