Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to you!
This year in DC
we celebrate your visit
of 50 years ago, in 1976
to the property at Potomac
13 acres of good land
with a hill to remind us
of Govardhana
a small stream that
becomes the Yamunā
and a flood plain
to remember the mercy
you carried, to inundate
the world with beauty and truth
Because you gave us the eyes to see
you gave us the language to understand
and gave us wisdom to dig beneath the surface
of an ordinary life, an ordinary piece of land,
we find Kṛṣṇa here and our identity in relationship to Him
Tucked into every nook and corner
are the seeds of bhakti that you planted
the seeds of golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana
Take advantage, you would say, and make your life perfect.
We thank you for planting this place of pilgrimage.
“In Vrindavan there is a place where there was no temple, but a devotee desired, ‘Let there be a temple and sevā, devotional service.’ Therefore, what was once an empty corner has now become a place of pilgrimage. Such are the desires of a devotee.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.50)
Your servant,
Ananda Vrindavaneswari Devī Dāsī, temple president