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 Prabhupada left Bombay on the 10 February 1972 for a month. The payment of fifty thousand rupees was made, and a few devotees moved to the Juhu land. While devotees lived in a tent, the rats and mosquitoes would disturb their sleep, and while clearing overgrown weeds they came upon empty liquor bottles and overflowing sewage. Their resolution became weak until Brahmananda Swami gave the devotees new impetus. By the time Prabhupada returned to Bombay, Radha-Rasavihari deities were installed as he had instructed as this would secure the land. “Once the Deities are installed on a piece of land, no one will remove Them”.
Again leaving Bombay and placing responsibility for the collection of funds for the new temple in the hands of Giriraja,
Prabhupada began a world preaching tour with a few disciples. He visited Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Tokyo and Honolulu, Portland, Paris and Glasgow.
He returned to the US to visit the New Vrindaban farm community in West Virginia and after more than five months of vigorous touring, his Western world headquarters in Los Angeles. News reached him from Bombay that Mr D. the lawyer was no longer acting for him and Prabhupada began to see that Mr N. the seller of the land had been devising a devious plot from the beginning and Mr D. had been in league with Mr N. They were cheaters. He was prepared for a fight as ISKCON would have to go to court and file criminal charges. Prabhupada sent Karandhara to Bombay and wanted Syamasundara to go also, after Syamasundara had gone to London regarding a large country estate George Harrison was donating.
In October 1972 Prabhupada returned to Vrndavana after revisiting his centre in Honolulu and going to Manila for the first time. He moved into his two small rooms at the Radha-Damodara temple. Sending some of his disciples to tackle the problems in Bombay, Prabhupada, like a general engaged on a different front, awaited word from his lieutenants in Bombay.
The situation in Bombay worsened with Mr N. cancelling the sales agreement, claiming the two-lakh down payment, and shutting off the water supply to the land. A hoodlum, threatening devotees with a machete, also arrived and a few devotees left, leaving about thirty devotees in Bombay. Tamala Krishna Goswami, Karandhara, Bhavananda and Syamasundara began to see the entire Juhu scheme as impossible. With poor living facilities, leaking roof, crumbling floor, rats, flies, cockroaches, village dogs, mosquitoes and occasional poisonous snakes, devotees were contracting diseases like malaria and hepatitis.
Upon writing to Prabhupada the four leaders received a reply logically answering all their concerns. He wrote “Therefore I say that you boys cannot deal very well in these matters, because
you are too timid.” His conclusive advice was that the devotees go to the magistrate to explain. Prabhupada sent for Tamala Krishna Goswami to take charge of the Vrndavana project.
Subala, the disciple in charge of construction on the Ramana-Reti property approached Prabhupada saying, “Prabhupada, I am having so much difficulty. I don’t think of Krishna. I’m always thinking of how this contractor is cheating us, or I’m thinking of signing cheques for labour and materials. It’s just too much. All these things on my mind are stopping me from thinking of Krishna.”
“Do you think Arjuna was simply meditating on Krishna on the battlefield of Kuruksetra? Do you think Arjuna was sitting in yogic trance, while on the battlefield Krishna worked? No, he was fighting. He was killing for Krishna. He was thinking of all the soldiers he had to kill for Krishna.
“Thinking of the cheque book, thinking of the men, thinking of the contractors—this is also like Arjuna’s thinking. This is Krishna’s service. You should not worry about thinking of Krishna directly. Arjuna wasn’t sitting before Krishna in a trance meditating on his form. He was engaged in Krishna’s service. Similarly this is Krishna’s service, and you should engage. Your life is full of Krishna’s service, and that is very good.”
While visiting Hyderabad in November 1972, Prabhupada met with Mr N. who had a cordial relationship with Syamasundara, and was fond of, Syamasundara’s three-year-old daughter Sarasvati. Conversing with Mr N. and his guru (Mr N. hoped the guru could counteract any mystic power he suspected Prabhupada might have), Prabhupada yawned and the guru asked if he was tired. Mr N.’s Guru suggested they should rest and talk later.
After a few minutes, Prabhupada explained that it was actually the guru who was tired and then sent Tamala Krishna to carefully awaken Mr N. as Prabhupada wished to speak with him. They
talked for two hours and finally worked out a new sales agreement. Tamala Krishna and Syamasundara in a separate room, drafted and typed the documents, and Mr N. signed the new agreement while his guru friend continued sleeping soundly.
After waiting many days in Bombay while Mr N. continued to stall so he could cheat ISKCON, Prabhupada left for Ahmedabad leaving instructions for his disciples to get the deed on the new terms, or take back the original two lakhs of rupees taken as down payment. When Visakha-devi dasi arrived in Ahmedabad from Bombay, Prabhupada told her to return to Bombay immediately with a message. He was concerned that his leaders might make a wrong decision and decide to relinquish the land. The devotees were convinced that to get the land would be a mistake and the lawyers had agreed, so what Prabhupada had foreseen had already happened. Giriraja phoned Prabhupada to tell him what had happened.
“Bhaktivedanta Swami here,” Prabhupada said as he took the telephone. Giriraja was saying that a devotee had come from Ahmedabad with a message. “Yes, yes,” Prabhupada said, “what is the point?” Finally Giriraja blurted out that they had cancelled the sales agreement. Prabhupada was silent. Then in a voice that expressed both anger and resignation, he said, “Then everything is finished.”
Sources: Your Ever Well-wisher by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami.
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