Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet on this special day of your Vyāsa-pūjā. All glories to you and your divine mission!
We are living through very turbulent times, when everything horrible and exciting is happening at the same time. Horrible is, of course, the work of the demons, as we can now see in front of our eyes what Lord Kṛṣṇa told us in His Gītā (16.9): “Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.”
And since it’s Kali-yuga, we are hardly surprised by this turn of events, but it’s especially enlivening to see against this dark background the amazing development of your wonderful work: how our growth in India, which is your pet project, is accelerating beyond belief! And specifically I am referring to two initiatives coming from the governments of West Bengal and Assam. The Jagannath Dham temple in Digha, which is a coastal city less than 400 kilometers from Jagannath Puri and a 4.5-hour drive from Kolkata, is an amazing and futuristic model of our cooperation with the government structure for the common good, as you wished in your purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.17.45:
Without state support, no doctrines of philosophy or religious principles can progressively advance. There should be complete cooperation between the brāhmaṇas and the kṣatriyas for this common good. Even up to Mahārāja Aśoka, the same spirit was prevailing. Lord Buddha was sufficiently supported by King Aśoka, and thus his particular cult of knowledge was spread all over the world.
So in line with this principle, one of our leaders encouraged Mamata Banerjee to organize creation of an exact replica of the temple in Puri in this new and popular tourist destination. After spending over 500 crores of rupees, or 58 million USD, providing the new temple with full support of about a thousand staff members as well as the government funding, she invited ISKCON devotees to take full charge of worshiping the Lord and preaching there – the model described to me by a local leader as a “normal ISKCON temple, devoid of any headaches in regards to money and management, which the government is fully looking after!” And this temple enjoys more visitors than even the original one in Puri, because people are naturally attracted by the cordial atmosphere and purity of our devotees.
But that seems to be just the beginning of quite a journey in this direction, because the Assamese government started construction of five hundred Jagannath temples defined as community halls and are asking devotees to take as many as they can handle.
It reminds me of the statement of Gour Mohan De about the Supreme Lord having so many hands – that if He gives you, how much can you take? And it seems that the Lord starts giving us more and more opportunities for service, so that the most important thing we need right now is purity of purpose.
Thus, my humble prayer at your feet is to please bless us with the required qualities so that we can serve you selflessly and without any attempt to imitate you instead of following you.
Your aspiring servant,
B. R. Sāgara Swami