Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Śrī Guru and Śrī Gaurāṅga.
We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to write this Vyāsa-pūjā offering on behalf of the devotees and congregational members at ISKCON München Verein für vedische Kultur e.V. We view this as an opportunity to think about you deeply, remember your divine instructions, and feel grateful to be serving in your paramparā. Through your books, your lectures, and your letters you have given very important instructions that we are humbly but dedicatedly trying to follow.
You gave very important instructions for the Deutsch yātrā in your letter to the then president of ISKCON Hamburg His Grace Haṁsadūta Prabhu, dated 11 April, 1972:
In the meantime, you do your duty as president of Hamburg Temple, and try to improve spiritually. Our spiritual way should strictly observe the following points especially: (1) Neatness and cleanliness of all personal bodies. (I still see those who are initiated as Brahmins, they do not wash their hand after eating even; of course, there may be so many defects due to your births in non-Brahmin families, but how long it shall go on? It is very easy thing.); (2) Chanting 16 rounds daily. (I don’t think everyone is following these principles.); (3) Temple worship, which should be performed rigidly between four and ten a.m.
We are delighted to inform you that we are humbly attempting to follow your instructions “as it is” despite many practical difficulties in Munich. For your pleasure, we would humbly like to inform you that in our congregation, more than twenty devotees are chanting sixteen rounds daily. Additionally, we have Deities of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi whom we are collectively worshiping “rigidly,” as you have instructed, between 4 and 10 a.m. Under the supervision of our temple president, Her Grace Dānakelī Kaumudi Mātājī, we are trying to maintain the utmost standard of cleanliness in our temple, as you instructed. Please bless us that whatever difficulties we have, we will be able to overcome them and follow your spiritual guidelines as they are.
With good spiritual sādhana established according to your will, we are humbly attempting to preach through our book distribution scores. Some of the scores of our temple in the recent past are listed as below:
- December marathon 2025: ISKCON München Verein für vedische kultur e.V distributed 1,191 books, including 14 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sets. We secured fifth place in the Deutsch yātrā. Her Grace Dānakelī Mātājī single-handedly distributed 1,062 books.
- Gaurāṅga marathon 2026: we distributed 15 books, mostly in Arabic, and secured sixth place in the Deutsch yātrā.
- Nityānanda marathon 2026: we distributed 25 books and secured seventh place in the Deutsch yātrā.
We are regularly doing harināma as per your instructions, and have conducted more than 25 harināmas since last year. We especially do harināma–saṅkīrtana during the period of Oktoberfest, when people in Munich need the holy name the most.
Very importantly, you instructed in your letter to His Holiness Bhakti-bhūṣaṇa Swami (formerly, Suchandra Dāsa) and the Munich congregation, on 1 January 1972, that you desire a temple in Munich:
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter undated. Kṛṣṇa has been very kind to you that as soon as you have gone to Munich to open a new center, He has helped you with a very suitable accommodation. Now develop everything very nicely there and build a fine, strong Kṛṣṇa Consciousness center.
We are humbly attempting to buy our current temple near Munich and thereby serve His Holiness Bhakti-bhūṣaṇa Mahārāja by fulfilling your will. We are doing it under the esteemed guidance of your stalwart servants in the form of the local GBC and National Council for the Deutsch yātrā.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, all the auspiciousness we are achieving is solely due to your divine mercy. We pray that you continue to shower your blessings upon us so that we may serve you and Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi with sincerity, dedication, and humility. Please empower us to expand your mission in Munich, fulfilling your vision of a Kṛṣṇa conscious world.
All glories to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda!
Your servant,
Uddhava Ānanda Dāsa, vice-president
On behalf of Her Grace Dānakelī Kaumudī Mātājī, our esteemed board members, and our congregation
Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Śrīla Prabhupāda, we bow down to your lotus feet.
All glories to you, and to this auspicious day.
It’s been 130 years since you have appeared,
As a result, millions of jīvas have been saved.
You shared kṛṣṇa-prema with the entire world,
Such a treasure, originally brought by Lord Caitanya!
It was only known within India’s borders before,
Now it could reach this unholy land of the Hūṇas.
Your books worked their magic, cleansing people’s minds,
They started to chant and became dedicated bhaktas
In this mission of yours, and their efforts brought to life
A wonderful place we now know as Nava Vraja-dhāma.
You made it all possible by following your guru,
“Preach in English,” he said. “Print books” – and behold:
Regarding your books, I can share some good news!
At the last marathon we broke a few of our records.
Bhāgavatam sets were distributed on the streets,
And in supermarkets we set up tables for the śāstra.
Still, we didn’t forget about the other saṅkīrtana techniques.
It was a successful marathon for us and the whole yātrā.
We are praying to you and begging for your mercy.
Without your teachings, our life is incomplete –
So never let us go. Keep us engaged in service!
Our only shelter, we bow down to your lotus feet.
Your servants,
the residents of Nava Vraja-dhāma
Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to your divine personality!
On this, the most solemn day of your appearance, please accept our offering from the Vaiṣṇava communities in and around the city of Novorossiysk. All activities of the community are carried out only by Your Divine Grace!
In your temples, the worship of the Deities continues according to the accepted standards of ISKCON. One temple is located in the city of Novorossiysk, the temple of New Navadvīpa Dhāma with the Deities Śrī Śrī Nitāi-Śacīnandana, and the second temple is in the Vaiṣṇava settlement of Varṣānā with Śrī Pañca-tattva and Śrī Śrī Jagannātha-Baladeva-Subhadrā.
We regularly conduct programs in both temples – worship of the Deities according to ISKCON standards, daily classes on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Sunday programs, festivals, kirtan melās and weekly chanting of the holy name. Harināmas are held once a week in four places of the large communities in different localities (Anapa, Gelendzhik, Varshana, Novorossiysk).
We distribute books daily and regularly conduct weekend saṅkīrtana. Our achievements in book distribution:
- Third place in the region, in the marathon
- Seventheen place in Russia, in the marathon
- Eighteenth place in Russia, for the year
There are some preaching programs – mantra-yoga, preaching lectures, preaching on social media, and on the YouTube channel, “Hare Krishna in Russia”. Around fifty new people joined this year. There is a program for caring for devotees, a mentoring system, and a curator system.
Our community has governing councils for each group, including spiritual councils of mentors and senior devotees, as well as management councils. Leadership meetings are held regularly. The following committees have been established:
- Preaching committee
- Family committee
- Parenting committee
Our community also has small groups for spiritual communication:
- Nāma-haṭṭas – thirteen groups
- Bhakti-vṛkṣas – three groups
- Mentoring saṅgas – five groups
- Women’s saṅga – eight groups
- Men’s saṅga – four groups
We offer educational programs to prepare devotees for praṇāma and initiation, as well as the following courses and trainings:
- ISKCON Student
- Bhakti-śāstri
- Bhakti-praveśa
- Bhakti-latā
- Leadership training
- Thematic seminars
- Hare Kṛṣṇa course
- Deity worship courses
- Reflection on Prabhupāda’s Mission
- Music education at the Kīrtana School
- Cooking courses
Senior ISKCON Vaiṣṇavas regularly visit our community. The Care and Protection of Children program is in operation. Temples have special rooms for children and their programs. And we plan to open Sunday schools in the temples. Sports and children’s playgrounds have been set up.
The Vaiṣṇavī eco-village, Varṣānā has the following facilities:
- Educational school for children
- Gurukula
- Kindergarten for preschool children
- Tourist club
- Various clubs and electives
- Philosophical online education for children, Our Roots.
- Teaching children kirtan and playing musical instruments
- Organizing leisure activities and children’s programs
- Organizing summer camps for children
- Acting school
- Indian dance studio
- Organizing children’s nāma-haṭṭa
In our community, we carry out the following social projects:
- Food for Life in four settlements.
- In Novorossiysk we successfully held a photo exhibition of the organization’s activities. We also plan to hold in other nearby cities.
- Take part in city holidays: Day of the village, May 9, Maslenitsa, etc.
- Maintaining social ties in the city: we develop relations and congratulate officials on holidays. We participate in the social life of the city (subbotniks, etc.).
- The international group of modern Indian dance “Anandaloka”, consisting of Vaiṣṇavīs, holds performances to the sound of the holy name.
- Cooperation with social care, support for the poor
Developments at the Vaiṣṇava settlement, Varshana:
- Made guest rooms in the temple
- New roads are filled
- New lines of communications are laid
- A new well for the community’s water supply is launched
- Night lighting of the streets is installed
- The temple has purchased new furniture for the guest room, the altar room, and the pūjā room
- The temple grounds have been improved
- Trees have been planted
- We plan to create a park area on the lake shore
- The Devāmṛta altar-making workshop is operating
- The Sundarī project for making kaṇṭhi-mālā is also active
- Sports and children’s playgrounds have been set up
- Fire hydrants have been installed
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, all our development and activities can only take place with your blessings! We are very much appreciative and sincerely grateful to you for creating ISKCON for us, a place and a community of people where we can peacefully practice our spiritual life and follow your mission of helping others.
We try to follow your instructions and the goals you have set for us, your followers and your śikṣā disciples. We feel your divine presence every day, otherwise we would not have achieved what we have.
Please allow us to continue serving under your guidance and supervision, dear Śrīla Prabhupāda. You are very dear to us, and we want to please you with our service. Please bless us so that our efforts will not be in vain and we will never stray from the path you have shown us.
ISKCON Novorossiysk
Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
We bow to the shining dust from your lotus feet, dear Śrīla Prabhupāda! Jaya oṁ viṣṇupāda paramahaṁsa parivrājakācārya aşṭottara-śata Śrī Śrīmad Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Mahārāja Prabhupāda kī jaya!
We express our deepest respects to you and pray that we may please you by following your instructions and serving your mission.
You have come to this misery-filled material world to bestow the supreme mercy of pure devotional service to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This grace is the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, which liberates the world from the philosophy of impersonalism and emptiness. The world is sick, and numerous conflicts are arising both at the level of countries and the level of people – terrible wars and violence, diseases, mental abnormalities, earthquakes, fires, droughts, and floods. When you came to this world, you brought the only remedy: the reunion with one’s true self as a loving servant of the Lord. This is the only way to extinguish the fire of material existence.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, you bestowed on us the purest knowledge and the eternal mercy of the ācāryas. You placed the responsibility on your sincere followers to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness in modern society. The task is difficult and impossible on a material level. In your books, talks, and lectures, we hear your insistence, guidance, and power as you encourage your followers to be serious and sincere in their spiritual lives. You provide the conviction that the almighty Absolute Truth, the source of all existence, and the source of all love, always reciprocates the devotion of His servants.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, by your divine grace we have the opportunity to serve the first and incomparable Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda in Russia. This is your grace, as is the grace of the first Omsk Deities, Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi. Thirty or forty years ago, none of us could have imagined that we would ever be able to serve the source of all existence.
Now, our temple complex in the city center occupies an area of 250 square meters. The total area of the premises is 1,700 square meters, and more than 280 devotees are engaged in the worship of the Lord.
Lord Śrī Govinda gives joy to the earth, cows, and senses. For the satisfaction of the Lord, you, dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, have established the Cow Planet Farm, which is now home to more than two hundred happy cows. The supreme spiritual abode of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is described as consisting of two main aspects, manifested in the spiritual world as the Audārya-dhāma (abode of mercy) and the Mādhurya-dhāma (abode of sweet love). This place is akin to the Audārya-dhāma, as it is ruled by the beautiful Pañca-tattva.
We conduct the following preaching programs:
- Harināmas are held twice a week for two hours
- Once a week, devotees participate in weekend saṅkīrtana
- There are weekly meetings in twelve spiritual communication groups
- There are programs for those who are just beginning to learn the spiritual science, such as Reading the Bhagavad-gītā, Sunday Yoga, and Yoga in the City Parks.
- On Sundays, the temple hosts a Sunday Program.
- Every two months, devotees organize mantra concerts.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, you gave us the resources and methods to achieve ISKCON’s goals: to preach the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness as described in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; to spread and encourage the saṅkīrtana movement, which involves chanting the holy name of the Lord together and following the instructions of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu; to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, and books; and to prepare delicious food for the Lord and distribute it to the people.
We can never fully thank you for the invaluable gift you bestowed on us. To fulfill your instructions and achieve these goals, you gave us everything we need. Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Your servants,
The devotees of ISKCON Omsk
Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept the humble obeisances of your followers from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. All glories to Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi! All glories to Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa!
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, thank you so much for coming to Moscow and, in just a few days, magically creating Vaṣṇavas who spread the saṅkīrtana movement of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu throughout the former Soviet Union! This is a true miracle that never ceases to amaze us.
Over time, your books and followers appeared in Nizhny Novgorod and arranged the meeting of your faithful disciple, His Holiness Gopal Krishna Goswami as well as the city’s mayor. As a result of this meeting, we got a building for the temple in 1990. A couple of years later, His Holiness Gopal Krishna Goswami established the worship of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi here and inspired local devotees to preach. Since then, the temple has held daily worship of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi according to ISKCON standards, with twenty to thirty people participating weekly. Morning and sometimes evening programs are also held, prasādam is distributed in the temple and through the Hare Krishna Food for Life program, and educational courses are held.
Last year, three harināma groups of six people each took to the streets weekly, even in freezing winter weather. Festival and Sunday programs with kirtans and prasādam distribution are held. Śravaṇam-kīrtanam festivals are held twice a year, and before the pandemic, Ratha-yātrās were held annually. Friday kirtans are held weekly at the temple, and on Saturdays, about ten people go out to the Weekend Saṅkīrtana program. Throughout the year, several people went out daily to distribute your books, and several dozen devotees participated in the December book distribution marathon.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda! We continue to draw inspiration from reading your books and the entire spiritual process you have given us in the wonderful spiritual organization you founded, ISKCON, which has become a close-knit family for us all! Please continue to lead us along the path of pure devotional service, engaging us in this wonderful saṅkīrtana movement of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu so that we can all join you in the eternal līlā of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa!
Your servants,
The devotees at ISKCON Nizhniy Novgorod
Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
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
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