Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Dear to-our-hearts Śrīla Prabhupāda!
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace!
My name is Gaura-siṁha Dāsa. I serve as president of the ISKCON temple in Krasnodar, in the South Russia Region. My wife, Dāmodara Rati Devī Dāsī, serves as the main pūjarī at this temple. Today, on the auspicious day of your Vyāsa-pūjā, allow us to address you on behalf of ourselves and all the devotees of our temple of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Śyāma and Śrī Gaurāṅga with respectful and grateful words.
By Your Divine Grace, the true reason for which remains a mystery to us, a very special idea one day entered our minds and hearts – to try to invite Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa into our lives and the spiritual life of our city, to build a beautiful, comfortable, and bright temple for Them, and to cultivate a beautiful garden with numerous kuñjas for Their pleasure. This inspiration came to us, as you know, from you personally in 2014 at the Krishna-Balaram temple in Vrindavan. It was then, standing before you in your Samādhi Mandir that we felt your blessing for this special service.
Undoubtedly, we made some efforts and performed certain austerities within our bodies and minds, as much as we could in this age of spiritual degradation, a time of discord and conflict. But the true driving force behind this internal and external process of building the temple was, of course, you, dear Śrīla Prabhupāda. It is precisely by the power of your grace and blessings, as well as the blessings of your disciples, that this truly miraculous establishment of the temple can be attributed. Thus, on April 10, 2022, on the sacred day of Rāmanavamī, the beautiful Deities of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Śyāma and Śrī Gaurāṅga were installed in this new temple.
Furthermore, it was only by your grace and blessings that we were given the opportunity to serve in this temple, despite lacking the necessary qualifications, having been born and raised in families with heavy karma, and especially in this age of Kali – an age of degradation and strife. This service at the temple has been going on for four years now, and each year it becomes more and more splendid. The atmosphere in the temple becomes increasingly spiritual and attracts many devotees and new people. We never cease to be amazed by this.
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, we feel that you have been with us all this time. We constantly feel your presence both in the temple’s altar room, where you are constantly present in the form of your deity, and in your books, which we regularly read and draw great inspiration from. We sense your presence through the love and cooperation of devotees, and we sense your presence when we reflect on the example of your life and all the incomprehensibly difficult obstacles you overcame in your desire to give people throughout the world this priceless gift of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
A few months after the opening of the temple, on the sacred day of your appearance, your deity was installed in the temple directly opposite Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Śyāma and Śrī Gaurāṅga. On that day, as I offered you words of glorification, I felt inspired to offer you our entire service and our lives as devoted servants of this temple. Then, completely unexpectedly, these words burst from my mouth. As it turns out, this same desire was in the hearts of many devotees serving in the temple, and from that time this offering has been repeated every day since: all the devotees in the temple pray to be instruments in your hands, offering you their service and lives. Thus, we can feel that you direct all service in the temple. Every day, we feel your mercy, your blessings, your love, and your acceptance of us into your spiritual family.
We sincerely thank you, dear Srila Prabhupada, for everything we see, hear, and feel. We thank you for this opportunity to be part of your spiritual family, for this opportunity to participate in this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, for the opportunity for spiritual development and service.
Please accept our service, our inspiration, our creativity, and our lives as an offering to you, and please bless us to reach true, pure, and unalloyed devotion in this life. Bless us to chant the mahā-mantra purely: Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare / Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Bless us to understand the science of devotional service that You have given us in Your transcendental books. And bless us to render selfless and devoted service to Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Śyāma and Śrī Gaurāṅga!
Your humble servants,
Gaura-siṁha Dāsa, Dāmodara Rati Devī Dāsī,
and all the devotees of ISKCON Krasnodar
Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our most humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
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
On this most auspicious occasion of your divine appearance, we offer our heartfelt homage and reflections. Over the past year, we have encountered both challenges and encouraging developments within our congregation. With sincere determination, we are striving to establish a permanent temple, a sacred home for Śrī Śrī Karuṇa-Nitāi Gauracandra and a spiritual center from which your preaching mission can continue to expand.
Deeply inspired by your unparalleled efforts in founding this movement, we feel a strong eagerness to follow in your footsteps. At the same time, we remain ever aware that our endeavors are but small and insignificant in comparison to your extraordinary service.
We are grateful to share that an increasing number of devotees are taking enthusiasm in participating in harināma and distributing your transcendental books. As you so powerfully emphasized that book distribution is your life and soul, we carry this instruction in our hearts. With renewed energy and devotion, we go out to the streets to share the mercy contained within your writings with those who may still be covered by ignorance. You taught that even if one person becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious the mission is successful, and we understand that this transformation is made possible through the books you so compassionately wrote, often under great difficulty. We therefore feel a deep responsibility to continue this service.
At the same time, we are placing increasing attention on nourishing and caring for the devotees within our community. We recognize the importance of spiritual support, meaningful relationships, and genuine care. United in our shared goal of reviving our eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, we strive to cultivate a spirit of cooperation and friendship, knowing that this journey is best undertaken together.
To sustain and expand these efforts, a suitable temple building would be a great blessing. We humbly pray at your lotus feet that, by your mercy, such an opportunity will manifest. Until that time, we remain committed to serving you in whatever capacity we can, dedicated to preserving and carrying forward your teachings and legacy.
Thank you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for everything you have given to the world. You will forever be remembered as the one who built a spiritual home in which the entire world can reside. We remain eternally indebted to you. Haribol!
Your insignificant servants at ISKCON Amsterdam
Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda!
In the blessed jubilee year of your divine appearance in this material world, please accept our humble obeisances in the dust of your gentle, wonderfully cooling lotus feet! All glories to Your Divine Grace!
We, your followers, have a unique opportunity to communicate with you through our attempts at devotional service through your vāṇī, making an effort to fulfill the spiritual instructions you’ve given in your books, numerous lectures, meetings, and walks with devotees.
Your humility and complete devotion to your spiritual master, your compassion and love for all living entities, as well as your infinite mercy allow us to try to develop the qualities necessary for cultivating true devotion to guru and Kṛṣṇa!
Inspiring the devotees through your example, you tirelessly spread the teachings of Lord Caitanya throughout the world in every city and village. Your every step frees this world from the consequences of billions of sins!
You have opened the practice of bhakti to the whole world, opening your heart and in an incomprehensible way, transmitting the bliss of your enlightened mind. When you saw the Western world, you turned to Kṛṣṇa and said, “You’ve brought me here and now I’m your marionette, so pull the strings. I will dance however You wish.” It was an amazing, fearless decision.
But you didn’t just say it – you did it. You’d been doing it throughout the years. You were a perfect instrument. Preaching intensively, going through the great pressure of writing books at night, you practically didn’t live for the body but were constantly in service to the mission.
You opened temples of Kṛṣṇa in many cities of many countries, including those where there was not a single devotee before you came. These temples are still embassies of the spiritual world.
Here in Kursk, we follow your instructions and continue the tradition of worshiping the Lord in our temple, holding Sunday programs and celebrating festivals. We invite guests for darshan of the Deities, chant the holy names together, and eat prasādam. All this is possible only because we know how important it was for you, dear Śrīla Prabhupāda! Let us always stay at your lotus feet, holding onto the hem of your dhoti and realizing our helplessness!
We ask for blessings to open our hearts so that they become as pure and beautiful as your huge heart, overflowing with the elixir of divine love in which each of us has found a place. Forever bound to you with bonds of love, we are eternally indebted to you!
We will always pray to cling to your lotus feet so that Kṛṣṇa may be pleased with our spiritual family!
Aspiring to become devotees, the eternal servants of your servants,
The devotees of ISKCON Kursk, Russia
Europe & Russia, Homages ISKCON Centers, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances at the dust of your divine lotus feet. Please allow us to make an attempt to glorify you, as far as our humility and qualifications permit.
Reflecting on life, we become increasingly convinced of how boundless the Lord’s mercy can be! And His mercy consists of sending us such compassionate, exalted souls as yourself so that we can cross the ocean of material suffering, called the material world. Your glory will spread from age to age, despite the darkening hues of Kali-yuga, and sincere souls will be able to take advantage of the boat you have left for us. It is described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.2.31) that ācāryas, being compassionate saints, cross the ocean of material existence and reach the spiritual world. However, they do not simply leave. Rather, they leave behind a boat – their teachings, sacred scriptures, and spiritual practices – so that sincere souls seeking the Supreme Refuge can also cross over to the other shore.
By leaving the boat of your teachings, you give every person the opportunity to safely cross the material ocean, even though you are no longer physically present in this world. Your mission in this world is invaluable: just as a pious mother cannot evaluate her child, so spiritual values manifested by you cannot be measured. Without your mission, the lives of all conditioned souls have no meaning. You have given people light and hope for a truly bright future, which flows into eternity, full knowledge, and bliss, in the infinite happiness of love in relationship with the Lord.
Our endless gratitude to you for this and for the opportunity to try to become an instrument in the hands of the guru, who is an instrument in your hands.
Your servants,
The devotees of the New Navadvīpa community in Kyiv
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
