Dear Sri Sri Radha Londonishwara,

nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krsna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet. Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism."

namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema-pradaya te
krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne gaura-tvise namah

"O most munificent incarnation! You are Krsna Himself appearing as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Srimati Radharani, and You are widely distributing pure love of Krsna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You."

namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca
jagad-dhitaya krsnaya govindaya namo namah

"I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Krsna, who is the worshipable Deity for all brahmanas, the well-wisher of the cows and the brahmanas, and the benefactor of the whole world. I offer my repeated obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, known as Krsna and Govinda."

On this most auspicious occasion of Your 40th Anniversary I offer my humble obeisances to You. Although I am still far away from having any genuine love for You I want to express my gratitude to You for appearing in London to fulfill the desire of Your beloved Srila Prabhupada my spiritual master and the desire of his sincere servants who came to London to fulfil his order.

I had been searching for Truth and Beauty in this fleeting world to little avail and was almost resigned to disappointment. When the curtains of the Deity room in 7, Bury Place, London opened in January 1971 and I saw You standing there, I realised that my search had actually ended.

It seemed that I had been trying to find only You in all my short life's attempts at art, sculpture and personal relationships. At last ( after having my vain egoistic artistic attempts smashed by You in Your expansion as Paramatma) I eventually found You Yourself as my reward. You so mercifully appeared as the worshipable Radha Krishna Deity tended with continual devotion by all Your servants in ISKCON Bury Place hidden away in central London, Kaliyuga's stronghold. The true meaning of art and the art of living was then realised in You in your Beautiful Form of Sri Sri Radha Londonishwara and in Your divine service. You were simultaneously the Supremely beautiful Art Object to be personally gazed at, decorated and served and also the Supreme Art Designer, Maintainer and Destroyer of the whole creation. Govindam adi purusam tamoham bhajami.
 

By finding You my art, -my new artistic duty- the art of life- became obvious (yogah karmasu kausalam Bg 2.50) I no longer had to waste more time to try and invent new "art objects" to convey my own imperfect conceptions of the "beautiful truth" to others but I had to simply become a qualified true servant of Your Lordship's and bring others to appreciate Your truth and beauty by following Srila Prabhupada's instructions to live within and spread ISKCON. This would be the highest welfare work for all - the supreme artistic and scientific contribution to humanity .

Unfortunately I realise now it is not so easy as I had imagined to surrender to Your Lotus Feet although I try and at least go through the motions. As You say in Bhagavad Gita 7:3: "manusyanam sahasresu kascid yatati siddhaye /yatatam api siddhanam kascin mam vetti tattvatah." Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth." Achieving You in pure devotional service is not a cheap sentimental or speculative thing.

Still, I have not yet entirely given up trying to surrender fully to Your Divine Will even though my heart seems still unfathomably full of garbage. You have been so kind to me and this encourages me.12 years ago by the sincere prayers of Your devotees You kindly appeared to stay with us in Your form as a very sweet cowherd boy in the hillsides overlooking the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. There in Your gardens by the babbling Vishnumati stream your devotees grow roses and other flowers and daily make the freshest garlands to decorate You Both. You are there along with Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra and Sri Sri Gaura Nitai just like in Soho
Street.

I am hoping also that one day You may answer to our prayers and manifest Yourself in Kinshasa the capital of DR Congo, Africa where our land and devotees are waiting to be qualified for Your Appearance beside the beautifully flowing Congo-Yamuna River with its white rapids roaring and racing past to the islands downstream.

Dear Sri Sri Radha Londonishwara, on this Your 40th Anniversary I offer my sincere gratitude to You for all Your protective mercy to me throughout my service and travels in the last 39 years. Thank you for blessing me with the association of your surrendered servants. Please some day let me approach You as Your completely surrendered servant also. Please bless me that until I die I can continue traveling here and there spreading Your Lordship's Holy Names:-

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

Sri Sri Radha Londonishwara Ki Jaya!

Your most fallen servant of the servants of Your dear servant Srila Prabhupada,

Mahavishnu Swami