2007
Vyasa-Puja Offering to Srila Prabhupada - 2007
Dear Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept my prostrated obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet.
nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, who is very dear to Lord Krsna on this earth, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Sarasvati Gosvami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are lled with impersonalism and voidism.
On this most auspicious day of your divine appearance, I wish to thank you from the core of my heart for having blessed me with the true understanding of the word “life.” Had you not rescued me, I am convinced I would have never known what it means to live. Though I have existed since time immemorial, my life did not begin until you infused this lost soul with faith in the existence of Guru, Krsna, and Krsna’s pure holy name. Without this faith, there can never be life — or, at best, there can be a life no more meaningful than that possessed by the bellows, which only breathes. Having had this faith awakened in me, my will to “live” is becoming stronger and stronger, and at the same time the desire to increase this faith continues to grow. I’ve come to realize that it is this desire which is life itself.
Desire is the symptom of my, my life. How can you stop it? It is not possible. [From a lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.55–56, given in New York on 19 April 1966]
“Through my practice of sädhana-bhakti I will one day attain the stage of bhava” — it is highly commendable for a devotee to maintain such a desire, but apart from this desire all other types of desires [desires separate from the desire to please Krsna] are t to be rejected. [Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s Tattva-viveka, Chapter One]
Srila Prabhupada, you created my faith, you nourish my faith, and by your causeless mercy you want nothing less than my uninching faith.
One who has uninching devotion for the Supreme Lord and is directed by the spiritual master, in whom he has similar uninching faith, can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead by revelation. [Bhagavad-gita 11.54, purport]
You often quote these words of your Guru Maharaja: prana arthe yanra sei hetu pracara. “One can preach who has got life.’’ Preaching is the real necessity of life. Although we often think of life’s necessities as food, water, clothing, and shelter, these are not the necessities of life but are meant for maintaining life in the body. “Life” has its own necessity, independent of the body, and this necessity has been given by you — to preach with uninching faith in the order of guru! This was not only your order but your pure and ideal example as well.
As much as possible read, chant, and preach. This is our life and soul. [Letter to Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, 6 January 1972]
Srila Prabhupada, I beg you to please allow me to use the remainder of my life in this body to serve your desires with this uninching faith. You are the lord and master of my heart. Please do with me as you wish. My life is yours.
Your eternal servant,
Niranjana Swami