Dear Devotees,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
As conflict heightens in Ukraine, we understand that your hearts are filled
with concern about our dear devotees in the region and offer you a brief
report on their situation.
The devotees wake up to a changed reality — tanks rolling through the
streets in some places, explosions in their neighborhoods in others, and the
sound of gunshots in the distance. While the tendency for a living entity in
such a situation is naturally to be overcome with fear, our devotees are
finding that Srila Prabhupada has offered them an extraordinary alternative
— they are taking shelter of the Holy Names, of the association of the
Vaisnavas, and of the most merciful Sri Sri Radha-Madhava who have appeared
in Kyiv in their beautiful deity forms.
Many grhasthas have taken shelter in the temple and found that amongst the
chaos, they are able to find security in joining together for kirtan,
service, and hearing the message of eternal truth given to us by our
acaryas. The brahmacaris have lovingly welcomed the grhasthas and serve them
with affection.
There is indeed danger, and for most, no opportunity to leave the situation,
but the devotees are joining together to support and care for each other as
much as possible. The temple has been secured and discussions continue as to
how the deities and devotees can best be protected.
At this stage, there is not much scope to offer assistance from outside the
country, though our leaders in neighboring countries have already prepared
to assist in any way possible, including the organization of mass prasadam
distribution for refugees.
No matter the material circumstance, we are each equipped to offer our
support through the power of the Holy Names and sincere prayer to your
Lordships. We request devotees worldwide to please hold kirtans and daily
offer their prayers for our wonderful Vaisnavas in Ukraine and for all those
entrenched in the conflict. The strength of our prayers and our heartfelt
concern will certainly reach them if we can come together collectively in
our communities to organize kirtans and prayers.
May we all find the supreme peace of realizing our eternal position at the
lotus feet of the Lord.
Thank you very much.
Hare Krsna,
Your servants,
Bhakti Caitanya Swami
Bhanu Swami
Revati Raman Das,
GBC Executive Committee
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