Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Veṇī
Mādhava. All glories to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Śrī Nityananda Prabhu. All glories to
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. All glories to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. All glories to the Śrī
Brahma-Madhva-Gauḍīya guru-śiṣya sampradāya. All glories to Śrī Gaṅgāmayī, Śrī Yamunāmayī,
and Śrī Sarasvatīmayī.
With the passing of each year, the realization of the supreme treasure you handed us is growing
deeper and deeper. Thank you, Your Divine Grace, for making our lives supremely auspicious,
truly meaningful, and divinely purposeful. Your words in your books and lectures, the quality of
Vaiṣṇavas you gifted us, the ISKCON institution you created, the science of devotional service
you taught us, the standards of Deity worship and the temple programs you established, and the
avenues you created for us to serve Kṛṣṇa unlimitedly – we can never thank you enough for what
you offered to each of us.
We especially want to thank you for the opportunity to serve and represent you in the king of
holy places, tīrtharāja Prayag-dhāma. You personally stayed here for thirteen years and rendered
the holy place of Prayagraj holy (tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni). Recently, during the Kumbha Mela,
while hearing the glories of this dhāma and its connection with Lord Rāma, Lord Brahmā, the
Pāṇḍavas, Lord Caitanya, Śrī Vallabhācārya, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, and Your Divine Grace, we real-
ized the privilege you bestowed upon us.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, the past year has been one of the most eventful, intense, challenging, excit-
ing, satisfying, and educational experiences for us because it was the time of the grandest Maha
Kumbha Mela ever! The name and glories of Prayagraj were being sung not just across Uttar
Pradesh or Bharata, but the entire world witnessed the largest saṅgam of spiritualists and tourists
and followers of sanātana-dharma on record – reportedly, more than 400 million people.
We can honestly admit that it still looks like a dream how those forty-five days went by. Mira-
cles manifested by your divine desire (tāra icchā balavān), and the sincere dedication of your true
servants, with their spiritual priorities and our team’s unity, formed the foundation and pillars of
our sevā at Prayagraj.
Here are a few of the highlights of the services we accomplished for your pleasure:
1. New temple project: Over approximately eleven months we witnessed the rapid construction and
completion of Phase 1 of the new project, comprising of an International Guesthouse (Ganga),
ample residential facility for full-time devotees and sincere youths from the IYF (Yamuna), and
a facility for a Vedic Academy, including classrooms and offices (Saraswati). The responsibility,
ownership, and risks that Alok Prabhu took leading the construction, and Dhawal Prabhu and
his team took leading the fundraising for this project is beyond words.
2. Hosting Vaiṣṇava guests during Kumbha Mela: From America to Africa to Europe to Australia to
Bangladesh, tens of thousands of devotees came to our temple. From GBCs to gurus, congre-
gational members to sannyāsīs, Life Members to other donors, we hosted everyone in our facil-
ity. The campus was filled with Vaiṣṇava guests. Even though our team was small, we provided
rooms, tents, dormitories, and accommodated guests at our youth centers apart from the new
and old guesthouse. It was all possible due to the great work done by many hardworking devo-
tees, who served in everything from setting up the online platform, guest care, prasādam coor-
dination, and facilitating transportation. Devotees like His Grace Jagannātha Prema Prakāśa
Prabhu, Aman Prabhu, Himanshu Prabhu, Tushar Prabhu, His Grace Praśāntātmā Prabhu,
Rajeev Prabhu, His Grace Śiva Kumāra Kṛṣṇa Prabhu, and many more played very crucial
roles in this.
3. Boat services: Our boat service was one of the greatest successes. This made the whole rush of
Kumbha Mela seem inconsequential and helped us offer many senior Vaiṣṇavas a great experi-
ence. It also generated good earnings to be used in the service of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Veṇī Mādhava.
His Grace Śiva Kumāra Kṛṣṇa Prabhu, Rajeev Prabhu, and Nitish Prabhu played crucial roles
in this area.
4. Yamuna ārati: Śrī Yamuna Devī is our ultimate shelter. She gave us everything we needed, from
the phenomenal view of the guesthouse to the devotional atmosphere for the residents, and she
was a major source of finances. These were the blessings showered on us by her. The Yamuna
ārati is an offering of gratitude to Śrī Yamunāmayī, and the ceremony was the soul of our whole
campus. His Grace Kripa Mūrti Prabhu and His Grace Rohiṇī-suta Prabhu were instrumental
in this sevā.
5. Youth outreach: Our Youth Center leaders led by example and words and made consistent, dedi-
cated efforts to expand the family of devotees. His Grace Apūrva Gopāl Prabhu and His Grace
Prem Rūpa Prabhu were especially responsible, committed, and self-inspired in this regard,
coming up with various initiatives, including youth yātrās and further assisting even with the
financial responsibilities.
6. Outreach to children and teenagers: His Grace Rohiṇī-suta Prabhu very consistently and responsi-
bly took the Kids’ Outreach to new heights. Hundreds of children and teenagers are wonder-
fully chanting, dancing, and happily practicing devotional service. These kids will be the future
of our movement, with genuine character and devotion. Weekly classes, retreats, and monthly
festival celebrations are held regularly. A team of devotees, led by His Grace Jagannātha Prema
Prakāśa Prabhu, has also launched a value-education-based school, taking inspiration from
your teachings. Kindly bless them in these services to become successful in serving you.
7. Hosting NIDC meetings: We had the special opportunity to serve more than forty leaders – GBC
members, including His Holiness Guru Prasad Swami Mahārāja, zonal heads, regional heads,
the temple presidents of ISKCON North India – all in the midst of the Kumbha Mela, to give
them an experience of Kumbha Mela.
8. ISKCON Adani collaboration and Food-for-Life project: This was one of the most highlighted and
talked about things in the media. Every major street of Prayagraj had a big banner inviting
lakhs of pilgrims to take kṛṣṇa-prasādam. His Grace Pradyumna Priya Prabhu, His Grace
Sītārāma Prabhu, His Grace Sanaka-Sanātana Prabhu, and His Grace Gaurāṅga Prabhu led
teams that did a humungous amount of service, with each of them personally present on the
ground. This earned a very good name for ISKCON in the public media all over India.
We felt that you were reciprocating with us by sending your loving associates. Several of your
disciples along with many, many other senior Vaiṣṇavas and ISKCON leaders from all over the
world, also gave us their holy association. By being in their presence, hearing from them, and
serving them, our faith and enthusiasm was enhanced.
In the course of our interaction with them, we received valuable guidance and direction in our
development of ISKCON Prayagraj. Here are some of the things we would like to accomplish for
your pleasure in the upcoming years:
• Building a grand palace for Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Veṇī Mādhava, starting with the renovation of the
current temple hall and Deity kitchen facilities.
Distributing your transcendental books, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra and holy kṛṣṇa-
prasādam to one and all in the city of Prayagraj and surrounding areas.
• Developing robust systems and a dedicated team for smooth functioning of the entire
project.
• Making the ISKCON Prayagraj project stable and self-sustainable.
• Creating a spiritually vibrant community centered on chanting and hearing.
• Creating a green campus, developing a garden with miniature dioramas of the pastimes that
happened in the local area, with a spiritual and sattvic ambience, making it conducive for
sādhana-bhakti.
• Researching the holy places related to Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas and your pastimes at Prayagraj,
and publishing a small book with the relevant pramāṇas.
• Developing Dashashvamedha Ghat and Prabhupāda Ghat.
• Reaching out to the elite, influential, and educated classes in Prayagraj and developing a
quality congregation.
• Expanding youth outreach to all the colleges and educational institutions and creating a
team of spirited, dedicated, dynamic, and spiritually inspired Yuva Shakti.
I also wish to request you to thank every small and big devotee, every volunteer and every
employee, who directly and indirectly contributed to the service of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Veṇī Mādhava
and yourself here at Prayagraj; especially those devotees and services that go unnoticed, begin-
ning with accounting, kitchen services, Deity sevā, and all the mātājī volunteers. Each devotee is
very valuable in the community, and we are grateful to all of them.
We wish to especially thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for having sent your loyal and able devotee,
His Grace Acyuta Mohana Prabhu, as the spiritual mentor and exemplary leader of our com-
munity here. We have seen his dedication in your service for decades, along with his exemplary
conduct and devotional character, proactive and intelligent decision making, and his ability to
keep the team united and spirited with spiritual priorities at the foundation of our service. We feel
very confident that under his leadership the community here will offer their best in your service,
happily advancing toward Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Veṇī Mādhavajī’s lotus feet.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, whatever we could do and whatever we wish to do is only by your grace.
Your mercy is the life force of our efforts. We beg at your lotus feet to always keep us engaged and
attached to service unto your lotus feet. This is the only value of this life in the material world.
We are a team of young devotees, having our own fair share of struggles and challenges in the
practice of sādhana-bhakti. So we don’t feel qualified in any sense to be offered such valuable ser-
vice in your mission. But I can assure you of one thing: that the team of devotees may be young
and less experienced, but we are spirited, dedicated, risk-taking, united, and without selfish agen-
das. Personally, I feel great pride and honor to be part of such a team of your servants.
Kindly bless all the devotees, and especially the devotees taking the lead in the various services
here. Kindly bless all our endeavors and efforts and the projects we are undertaking for your plea-
sure. May all of these be pleasing to you and your representatives. Thank you very much. Hare
Kṛṣṇa.
Your servant,
Satya Saṅkarṣaṇa Dāsa, (vice president)
on behalf of all the leaders and devotees of ISKCON Prayagraj