Dear Srila Prabhupada,

I offer my most humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to your Divine Grace.

It is on this most auspicious day that devotees in ISKCON gather in hundreds of places all over the world to pay homage to you on the occasion of your appearance in this world. Thousands of devotees open their hearts to you and reveal their feelings for you; their knowledge and understanding of you, your position in the scheme of things, and the philosophy that you came to teach by your words and deeds. Invariably these humble souls will express their feelings of inadequacy when it comes to properly addressing and praising you. However, it is always the case that they try to speak some meaningful words and pay respectful audience to the words of others. The cumulative effect of all this is that as the offerings are spoken and heard our appreciation of you and of the speakers who glorify you gradually rises in our hearts. We feel close to you. We feel family solidarity with devotees. We feel renewed enthusiasm for devotional service, in the association of devotees. We realize that your ISKCON is a wonderful creation. We gain the determination that this creation and your place in it must be protected. Pure feelings of love and joy all become manifest in the hearts and minds and bodies of the devotees. Petty differences are put aside and we taste the nectar of belonging, having been caught up in the loving network of Lord Chaitanya's Sankirtan Yagna, that you have so expertly cast over the troubled waters of this desolate ocean of Kali Yuga. This is a day to taste the nectar of transcendental ecstatic love. I pray that we may all drink deeply of this nectar and become so intoxicated with it that we remain in such a heightened state until it is time to do it all again next year. Like everyone else I feel the same inadequacy to properly glorify you. Like everyone I will say as much as I am sincerely able to and hopefully it will add something worth sampling amongst the relishable preparations on offer here today.

Let me begin by recognizing your most exultant and glorious position as Founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the house big enough for the whole world to live in. In this material world, which is compared to a forest fire, it is extremely rare that one finds a shelter that will weather the storm. By taking shelter in ISKCON, and by taking shelter of you in ISKCON, anyone can find complete relief from life's misery. You are the greatly benevolent patriarch for all generations to come in the life of this ISKCON, up to the time of the end of the Golden Age of Lord Chaitanya, a ten thousand year period within this Kali Yuga. Anyone, and everyone, now and into that glorious future of ISKCON will be beholding to you, will be subservient to you, will protected by you, will guided by you and, above all, will be unconditionally loved by you. No matter how remote the time and place may appear to be, any fortunate soul can directly take shelter of your lotus feet to attain pure devotional service, have their consciousness purified by the words emanating from your lotus mouth, cross the ocean of material suffering, and obtain the mercy of Krishna.

Your accomplishments in the service of Lord Chaitanya are truly amazing; more so because you did all these things at what you called "the fag end of your life". The age between seventy and eighty in the life of the vast majority of people in this world is not the time when they are planning and executing the establishment of a worldwide organization, travelling fourteen times around the world and translating a large number of books from an ancient and difficult language into easily accessible English. Your energy and enthusiasm to serve the instructions of your Guru Maharaja were transcendental to all material considerations. You only stopped your traveling and preaching when it became physically completely impossible to carry on. Then, with great humility and dignity you gave us the final lesson: how to leave this world with mind attached to Krishna, free from doubt and fear.

I had the greatest good fortune to see and hear you while you were externally manifest to this world. I walked with you, and talked with you. On a few magical occasions I had the privilege of massaging you and you fell asleep while I was doing it only to wake suddenly and say that it was good because sleep was coming while the massage was proceeding. You came to New Delhi temple when I was serving there in 1977. Although you we not at all well at the time you graciously came into the temple room and accepted Guru Puja from the devotees. I will always remember the loving way you smiled at me when I knelt to remove your socks and bath your feet. Such a great mission you had undertaken and yet you always remained a simple and humble person. There was no pretension about you; you were always direct and honest with whomever you met. And without fail you repeated your message, the Lord's message, to everyone without discrimination.

Thank you for coming to this dark and dangerous world and taking so much trouble to bring Lord Chaitanya's Sankirtan Movement to us all. My debt of gratitude is so great it can never be repaid; but that is the natural way of these things. All I can do is thank you with all my heart and promise that I will never give up trying to serve you through your instructions, although my efforts will always fall short of the mark. Thank you for never abandoning me. Please never kick me away from your lotus feet and think of me when there is some menial service.

Your unworthy, endeavouring disciple,
Bhagavat Asraya das