Our most beloved Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our most humble obeisances in the dust of your merciful lotus feet. All glories to you and to your divine appearance day!
As the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya forest addressed Śrīla Suta Gosvāmī, we would like to address Your Divine Grace in the same way:
tvaṁ naḥ sandarśito dhātrā dustaraṁ nistitīrṣatām
kaliṁ sattva-haraṁ puṁsāṁ karṇa-dhāra ivārṇavam
We think that we have met Your Goodness by the will of providence, just so that we may accept you as captain of the ship for those who desire to cross the difficult ocean of Kali, which deteriorates all the good qualities of human beings. (Bhāgavatam 1.1.22)
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are so fortunate to be on the boat where you are the captain. That boat is a shelter for all of us worldwide who have taken refuge at your lotus feet. To encourage us and to confirm that you are still personally with us, something wonderful happened in our yātrā.
Exactly thirty years ago, during your glorious centennial year in 1996, your wonderful mūrti came to our yātrā. How unimaginably merciful in the form of this wonderful mūrti you are! Although we never met you personally while you were still on our planet, we get your association through your books, audio classes, video recordings, disciples, and, since 1996, through this most beautiful mūrti.
Over the last thirty years you stayed with us during the most dangerous and challenging times of our yātrā. You never left us. When you arrived, we had a big temple in Belgrade inhabited by many devotees, and where around a hundred guests came to our wonderful Sunday feast programs. Our Nityānanda bhajana band held concerts all over Serbia, attended by many thousands of people. We had many enthusiastic book distributors, distributing around 50,000 books a year. The Deities were carefully worshiped with so much love and devotion. Prasādam was prepared with so much love and devotion as well. New people started to join.
But then, after some years, the situation changed. We lost our temple due to unfortunate circumstances, Kali-yuga influences tricked us in different ways, and our unity was decreasing. Since that time, your mūrti stayed in the homes of different devotees, in rented spaces, at summer camps, and finally at a property we got just two years ago.
Over the last thirty years, after being at our temple for only the first three years, you were traveling and staying in at least ten different places and devotee homes. You never left us, although the circumstances where we kept you were sometimes very humble. Sometimes, they were even more humble than the Bowery on the Lower East Side in New York City, where you opened your first temple in the West. But despite our limited possibilities to serve you, we were growing and maturing in your presence and in your company.
And what is the result of your confidence in us? The situation has again started to improve, slowly but surely. Over the last six years, for the first time in the history of our yātrā, we have been registered as ISKCON. For the first time in thirty years we have printed a full edition of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is in the Serbian language. For the first time in the history of our yātrā we have a permanent place, where we hope generations of Vaiṣṇavas and Vaiṣṇavīs will continue to live and serve together.
Our cooperation and our relationships are improving. We are making a conscious effort to develop more love and trust among us. Cooperation enriched with love and trust is a wonderful formula for success, and we have inherited this understanding from Your Divine Grace.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, without your mercy and your constant presence, who knows what would have happened to us? By your mercy, our yātrā is getting stronger again – slowly, surely, with small careful steps. We are trying not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to not again fall into the traps of this fallen age. We know that our achievements are almost insignificant, especially in comparison with many developed yātrās. But those small achievements that we have, they are for us like small precious gems – our loving offering to you and our humble attempt to please you. Those gems are our wealth, and they keep the devotees together and bring new hope for the development of a bright future for our yātrā.
Please accept the members and devotees of our Serbian yātrā as the small spiders who also want to help Hanumān and the other great devotees still present all around the world. With the hope that we can steadily continue with our humble attempts to bring satisfaction to your merciful heart, we remain your grateful servants.
The devotees of the Serbian yātrā