Singhania Not Interested 

Prabhupada’s series of correspondence with Mr. Singhania, which began hopefully, ended negatively.  Mr. Singhania did not reply personally to Prabhupada’s last letter.  He had his secretary, Mr. Iyer, write to Prabhupada, thoroughly discouraging his last hopes for purchasing a building in New York.  

I regret to write that Sir Padampatji is not interested in the scheme of building a Radha-Krishna temple in New York at present.  In regard to the inquiry in the last paragraph of your last letter, Sri Padampatji duly received your books of Srimad-Bhagwatam from your Delhi office.
Yours faithfully.

Seeing him from a distance – a tiny figure walking Manhattan streets and avenues among many other tiny figures, a foreigner whose visa had almost run out – we come upon only the external appearance of Srila Prabhupada.  These days of struggle were real enough, and very difficult, but his transcendental consciousness was always predominant.  He was not living in Manhattan consciousness, but was absorbed in dependence upon Krishna; just as while on the Jaladuta he had suffered his heart attacks, his reading of Caitanya-caritamrta had supplied him “the nectarine of life.” 

He had already succeeded.  Certainly he wanted to provide Radha and Krishna a temple in New York, but his success was that he was remembering Krishna, even in New York City in the winter of 1965-66.  Whether the world recognized him or not, not a day went by when he did not work on Krishna’s book, Srimad-Bhagavatam.  And not a day went by when he did not offer food to Krishna and speak on Krishna’s philosophy of Bhagavad-gita.

Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita, “For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost to him and he is never lost to Me.”  And Krishna assures His pure devotee that, “My devotee will never be vanquished.”  There was never any doubt about this for Prabhupada.  The only question was whether Americans would take notice of the pure devotee in their midst.  At this point, it seemed that no one was going to take him seriously.