From Jivananda das – Australia, Sydney

Dear Srila Gurudeva,
Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to your divine lotus feet.
More than ever these days, if it is even possible, people are utterly lost and hopelessly confused about their identity and purpose. They don’t know who they are, they don’t know why they’re here, and they mostly don’t seem to care. The primary obsession of the societal narrative in the Western world seems to be focusing on people’s relative, temporary identities, with scant consideration given to deeper, fundamental thoughts of a permanent identity beneath.
Only a devotee understands true identity and purpose, and that conscious reality is perfectly exemplified by you, the steadfast servant and representative of Srila Prabhupada, and the fully manifested eternal part-and-parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. We, as your disciples and followers, have only to stick firmly to your lotus feet, bathing our souls in your perfect words, pursuing your blazing path in this life and the next, and we too shall one day realise our divine position as your grateful dependents, and tiny sparks of the glories of the Lord in our own right.
Today is our favourite day, the day we come together to honour and glorify you, and to renew our ongoing determination to always remain under your shelter. We are of varying relative backgrounds, natures, and abilities, but we are all united in spiritual identity as your servants, and this will never change,
irrespective of the maddening fluctuations of this ephemeral realm of false designations, this world of fleeting names.
May your glories expand evermore, the glowing son of Srila Prabhupada illuminating our hearts and minds with your devotion and transcendent love. May we all never leave you, and may we devote our eternal identities to perfecting our reciprocation of your causeless mercy upon us. Hare Krishna.
Your humble servant, Jivananda das