My dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Please accept our humble obeisances at your lotus feet. On this most auspicious occasion of your
Vyāsa-pūjā, we, the members of ISKCON Halifax, offer our heartfelt gratitude and love. We are
eternally indebted to you for your boundless compassion and the transformative power of your
teachings, which have illuminated our lives and guided us on the path of pure devotion.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, your divine presence is deeply felt in Halifax. We recall with great joy and
reverence the visit of your beloved disciple, His Holiness Bhaktimārga Swami Mahārāja, during
his first Canada walk in 1996. At that time, Mahārāja expressed a profound desire to establish
an ISKCON temple in Halifax. By your immeasurable grace, that transcendental desire has now
manifested!
On behalf of His Holiness Bhaktimārga Swami Mahārāja and the entire congregation of
ISKCON Halifax, we are overjoyed to present to you the first and largest ISKCON temple in
Atlantic Canada. This temple, located at 29 Westwood Blvd, Upper Tantallon, is a 7,700-square-
foot, 23-year-old former Anglican church on nine acres of beautiful land. Its strategic location,
close to major Highway 103 and an upcoming affluent suburb, ensures accessibility for devotees
from all corners of the city, with a convenient 25 or 30-minute drive.
The temple features a simple yet elegant layout, including a spacious main hall capable of
accommodating three hundred devotees, a prasādam hall and kitchen, with a capacity of 180 devo-
tees, and several rooms that will serve as pūjārī quarters, brahmacārī quarters, a children’s school,
and other essential facilities.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, the acquisition of this property was a testament to your divine intervention.
Initially, when this property was on sale, our local realtor devotee, Nikhil Kapoor, informed us
about it. Due to its extraordinary features, numerous religious organizations and investors were
eager to purchase it. The seller received six offers, including ours. When Maṅgalānanda Dāsa
and Savyasācin Dāsa visited the property with us, they established an amazing and respectful
connection with the seller. Along with our offer of $1.5 million (the asking price was $1.9 million),
we included a letter written by Vyāsa Dāsa to the church owners, explaining what ISKCON is
and our sincere intentions for using this sacred property. That letter, combined with ISKCON’s
esteemed reputation, sealed the deal for us. Despite receiving higher offers, the church owners
chose to accept our offer, recognizing the purity of our purpose.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are deeply moved by the extraordinary support we have received
from our ISKCON family. ISKCON Toronto has generously offered $350,000, His Holiness
Bhaktimārga Swami Mahārāja has contributed $150,000, ISKCON Brampton has provided
$30,000, and ISKCON Montreal has extended $2,000. It was monumentally inspiring to witness
the unity and collective spirit of all the temples in Zone 1 coming together to support this sacred
endeavor. His Holiness Bhaktimārga Swami Mahārāja and His Grace Indreśa Gaura Dāsa were
very instrumental in igniting this wave of support.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, we have set both short-term (1–3 years) and long-term goals to ensure the
temple’s growth and the continued spread of your mission:
Short-term goals:
• Install a decent-sized altar (7.5 feet wide and 8.5 feet tall) and establish the worship of home
Deities, Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi Sagarīśvara.
• Encourage 7–10 devotees to take hari-nāma initiation in 2025 and train them in your stan-
dards of Deity worship.
• Encourage 4–5 devotees to take brāhmaṇa initiation in 2026.
• Strengthen our congregation’s relationship with you by keeping your seven purposes of
ISKCON in the center and encouraging regular study of your books.
• Establish effective management policies for progressive development and appoint sincere
devotees to lead various departments.
• Renovate the existing kitchen to effectively cook for 300–500 devotees.
• Create an exclusive room for your transcendental literature, with a proper inventory system,
and increase the book distribution so we can become one of the top five book distribution
temples in Zone 1.
• Start a Sunday school for children.
• Develop strategies for youth, Vaiṣṇava, and Vaiṣṇavī empowerment.
• Develop plans to generate a continuous stream of rental income.
• Develop preaching strategies to increase attendance among the Western community.
• Increase our outreach presence into local universities.
Long-term goals:
• Develop a congregation of devotees who practice strong daily sādhana and selflessly serve to
please Kṛṣṇa and you, Śrīla Prabhupāda – a congregation that understands the mood of this
movement and cooperatively works toward your seven purposes for ISKCON.
• Make this temple the ISKCON headquarters for the Atlantic Canada region, where smaller
centers can receive training to spread our movement and eventually establish their own
temples.
• Start a full-fledged Govinda’s restaurant.
• Install an opulent altar (21 feet wide and 17 feet tall) and install Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Jagannātha,
Balarāma, Subhadrā, and Gaura-Nitāi Deities.
• Make this temple financially stable, with surplus funds to support other temples.
• Make this temple one of the top five well-managed temples in Zone 1.
This temple stands as a testament to your divine vision and the unwavering dedication of your fol-
lowers. We pray that it will become a vibrant center for spreading the glories of the holy name, a
sanctuary for devotees, and a beacon of spiritual light for the entire community.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, I want to summarize the heartfelt expressions from a few congrega-
tional members who attempted to write an offering to you. This summary includes the offerings
from Bhaktin Simran, Bhaktin Morin, Bhakta Rohan, Bhakta Neeraj, Bhaktin Kruti, and Bhaktin
Manish.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, you have fundamentally changed our lives, revealing the path
to Kṛṣṇa and spiritual understanding. You have provided answers to essential ques-
tions about the soul, our purpose, and true happiness. You are a direct conduit to
Kṛṣṇa’s mercy and guidance, a spiritual master, caretaker, friend, mother figure, and
guide. We have immense gratitude for your teachings, books, and the community you
have established. We aspire to deepen our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, follow your teachings,
and serve you and your devotees. We desire to make you proud.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, we humbly beg for your continued blessings and guidance. May we always
remain faithful to your teachings and strive to fulfill your mission. Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare / Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.
Your servant,
Ambarīṣa Dasa
on behalf of your servants at ISKCON Halifax
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to you!
We feel extremely fortunate to write this offering on this occasion of your Vyāsa-pūjā. We at
ISKCON Habibpur are trying to practice and preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness as per your desire.
Your books and lectures are the guidelines by which we conduct our daily lives in devotional
service. We feel protected and confident when we follow your instructions. Your life and teachings
are our inspiration. We are regularly reading your books such as the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-
Bhāgavatam in our daily and weekly classes in the temple and bhakti-vriksha groups.
By reading your books we feel nourished and gain strength in devotional life. All the problems
created by the agents of Kali are resolved by studying your books and following the instructions
in your teachings. It is true that you still live in your books and preach through your purports.
Thank you so much Śrīla Prabhupāda for creating ISKCON so that we can practice and preach
kṛṣṇa-bhakti together. It’s unimaginable for us to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness without your con-
stant support in the form of ISKCON and your books.
Please bless us that we can strive to sincerely, seriously, and without ulterior motives practice
devotional service as per your desire and thereby please you.
Your servant,
Sundar Nimāi Dāsa, president,
on behalf of the devotees at ISKCON Habibpur
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
At this juncture in time, it is an undisputed fact that you are Kṛṣṇa’s most precious gift to the
whole world. And for we who are striving to become devotees, the greatest benediction is the
opportunity to be an instrument within your mission. By causeless mercy and some inconceivable
good fortune we became connected with your devotees and books, and this initiated our journey
on the path of bhakti.
Today, on your auspicious Vyāsa-pūjā day, we plead with you to inspire and guide us as we
confront the many challenges faced in furthering your mission here in Guyana. Please give us
the strength to follow your divine instructions very honestly and faithfully, and bestow on us the
capacity to cooperate despite the challenges. Kindly bless us so that we can chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa
mantra with proper mood, attention, and concentration, regularly study your books, and listen to
your classes with rapt attention.
ISKCON’s main purpose is to help devotees become absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We
pray that all our programs and activities be of such quality that they enhance advancement in
pure devotional service. In this way, we can constantly be absorbed in deepening our loving
remembrance of Kṛṣṇa. ISKCON’s actual wealth and treasure is the devotees’ selfless and loving
commitment to your mission. Kindly help us preserve all the priceless gifts you left us with.
Please bless our Guyana yātrā so that we overcome setbacks and remain pure, potent, productive,
and ever progressing.
That said, we must also come to face the reality that the first generation of your disciples
is passing and that the next generation has the monumental task of upholding your vision.
Therefore, we must be careful not to let the pursuit of formal initiations (dīkṣā) be motivated by
external validation in place of true spiritual growth. Please bless us not to be sidetracked into a
religious mindset focusing on external identity markers, like rituals, status, and organizational
hierarchy, but instead kindly give us the intelligence to push this movement on the basis of a
scientific spiritual mindset, emphasizing personal transformation, deep scriptural study, and con-
scious devotion.
Please guide us in a way that ISKCON temples in Guyana prioritize deep scriptural education
over superficial preaching tactics, being careful that our projects not remain ritual hubs. You
always emphasized Kṛṣṇa consciousness as a science, not just a faith-based tradition. Please give
us the intelligence to always uphold this principle along with the strength to work together with
your other followers to accomplish these values.
Last February, your Legacy Museum was inaugurated on one floor of the TOVP in Māyāpur.
The world of ISKCON must endeavor to ensure that your legacy will remain prominent all over.
This requires that the understanding of your words, example, vision, and intention be etched into
every ISKCON center. Each of us must learn to apply it in changing times. In so doing, there is
every guarantee that your legacy will live on deeply into the future.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, kindly continue to infuse us with the ability to carry forth your mission here
in Guyana. Only by your blessings can we get the strength to overcome difficulties. We need your
blessings to remain strong and free from the clutches of māyā. On this most auspicious day of
your divine appearance, we offer our prostrated daṇḍavats at your lotus feet and repeatedly beg for
your kind mercy so that we may never deviate from the goals you set for ISKCON.
Your servants at the ISKCON Guyana yātrā
(written by Paramātmā Dāsa)
Hare Kṛṣṇa, dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupāda, who is very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa on this earth, having taken shelter at His
lotus feet.
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Sarasvatī
Gosvāmī. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering
the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
In your purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.8, you mention that “The secret of success in spiritual
life is in satisfying the spiritual master and thereby getting his sincere blessings.” This is a won-
derful transcendental secret that you mercifully revealed to we fallen conditioned souls who are
trying to revive our love for Kṛṣṇa. This secret would be useless unless we get the opportunity,
by Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, to find a bona fide spiritual master. Fully aware of our hopeless condition, you
founded ISKCON so that we would have a real and practical opportunity to find a bona fide spir-
itual master in disciplic succession and surrender unto him. You have opened this magnanimous
window of mercy built on the principles taught by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His saṅkīrtana
movement.
Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for this wonderful matchless gift of ISKCON, from where we
can find our way back home, back to Godhead in the holy association of Kṛṣṇa’s devotees. Kindly
bless us so that our humble, insignificant efforts to maintain, preserve, and expand your beloved
ISKCON are a complete success.
Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you very much,
Your eternally grateful and aspiring servants at New Govardhan Hill
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to you.
In the purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.8.5, you very beautifully mentioned:
It is said that a single pure devotee of the Lord can deliver all the fallen souls of the
world. Thus, one who is actually in the confidence of a pure devotee like Nārada or
Śukadeva Gosvāmī and thus is empowered by one’s spiritual master, as Nārada was by
Brahmājī, can not only deliver himself from the clutches of māyā, or illusion, but can
deliver the whole world by his pure and empowered devotional strength.
Whenever we read this purport, the only person we can think of is Your Divine Grace. How true it
is that you delivered the fallen souls of the world. And it is by your mercy that even today we are
able to move forward your mission. Although we are a small center here in Greater Noida, near
Delhi, India, still we have experienced how Your Divine Grace is still helping us continue the
good work of preaching. We would like to cite an incident that proves the above.
In our Janmāṣṭamī program, we invited a few influential personalities. Among them was one
very wealthy person. He said he had met Your Divine Grace in America as a student and been
highly impressed by your knowledge and compassion. He told us that he was searching for an
ISKCON center so he could donate some amount. And on that day, he promised to give a large
sum for purchase of land for our new temple.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, we can clearly see how even today you are present among us to guide us,
help us, and inspire us to dedicate our lives in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are trying to establish a temple here, and for that purpose we have
started a small center. We have all the programs going on in the center, and at the same time
we are trying our best to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness by organizing festivals, courses, regular
preaching programs, book distribution, nāgara-saṅkīrtana, and so on. Our big festivals are draw-
ing thousands of people who appreciate our philosophy and organization.
We are trying our best to procure a good piece of land for temple construction, and we are fully
aware that nothing can happen without the mercy of Your Divine Grace. So on this auspicious
day of your Vyāsa-pūjā, we beg you to shower your mercy upon us so that soon we can offer a
temple to Your Divine Grace for the glorification of the Supreme Lord.
We would like to offer our gratitude to you for giving us the shelter of your lotus feet and the
association of your illustrious disciples, who are guiding us in our journey toward Kṛṣṇa.
Your servants,
The devotees of ISKCON Greater Noida
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupāda, who is very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master,
servant of Bhakti siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanya
deva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
Please accept our humble and respectful obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to you.
We are in the year 2025, which marks sixty years since you first set your lotus feet on Western
soil to fulfill the instruction of your Guru Mahārāja. Oh, how blessed are we all to have somehow
or other come in contact with your message of the Supreme Absolute Truth.
The world has turned dramatically ever since you departed from it. The only way we can keep
ourselves sane and focused is by staying close to you and your words and advice. You came
to the West and carried the torchlight of knowledge in three volumes: your translated Śrīmad-
Bhāgavatam, an endless truth and incarnation of the Supreme for this Age of Kali.
You gave the message of Kṛṣṇa’s love for us freely, as did Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda.
The only request you made is for us to stop entangling our minds with this material world. How-
ever, as Arjuna already says in the Bhagavad-gītā, the mind is harder to control than the wind. We
do struggle to control our mind, to loosen our attachment to Māyā in all her seemingly pretty
facets. She is waiting on every corner, ready to snap us up, making us question ourselves and even
your movement. The Age of Kali is progressing, and distraction is the new normal if we are not
careful.
Why am I saying all these things that should not affect a devotee? Because the truth is, we
are all affected in one way or another, whether it be by questioning our path to Kṛṣṇa, measur-
ing what other devotees do, or being tormented by our thoughts and the mind’s activities – the
clutches of Māyā are so manifold.
But the actual truth is that this is harm done unnecessarily, as you made your way to America
to bring us the knowledge that can untangle us from these clutches of the material world. Now,
sixty years later, we have to also make use of it. Daily sādhana is the medicine you brought us, but
like many children, we don’t like to take that medicine. Still, we all know how healing and reliev-
ing it is to be free of pain.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, on this special day of your Vyāsa-pūjā, and indeed every day, let us
remember what kept you going in your first year in America: your firm faith in your spiritual
master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī, and your unalloyed devotion to Kṛṣṇa.
Although often you didn’t know how to pay your rent for the next week, and you didn’t yet
find people who were eager to get out of their darkness, you always stayed true to the instruction
of your spiritual master to help the people in the Western world out of the clutches of Māyā. You
showered them with the light of the Bhāgavata. We are here only because of you, and we can only
share what you gave us.
In the name of everyone here at Govinda Valley, I pray to you to keep us always close to your
lotus feet. Let us always share the light of knowledge with those whose hearts are open to receive
it, and please let us always be engaged in your service, for this is our life and soul and all we want
for this life.
As I was describing before, life seems overwhelming at times, distractions can be huge, but our
hearts are calling for Kṛṣṇa deep inside. Please grant us your mercy to get free of these conditions,
become deeply attached to Kṛṣṇa’s holy names, and develop a heart full of compassion so we can
help you in your mission and always stay faithful to you and Kṛṣṇa. We thank you from our hearts
for the life you gave us.
Your servants,
the sādhakas at Govinda Valley
(written by Mālinī Devī Dāsī)
