Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Please accept our most humble obeisances unto your lotus feet. All glories to you, Śrīla
Prabhupāda.
O jagad-guru Śrīla Prabhupāda, we would like to begin our offering with gratitude. Because of
the great sacrifice you made for us, we have become eligible to receive bhakti, which is so rarely
attained. We are eternally indebted to you for this.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you visited Seattle, Washington, for the first time on September 21, 1968,
and blessed the northwest part of America. The very next day, after staying in the city, having
brief interactions during your morning walk, and meeting the devotees and residents, you wrote
a prediction about the Seattle yātrā: “This Seattle city is understood to be very big in area, and
appears to be very peaceful also, because the population is less, and they are little responsive also.
I think gradually this center will also grow very nicely.” (Letter to Kīrtanānanda Dāsa, September
22, 1968)
Your Divine Grace, as you blessed the Seattle yātrā to grow very nicely, our 2024 homage com-
prehensively described how we grew from a small center with a few devotees to a large congrega-
tion with two temples, multiple farms for cow protection, profuse prasādam distribution (within
the temples as well as through two food trucks), the organization of large outdoor festivals, and
at-scale preaching among various communities in the greater Seattle area.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, during your thirty-two-day visit to Seattle, in that fall of 1968, you intro-
duced the Gaura-ārati song for the first time in our ISKCON movement, to be sung during the
evening ārati ceremony (Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, vol. 2).
The success of the Seattle yātrā would not have been possible without your auspicious mercy,
bestowed upon your dedicated disciples and followers, who worked very hard to expand the
movement and were the recipients of your causeless mercy.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: An Ocean of Mercy, and the
Embodiment of Transcendental Love and Compassion
Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu has been described as an ocean of mercy (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta,
Madhya-līlā 10.119). Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are the senāpati-bhakta in the army of Śrī Caitanya
Mahāprabhu. You inherited the mercy of Lord Caitanya in our guru-paramparā and came to
deliver the fallen, conditioned souls of Kali-yuga. On this auspicious occasion of your Vyāsa-pūjā,
we offer this humble homage, reflecting on the unfathomable ocean of your mercy that continues
to inundate this world even in your physical absence. Though we are separated from your vapuḥ,
your divine mercy remains powerfully with us through your vāṇī – your lectures and teachings
(which attract), your harināma japa and kīrtana (which sustain), your books (which advance), and
the institution you so lovingly established (which grants attainment). Śrīla Prabhupāda, you have
been an ocean of unlimited compassion and causeless mercy, and in this year’s homage, we seek
your permission to glorify you as the most magnanimous Vaiṣṇava ācārya who has distributed his
causeless mercy to the fallen, conditioned souls.
Your vāṇī attracts the conditioned souls to bhakti
Śrīla Prabhupāda, your boundless mercy manifests powerfully through the medium of hari-kathā,
transcendental discourses on Lord Kṛṣṇa and His incarnations and devotees. Even without your
direct physical presence your classes possess an extraordinary potency to attract the jīvas of Kali-
yuga to the path of bhakti. The pure and potent presentation of Vedic knowledge, emanating
from your unalloyed devotion, effortlessly pierces the layers of materialistic conditioning and cuts
the illusion arising from false bodily identification.
In this present Kali-yuga, an age of quarrel and hypocrisy, where minds are disturbed and
spiritual understanding is obscured, the systematic and clear exposition of the scriptures in
your classes, echoing the spotless philosophy taught by Lord Caitanya, has an inherent abil-
ity to diminish the deeply ingrained materialistic desires that bind us to this temporary world.
Through hearing your authentic hari-kathā, the seed of bhakti – the eternal longing of the soul
for its loving relationship with Kṛṣṇa – is gently yet firmly sprouted within the heart, as stated in
Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 22.107:
nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya
śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya
Pure love for Kṛṣṇa is eternally established in the hearts of living entities. It is not
something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing
and chanting, the living entity naturally awakens.
Even those who were once engrossed in animalistic propensities find themselves drawn toward
a higher purpose. The spiritual nourishment derived from your teachings solaces ordinary souls
and reforms their hearts. By your sheer potency and profound teachings, the seed of bhakti, the
very essence of our eternal nature, begins to sprout within us, as confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
10.7.1–2.
Your gift of harināma is sustaining the devotees in bhakti
Śrīla Prabhupāda, your unparalleled mercy also resounds vibrantly through the chanting of
harināma japa and kīrtana, the individual and congregational chanting of the holy names of the
Lord. You gave us the invaluable treasure of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. You are truly the
global ambassador of the holy name, traveling tirelessly and preaching the glories of the Hare
Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra until your very last breath. This most merciful form of the Lord is readily
accessible to all, and its constant chanting, as you so diligently taught us, invokes and brings
forth an atmosphere of profound auspiciousness, as stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.3.31:
tasmāt saṅkīrtanaṁ viṣṇor
jagan-maṅgalam aṁhasām
mahatām api kauravya
viddhy aikāntika-niṣkṛtam
Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: My dear king, the chanting of the holy name of the
Lord is able to uproot even the reactions of the greatest sins. Therefore, the chanting of
the saṅkīrtana movement is the most auspicious activity in the entire universe. Please
try to understand this so that others will take it seriously.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you began the movement by personally chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa – the
Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra – often alone in places like Tompkins Square Park, which gradually
attracted young people, who were purified by hearing your chanting. Your presence in the tem-
ples can be clearly experienced when your kīrtanas and bhajanas are played on the altars.
You have so carefully nurtured within our movement the daily practice of chanting japa and
participating in kīrtana, which has become the very lifeblood sustaining devotees on their spiri-
tual journey. Endowed with the compassion and mercy of Lord Caitanya, you appeared in this
world to spread this life-giving message to every town and village. The congregational chanting of
the Lord’s holy names, propagated so widely by you, is the yuga-dharma established by Caitanya
Mahāprabhu.
In a letter to your disciple Dvārakeśa Dāsa, dated September 29, 1976, you wrote: “Yes, kirtana
and prasadam will appeal to even the uneducated. We have means to preach to both the educated
and uneducated, the sinful and the pious – dhiradhira-jana-priyau.”
The nectarean prasādam, the remnants of food offered to Lord Kṛṣṇa, distributed alongside the
saṅkīrtana, day by day conquers new hearts and awakens new and renewed hopes for unlimited
happiness. By your divine grace, in Seattle, every week as part of saṅkīrtana, we profusely distrib-
ute prasādam to those who might be hearing the holy names on the street for the very first time in
the human form.
It is only by your mercy, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that the resounding vibrations of hari-nāma japa
and saṅkīrtana invoke auspiciousness and sustain our devotional lives.
Your books advance us in Kṛṣṇa consciousness
Śrīla Prabhupāda, your deep and profound mercy is enduringly inscribed in the pages of your
transcendental books, which serve as inexhaustible sources of enlightenment and advancement
in devotional life. You are the embodiment of all Vedic literature, presenting the profound truths
of the scriptures in a way that even the most bewildered and misguided souls can comprehend.
Your Bhaktivedanta purports are not mere intellectual explanations; they are infused with
your realization and deep devotion, opening our eyes to the essence of the spotless philosophy
taught by Lord Caitanya. Without your merciful purports, there is no hope of our gaining any
understanding of the śāstra and advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. You have systematically pre-
sented the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness through over eighty books, filled with your insightful
commentaries on the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
At a very advanced age, you sacrificed your sleep to dedicate ample time to writing books
and purports. Sleeping only a few hours, you worked on translating Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and
Caitanya-caritāmṛta for several hours while the world slept. This dedication, even in your advanced
age, demonstrates your profound compassion and determination to share Vedic wisdom. You
accomplished the translation and commentary of the seventeen volumes of Caitanya-caritāmṛta in
a remarkably short period of eighteen months, demonstrating the utmost urgency you felt to pres-
ent this essential work on Lord Caitanya’s life and teachings to the world.
Your books are so potent that even after your departure, devotees approach your mūrti with
questions and receive answers on the very same day from your authorized books or in the spon-
taneous words of other devotees – a clear manifestation of your unlimited, loving mercy. By
diligently studying your books, devotees gain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the
science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, learning about Lord Kṛṣṇa, our relationship with Him, and the
process of devotional service. Your books represent your greatest works, your gift to humanity –
especially to our society – and the solid foundation for the continued worldwide propagation
of Kṛṣṇa consciousness for the next ten thousand years. Unless one reads your books, one will
not fully understand your greatness. Śrīla Prabhupāda, your unparalleled mercy enlightens and
absorbs the devotees in our society with a clear scriptural understanding and advances them in
their bhakti practices.
In Seattle, your dear disciple, His Grace Harivilāsa Prabhu, is always absorbed in reading your
books and enlightening the whole congregation with morning and evening discourses on Śrīmad-
Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā, based on your purports to the verses.
Attaining love of Godhead is made possible within the established institution (ISKCON)
Śrīla Prabhupāda, your supreme act of compassion is your establishment of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a spiritual institution that makes attaining the
seemingly impossible – pure love of Godhead – a tangible reality. The opportunity to engage
in selfless devotional service at ISKCON temples and centers allows us to practically apply the
teachings found in your books. Śrīla Prabhupāda, your ISKCON temples are specifically struc-
tured to facilitate practicing the nine limbs of devotion (nava-vidhā bhakti), which are the primary
means for devotees to cultivate love of Godhead. With your guidance, the entire environment of
an ISKCON temple is designed to facilitate remembrance (smaraṇa) of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The presence
of the Deities constantly reminds devotees of the Lord’s beautiful forms and pastimes. Seeing the
Deities, participating in Their worship, and hearing about Their significance encourage continu-
ous remembrance. Śrīla Prabhupāda, as you established 108 temples in a short period and set a
high standard for Deity worship (arcana), you gave us specific instructions on how the Deities
should be cared for, including bathing, dressing, decorating Them, and offering opulent worship
while maintaining high standards of cleanliness. Śrīla Prabhupāda, the institution that you estab-
lished serves as a transcendental boat by which we can cross the ocean of material existence. By
taking shelter of ISKCON as your extended body and sincerely following your instructions and
representatives, practicing devotees receive the necessary empowerment and blessings to over-
come obstacles and make progress toward attaining kṛṣṇa-prema, pure love of Kṛṣṇa.
Here in Seattle, most of the congregation members are gṛhasthas, as in other ISKCON con-
gregations, but the most distinguishing aspect of Seattle is that the temples and farms are in the
midst of communities where most devotees live. So the temple activities and services form an
integral part of the congregation members’ engagements. In a letter to Harivilāsa Dāsa dated
September 21, 1970, you wrote: “Everyone should be kept fully engaged one hundred percent of
the time in Krishna’s service without a vacant moment so that Maya will never have a chance to
act.” By your divine instructions, most of the devotees here in ISKCON Seattle are fully engaged
in various services to Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Nīlamādhava according to each devotee’s capacity.
A prayer for your mercy
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you came at a time when the whole world was being devoured by atheistic
science and the false propaganda of material happiness. You took great risks, faced countless
difficulties, overcame all kinds of obstacles, and embarked on an unprecedented odyssey carry-
ing your infinite mercy and love. You made hippies into happies, transforming countless lives
and giving them a taste of real joy. At the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple, you earnestly prayed for
the mercy of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and cried for the previous ācāryas’ mercy to descend on all the
fallen souls of this world. Your prayers and tears clear all obstacles from our path to bhakti. Your
glories are unlimited; all we can do is taste a drop of the nectar from that ocean of transcendental
qualities.
On this auspicious day, our only prayer to you, my dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that you please
shower your unlimited mercy on us so that we can remain steady and strong on the path of kṛṣṇa-
bhakti until we reach the topmost goal of pure kṛṣṇa-prema. Please continue to bless us to make
more and more devotees, to distribute your divine books more and more, to do more and more
prasādam distribution, to conduct all the Vaiṣṇava festivals with great pomp, joy, and devotion,
and to spread the glories of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa to countless people. O Śrīla Prabhupāda,
ocean of mercy, we beg you for your blessings and grace.
Though separated by time, your loving presence and transcendental mercy continue to illumi-
nate our lives through hari-kathā, harināma, your books, and the institution of ISKCON. Grant us
the strength and wisdom to continue serving at your lotus feet, ever grateful for the opportunity
to be part of your divine mission.
Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda! All glories to your compassionate and merciful nature!
Your eternal servants,
Vraja Ramaṇa Dāsa (secretary to the board)
on behalf of the devotees of ISKCON Seattle

Translate »