On October 15^th in Butler, Srila Prabhupada received a letter from Sumati Morarji in Bombay. She was the head of the Scindia Navigation Company and a devotee of Lord Krishna in the Vallabhacarya disciplic succession.  Prabhupada approached her and received a donation to print First Canto Volume 1 of  Srimad-Bhagavatam which was published in 1962.  In the summer of 1965, she agreed to give Bhaktivedanta Swami permission for free passage to America on her ship, the Jaladuta.  She wrote a friendly reply to his letter of September 24^th.  She was glad to hear he had safely arrived in the U.S.A. and recovered from his sickness en route.  She was “delighted” that he had started activities and delivered some lectures.  At the end of her short letter, she wrote, “I feel that you should stay there until you fully recover from your illness and return only after you have completed your mission.”  Prabhupada regarded the last line of this letter as especially significant:  His well-wisher was urging him to stay in America until he had completed his mission.  He had told the immigration officials that he would be staying in America for two months.  He had one month’s sponsorship in Butler and then no support.  “So perhaps I can stay another month,” he thought.  So he had told the officials two months.  Sumati Morarji, however, was urging him to stay on.  He saw that the prospects for preaching to the Americans were good, but he felt he would need support from India.

It is interesting that Prabhupada took Sumati Morarji’s advice so importantly. She was not his mentor. She was an elderly lady benefactor who had helped him with two significant donations. But Prabhupada knew that Krishna can speak through anyone.  Sumati Morarji’s letter influenced Prabhupada to rethink his entire stay in America from short term to long term.