Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda!
Please accept our humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories unto you on this most auspi-
cious day of your appearance!
I was asked to write this offering on the evening before the deadline, so it will be very sponta-
neous – straight from my heart.
Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to Bhūrijana Prabhu: “Unless there is loving feeling, how is it possible
for you to always make offerings to me? The spiritual master is always instructing his disciples and
they in turn are always trying to serve their spiritual master. It is a reciprocal relationship of love.”
And from a letter to Śravānanda Dāsa’s mother: “Yes, our Society is depending on love and
respect; we are bound by love.”
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, this worldwide ISKCON society, with all its temples, Deities, book
production and distribution, and varieties of preaching projects, is your offering of love to your
spiritual master and Lord Kṛṣṇa. Thus your brainchild has made – and continues to make – a last-
ing impact on the world. Your monumental task to travel alone to America, over the ocean and in
your old age, with only a trunk of your first volumes of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you translated, to
start a preaching movement and spread bhakti all over the world, leaves us ever in awe.
Thank you, dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda, for the sacrifice you made. Thank you for being an
ocean of mercy and letting us take shelter of your lotus feet. Thank you for all the love, devotion,
patience, and tolerance with which you started this movement and trained your disciples. Thank
you for giving us the refuge of your temples. Thank you for giving us beautiful Deities to worship.
Thank you for the amazing treasure of your books full of transcendental knowledge that you gave
us. Thank you for giving us the ever-protective shield and sweetness of the holy name. Thank
you for the worldwide company of spiritual brothers and sisters to serve and celebrate Kṛṣṇa and
our joyful life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness with. Thank you for saving us from the ever-worsening
onslaughts of Kali-yuga and giving us a pure, enlightened, and meaningful life. Thank you for
giving us Kṛṣṇa, and for placing the seed of bhakti in our hearts.
I once saw a video recording of one of your lectures. Somebody asked you a question, to which
you answered: “You have to learn to love Kṛṣṇa in His absence.” That answer somehow stuck in
my mind, and I meditate on its meaning every now and then. We can actually feel and experience
Kṛṣṇa’s presence everywhere. His divine spirit is penetrating everything in the universe – He’s in
all of creation. Without His divine spirit, nothing can come to life or exist. He is with us always as
the Supersoul in the heart, and a small atomic particle of Him is our own individual soul within
us. However, we might be longing for Kṛṣṇa’s personal company – the company the devotees had
when He was present here on earth in His strikingly beautiful, two-armed form. He promises us
in the Bhagavad-gītā that if we surrender unto Him, He will take us back to His spiritual world
to be with Him. We are fully dependent on His mercy. He can also reveal Himself to us while we
are still here on earth. We simply have to have faith in Him and increase our love and longing for
Him.
Hari Śauri Prabhu, who traveled with you a lot, Śrīla Prabhupāda, and who has a close, loving
relationship with you, told us how in Bombay in January 1977, you spoke to him regarding our
preaching task in ISKCON: “You should always remember that You have taken a very, very dif-
ficult task. Manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye. It is not a very easy task, but one thing is
sure: if you be successful or not successful, it is your victory. Because you try for this, and Kṛṣṇa
will be very much pleased.” (The Bhagavad-gītā verse is chapter 7, text 3: “Out of many thousands
of men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one
knows Me in truth.”)
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, we now face the challenge of upholding and carrying the Almvik
Ecovillage project into the future. It is a complex but attractive project, with potential but also a
currently deteriorating old temple building, beautiful Pañca-tattva deities, cows to protect, and
a surrounding forest, land, and a lake – and a village on the temple grounds filled with devo-
tees. At present we are raising funds to finance the necessary renovations for the temple building,
although we dream of a new, nicer temple in the future.
Please bless us with the determination, strength, and innovative, cooperative spirit to keep up
and develop this peaceful spiritual oasis for ISKCON’s preaching mission, despite any impedi-
ments that come our way.
Hari Śauri Prabhu gave us this statement by Śrīla Prabhupāda: “Your love for me will be tested
by how, after my departure, you maintain this institution. We have glamor, and people are feeling
our weight. This should be maintained.”
We are fully dependent on you and humbly ask you to kindly grant us your blessings for our
task ahead.
Your humble servants at the Almvik Ecovillage
(written by Aṣṭasiddhi Devī Dāsī)