January 13. ISKCON 50 – S.Prabhupada Daily Meditations.
By Satsvarupa dasa Goswami.
On the same day he wrote Mr. Hartman, Prabhupada received a letter from Sri Padampat Singhania, the director of the very large J.K. organization in India. Prabhupada had written Sri Padmapatji for financial support, and this reply gave him hope. Not only was the Singhania family fabulously wealthy, but its members were devotees of Lord Krishna. My dear Svamiji, I have gone through your letter. I am very glad to know your idea of erecting a Sri Radha-Krishna temple in New York. I think the proposal is a good one, but the following are the difficulties … Mr. Singhania pointed out two difficulties. 1) He had to get government sanction to send money and foreign exchange to America. 2) Mr. Singhania doubted whether with this small amount of seven lakhs [$110,000] that Prabhupada was asking a temple could be built in New York. He said he was thinking of a temple, a nice construction with Indian-type architecture. For this he would have to send a man to America. These were the two difficulties, “otherwise your idea is very good.” Srila Prabhupada and Mr. Singhania had a basic disagreement. A magnificent temple in New York would cost many millions of dollars to construct. Prabhupada knew, of course, that if Padmapat Singhania wanted, he could provide millions of dollars. But then how would he get so much money out of India? Prabhupada therefore again suggested that they only spend seven lakhs. “After purchasing the house,” he wrote, “we can build another story upon it with a temple dome, cakra, etc.” Prabhupada had his own line of reasoning:
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