Letter from Mr. Singhania

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:

Lord Dvarkadisa exhibited His opulence at Dvaraka with sixteen thousand queens, and it is understood that He built a palace for each and every queen. And the palaces were made with jewels and stones so that there was no necessity for artificial light in the palaces. So your conception of building a temple of Lord Krsna is in opulence. But we are residents of Vrndavana, and Vrndavana has no palaces like your Dvaraka. Vrndavana is full of forests and cows on the bank of the Yamuna, and Lord Krsna, in His childhood, played the part of a cowherd boy without any opulence as you people, the inhabitants of Dvaraka, are accustomed. So when the Dvaraka-walas meet the Vrndavana-walas there may be a via medium.

With Sri Padmapat’s Dvaraka-like wealth and Srila Prabhupada’s Vrndavana-like devotion, Lord Krsna, the Lord of both Vrndavana and Dvaraka, could be properly worshiped.