My dearest Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept my most humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to you on this most auspicious day of your Vyasa-puja.
In 1969 you wrote the following in a letter to one of your disciples:
Just as you have already understood the benefits of this Krsna Consciousness Movement, try to realize and assimilate it more and more and distribute it to the suffering humanity. Our movement is the greatest gift to the human race. They may not immediately appreciate it, but time will come and history will give evidence that this movement saved the human society from being fallen into barbarianism. [Letter to Jayasri, 13 November 1969]
This year, as we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of your society, ISKCON, this prophecy is already being realized. Our movement is increasing more and more, as many devotees are being made, many temples are being constructed, your transcendental books in many languages are being printed and distributed by the millions every year, prasadam is being profusely distributed all over the world, many sustainable community farm projects are being set up all over the world, many restaurants are being opened everywhere, many festivals spreading the holy name are happening each year, etc. Your dream of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur is quickly becoming a reality, and hopefully it will be inaugurated in 2022. All of your leaders are working hard to maintain and increase what you started, and it is sure that the movement will go on for the next ten thousand years. Many initiatives have been undertaken to make this happen. This year the third ISKCON Leadership Sanga was held in Mayapur, with over 1,200 leaders from all over the world participating. Also, this year a second batch of 48 students enrolled in the GBC College for Leadership Development, ensuring that in the future there will be a smooth transition to the next generation of qualified leaders in the various GBC zones all over the world. I would like to mention some of your main achievements so that we can meditate on your greatness as the founder-acarya of our movement on this most auspicious day. In 1965, at the age of sixty-nine, you ventured outside India for the first time to fulfill the order of your spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. During your sea voyage you suffered two severe heart attacks. You reached the shores of America with the equivalent of seven dollars to your name. After struggling alone in New York City for almost a year, on July 13, 1966, you founded ISKCON as a formally registered society with a small group of young followers. This marked the first time in history that a pure devotee of Krsna had successfully trained non-Indians on foreign soil in the strict disciplines of Vaisnavism, and you did it during the height of the blossoming American hedonistic countercultural movement.
You sent your followers into the streets of cities and towns everywhere to chant the names of God, and “Hare Krsna” became a household phrase. You sent your disciples to London, where in 1969 they recorded the hit single record “The Hare Krishna Mantra” with George Harrison. It became the fastest-selling of all of Apple Corporation’s releases, including those of the Beatles. The record reached #3 in Czechoslovakia and #9 in Britain, and made the top ten in Germany, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Yugoslavia, and many other countries. You formally initiated almost five thousand disciples. These initiates, both men and women, represented a sweeping diversity of nationalities, races, and religious backgrounds. You established 108 Krsna temples on six continents, installed the Deity of Krsna in each center, and trained your disciples in the process of Deity worship. Thirty-two new temples (almost three a month) were opened in a single year, between 1970 and 1971. You inaugurated the Jagannatha Ratha-yatra festival in major cities around the globe, in effect bringing the temple to the people.
You instituted the brahmacarini asrama, something previously unheard of in Vedic culture, to give shelter to single women wishing to practice Krsna consciousness. In 19 you instructed your disciples to start an incense business to provide financial support for the temples. Within four years the business, Spiritual Sky Incense, generated an annual revenue of one million dollars, equivalent to almost six million dollars today. You introduced the Sunday Love Feast and other programs for distributing prasadam (sanctified food). These programs have provided millions of free meals to the public, along with regular university lunches, which still go on today.
You created the world’s first chain of vegetarian restaurants, Govinda’s. You spoke daily on the philosophy of Krsna consciousness, delivering thousands of formal lectures. Over 2,200 were recorded and archived. You conducted many hundreds of informal conversations on the science of Krsna consciousness with disciples, scholars, professors, guests, and friends. Over 1,300 were recorded and archived. You had scores of interviews and philosophical discussions with journalists, scientists, religious leaders, and politicians, as well as meetings with world-renowned dignitaries and celebrities like Indira Gandhi, Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Alice Coltrane, John Lennon, and George Harrison. You recorded more than twenty albums of devotional music. You published the monthly magazine Back to Godhead, which you called the backbone of your movement. At the height of its circulation in the mid-seventies, over a million copies per issue were sold. You launched the ISKCON Life Membership Program, which enrolled tens of thousands of members to encourage them to take to the devotional process. You built major temples in Bombay, Hyderabad, and Vrndavana, and founded a spiritual city at Mayapur. All became international sites of pilgrimage. You established gurukula schools to provide education in the principles of devotional service. You founded the Bhaktivedanta Institute to advance Krsna consciousness within the scientific community, engaging serious academicians in consideration of the science of self-realization. You formed the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust to unearth and renovate the holy places of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes.
You set up farm communities to teach “simple living and high thinking,” emphasizing cow protection and dependence on God and nature.
You commissioned your artist disciples to produce hundreds of illustrations of Krsna’s pastimes, windows to the spiritual world, based on your meticulous instructions and the descriptions in your books. You directed some of your followers to learn the Indian art of “doll-making” to present Vedic philosophy through dioramas. This project became the FATE Museums. Your wanted such museums in every temple. You counseled your disciples on complex managerial, philosophical, and personal issues in more than six thousand archived letters. You were the subject of more than 30,000 archival photos and more than seventy hours of documentary film footage.
You wrote approximately seventy books on the science of Krsna consciousness, sleeping only a few hours a night. Dozens of prominent scholars and educators from leading universities have praised your literary work. The Encyclopedia Britannica proclaimed that your voluminous translations from the original Sanskrit and your lucid commentaries “have astounded literary and academic communities worldwide.” This feat is even more astonishing considering that you wrote the translations and commentaries in English, your second language.
You founded the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) in 1972 to produce your books. By 1976, over 55,000,000 pieces of literature had been published in twenty-five languages and distributed in almost every country, making the BBT the world’s largest publisher of Indian religious and philosophical texts. One printing alone of Bhagavad-gita As It Is required seventy-six railroad cars to ship the paper needed to print it.
You completed the entire Caitanya-caritamrta manuscript (seventeen volumes) in eighteen months in 1974.
You circled the globe fourteen times, visiting twenty-four countries, preaching, inspiring your followers, and making countless public appearances before multitudes of people.
You skillfully managed your international society simply through letters and personal meetings, virtually without the use of a telephone. When the devotees wanted to use the telex machine, your quick response was that “it will simply become a gossip machine.”
Srila Prabhupada, our only desire is to satisfy you by becoming more and more enthusiastic to spread this mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, so that the holy name will be spread everywhere. If we actually sincerely work under your direction—that is, for the satisfaction of Krsna—then we are confident that Krsna will help us in every way.
So on this most auspicious day of your Vyasa-puja we pray that you empower us to be your fully surrendered souls and thus fulfill your desire that the whole universe become Krsna conscious.
An insignificant servant of your servants,
Bhakti Anugraha Janardana Swami
Source : http://www.dandavats.com/?p=30927
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