Lord Ramacandra had been to... Brazil!!

Since Hridayananda Goswami was Prabhupada's direct representative for Latin America, Prabhupada called to see him frequently while in Mexico. He wanted his G.B.C. men to understand fully the importance of the Krishna consciousness movement and to know practically how to conduct it and propagate it. He wanted them eventually to do all the managing of the institution's affairs, freeing him to translate the Bhagavatam. He had written about this responsibility in a letter to Hridayananda Goswami in 1972, shortly after awarding him sannyasa. "Now you must all, sannyasis, GBC members and other leaders become very serious to actually give the human kind, the greatest welfare, namely this Krishna Consciousness movement. Your task ahead is very huge but it will be quite simple and easy if you simply do as I am doing. You must become conversant in every feature, wherever it is needed throughout the society. Our first business is to preach to the devotees and to maintain the highest standard of Vaishnava education. Management must be there as well, just as I am preaching daily from Srimad-Bhagwatam, Bhagavad-gita, but I am also going to the bank, making investments, seeing the trial balance, making letters, seeing how things are going on, like that. So you must become expert in all these matters, just as I am giving you example."

One evening, after lecturing in the temple room, Prabhupada was talking in his room with Hridayananda Goswami. Sitting on Prabhupada's desk was a world globe and Hridayananda Maharaja was showing Prabhupada, the extent of his Latin American preaching field. Srila Prabhupada sat, gently spinning the globe, finally stopping it with his finger on Mexico. "What do you know about this country?" he asked.

Hridayananda Maharaja began telling him as much as he knew about the culture, government and history of Mexico. Then Prabhupada gave the globe another spin, stopping it with his finger on Argentina and Hridayananda Maharaja told what he knew about the people and life of Argentina.

"Now we will give you some information about India," said Prabhupada, smiling and he named India's exports and the provinces from which they came. He spoke of the relationship between ancient India and South America, of Lord Ramacandra, who millions of years ago had gone to Brazil. From Sri Lanka to Brazil had been a tunnel and all the gold of Ravana's kingdom had come through that tunnel from Brazil.

Hridayananda Maharaja was thrilled that Srila Prabhupada was including him in such an intimate, friendly talk and they continued exchanging information while pointing to the places on the globe.