Date: December 13, 2022
To: North American Leaders and Congregation
From: Niranjana Swami
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I visited Ukraine twice this year, in August and October. My first visit was for Janmastami and Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja. Since I was the first to visit Ukraine since the first days of the outbreak and since it was the first large gathering since Nityananda Trayodasi, it was quite an emotional occasion for all.
On the first day of my arrival in Western Ukraine I observed dozens of devotees as they held on to each other in long, warm embraces. There are so many of such pictures, but the following exchange is just one such sample:
To say that the devotees were genuinely grateful for all of the international support at that time would be an inadequate use of words. I heard it clearly from them when it came time for some of the devotees to read the offerings of gratitude they had written to Srila Prabhupada for his Vyasa Puja. Although their words were sufficient, their tears said it all. What I repeatedly heard was how grateful they were to be a part of Srila Prabhupada’s family.
That was about four months ago. Soaring missiles and subsequent explosions are still being heard regularly all over Ukraine, but now winter has set in. So many devotees are still clustered together in Western parts of Ukraine. But many other devotees, or at least those who still had a place to return to, were determined to return to their home cities despite the unpredictability of their living situations. Acyuta Priya dasa, the Regional Secretary, is currently visiting many of those cities.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/niranjana-swamis-letter-to-north-american-leaders-and-congregation/
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