Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace on the day of your Vyāsa-Pūjā.
To reflect on the activities of ISKCON Wales in the light of your glories is a profound experience. However, it is not a taxing or difficult task, because, for more than thirty years now, the devotees of this community have made the mission of your glorification their life and soul. Under the direct guidance of your disciples, taking nourishment from your vāṇī, with the building blocks of your sincere and selfless service, they have laid strong foundations for a Kṛṣṇa conscious community. Growing a garden of bhakti from seed, the Welsh devotees have acted only to honor your instructions and to please you.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, your example is the greatest source of inspiration possible for us, and for any devotee endeavoring to preach the message of Lord Caitanya. Whenever we undergo hardships, we are reminded of what greater austerities you undertook to establish your movement. When we feel that our preaching is impotent to turn the minds of the people we meet, we remember your mood of absolute dependency at Boston harbor – that Kr̥ṣṇa could empower your words if He wanted. And if we are ever bewildered about how to push on and expand, we recall how you never thought small; you boldly set out to achieve so much more than anyone else would have ever suggested, and you were successful.
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura writes that the essence of all religious principles is twofold: to show compassion to the conditioned souls and to relish the Lord’s holy name (jīve dayā, kṛṣṇa-nāma-sarva-dharma-sāra). And so, over and above our attempts to preach in your wake, we at ISKCON Wales have long striven for absorption in hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa. Understanding that all endeavors are “only useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the messages of Vāsudeva,” we attempt to make śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam our business, keeping the mahā-mantra and the reading of your transcendental books on the central pedestal of our focus. We can only offer you a lifetime of gratitude for sharing these secrets of success and empowering us to apply them in our previously misdirected lives.
Our Tŷ Krishna Cymru project, whose inception took place around the time of ISKCON’s fiftieth anniversary, is nearing completion in conjunction with ISKCON’s sixtieth. It will be a preaching facility whose every aspect is intended to make you proud through its innovation, dynamism, and fidelity to your teachings. And, meanwhile, the still-small Welsh yātrā has so many more projects to develop and maintain, such as gargantuan efforts to increase book distribution year upon year, prolific prāsadam distribution programs, and an organized network of loving devotee care.
Surely, that a group of people with less-than-scanty spiritual heritage could become inspired to take on such sacred responsibilities is nothing but a testament to your potency, Śrīla Prabhupāda. The current of Lord Caitanya’s mercy empowered the Six Gosvāmīs of Vrindavan, and later Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, to live such superhuman spiritual lives that their statuses as eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa seems quite obvious. But such an unprecedented example as set by all these great ācāryas is no less present in your life and times, our Śrīla Prabhupāda.
And so, as our community diversifies and grows more and more into the picture of a spiritual society that you would want to see, we remain dependent on, and so much in need of, your blessings. We pray that you continue to guide us always, and empower us to overcome whatever obstacles may hinder our humble execution of your will. As a community of your faithful followers, please keep us ever in the cooling shade of your lotus feet.
Your servants at ISKCON Wales