Why not act as liaison, agent, and representative of Krishna
Prabhupada took the mail after the discussion. There was another acrimonious missive from his eldest son, Mathura Mohan De, the barely concealed bitterness seeping from his reply to Prabhupada's offer to him at the beginning of this month to take up some service with our Bombay project. Written from Calcutta with the words "M. M. De, Liaison, Agent and Representative" as its header, the type-written sheet read, "With the proffering of humble obeisances the letter dated 1st instant intimating a service opportunity in Bombay is hereby acknowledged. Having regard to the fact that a great deal of unprecedented misgivings crept in mind which are totally unwarranted and patently prejudicial and detrimental to my interest, any money possibly could hardly recompense the enormous ignominy that was caused to take place in our life as such, let alone this paltry sum of Rs.1000/- per mensem in exchange of 'service' and that too is not keeping with our tradition inasmuch as our father himself did despise 'service'.
"Be that as it may, naturally with great reluctance and of course regret, acceptance of the kind offer is declined hereof. With kindest regards . . . "
He added a postscript suggesting that Prabhupada contact his former family members who are staying in a flat he provided for them in Calcutta where, M.M. intimated, there is some legal trouble brewing.
Prabhupada has long since given up trying to assuage M.M's firmly-held resentment at Prabhupada having left his family to their own ends in order to take sannyasa and pursue his higher calling, but he is always willing to engage them in devotional service, to their eternal good. Noting his former son's letter heading, he replied, not without some irony, "Thanks for your determination. Why not act as liaison, agent, and representative of Krishna following in the footsteps of your father? Your father didn't despise the service of Krishna; because service of Krishna is eternal engagement of the living entity. Practically, your father's books sell all over the world to the extent of Rs. 5 to 6 lacs per day. If he would have taken the royalty to the minimum of 15% his daily income would have been Rs. 75,000/ per day. But he does not take a single paise and is engaged as representative of Krishna day and night. Why not follow this tradition of your noble heritage?"
He added his own handwritten postscript later in the day when he signed the typed version. "P.S. At Bhubaneswar (Orissa) I want to construct a Jagannatha temple exactly like that in Puri. If you like you can do the full charge to do this job. I shall spend as much money as it is required to do it nicely. ACBS"
Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 5 by Hari Sauri Dasa
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