Srila Prabhupada’s first residence in NYC was W.72st office bldg. [third floor] in the winter of 1966. There was no shower or cooking facilities, only a toilet room. He had to walk a few long blocks to Dr. Mishra’s Apt. to shower and cook. However just down the street was a two-story [see photo] bldg for sale for $100 thousand. He wanted to buy that bldg for a restarant and temple. Srila Prabhupada approached Sally and Gopal Agarwal[His sponcers from Butler,Penn.] for the down-payment who could have the ground-floor as their own resturant and His Divine Grace would occupy the upper floor as a temple. But they could not make the payment. Srila Prabhupada got a postive response on this idea from the renowned JK Group of Industries [see letter]. The problem was transfer of foreign exchange to the USA. Srila Prabhupada approached the India Govt but they refused [see letter]. He then approached the Salvation Army in a financial transaction [see letter].But that was not fruitful. But as you can see Srila Prabhupada was always thinking ‘Big’ although He was living as a mendicant sannyasi in NYC.[”shooting the rhino”] Even in the heavy snow of Srila Prabhupada would walk a few blocks to Dr. Mishra apt to bathe and prepare prasadam.
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