Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
With our body, mind, and words we bow down and offer ourselves at your lotus feet in prayer-
ful and joyful humility. Your feet are the safest shelter, the source of all fearlessness, and the pro-
prietors of devotional service (sevādhikāriṇi guro nija-pāda-padme).
As we celebrate the 129th Vyāsa-pūjā festival of Your Divine Grace, we worship you with a
grateful heart as the bona fide representative of Śrīla Vyāsadeva coming in the Brahma-Madhva-
Gauḍīya-sampradāya, in the line of Lord Caitanya. You are the founder-ācārya of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which has manifested as a result of your surrender
to the instructions of Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Paramahaṁsa Parivrājakācārya Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta
Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. It is your love for your spiritual master and compassion for the living entities
that drove you to undertake the historic journey on the Jaladuta ship for thirty-seven days, under-
going unimaginable difficulties, to the West to preach the message of Lord Caitanya.
Although love of Kṛṣṇa is eternally situated in the hearts of all living entities (nitya-siddha
kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya), this love doesn’t manifest automatically. It manifests only by the
association of Kṛṣṇa’s pure devotee (śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya). For thousands of years,
people have lived in Western countries with dormant love of Kṛṣṇa in their hearts, but it is only
through your association that people in Western countries have taken to devotional service of Śrī
Kṛṣṇa.
Your life is a living manifestation of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s teachings and instructions, espe-
cially those in the Upadeśāmṛta. You are a perfect gosvāmī, who controlled the six urges. Your life is
a life of enthusiasm and endeavoring with confidence and patience. Despite great difficulties and
reversals at almost every step, you continued pushing Lord Caitanya’s movement by establishing
temples, translating, publishing, and distributing literature, initiating and engaging devotees
according to their propensities, continually giving classes and discourses and holding conversa-
tions on philosophy, meeting people from all walks of life, teaching and training devotees in
the devotional arts, and traveling all over the world. You did all of this beginning at the most
advanced age of sixty-nine.
You manifested the twenty-six qualities of a Vaiṣṇava. You were dakṣa and realized in Kṛṣṇa
consciousness. Therefore, despite navigating innumerable diverse cultures worldwide, you could
implant Kṛṣṇa consciousness into all of them. You united the people on a spiritual platform who
were otherwise in conflict based on the bodily platform. The Americans, Russians, Indians, Euro-
peans, Chinese, Africans, and Japanese all chanted and danced together in the ecstasy of Lord
Caitanya. This was made possible only because you had deep, unflinching faith in the prediction
of Lord Caitanya that one day, “My name will be chanted in every town and village.”
You gave to everyone without discrimination the most invaluable and priceless gifts of Kṛṣṇa’s
holy names, Kṛṣṇa’s form, Kṛṣṇa’s prasāda, Kṛṣṇa’s temples, Kṛṣṇa’s message, Kṛṣṇa’s dhāma,
Kṛṣṇa’s service, and Kṛṣṇa’s love. You were most bold, yet most humble. You were most conserva-
tive, yet most liberal. You were most loving and forgiving, yet very strict. You were most tradi-
tional, yet creative – all in your love for Kṛṣṇa.
The deep sacred compassion for all living entities, the unflinching faith, pure love, and realiza-
tion of Kṛṣṇa, and your vision of transcendental reality manifested the most intelligent, truthful,
wise, sustainable, beautiful, and creative services all over the world in the form of temples, farm
communities, restaurants, scientific preaching, the arts, music albums, a Life Membership pro-
gram, Food-for-Life, Back to Godhead magazine, parikramas, gurukulas, and schools.
Education was very dear to your heart. Your books, in the format of word-by-word meaning,
translation, and purport, are deeply appreciated in the scholarly world. Your entire book sets are
ordered and kept in prestigious universities of the world. Your recordings of lectures, conversa-
tions, morning walks, debates, Vaiṣṇava bhajanas, kīrtanas, videos, photographs, and articles are
the most precious assets for the people of this world.
We at ISKCON Punjabi Bagh have been causeless receivers of your mercy. By your blessings,
we have begun the construction of a new temple for Śrī Rādhā-Rādhikāramaṇa and Śrī Kṛṣṇa-
Balarāma, and we aspire to complete it by Rādhāṣṭamī 2027.
By your mercy, 1,124 community members distributed 338,270 books during the last marathon.
Various devotees have traveled to other temples to expand the preaching mission, and five devo-
tees have been sent to ISKCON Yamuna Nagar to manage the center and further spread Kṛṣṇa
consciousness.
The congregational preaching is steadily increasing, as many devotees in the congregation
actively contribute to the expansion and sustenance of the movement. They are leading bhakti-
vriksha groups, distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, organizing weekly and monthly saṅkīrtana,
performing Deity worship at home, and rendering valuable services to the temple Deities.
Temple festivals are celebrated with great pomp, attracting devotees and newcomers alike to
experience the joy of devotional service. Neighbor cultivation and public relations have grown
significantly with regular communication and a sensitive approach. Our youth outreach and culti-
vation programs are also progressing sustainably, inspiring the younger generation to take shelter
of Kṛṣṇa.
By your mercy, the outposts at Rewari and Burari are flourishing, and both centers are actively
engaged in preaching activities. In addition, more than sixty devotees have successfully com-
pleted the Bhakti-śāstrī course, systematically studying your books. These classes are conducted
by locally based temple devotees with assistance from members of the congregation.
To ensure succession in leadership, Vaikuṇṭha Vraja Dāsa has been promoted to the position of
co-president, adding strength to the temple management and leadership team. Additionally, every
Ekādaśī we organize twenty-four-hour kīrtanas, immersing the devotees in the holy names of the
Lord. We are also grateful that many senior devotees regularly visit ISKCON Punjabi Bagh, bless-
ing us with their valuable association and guidance.
Delhi, being the political capital of India, was very important to you. You struggled alone in
the wilderness of Delhi. You stayed at the Gauḍīya Math and, despite coming from an aristocratic
family, at one point didn’t even have a single dhoti-kurta set to meet dignitaries. You would
single-handedly write, publish papers, and distribute them to people in general. You began the
mammoth project of translating the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in Delhi. You published the first volume
with great difficulty. You felt the urgency to fulfill the instructions of your spiritual master. Many
times you did not even have your meals. You met many politicians and dignitaries in Delhi. You
met the two prime ministers, Lal Bahadur Sastri and Indira Gandhi in Delhi. You organized
pandal programs, made life members, and installed Śrī Rādhā-Pārtha-sārathi.
It is through your devotional service and compassion, and the efforts of your loyal servants,
that innumerable residents of Delhi have received the seeds of devotional service. There are now
eighteen temples in Delhi NCR, and more than one million books are distributed each year.
Amid the ongoing dualities of this material world, the unchanging truth of devotional service
can provide peace, purpose, clarity, strength, confidence, and happiness in our individual life’s
journey. We seek your blessings to understand and imbibe your mood and mission and make all
your transcendental gifts accessible to others as they are.
Offered by Premāñjana Dāsa,
on behalf of the community leaders of ISKCON Punjabi Bagh