A Letter to Our Spiritual Master

This letter was written by my husband and me on the occasion of the 119th Appearance Day of our beloved Spiritual Master, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Dearest Srila Prabhupada,

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

Please accept our prostrated obeisances at your lotus feet, which traveled far and wide throughout the world, mercifully spreading Krishna consciousness. By chanting Krishna's holy names and teaching the fallen, conditioned souls that He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, your Divine Grace not only magnified the glory and fame of Lord Krishna, but you yourself also became universally famous. You then triumphantly returned to Sri Vrndavana-dhama for your tiro-bhava. After a lifetime of unconditional love and service unto Krishna, you gloriously departed this material realm. Your effulgent form was spiritualized from your very birth, as you admitted yourself that there was never a time when you did not remember Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada, we recall how your Divine Grace spoke of “boiling the milk”--encouraging the existing devotees to deepen their commitment in practicing Krishna consciousness. Several years ago we chose to make it our mission to try and enthuse the younger devotees in ISKCON, especially here in India, to thicken their relationship with the holy name, to strive sincerely in devotional service and to achieve the highest perfection of human life.

Our inspiration to serve your devotees in ISKCON through sankirtana-yajna increased when we read the following words by your Divine Grace:

“One is understood to be an eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead if he considers himself a servant of the holy name and in this spirit distributes the holy name to the world.” (Adi-lila 8.16 Purport)

Srila Prabhupada, we are almost constantly traveling to different cities, towns, villages, and holy tirthas. Meeting and befriending your many followers, we always try our best to spread and increase the congregational chanting of the maha-mantra. Wherever we have traveled, many of the young devotees have adopted us as a kind of spiritual Auntie and Uncle. We simply try to enliven and encourage them in their spiritual lives, primarily through harinam-sankirtana. In this way, we find ourselves becoming enthused in their association as well.

We were blessed to be in Sri Vrndavana-dhama singing the Hare Krishna maha-mantra in your samadhi for twelve days during Karttika last year. We sang for your pleasure, gazing upon your beautiful golden form. There, we met many great souls who are also daily engaged in performing sri- krsna-sankirtana for the benefit of those seeking your merciful darshana.

During December and January we were blessed to spend time in the two holy dhamas of Mayapur and Ekacakra. There we continued our service of congregational chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. We met many more devotees in those holy places who are eager to sing the Lord's holy names and discuss how to spread Lord Caitanya's sankirtana mission.

We use harmonium, mrdanga and kartals in all our kirtans, and everywhere we go, we chant Hare Krishna with the devotees who live in those places. We have been fortunate to engage in harinama- sankirtana with devotees in the US, Poland, Ireland, the UAE (Dubai, Abu-dhabi and Sharja), Sri Lanka, and for the past six years, in India.

Udupi, Karnataka is our base, Srila Prabhupada. From here we travel widely to spread the congregational chanting of the Lord's holy names. Some of the cities in India and Sri Lanka where we have led kirtans recently are Delhi, Noida, Jaipur, Hindaun City, Guwahati, Diphu, Morena, Chennai, Maraimalainagar, Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Shimoga, Hebri, Hanja, Kapu, Padubidri, Hiriyadka, Manipal, Brahmavara, Udupi, Baroda, Juhu, Kharghar, Thakorly, Belgaum, Hyderabad, Salem, Karur, Namakkal, Nellore, Singarayakunda, Vellore, Katpadi, Chirala, Sri Rangam, Ramesvaram, Ramanathapuram, Madurai, Brahmapura, Kantabanji, Raipur, and in Sri Lanka--Colombo, Kandy, Neuralia, Sitalayam, Trinco and Batticaloa, as well as several small villages along our travel route. We just returned to our base in Udupi after four weeks of traveling, preaching, and harinama-sankirtana—two of those weeks being spent around central Sri Lanka—and we are scheduled to go back there for another month in May for Lord Jagannatha's Ratha-yatra, some large public programs and lots of preaching and sankirtana with the local devotees in numerous schools and colleges. In all these places, Srila Prabhupada, there are wonderful, sincere, enthusiastic devotees who are very happy to join us in singing the Lord's holy names.

By your mercy and as our humble offering to your Divine Grace and your sankirtana mission, we have traveled to all these cities, towns and villages looking for opportunities to sing the Hare Krishna mantra and preach the glories of Lord Sri Krishna. We saw your Divine Grace push yourself constantly to spread Krsna consciousness through the chanting of the holy names and pure, take-it-or-leave-it, straightforward preaching. By remembering your tireless determination to uplift the fallen souls, we get strength and inspiration to overcome our travel fatigue and go on running behind you, trying to follow in your divine footsteps.

Srila Prabhupada, we find great inspiration in the following statement written by you:

“Just as Bhagiratha brought down the Ganga and liberated his forefathers, similarly we must bring a deluge of love of Godhead that can extricate the conditioned souls from the clutches of gross materialism. At least for some time, we must create Satya-Yuga, the age of reason and piety. We can easily accomplish this Herculean task simply by reintroducing Lord Caitanya's sankirtana movement of the congregational chanting of Lord Krishna's name and thus flooding the world with Krishna-prema.” (RTW 5.1)

Your own beloved Guru Maharaja , His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada, deeply enthused us in performing this seva to you by powerfully stating the following:

“To induce us to chant Krishna's name, Sri Gaurangadeva, the combined form of Sri Radha-Krishna, appeared in this world. If we show no interest in chanting and thereby disregard His teachings, we will never attain auspiciousness. Chanting is the best form of Krishna-seva. If other sadhanas help us develop our chanting, then they deserve to be called sadhana. Otherwise, they are only impediments on the path of chanting. Congregational chanting of Krishna's holy name is the king of sadhanas. It is the only infallible sadhana capable of brings us to perfection. Sri-Mahaprabhu did not teach Deity worship in His Siksastaka; He simply taught us to chant.”

Thank you for allowing us to do this service, Srila Prabhupada. Please bless us to continue performing sri-krsna-sankirtana and to remain always in the protective association of Lord Krishna's devotees. Please empower us to always follow your instructions, keep our vows, continuously take full shelter of Krishna's holy names, and convince others to surrender themselves at the lotus feet of Sri Nama Prabhu as well. We hope and pray that your Divine Grace, your beloved Guru Maharaja Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada, the entire Guru-parampara and Sri Panca-tattva will be pleased by our humble attempts to serve, glorify and spread the holy names of the Lord.

We feel so indebted to you, Srila Prabhupada, for all you have given us, we now want to attempt to give something back. Kindly accept our humble efforts and empower us to assist you in “boiling the milk” within ISKCON.

param vijayate sri krishna sankirtanam

Your grateful disciples,

Haripada dasa and Phalini devi dasi

Udupi, Karnataka, South India

PS Srila Prabhupada, the following is a poem about your Divine Grace that we wish to offer to you on this auspicious occasion of your holy appearance:

Changed Our Hearts Forevermore

Going West, alone, all abhorred

But naysayers, Prabhupada ignored

Left the village he adored

Never crossed the sea before

In Calcutta, with Jaladuta moored

Brave and bold, he climbed aboard

Vaisnava sadhu dress he wore

Trunk of Bhagavatams he bore

Courageous servant of the Lord

From his face God’s light shone forth

As he sailed across the sea

Faith he placed in the Almighty

Heart attacks, sickness, Death at his door

Krsna saved him, grabbed the oars

Jaladuta reached New York's shores

Valiant warrior still on board

Came out West to serve the Lord

Just to give and nothing more

Kirtan, preaching, struck a chord

Among the burnt-out hippie hordes

Told the Truth in his purports

Explained the ancient Vedic lore

Taught us how to serve the Lord

Made devotees by the scores

Brought the news of Nitai-Gaura

Opened up Vaikuntha’s doors

Rains of mercy he did pour

Changed our hearts forevermore