nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namaste saraswate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashchatya-desha-tarine
My dear eternal spiritual grandfather His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
Please accept my respectful obeisances unto your lotus feet on the auspicious occasion of your Vyasa-puja celebration. All glories to your Sankirtan lotus feet!
My dear Srila Prabhupada,
The Srimad Bhagavatam 1.18.23 says “O ṛṣis, who are as powerfully pure as the sun, I shall try to describe to you the transcendental pastimes of Viṣṇu as far as my knowledge is concerned. As the birds fly in the sky as far as their capacity allows, so do the learned devotees describe the Lord as far as their realization allows.” Since you are the unalloyed representative and confidential associate of Krishna, the above verse applies to you also (“sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair”), and therefore I am simply dumbfounded in my ignorant and insignificant attempt to glorify you, but I will try as far as my capacity allows.
My dear most merciful grandfather,
I am simply introspecting the extraordinary abominable condition I was in, before meeting you, in the form of your teachings and vaani. Thank you for introducing me to the purifying realm of Krishna Consciousness. Thank you for being such hope and inspiration in my life which uplifts me and saves me again and again. “We think that we have met Your Goodness by the will of providence, just so that we may accept you as captain of the ship for those who desire to cross the difficult ocean of Kali, which deteriorates all the good qualities of a human being.” (SB 1.2.22). Please instruct me so that I may always accept and follow your teaching wholeheartedly without any reservations.
My dear preeminent Shiksha guru,
Thank you for your tireless zeal to touch and deliver one and all. Thank you for spreading the Hare Krishna maha-mantra all over the planet. You created the fortune of the residents of this planet by travelling the world 14 times in 12 years distributing the Hare Krishna maha-mantra to one and all. You are your Krishna Conscious movement has saved humanity from degrading into utter darkness.
You have set such an exemplary example of the spirit of preaching. By your extraordinary compassion and your divine conduct, you have spoken loud and clear that the central purpose of Lord Chaitanya’s movement is to preach and simultaneously expand the as unlimitedly.
In your letter to Letter to Jayatirtha, 5 May 1974, you highlight and reflect the preaching desire/mission of Lord Chaitanya “Regarding your invitation that I attend the Rathayatra festival in San Francisco, on July 7th, it is possible that I may attend depending on when I finish my European tour. I am due to arrive in Rome on May 23, then after a week Geneva, then Paris and possibly Stockholm, Germany and England. If there is time I can fly directly from Europe to Los Angeles and go to the festival, then as you suggest, go to Australia Rathayatra via Hawaii. This is known as jet-age parivrajakacarya.” Your innermost desire is to spread Krsna consciousness everywhere at once. Please empower me to absorb a drop of that mood so that I play an insignificant role in your plan to expand the Krishna Consciousness movement.
My dear saviour,
Your unfathomably deep and infinitely unique personality has various facets.
Plain-living pioneer, World sankirtana party leader, Vaishnavi empowerer, Prasadam master, Literary fountain, Deity installer and much more. Please bless me so that I can become more faithful to you by being able to connect with one or more of your merciful aspects. The goal of my life is to simply deepen my connection and bond with you. That will give me an enlivening experience of your association. I fully understand that this would be possible only in the well-rounded, cooperative company of your serious & sincere followers. Only then will your full mercy manifest in my life. I beg you to accept me and empower me with your unfailing servitorship.
My dear Founder-Acharya,
The first & foremost way I can connect with you is by becoming a keen student of your spoken and written words. Regular and attentive hearing from my founder acharya —especially in the company of like-minded devotees, will ground me in my foundational relationship which will sustain and enrich me and also others. You made this point very clear in August 1968, during the Q&A after SB class, when a new initiate expressed that when you weren’t there in person, she felt far away from you. You replied: “Oh, that you should not think…There are two conceptions: the physical conception and the vibration conception. So physical conception is temporary. The vibration conception is eternal. Just like we are enjoying or we are relishing the vibration of Krishna’s teachings. So by vibration, He is present. As soon as we chant Hare Krishna or chant Bhagavad-gita or Bhagavata, so He is present immediately by His vibration. So we should give more stress on the sound vibration, either of Krishna or the spiritual master. Then we’ll feel happy and no separation.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam lecture, 7.9.12, Montreal, 18 August 1968). Please enable me to access you, uninterruptedly via your sound vibration.
Srila Prabhupada,
The success of my life is to find my mission in your mission. While some people focus on cultivating one’s confidential relationship with Krsna, you always emphasized that helping the spiritual master serve the Lord’s mission is the best way to become intimate with and dear to Him. In one of your purports you have mercifully revealed “When one becomes serious to follow the mission of the spiritual master, his resolution is tantamount to seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead…In conclusion, if a disciple is very serious to execute the mission of the spiritual master, he immediately associates with the Supreme Personality of Godhead…This is the only secret of success in seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Instead of being eager to see the Lord in some bush of Vrindavana while at the same time engaging in sense gratification, if one instead sticks to the principle of following the words of the spiritual master, he will see the Supreme Lord without difficulty.” (SB 4.28.51 purport).
Reflecting on how my Shiksa and Diksha gurus are enriching and deepening my foundational relationship with you by practically helping me contribute to your mission, is my saving grace. They are the most important people in our life.
My dear Srila Prabhupada,
The more I immerse myself in your life, teachings, mood & mission, the more I will understand how to be faithful & fresh as I re-present you, present you all over again, to the ever-changing times, places, and people.
You want me to carry your legacy and become a regular guru, not imitate or replace you, but to follow in your footsteps: “So we should follow this instruction of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, yare dekha, tare kaha krishna-upadesha. So you, every one of you, can become a guru. You may say that ‘I am not interested to become a guru,’ but Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that if you are not interested, that is not very good. You should be interested. You must be a guru. That is the success of your life.” (Room Conversation, Teheran, 13 Mar 1975).
Please empower me to imbibe and impart your legacy.
Please empower me so that your instructions become my only sadhana, my only sadhya and my only livelihood. I wish to never give up these instructions either in the stage of practice or in the stage of perfection. I beg that your instructions remain my only desire and my only responsibility. By your mercy anything is possible, I hanker to get a drop of it. I aspire to become a faithful servant of your servants.
Yours eternally,
Acyuta Arjunasakha Das JPS,
