Homages from ISKCON Centers

Homages from ISKCON Centers
Dear Çréla Prabhupäda,
Please accept our humble obeisances on this most auspicious occasion of your Vyäsa-püjä celebration.
It is only due to your causeless mercy that conditioned souls like us are able to practice devotional
service in your wonderful temple in Çré Pandharpur Dhäma. Their Lordships Çré Çré Rädhä-Pandharinätha
and Çré Çré Gaura-Nitäi are showering their causeless mercy upon all the conditioned living entities
here by regularly giving Their all-attractive and enlivening darçana. Your saìkértana party of ISKCON
Pandharpur devotees has distributed thousands and thousands of transcendental Kåñëa conscious
literatures, coming in first in the world in 2011 in the category of small centers. This year we have big
plans for increasing book distribution at the Äñädhé Ekädaçé Festival, when millions of devotee pilgrims
gather in Çré Pandharpur Dhäma.
We have also increased congregational preaching in a place near Pandharpur named Osmanabad,
where we conduct harinäma and weekly programs. We plan to introduce the Bhakti Vriksha Program to
attract more souls to the lotus feet of Çré Çré Gaura-Nitäi. Every year we also conduct many yäträs, japa
seminars, and Bhakti Saìgam retreats to enliven and encourage the devotees.
Çréla Prabhupäda, you have around fifteen acres of land in your ISKCON Pandharpur center, where
we grow crops like wheat, makka, and vegetables, aiming toward self-sufficiency. We take care of about
thirty cows and calves in your goçälä here. In the near future we will institute open cow-herding to
provide good health and hygiene for the cows and calves. On your land we also grow enough flowers
for the worship of Çré Çré Rädhä-Pandharinätha.
We are utilizing the Chandrabhaga Guesthouse to serve the retreats and various devotee training
camps conducted in your Pandharpur temple. We would like more facilities for visiting guests.
This year in February we celebrated the third annual Pandharpur Jagannätha Ratha-yäträ Festival
on the auspicious event of Makara-saìkränti. The festival was a grand success because for the first time
we formed a Çré Jagannätha Ratha-yäträ Mahotsava Committee composed of Pandharpur’s influential
leaders and businessmen. More than six thousand devotees, pilgrims, and local people participated,
including many local and state dignitaries. This is a wonderful way to distribute harinäma to the masses.
And for the first time the evening Ratha-yäträ program was conducted in Pandharpur town, so that
thousands of local residents could take part. Nearly six thousand plates of full feast prasädam were served,
and everyone enjoyed an evening filled with enlivening lectures, dramas, and other cultural programs.
Thus the Çré Jagannätha Ratha-yäträ Festival became more famous in the eyes of local residents of Çré
Pandharpur Dhäma.
The development of the Çréla Prabhupäda Ghäöa in glorious memory of Your Divine Grace is an
ongoing ISKCON project on the bank of Çré Chandrabhaga River. This project is expected to cost more
than two million dollars. It will facilitate the millions of devotee pilgrims who visit Pandharpur annually
on the occasion of Äñädhé Ekädaçé and other times. This ghäöa will have dépa-mälä, nicely carved gates,
Çré Chandrabhaga Mandir, Bhajan Baithak, gardens, fountains, bathrooms, etc.
Food for Life is a main activity of your ISKCON Pandharpur. Every year we serve hundreds of
thousands of devotee pilgrims wonderful khicaré prasädam during the Äñädhé Festival and during other
festivities also.
Beloved Çréla Prabhupäda, please bless all of the devotees of ISKCON Pandharpur so that we will
properly utilize the opportunity to serve Çré Kåñëa by following in your footsteps to please Him.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.2.13 states:
[TRANSLATION] O best among the twice-born, it is therefore concluded that the highest perfection
one can achieve by discharging the duties prescribed for one’s own occupation according to
caste divisions and orders of life is to please the Personality of Godhead.
[PURPORT] Human society all over the world is divided into four castes and four orders of life.
The four castes are the intelligent caste, the martial caste, the productive caste, and the laborer
caste. These castes are classified in terms of one’s work and qualification and not by birth. Then
again there are four orders of life, namely the student life, the householder’s life, the retired
life, and the devotional life. In the best interest of human society there must be such divisions
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