We had a very nice plane ride here to New Delhi, although it took somewhat longer than we had anticipated. We arrived in London on schedule Sunday morning, and Kirtanananda gave me a massage, and then I took shower bath and rested until afternoon. We boarded the plane for Moscow and no more than we got in our seats, when it was announced that due "to health regulation" there would be a short delay—the delay, however, turned out to be some 16 hours. It seem that someone on the plane when it came into London had smallpox, so the plane was quarantined until it could be thoroughly fumigated. So they put us up for the night in the "Excelsior" Hotel, which was something like a dream palace, complete with air conditioning, TV, Hi-Fi, swimming pool and everything else. We had a nice meal and slept very nicely. We boarded the plane for the second time the next morning at nine a.m. and took off for Moscow shortly thereafter, and arrived at that bastion of propaganda about three hours later. We had an hour stop there, so we got off the plane just to take a walk. We were met by a "friendly guard" and informed that they would keep our passport until we returned to the plane, and then "guided" down the corridor to the terminal.
Hotel (Letters)
Correspondence
1967 Correspondence
1968 Correspondence
We simply give them a little chance to serve Krishna, but we cannot accept their leadership. In future, therefore, we shall agree to such publicity if they publish about ourselves exclusively. I think the Television proposal as written by you may be utilized in that way. Yes, I saw the late Ambassador Mr. B. K. Nehru at San Francisco Hotel and he and his wife received me well. He introduced me also with the Consul General, Mr. Bazpai. So the meeting was nice and I understand that he has recommended my case as a permanent immigrant to the Immigration Department. His assistants and secretaries in the Embassy and Consulate General have written me letters confirming this. They have promised that they will do their best in getting my permanent visa, but usually it takes 5 to 6 months to complete the process. We have, however, submitted the Immigration application by the first week of January, 1968.
It may be an ideal village where the residents will have plain living and high thinking. For plain living we must have sufficient land for raising crops and pasturing grounds for the cows. If there is sufficient grains and production of milk, then the whole economic problem is solved. You do not require any machines, cinema, hotels, slaughterhouses, brothels, nightclubs—all these modern amenities. People in the spell of maya are trying to squeeze out gross pleasure from the senses, which is not possible to derive to our heart's content. Therefore we are confused and baffled in our attempt to eschew eternal pleasure from gross matter. Actually, joyful life is on the spiritual platform, therefore we should try to save our valuable time from material activities and engage them for Krishna Consciousness. But at the same time, because we have to keep our body and soul together to execute our mission, we must have sufficient (not extravagant) food to eat, and that will be supplied by grains, fruits, and milk.
He wanted to collect some money and he cheated so many people because they wanted to be cheated, and now he is in India, and so many western boys are still going there and paying some money for interview and hotel charges, and still following the so-called yoga system. I can challenge all this so-called yoga societies in the western countries that they are not standard in terms of Vedic yoga system. The preliminary processes of yoga system is to control the senses, and practice some bodily position by which the mind can be made fixed up on the point of Visnu Murti. But none of them do practice like that, but generally they are attracted by the bodily exercises only, haphazardly. And they take it as yoga practice. And others, they are addicted to sex indulgence and intoxication habit.
Please continue to send our Back To Godhead to all persons, I have given you list—especially to Sumati Morarji at Bombay, because she is coming again to help our activities. You can send copies to Hawaii also to Gaurasundara to the following address: Gary McElroy; room 5066; Armed Services Y.M.C.A., 250 South Hotel Street; Honolulu, Hawaii, 96813.
Regarding my stationary: It is almost finished and you can arrange for printing next copies to your good choice. Govinda dasi doesn't like the setting of camp and date. But I am moving everywhere, practically I am not fixed up at any address, so you have to adjust as nicely as possible.
1970 Correspondence
I beg to thank you for your kind letter dated 14th May, 1970, and noted the contents. I last met you sometimes by the 11th or 12th of December 1967 at Mullick's Radha-Govinda Temple, and then I started for U.S.A. via Japan sometimes on the 13rd December, 1967. When I was staying in a hotel of Tokyo I immediately sent my arrival news to Sripada Tirtha Maharaja offering my respects therein to you, but on my return to San Francisco from Tokyo I did not receive any letter from you although my return address was given in the letter which I wrote from Tokyo. Anyway that is a long distant topic. I am very pleased to receive your letter as I was expecting at every moment. I hope by the grace of Srila Prabhupada you are doing well.
I like the place Honolulu very much. Last time where I stayed in the skyscraper hotel was extremely pleasing to me, therefore I was induced to stay there for some time. I think that was my sense gratification, therefore Krsna liked me to come here and do some work. We shall always be satisfied with the routine work entrusted to us by Krsna. I hope things are going on well there. In the meantime I am enclosing one circular letter to whom it may concern and I authorize you to print them profusely and distribute to the public so that the misunderstanding created by Sai may be dissipated. Please keep me informed of your activities and I shall be glad to receive my maintenance charges regularly.
When someone becomes a life member, we can inform him that he may stay at our foreign Temples as privilege of a life member, but we are not inviting anyone and everyone to stay as if we are in the hotel business.
I am glad that you are enthusiastic about prospects in Delhi, and if you like to work there, do it. We have initiated a system for making life members, that daily three members must be made in Bombay, daily two in Calcutta, and daily one in Delhi. In this way of six Life members daily, we shall very quickly expand our Society in India. This Life Membership is the support of our Movement here, so you must stress this program especially. That will be our success.
1971 Correspondence
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 13rd June, 1971 and have noted the contents. Just yesterday I arrived in Moscow, and we are staying in a very nice hotel. On the whole, this is a very nice city (the best in Europe); it is very neat and clean. We are trying to arrange, through the embassy some talks on our philosophy, and I will let you know what happens. On the 25th instant I will go to Paris, stay for one day, and fly directly to San Francisco for Rathayatra. Then I will go to London for their Rathayatra on 4th July. Shortly thereafter, I will return to N.Y.C. All mail can go to L.A.
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 16th June, 1971 and have noted the contents. We have come to Moscow on the 20th instant evening and I'm staying at the above hotel. The place is centrally situated amongst important buildings of Moscow. Yesterday afternoon we had a tour for three hours to see respective important places. The city is well-planned. There are big big houses and roads and at day time the streets are busy with buses, cars, and underground trains which are far better than American or English. The underground streets are very neat and clean. The surface streets are also daily washed. But there is some difficulty in collecting vegetarian foodstuffs; still we are cooking our meals by the cooker, which has saved our lives. We talked with one big professor Mr. Kotovsky and Syamasundara talked with many great writers and musicians.
Here in Bombay we have got good prospects to purchase very large land in Juhu for even, cheap price, just in the middle of a neighborhood. We shall build our camp there & begin constructing temple immediately, & later on we shall develop large hotel & school. There is also chance for getting a nice bungalow in Bombay city also. So in general we shall make our headquarters in Bombay, & build up Vrindaban and Mayapur, that's all. I will take care of everything, you just give me two life-members daily in India, & I shall do the rest.
1972 Correspondence
You have offered to send me any articles, but I do not want to overburden you at this point. Better you organize like Los Angeles, then I shall go there and open your center. But now we are purchasing a large land outside of Bombay city in Juhu for building up an International Hotel for people from around the world to come and get some spiritual life and at the same time enjoy a foreign country. Very soon we shall begin constructing the Temple there, and our devotees from all over India will come there to live in tents and build and collect money. For this collecting money, we shall require that some of our men go every day into Bombay some distance away for seeing rich men and persuading them to give something. And I think for this purpose a suitable van or bus from Germany would be very nice. If you like, you may purchase there and drive here in that van as soon as possible and then go back.
We are distributing our own prasadam free, why another business should be there? Anyone is open to take our prasadam free. Better Smt. Morarji may contribute rice, dahl, etc. for this prasadam distribution program. According to our Vedic system prasada distribution should not be on the line of hotel or canteen business. Whatever prasadam we can distribute, that should be done free of charges. So to summarize, you should distribute free prasadam, and try to introduce immediately KC instruction to the students through English medium. I know many parents are eager to educate their wards through English medium. If we can introduce this system, our girl disciples may be engaged for teaching them: a little English grammar, reading and writing, geography, arithmetic, history, sanskrit,, but all of them should be Krishna Conscious—that is Bhagavata program:
The Society plans to alter the present structures for use as classrooms, kitchens, a large lecture hall, dormitories, a dispensary and infirmary, a library and offices. One wing will be opened as a hotel especially for American students travelling or studying in India. The fair market price of this very adequate property is Rs. 2,500,000 complete. Rs. 250,000 has been paid by the society as "earnest money." America is the parent country of the Society. For this reason, ISKCON Bombay is appealing to the AID Program of the government of the United States of America to finance, in whole or part, by direct grant and/or long-term, low-interest loan, the Society's expansion scheme in Bombay as outlined above.
It is certainly a great tragedy that there are no books in London Center so Kesava was not able to display his great talent for distributing them. But I have heard from him that you are all very enthusiastic to distribute books so when I come there I shall give you some hints how to do it. One thing is, when I come there I do not like to stay in any hotel. I shall stay in my room above the temple on the first floor.
I have just heard from Malati that our Digvijaya and Pritha devi are presently staying with the devotees in Vrindaban in India. So we must take every precaution to prevent our devotees from slackening and falling away. This is done by observing that they are always chanting 16 rounds and observing the regulative principles. If these things are neglected, then they will fall down. It is not good if small numbers of devotees open a center and then fall away. Association of devotees is the most important thing. So I think in the future at least 10 or 12 men must open a center.
1973 Correspondence
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your nice letters dated August 18 and 19th 1973. I was very much pleased to come there and visit. Paris is developing nicely step by step. When I was at the Hotel de Ville I thought that this is better than London. So Paris is a most important city of the world. Work with great enthusiasm and make Krishna more prominent than Napoleon and Eiffel tower.
We are naturally business minded, and so as we get some opportunity, that mentality becomes strong. We have already got our book-selling program. It is better not to divert to other lines of business. This boy Rsi Kumar appears to be lost coming in contact with business. I heard he was coming to India and staying in the hotel without coming to the temple. Similarly Hayagriva is also lost almost. So, the situation is not very favorable.
There is the story of the bed bug. In the winter season the bed bug appears to be only skin, but in summer season as soon as it gets the opportunity of biting and sucking blood, it becomes fatty. Sometimes we may artificially renounce the world, but as soon as the opportunity of sucking blood is there, we turn again into a bed bug.
I am anxious to know if there has been any response from the Home Minister of India to the letter I wrote him while I was in New Delhi regarding the Indian Government assisting us in the development of our Juhu Beach Project. Our idea is to construct a hotel for American and European tourists to come and learn about factual spiritual life. While they are coming, there will be foreign exchange and the Indian Government is very much in favor of this. In this way, if we can convince them to help us by granting permanent visas for 100 to 150 of our men it will be a solution to our visa problems. Also, why not solicit a loan from the Government for 2 crores for developing our Juhu Beach Tourist Hotel. We will repay them in foreign exchange. You can point out that we have already invested up to 20 lakhs in foreign exchange so our projects in India are advantageous to the Indian economic development. This is the key to Governmental support in India.
The Consulate General was very kind to meet and help us in this way. Also, I met with the High Commissioner of India in London and requested him in the same way. If our schooling is established we will get rid of this visa problem.
Regading the Government loan for our tourist hotel, we have already invested twenty lakhs so they may loan us at least 1 crore. Do it carefully. If we construct a very attractive hotel many tourists will come just like the Holiday Inn.
So far as the arrangement with Australia for trading books for ghee, go ahead and do it with my permission. Karandhara has agreed.
1974 Correspondence
I have taught you and all my disciples, Krsna will be very pleased with you and all the devotees who are there. It is very good news that there are now 28 devotees and I am sure more will join you in the future.
Yes, I am certainly coming to visit you in Hawaii. I plan to be there by the 14th or 15th of January. Bali Mardan has fixed up arrangements for my staying at a hotel for 4 days. If suitable, I can extend my stay there or make other arrangements once I am there. Always be assured that you are being protected by Krsna and that if you simply carry out my instructions against all odds you will certainly come out successful in the end.
After the class and breakfast everyone should go to their respective duties, deity worship, sankirtana, clean-up and so throughout the day this atmosphere of constant engagement will produce the truly happy result of transcendental life. So you should set the example and also see that the others are following. Our buildings are not for our sleeping in and eating like hotels, but whoever wants to join us should understand the philosophy of regulated devotional service. Here in L.A. they have elaborate Sunday festivals and erect a tent on the front lawn. There are hours of kirtana, a philosophic lecture and lots of sumptuous prasadam distribution. Another thing is, here they have a 24 hour security guard, with pistol and holster who is in the temple at all times. So you should do this like this.
I am in due receipt of your letter dated October 31, 1974 and have noted the contents. Thank you for giving me the account of Gurudasa. What is that hotel bill for Rs. 1200/-?
I have already written you one letter of thanks for your taking care of the Vrindaban temple.
I note that you are reducing the expenses, but why did the Treasurer leave? Even if you restricted the spending, then why did he leave?
1975 Correspondence
I am in due receipt of your letter dated Jan. 2nd, 1975 and have noted the contents carefully. Regarding the new building, if it is suitable, never mind if it is a little more or less, you should get it. We can rent the unused space, and the householders can live in the building as long as they have separate floors. One thing is that they must be fully engaged. Don't make a hotel for free boarding and lodging. Everyone must be full-time engaged and the best engagement for them is to sell books. That will be very nice. Don't allow anyone to simply eat and sleep. All should attend classes 2 or 3 times daily, chant 16 rounds, and go out for street sankirtana. Eating should be minimized. Too much eating leads to too much sleeping, and then sex desire. So, management should be done very carefully to see that there is not easy-going, lazy attitude which will only end in fall down.
Making your own law on the registration form has no value. You know of that Mr. Mukherjee who refuse to leave our place even when you called the police.
In Tirupati they have a nice system. You have to see how the hotels and dharmasalas are doing it. What laws there are to protect them. People are very cunning nowadays, and we have to be careful. You should manage the whole thing very nicely, just like in Tirupati they are managing so many buildings very carefully.
For printing additional small books you can use the loan repayment from Bombay. I gave so much loans and that must be paid back. Or you can take from the Dollars 50,000.00 that was just now sent. But, money will come do not worry. Did the Oberoi-Sheraton purchase the books? The hotels must purchase the books for putting in their rooms. Incidentally, it is my 80th birth anniversary, not 79th.
Yes, you can accept donations there for the project in Bombay and not promise them anything. On the whole it should be run on the hotel principle. They come and stay, and upon entering they sign one "Visitors Register." Such a book should be maintained. Every dharmasala they keep such a book. He writes wherefrom he is coming, how long he will stay, where he is going next. Not that there should be big forms to sign. They will resent it, and also they may be able to find some legal fault with the forms. Make it simple. Keep this Visitors Book. And as far as possible let visitors stay together in a room, two or three men together, not each man alone. This will discourage them from over-staying.
1976 Correspondence
So far the new towers are concerned, not a single space should be allotted without my permission. When completed it will be a wonderful building and we want to keep it open for people to visit from all over the world. We are expecting guests like hotel so the rooms must be available. I also want to know what terms you have arranged with persons who gave substantial contributions for building the rooms in the towers. Please relay this information to me immediately.
Why should we remain in doubt about 7 Bury Place. The place is nice, but the building is not so nice (7 Bury Place that is). The building on Soho is nice, I've seen it. Your idea to in the future build a major temple is very good. Then we can either sell the building on Soho or we can keep it for a restaurant if it is profitable. We can make the whole building a restaurant or a hotel. The Indians would like a completely vegetarian hotel.
| Page Title: | Hotel (Letters) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 27 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=28 |
| No. of Quotes: | 28 |