Jayapatākā: Many young men, both Hindu and Muhammadan, will join, I'm quite sure. Right now we're getting the society registered and getting a place. Before we actually...
Prabhupāda: So did you not get? Finish that. Get the place and society registered.
Jayapatākā: Well, I was there with Prabhaviṣṇu, and he joined me after ten days, and I instructed him what to do, everything. Then I was called back to Māyāpur. But there'll be no difficulty. I can go any time within a week. The Bengal government is giving me re-entry visa, so I can go and come back without difficulty.
Prabhupāda: Do this seriously.
Jayapatākā: Because the secretary and the president of Gauḍīya Maṭha, Dacca, are coming June 4th to Calcutta, so it's better that I'm here to meet them to make sure that the... Because that's the best place that we've seen in whole Bangladesh. We've been offered places in Comilla, Chittagong, in Barisal. Everywhere we've been offered places, but that seems to be the best place. That's also Bhaktisiddhānta's place.
Prabhupāda: So why don't you see the donor of that place? I gave the address.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: To Prabhaviṣṇu.
Jayapatākā: I don't think he's seen him. Now the main manager has been handed authority. We've seen him. He's also favorable. But the people who are holding the main power, they are also favorable, so they've given us. Good facility for boat program. I went to a village by boat one day, and the villagers, they were very receptive also. They held a whole festival. Everyone, five hundred people, stopped their work, and they all came and chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa, and we cooked a big pot of... Official(?) said, "Everyone has provided ḍāl and rice. We don't eat at home today." And he cooked up khicuḍi and we gave everyone prasāda. And they said, "Please, if you could come every two weeks or every month, we could have a festival."
Prabhupāda: Naturally so much good reception... So organize. These people will not give.
Jayapatākā: Who?
Prabhupāda: These rascals, Gauḍīya Maṭha.
Jayapatākā: No. But they don't have any... They don't have any sādhu to go there.
Prabhupāda: They have nothing. Still, they have got... That is called in Bengali, bisnai kulavane cakra(?). There is no poison, but the hood is: "Arrhh." (laughs) That is their... Even this bite, there is no poison. But they are showing kulavana cakra(?). Still, it is bhayaṅkara. Cāṇakya Paṇḍita says, maṇinā bhūṣitaḥ sarpaḥ kim asau na bhayaṅkaraḥ: "A snake..." Sometimes snake has got some jewel on the hood. So he can go in the darkness by the light of the hood. If somebody thinks, "Oh, here is a snake with jewel. Let me embrace him," no, no, no, it is very ferocious. Even it is jewel there, it is ferocious. Similarly, these people are envious. Although they have become so-called Vaiṣṇava, they are ferocious. They have not acquired the qualification of Vaiṣṇava. Simply vesopidin(?), by dress. So what is there? They could not do for the last fifty-sixty years. Still... They wanted to exchange. I stopped it, the Mohini Babu. Mohini... Bali hatti zamindar(?). So if we do not get that place, we can get other place?
Jayapatākā: Oh, yeah, there is no difficulty.
Prabhupāda: Hm, just start something. Start something.
Jayapatākā: They said that by the middle of June, that definitely we'll find out.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Jayapatākā: So... But we've been offered in Narayanganj and many places nearby. Even Dacca we can get some place. People are...
Prabhupāda: One gentleman, he has now become my disciple.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Mr. Sindh. That jeweler from Calcutta?
Jayapatākā: He's given (indistinct) me.
Prabhupāda: They are very rich man, that Singh jeweler. They can give. He is very nice man, very nice man and very well-to-do. You have seen them?
Jayapatākā: Yes, before I went I saw him, and he gave me three or four names of very wealthy people in Bangladesh to see, and those people are also... One person already became a member, and they'll give us much support.
Prabhupāda: No, you'll get.
Jayapatākā: There are so many. They're scattered about. I couldn't see all the different people in a short period. It's a big place.
Prabhupāda: And whole Bangladesh is a picture.
Jayapatākā: It's just so green, all rivers. And everywhere I saw rice field and jackfruit and mango, everywhere filled with fruits, very luscious.
Prabhupāda: And cow's milk.
Jayapatākā: Oh, oh, no buffalo. Only cow's milk. And pure ghee there is six rupees per ser.
Prabhupāda: Those who are fish-eaters, they can eat sumptuously fish. There is no scarcity.
Jayapatākā: Most of all, they're liking your books, Śrīla Prabhupāda. They like the books. Everyone is very eager for books. When we bring out this Gītā, that will also be very, very popular. Whatever books we bring there, as soon as we're there, they are immediately sold. I had no books. We had sold out all the books, so I only kept one copy to show, and I said, "We can't give you the book. You buy it by subscription, and we'll send it to you later." Ninety people took subscription, without giving any book, just on the basis of seeing one book. They're so eager.
Prabhupāda: Which one? Bhagavad-gītā?
Jayapatākā: That was for the magazine, yearly subscription to the magazine. When I showed the cinema, then many of the people, they had... In the villages especially they're very isolated, and so they're always being told by the Muhammadans that "Your religion is just very..., only situated within India. It has no broad scope. Over the whole world Islam has spread. Why you are worshiping Deity? Why...? This..." They are always giving them so many challenges. So when they saw how Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spread over the world, when they saw us chanting, it was as if new life had been given to them. They said, "Now we see that sanātana-dharma has spread throughout the whole world. We are just..."
Prabhupāda: And Deity worship.
Jayapatākā: Yes, and Deity worship everywhere. They are very much eager. Actually if we don't preach there now, in a few years, gradually, time, time, Kṛṣṇa consciousness will fade there because of the Muhammadans' presence. But once they see us, never they'll switch. Never they'll lose their faith, just to see how foreigners have taken. That I have seen.
Prabhupāda: This is our thesis.
Jayapatākā: And educated young people, they're very... They're very susceptible to being devotees. When we traveled in one city, two people joined with us and traveled with us and said they'll be shaved and everything. Very easily they give up. Even when I returned in Māyāpur about five or six new young men had joined. In the twenty days I was gone Bhavānanda Mahārāja had enlisted about five or six men and about fifteen gurukula students and two families. And they were all very enthusiastic. They want to go and preach also. Things are improving.
Prabhupāda: So building work is finished?
Jayapatākā: They're just finishing the top waterproofing, jalja(?). They're building that now. That'll be finished in fifteen days.
Prabhupāda: Others things are going on.
Jayapatākā: Other things are going on.
Bhavānanda: Painting. Painting, finishing painting work is going on, first floor.
Jayapatākā: Painting is going on. Now we just have to furnish the rooms. Then guests can stay. The rooms are still unfurnished. This weekend it was packed, filled with guests, our big guesthouse. One Tara minibus came and filled, garden building. People only come to Māyāpur to see our temple. They don't go to see any other temple.
Prabhupāda: What they'll see there? (laughter) How Saman(?) Mahārāja is managing?
Jayapatākā: He somehow is trying to maintain. I don't see any improvement.
Prabhupāda: No, he cannot make any improvement, but if he can maintain, that is our question.
Jayapatākā: I didn't go there, so I can't exactly say. I don't go there. (pause) (break)