Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Hare Kṛṣṇa. Please accept our obeisances at your lotus feet.
Your glories reverberate through time. Your mercy reaches us divine. In your immortal words,
you are our “ever well-wisher.” We are your ever-aspiring servants. In this relationship, we are
poised to serve countless souls on their journey home.
By establishing a society focused on developing love of God, you have given us the lifelong gift
of support and protection. You effectively created a container for us to be held in through every
stage of life. Along with this is the opportunity to use our God-given abilities and propensities in
community with others on the same path.
By creating the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, you ensured that we could
spend our lives in the association of and service to Kṛṣṇa’s devotees. You taught us the value of
Vaiṣṇava sevā, of being dāsānudāsa. In shaping this society, you emphasized the importance of
caring for one another, following your own behavior and directions. Round and round we may
go, lifetime after lifetime, from birth to youth to old age to death, guided by your teachings and
example, and your society is here to support and protect us on our journey home. By your mercy,
those of us here today may have the good fortune to take shelter of your society in our next birth.
You said the children coming into ISKCON are given to us by Kṛṣṇa; they are Vaiṣṇavas. You
called them “Vaikuṇṭha children” and made it clear that it was our duty to protect them (Letter
to Arundhatī Devī Dāsī, July 30, 1972). A question we can regularly ask ourselves is: Are we creat-
ing the safe, nurturing environment required to encourage our children to embrace love of God,
Kṛṣṇa?
Childhood is the foundation upon which the rest of one’s life is built. In a letter to Hayagrīva
Dāsa dated November 7, 1969, you wrote, “Please also take care of the children. They are our
future hopes, and the adolescent age is the most dangerous age. It is the turning point of one’s
life. In this age, if you take care of the children, surely they will come out first class Krishna Con-
scious devotees.”
It has been twenty-seven years since the Child Protection Office was established to help
ISKCON management and members ensure that the children are safe. Your movement is expand-
ing year by year. Please help us understand how best to serve these great souls taking shelter of
ISKCON from the very beginning of their lives.
It is said that it takes a village to raise a child. As you have shown, protecting those who take
shelter of Lord Caitanya’s movement from birth requires the participation of all. It is not just the
parents’ responsibility. We each play a part in shaping a child’s life, with ripple effects far into the
future. Śrīla Prabhupāda, please give us the intelligence to organize ourselves to effectively carry
out this sacred duty.
Thank you for sending more devotees to help strengthen child protection services, and the
resources to sustain growth. Every day we feel gratitude for the opportunity to serve these special
souls on their journey home.
The servants of your servants,
Child Protection Office – ISKCON North America