A telegram arrived today from Satadhanya Swami in Mayapur. Bhakti Vilasa Tirtha Maharaja, the head of the Caitanya Gaudiya Math, has died. The telegram said that his followers plan to put his body in the bhajana-kutira of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and that ISKCON is protesting. Prabhupada shook his head in disapproval. "Why are they protesting? We should not become involved unless other Godbrothers have asked. Unnecessarily becoming involved. It is not our business; let them do as they wish. We had nothing to do with him when he was alive and neither shall we have anything to do with him now he is dead. Send a telegram to that effect." Thus Harikesa Maharaja sent a telegram back to Satadhanya Maharaja which read simply: "Stay out of Tirtha Maharaja's affairs, alive or dead. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami."
In other mail, Srila Prabhupada received a letter from Vikas K. Misra, the son of one of his childhood friends, Dina Nath Misra. Vikas informed Prabhupada that Dina Nath died from a heart attack two months ago, on July 16. He said, "I am writing this letter to you as you know my father for a very long time and he held you in very high regard, veneration and great esteem as the torch bearer of Krishna conscious movement and as a pioneer in propagating the word of the Lord. I request you to pray for him and keep a kindly eye on us and provide us with spiritual guidance and solace in our hour of need. "All of us pray for your long life so that the Lord keep you in good health and long life to propagate His word and provide solace to the suffering humanity." Srila Prabhupada replied, "I am very very sorry to learn that your father has expired. Your father was my class friend and neighborhood friend. During the time of your grandfather your whole family was living at Varanasi Ghose St. Our residence was on the same street and because we went to the same college, Scottish Church College, and were in the same class, we were very intimately connected since 1916, more than 50 years. "Naturally I am very very sorry to learn the death news of your father, my beloved friend. So offer your mother my condolences for the bereavement, but there is nothing to be very sorry for. According to Bhagavad-gita your father has not died, he has changed his body, na hanyate hanyamane sarire. "Certainly I shall pray to Krishna for his better situation in the next life. Offer my blessings to your children and wife and I hope that this meets you in good health. I will most probably be in Calcutta in December next and I shall be glad to see you at that time." Dr. Wolf-Rottkay sent a short letter entitled "STATEMENT AND CONFESSION TO PRABHUPADA." He wrote, "Occasional short - in fact very short glimpses of the truer import of Spirituality make me realize that my approach to the Master's Transcendental Message is still largely intellectual, in other words, speculative and therewith on the material level. "I hear that a lifetime, even, is generally too short a time for a completion of the TASK the task of Self-Realization. What, then, of a few years of old age with a materialistically programmed mind, I ask myself. As the Master says, a devotee has to expect a whole lifetime of struggle with the never-ceasing impacts of Maya. Considering this I feel humbly grateful to have come what little way I have by the Mercy of the Lord. May He allow me to struggle for Him. "In gratitude and devotion, W. H. Wolf-Rottkay; disciple." Srila Prabhupada is always pleased to hear from Dr. Wolf and he appreciates that such a learned scholar has sincerely taken up Krishna consciousness. He sent back a short reply of encouragement. "Yes, this attitude will help you. Always pray to Krishna humbly and He will surely help you, tesam satata yuktanam bhajatam priti purvakam dadami buddhi yogam tam yena mam upayanti te, to those who worship Me with love, I give them the intelligence by which they can come to Me."Cittahari dasa, the newly-appointed temple president in Auckland, New Zealand, sent a letter recommending first initiation for two devotees. He also mentioned that he was due to receive $30,000 soon, and wanted to know what he should do with it: "In the Teachings of Lord Caitanya you cite the example of Rupa Goswami's distribution of his wealth. Is this the way we should distribute our wealth or should it all be surrendered to the Temple?" Prabhupada accepted the candidates for initiation and he advised Cittahari to send his money to Ramesvara Swami in Los Angeles for deposit in the ISKCON Mayapur Vrindavana Fund account. Gurudasa Swami wrote to Srila Prabhupada about the success his Krishna-Balaram traveling sankirtana party has had in Poland. He said that the people were very receptive and he praised the work already done in the Eastern Bloc countries by Harikesa Swami, saying he would like to help him with future programs there. Gurudasa said he is supposed to arrive back in Vrindavana within a month or two, and he will give his van to the temple to use for sankirtana. Most of his letter, however, was about the loss of his tridanda. He had checked it as hand baggage at the Warsaw airport but it never made it on the plane, and the airline claims it is lost. So he wanted to know whether: 1) he should sue the airline and try to recover it; 2) make a new one (in which case he asked if Srila Prabhupada could hold it and thus bless it); or 3) just forget about it. Prabhupada first gave advice about his monk's staff: "As far as your danda goes if it is too troublesome to carry there is no need for it. Lord Caitanya's danda was broken by Nityananda Prabhu and He never carried it again. But if you want you can make another although for preaching purposes it may be dropped." Most of his response, however, was to the news of Gurudasa's preaching efforts. "I am very very pleased with your preaching in Poland and you should continue this program with full enthusiasm. Your coming to Vrindavana is not so important and it may wait. Please expand this program more and more for there is a very good and favorable field there. Try and start a center there, it seems possible. Continue this program of kirtana and prasadam for this will conquer their hearts as they have never experienced anything like it before. I know you are a sincere preacher and they will appreciate your good vaisnava qualities. Please send me reports of your future successes. Thank you very much." Finally, Harikesa Swami read out to Srila Prabhupada an enthusiastic letter he had personally received from Dvarakesa dasa, who is now in Yugoslavia. Dvarakesa prabhu has been preaching there along with Prabhujaka dasa, with considerable success. They held programs on the beach in Split, and later, when the weather turned bad, they did many home programs. They celebrated Janmashtami and Vyasapuja there, and reported that many people have been giving donations of food. There was even a favorable article about them in the local newspaper. They have sold most of their books and he expressed confidence that many young intellectuals will join us. They have now moved to Dubrovnik. Dvarakesa is Hungarian and he said he was able to preach to forty Hungarian tourists, who bought three Gitas and promised to arrange programs for them in Hungarian universities and colleges. But their endeavors were also clouded with trouble from officials. "The polis arrested us the last day (2 days ago) in Split, because two different persons reported us. They searched through the car, and they found everything. But instead of making trouble for the records, books, etc. they were satisfied that they could not find the things they were looking for: weapons and drugs. One man reported that we make propaganda which is against the will (way) of the Yugoslavian state. Therefore the polis suggested us to leave Yugoslavia. In the same time they said that so far we didn't do anything far out for what they can throw us out, but they suspect what we are doing, so we shall leave they said. We came to Dubrovnik and today we were arrested by the polis again; they searched through the van again and after three hours we were free again. I think soon we get used to it, that some hours of the day we spend at the polis station." He ended optimistically: "The enthusiasm is great, I think we work together nicely, with Prabhujaka, we would like to continue this program. How is Srila Prabhupada? Please write some nectarean news about him." Srila Prabhupada was extremely happy to hear about their efforts, and he dictated a letter of encouragement to them: "I have noted your letter of August 23, 1976 addressed to Harikesa Swami and have noted the contents with pleasure. Please continue your program of preaching in Eastern Europe for this program is very pleasing to me. You should be supplied all funds for this program by the local GBC men there in Europe. This program is very important. "People are suffering greatly presently due to having lost all proper vision. They are completely without knowledge as to what is the real purpose of life. They have forgotten what is the real purpose of life. It is up to you to reestablish their lost relationship with Krishna by being sincere to preach the message of Krishna purely by yourself following the instructions of the Lord and his bona-fide representative, the spiritual master. If you follow nicely our Krishna conscious program and preach to these unfortunate people, surely Krishna will recognize your very nice service as He states in Bhagavad-gita, na ca tasmad manusyesu kascin me priya krttama, whoever preaches this message of Bhagavad gita is considered by Me to be the most dear. So continue on this way, you have my full approval and support." Harikesa Maharaja discussed with Srila Prabhupada some of the practical problems in keeping the Eastern European program going. In the course of their exchange, Prabhupada revealed the radical steps he was prepared to take to ensure that this preaching go on. Harikesa began to explain that, apart from the risks involved, a big obstacle was a lack of funding. He said that even something as basic as finding something to eat was a major difficulty. "So if there is nothing else, you can eat meat if you have to," Srila Prabhupada told him matter-of-factly. Harikesa's mouth dropped open a little bit and his eyes widened. Not knowing if Prabhupada was serious or not, he tried to ignore what he had just heard and continued to say that even if he had money, there was nothing to buy. Completely serious, Prabhupada again told him, "So if there is difficulty, you can take meat." Harikesa stopped. He appeared dazed as he contemplated the possible implications. "But Prabhupada, what about my consciousness?" "Damn your consciousness," Prabhupada replied. "You must go on preaching."