Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our prostrated obeisances at your lotus feet.
Today, on the most auspicious day of your appearance, we are remembering you with great
reverence and humility as we honor your life’s achievements. We are remembering how you
worked tirelessly in order to give the conditioned souls of this world an opportunity to achieve
self-realization and enlightenment in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are remembering your countless
personal sacrifices. We are remembering your struggles, in sickness and health, to carry out the
orders of your Guru Mahārāja and how you made it seem almost effortless!
Now that we are older, we are understanding and realizing more fully the extent of your efforts
and the intensity of your desire to fulfill those orders. With each passing year, we are better able to
understand and appreciate you and your amazing accomplishments. Now that most of your dis-
ciples are well past the age when you left India and came here to America to begin your mission,
we are getting the full taste of the challenges of older age.
I have come here in this old age neither for sight seeing nor for any personal interest.
It is for the interest of the entire humanity that I am trying to implement the science
of Krishna which will actually make them happy. So it is the duty of every devotees of
Lord Krishna to help me by all means. (Letter, March 18, 1966)
Your perseverance and your unflinching faith in the instructions of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta
Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja and Lord Kṛṣṇa serve as our shining example of pure devotion and
fierce determination. Even as you struggled alone in the early days here in America, you fought
on. You knew in your heart that somehow, victory was coming! May we also have such faith,
determination, and spiritual energy to carry on in the absence of your physical presence.
We are forever in your debt. We can never thank you enough, nor can we repay you for all that
you have given us. By our efforts here, we aspire to please you and the entire guru-paramparā. We
pray for your mercy and your continued blessings on our collective endeavors so that we may be
able to help you “by all means” and to serve the mission of Lord Caitanya here in Athens, Ohio.
All glories to His Divine Grace, Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda!
Your aspiring servants and codirectors of Athens Kṛṣṇa House,
Dr. Ashok K. Gupta
Prem Vilās Dāsa
Rāsalīlādevī Devī Dāsī

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