Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāminn iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
We offer our humble obeisances to your lotus feet on the most auspicious day of your divine appearance.
You are the representative of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Prema-Puruṣottama Gaurāṅga, who appears only once in a thousand yuga-cycles, in a kalpa, just after Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who Himself also appears personally only once in a kalpa.
In the same way, you, the confidential associate of Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, who have fulfilled the prediction of that same Prema-Puruṣottama, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, are equally rare. Therefore, we are most fortunate to have taken birth in this era and to have received the special mercy that you came to distribute throughout the entire world. The rarity of such an opportunity is beautifully expressed in the teachings of Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 19.151):
brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
Wandering throughout the universes, some fortunate soul, by the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa, receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.
We thank you gratefully from the core of our hearts for having arranged the needed and beneficial association of your disciples and followers in disciplic succession – for all of us and those to come.
Empowered by the complete mercy and desire of our guru-paramparā, and inspired by the mission of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, what you have accomplished and were able to do was and is divinely ordained!
We will not so easily be able to completely fathom our great fortune, because only by becoming a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa can one actually understand the extent of that fortune. Therefore, on this sacred day of your divine appearance, we pray that we may come to understand in a fuller way the depth of our good fortune.
Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda!
Your humble servant,
Puruṣottama Tīrtha Dāsa
On behalf of the devotees at ISKCON Antwerp