Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
You truly are an ocean of mercy! We bow our heads in gratitude before your causeless and boundless mercy! We implore you to kindly accept our humble obeisances!
It is only by your mercy that the call of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, proclaimed five hundred years ago – “Jīv jāgo!” – has pierced through the thick layer of the rust of ignorance and reached our deaf ears. Through your disciples, who are the heralds of your divine mercy, and through other followers inspired by them, the battle that began in the late 1980s on a new front against the ruthless army of ignorance in the Republic of Azerbaijan – then one of the fifteen republics of the former USSR, now an independent state – still continues.
As we try to awaken upon receiving your message, in our struggle against the enchantments of Māyā, along with our successes, our losses have not been few. Many of the leaders of that front, those heroic warriors, unfortunately could not stand to the end before the cruel soldiers of Māyā. Yet their efforts were not in vain, and from their fire many others have been ignited and turned toward your path. Therefore, we also remember with respect those who have left our ranks and pray that they may once again return to their positions.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are grateful to you for your disciples – those generals of the army of devotees – who inspire us on this front and who move forward with determination in your footsteps! It is through them that we have come to know you. Without their shining example, we would not have known how to apply in our lives what we have heard and read.
We are eternally grateful to you for Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, “Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and your countless other books, purports, and lectures! We are grateful to you for Caitanya Mahāprabhu, for little Kāna crawling innocently in the courtyard of Nanda Bābā, and we offer our repeated daṇḍavats unto them for giving you to us! You are a truly wonderful team and a perfect family!
We beg you with the bhajana of Raghunandana Prabhu:
prabhupāda kṛpā karke, mujhko apanā lenā
maiṅ śaraṇa paḍā terī, caraṇoṅ meṅ jagaha denā
Prabhupāda, please be merciful and accept us into your family! Taking shelter at your lotus feet, we beg: please grant us refuge at your lotus feet!
With our obeisances,
The servants of the servants of the servants at the Baku yātrā