Offerings 2009
Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please, accept my respectful obeisances in the dust of Your Divine feet.
Congratulations on the splendid Vyasa-puja day!
Please, accept boundless gratitude for your love and care! The love you possess, changes our hearts. Our consciousness, mind and feelings as a matter of habit are longing for enjoyment, but your love cleanses them.
Your love to Srila Prabhupada gives us an example, tecahing us how we have to change our lives and do everything for satisfaction of Krishna, Srila Prabhupada, you and devotees. Your love towards spiritual brothers shows how we have to elaborate relations between devotees. Your love to conditioned souls is our stimulus for preaching. Your infinite heart radiates infinite Love, which defends us, inspires us and gives spiritual power and faith in the holy name and devotional service to the Lord and Srila Prabhupada!!!
sri guro paramananda premananda phala-prada
vrajanansa pradananda sevayam maniojaya
My dear Spiritual master, you give a fruit of highest mercy--mercy of love of God. Please, engage me in a blissful service to Shri Krishna, Which blesses the land of Vraja!!!
Your disciple,
Amritamalini d.d.
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of Your Lotus Feet.
Dear Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada writes in Chaitanya Charitamrita (madhya16.65 pp): ”Nityananda Prabhu delivered Jagai and Madhai, but a servant o Nityananda Prabhu, by His grace can deliver many thousands of Jagais and Madhais. That is a special benediction of the disciplic succession.”
How fortunate I am that I happen to be one of those thousands of Jagais and Madhais to whom You stretched out to in order to give Your causeless mercy. Not just any causeless mercy, but the causeless mercy of the devotional service to the Supreme Lord which is said to be so rarely attained even by demigods like Lord Brahma.
So many religious people all around the world are struggling so much for so many lifetimes just to get to know at least a little something about God. But You are bringing the most fallen living entities directly into God’s association by giving them God’s direct incarnation - Krishna’s Holy Name, despite their qualification or non-qualification. Throughout the world, You seem to be known and glorified so much for Your bhajans and for Your chanting of the Holy Name. I just came from India and as soon as someone hears “Niranjana Swami”, doesn’t matter which part of the world they are from, those devotees seem to immediately remember and praise Your chanting of the Holy Name. Through Your bhajans, lectures and glorifications of the Holy Name You are showing us the Sun of the Holy Name by removing the clouds of anarthas which we would have been unable to remove by ourselves. Without Your mercy, it wouldn’t be possible for us to take a glimpse of that Sun. And those that have had a glimpse, their lives have changed forever. And You are continuing to sacrifice yourself despite of all the difficulties to inspire us by giving us that glimpse of the pure Holy Name. I just pray for that day when your bhajans will never endingly play in my heart.
I am praying for the day when I will finally become worthy of being your disciple by fully surrendering unto your instructions.
You unworthy, eternally aspiring servant,
Anandamayi dd
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Dear Guru Maharaj,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Dear Guru Maharaj, I would like to express my deep gratitude to your causeless mercy that you poured upon me at Evpatoria Festival by giving me shelter of your lotus feet. I accepted you as my spiritual master in my heart in 1996. All these years I hoped that the day will come when you accept me as your disciple. But then I didn't rush to surrender worrying about loosing my illusory independence and I was trying my best in attempts to become happy hoping to satisfy my lust. But I only got the bitter taste of frustration and more dependence on other people.
Now trying somehow to look honestly into my heart I can see that strong desire to serve Krishna still has not appeared in my heart but I have only desire to serve myself and have no good qualities.
So, dear Guru Maharaj, I pray to you again and again please make me worthy to serve your lotus feet - the treasure house of pure devotional service.
Your servant,
Acarya Ratna das
(St.Petersburg, Russia)
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Your Divine Grace Srila Niranjana Swami! Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet! All glory to Srila Prabhupada!
All glory to your Divine Grace!
Trying to glorify your sublime qualities on this auspicious day of your Vyasa Puja, I was looking through the books containing sublime glorifications of Spiritual Master and prayers to him, spoken by great devotees as well as philosophy of guru-tattva.
I wanted to refer to philosophic grounding of relations between Spiritual Master and a disciple made by acaryas of the past so that I could better understand my relations with you.
But at some point of time I realized that I don’t want to speak about philosophy, I want to speak about love. Please excuse this attempt to speak on this subject from the person who cannot give love. But I hope that what justifies me is that I will speak about love given by you.
All of us are looking for love in this world, but all we usually find is just imitation of it, lust. We think that we love someone, but in fact all we love is this possibility to get pleasure from the other living being and exploit him. Of course, it is not always clearly manifested. Mother’s love for her child is often given as an example of love close to ideal. But if we look attentively, we can see that more often than not a mother takes care of her kid only because she hopes to get care from him in return when she gets old and weak.
In relations between a man and a woman this exploitation can be seen even more clearly. As a rule, these relations end when the possibility to enjoy bodies or material wealth of each other disappears.
Sometimes we use word “love” referring to creatures having non human bodies. Someone says he loves his cat or dog, but he asks a vet to kill it as soon as it becomes a burden because of illness or old age. So is this love?
One day we get disappointed in this so called “love”, material love, and start looking for love to God. Alas, all our inability to love we transfer to our relations with Krishna and devotees. First we try to enjoy their love, but then it turns out that we cannot get it all the time. We should also give out love, otherwise it will one day disappear, and we will remain face to face with our broken heart.
Guru Maharaja, you are the person, who gives us example of giving love to others. There are so many of us around you – disciples, well-wishers, just people whom Krishna blessed by a short meeting with you. And you generously give them your love without demanding reciprocity.
I just recalled one incident that happened some years ago during Ratha-Yatra in Dnepropetrovsk. You were standing a bit far from the scene and were watching the program prepared by devotees. You were very absorbed in what was going on in the stage, but at some point you cast a glance at a young man. That guy was drunk, dirty, he was unsteady on his feet and he was evidently not very much aware of where he was and what was going on. For some minutes you were looking at him. What a look it was! It was full of compassion towards jiva that had forgotten Krishna and got into such a trouble because of it. But what struck me most of all was that in this look of yours there was neither condemnation nor disgust. Instead, there was so much love that I had a feeling it will inundate this guy who was evidently not even aware of your presence.
We can always see how much love you feel communicating with your God-brothers, how dedicated you are in your attempts to help them. You have recently visited Kazakhstan to support and inspire disciples of your dear God-brother Srila Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami, though a trip to this country was not an easy thing for you, especially in terms of your health.
As for your relations with Srila Radhanatha Swami, they are the example of love that is impossible on material platform and that inspires all of your followers so much.
You have this immense love for your disciples! This year during Ukrainian festival everyone was just bathing in this love. It was evident that you were so glad to meet your disciples, communicate with them, your heart is overwhelmed with feelings. Everyone who I communicated with at the festival was talking about your love. Everyone was absolutely happy.
I think I understand the source of this love. It comes from Krishna. Your dear Spiritual Master Srila Prabhupada is a perfect conductor of this love. He gave it to you, and you in your turn are giving it out to all of us. But how can we reply to your love? Everyone finds his own answer to this question. I can only speak for myself. I know for sure that I have nothing to offer in return. I would very much like to offer my love to you if I only had it. When I look into my heart, I unfortunately still see selfishness, pride, vanity, lust that do not leave room for love. My only hope to have this feeling one day and offer it to you is to get rid of selfishness, pride, vanity, lust and other anarthas by serving you, your disciples and everyone who you love, by serving your instructions and Holy Name just relying on your mercy and love.
evam janam nipatitam prabhavahi-kupe
kamabhikamam anu yah prapatan prasangat
krtvatmasat surarsina bhagavan grhitah
so’ ham katham nu visrdje tava bhrtya-sevam
“My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because of my association with material desires, one after another, I was gradually falling into a blind well full of snakes, following the general populace. But Your servant Nārada Muni kindly accepted me as his disciple and instructed me how to achieve this transcendental position. Therefore, my first duty is to serve him. How could I leave his service?” (SB, 7.9.28).
Learning to be the servant of your servant
Anna Kozelskaya
(Poltava, Ukraine)
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Hare Krishna!
All glories to the mission of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu! All glories to Shrila Prabhupada! All glories to You, Dear Guru Maharaj!
Your Divine Grace Niranjana Swami, please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet.
My favorite Spiritual Master! Your instructions are vivifying spiritual power for me, as far as my body collapses of pain and only Your tales about Krishna, Your lectures, Your personal example of self-sacrifice, ignoring pain, give me spiritual power ( and physical too), to try to continue serving Your mission and Krishna.
We have similar health problems with the backbone, and I understand extremely well how painful it is, because I have the same pain too. But the biggest pain I feel because of feebleness to help You somehow to relieve Your sufferings.
The only thing I can do for You it is to chant also 4 rounds a day, in addition to my 16 rounds, for Your recovering. But I suppose my chanting is not very pure, because You aren't recovering
and feel more pain because of it.
As all Your followers I pray for You to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna for your recovering, for Krishna’s care for You, for your being with us all the time and for Your giving Krishna to us.
I hope to be your servant,
Bhakta Sergey
(Chernigov, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept our humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Thank You very much for spending Your valuable time to read all our offerings and letters. Personal association with spiritual master, including correspondence, is invaluable nectar for the disciple in this material world. I’d like to wish everyone not to misuse it. Actual reason of my offering is to express my great gratitude to You and express my confidence that the best offering to You is how much the disciple realize your instruction in his life.
Indeed the spiritual master is the only real friend of living entity suffering in this ocean of material existence. You are the great example of unselfish dedication of whole life for the benefit of others. I’d like so much to do something really pleasant for You. But I’m only a small ant in this world and even my attempts to realize Your instructions into my life are not so far perfect. The only thing I can do is to keep in my heart faithfulness and devotion to Your instructions and to instruction of Srila Prabhupada. And to keep hoping that maybe one day I can be a little like You in effort to help others.
Please bless me so that I could always throughout whole my life feel in my heart Your and Krishna’s presence. And to feel always involved in Your mission, the mission of Srila Prabhuada and Lord Caitanya!
Trying to be Your worthy disciples,
Bhakta-bandhu das and Hemalata dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in a dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Today is a very wonderful day. In this day I, a useless student, have a lesson. This is not a lesson at school or institute; this is a try lesson of life. Only owing to your support, prayers and instructions I can sit for examinations. The school of life becomes complicated day after day. But your right guide helps me to follow my path.
As before I receive low marks on the lessons of life. I try to do everything by myself and I think that I’m doing right and I do not need anyone. But when your lesson starts, dear Guru Maharaja, I do understand that the studying in the school of life is just to begin. Your causeless mercy and your unlimited love for us help me to overcome difficulties and become stronger and wiser, to leave my illusions behind.
Your devotion to Srila Prabhupad prompts me to think about my qualities and realize that my selfishness in still there. Your lesson of serving the devotees is inspiring me deeply. I think that serving the devotees and people is a perfect activity. But serving Lord Krishna’s lotus feet is more perfect activity. And you, Guru Maharaja, teach us this perfectly by your example.
I get so much mercy in this day, Guru Maharaja. But I don’t worthy of it. Thank you very much, Guru Maharaja, Today I have an opportunity to serve your lotus feet personally. Please, forgive me for my carelessness. And thank you very much for your concern and support in this school of life.
Your aspiring devotee,
Maria Gayday
(Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine)
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My Dear Srila Gurudev,
Please accept my humble obeisances at Your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Your divine grace!
I would like to express all my gratitude to Lord Krishna who sent You to the Earth to help many fallen souls to come back to Spiritual World. In scriptures it is said that that it is a very rare possibility for a person to meet a bona fide spiritual master who is fully surrendered to Lord Krishna and His mission. But because of Your causeless mercy I had such a chance to meet You. You are a pure devotee who can save me from this nightmare of material world and can let me understand the sweetness of Lord Krishna’s pastimes.
I want to apologize for my instability in Krishna consciousness that I sometimes try to find material satisfaction. But I strongly believe that because of Your grace I will be able to overcome it. I have one humble request: please, do not let me forget Krishna and help me in my spiritual life.
Thank You for the possibilities to see You. Thank you, that I could see You in New Vraja Dham. You gave me so much inspiration to chant the holy name. It was so wonderful to see Your and Sri Sri Radha Syamasundara’s lotus feet. And my heart was melting while hearing You singing nectar bhajans.
I would like to express all my respect and admiration with Your spiritual qualities. You are fully engaged in chanting the Holly Name and service to Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada.
I am not qualified enough to wish You something because You already have the Spiritual world in Your heart but still I want to wish You a lot of health and everything the best!
Your fallen servant,
Bhaktin Ananda
(Kaunas, Lithuania)
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nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate niranjana-svamin iti namine
anahata prayasena prabhupadasya tustaye
sankirtana pravritti artham ihate gurave namah
Srila Niranjana Swami, my dear spiritual father, please accept my respectful obeisances unto the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All gloris to You!
Guru Maharaja, I would like to offer You a modest offering on the occation of Your Vyasa-puja...
I would like to express my gratitude for what you are doing for me. You are an amazing and sincere person. You are the ocean of good qualities. You stand out by your delightful warmth. You are very compassionate to fallen souls and You are taking so much care of devotees' well-being.
When I listen to Your lectures, Your words go deep in my heart and begin to melt it. But from the eyes tears are flowing. I am overwhelmed by the depth of Your words. And I am overwhelmed to see how persistently and lovingly You relate to Srila Prabhupada and unflinchingly You follow His footsteps. You always carry the Supreme Personality of Godhead and Srila Prabhupada in Your heart. Wherever You are - You turn this place into the spiritual world. When I am beside You I feel secure and protected. Your lotus feet are my only shelter. You are the Master of my heart.
Only by the mercy of the spiritual master one can cross the ocean of material existence and obtain the mercy of Krishna. I need Your mercy, Guru Maharaja. Please do not reject me.
Your exalted qualities help me to strengthen my faith in Krishna and devotional service. Your instructions help me to get free from all worries and anxieties. I feel to be indebted to You forever.
On this auspicious day of Your divine appearance into this material world I bow down unto Your lotus feet. And I beg You to bless me so that I could always Your mood and Your instructions. Please bless me that I would always do only that what pleases You.
Your eternal servant,
Bhaktin Julia
(Chernigov, Ukarine)
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please, accept my lowest obeisances to Your lotus feet! All glory to Shrila Prabhupada!
Dear Maharaj, once You signed me a photograph where it was written to stay in Krishna Consciousness. These words are like a thread that tied me to Your lotus feet forever.
Guru Maharaj, though it is stated in shastras that vani is more important then vapuh but there is nothing more valuable in this world than a minute of association with You. To see You, to bow to You lotus feet has become a dream to me. But now the most important thing is Your health! With only a thought about the fact that this pain hurts You, my heart is wringing. But I also feel how great is Your pain inside Your heart about sufferings of all living things in this terrible material world! I know this is what brings You constant unbearable suffering! You always keep this pain in Your heart. You are the ocean of compassion! And the only thing I can do is to remember Your admonitions and follow them.
Dear Guru Maharaj, I want to repeat Your words which give hope about future to me, give me joy that You have, the wonder drug – it’s an injection which penetrates though our ears and then rushes right to our hearts.
On this auspicious day, Maharaj, I can’t glorify You properly! But gratitude and glorification of Your mercy without a cause will always be expressed by my everlasting service.
Please, accept once more my lowest bows in the dust of Your lotus feet!
Your Servant Forever,
Bhaktin Rigana
(Tbilisi, Georgia)
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Dear Guru Maharaj, please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
You are far away from us, and we, your disciples, feel interested, where are you are what you are doing, how is your health. Yet, the main thing we know about you – it is that you are with Krishna always.
atah sri krisna namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyah
“Krishna’s name, form, qualities and pastimes are impossible to understand with the help of contaminated material senses. Krishna reveals them only to a person wholly dedicated to the Lord’s service” (B.R.S. 1.2.234).
It is declared by a man, whose consciousness is transcendental. You find satisfaction in yourself, and it is not easy, it is difficult. Having obtained deep spiritual vision, spiritual individuality and taste, you awake in us hope that our society will progress in accordance with Srila Prabhupada’s wish. You always follow what you preach.
In this life there is such a lack of stability, but your instructions give us power to be consistent on the spiritual path.
Thank you for increasing my debt, the most precious of all my debts. This debt is impossible to pay back, but it allows to step on the path of deep and realized devotional service. Very much in need of your help
Your disciple,
Kiritchrnko Lidiya
(Dnepropetrovsk, Ukarine)
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Dear Guru Maharaj,
Please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Your Divine Grace!
On this blessed day of your appearance I’d like to glorify your wonderful qualities. No doubt it is difficult to perceive the inmost treasure of your internal world without required qualification. But fortunately by your mercy you grant it to us by sharing us with your realizations through your lectures, internet messages and personal association.
Your affectionate memories of Srila Prabhupada inevitably inspire us. Your devotion to Guru and your personal example of eagerness to serve His mission encourage us, your disciples and well-wishers, to follow your footsteps and develop not mere sentiments but love reflected in real merits and practical service. As well we can approach to understanding of His Divine Grace thanks to stories glorifying Srila Prabhupada told either by yourself or by your god-brothers incited by you. You reflect his affection and compassion. These reflected rays melt the ice of maya in our hearts.
For a long time I have been looking for a personality, who would be selfless in his love and would show kindness implying no opportunity of getting any profit in return. Often crying in desperation I prayed to the Lord for meeting a person, from whom I could learn selfless association. Krishna answered my prayers and I found what I sought in you. Feeling of gratitude to you and to the Lord gives me determination to follow your example and instructions. Your love enlightens our hearts, driving away envy, greediness and lust and keeping delight, happiness and desire to fully dedicate ourselves to satisfaction of your Grace and service to the mission of your Spiritual Master.
You constantly show concern about necessities of other people and spiritual care of inferior devotees. You are a perfect epitome of service to others. During so many years we have been seeing you starting on your journeys around the most distant corner of the earth in order to inspire and support devotees there, despite your poor health and pain. We cannot help feeling gratitude and desire to repay you somehow.
Dear Guru Maharaj, please bless my attempts to become an ideal servant and friend of everyone like you are.
I offer my apologies for my imperfections and faults. I will try to do my best to improve myself and become worthy of calling myself your disciple.
Aspiring to become your servant
Bhaktin Mandakini
(Kyiv, Ukraine)
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Dear Niranjana Swami, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Your Vyasa Puja is the day to remember you, to think about your words, example, deeds and glories. Other words it gives me a special inspiration deepening my thoughts about you. I should do it on the daily basis, but I am not capable of it. So, at least there is one day a year that I can dedicate to you to the very widest extent I am able to.
I am still grateful to you that you have been so merciful to me giving your association in any form, especially through your lectures and kirtans that fortunately have been made available on internet by your courageous disciples. Your books and health updates have always been the source of great inspiration to me as well. Yet, every thought of you has a potency to make me aspire more and more towards the goal of your teachings and thus following in your footsteps.
Your spirit of preaching is soothing and comforting. It makes me feel better as to spiritual life or devotion to Krishna and his devotees in fact is the greatest fun and joy that ever exists. I wish I never lose you as my spiritual example for meeting you is the luckiest thing that I have ever come across in this lifetime. This meeting has changed the way of my life.
Wishing to remember you more, your aspiring disciple,
Bhaktin Helis
(Estonia)
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my respectful obeisances to Your Lotus Feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Guru Maharaja!
In the day of Your Vyasa Puja I would like to thank You for everything that You have given me in Krishna Consciousness!
Your determination to follow the principles, enthusiasm, devotion to Srila Prabhupada and many other things, are opening the depth of Your Divine Grace!
After You have stopped traveling excessively compared to Your life before, I have more deeply realized that You are my main source of inspiration on the path of devotional service!
Upon watching You, watching Your relationships with Your spiritual bothers, Your feelings of gratitude towards Srila Prabhupada, Your careful attention towards everybody, Your careful attention towards Your disciples and not only, Your self sacrifice for the benefit of others, Your responsiveness, compassion towards everyone and so on…. I begin to understand that it is hard to evaluate the depth of Your bottomless heart.
To have such qualities and such a heart is possible only for a fully dedicated to Krishna soul! And this soul and the owner of a bottomless heart if You, dear Guru Maharaj! And I am happy to be Your disciple!
I would like to thank You Guru Maharaja for your mercy that You are showing upon me! Only by Your mercy I do have a chance to break free from the nets of Maya! From my whole heart I thank God for sending You to me! My only real father, well wisher and spiritual master!
Trying to share the mercy You are giving in Srila Prabhupada’s mission,
Bhaktin Nurilya
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Hare Krisna!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All Glory to You, Guru Maharaj!
Your Holiness, Srila Niranjana Swami, please accept my respectful humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet.
Bhaktin Tanya from Chernigov is writing to You.
During Your last visit to Kiev at the end of retreat senior devotee of Chernigov yatra Giridhari Prabhu presented to You mataji Julia and me. Also Giridhari Prabhu asked me to write You an offering for Vyasa-puja.
This is a great honor for me to somehow glorify You in the day of Your Divine phenomenon.
Meeting You changed my mind and understanding of the Guru. I have read and heard about the qualities of the Guru, but not even realize that such saintly persons actually present on this planet, but about how to meet such a person I could not even dream of! For me it's just a miracle!
"Even one moment of communication with the pure devotee can lead us to success and perfection of life" (Madhya - lila, 22.54). I do not know why you gave me such a favor by appearing in my life. I only know one thing that I clearly I do not deserve such mercy. I have never met people with such qualities as You. Everything You say is perfect! Your humility, inspiration and desire to serve the devotees come from these qualities! If only I could get even a drop of Your qualities! When You give a lecture, time stops, and I understand that I can spend the eternity, listening to the divine nectar of Your classes.
It is difficult to describe the importance of Your personality, because You are giving the most intimate knowledge of this material world! As envoy of Lord Caitanya You give the world the benefit. Listening You, everybody gets benefits! Even at a distance I feel Your care for me.
Srila Prabhupada said: "We must accept the spiritual master who will be able to repay a blazing fire of anxiety in the heart." Ever since I met You for first time, peace and pacification reign in my soul, which I had never experienced. And at the same time I feel I know You so long time. You are imbued with love and compassion for all living beings!
I want to serve You, because You are in perfect way steadily execute the will of Srila Prabhupada. By Your own example You show, what a student should be like and how he should serve his Guru. You help me to clean the mud from my heart.
I do very little for Krishna, I have no firm belief. But there is a very strong desire to serve You, because in You I see Krishna! That nectar of inspiration that You give to my heart, I would like to preserve and multiply, to share it with everyone else.
I ask for Your blessing that I’d some day be able to serve You as You wish me to. To follow Your instructions and perhaps find refuge at Your lotus feet. Before I met Krishna Consciousness and You, my life was just vanity and a waste of time! You give faith in the Holy Name, You give true meaning of life, You give Krishna! Thank You for this!
When writing this offering, I realized that I have no qualities in order to honor You properly. I apologize for these clumsy attempts.
Continuing to depend on your mercy,
Bhaktin Tatiana Ermolenko
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my respectful obeisances unto your feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
It is said in the sastras that a spiritual master is a direct representative of the Lord in the material world and that he connects his disciples with God and brings him to His lotus feet. You are our eternal spiritual father. You are taking good care of our spiritual progress, of our plants of devotional service in our hearts, the seeds of which were planted by You Yourself. I am very grateful to You, Guru Maharaja, for helding me out Your hand of mercy and compassion.
Srila Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura instructs us in his famous prayer to the spiritual master:
yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado
yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto 'pi
dhyayan stuvams tasya yasas tri-sandhyam
vande guroh sri-caranaravindam
"By the mercy of the spiritual master one recieves the benediction of Krishna. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. Therefore, I should always remember and praise the spiritual master. At least three times a day I should offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master."
I am begging at Your feet for Your mercy so that I could become Your faithful servant and real disciple whose only desire is finally to serve You and Srila Prabhupada in carrying on the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. For me You will always be true and unadulterated example of a true disciple who has surrendered to the will of his spiritual master. For us, your disciples, You are a real example of how a disciple should serve his guru.
I am lame and blind on this path, and without You I am nothing in this world. Without Your mercy all my strivings and endeavors are destined to fail. All the good qualities in me are there thanks to You. Guru Maharaja, please pour some mercy on me, so that I would never forget this fact.
My dear Guru Maharaja, I bow down before You thousands and thousands times and beg You to make me an instrument in Your hands. Without Your mercy I am not able to make any spiritual progress and I cannot serve Krishna. Let me never forget Your instructions. And let me serve You with deep love birth after birth in the way You want it.
Your insignificant servant,
Dvija-mani das
(Lipetsk, Ukarine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Recently I recovered in my mind the beginning of ISKCON in America. Srila Prabhupada preached and took care of those, who came to the temple. Almost all of them were not qualified, mostly hippy and drug addicts. It reminded me of a description of Srila Prabhupada's care. He
sincerely wanted that these fallen people understood and accepted Krishna as an object of worship and love.
Each living being needs love and care, what to say about devotees. With time anyone can experience difficulties in one's life. What a devotee has collected as a spiritual experience does not disappear when the difficulties appear. Difficulties are not obstacles, they are an opportunity to ascend to a new level, change one's heart.
Now I have noted that many devotees who are experiencing difficulties have moved away from devotees association. I think, it happens because of misunderstanding and pain felt by the devotees passing through difficulties. Then a minor effort seems like a hard thing in one’s spiritual life.
Having some experiences and having defined for myself that Krishna consciousness is my life (that I have drunk in my childhood), is what is valuable for me and what I want to achieve; it's absolutely clear that we must make the effort.
I see many devotees around, who have a hard time. I decided to help them. I see how during 20 years you carefully and with love have looked after me. I, in my turn, try to convey the care to those who need it and who asks for it. If a person seeks for care, it means that he is humble, can
recognize his mistakes and difficulties, he needs just some inspiration and knowledge to solve the difficulties. Being inspired the devotee easily solves his problems. He understands who he is in reality, what are his desires, aspiration and goals. Understanding ourselves we can easier correct our mistakes in our life.
I remember how in my childhood a president of Kishinev temple took care of me. I was 11 and my mother distributed books. I knew that the devotees take care of me: he taught me to chant the mantra, engaged me in various services, asked what I ate and where I was. I understood that he was interested in me and not in what I was at that moment.
It's easy to guide those who go on by themselves and do not meet difficulties. Here are no two lives: spiritual and material. Here is just one our life, which we try to bring in the devotional service.
Behind external designations personalities, their aspirations and difficulties are often lost. Each of them hanker to get love and care.
All these years devotees have been supporting and inspiring me. I decided to try to do the same for others.
Thank you for your care and love and for those remarkable devotees, whom you have trained. They grew up due to your love, and now they give this love to others and me.
Your servant,
Ekamati d.d.
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my most humble obeisances unto your feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In this offering I would like to express my delightment, rapture and gratitude for the fact that there exists and acts a disciplic succession of which you are part of.
This is the first wonder of all wonders in this world. It is wonderful and great. By getting in contact with it a magic happens: the heart transforms, the heart changes. There was a person, but he changed. His heart changed. He was completely confused and restless, but became clear and happy. And although there is a long and very difficult path in front of him, he knows for sure that everything will be allright in the end. Everything inauspicios will leave his heart and then a tender plant of bhakti can grow and blossom in full, and give happy, delightful and intoxicating fruits unlimitedly
It happens so with those who are yet not completely crazy and mad and on whom the favor of vaishnavas was poured.
You, Guru Maharaja, are one of the best representatives of a modern vaishnava. You are able to break the heart and draw from it a blessed diamond of real essence of a living being. And then diligently and carefully work on it.
Thank you so much, Guru Maharaja, for giving me and others the chance to associate with parampara. Association with You has definitely changed my life and continues to change it. If there was no parampara, if there was no You nor all these vaishnavas, if there were not my wows - I would not be able to go in the right direction. Yes, I would go astray, I would slow down, or something like that... But You are holding me and do not let me fall.
And although there are more mistakes than successful deeds in my life so far, but I promise you for sure that I will continue to try again and again to become pleasant and useful for vaishnavas.
Guru Maharaja, please bless me so that I could always think about vaishnavas with a delightful heart, to serve them and to listen to them with enthusiasm and love.
Your debtor forever,
Ekavrata das
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
shrimate niranjana svamin iti namine
anahata-prayasena prabhupadasya tushtaye
sankirtana-pravritty-artham ihate gurave namah
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace Srila Niranjana Swami, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.
I offer my humble obeisances to my spiritual master who with constant, unfailing endeavor is always trying to push forward the sankirtana mission to please Srila Prabhupada
Please accept my most humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I’m kindly asking your permission on this favorable day of your Vyasa-puja to glorify your firm resolution, which you have following the way indicated by Srila Prabhupada, your patience, which you have in giving us – your disciples - admonitions and support over and over again, your humbleness, with which you follow the way of God service, your unselfishness, with which you grant us your communication no matter what, your generosity, with which you give us the Holly name again and again, your boundless mercy when you let us be in the society of pure devotee, your enormous efforts you make and the sacrifice you offer while serving Srila Prabhupada, and your compassion which you take upon us – fallen souls.
Dear Guru Maharaj, please accept the gratitude of Gopala Priya d.d. and let me fulfill the service with higher diligence and always be in the society of your disciples.
Hoping to remain at your lotus feet, your insignificant humble servant of your servants eternally.
Gopala Priya d.d.
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Dear Guru Maharaj, please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
samsara-davanala-lidha-loka
tranaya- karunya-ghanaghanatvam
praptasya-kalyana-gunarnavasya
vande-guru-sri-caranaravindam
“The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master delivers the materially afflicted world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master, who is an ocean of auspicious qualities”.
Dear Guru Maharaj, let me, please, in your Vyasa-puja day express my gratitude for your kindness and your unflinching faith into the Lord and Srila Prabhupada.
In my heart impressions of instructors’ retreat and of lecture given on Sunday in Kiev combined together with verses and comments of Srila Prabhupada from “Sri Caitanya-Caritamrita” and with words of your lecture on “Srimad-Bhagavatam” (3.23.8), read in 1995.
“Kardama Muni continued: What is the use of enjoyments other than the Lord's grace? All material achievements are subject to be annihilated simply by a movement of the eyebrows of Lord Visnu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By your principles of devotion to your husband, you have achieved and can enjoy transcendental gifts very rarely obtained by persons proud of aristocracy and material possessions”.
In his purport on this verse Srila Prabhupada writes:
“Lord Caitanya recommended that the greatest achievement of human life is to achieve the grace of the Lord, love of God. He said, premdpum-artho mahan: to achieve love of Godhead is the highest perfection of life. The same perfection is recommended by Kardama Muni to his wife. His wife belonged to a very aristocratic royal family. Generally, those who are very materialistic or who possess material wealth and prosperity are unable to appreciate the value of transcendental love of God. Although Devahuti was a princess coming from a very great royal family, fortunately she was under the supervision of her great husband, Kardama Muni, who offered her the best gift which can be bestowed in human life - the grace of the Lord, or love of God. This grace of the Lord was achieved by Devahuti by the good will and satisfaction of her husband.-She served her husband, who was a great devotee and saintly person, with great sincerity, love, affection and service, and Kardama Muni was satisfied. He willingly gave love of God, and he recommended that she accept it and enjoy it because he had already achieved it”.
In your lecture, dear Guru Maharaj, you said:
“In this verse Kardama Muni stresses how love of God is much more valuable in comparison to material enjoinments. For a person, who already has achieved the Lord’s mercy, all other pleasures seem insignificant. Having got the highest pleasure, a person at once looses his attachments to everything lower it. Yet, of course, to get excess to this pleasure, one has to attain favor of those, who already have this gift. There is no other way of achieving this experience. Therefore it is said, that by the grace of spiritual master one gets Krishna’s mercy. Without mercy of the spiritual master one cannot go further on the path of devotional service”.
Srila Prabhupada in his purport to the verse from “Sri Caitanya Caritamrita” (2.6.179) says:
“When a conditioned soul is purified, he is called a devotee. A devotee has his relationship only with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and his only occupational duty is to execute devotional service to satisfy the Lord. This service is rendered through the Lord's representative, the spiritual master; yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau. When the devotee executes devotional service properly, he attains the highest perfection of life—love of Godhead”.
And in his purport to the verse from “Sri Caitanya Caritamrita” (2.11.51) Srila Prabhupada says:
“The mercy of the spiritual master and Krsna combine to grant success to a devotee engaged in Krsna consciousness. This is confirmed by the Vedas:
yasya dcve para bhaktir
yatha deva tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah
"Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed." (Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23)
Maharaja Prataparudra had firm faith in Bhattacarya, who declared Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Having firm faith in Bhattacarya as his spiritual master, King Prataparudra immediately accepted Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as the Supreme Lord. Thus he began worshiping Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in his mind. This is the process of devotional service. According to Bhagavad-gita (9.34):
man-mana bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi yuktvaivam
atmanam mat-parayanah
"Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me."
This process is very simple. One needs only to be firmly convinced by the spiritual master that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one decides this, he can make further progress by thinking of Krsna, chanting of Krsna and glorifying Him. There is then no doubt that such a fully surrendered devotee will receive the blessings of Lord Krsna”.
How to come to this unflinching faith, not at all a mahatma, a great soul, but a conditioned soul? In his purport to ““Sri Caitanya Caritamrita” (1.17.257) Srila Prabhupada cites this verse from “Svetasvatara Upanisad” (6.23) saying:
“The purport of this verse is that one who is unflinchingly devoted to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu, and similarly devoted to the spiritual master, with no ulterior motive, becomes a master of all knowledge. In the heart of such a devotee, the real essence of the Vedic knowledge becomes manifest. This essence is nothing but surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead (vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah). Only unto one who fully surrenders to the spiritual master and the Supreme Lord does the essence of Vedic knowledge become manifest, not to anyone else”.
It means that I can come to the unflinching faith by devotion to the spiritual master – only by your grace. Therefore I will be going to listen to your instructions on and on with gratitude and aspiration to get such a faith.
To give love of God can only one who already has it. He can demand from us: “From this time you must surrender everything to Krishna”, because a man likes you will not ask anything for himself but in Krishna’s name. Any egoistic motivation dissolves in love of the Lord. Therefore such a Vaisnava becomes transparent media, through which we may associate with the Lord. To come into contact with such a Vaisnava is the most rare and unusual thing in the material world.
Vaisnavas are very merciful because the most precious gift could be obtained only by the mercy of Vaisnavas. Therefore we bow down each day before Vaisnavas, devotees of the Lord, who are just like the desire trees, can fulfill the desires of anyone and full with compassion to the fallen conditioned souls. In other words, Vaisnavas can fulfill the desires of anyone because they can give us Krishna, and Krishna only can fulfill all our desires. No one else can do this. Krishna fulfills all the desires of His devotees for Krishna alone can endow us with pure uncontaminated devotional service.
When the gopis came to the Vrindavana forest by hearing the sound of Krishna’s flute, Krishna said: “How could I reward you for what you have done? I can not give you back for such a sacrifice you made by coming here. You have sacrificed Me everything, you gave up to recon any material consideration, and I feel that I can not be able to pay you back for your love you expressed. Therefore, let your devotional service, the love you feel for Me, will be your reward.” It is the highest gift, which can be given to a living entity by the Lord.
Although love of God is very difficult to obtain in the material world, Lord Caitanya expressed such a mercy, He came specifically to give away this love of God to everybody. Lord Caitany Himself made this path to gain the love of God such easy. It is the highest expression of mercy in the age of Kali. It is the highest gift to the mankind. It is the gift of the Krishna consciousness movement. Srila Prabhupada came to the material world to deliver to us this gift. This is the best gift the mankind can get, because such a gift is given without expectation to get something back. And, therefore, a person, who really understands the meaning of love to Krishna, a person, who has tasted even a small drop of Krishna’s love (although the whole ocean of this love is available) at once begins to contemplate of how to give it to others. This is the Lord Caitanya’s blessing for the age of Kali. It is the greatest blessing. There is no more precious gift than this one – to make for people possible to taste this little taste of love of God, even if it is only a hint for the taste. Even the hint is enough for one to get rid of any attachment to the material world. And when one experiences, feels such a taste, he would never forget Krishna’s lotus feet. This is the Lord Caitanya’s mercy.
Lord Caitanya said (C-c. 1.7.93-96): “My spiritual master taught Me one verse from “Srimad Bhagavatam”. It is the essence of “Bhagavatam’s instructions; therefore he instructed Me this verse again and again: “When a person is actually advanced and takes pleasure in chanting the holy name of the Lord, who is very dear to him, he is agitated and loudly chants the holy name. He also laughs, cries, becomes agitated and chants just like a madman, not caring for outsiders”. I firmly believe in these words of My spiritual master, and therefore I always chant the holy name of the Lord, alone and in the association of devotees. That holy name of Lord Krsna sometimes causes Me to chant and dance, and therefore I chant and dance. Please do not think that I intentionally do it. I do it automatically”.
The purport: “A person who cannot keep his faith in the words of his spiritual master but acts independently never receives the authority to chant the holy name of the Lord. It is said in the Vedas (Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23):
yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah
"Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed." This Vedic injunction is very important, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu supported it by His personal behavior. Believing in the words of His spiritual master, He introduced the sankirtana movement, just as the present Krsna consciousness movement was started with belief in the words of our spiritual master. He wanted to preach, we believed in his words and tried somehow or other to fulfill them, and now this movement has become successful all over the world. Therefore faith in the words of the spiritual master and in the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the secret of success. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu never disobeyed the orders of His spiritual master and stopped propagating the sankirtana movement. Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami, at the time of his passing away, ordered all his disciples to work conjointly to preach the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu all over the world. Later, however, some self-interested, foolish disciples disobeyed his orders. Each one of them wanted to become head of the mission, and they fought in the courts, neglecting the order of the spiritual master, and the entire mission was defeated. We are not proud of this; however, the truth must be explained. We believed in the words of our spiritual master and started in a humble way—in a helpless way—but due to the spiritual force of the order of the supreme authority, this movement has become successful”.
Dear Guru Maharaj, I admire your unflinching faith in Srila Prabhupada’s words. On Sunday lecture you have brilliantly depicted the strength of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and how disciples carried his instructions at any cost. You have told that the person, with whom Srila Prabhupada was pleased even once, would never forget the feeling which he experienced, and also that Srila Prabhupada wanted all of us to distribute his books.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came into material world only for this reason - to give people the fruit of love of God and to give everybody a chance to feel this love of God. If we are capable to estimate Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s kindness, we should consider our duty to go out to deliver to others this taste. It is a unique way by which we can thank Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, though actually we never can even start to thank Him. We can never completely pay it back. It is a unique way by which we can try to thank the spiritual master which extends, distributes this love of God on behalf of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. We simply must go out and give these fruits to others. It is the best gift which can be given to anybody in the material world.
In despair from the inability to thank Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, to thank Srila Prabhupada, to thank you, dear Guru Maharaj, and with deep faith in your words and your boundless mercy,
Your eternal servant,
Jarati devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
Dear Guru Maharaj, as always, I feel inadequate and stupid to glorify You on the Day of Your Vyasa-puja. Please, forgive me. But all I feel is coming from my heart and I can’t stop expressing my feelings. You are everything to me. You are a perfect Devotee, a real Devotee. You are a perfect disciple of Srila Prabhupada. You are a perfect Guru. You are a perfect representative of the Lord. You are a perfect Preacher. Your sweet, philosophical, elaborate, deep, highly realized, wise, incredible lectures always transpierce my heart. You humility stuns me. This quality of yours is so special! One can never feel abused in Your presence even when You chastise your disciple severely, on the contrary- one can feel relieved and purified. Your tolerance is incomparable to anything. You continue to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s order in spite of all bodily inconveniences and suffering. That is a great example to me! Your love and compassion to all your disciples admires me more and more and more. Your great love can only be compared with Krishna’s and Srila Prabhupada’s love to all human beings.
Your sweet voice, sweet kirtans and bhajans make one’s heart melt. Once His Holiness Indradyumna Maharaja compared Your voice with the sweetest gandharva’s voice. And that is true! You sing with Your heart. You are a perfect Servant of devotees. You are taking care of Your godbrothers, not thinking about yourself. You give Yourself completely to them from the bottom of Your big, pure, full of love heart! That is so attractive to me! You are special! It is obvious that You fully possess spiritual knowledge and love of Godhead. You are a great Mahatma. I am sure that not only Srila Prabhupada is proud of You, but all Your godbrothers are also proud of You. You are completely pure, spiritual, sublime and inimitable. You are a gorgeous diamond shining on Lord Krishna’s crown.
Dear Gurudev, on this auspicious Day I endlessly offer my unlimited obeisances and gratitude to Your Divine Grace. Thank You for pouring Your unlimited mercy on me. Thank You for Your help, compassion and kindness.
Always indebted to You,
Trying to be Your servant,
Kalpataru devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja, Srila Niranjana Swami,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In this blessed day of Your appearance I would like to express my sincere gratitude to You.
Today I have a rare opportunity to associate with You. Let it be even in a unilateral mode.
I know that You read all the offerings that is why I have a chance. And also I firmly believe that You are a true representative of Lord Krishna, and I can get the answers for all my questions even if not in a personal conversation, but from Your lectures, books and kirtans.
Thank You for Your mercy and confidence displayed to me as Harinama-initiation. I am begging Your pardon thousands of times that I did not come to the meeting for the initiated disciples. Unfortunately, I did not know about it, and when I got to know that it had missed it, I was crying bitterly. Please don’t accept this deed as a token of disregard to You. I often remember Your words from the introductory speech before the initiation that the beads are similar to the navel-string that binds a baby with its mother. Last year was not simple for me. And this “navel-string” and Your father’s hand of help very often saved me. When it was extremely hard, I was saved by understanding that I have the Holy Name and You in my life.
During last year I realized that external ordeals to a certain degree are useful for the person on his spiritual way. They pushed me to switch on my heart and consciousness besides mechanical actions. You see, it’s true that Srila Prabhupada’s movement is called the society for Krishna Consciousness.
I am very grateful to You for my new name. I understand that I already have all Your blessings to develop in my heart pure, unalloyed love to Krishna – Krishna-rati. I want very much and ask for Your blessing to have this aim in my life as the main one.
Recently the words of Mahanidhi Swami struck me in the book “The Art of Chanting the Holy Name”. He cites a verse from Ch.ch., Adi 7.73: “Krishna-mantra haite habe…” and refers to Srila Djiva Goswami who says that Krishna-mantra has a special power that can liberate a living being from material existence. But the Holy Names of Krishna are fully independent and can bring a soul to the highest purpose – Krishna-prema and Krishna’s lotus feet. Probably I have understood only one thousandth of what Maharaja’s said, but at least I have approached a little to understanding to what a treasure I have an access to.
On Sunday lecture in Kiev I was very much inspired with the idea to take part in the Srila Prabhupada’s Marathon. You were telling about Srila Prabhupada and I was thinking which book I should reread to distribute it. I chose “Bhagavad-gita”, the 2-nd chapter of which I read a few days ago. I just thought like this – and You started telling about the glory of “Bhagavad-gita”… I understood that it was a signal! I hope that the enthusiasm You have given me will not leave me and I will be able to take part in the Marathon to please Srila Prabhupada.
Thank You for Your enormous loving heart. Let me always remain Your servant. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Aspiring to become a servant of Your servants
Krishna-rati devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to your Divine Grace!
In this holy day, the day of the appearance of my spiritual master I want to offer You something special. Something that would give You pleasure. Every year this day for me is a day of finalizing the totals. What have I done this year. And here I'm again today thinking about it. I can't find anything special to offer. I can't offer you how many books I have distributed (I'm still afraid to go out on Sankirtana). I can't offer any amount of preaching programs that I have participated in. I can't offer qualitative spiritual practice. But still I do want to offer You at least something.
Dear Guru Maharaja, I want to offer You my small attempts to serve Krishna. I am offering You my daily owrship of Nimai and Nitai, my home Deities. My thoughts about Krishna and devotion for Him. My studies of Srila Prabhupada's books, that has also become daily for the past several months. And my chanting, even though not very qualitative. My daily prayers, that are the foundation for my practice. I am always asking the Lord to remain my goal. And the Lord is so kind that He never leaves me. I exactly know also by whose mercy this is happening. I understand that You are the cause of it. Without the mercy of a spiritual master it is impossible to achieve Krishna. You are like a mother that doesn't mind the stupid things or mistakes that baby does. And I precisely know that while I'm holding on to at least to Your finger (I cannot grab Your whole palm in my hand), I will be able to go towards God. Furthermore, You have repeatedly proven that even when I let go of the finger, You are grabbing my hand so that I won't get lost again. Guru Maharaja, thank you so much for it.
Dear Guru Maharaja, lately I have often been thinking about developing attachment to following Your instructions in the same way You are attached to following the instructions of Srila Prabhupada. I want to be holding on to Your hand the same way You are holding on to Srila Prabhupada's hand. Guru Maharaja, I finally want to become Your disciple, and have been such for a while formally, but now I finally want to become a real one. And recently Krishna had shown me clearly how that takes place.
I have already mentioned that my son often helps me in my spiritual life. And it happened again once. The devotees have asked me to do the weekly program at my place. And for the topic I chose the one where Dhruva Maharaja surrenders, it has been interesting me in later days. Every evening I'm reading Shrimad Bhagavatam to my son by His request and right before the program we have been reading with him this story. I kept thinking about how a 5 year old boy was able to achieve perfection in only 6 months. How much desire and determination He had for performing His practice. Therefore I have decided to share this with assembled devotees. So finally Wednesday is here, the time is 19:00. The devotees came and we started discussing with great enthusiasm few verses from the 4th Canto. I came home and Gaura Sahkti runs out to the doorstep and gives me a paper folded several times.
So I am asking him:
-What is this?
-Read it, he whispers.
-Why are you whispering? I reply back in the same manner.
-Is this a secret?
-Yes. - He replied mysteriously.
I have unfolded the paper and there was a verse:
You are beautiful like moon
And as bright as sun you are
You are driving me so crazy
By Your beauty so Divine
I bow down before You now
Dandavat, fall down like stick
- This is a verse about Radharani, he says.
At that moment I have realized how the principle of attachment works, the connection with Guru and Parampara. The child being in connection with His mother is reflecting her attitude. I was absorbed in devotional service and this verse was born in his mind.
So let me be attached to You, to the mission of Lord Chaitanya, that You are carrying. Bestow the love on me that You have for Srila Prabhupada. I want to always be Your servant, always connected to the parampara, and in the eternal kirtan of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu serving Him forever.
Your servant and eternal debtor,
Lakshmipriya devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in a dust of your lotus feet. All glories to the day of your Divine Appearance! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Thousands of words of love, gratitude and devotion to you have been said. Let me also add to them this humble offering to your pleasure and my purification.
According to all revealing Scriptures a spiritual master is sent by Krishna. Lord Krishna in the form of a spiritual master delivers His devotees.
Carrying out the mission of your spiritual master, Srila Prabhupad, you give us an example of how we should serve our spiritual master.
You are always enthusiastic in devotional service. And you purity changes people into devotees.
You are merciful, generous, irreproachable, pacified, and you work for the common good. You are the best friend of every living being, defender of devoted souls.
You have all the qualities of a vaisnava and you imbue with these your qualities your disciples, sincerely devoted to your lotus feet and your instructions.
According to Vedic tradition a single woman takes shelter in a worthy vaisnava family, which members she trusts fully and can rely on then in a happy moment and in trouble. I took shelter in such wonderful vaisnava family, your disciples Sevananda das and Radhavinodini devi dasi. We entered into good relations ten years ago, and during this year I saw they love and devotion in serving you, they sincere desire to help you to carry out you mission of life – spreading Krishna Consciousness throughout the world. Few years ago they became a counselors and I see how new devotees love them.
This is a nice and happy vaisnava family, reared an exemplary daughter – Indumati devi dasi, who is also an exemplary wife and loving mother to little Abhay.
They love you very much and make you instructions the meaning of their life. In preaching they always refer to your nectar instructions with great reverence and respect.
Associating with them I see how you show concern, mercy and compassion through them.
Many years running every summer Sevananda d. and Radhavinodini d.d. arrive to visit me. There is always some household work for Sevananda’s skilful hands; and Radhavinodini always surprises all with her culinary masterpieces. I invite many guests and we have a great kirtan and feast.
Your spirit of preaching are showed through them in such power that even the deep-rooted materialists become attracted to their vaisnava qualities and look forward to meet these wonderful vaisnavas next summer.
Dear Guru Maharaja! I’m so grateful to you for taking care of me through your disciples. You have so many disciples throughout the world and each disciple show some your divine quality. I want to show by the example of this wonderful vaisnava family how the unlimited devotion to your lotus feet makes your disciples so inspired and attractive. And it takes place only due to association with you, the best spiritual master, Srila Niranjana Swami!
All glories to you! Your servant,
Lalita Hridaya devi dasi
(Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the day of your Vyasa Puja. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I have realized that if I owe something to somebody, then that would be You, Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. At one point when I read your homage to Srila Prabhupada, I was surprised back then that you feel always in debt in front of Him.
Many years have passed and my heart is changing due to your prayers for me and the quality of my life is also changing as well as values. Slowly, everything enters a state of happy balance due to your mercy and love. And today I am offering you my lowest dandavats like a prabhu with the tears of gratitude and the strongest love that you have sown into my heart. I am expressing you my best words and feelings that the souls is capable of expressing. I am your servant! I am proud of that and I am proud of you, my dear beloved spiritual master. My love has appeared suddenly for me right before the second initiation and I could find the right spot for myself because all my thoughts were with You. Now I am able to see how you act in the heart of a sincere disciple. But then it looked more like gopis who were chasing after Krishna, even forgetting to get properly dressed. Yes, love for You, is love for Krishna and writing this I am getting tears that I very rarely get and now they are pouring from my eyes, the sweet tears of love and gratitude for your great love for us, devotion and compassion and forgiveness! This compassion has also entered my heart and now I have become completely different and I realized how by your mercy Lord Krishna expertly was pulling out all the anarthas from my heart. I used to think that this was unbearable, that I won't be able to handle suffering like that. However in 2002 during darshan, you gave me instructions that I have written into 7 rules and I lived all these years according to those rules:
1. The first step is to understand why you are suffering. This is a great gift to see what Krishna is teaching you. This has completely turned around my past understanding of life and has taught me to be calm, strong and positive. Now I am helping other devotees and simple people by preaching to them that all the suffering is meant for our good. And now remembering all the instructions to do everything without a motive. Do and don't expect anything in return, so I am trying all these years to do everything without motives, all my service for You.
And I remember that Lord Krishna will always protect one who has surrendered to Him. I so rarely see you, but you are in my heart always, listening, and talking and instructing me with love. Teaching me how to take care of myself and others that are next to me in the proper way with love and listening to my heart. I am praying a lot for you to become healthy again and I believe that you will be for great pleasure of your disciples.
In the dust of your lotus feet your servant,
Lokadrishti devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept our obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your divine grace leading us behind You on the spiritual path. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to all the devotees who are providing us spiritual knowledge!
Dear Gurudev! Life goes on and we are still surrounded by Vaisnavas, who are helping us, inspiring us, care about us and give us knowledge. We have somebody to lean on in spiritual life and therefore we are to some degree are able to help others.
Our counselor Mataji Gati, the disciple of H. D. Grace Gopal Krishna Goswami is lovingly supporting us always and in everything like a caring mother. And the disciple of Prabhavishnu Swami whose name is Ananta Rupa das is providing us audio and video information about the happenings of ISKCON. And since I don't travel around that much lately, I'm grateful for the modern technology that makes us participants of all the seminars, retreats, Ratha Yatras, Parikrams and Kirtans. And this way we are continuing to learn how to love Krishna accepting this love in our hearts from the hearts of those who already have love for Him.
I and Manasi Ganga dd are very happy at the lotus feet of Their Lordship Nimai-Nitai, Who are very merciful towards us all. We really love them so much and sometimes we think that they love us too. However, at times there are difficulties and going through those makes us even more attached to Them, understanding who is in charge in the "house".
For example here is a story of Natasha's bachelors degree. For 4 years Natasha has been a student on a government program. And after that she was recommended for completing a Master's program on psychology on same terms. She already even received a greeting from the dean and became proud of her achievement like Narada Muni on Svayamvara. But the ground was removed from the feet, because even though there were 4 students that have been recommended, but only 3 spots were available. In other words that means that from now on Natasha would have to pay for school. And here is when everything started. Natasha’s father started demanding that mother would pay for school. And if she didn't have money he was asking her to get credit. So much money we have never had, and probably that's why mataji Madhava Priya began to explain to him the dharma of a father and mother in a ksatriya spirit while mataji Manasi Ganga was praying to Radharani in tears.
So finally the tuition was paid for by the grandfather (husband's father) but the most interesting is when everything was finalized and when everybody realized their dharma another spot for a government program student was added and Natasha was accepted and the money was returned.
In such situation everybody showed their real face and we have once again realized how merciful the Lord is and how much he cares for us allowing us to remain human and were able to keep human relationships.
And also Sergei makes me and mataji Manasi very happy. Lately he has been inquiring almost like Arjuna. And he has been taking prasadam like Bhima and also started preaching to his friends about the advantage of being a vegetarian.
Dear Guru Maharaja! When you speak about caring about devotees you say that Krishna really cares about us and provides us with everything necessary, but His care is expressed in our ability to feel satisfied inside among any situations in life, otherwise we would all be dissatisfied even after receiving everything we require..."
Thank You, dear Gurudev, for your presence in our conditioned life, for giving us the understanding of the truth, for the benefit of surrendering to Your lotus feet that are heart changing.
We are humbly bowing to Your lotus feet hoping to get purified from offenses, receive your blessings and eternal shelter of Your lotus feet to be able to perform unalloyed service to You with devotion.
Madhava Priya devi dasi
Manasi Ganga devi dasi
Bhaktin Lena
Natasha and Sergei
(Starokonstantinova)
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances unto the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On this important day for all of us I would like to express to You some words of gratitude for the mercy that You continuously pour on me and my family. This is all Your merit that I am continuing to try and chant the Holy Name of the Lord, to read, to hear and to speak about the glories of the Lord and His devotees, as well as to associate with devotees. With your instructions You have fixed and cultivated my faith to the Holy Name of the Lord. Actually You have created it by determining what is the priority and what is secondary, what is the component and what is the form, what is the essence of devotional service.
You are my diksha and shiksha guru, and I am very grateful to Lord Krishna for that. And even if I cannot always follow Your instructions due to my weaknesses and ignorance, I still never stand against them. Your instructions will always be a matchless wealth for me.
How can a fallen conditioned living entity get transcendental experience? Only as a result of association with pure devotees and by following the instructions of his spiritual master. It is not possible to progress without this kind of experience, without the transcendental taste of devotional service. Through Your kirtans, bhajans and lectures full of krishna-prema I have gotten and I am getting real spiritual expierences which mold my perception of spiritual reality. And in spite of the fact that due to my imperfection I am not able to recieve in full all the mercy that has been poured on me, even those drops which come through the shield of my ignorance will do to break my conception of material happiness and well-being.
Thank You very much for that. I always needed and will be needing Your causeless mercy, and I cannot imagine my existence without it. I needed Your mercy very much before, when my understanding was being molded- God is this and not that. But I need Your mercy even more now when the understanding came - God is this and that as well.
Thank You very much for the mercy You have been pouring and are pouring on our family. Due to Your causeless mercy, in spite of the fact that we left gurukula already 5 years ago, we still have not lost the association of devotees. Almost at once, about a year later we joined Tversk nama-hatta. There are programs every week. And at home we maintain our saddhana by helping each other in taking care of the Deities, performing worship, chanting the Holy Names, sharing our realizations about the things read or heard in the matter of Krishna conciousness. All this has become possible by Your causeless mercy because Your instructions are the basis on the programs in Tversk nama-hatta and also in our domestic saddhana.
Thank You so much for the trust which You revealed to me by initiating me in Gayatri mantra. Due to Your causeless mercy I had a chance to contact with an amazingly deep and wide knowledge which is contained in Gayatri mantras.
Thank You very much for teaching us by Your own life example, by showing what is pure devotional service to the Lord like and how one should be engaged in such unmotivated, unselfish devotional service by completely dedicating the whole life and soul to it.
By the mercy of Krishna we obtain the spiritual master, but by the mercy of spiritual master we obtain Krishna.
Thank You very much!
Hoping to continuously recieve Your causeless mercy,
Your unworthy disciple,
Mahabala das
(Tversk, Lihoslavl)
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Dear Guru Maharaj, please, accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna preshthaya bhu-tale
shrimate niranjana swamin iti namine
anahata prayasena prabhupadasya tushtaye
sankirtana-pravritti-arham ihate gurave namah
I bring my respectful obeisances to His Divine Grace Srila Niranjana Swami, Who is very dear to Lord Krishna and Who has taken refuge in His lotus feet.
I offer my humble obeisances to my Spiritual Master, Whose constant uninterrupted efforts are always bent to the advancement of sankirtana' mission for Srila Prabhupada's satisfaction.
Dear Guru Maharaj, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Gratitude is the least, that disciple can feel toward the Spiritual Master. You take upon Yourself not easy trouble to lead me to the lotus feet of the Lord. But I comprehend with horror that I have never told You about my gratitude. The Spiritual Master teaches with His example and You have shown it to me.
You said in Eupatoriya that You were very glad that I finally seriously devoted myself to the spiritual life and thanked Bhakti Chaytanya Swami and Devamrita Swami, especially Devamrita Swami for that. At that moment I could not say a word for I made all my efforts not to burst into tears. I wanted to write You a letter immediately after returning home, but I have prolonged everything as usually, justifying myself with “the urgent businesses“.
Dear Guru Maharaj, please, let me thank You, though with a huge delay, for You so selflessly have taken care of me nearly 20 years. You always pray for Your disciples, inspire them, support and lead them. We can feel all these things even at some distance from You and without constant association with You.
You sacrifice Your invaluable health, taking the constant risk for the sake of Your disciples. You find some new ways of regular association with us, that we could listen to Your lectures, kirtans, seminars. You find the new ways of being always accessible for us.
Dear Spiritual Master, all the good qualities that I have are the result of Your constant care. Thanks to You I am still in Srila Prabhupada's movement.
Wishing all the time to stay near Your lotus feet,
Your unworthy disciple
Nikunja Nivasini devi dasi
(Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
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namo om vishnu-padaja-krishna-preshthaja bhu-tale
srimate niranjana svamin-iti namine
All glories to Lord Chaitanya and to His eternal companions! All glories to Shrila Prabhupada!
All glories to Gaura Nitay! All glories to Vaishnavas!
Hare Krishna!
Dear Guru Maharajas, please, accept my most humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus foots.
I am Yours disciple Nitya Kyshori devi dasi from Kiev, Ukraine, carrying out modest service in Tape Ministry of Your lectures.
Dear teacher, I do not know how to thank you for your love, care, patience, compassion which you show both for me and for all us – yours disciples. It is a boundless ocean of your Mercy giving unique taste - nectar in my consciousness, which is inspiration in service to you, to devotees, to Deities, raises enthusiasm to continue doing something for Krishna, to carry out modest service to you and Krishna. I know how – by listening to you intently and by carrying out your instructions with enthusiasm. Only in the course of time, I started to understand, to realize a role of the spiritual teacher in my life.
I have no opportunity to serve you directly and to be near, and I have no experience of personal dialogue with you, but I try to get your support, care, answers to my questions, and all necessary directions from your lectures and books, from your senior disciples. In most cases, it is possible; I receive from you the help, the answer in the time when I need it. I do not know how you do it but thank you very much for it and my lowest obeisances to you. Certainly, I would like very much a more personal dialogue with you, but it depends only on your and Krishna’s desire. Earlier I did not have such desire but the time is going and character of relations between the Teacher and the pupil changes, relationship goes through corresponding stages. I just now understand that I start "to become an adult". May be sometime, on your Mercy, it will come true.
Thanks you for your deep and loving look, divine smile, compassion to us, which you express by each instant of dialogue with us, nectarous kirtans, bhadjans, your instructions. Seeing us in such distress, you wish to reach to our hearts, to wake up the true love, the love of Krishna.
You speak «Any devotee who even once has felt nectar of dialogue with Krishna, will never be able to forget the taste of this nectar. And it means neither the guru nor Krishna will ever forget such devotee also». So I would like to become such devotee, to grow to such level.
In addition, you each time emphasize, «that true happiness of anybody – is in Consciousness of Krishna, and sooner or later we shall come to this conclusion». I would like to remember it always and never to forget, whatever happens in my life, to continue my way in a spiritual life, following you. And I wish this way always would be shined by your prayers, blessings and instructions.
Dear Guru Maharaja, please allow me to congratulate you on the Day of Appearance in this world for performing such unique mission – to satisfy your Spiritual Teacher Srila Prabhupada. You have devoted all your life to it, completely having given yourselves to service to the Spiritual Teacher, Divine couple Radha and Krishna. In the day of your appearance in this world, for sure, stars «have cried from happiness», and Srila Prabhupada was waiting for such son who will continue this great mission. Many thanks to Srila Prabhupada for he has brought up such worthy disciple, you.
I wish you a long happy spiritual life, good health, all blessings of Krishna and from previous acaryas, your dear teacher Srila Prabhupada’s, your spiritual brothers’, friends’, and successes of your disciples.
Dear Guru of Maharaja, please allow me to glorify the devotees with whom on your Mercy, I have the opportunity to cooperate in service of your mission. They are Prabhu Vayshnav das, matadji Tilakini devi dasi, matadji Ekamati devi dasi. They very sympathetic, sensitive, sincere, rallied and advanced, faithful, plunged into service to you, always aspiring to satisfy you and Krishna, the true spiritual soldiers, good instructors and careful friends.
yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado
yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto pi
dhyayan stuvams tasya yashas tri-sandhyam
vande guroh shri-charanaravindam
«Blessings of Krishna can be found only on mercy of the spiritual teacher. Without his mercy, any attempts to reach of perfection are doomed to a failure. Therefore I always should remember the spiritual teacher and to glorify him not less than three times per day, should incline with deep respect to lotus foot of the spiritual teacher».
Dear Teacher, I ask your blessings for me: always to remain in correct mood, that my belief in Krishna would became stronger from year to year; to be in a society of devotees, since by only communicating with them is it possible to remember Krishna; not stop to singing The Holy Names; to not forget about Krishna, His acts and close companions; to carry out the modest service to you, devotees and Deities; to give secret knowledge, care for my close people; to pass correctly along the spiritual way, «to not fall out of a boat of the devotional service» and to reach the goal; what you always talk about – to become completely understanding Krishna.
om adjnana-timirandhasya djnanandjana-shalakaya
chakshur unmilitam yena tasmayi shri-gurave namah
«I am with deep respect bowing down in front of my spiritual teacher who has opened me eyes by the torch of knowledge that has disseminated the gloom of ignorance».
Trying to be your disciple
Nitya Kishori devi dasi
(Kiev, Ukraine)
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Please, let me knee in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace!
Once my 3-years-old daughter pointing to your photo asked,
`Daddy, who is he?'
`He's my Best Friend," said I.
`Why best?'
`Because he loves me and gifts presents, although knows that I cannot reciprocate.'
`And what would he want?'
`He asks just for one thing: to take the gifts he presents.'
`And you take?'
A lump stuck in my throat.
If I try to do what you ask, I see that I get a benefit from it. A worthy payment for your mercy could be sincere devotion to you and Krishna, but unfortunately I do not find this wealth in my heart. On this auspicious day of your appearance I feel absolutely like a beggar when it comes to finding the words to glorify your Divine Grace. So I just implore the Lord to reside in my heart a memory about Him, whom I again and again want to address my words of gratitude and to whom life after life I'll owe for his invaluable gifts of Krishna consciousness, my Lord and Father, eternal and sincere well-wisher, Niranjana Swami.
In attempt to take the road of service to personalities whose love and devotion gladden you,
Your lame and beggarly 'prodigal son'
Omkara dasa
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances to your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
nama om vishnu padaya krishna preshthaya bhutale
srimate niranjana swami iti namine
anahata prayasena prabhupadasya tushtaye
sankirtana pravritiartham ihate gurave namaha
Please allow me to glorify you on this wonderful day of your Vyasa Puja. All glories to your divine grace and all the glories to Srila Prabhupada by whose mercy we obtained our eternal father and spiritual master. All glories to the Sankirtan movement of Lord Caitanya. From all my heart I am wishing you good health and luck in everything so that you could distribute the glory of the holy name all over the world. After I started writing this offering, I realized that another year has passed of my studies in the society of ISKCON among these wonderful devotees. The day of Guru's Vyasa Puja is the most happy event for disciples. Your appearance in my life was similar to a thunderbolt during a clear day. I felt that you could provide answers to all my questions, which I have been trying to find for a long time. I feel myself to be very lucky however I feel like I'm a dust particle. I am very small and insignificant. I don't have great mind or intelligence, but I love my spiritual master and I believe that he will bring me back home, back to Krishna. I'm praying to Krishna for abilities to serve you better, therefore I request you, Gurudev, please give me your mercy and help me keep advancing. In my helpless state I am still a disciple of such a wonderful spiritual master, this fills up my life with sense and helps me lose fear. All glories to your compassion. May the Lord protect you for the happiness and salvation of humanity.
You servant,
Padma devi dasi
(Zaporizhzha, Ukraina)
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Dear Guru Maharaja, Niranjana Swami,
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Please allow me to congratulate You on this wonderful day of Your appearance. Such a fallen soul like myself has received great mercy to glorify the greatest and most merciful personality, my spiritual father!
This year, in august my father passed away, and my whole family was trying to let him go as a real Vaishnava, he did a lot for me and for my spiritual life, he was trying to help the devotees, and maybe therefore Krishna has allowed him to pass away in consciousness listening to the sound of the holy name, in front of an altar, next to a Tulasi tree, we all were there.
He was very much attached to Krishna consciousness in the past several years, he was reading a lot, listening to a lot of lectures of spiritual teachers, he was chanting 20 rounds of Maha Mantra every day with my mother, Gunjamala dd, the disciple of Devamrita Swami, they visited the holy dham.
I know that Krishna took good care of his soul and arranged a better situation. But I still feel a pain of loss and I only start feeling better when I remember that I have a spiritual father, teacher, friend, that loves me no less than the departed father had loved me and I love you the same way. And I will never betray you. I will probably never be able to repay you for accepting me, unworthy as your disciple and gave me a great treasure – the holy name!
My heart is always filled with warmth, great love and tears of happiness when I remember you, when I look at your picture or a letter, which you have delivered to me with such pure love to me. I will be eternally praying for you, and I will be trying to fulfill your desire to be happy in Krishna Consciousness all my life.
I would like to humbly ask in this auspicious day for a blessing in spiritual life of my children and my husband, who are right now in Mayapur. My children are in the gurukula and I am going to visit them in February. I will be sincerely praying to visit the holy dham in proper consciousness to develop the desire to devotedly serve you every minute, to serve my dear spiritual master and Krishna!
Your servant always,
Parvati dd
(Donetsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in a dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to Your Divine Mercy!
On this day of your appearance I want to say you the dearest, the most confident, which is within a heart.
Dear Guru Maharaj! I read one of your disciple’s impressions about her trip to New Vraja-Dham in Hungary this year. Her words impressed me deeply. She wrote: “Despite constant physical pain Guru Maharaj is ready to serve us to our complete satisfaction”. And I remembered the Crimean festival and the Counselor Retreat… You always serve us giving the highest taste of devotional service and all material things become nothing compared to this taste. In your eyes we always see mercy, unlimited affection and love! Your heart is filled with a desire us to become serious and responsible in devotional service, to appreciate and concern about each other.
You always give us an ideal example in everything! You are a bona-fide disciple of a bona-fide spiritual master!
In your lectures you said that the essence of relations between a spiritual master and a disciple is that a disciple, whatever he does and whatever conditions he may be in, has to do everything with a desire to please Guru and Krishna.
Dear Guru Maharaj! I want to say you that I feel powerful backing from you in our service to the devotees in taking care of them. As if you are near us. And I want to serve the devotees with love just as you do! And I want to be happy in Krishna Consciousness just as you are!
Dear Guru Maharaj! I humbly bow down to your lotus feet and humbly ask your mercy so that we with Sevananda become useful to you in your service to your dear spiritual master – Srila Prabhupad.
Trying to become your servant and a servant of the vaisnavas,
Radhavinodini devi dasi
(Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisnaces in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glory to Your Devine Worship! All glory to Srila Prabhupada!
Today, on this auspicious day of Your Appearance in this material world I would like to say to You special words of gratitude coming from the bottom of my soul, to You my spiritual Master who is a torch never growing dim for me on my spiritual way. I’d like to glorify You with special words but lack of abilities doesn’t allow me to do this properly.
You are a true representative of Srila Prabhupada’s mission, You inspire everyone to follow it who come into contact with You. Your purity and indestructible strength save an infinite number of conditioned souls from miserable existence and insipidity of daily routine. Once having got the knowledge of true aim of human life people follow with infinite faith.
Your life and Your deeds do not differ. Your soul and whole Your life is a heroic deed, it’s constant overcoming during everyone’s boon.
“With the mercy of spiritual master a disciple finds Krishna’s mercy .Without the mercy of a spiritual master he isn’t able to obtain success.” Please make me an obedient instrument in Your hands.
Of course, each moment of personal association with a pure devotee is a great luck. Now I haven’t got such opportunity but You with Your characteristics like sympathy and kindness come to us in a form of Your diary, by reading it a person feels great gratitude towards You. And I’d like to bow to You over and over again for greatness of Your spirit, for greatness of Your deeds. We with all of Your disciples keep up on Your health with anxiety and hope because a disciple’s duty is to serve spiritual master and his mission. The rest devotees of Tbilisi Yatra join to congratulate You.
We warmly pray for You.
Your Disciple forever,
Sarasvati devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The day of your Appearance on this planet is coming closer. On this day I want to thank you for everything that you’ve done for me, for your mercy you shower on that insignificant disciple.
I’ll never forget the day when you arrived in Dnepropetrovsk and gave darsan for aspiring devotees. There were my wife and daughter on that darsan. I didn’t attend this darsan because I didn’t know at that time who is my spiritual master. When they came back, they told me that when Nanda Maharaj introduced them to you, you asked: “Where is Sasha?” This question removed all my doubts and I accepted you as my spiritual master.
Guru Maharaja, I am always inspired by your concern and love to your Godbrothers and your service to all the devotees without discrimination: “My disciple or not my disciple”.
Thank you very much for your support and strength you’ve given me and Radhavinodini devi dasi when we were asked to be counselors and take care of devotees. My mind revolted on that moment: “Do you really need this? You do have so many anxieties with the festivals and in the temple! You won’t manage to do this!”
This hesitation was left behind only by your instructions about importance of taking care of Krishna’s devotees by the help of senior devotees. I made my choice. Maybe we do something not like it should be, but now there are devotees who trust us and there is no way back.
Dear Guru Maharaj! I humbly bow down to your lotus feet and ask you to bless us with Radhavinodini devi dasi to be useful to you in your service in Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
Trying to become your servant and a servant of the vaisnavas
Sevananda das
(Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaj,
Please accept my humble obeisanses. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
"There is the taste of doing what Srila Prabhupada asks". This is the highest taste because this is serving a pure devotee. But we can get this taste only from those who got it from Srila Prabhupada directly through vani and vapu. It seems the parampara principle is working like that.
Therefore, on your Vyasa puja day I am happy to glorify the one who became a valuable link in this succession, who is the instrument in Srila Prabhupada's hands and says "I am asking you, I don't force you, this is Srila Prabhupada who pushes you. This not my desire. This is desire of Srila Prabhupada." Dear Gurudev, I am glorifying you. And those of us who are able feel Srila
Prabhupada's desire through You, and "will make efforts to satisfy Srila Prabhupada", never forget highest taste of service to you, Guru Maharaj, as well. And these are reciprocal feeling. I would like to make you happy with this. And your Vyasa puja celebration is not enough for that. But the more we (your disciples and well-wishers) think of what offering is desirable for you and
behave accordingly so that you'd be happier.
On your Vyasa puja day I am wishing you joy and happiness derived from your service to Srila Prabhupada and from your disciples' service to Srila Prabhupada through you. And it is so easy when I hear from you "Quality of love is to not think of your own profit. This is principle of existence – to experience such love. By experiencing such love the living entity becomes free." I have a great hope to one day, by Your mercy, contribute to this zero-risk enterprise of uninterrupted and unmotivated devotional service of
Krishna.
Your disciple
Srinathaji das
(St.Petersburg, Russia)
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please, take my humble obeisances at the dust of Your lotus feets. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Undoubtedly we'll come to Krishna. In spite of all our anarthas, attachment to sensual delights and weakness of heart, we don't have a ghost of a chance not to come back Krishna. And this is thanks to you - thanks to the fact that You are our spiritual master.
You have accepted me as your disciple. It gives me a hope that You see in me as well as in everybody the potential ability for service to Krishna. You have taken the responsibility for me - and it fills me with faith and gratitude.
It's impossible to realize what You are doing for us, giving up yourself without reminder. You have drowned your disciples in the unlimited ocean of Your love and care. When we see how You suffer even the physical pain for the sake of the intercourse with us, we feel sharp and sweet pain. And in reply to Your love even the most hard heart, as tough as my own, is melted and filled with love and gratitude. Naturally we want to live and to breathe for Your sake, to answer You at least somehow.
But for this goal it necessary to know what You desire. And if we want to understand Your wishes we have to listen to You. But all that You give in Your instructions is the pure bhakti, the pure Krishna Consciousness. Only the person who get Krishna in his property can give Him to others like You do it.
And how can we turn away from Krishna Consciousness or not to try to develop the taste to the Holy Name, if we know that it hurts You much more then physical pain? How can we go away if we are bound by strong rope of Your love? Can we be so ungrateful to pain You deliberately?!
That's why we don't have a chance not to be blessed with Krishna Consciousness. You haven't given other options for us.
Because of Your incredible mildness, subtlety and delicacy You never push on us. But however we feel the most nectar and transcendent push - the push of Your love and our gratitude.
Your useless disciple
Sugopi devi dasi
(Donetsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On this auspicious day of your appearance into this material world, please allow me to thank you for all the hard work you have done over the years for the mission of Srila Prabhupada and for the blessings to your disciples.
In ISKCON, you have been known as a guru who is a servant of his disciples. Even if we, your disciples, make our best efforts to serve you, as it is prescribed by shastras – a disciple serves his spiritual master – nonetheless, every time it turned out to be just the opposite. You serve us. You give us your heart, your love, your care and your health selflessly. You fulfill our desires to our satisfaction, and all you ask in return is that you want us to be happy in Krishna Consciousness.
In the animal world, some baby-animals stay close by their mothers for two or three years until they are fully grown up and can function on their own. We, your baby-disciples, cling to you, our only true parent in this material world, for many-many years. You are nursing and nurturing us; you are singing and reading to us; you are worried sick when we are in trouble; and you are proud of us when we do the right thing by you.
We come to you as the ugly ducklings, and you turn us into the beautiful swans. You teach us the value of perseverance and humility. When we do our first steps, stumbling and falling and crying, you are always there, to comfort us with your big, cozy, divine wings. You easily lift us up, putting us right back on the track. And we have your support again and again while walking on the path of devotional service to Lord Krishna.
Every year, I am thinking what could I offer to my spiritual master? And every time I get nothing to offer you, because you are spoiling me with all your unconditioned parental love. You are very kind to me. You forgive me for everything. You give me anything I want. You make me happy. I am used to it. You are generously pouring the nectar of devotional service on my head, while doing all the work for me.
I am sorry, Guru Maharaja, for being useless in your mission. But please, at least allow me to thank you for my happiness and serenity that you provide for me constantly.
Your lazy servant,
Taraka devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja, Srila Niranjana Swami,
Please accept my lowest obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and to all the Vaisnavas. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
One year passes after another just like the birds flying. I’m approaching to downhill of my life. Since my childhood I’ve got faith and knowledge of God from my grandmother. Already a little girl I knew that God sees everything and knows everything; that He’s within me and that He’s everywhere outside. All my life I’ve been searching for pure and saint people. But I would always meet frustration. But in the middle of my life suddenly Krishna entered my life; He gave me Srila Prabhupada’s books and Maha-mantra. He gave me you. Srila Prabhupada writes: “Krishna may become the director and a spiritual master of anyone who is serious about getting mercy of Krishna. The Lord sends the spiritual master to train a devotee, and when the devotee is advanced, the Lord acts as a spiritual master within hi heart.” (SB 7.15.76)
Guru is the one, who is sent to us by Krishna; it’s our path of approaching the Lord. Our relations with a spiritual master are meant to fill us with spiritual energy and to dissipate our material illusion. For all these years of your association I’ve experienced many miracles, revelations, purifications and tests. Sometimes I wanted to leave everything and everyone and just to turn to practicing bhakti-yoga at home. But every time you would save me. Your answers, advises and support would come from your classes I was listening to. Due to that my determination to serve would increase. And you would break to pieces my desire to hide myself from all the devotees and to stop visiting temple. There were power, purity, love of Srila Prabhupada and determination to serve him in your instructions. In some mystical way these things got transferred to me as well.
Being an ideal guru, Sri Caitanya Mahaprbhu taught the art of pleasing a spiritual master: if you indeed love me you should love my instructions. Don’t think of anything else but Krishna. Don’t spell any sounds but Krishna’s name. (Caitanya Bhagavata, 8.27)
Dear Guru Maharaj, you are the Lord’s representative and His faithful disciple-follower. Your words, your instructions, your chanting of the holy name always used to pull me out of the abyss.
Once I had to face severe family problems and I didn’t want to live anymore. And it was only you and the transcendental knowledge that didn’t allow me to make this mad step and “escape” from all the problems of this life. If not you, Guru Maharaj, I wouldn’t be able to get through those tests I had to face on my path.
It is said in “Brahma-vaivarta Purana”: “The best guru is that one upon listening whom even a person possessed by lust, anger or greed, or a person absorbed in desperation can be enlightened.” This means that the words of a spiritual master should penetrate a disciple’s heart and dissipate the darkness within it.
Today I would like to thank you not only for those strength and faith you give me but for all those tests and difficulties as well. A disciple needs a guru for profound inner profound transformations, not some superficial changing. You make a surgery on our hearts. We just need to let you in. Our false ego is the most difficult to be uprooted, since it’s the closest covering to the soul. This false self with its complexes and problems is supposed to die. But all these inner processes will not happen within our heart without alive, profound and confidential relations with a spiritual master.
A disciple should aspire toward perfection, and a spiritual master should help him in that by chastising and correcting a disciple. And a disciple should allow him to do so. Everybody is ready to accept a spiritual master while he’s smiling. But we should allow a spiritual master many things. And right in these moments my ego’s just yelling destroying everything on it’s path. But due to your instructions later my intelligence gradually put everything in order. Therefore I am asking for your mercy and association again and again and I entrust my soul, body and mind into your hands. Guru Maharaj, I believe that one day all these things become pure enough to be offered by you to the Lord.
Unfortunately I must admit that the surgery on my heart is not yet completed. Your mercy and your compassion only may save me. My life continues in this body and on this path due to you only. It’s your credit that even while passing through severe tests I could continue my spiritual practice. You wrote me: “Continue performing your duties in Krishna Consciousness – chant, read, and worship Deities. Ultimately your Krishna conscious example may happen to be capable of saving your son. But if you loose Krishna Consciousness you will not be able to help anybody, nor even yourself.” And I continued to serve wishing to satisfy you. There was no (and there is no) any motive besides that one.
In “Srimad Bhagavatam” (3.25.20) Srila Prabhupada describes the effect of true sadhu association and the things such sadhu may teach us: “Attachment to a devotee is an attachment to the service of the Lord because if one associates with a sadhu, the result will be that the sadhu will teach him how to become a devotee, a worshiper and a sincere servitor of the Lord. These are the gifts of sadhu. If we want to associate with a sadhu, we cannot expect him to give us instructions on how to improve our material condition, but he will give us instructions on how to cut the knot of contamination of material attraction and how to elevate ourselves in devotional service. This is the result of associating with a sadhu.” Thank you Srila Prabhupada for having such a disciple like our Guru Maharaj! Thank you Guru Maharaj for being with us! Thank you for teaching us, leading us and praying for us! You are cleansing and polishing our hearts so that one day Krishna Himself would like to enter there together with His associates – the entire Vrindavan!
There is a very instructive story. Before packing a pencil inside a box, a pencil-maker placed him little aside and said.
– There are five things you must know before I send you into the world. Always remember and never forget these principles and you will become the best pencil ever possible.
The first thing is: you will be able to perform many great things but only if you allow one to hold yourself in one’s hand.
The second thing is: sometimes you will have to experience a painful trimming, but it will be necessary to become a better pencil.
The third thing is that you will be able to correct your mistakes.
The next point is that your most important part is always inside of you.
And the final point is whatever surface you are being used on you have to leave your mark there; despite your personal condition you must continue writing.
The pencil understood everything and promised to remember these five things. After that he was put into a box with a mission in his heart.
Dear Guru Maharaj, your last visits to Minsk and Kiev convinced me that nobody inspires and cleanses me like you. Nobody but you can grind and polish me with one’s instructions and one’s example. Srila Prabhupada wrote: “First of all one should start do things oneself and then only to teach others. True master is like that. One’s preaching is not going to be successful until one understands completely philosophy he’s preaching. Therefore one should not only study philosophy of Lord Caitanya, but also to live according to it.” (CC, Adi, 9.51)
Your words, your qualities and your example teach us. You serve Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. And Krishna acts through you, using you as His instrument. To consider a guru a mundane person means to forget his connection with Krishna. Guru is the one who’s comprehended his soul beauty and therefore is capable of extracting this beauty from others. He just approaches others with love. And during these visits you demonstrated me your love and compassion to all of us. You were giving yourself to everybody and reciprocating with everybody the way one needed despite your bodily pain and insufficient night rest.
Jiva Goswami taught that a disciple should be profound, observing and therefore should accept many gurus. If one is concentrated on one spiritual master only one becomes proud. Of course, in the beginning one should have one master to learn being a servant, to learn being a disciple. But later the whole world starts teaching us. If we believe our spiritual master teaches us through everything, everybody and everywhere, he will never die for us.
On this day I would like to offer my gratitude and my obeisances to Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaja, Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Maharaj, Vrajendra Kumar Prabhu (Vladivostok), Acyuta Priya Prabhu (Kiev) and Damodara Caran Prabhu (Kiev). Through their classes I receive your help. I pray the Lord to make my desire and my determination to move forward on my way back to Godhead under the guidance of yours and of other Vaisnavas to become stronger and stronger day by day.
Srila Rupa Goswami writes, sadhana-oghair anasangair alabhya sucirad api – even if one performs a lot of activity and strictly follows one’s sadhana, even if one is doing all these for a long period of time (sucirad api), one will achieve nothing (alabhya) if there is no strong attachment. Our attempts to enter deep should be always performed under the guidance of experienced Vaisnavas, in acceptance of this guidance. I am bowing down to you asking for your permission to serve you always and everywhere: whether it’s material or spiritual world.
I pray the Lord to always keep me in a humble mood of a disciple in my relations with you, in attachment to your instructions. I pray the Lord to help me to satisfy you with my service and with the changes which occur within my heart. I am bowing down to your lotus feet asking for your eternal shelter.
Your eternal disciple-servant,
Taruni devi dasi
(Lithuania)
PS
I am sorry the letter is long again. But as I told you every day I write you and talk to you within my mind, and as a result – such a long offering. What can I do with such a sentimental nature? I just may hope again and again that you will forgive me my mistakes, offenses and will continue engaging me in your service.
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Dear Maharaja,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you for going through so much trouble to write books emphasizing the most important points of daily day devotional life issues such as: devotee association, regular healthy dose of hearing and chanting, grahastha asharam difficulties, pride, humility, Vaishnava aparadhas, helping other devotees to die during their final hours of death and many other issues related to devotional life. Maharaja, I have read all of your books except the new book which came out recently and book on lectures of Chaitanya Caharitamrita. I am going to start reading the latest book very shortly. On this auspicious occasion of Vaysa Puja homage offering, I am briefly describing very few points related to devotional life mentioned in your book; the words of these points are based on my memory so the wordings might not be very accurate:
- I read your article on Prabhupada Marathon on internet and article very nicely emphasize the book distribution and in fact article inspired me to take a book distribution very seriously. Maharaja thank you for giving your example of doing a book distribution in PA in - 40 degree temperature.
- The internet article about counselor subject divorce gave two very nice powerful example about duty: 1) Wife serving a prostitute to fulfill husbands desire. 2) Indian congregation lady in Boston staying with her husband for 44 years to raise her kids and get them married.
- In your books you have mentioned couple of times that how the Boston temple president has a very much caring attitude towards you (when you were brahmachari); and caring attitude helped you to become a good devotee.
- Maharaja, I think in your book – Taking care of Krishna’s devotee you emphasize that if we take care of Krishna’s devotee than Krishna will take care of us.
- The books written by you very nicely emphasize that if we don’t help a devotees at the time of death to have Krishna Conscious death then what is use of preaching because we don’t have a compassion. If we help a devotee to stay Krishna conscious at the time of death then Krishna will help us to have Krishna Conscious death.
- Maharaja, your books give ample warnings to devotees to not to be puffed up in devotional life, get rid of pride and become a humble Vaishnava; otherwise pride will be a cause of our fall down.
- When I read the example of how leper Brahman was neglected by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu due to his offenses to Srniwas Pundit. That incident taught me that what Vaishnava offenses can do to a devotee.
- Thank you for repeatedly emphasizing in your books to take a heavy dose of chanting and hearing regularly; in a devotional life healthy dose of chanting and hearing is very essential to make a rapid progress in Krishna Conscious; and thank you also for constantly reminding us that we should become Prabhupadanugas.
Maharaja, you have been always very compassionate and merciful on us, for example during 2005 Gaura Purnima festival in Shri Mayapur Dham you spend a valuable time to talk to me and then in October 2005 when you were visiting Lila Smarana Mataji; you were going to call me on issues related to devotional life; then in March 2007 Maharaja you called me from India and kept very message encouraging me to go on with my regular devotional life. The phone message is very inspiring to me and in fact I have still saved up this message on a phone answering machine. I was in India in October 2008, and I called H.G. Pyari Mohan prabhu from India about issues related to 2nd initiation and Maharaja your prompt reply to me through Pyari Mohan Prabhu and guided me on how to handle the issue of letter of recommendation.
Maharaja, we are anxiously waiting for your trip back to US, and we want to meet you if your health and preaching schedule permits for meeting. I have been in regular contact with H.G. Pyari Mohan prabhu to find out about you probable dates for visiting US. Thank you for always being there for us through books, e-mails and phone calls.
Your Servants
Upendra Dasa
Pancali devi dasi & Bhaktin Radhika
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your Divine lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupad!
Before I begin writing this offering I pray to my Deities and to Srila Prabhupad that they give me necessary intelligence and understanding of my position as disciple which are necessary for finding proper words to glorify You in such a way that You will be pleased.
It is quite a difficult task for me to write the offering for the day of Your Sri Vyasa Puja. This is sort of an analysis of my internal state, analysis of the depth of my understanding of my unimportant position and understanding of elevated position of spiritual master, understanding of his importance, value and necessity for disciple. If such analysis is successful then thankfulness appears in the heart of disciple which will reveal itself as the desire to do something to please spiritual master.
The result of my analysis done recently tells that I am absolute bankrupt. I cannot give anything to anyone, although sometimes those who listen to me expect the opposite. At such moments I am just starting to pray to You, to Srila Prabhupad, to Deities so that I can be just a tool in Your hands. And then sometimes to my great surprise I start talking about Krishna consciousness and I am amazed about the realizations I get during the lectures. In fact it is You, Dear Guru Maharaja who gives the lectures while I am just playing the role of audio system. Earlier I thought that it was me who would give lecture. But now I understand that this was just great stupidity of mine. What can a person say about Krishna consciousness if he doesn’t have one?
The fact that I am still continuing in Krishna consciousness movement despite of the load of anarthas I have is nothing else than Your causeless mercy. I feel great gratefulness to You that six years ago You kindly agreed to engage me in the preaching mission and allowed me to perform the service of regional secretary. I am horrified when thinking what would happen to me if You did not do so. I would just struggle for survival in this world and I doubt if I would be successful.
Dear guru Maharaja, I am eternally indebted to You and I would like to remain such for ever as such type of consciousness makes me always think how could I be more useful to You in Your preaching mission.
Please forgive me for my shy and not very successful attempt to glorify You on the day of Your Vyasa Puja.
Always Your eternal servant,
Vanamali Kaviraj das
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Dear Guru Maharaja, Your Divine Grace!
Your task on the market place of Lord Nityananda is with my soul. Because as Bhaktivinoda Thakur had said in "Godruma Kalpatava" that those that are not yet completely purified are engaged in assisting those who occupy a certain rank in the “Namma Hatta". So your main position is being a Vrajak Bipani or Pashari, a travelling sales courier or a salesman of the Holy Name. And besides that You are delivering Shuddha Nam all over the world. You have to take up other responsibilities too on the market place of the Holy Name. The storage room of the transcendental merchandise is the eternal Bhagavata Purana. The ethics for accepting pure Holy Name is similar to the way Shrimad Bhagavatam is being passed down. In other words, without an authentic instructor, there won't be actual business happening on the "Market Place".
Sukadeva Goswami is carefully passing down (consciously) to his disciple Maharaja Parikshit, and to the whole assemply of great personalities. Upon hearing and realizing the message of Maha Purana, Suta Goswami is passing down the transcendental nectar further to Shaunaka Risi. So the most important work in Your service is to deliver this to your disciples, especially the old ones, to teach them how to constantly receive the Holy Name. And sometimes somebody would be losing taste when the credit you have given has already expired. Because it is impossible to always live on credit, at some point, the disciple should be ready to accept whatever His Guru Maharaj is carrying in His heart. Therefore spiritual master is asking his obedient disciples to create a system of counsellorship that was presented in Srimad Bhagavatam. This important instruction is aimed at those who have no intention to remain in this material world and those who are trying to seek employment on the "Market Place" to satisfy Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu!
And from this point on Caitanya Caritamrita takes place, another words Spiritual World. This spiritual world is described by great Vaisnavas as Bhaki Vriksa, the family tree of Vaisnavas, the core of which is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and the main branches that are giving life to the rest are branches of Sri Advaita Acarya, and Gadadhara Pandit. This is exactly the kind of tree you want to see in the hearts of your disciples. And not the devotees that are suffering with material sickness who have lost their faith in chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
I have great fortune to come in contact with the tree of Bhakti and without You this process would not have been possible. I am praying to God to help me satisfy my Gurudev, so that I could continue to grow on the tree of Gauranga in the process of Sankirtana.
Thank you Guru Maharaja.
Your unworthy servant,
Vrajakishor das
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nama om visnu padaya krsna presthaya bhutale
srimate niranjana svamin iti namine
anahata prayasena prabhupadaya tustae
sankirtana pravritti artham ihate gurave namaha
Dear Guru Maharaja,
Your divine Grace Srila Niranjana Swami Maharaja!
Please allow me on this auspicious day of Govardhana Puja (the day when the Govardhana Hill is worshipped) write a few words of gratitude and offer them to Your lotus feet for the day of Your Sri Vyasa Puja!
I am so grateful to Your Divine Grace for complete protection, support, help, authority and mercy in all different ways towards fallen Vasudeva das.
Please forgive me the mistakes and offenses that I perform toward Your lotus feet and Your Divine Grace. Please forgive the crazy Vasudeva dasa who is drowning in the ocean of sorrow, regret and illusion.
Thank You so much for everything that You are doing for me. Dear Guru Maharaja, thank You for Your support for me, all my god brothers and sisters, all the devotees of ISKCON and all the living entities!!!
I hope this letter meets Your Divine Grace in good health and good mood!
With respect,
Your servant and eternally in debt to You,
Vasudeva das
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om ajnana timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah
I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.
nama om visnu-padaya krisna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate niranjana swamin iti namine
anahata-prayasena prabhupadasya tustaye
sankirtana- pravritti-artham ihate gurave-namah
My dear Guru Maharaj!
Please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Mercy!
On Your Vyasa-puja a disciple should glorify his spiritual master. But it is not so easy to do. Still I will try to do it. It is said in “Caitanya-caritamrita” that a human being, who rejects to accept a spiritual master, is helpless like a ship without rudder that never achieves the aim. I am so lucky. Because of Srila Prabhupada's unreasonable mercy I could meet a pure devotee of Lord Krishna. It was You, my Guru Maharaj. And You are so compassionate that You gave the refuge to such fallen as I am. I am in eternal debt before You! You are true acarya! You teach by your own example how to gain devotees' mercy and Lord Krishna’s mercy, and how to achieve the perfection. You possess all the exalted vaisnava qualities! You are a Saint! Lord Krishna says: “Saints are My heart, there is Me and only Me in their hearts. They know nobody except Me, and therefore I admit only them as mine”. Saints like You, Guru Maharaj, are the place of pilgrimage. Thanks to their purity they never separate from God and therefore are able to purify even the Holy places. You are serving Lord Krishna and to Your beloved Guru Srila Prabhupada with love for 24 hours. I am sure that both Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna are very satisfied with You! You are Their beloved servant and the dearest friend. In spite of Your huge problems with the health , You want to get back home all the unhappy and lost souls, to the lotus feet of Lord Krishna, Who is the eternal and the most loving Father and Mather of all living beings. Serving the spiritual master is unusually important. If a disciple does not have a possibility to serve the spiritual master personally, he should do it by following his instructions. There is no difference between the instructions of the spiritual master and the guru himself. In absence of the master his instructions must become the subject of disciple's pride. Dear Guru Maharaj! I am proud of You! You are most beautiful! I always remember Your most important instruction: “Always remember Krisna and never forget Him!” Please forgive me that I am so useless disciple, I feel so worthless. But still I will never be jumping from the board of the ISKCON’ ship - NEVER!!!
Dear Guru Maharaj ! Please, don’t drive me away from You, though I am totally useless and insignificant.
Your servant,
Vicitrangi devi dasi
(St.Petersburg, Russia)
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Dear Guru Maharaj, please, accept my respectful obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
A little bit more then one week ago I returned from Sri Vrindavana Dhama, where I spent kartika month. Every time when I return to the material world from Dhama I am shocked, because my devotion to the Lord Krishna is practically equal to zero. Everything seems strange and even hostile to me here. And I really want to go back to Vrindavan, where everyone loves Krishna and where even in my heart appears the desire to serve and once to love Him. Exactly lack of desire to serve Krishna makes me endure so sharply departure from Vrindavan. Because it is really hard for me to remember Him here.
But recollecting the previous year and trying to reveal something that I could make an attempt to offer You at this day, I obviously saw that I have not once been to Vrindavan, the place where everyone loves Krishna. Being close to You on the festival this year, listening to Your lectures, taking part in kirtan, noticing how You communicate with other devotees, I was in Dhama. Because anyone who is with You, besides in the association of hundred devotees -really is in Vrindavan, the place where everyone loves Krishna. And my heart proves it. Thinking about it I was absorbed by the avalanche of the recollections of Your unreasonable mercy, manifesting to me, of Your love. Though, undoubtedly, I am not worthy of it. But discussing more, it was revealed to me that I have been to Vrindavan more then twice. Every week going out to harinama I also was there. When I went to the streets of St. Petersburg and chanted the Holy Name there was this desire to serve Krishna in my heart. Besides You have mercifully assured me in the letter that You are all the time near us, when we go out to harinama. Exactly Your presence, Your mercy with what You accept and hand over our service to the Lord, converts the streets of St. Petersburg into Vrindavan, the place where everyone loves Krishna.
Guru Maharaj, now when I am not conditioned till the end and still remember Vrindavan, I beg You to help me to purify my heart , for I could invite You there forever, and together with You there would come Vrindavan and Krishna. I also beg You to forgive me that even at such day when I am glorifying You, I again ask You for something and I am not to saying anything about Your fame. The only thing that I can do is to recollect and hand You the words of Your Spiritual Brother, Srila Indradyumna Swami, who has pronounced them on the lecture in Vrindavan this year. Speaking about sincerity in service to Krishna , He gave an example of You, glorifying and ascending Your sincerity and humility. And I would never glorify You better. The happiness from His words flowed me over then. There was so much love to You in those words. It is said that to see the Spiritual Master in Dhama is the perfection of life, and that we are able to see only with ears, listening to sadhu. I am really very thankful to Maharaj for this opportunity to see You in Vrindavan – to see You in Vrindavan and therefore to reach the perfection in my pilgrimage.
Guru Maharaj, please forgive me for such an unskillful attempt to write to You. There is no logic, no beauty, no devotion in my offering. I have just splashed out everything that I feel now on the paper. I am very… very thankful to You. And forgive me please for this immaturity, but I can not function without You. Therefore please do not leave us. Please accept as my offering everything good that I have done for Krishna this year. It is not too much, but that’s all that I can return You instead of that feeling of love and necessity to You, that You gave me to feel on the first day of the festival in Eupatoriya during japa.
Please one more time accept my humble obeisances and prayers.
Your unworthy disciple
Vidagdha Siromani das
(St. Petersburg, Russia)
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Guru Maharaj, allow me in this remarkable day of your appearance to make a try to express you my gratitude and admiration.
I am very captured by your taking care of the devotees, your compassion, your help to everybody who approaches you. You are totally forgetting yourself, your health, you care only for preaching the glories of the Holy Name and Srila Prabhupada.
By glimpsing over the lectures you have given for this time, I am sure, that listening to them even such a stone heart that I possess will become softer.
You never stop to give yourself, your love. Your courage and enthusiasm in Krishna consciousness just strike us.
Recently I noticed that whenever I heard that you felt worse (with you health) I immediately began to pray with a new strength. With this, connection with you, by the Holy Name, becomes more tangible. At once I take a look into my hear, and a question arises: what I did improperly, what can I fix? Such circumstances make me more serious. I desire to see you healthy and happy so much!
Your disciple,
Yasodamayi devi dasi
(Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja Srila Niranjana Swami,
Please accept my obeisances unto Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Time passes by and Your Vyasa-puja is coming closer. Therefore I would like to thank You for Your selfless endeavors to bring me closer to Krishna and to help me by all means to progress in spiritual life.
Looking back I can feel this care all the time although I do not get Your personal association often.
Recently while Srimad-Bhagavatam lecture I had a realization. I was wondering from where I know the fact that God has many incarnations and that all of them are equally powerful. And then I realized that it was You who has given me all this knowlegde and I am always indebted to You for this.
I would also like to ask You to please forgive me all offences I may have committed upon You as it becomes more and more clear how imperfect my endeavors are to serve You and divine Gaura-Nitai.
Yours in trying for long time to become somehow useful,
Yatinama Siromani das
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nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate niranjana-swamiti namine
anahata prayasena prabhupadasya tustaye
sankirtana pravrtyartham ihate gurave namah
Dear Guru Maharaj, please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to You!
Usually every year in my Vyasa-puja offering I describe my progress in Krsna consciousness, how I see it, because my progress is Your causeless mercy. But since last year I don’t see any progress, on the contrary some decline is here. And it is Your causeless mercy. This is easily to practice when everything is all right; and when nothing is all right, there is no other way but to practice too.
Once, a few years ago, You asked me, ‘What do you want?’ ‘Pure devotional service’. ‘These are only words,’ – You cut short. But why? I HAVE this desire, and this is my ONLY real desire, desire of a soul. There are so many other ‘desires’ – material which are seemingly prevailing. But by Your mercy I know who I am. So why did You do so? You did not see it, or why? I could not understand it at that time. Now I see that I saw only my ‘greatness’ and faults I saw in others. To bring my attention to my own faults You did it – by not seeing my anarthas how can I get a desire to be purified?
Actually, everything is all right. By Your causeless mercy I am living in Vrindavan, and I am constantly in the association of sincere and serious Vaisnavas, I have service to devotees, I have friends who care about me, I have Srila Prabhupada’s books and I have the Holy Name! What is not all right is my consciousness. ‘The demoniac person thinks, isvaro ‘ham aham bhogi siddho ‘ham balavan sukhi…’ I think in this way. Yes, finally I see – I am here because I think in this way, I want to be in a center, and I envy Krishna, and don’t love Him.
Don’t know if I envy Lord Caitanya. His activities are incomprehensible for a demoniac person, yet are very attractive. He does not demand, ‘Surrender unto Me first, and then I shall deliver you’. He accepts everyone. Except those who are double-faced and criticize Vaisnavas. But I am like this. So who can accept me? Only Lord Nityananda, the most merciful and munificent personality. And His representatives who are the same as He is. So now finally I see that in my today’s condition I am not worth to be accepted by Krishna, or Lord Caitanya, however You, as a representative of Lord Nityananda, accepted me by Your causeless mercy and don’t leave me and guide me to the highest perfection, Radha-Govinda prema. I am sheltered, and I will reach the goal one day. I take shelter of Your causeless mercy and pray never ever leave it. I pray to understand how to serve You better and always please You.
All glories to Your Divine Grace!
Your servant
Ananga Gopi devi dasi
P.S. I am adding my last year’s offering. I did not send it because I was ill at that time.
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Dear Guru Maharaj, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Your Vyasa-puja day!
You always teaches me how to cooperate each with other, to serve each other, even sometimes (mostly) say ‘yes’ instead ‘no’ just to pleas others. And You always remind me, ‘Humility, humility, and again humility’. Be humble. I pray to You, Guru Maharaj, please crush my pride to the pieces that I can become a devotee. Actually, I should pray to become devotee’s servant.
Please keep me under the shelter of Your Lotus Feet and continue guide me in Krishna consciousness.
Your disciple,
Ananga Gopi devi dasi
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My dear Guru Maharaja!
There is a strong hold in this ever changing world. This is a spiritual master, who sheds light of knowledge on the lost souls, who are stuck in ignorance. A spiritual master is the personification of all pure, noble and exalted.
Who can be dearer to us than those, who show us our way back to Godhead and lead us along the infinite way of Divine love?
All glories to all spiritual masters! All glories to you, Guru Maharaja, who saves hundreds and hundreds of fortunate souls including me.
Let every day of your selfless and pure life be blessed!
Let all your actions and plans be blessed!
Let devoted love of your disciples cure all your physical diseases and give you strength and never-ending joy!
Thank you very much for everything!
With gratitude and love,
Anuradha devi dasi
(Riga, Latvia)
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Dear Gurudev,
Please, accept my humble obeisances at Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
In my wish to glorify You I feel like a failure and at the same time I think that I am very lucky because I have met You – I have got and still have an opportunity to have Your association and that is one of the biggest values in my life. Of course I do not fully realize this yet because if I did it I would have had devoted my life to fulfilling Your orders long time ago already. Because of Your mercy I become more and more happy each day and I continue obtaining stronger faith in Your words that “Sooner or later we will come to the conclusion that we won’t be able to be happy without Krishna Consciousness.” You have told that You put all of Yourself into this instruction. Lord Caitanya said that from thousands and millions of living entities which wander in the material world only a very rare soul gets lucky to receive the seed of devotional service by the mercy of Spiritual master and Krishna. And I am extremely grateful that I am one of these millions of jivas which by Your mercy has got a unique opportunity to get in contact with Krishna, with His Holy Name and with His devotees. Thank You very much for that seed of devotional service in my heart and for teaching me how to water it – by chanting Krishna’s name together with the wonderful devotees.
Krishna says in Srimad Bhagavatam (11.14.16), “I want to clean the entire material world which is inside Me with the dust from the lotus feet of my devotees.”
Dear Gurudev, You are very dear to Lord Krishna and to Srila Prabhupada, because of Your selfless and continuous loving service to the Lord. Thank You for teaching us – the ones who are trying to make the first steps on this great path – to have such great devotion and love for Guru and Krishna.
When Lord Caitanya asked Ramananda Raya what was the most painful thing in life, he answered, that it is separation with a pure devotee. Because when there are no Krishna devotees in the society, people are suffering and life without them causes a lot of pain. I am very grateful that You are pulling me out of associations that would bring only pain and provide me with such associations that bring comfort and happiness to my heart.
Brihad-Bhagavatamrita canto 5.44 says that association with a pure devotee is more precious than life itself, and after separation with him one can’t be happy even for a moment. Thanks to You I start understanding one of the dangers that You have mentioned in one of Your lectures. You said that if a person doesn’t feel love and doesn’t share that love whilst associating with the devotees, then he will start looking for love in association with non devotees, because the soul’s nature is to always look for love. That will bring him only pain and disappointment. Thanks to You I become more and more conscious that association with You and with the devotees is the basis of my spiritual life.
When Lord Caitanya asked Ramananda Raya what activity is most advantageous and auspicious he answered that there is nothing more auspicious than association with pure devotees. I can understand and experience that because of Your causeless mercy. I have received the most valuable gift from You – association with You and with the God brothers. There is no greater gift in the three worlds. Because this gift, which came out of Your lotus lips contains everything – the Holy Name and Krishna lilas, love to Krishna and the most important thing – Your association and Your mercy.
Dear Gurudev, please bless me, so that I will be able to value and protect this gift of Yours. So that I won’t perceive it as something to be taken for granted. So that I always treasure it in my heart and learn to share it with others with the same taste and love as You are sharing it with us.
Attempting to be Your servant,
Ashvini Kumar das
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Dear Maharaja,
Please accept our most respectful and grateful obeisances in the dust of your divine lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to your unparalleled service to Srila Prabhupada’s and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission!
Had you not taken the charge of our lives, we wouldn’t have been able to survive in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. Our mind was always rejecting it thinking it to be a dry philosophy, difficult to follow; however, your instructions and emphasis on chanting with ‘feeling’ and association of devotees gave us the required subjectivity.
You have extended yourself to us through the agency of your disciples who are embodiment of your instructions. By your causeless mercy, we are able to feel your presence in their association. Even though we didn’t get your vapu association much, but you have always been extremely kind to extend your limitless mercy to us through various means.
Whenever we feel lack of enthusiasm in following devotional service, somehow we get your direct instructions in the form of your lectures, books or disciples, which re-infuse in us the desire to continue. Please bless us so that we may develop an eager thirst to hear the glories of the Lord from your transcendental mouth. Without your mercy, we cannot reach Kṛṣṇa:
vaisnava thakura, doyara sagara,
e dase koruna kori'
diya pada-chaya, sodho he amaya,
tomara carana dhori
“O venerable Vaisnava, O ocean of mercy, be merciful unto your servant. Give us the shade of your lotus feet and purify us. We hold on to your lotus feet.”
Though we have a desire to become Kṛṣṇa Conscious in this life time, it is lacking sincerity as we are not able to sense the urgency. Your sincere determination and desire to serve Srila Prabhupada; your deep attachment to the Holy name; your immense compassion and love for the fallen souls like us (and many more things), inspires us to progress on this path and become an insignificant instrument in your hands to serve the mission of Lord Sri Chaitanya.
We are greatly indebted to one of your senior most disciples for sharing with us one of your spiritual qualities out of a treasure that you possess, which is that you are free of any kind of fault finding and that is the reason that you can chant (japa and kirtan) so nicely. Please bless us that we can overcome this weakness in our hearts.
We feel so much pain whenever we read about the health treatments but at the same time we feel deeply inspired to see the state of your consciousness. We are unable to offer any service worthy of the mercy you are giving us.
Previously when I had met you, I had expressed a desire to be able to understand Srila Prabhupada through you. Your mercy flowed down to us and we were able to get a little glimpse of what Srila Prabhupada ultimately desired from us-- “to love Kṛṣṇa”.
We pray that this year you guide our intelligence to be able to understand the depth of relationship between a spiritual master and a disciple, so that gratitude for You, Srila Prabhupada and Kṛṣṇa gets manifested in our hearts.
Aspiring to become unconditional servants at your lotus feet,
Bhakta Karan and Bhaktin Nidhi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in a dust of your lotus feet. All glories to you! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
These words of GLORIES sound in my heart every time my heart is overflowed by the desire to glorify you in your appearance day …
“All glories to you! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!” These deep words contain the process of manifestation of Krishna’s Glory through the Succession of Spiritual Masters (evam parampara-praptam BG 4.2) and careful return It to the True Owner, Krishna.
“All” means fully, without compromises.
“All” means Sanyasa, full renunciation of any opportunity to appropriate something of the endless stream of Krishna’s pastimes and enjoy it.
Srila Prabhupad said that purity is our strength. And to be and remain our Acarya Srila Prabhupada took sanyasa in 1959 as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati wanted.
The Great Acarya Srila Prabhupada transmitted the POWER of purity, renunciation, unselfishness and devotion to his disciples.
And for me now you, Guru Maharaja, are Acarya and the one who has these inestimable qualities of the Lord.
In Bhagavad-Gita 3.21 Lord Krishna says: “Whatever action a great man performs, common men follows…” The power of your love and devotion to Srila Prabhupad make my heart venerate!
Dear Guru Maharaja, please make me, your lowest servant, to be able to serve you with such purity and steadfastness the same way as you do.
I bow down to your lotus feet.
Your not yet humble… servant,
Volodya Yanechkin
(Kiev, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja! Please accept our humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Thank You very much for spending Your valuable time to read all our offerings and letters. Personal association with spiritual master, including correspondence, is invaluable nectar for the disciple in this material world. I'd like to wish to everyone not to misuse it. Actual reason of my offering is to express my great gratitude to You and my confidence that the best offering to You is how much the disciple realize your instruction in his life.
Indeed the spiritual master is only real friend of suffering living entity in this ocean of material existence. You are the great example of unselfish dedication of whole life for the benefit of others. I'd like so much to do something really pleasant for You. But I'm only a small ant in this world and even my attempts to realize Your instructions into my life are not so far perfect. The only thing I can do is to keep in my heart faithfulness and devotion to Your instructions and to instruction of Srila Prabhupada. And to keep hoping that maybe one day I can be a little like You in effort to help others.
Please bless me so that I could always throughout whole my life feel in my heart Your and Krishna's presence. And to feel always involved in Your mission, the mission of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya!
Trying to be Your worthy disciples
Bhakta-bandhu das and Hemalata dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to the Sankirtana Movement!
Please allow me to express my gratitude for Your care of such a stupid disciple. I am very happy that Srila Prabhupada has entrusted me to You for reeducation. I still can not understand why I am so lucky to be Your disciple, may be for all my sinful actions in the past. You personify compassion, one of the manifested Srila Prabhupada's qualities. And I am very glad that You have displayed compassion to me and accepted me as a disciple. If not Srila Prabhupada and You, my dear Gurudev, I do not know what would happen to me now and where I would be now. But for 108 % I would be not in the best conditions and consciousness. I am very grateful to You for Your care and for Srila Prabhupada's care. Thank You a lot for salvation.
Dear Gurudev, listening to Your lectures I have noticed that You emphasize chanting the Holy Names of Hari. This instructions really help me , I try all the time think about it. You say that whatever happens we should never stop chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. And I have a realized example in my life, when the Holy Name has manifested its spiritual strength and confirmed my faith in it. And now whatever someone would tell me and convince me that this pray is not so effective, I simply laugh at the face of this man. I surely tell him that he is wrong. Now I realize that the Holy Name of the Lord saves even such people as me. It is a very long story, and may be one day I will tell it to You. It happened in 1994, when I was practicing devotional service not so seriously, I only tried to understand what it was. But senses were drawing me up to its level.
Thank You a lot, Dear Guru Maharaj , for salvation this fallen soul. I really want to help You in the mission of Your spiritual master and Your mission. Please bless us with my wife Rasa Yatra to hold nama-hattas. We would like to begin in December 2009. With my wife we try to worship Deities in the temple and at home by Your mercy. Thank You a lot. Please forgive us for that we are doing something wrong, but we really try. We want You to be satisfied with us, dear Guru Maharaj.
Accept my obeisances at Your lotus feet. Aspiring to serve You and Your instructions,
Your eternal servant
Bhavagrahi das
(Donetsk, Ukarine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet.
I am happy to write to you the words of gratitude on this wonderful day.
Dear Guru Maharaja, I admire the dedication with which you are serving Srila Prabhupada. You are teaching by your example how to sacrifice everything for the satisfaction of the spiritual master. You are filled with compassion and save me and many many other souls from the fire of material life. Therefore my goal is to always stay at your lotus feet.
Dear Guru Maharaja, your devotion to the Holy Name, and your desire to share, to give the Holy Name to the others is endless. By your mercy I have the experience how Krishna in the form of the Holy Name changes the heart. You gave me faith in the Holy Name, therefore I am eternally indebted to you. But this debt is sweet, because service to such a spiritual master as you are - is the best gift for me. Serving you only one life time is enough to achieve the highest purpose of life - pure love to Krishna.
All glories to you!!! All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!
Your servant,
Bhaktin Liza, St Petersburg
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Dear Niranjana Swami Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances. All Glories to Srila Prabhupad! All Glories to Your Lotus Feet.
And this auspicious Day of Your Divine appearance I would like to thank you for having accepted the responsibility to guide me on the path of devotional service.
The answer is that Narada is trikala-jna; he is so powerful that he can understand the past, future and present of everyone’s heart, just like the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (S.B. 4.8.25)
vivrtasyam tri-nayanam
sarad-indu-sama prabham
aksmyalingita-vamangam
vibhutibhir upasritam (3)
His mouth is wide open, He has three eyes, and He is radiant as the autumn moon. He is embraced by Laksmidevi on his left side, and His form is the shelter of all opulence, both material and spiritual.
Tapta-kancana-sankasam
pita-nirmala-vasanam
indradi-sura-maulisthah
spuran manikya-diptibhih (5)
He is dressed in a spotless yellow garment, which exactly resembles molten gold. He is the original cause of existence, beyond the mundane sphere, for the great demigods headed by Indra. He appears bedecked with rubies which are blazingly effulgent
smritau me patu nrharih
muni-varya-stuti-prijah
nasam me simha-nasas tu
mukham laksmi-mukha-prijah (9)
May Lord Nrhari, who is pleased by the prayers offered by the best of sages, protect my memory. May He who has the nose of a lion protect my nose, and may He whose face is very dear to the goddess of fortune protect my mouth.
sarva-vidyadhipah patu
nrisimho rasanam mama
vaktram patv indu vadanam
sada prahlada-vanditah (10)
May Lord Nrisimha, who is the knower of all sciences, protect my sense of taste. May He whose face is beautiful as the full moon ad who offered by Prahlada Maharaja protect my face. (Sri Nrisimha Kavaca-Stotram)
e dusta hrdaye kama adi ripu chaya
kutinati pratisthasa sathya sada raya
hrdaya-sodhana ara krsnera vasana
nrsimha-carane mora ei to`kamana(1)
Within my sinful heart the six enemies headed by lust perpetually reside, as well as duplicity, the desire for fame, plus sheer cunning. At the lotus feet of Lord Narasimha, I hope that He will mercifully purify my heart and give me the desire to serve Lord Krsna.
yadyapi bhisana murti dusta-jiva-prati
prahladadi krsna-bhakta-jane bhadra ati
kabe va prasanna ho´ye sa krpa vacane
nirbhaya karibe ei mudha akincane(3)
Even though Lord Narasimha is terrifying toward the sinful souls, He offers great auspiciousness unto the devotees of Lord Krsna headed by Prahlada Maharadja. When will He be pleased to speak words of compassion unto me, a worthless fool, and thereby make me fearless? (Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur „Navadvipa Bhava Taranga“)
My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, because of my association with material desires, one after another I was gradually falling into a blind well full of snakes, following the general populace. But Your servant Narada Muni kindly accepted me as his disciple and instructed me how to achieve this transcendental position. Therefore, my first duty is to serve him. How could I leave his service? (S.B.7.9.28)
Satisfaction of the self- realized spiritual master is the secret of advancement in spiritual life.
Inquiries and submission constitute the proper combination for spiritual understanding. Unless there is submission and service, inquiries from the learned spiritual master will hot be effective. One must be able to pass the test of the spiritual master, and when he sees the genuine desire of the disciple, he automatically blesses the disciple with genuine spiritual understanding.
In thus verse, both blind following and absurd inquiries are condemned. Not only should one hear submissively from the spiritual master, but one must also get a clear understanding from him, in submission and service and inquiries. (Bhagavad-Gita, 4.34)
Your servant bhaktin Oksana
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Dearest Your Holiness Srila Niranjana Swami,
Please accept my respectful obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Guru Parampara.
On this most auspicious occasion of Your transcendental appearance day I try to submit some words in appreciation of Your Divine Grace.
Although my knowledge of how to glorify transcendental qualities of the spiritual master is absolutely imperfect and incomplete, please let me extend my sincere prayers for Your health and well being. May Lord Krishna provide You with enough strength and means to carry on with Your divine deeds. You renounced everything in this material world and You so often deprive Yourself of even the very basic needs of the body for the sake of preaching and taking care of Your disciples. You go on travelling, ignoring Your health conditions and comforts to bring the fallen, conditioned souls back to Godhead. You are spreading the bliss of Krishna consciousness like anything, with complete faith in Lord Krishna, fully surrendered to Him and Your beloved spiritual master Srila Prabhupad.
Thousands of souls throughout the world approach You for guidance and knowledge. You have become a source of courage and perseverance for Your disciples in their difficulties. Anyone who comes into contact with You, will appreciate Your purity, compassion and innumerable divine qualities.
On this most blissful day of Your glorifying, I offer my obeisances again and again to my Spiritual Master to whom I feel utterly and completely indebted for everything that I get to know or realize in Krishna consciousness, for every single lesson to learn or a challenge to face to.
Your aspiring servant,
bhaktin Olga
(Riga, Latvia)
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Dear Niranjana Swami Maharaj,
Please, accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Shrila Prabhupada
First of all I would like to apologize that I’m talking to You though I’m not Your disciple, but this day is not a simple day, it is a special ones which enables to say a few words to You, Dear Guru Maharaj.
Entirely hearing about You my heart is feeling unspeakable gladness, so what already to say about those moments when by Sri Krishna’s endless mercy I can see You, I can partake in Your nectarous kirtans, to hear Your wonderful lectures, which fly us away to Vrndavana. I’m always very thankful to Sri Krishna that He let me to know about You in this life because from You I got the most inspiration of serving to Sri Krishna, therefore as I’m serving very imperfectly, every moment I remember You as the most ideal example which I should follow after, if I want to satisfy Sri Krishna. I’ll never forget how this year in New Vraja Dham first time You passed my name at that moment I became stagnant, because I couldn’t take in, that You remembered a name of such a mean being like me, then You also said “Welcome to New Vraja Dham”, and later leaving that spiritual place You suggested not to drive at night with such a paternalism.
Dear Guru Maharaj, thank You for that mercy which You are sharing with us for the patience, for the endless self-sacrifice, of which Your health is always suffering, thank You for every moment You give to us.
Your fallen servant
Bhaktin Sandra
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Dear Guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Today is the last day to submit our offerings and I decided to glorify your character and try to appreciate what you mean in my life. First, I wish to thank you for that you are the representative of Srila Prabhupada and the whole Guru-parampara in my life. I see you as an ideal disciple and that inspires me greatly. I can see your devotion to Srila Prabhupada, how you represent his compassion. I can understand that if it were not for your lectures and comments, I wouldn't be able to dive so deeply into Srila Prabhupada's books. And this understanding inspires me to also take part in this wonderful Mission. It gives me a deep realization, understanding that I am doing something real in my life -- I had never had such feeling and I feel greatly indebted to you for having it due to a connection with you.
I pray that you always engage me in this wonderful service -- distributing the Sankirtana Mission of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu that I could be of some use for you in your service to Srila Prabhupada.
Your servant
Damodara Dulala dasa
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Dear guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, the savior of all fallen souls.
Please forgive me that I’m still not able to offer at your lotus feet a pure heart and unmotivated pure devotional service. Material desires and stubborn unwillingness to surrender are still big obstacles for me. Thank you very much for being so patient and compassionate, leaving me a hope against hope that even in this lifetime by your mercy I may be able to come at your most auspicious Vyasa-puja celebration with such offering.
By the mercy of my beloved god-brother Asvini Kumara prabhu and many other wonderful vaisnavas we got a chance to participate in very unique and unprecedented event – a parikrama through all three main dhamas of India – Jagannath Puri, Navadvipa and Vrindavana, led by your most glorious god-brother His Holliness Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja. This was the best month of all my life and it left lifelong remembrances. I already wrote to you very briefly about our pilgrimage, but today would like to place at your lotus feet the most important realizations I had after it.
It was very clear evidence of Srila Prabhupada’s statement in his purports to “Srimad-Bhagavatam” that ISKCON as Krishna consciousness movement is an incarnation of Krishna and it is the only hope for the entire world, which is now in a precarious condition. Travelling through various holy places, various temples and meeting various sadhus it became obvious, that our movement has the most of bhakti, devotion to the Lord, has the most attractive temples, Deities and most dedicated servants. Nothing strange in it if we say such statement about the Western world, but now we saw with our own eyes, that the same is true even in India, which unfortunately is very rapidly forgetting its spiritual heritage and biggest treasure, Vedic culture. HH Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja after Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama said a similar thing - that in all Navadvipa Mandala his most favorite place is our Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir. Who could be compared to the mesmerizing beauty of life-size Panca Tattva Deities, of Sri Sri Radha Madhava and asta sakhis, of Lord Nrisimhadeva and Srila Prabhupada Puspa Samadhi? After that realization my heart was filled with gratitude to you that you are keeping me engaged in service to this wonderful, loving and caring family, and you are distributing mercy of Srila Prabhupada to the most fallen, like me.
Another deep realization was that the biggest treasure of the Holy Dhama are the sadhus, who are living there or visiting the Dhama, and that only due to their mercy is it possible to enter the Dhama. “We can see Dhama only through the eyes of pure devotee,”- taught us our guide in Puri Madhavananda prabhu, and we were so fortunate to have the association of your beloved god-brother Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja, who is for many devotees their parikrama-guru. Through his loving care and compassion upon us we felt your loving care. It’s not that we deserved such compassion from Maharaja, but because we are your disciples and you are so dear to him, he was taking care of us as the most loving father. Following his danda and footprints in the dust of Dhama we felt completely safe and confident - this will help us to make very quick spiritual progress.
This pilgrimage was able to break even such stone like and steel framed heart like mine. And it reminded me your promise, which you made some years ago at the end of one of New Gaudadesh festivals in Lithuania - it is possible, that some day you will lead your disciples in pilgrimage in Vrindavana. Oh, when that day will be mine, when will I have the possibility to place the dust of Kamyavana from your lotus feet footprints? Thank you for taking so much care of your health, thus leaving us some hope that this desire could be fulfilled even during this lifetime.
Your humble servant
Doyal Govinda das
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Dear Guru Maharaja Srila Niranjana Swami,
Please, accept out humble obeisances to your lotus feet. All glories to your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
We express our gratitude to you for leading us to Krisna. You teach us to behave like Srila Prabhupada did. You are very dear to Srila Prabhupada and you are His devoted servant. And we want to become your servants. You care for your disciples, their progress spiritually and want them to become Krishna conscious. We make unpretentious attempts to surrender to your instructions according to our power. But we want very much to satisfy you constantly and help you in Srila Prabhupada's mission.
Dear Guru Maharaja, only by your mercy we can stay in devotees’ society and try to be engaged in devotional service.
Once more thank you for your mercy. Trying to become your servants
Gadavari devi dasi (St-Petersburg)
Sangita devi dasi (Petrozavodsk)
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Hare Krisha!
Dear Guru Maharaja, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and his followers!
I (Nitya Lila d.d.) want to express deep gratitude on behalf of me and Gaura Sundara prabhu, because Gaura Sundara now is in Tallinn on Marathon, distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books.
Maybe by Krishna’s mercy I can partly do this. Because there are no such words to express the depth of our feelings and gratitude to you for your service to Krishna, Srila Prabhupad and your help to all of us.
Thank you very much for inspiring us to serve in any conditions whatever external conditions and state of health may be.
When you were full of strength, you inspired us by your own example in proactive activity: in distributing books, in improvement the relations between devotees and in humility. And now, when your body doesn’t let you preach actively, you inspire us even more then before.
Now when we have this experience of proactive activity in devotional service, you inspire us to deepen our inner work. You show us by your own example how we have to continue our service despite of feeling good or bad. Devotees feel that because the Kali-yuga is outside, as Gaurasundara likes to say.
You show how to remain active in any situation. And even when the body doesn’t allow being active, then one can chant 64 rounds of maha-mahtra every day. You teach us how to be humble and patient. You teach us how to take care of others (when you arrived on the Crimean festival). You give deep lectures about the Holy Name, sincerely inspire us to distribute books so that we can attain Srila Prabhupada’s mercy (and yours). In this lecture you mentioned how once Srila Prabhupada looked at you and you remember this glance during all your life. I confess that I also had such an experience. In 1993 it was the second time I saw you – in asram in the four-room apartment in Tallinn. When I entered the room on the darsan and sat, you glanced at me and I felt like you knew me inside out. I still remember this wonderful glance.
Thank you very much for everything! We pray to Krishna to make you healthy and be full of strength in His service.
Please accept our obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet.
Trying to be your faithful servants,
Gaura Sundara das and Nitya Lila devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances to your lotus feet. All glories to your spiritual master His Holiness Srila Prabhupada!
As I'm not good enough in artistic style of description, I don't have any good qualities and couldn't see anything meaningful in my serving, that's why I didn't remind you about myself for a while. But all the time in my consciousness there were deep gratefulness and acceptance to you for that concern and attention that you revealed upon me, not very intelligent person.
Allow me to tell a few words about my service in the yatra. To create favorable relationships among devotees I was educating and inspiring them in the light of your lectures and instructions of Srila Prabhupada. Now our yatra is growing as many young and talented devotees came. It makes me very glad. But at the same time I feel dissatisfaction with myself and my physical health.
Dear Maharaj! Your knowledge shows the perfection of vijnana and deep understanding of the spiritual process. Undoubtedly only the taste, ruci, lifts up the chanting of holy names on the high level and opens the way to Bhava-bhakti. And the taste can be developed only by attentive chanting of maha-mantra with faith. And then one can get ruci to all kinds of devotional service.
Dear Gurudev! Please allow me to express my big gratefulness for all that you did for me. You gave me an invaluable gift — The Holy Name. With one's help it's possible to be released from attachments — the iron chains of the material world. In future I also will chant Holy Names as often as it's possible, in addition to invariable sixteen rounds.
Your insignificant servant
Guru kripa das
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to the day of your divine appearance!
mukam karoti vacalam
pangum langayate girim
yat kripa tam aham vande
sri guru dina tarinam
Dear Guru Maharaja, I always hear this wonderful prayer which you always chant before giving each lecture.
“I bow down to the lotus feet of my spiritual master. By his mercy a dumb man can speak and a lame man can cross the mountains”
Guru Maharaja, this verse is very dear to me. This verse contains you as you are. This verse is a key to your divine qualities. It shows your unlimited love and devotion to Srila Prabhupad. And this love to your spiritual master Srila Prabhupad flowers in your heart with such force, that we are enraptured by it.
This verse contains your humility and your glory as an exalted vaisnava. And also this verse contains your glory as an ideal disciple, who devotedly and faithfully serves his spiritual master’s mission and dedicates all his life to this service, thus makes his life perfect.
This verse also cautions me not be self-confident in the spiritual life, thinking that I can attain krishna-bhakti on my own efforts. Mercy is what makes bhakti become accessible. Mercy of a spiritual master, the Holy Name and the vaisnavas is what sanctifies our efforts in our spiritual life. Mercy is our only hope to attain pure bhakti.
Srila Prabhupada’s mercy showers at you because of your whole-hearted devotion to his instruction and makes you the perfect instrument in the Lord’s hands.
Dear Guru Maharaja, thank you very much for your concern and support. Your big heart, the heart of a merciful vaisnava, contains all of the devotees, not only your disciples. In order to give us Krishna Consciousness you are ready to tolerate all inconveniences and physical sufferings. Thank you, Guru Maharaja, for your Love. It touches the heart, prompts to become more serious and excites deep gratitude to you. Thank you, Guru Maharaja.
Dear Guru Maharaja, on this day of your divine appearance I pray for one thing: let our family - me and my husband, our son and children to be, help you and your Godbrothers in your service to Srila Prabhupada’s mission until the end of our lives.
Your loving disciple,
Indumati devi dasi
(Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Srila Niranjana Swami
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.
Allow to thank You for a worthy example of vaishnav the behavior, full of care about servants and not absolute servants, behavior that inspires my spouse and me during the moments when illusion and false ego cover reason. It is surprising how Your light personality is capable to make us wake up to sober reason and to call feelings to submission even when we very deeply get confused in consequences of the wrong thoughts and acts. I very much would want that we with the husband could transfer to the son, through an example of the correct behavior, at least a part of the care and protection against all doubts and temptations of a material world, care which we have received and we keep on receiving from You.
I wish You deep, strong communication with Shrila Prabhupada's books and a sound health. I wish that You would still stay on this earth as a living example, clearing our hearts and brains from the false ego and envy, so that we would more strongly be attached to serving servants and not absolute servants, giving us all the desire to remember about Krishna, to think of Krishna and never to forget about Him.
Your servant
Jayaradhe devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisance in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you, dear Guru Maharaja.
Dear Guru Maharaja, happy birthday!
On this auspicious day of your appearance, I would like to say a few words trying to express my sincere and heart-felt gratitude for all the guidance and the shelter you are providing in my spiritual life.
This year in Vrndavana, during the darshan with you when I was expressing my desire to take re-initiation from you, you asked me “Do you feel sheltered?” And I answered right there, without hesitation, “Yes! Very much.”
Dear Guru Maharaja, since then I often think about this question ever since you asked me, and I always have same sweet realization that confirms my first response: “Yes, if I follow your instructions – yes, I will be perfectly sheltered and protected.”
On the day when you gave me re-initiation you told me:
“So, please take these beads and chant your rounds attentively every day, always aspiring to, trying hard to hear the Holy Name and to realize the transcendental relationship that exists between yourself and myself, as person who is trying to encourage you to chant free from offences. And understand that our connection is through chanting Hare Krsna, as I consider that the most important service that one can do, because I have faith that by continuously chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, trying to become free from offences, as stated in Caitanya Caritamrta, that is a method for achieving ecstatic love for Krsna.”
And also, some time ago, I came across the following statement of Dhanurdhara Maharaja from his online web diary http://www.wavesofdevotion.com/2001/12/10/govardhan-in-the-evenings-we
“Govardhana, December 10, 2001
In the evenings we meet in His Holiness Niranjana Swami’s room to discuss Krishna consciousness, but mostly to chant Gaura bhajans.
Niranjana Swami shares his realization on harinam initiation (paraphrase):
"Harinam initiation means to give the Holy Name. Giving the Holy Name means to give faith in the Holy Name, for one can only chant the Holy Name determinedly as far as one's faith allows. It is thus an offense to give the Holy Name to one who has little faith, for they will offend the Holy name. By his instructions, the spiritual master thus first creates faith in Krishna-kirtan so that one is inspired, determined and attracted to adopt a vow to chant at least sixteen rounds properly. Chanting the Holy Name is therefore the first duty of the bonafide disciples.
"Further interaction of the spiritual master with his disciple is for the singular purpose of increasing their faith in the Holy Name, especially by the guru’s teachings. The disciple thus sees their spiritual master's instructions and dealings as the means to become purified and qualified for the pure Holy Name (suddha nam), the process given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu for achieving love of Godhead. Thus the disciple’s appreciation, faith and relationship with the spiritual master naturally increases as they become increasingly perfected in chanting Hare Krishna. The real guru-disciple relationship is thus based on the Holy Name and the disciples’ attraction for chanting."
When I read and try to understand these yours instructions, I have no doubt in my heart what pleases you the most and I hope and pray to make improvements in my japa chanting. I have faith, based on these yours instructions that if I put effort in chanting the Krsna’s Holy Names without offences, all the auspiciousness in my spiritual life will come naturally. I pray to the most merciful Sri-Sri Panca Tattva and Sri-Sri Radha-Madhava to help me please you by chanting Hare Krsna without offences. I pray to the most merciful Sri-Sri Radha-Madhava to help me take these yours instruction to the core of my heart, and then I know I will always be perfectly protected and sheltered under your guidance.
Dear Guru Maharaja, at the end of this humble offering I simply want to thank you again for all the inspiration in my spiritual life. Thank you Guru Maharaja. Happy birthday!
Your aspiring servant,
Kamala-lochana dasa
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Founder-Acarya of the ISKCON Srila Prabhupada.
Again and again I recollect the fine festival of Holy Name of 2009 in Ukraine. There are not many places on our planet today, where such a quantity of vaisnavas gathers simultaneously. But for me this festival was fine a hundred times because I saw You in health, listened to Your profound, getting into the very heart lectures, felt Your care of disciples’ destinies, Your interest in their progress, Your warmth and joy of the meeting with all devotees. And how Your gift the book «Analogies for preaching» is essential and necessary for all of us. Today, when I am writing to You my gift, I recollect that after festival I cried during my japa not once and felt that I have no body and my soul turns into a small butterfly and flies directly to meet You, and You tell me: "Be happy in Krishna Consciousness ". And I am really happy because I have Srila Prabhupada, because I have You, my Guru Maharaj, because I have Krishna. And it is so joyful to read that:
"Service in this world does not differ from service in spiritual world... And in that and in other case the nature of devoted service remains invariable" (Sr.B.4.9.11). My service to Krishna is former - the organization and conduct of charitable and preaching programs in Tula and in near-by districts, and gathering of donations for them.
I want to hope very much that I as like as that reasonable devotee in "Srila Prabhupada's analogies about devotional service and sea’s waves" have in my head so many things for the service of the Lord in Krishna Consciousness that stagnant material desires become overflooded by the desire to serve the Lord ". But it is possible only by your causeless mercy and by mercy of all vaisnavas.
Dear Guru Maharaj, on the anniversary of Your divine appearance in this material world I again and again thank You for happiness to be Your disciple , and I ask Lord Krishna to give You health now and always.
I bow low to You,
Your servant and debtor forever,
Lalita priya dd
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“...For me the most inspiring in Srila Prabhupada is his qualities, such as his firm faith in Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja's instructions, his uncompromising preaching and deep compassion to conditioned souls. I often speak about it in my lectures. While remembering Srila Prabhupada and listening to his lectures and also about his friendly relationship with his disciples, or while hearing lilas of his preaching, I want to sacrifice all my life to him. To understand Srila Prabhupada and to estimate at his true value means to see him as a fearless warrior fighting against the degrading influence of Kali-yuga. He is preaching with immense compassion, deriving strength from the instructions given to him by his Guru Maharja...
...That is why, in spite of my low birth, my disciples can consider this day an auspicious event, as before, because in this birth... neither in the last one nor in any of other millions of previous births... but in this one I was granted with great fortune to come into contact with Srila Prabhupada. Let it be the foundation of your Vyasa-puja offerings...
...Hare Krishna
Your well-wisher, Niranjana Swami.”
Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances to Your Divine Lotus Feet. All glories to You! All glories to Your beloved spiritual master Srila Prabhupada!
While reading this Your letter, I remembered how many years ago, in the early 90s, I wrote You in a letter that among three existing types of disciples I want to become a first class disciple, who understands desires of the spiritual master and fulfill them even before the spiritual master gives his instructions. At that time somewhere inside of me a question was hearing constantly, 'How can I understand desires of the spiritual master? And the answer was given in Moscow, in Harikesha Maharaja's lecture, 'One who loves and the beloved are united in their desires.' The lesson of love to one's spiritual master is not easy, particularly if a disciple is a woman and a spiritual master is a man. True love must be absolutely pure and free from the slightest touch of lust and material attraction, and it contradicts the laws of material nature. In another words, such love must become completely spiritual.
I remember how in Kiev a Godbrother of Yours said to Tilakini, 'Call the cook.' Tilakini couldn't find me, so he said, 'Tell her that i did not expect to find such spirit of devotion to Srila Prabhupada here. Thank you.' I have never met Srila Prabhupada personally, but He is very dear to me. And I realized that this intimacy and this devotion is the reflection of Your intimate relationship with Srila Prabhupada, Your love to Srila Prabhupada, Your devotion to Srila Prabhupada.
So many times during last few years I would find corroborations to my discoveries and to my understanding, in Your lectures and books. I was always surprised. But now I realized, 'One who loves and the beloved are united in their desires.'
Dear Guru Maharaj, when I accepted You as my spiritual master, You were very ill, and I was feeliing fear inside of me, 'To lose You again, just after I have finally found you?..' But now I don't fear that my or Your departure from this life separates us; the law of true spiritual love is beyond birth and death. This is like that nobody and nothing can ever separate You from Srila Prabhupada. 'One who loves and the beloved are united in their desires.'
Bow down to Your Lotus Feet with deep gratitude
Your eternal servant
Lalitananda devi dasi
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My dear Guru Maharaja,
In this auspicious day of your Vyasa Puja I bow down at your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you, my powerful spiritual master. All glories to you, the perfect disciple of His Divine Grace.
All glories to your devotional service to Srila Prabhupada and great vaisnava acaryas. There are no doubts your life belongs to them and you are the perfect instrument in lotus hand of His Divine Grace, which is the most elevated position in the world. What you teach us by your words you show us by your actions, by your life. It's in your caring, loving vaisnava heart. Because of purity of your consciousness Srila Prabhupada gives you spiritual strength as he knows you never abuse this power or try to possess it for self enjoyment but engage it for Krishna’s pleasure, for satisfaction of pure devotees . Therefore you are able to change people's hearts.
Although you are surrounded by thousands disciples and followers you remain only humble servant of his Divine Grace.
No matter how sick your body is, you carry the heavy burden of responsibility and care about everyone who looking for it.
In each moment of my life I feel your support, compassion and care which allow me to continue my path to devotion service.
At this auspicious day I pray at your lotus feet for your mercy to become servant of your perfect followers.
your eternal servant
Lila Smarana dd
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in a dust of your lotus feet. All glories to you! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I’m glad to congratulate you with your Vyasa-puja day, which is hold in assemble of your dear Godbrothers and devoted disciples and followers. Your life is dedicated to service to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada. We derive great inspiration from this, because we are the part of this service, the objects of Srila Prabhupada’s mercy.
This offering I want to present you in a form of internal dialogue, which may take place between a soul and the Supersoul.
“O, my dear soul! Just return under the shade of the spiritual master’s lotus feet. Just return! The spiritual master is very merciful. He always patiently waits for you. There is no more compassionate, loving you and wishing you well person in this world than the spiritual master. He is the one, who cares about you. You are so tired of innumerable obligations and life cobweb that you just want a gulp of fresh air, rest and shelter! Therefore I want to ask you: where can you find this? Who can give it to you? My dear soul, you know, that it is useless to find nectar in garbage dump of material attachments. There is no nectar there! What do you look for? Again and again you burrow in this garbage dump, looking over, trying on, tasting it – still hoping to find what you greedily look for.
You always have this right to choose how to act in your life. Yes, you can decide, what you want to do in your life. But, my dear soul, you won’t achieve a success by that way. Your spiritual master is near, and he is still waiting for you, O soul. He is waiting for you and expecting you to understand and appreciate in the future what is the best for you.
Guru Maharaja may forgive you. Yes, it’s true, because he is patita-pavana, a savior of the fallen and lost souls. He feels inexpressible pain for you, when you stumble and lose faith. This pain permeates his heart and makes him feel guilty to you. He feels your pain and always ready to help you – to give you the real shelter. Guru Maharaja forgives you, but if it is necessary to test this great soul? To wound his heart again and again? There is no need to do this. Leave it.
O, my dear soul, please, return! You should give love and happiness to all by you existence. The bliss is your nature. Just return to your nature. The spiritual master is always ready to help you in this – to restore to your original nature. He plays a unique role in your life.
So let sing the glory of Guru Maharaja’s lotus feet. We try to glorify his wonderful qualities. He is a main person in your life, and whatever may happen in your life, he will be nearby; he is the most close friend and well-wisher. His lotus feet are the holy shelter and a rest place for all souls who was desperated by the attempts to find happiness in the material world.
O, my dear soul, you can’t find more reliable shelter than these lotus feet. That’s why I ask you, please, return under the shade of these lotus feet. You are still waited and needed”.
Dear Guru Maharaja, please, accept my humble obeisances.
Trying to become your servant,
Lilavati devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaj.
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Spiritual Master undoubtedly takes a very important place in the disciple's life.
Srila Prabhupada writes that satisfaction of the self realized spiritual master is the secret of success in the spiritual life. Periodically looking into my heart I find there a lot of dirty places. And I have to purify my heart to invite You to enter it. Sometimes it seems impossible, because removing the next layer of dirt you reveal another one under it. However by Srila Prabhupada's mercy, by Your mercy and by the mercy of surrounding devotees I have got some attachment and taste to the devotional service in Krisna' Consciousness. But I also realize that there is a huge work of tiding the dirt, which accumulated in my heart for many years of conditioned life, in the future.
Listening to Your lectures and kirtans, observing how You associate with Your spiritual brothers and sisters, I can learn from You Krisna Consciousness and find the high taste that helps me to transform my material attachments into spiritual.
This year on the festival in the Ukraine by the mercy of senior devotees I had a very happy opportunity of distributing prasadam to You and Your spiritual brothers and observing Your nectar, full of love association. You even tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Hari Bol”. To tell the truth it is a huge mercy for such a conditioned living being as me, though for someone it may seem to be something insignificant.
I hope one day I will expiate all my offences and the taste to the pure Holy Name will awake in my heart. It will happen only by Your mercy. But I also should express a desire to get this mercy and make a lot of efforts in improvement of my devotional service, for it to be really devotional and really service.
On this auspicious Your Appearance Day I would like to wish You health improvement. And I wish You would proceed with sharing Your understanding and happiness in Krisna Consciousness with everyone who surrounds You.
Yearning for becoming Your servant
Maheshvara das
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my lowest obeisances unto Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Their Lordships Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai! All glories to all, all devotees!
Let me thank You for everything that You do for expanding the mission of Srila Prabhupada, for the unlimited patience and decisiveness that You show following in His footsteps and by educating Your disciples.
You are so compassionate and sincere in associating with anyone sent to You by the Lord, and You desire to pour on them the mercy of Lord Caitanya! Due to Your extraordinary kindness and love to Srila Prabhupada You are the perfect weapon in the hands of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, the pure deliverer of Their mercy, having given Your whole life to sincere and selfless service of Your spiritual master.
My dear Guru Maharaja, so many grateful hearts are praying for You. You have protected so many of them from the illusory happiness of this world, by giving them shelter of devotional service, real life in Krishna consciousness. To so many of them You have given the confidence that the path of bhakti is the only safe path and that it takes one to the highest goal. You have brought so many of them back to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada!
My dear Guru Maharaja, I pray to the Lord for Your good health, for the chance to satisfy You one day, to become useful for You. I pray that I would be able to appreciate the value of the treasure of devotees' association, the treasure of Divine austerities, the treasure of Your personality and Your instructions.
I wish You good health, inspiration and unlimited possibilities to give satisfaction to Srila Prabhupada! Let Your disciples multiply the glories of Srila Prabhupada, expand His family, strengthen the house built by Him, cultivate love and vaishnava dealings with each other and all living entities, relying on spiritual heritage of Your Divine Master.
I can see that my debt is always growing, just as I can understand more and more that I am fully dependent on Your mercy and the mercy of vaishnavas. I can also understand that everything You have given me is matchless. And it is also matchless that You save us from forgetfulness of our relationship with the Lord - our position as eternal servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Krishna, the master of the gopis.
I pray that all my life would be devoted to You, that the meaning of my life would be devotional service, but the goal of it: achieving bhakti, sincere unconditional devotion.
Hoping to be an eternal particle of dust at Your lotus feet,
Mandakini devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please, accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Recently, in November, just after the ending of retreat for spiritual counselors you gave a lecture in Kiev on Sunday program. There were all spiritual counselors from all over Ukraine.
In your wonderful lecture you described the nature of Krishna, admittance of Srila Prabhupada’s unquestionable authority and love for him that his disciples have had during these years. Also the lecture described the importance of Srila Prabhupada’s books and inspired us to take part in the marathon.
When the lecture was over, one of your senior disciples and my dear spiritual brother, who was sitting beside me, suddenly wished to share his impressions about the lecture with me.
He said: “I have heard many appeals to sermonize Krishna consciousness, but often I did not feel inspiration in my heart to do so, but just felt pressure. However, Guru Maharaja causes no pressure, but he asks us to take Shila Prabhupada’s message seriously. And his humble requests addressed to us really inspire, touch hearts and invite to follow them.” By saying this his eyes have filled with barely noticeable tears. I asked him simultaneously expressing the part of my understanding: “Is this love?”- He contemplated for a little while and answered: “Yes”.
This occasion deeply impressed me and has shown some more elevated merits of yours. Although as Guru you may give orders to your disciples, but still you are awakening voluntary spirit of serving and following you in our hearts.
Chanting guru-gayatri mantra we every day meditate on you, similar of all those devotees who are staying blissfully in Krishna consciousness. Feeling love to Krishna you also are feeling love to His integral parts. Trying to show and disclose the nature of relationships of jiva and Krishna, based on love, you are awakening voluntary spirit to follow this process. You humbly ask us to accept this message and it really works.
This wonderful example – to awaken voluntary spirit of following in other people’s hearts was manifested by Lord Caitanya Himself, when He turned sanyasi-mayavadi of Benares into vaishnavism. When He came to a meeting with him, He demonstrated utmost humbleness, having sat in an impure place, where others washed their feet, although He exhibited dazzling shine, which surprised everybody. For the question why he is singing and dancing instead of studying “Vedanta”, the Lord very humbly described, that His spiritual master Isvara Puri considered Him a fool who is unable to understand Vedanta, therefore he gave Him an instruction to just repeat the Holy Name. And by repeating Hare Krishna mantra he developed love of the Lord, etc.
Sanyasi-mayavadi were charmed by His humbleness, by showing love to Krishna and by His frankness and this caused trust to the Lord and voluntary wish to follow Him. And when Prakasananda Sarasvati asked why one should not study “Vedanta” together with chanting the Holy Name, Lord Caitanya said that he could answer this question if they did not object. Having seen certain hesitation of the Lord if to answer or not, they had already developed such trust to Him to that moment that they said they would not take offence for His words. And then the Lord turned them into vaishnavs.
The Lord endows such devotees like you by His abilities and divine merits that is why your classes touch people’s hearts.
You possess message of love for the Lord, and following you, I begin to understand that this message can some day satisfy all wishes of my heart, if I would try to tell about this divine message to everyone whom I ever meet in my life. And I will make an effort to do this, following instructions of “Bhagavat Gita” and “Srimad Bhagavatam” with comments of Srila Prabhupada. I will also strive to do other types of devotional service if needed.
I still have not learned how to control my mind and emotions, and there are still many undesirable things in my heart which I cannot get rid of by myself. Taking advantage of the day of your Vyasa Puja I am asking you, as a representative of Vyasadeva, to please bless me, purifying my heart and developing merits for the honor to be noticed and some day accepted by the former acaryas, Sri Krishna and divine Srimati Radharani.
Trying to serve to you
Mangala Vaishnava das
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nama om vishnu-padaya
krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
shrimate nirandjana svamin
iti namine
anahata-prayasena
prabhupadasya tushthaye
sankirtana-pravritty-artham
ihate gurave namo namah
Guru Maharaj,
Please, accept our humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada ! All glories to the marvelous day of Your appearance!
Glorifying the Spiritual Master on such a day is a blessing for the disciple.
Guru Maharaj,
Allow us to try to express our gratitude to you brining fame to your nice position of Krshna's devotee.
Krshna Himself, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, wishing to determine the elevated position of the Spiritual Master declares the peculiar position of the Guru in the numerous Vedic shlokas. In the 11th Canto of Shrimad-Bhagavatam Krshna gives instructions to Uddhava:
acaryam mam vijanayan
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhynsuyeta
sarva-deva-mayo guru
“One should know the acarya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.”
This is a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.17.27) spoken by Lord Krsna when He was questioned by Uddhava regarding the four social and spiritual orders of society. The Lord was specifically instructing how a brahmacari should behave under the care of a spiritual master. A spiritual master is not an enjoyer of facilities offered by his disciples. He is like a parent. Without the attentive service of his parents, a child cannot grow to manhood; similarly, without the care of the spiritual master one cannot rise to the plane of transcendental service.
The spiritual master is also called acarya, or a transcendental professor of spiritual science. The Manu-samhita (2.140) explains the duties of an acarya, describing that a bona fide spiritual master accepts charge of disciples, teaches them the Vedic knowledge with all its intricacies, and gives them their second birth. ...?
Srila Prabhupada compares a Spiritual Master with a careful father or mother. This excellent example discloses the innermost position of the Spiritual Master. A small baby is unable to sustain its existence. Everything he has got comes from the care of his parents. Devoid of such care he could hardly survive in this world. Similarly, the disciple having chosen the spiritual way always utterly depends on the mercy of his Spiritual Master. Srila Prabhupada writes that a disciple is unable to change even a bit in his advance in the service to the God without the help of his Spiritual Master. He initiates his disciple into all the minutest details of the transcendental devotional service, gives him appropriate instructions.
Usually, as the child grows up he is inclined to become independent. As for the spiritual life the disciple in his spiritual growth feels more and more dependent on the mercy of his Spiritual Master. Under no circumstances can the disciple show disrespect and independence from his Guru. Such an attitude means the spiritual death of the disciple.
The Spiritual Master is full of transcendental qualities and opulence. He possesses invariably merciful nature. He always feels the pure, all-attractive transcendental mellow of devotional service. Desiring to share this pure mellow, the Spiritual Master propagates Krshna's message all around the world. Thus, under all the circumstances the Spiritual Master becomes a careful father to his disciple. He has got a lot of ways to advance his disciple in the devotional service. Guru gives his disciple proper instructions and takes him to Krshna's feet.
Guru Maharaj,
When you met Srila Prabhupada you accepted open-heartedly his teaching. Having found the shelter in his instructions you were initiated by him. You made your life the embodiment of Srila Prabhupada's instructions. Seeing your spiritual maturity and energy Krshna sent you numerous disciples. It’s impossible not to bow down before your careful attitude to all these souls.
Guru Maharaj,
You give your disciples this endless ocean of lectures, darshans, letters, books and your health. All the time you find new ways to involve your disciples into the transcendental service. Having organized your Internet project you crossed out thousands of kilometers which separated the disciples from you and granted us more close contact with you.
Allow us to bow low before you.
Guru Maharaj,
You put us on the way of serving to Krshna and you urge us to follow fearlessly this way.
On this blessed day of your Vyasa-puja allow us to express our sincere gratitude and thankfulness to you and your elevated spiritual qualities.
Guru Maharaj,
With your paternal care you gave us the opportunity to find Krshna's service. We are eternally indebted to you. We pray that this feeling of duty could nourish our determination to follow your instructions and increase our devotion to your feet. All glories to the marvelous day of your appearance! All glories to your divine mercy!
Your humble servants
Manibandha das
Shyama Manjari devi dasi
(Omsk, Russia)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All Glories to Śrlia Prabhupada.
On this auspicious day of your Vyasa Puja I would like to thank you for being a medium between us and Krsna. You accept and deliver to Śrila Prabhupada our humble attempts to serve Krsna. Throughout all of these years we are completely sure that it has been going directly to the lotus feet of Krsna because we feel reciprocation from Him. He did not left us yet although we often make Him trouble. Sometimes it looks like He puts us in danger just to save us from it in the next minute. Actually it is our illusion which causes us problems but Krsna is always ready to help us.
I have just recently been engaged in recording my reading of Mahabharata on tapes for one Krsna's friend. She is blind since the time of birth but is a very enthusiastic person. She wanted very much to read Mahabharata, but there is not so many people who can come to her place and read. I decided to record my reading and send it to her. I have just read a discussion between Yudhisthira Maharaja and Bhima and Draupadi which took place on the end of the first year in the forest. Bhima and Draupadi could not understand how it happened that Yudhisthira - the ocean of good qualities- lost everything in the game. They tried to convince him to act and fight. Yudhisthira also could not understand how it was possible, but more important for him now was to be humble and stick to his promise.
It is not easy to find out when to act and when accept the fate but when we are in association of the devotees we are safe. Krsna watches and helps us because we are all meant for His pleasure.
Guru Maharaja, you are keeping us together, with Krsna in the center. We wish you good health and strength to still tolerate us.
Your servant,
Mukhara devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glory to Srila Prabhupada.
Here already 14 years as I am Your disciple, but You have never been so kindred and close to me as last years.
How I would like to get to this Vyasa Puja! But my physical state does not allow me to go any more.
I am the happiest devotee!
Only by Your mercy and care I have a continuous various service, including a service of curator. It happens so that other spiritual masters’ disciples receive Your instructions through me. Everything that You give me in Your books, lectures, intercourse with Your spiritual brothers and simply with devotees, I give my wards. Thank You ever so much for this.
I tell them about Your qualities, Your service to Srila Prabhupada. All this inspires devotees very much in the service to their spiritual masters. I do not have Your qualities, but I have a big desire to get them.
Dear Guru Maharaj, I try to do everything to satisfy You, to participate somehow in Your service to Srila Prabhupada. Live for a long time. All devotees need You very much.
Your non-humble servant
Namadheya dd
(Tula, Russia)
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All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Dear Guru Maharaj! Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your Lotus Feet. My morning starts by offering a grateful prayer to You, who gave me so merciful blessings to live in Vrindavan. Because often I hear that some devotees cannot stay in Vrindavan more than a week, it is difficult for them. This is Your causeless mercy, that I feel Vrindavan my home and that I am happy here.
Entering the temple, I bow down to Srila Prabhupada and thank Him, that He gave us Hare Krishna maha-mantra, Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-Gita, Vrindavan and You. Every time I am horrified thinking how we were unhappy and foolish before we met Srila Prabhupada.
Every time when I circumambulate Govardhan with devotees or lead them to the another holy place, I mentally put You ahead and meditate what would You tell them - something special and what is needed just for them. And Gandharvika Giridhari dd bathes Your laminated photo in all kundas, and together we pray for Your health, that You have more physical strength and energy for preaching.
I have got some new prayers to You now. I pray that by Your blessings Bhakti would overfill my heart and oust all dirt; that my japa would become a pure nectar, not a battle-field; and that possibility and desire to read Srimad Bhagavatam would return to me (I had big obstacles because of my bad eye-sight); that my desire and possibility to serve You and Srila Prabhupada would increase day after day and our spiritual connection Guru-disciple deepens and deepens.
Trying to become useful in Your preaching and service to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, and trying to become humble,
Nandimukhi devi dasi
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Dear Guru-maharaja!
Please accept my low obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and guru-parampara! All glories to You! On this auspicious day I’ll try to glorify You on Your mercy.
Each time when I read the diary in the conference I can’t help admiring Your spiritual force. Your body is ill because of constant overloads but nevertheless You give us Your care and support, fly from one country to another, from city to city, from year to year – to support, to inspire us, to share Your experience with us.
We meet so many obstacles in our way, we are full of fear, our hearts are as hard as stone blocks but You, Guru-maharaja, are very mercy to us, You are always ready to come to the rescue and never leave Your disciples in difficult moments of our life. You feel the pain of Your disciples and of each jiva as Your own. All glory to You!
I pray Krishna and You to give me the reason to develop Guru bhakti, only then I’ll be able to find the mercy of Krishna. Such is a bhakti-yoga way.
We know that You are very dear to Krishna and You are His companion. We ask Lord to give You the opportunity to restore Your force and health. For 35 years You have done so much for Your disciples, followers and all mankind. I want to understand at least only one particle
from Your treasure. You’ve neglected Your health, have sacrificed Yourself for the sake of our rescue. We bow low to You and we ask Lord to give You a chance to correct your health because without You we can never get out of terrible and full of dangers material world.
Please, forgive us for all our offences.
Your disciples
Nirmala bhakti dd and Ananta Nitai das
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Hare Krishna! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to your Divine Grace!
My dear spiritual teacher! Please accept my most humble obeisances unto your feet.
Usually on one’s birthday we got used to congratulate a birthday person and wish him all the best.
You are like a cloud full to the brims of Krishna’s mercy. You are generously gifting with this mercy every living being which anyhow comes in contact with you. What could wish a forest conflagrated with fire of material wishes to the cloud on its birthday?
It could say only one thing – shed your mercy on me, put this fire away! It takes place in nature this way, there is very simple there. If it is fire, fire should be put away.
But when it relates to a person, everything becomes very complicated because a person can run away even from those people who make good for him.
My mind does it so; it constantly carries me away from the flows of mercy which you shed on your disciples. It (mind) finds hundreds duties and important things simply for not listening for a lecture of the spiritual teacher. And after that it convinces me that Guru does not love me and does not care about me. That he does not answer my letters and generally does not remember that I exist, such an extraordinary soul. And what is the necessity to write tributes? There are so many disciples, try not to trouble eyes of your Maharaja with no need, do not waste his time due to reading your philosophizing. For example, last year you did not write to Guru Maharaja and he did not notice. And who needs it this year?
So, in such a way my Mind deceives me from year to year, from life to life… I tired so much to live with such an advisor. Guru Maharaja, I beg you on this advantageous day, please, kick this deceiver with all that strength that the Lord gave to you. I have no other shelter, except for Your Lotus Feet. And I have no faith in anybody but you.
Please, teach me to see You constantly in my life!!!
Always yours dasi dasi anu dasi
Nitya Seva devi dasi
(Tomsk, Russia)
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Dear Srila Niranjana Swami Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your Lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Dear Guru Maharaja!
What can I offer to your lotus feet on this beautiful day of Your Divine apparition? Nothing valuable. That’s why I have made up my mind to describe my sorrowful situation and bring glory to your elevated position and strength of your boundless mercy towards this worthless dependent soul.
Great luck fell on me to meet in you - the pure devotee and representative of Sri Krishna. But the bitter truth is that I still have not obtained due qualification of a disciple. I have been doing many different things during all these years. How many times I stumbled and fell.
Sometimes parents criticize their careless and negligent children for their serious misbehavior. But you didn’t do even that. I was a bad mother because I married for the second time. But even when everybody turned their backs on me, you showed your endless mercy towards me and patiently waited when I would get out off those backwaters. Moreover, you gave blessings for my coming baby and still take care of his spiritual welfare. Let all glories be to your endless mercy!
I also was a bad wife, because I lacked respective merits. But you with the strength of your wish made so that my husband recognized that I fit with a good wife’s requirements for 99.9 percent. But after that he left me all the same. And even after that you did not repel me.
This is how my sorrowful situation is and this is how strong your mercy is. Let all glories to your great patience and divine mercy!
Dear Guru Maharaja! You did not repel me and what is more, you found the way to involve me in devotional service. Moreover, giving me chance to serve in your mission by the most wonderful way, once you told me: “Thank you, Rameshvari”. I never understood what for. That is how my sorrowful situation is. And that is how strong your mercy is.
Oh, Guru Maharaja! You did so many things for me. For so many years you have been leading me, who is blind and lame. You have been shedding and still go on shedding endless flow of mercy on me and my children.
So, please, lead me further on. I have none and nothing. My parents left their bodies. My husbands ran away from me. Devotees never reproach me either; probably they fear that I will not survive it. This is my sad situation. I hope only for your reasonless and unmeasured mercy.
By the strength of your wish you did impossible things. Please, do not leave me. Please, help me dedicate the rest of my life to the serve to your mission. You are already doing this, so please inspire and compel me to do what you deem necessary.
Your servant Rameshvari Devi dasi,
useless, yet wholeheartedly devoted to you
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please, accept my respectful obeisances in the dust of you lotus feet. All glories to Shrila Prabhupada!
On this glorious day of your appearance I want to tell you about what would bring you joy. Since you find joy in everything that connected with Krishna, especially in the sound of His Name which makes no difference from Himself I can confess that owing to you mercy and mercy of the Sacred Name I also start to find joy of life in the sounds of the Holy Name trying to repeat them very attentively. In reply to this the Holy Name like Cintamani stone made it so that I understood that right now I possess the utmost secret knowledge, invaluable gift, treasure of ultramundane. It is a big open secret, but this secret shall be open only to that one who believes in the Holy Name and eagers to set up ultramundane relationships.
Dear Guru Maharaja, with your unmeasured love and care about us you opened this sacred cherished door for me into the mystery of ultramundane. Dazed and bewildered I am standing in front of this door with my hands put together, completely depending on your mercy. Give me a push once again. Take my hand and together with you help me to step over the threshold to primal eternal world of love and devotion.
As always before totally depending on you
your servant from life to life
Ratnavali dd
P.S. Hope that this way I would be able to satisfy Srila Prabhupada
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your Lotus Feet. All glories to Sila Prabhupada!
Let me express my gratefulness and appreciation to you on the day of your Vyasa-puja for all those kind and good things you have taught me and those things you still go on teaching me.
It is very difficult to learn something if you do not have good example. Taking into consideration the place we live in is a material world and having in mind qualification of disciples who are dependent fallen souls, those things you have been doing are just Great heroic act.
Personally I am just kneeling down before You. If to be honest I have no words and ability to express all that gratefulness and appreciation to you because all you have been doing is so amazing and extraordinary!
I have always been charmed by your devotion to Srila Prabhupada. Your self-sacrifice for the sake of Srila Prabhupada’s mission never left me untouched.
I have been always amazed to tears by your mercy and compassion to your disciples and generally to all souls who somehow addressed to you. I have been always failed to blink back my tears in your presence. Those tears were caused by your unique ability to appreciate and respect everybody and everything that surrounds you.
Your endless love and warmth you generously endowed us left nobody indifferent. Everybody suddenly broke through reserved and became happy.
Your personality has always been so sweet and magnetic that nobody could pass by you and remain unchanged. You are much alike philosopher’s stone Cintamani that turns everything into gold by touching it.
Your careful attitude to your spiritual brothers and sisters was never left unnoticed. Owing to your deep understanding of philosophy we have a chance to listen your nectar seminars and endless lectures, your kirtans and bhajans make out stone hearts melting. Your transcendent sound always stirs hearts.
Your devotion to the Supreme Personality Sri Krishna gives me a chance to practice devotional service all the same. It is extremely difficult to practice devotional service to the Lord Sri Krishna because I am not devotee. I am the person who lives in Kali-Yuga and I am still amazed how wonderful the Lord is and how wonderful His devotees like you are who due to their causeless mercy are shedding their mercy on us, making our hearts melting owing to their divine qualities.
I am still too far from perfection and great work connected with purification of my heart lies ahead, but this does not disturbs me any more. All that I have come across owing to you becomes extremely dear and significant for me.
Owing to you I began to appreciate more and more the society of devotees, my luck to be among such elevated souls, Prabhupada’s books, serving to the Deities, chance to serve to people telling them about the Lord Caitanya, about that we are not these bodies and about the chance to come back to Godhead, and also about the method of self-realization in Kali-Yuga – that consists in chanting of Holy Names of the Lord.
Thank you so much for your unmeasured mercy and unconditional self-giving service owing to which we see the light and, thus, Kali-Yuga retreats.
Please, be generous and excuse me for my imperfection and never let me forget to whom I owe all that. I am so happy having chance to chant the Holy Names of the Lord, and I love this so much!
I like Prabhupada’s books very much, I like devotees very much, and I like the mission of Lord Caitanya. And such a wonderful life became possible for me thanks to your participation in it. I am endlessly grateful and thankful to you for such a life!
Your insignificant servant
Ratnavati d.d.
P.S I am very grateful to all devotees by mercy of whom I have a chance to send this offering. I would not take a chance to send this offering unless dear devotees had taken all these errands on themselves. May the Lord help you.
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances unto the dust of Your lotus feet.
On Your appearance day, which is so auspicious for Your disciples, well-wishers, and also for Your many Godbrothers, who appreciate Your association very much, I would like to tell You a little story which happened to me recently. I hope this story will reveal Your exalted qualities - the qualities which attract even ordinary people to You, who are not at all familiar with Krishna consciousness and are not aware of Your important role in it.
For example there was a lady, an optician, who was selecting glasses for You. She only had a short chance to associate with you, but she got so inspired in the result of these few minutes, that she asked devotees if You were giving public lectures? When she heard affirmative answer, she asked them to let her know when the lectures will take place. As a soul who has been living millions of years in the grip of maya and spending her time in fruitless search to find illusory happiness, she got attracted by the purity and devotion of Your personality. Lord Krishna, as always, revealed Himself through You, His pure devotee, and this conditioned soul began to remember her wasted relationship with Him. There are many similar examples. These examples prove once more the words of Lord Caitanya, that He spoke in Mathura in the conversation with a brahmana:
dharma-sthapana- hetu sadhura vyavahara
puri-gosanira ye acarana, sei dharma sara
"A devotees' behavior establishes the true purpose of religious principles. The behavior of Madhavendra Puri Gosvami is the essence of such religious principles." [CC. Madhya 17.185]
It is Your behaviour, Your exalted qualities, that is this "litmus paper" with the help of which one can ascertain the genuineness of our movement. These qualities attract us and give us conviction that we came to the right path.
There are so many philosophies and philosophers, so many different preachers who talk about high values, who stand for religious principles. But are they ready to give up their own personal interests in order to preach the very same principles? Are they themselves ready to live with these values that they preach?
Sanatana Goswami said, glorifying Haridas Thakura:
"Some people live with dignity, but they do not preach Krishna consciousness. At the same time others are preaching, but do have proper behaviour. By your personal behavior and preaching you discharge at once all obligations to the Holy Name. Therefore you are the spiritual master of the whole world, because you are the most exalted devotee in the world."
Exactly the same words can be used for You. Because You do not only inspire us by Your behavior and qualities, but You also do not save Your strength or health in order to carry the message of Lord Caitanya to the conditioned souls of this world. What can be more exalted than that? And yet You, again and again, amaze us with Your self-sacrifice for our benefit. The little example I wanted to talk about today shows this.
Do You remember how in the autumn, on the way to Almaty festival, You and Sivarama Swami were waiting in the terminal of transit passengers in Frankfurt airport? Suddenly the announcement said that Revati Prananath is waiting His Grace Srila Niranjana Swami at the exit of the terminal. Actually there were us, some of Your disciples from different corners of Germany, and we had a naive hope that perhaps You can come out of the terminal for some time and give us a short moment of Your valuable association. In our simple-minded egoism we did not consider that You were sick already a long time, that You just arrived from one festival and were on the way to another without really having a chance to take rest in between, that getting out from the terminal might be difficult for You. As the time went by and You did not show up, all these facts clearly appeared in my mind and I started to curse myself for complying with devotees' enthusiasm and causing You trouble. Suddenly my cellphone ringed (I had left my number at the information service of the airport) and I heard Your voice. You were asking about who is there waiting for You and You forwarded blessings to all, expressing Your being sorry for not being able to meet us all personally due to too short time in-between two flights. We bid farewell to You and we did not feel any annoyance for not seeing You. Actually we were simply in ecstasy! There was a realization that a disciple must appreciate every chance to associate with his spiritual master. Even if there is practically no chance. Then we were discussing with devotees about Your exalted qualities when suddenly I noticed that I have received SMS. You asked forgiveness (!) from me in this message for not being able to exit, although You wanted to see me very much. I understood that this desire of Yours was applying to all Your disciples. You wrote this message in Russian for You were aware that I have difficulties with English, and that required even more endeavors from You. I was conquered. Such attention, care and sympathy with Your disciples is characteristic only to You. I had no other desire any more. My spiritual master - the greatest saint of our time. In spite of the pain, in spite of being overwrought, in spite of our ignorance You still find so much love and care for us. Let me be considered sentimental, but I know that everything You do for us is worth of glorification and worship. What a pity that my ignorance covers You from me from time to time.
dharma-sthapana- hetu sadhura vyavahara
puri-gosanira ye acarana, sei dharma sara
"A devotee’s behavior establishes the true purpose of religious principles. The behavior of Madhavendra Puri Gosvami is the essence of such religious principles." [CC. Madhya 17.185]
You are giving us orientation, You are giving us hope, You are giving us strength to go on this path! I can only pray and pray for being able one day to repay this debt to You, just as You are repaying to Srila Prabhupada.
Trying to become Your disciple,
Revati Prananath das
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Hare Krishna, dear Guru Maharaj,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On this auspicious day of your Vyasa-puja, please, allow me to express you my reverence and offer my attempts to glorify you.
Everything that we obtain in spiritual life, all our progress depends on mercy of guru. It is only by mercy of Guru that we can do impossible – to serve Krishna (while having no qualification). Spiritual master serves His Guru in the perfect way. Showing the best example of devotion and inspiring his disciples, Guru mercifully passes our service up through parampara. Thus a sincere disciple has a great hope that his efforts will be noticed.
I happened to write you my offering first time, though it is not the first year of me being your initiated disciple. Once at your lecture I heard that it is duty of a disciple to write homage to His Spiritual master for his Vasa-puja. It should be done regardless of our mood or some false humbleness.
I have nothing to offer unto you as an offering, but my gratitude and prayer for your mercy.
Dear Guru Maharaj, I need your mercy very much. Please let me develop true desire to serve you in the mission of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Let me always remain among devotees.
Your unworthy disciple
Sankarsana das
(Lipetsk , Ukarine)
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Hare Krishna, dear Spiritual Master!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your Lotus Feet. All glories to Your dear and beloved Master - His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada!
Thank You for tirelessly reminding me in Your lectures that the most important is to "not forget the goal", not forget the essential need of the soul – to love Krishna, to serve Krishna.
Thank You for telling us about sankirtana, about how important it is to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. Thanks to these books, thanks to the instructions in the books, we all here have a chance to go back home, back to Godhead, to return to the life full of bliss and knowledge. The stories about how You used to distribute books are very inspiring. Your personal example of surrendering to Your Master and how You struggled with Your mind - it is all very very inspiring and it brings it closer. I remember You told in a lecture how in the beginning You were distributing books up to 24 hours a day, and Your meditation was halava with strawberries and bilberries. I don't know why but it inspired me very much.
I remember how You spoke about spiritual greed. Srila Prabhupada once said that he will give special mercy to them who distribute more books. And You thought at that time: 'I already received so much mercy, but what does it mean then to get a special mercy? Whatever it is - I must get it!'
Thank You that You Yourself are so happy in Krishna consciousness.
Thank You for sharing with us which desires You cherished in Your heart, thereby giving us a chance to look in our own hearts and ask ourselves: What do I strive for? Am I a follower of my Spiritual Master? What is my real goal, is His life mission also my mission, am I a disciple, do I know the heart of my Spiritual Master? When You speak about everything that You did for satisfying Your Spiritual Master, how important it is for You to achieve the smile of Srila Prabhupada, to make him happy, then with it You sow into our hearts the seed of that love, of that spiritual greed, this spiritual happiness of desiring to be a servant. Your lectures - it is not just stories, history, allegories for entertaining us. Your lectures - it is a casket of Your mercy, where everything is full of deep meaning and touches the hearts, changing them and curing them from stupid material desires, leaving in there just one thing - "I want to love this kind of Krishna as You do." Just by hearing You the heart fills with inspiration and spiritual strength, and one feels strong desire to change, to become serious in Krishna consciousness. One feels sorry in his heart for foolishness that he has done, and begins to understand those foolish things which we do in this material world, considering ourselves independent.
You show us by Your example that a bona fide Master is first of all a bona fide disciple of His Master. And the stories about Your surrender to Your Spiritual Master are touching the heart, and inspire deeply to endeavor for similar love, or at least for just desiring it. It is a great mercy to even simply hear about the fact that this kind of love exits and to delight about it in ones heart.
Thank You for disciples and followers who are already fixed in Krishna consciousness and who inspire and help others in this.
Thank You for Your kirtanas, for japa together with us. It is all filled with special taste, and it is all special mercy.
Your mercy is unlimited. The heart is too small to put there all the mercy that You desire to give to all conditioned souls. I remember how during Your kirtana the most bright and inspiring thoughts came to my mind. These were simple thoughts, but they reached the heart directly: 'There is Krishna. The soul has nothing else but the mercy of Krishna. The main goal in life is to satisfy the Holy Name and Srila Prabhupada. In real life the center is Krishna, and the most valuable decoration of life is a desire to satisfy Krishna.'
Thank You for Your love for Srila Prabhupada and the Holy Name. Thank You for an example of love, compassion and much more which is not yet visible in my steel-framed heart; and if there is something visible, then it is because You dissipated the darkness of ignorance.
You said that every day You remember Your disciples and pray for them. And not only for disciples. For everyone You know and do not know. In everything You are real follower of Your Master - Srila Prabhupada.
In the heart which so warmly loves the Holy Name and Srila Prabhupada the whole universe can find shelter.
Thank You, Guru Maharaja, for accepting me as Your disciple! Thank You!
Your servant
Shatarupa devi dasi
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Dear Srila Niranjana Swami
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.
I should say that it is difficult to me to write a letter. But I will try to be sincere. First of all, I wish to thank You Guru Maharaja for Your determination. It is an example which forever remains in my heart. That would not occur if You had any chance to forget about the mission of Srila Prabhupada assigned to You. This mission accepted by You is a possibility to pay an irredeemable debt to the spiritual teacher more precisely. I too hope that I can sometime have similar feeling. I trust that this is exactly what will melt my stone and severe heart. Sometimes, unfortunately only sometimes, when my mind becomes very hard and consequences of erroneous acts kill in me last sparks of optimism and belief, I mentally call you to talk, ask council or simply to repent. I is the false Ego, I come to a sudden conclusion about what still is necessary to me to keep on going and try to do my devotional service. From Your merciful blessings I very much hope that my deeds will be successful. Please protect the precious body that has the luck to carry Your Spirit Soul. You are very dear to all servants and especially to Your spiritual teacher Srila Prabhipada As an embodiment of his ideas in real life You are thereby satisfying His Holiness from the depth of His Heart.
Your servant
Shyam Krishna dasa
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Dear Guru Maharaj, our dear spiritual father,
In this auspicious day of your appearance, please, accept our love and devotion to you. We offer our humble obeisances to your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Dear Guru Maharaj, today I would like to express my deep gratitude for all your kindness, compassion, care, attentiveness and love which you were giving me earlier and which you are giving me now.
I accepted you as my spiritual master in 1998, when my first guru left ISKCON. You helped me to overcome that deepest, horrible pain which destroyed my spiritual life for many years. When I asked you for help, you accepted me at once and you were always so kind and careful to me. Every time when I needed your help you gave it me immediately. Unfortunately I cannot express my gratitude to you for each occasion because this letter will be too long there. But I want that you know that I remember each particular case and by these remembrances my affection to you continuously grows up.
I am always wondering also how skillfully and wisely you are taking care about spiritual advancement of your disciples: how you are taking care that your lectures will be available, how carefully selected all these lectures. When I am listening to your lectures, I see how you thought over what we need to hear in each particular time.
I am delighted with your books where selected so carefully all what we need to know. If we need to find some information, I know that we should simply take your book and we can find there any important theme which is described widely and deeply. Now you give us another gift – an ability of constant personal association with you through your diary. Thank you very much for that. It gives us a lot of spiritual support and help.
So, all of us, your disciples, always feel you attentive care. I heard about that many times from my brothers and sisters. And although I had only few abilities to see you for last few years, I never feel that I am lonely. Because father can be far, he can be busy, he can be surrounded by thousand of people, but despite of that he always remains loving father.
In the last festival you were always surrounded by so many devotees and I did not want even to give you my letter as I usually did. What to think about speaking with you! All my association with you was where during the lectures you bestowed me your glances couple of times. But these glances told me about all – they told me that there is deep spiritual connection between me and my beloved spiritual master and this connection cannot be destroyed by any external reasons. And again I felt your kindness and care and I was so happy from that!
I cannot understand how was it possible that in this life I receive such an amazing luck – an ability to meet you and to take shelter of your lotus feet? I see that my spiritual path is so long yet and there are so many obstacles in it, but I carefully keep in my heart the most dearest that I have – this amazing pure personality named Srila Niranjana Swami, who is making so many endeavors to bring me to the higher perfection of life.
With deep gratitude and love your humble servant
Trailokyamata devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please, accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
At the end of May during the counselor retreat we had discussions with senior devotees about enhancement of service. During the discussions I felt some pressure with respect to the necessity of making more efforts in our service. In my mind an indignation appeared: on the one hand I want to do it and I see the necessity to do it, but on the other hand it seems that I well do more than I can. We began to follow the advices of the senior devotees and immediately could see the positive result. However, a lot of questions and hesitations have been accumulated before the next retreat. Before the November retreat my child has fallen ill and though he (she) has been almost recovered, I was in doubt whether to go or not. Nevertheless all the questions inside me and the fact of your personal presence on the retreat inspired me a lot. My experience, that I have got in May and June, when your were in Kiev, has left such a significant trace of inspiration, that I decided for myself, that had I any possibility of association with you I'd never loose it.
I decided to go. I am grateful to Krishna, that I had an opportunity to associate with you. All my questions have go answers, internal hesitations went away, and I felt a firm conviction, irrevocability inside referring to some rules in devotional service. When here is a possibility to attend your lectures and see your example, heart changes.
Sunday lecture in Kiev has deeply touched me as well as many other devotees. I understood that here are things that I hold on. I'd like not to hold, but I lack determination to reject. But you push and not just push, but push with love and compassion and help to make steps, help to
acquire Srila Prabhupada's mercy. Simultaneously you give the spiritual taste and a will to get it. When one sees what he gets, the determination appears.
You simply told how Srila Prabhupada pushed you all, what a mercy He gave for super-endeavors. You told with a great taste and at the same time with love to Srila Prabhupada. I have felt that you also push with your own experience as well. And this is not just a pressure in the best sense, it's a wish to help to get something very-very precious. It is real care and love. I have felt the connection between what we discussed with senior devotees in July and what you told in November. I understood that it's important that in spiritual life one was taken care of and
pushed to make more efforts (both internal and external) for Srila Prabhupada's satisfaction. I am grateful a lot for your compassion and care. When we stayed in Kiev I was so inspired that phoned one devotee (mataji) and suggested to go to the Sunday lecture in Kharkov. She went
and was also inspired a lot. She told that she regularly watches lectures video, but live communication particularly inspires and sobers up.
Dear Guru Maharaja, in this auspicious day of your Vyasa-puja I implore you for always being an object of your care and being imbued with the mood you have.
With great gratitude in my heart
your eternal servant
Vaidarbhi devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept our respectful obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
It is said in the shastras that the holy name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are nondifferent. At the same time the holy name is more merciful than Krishna Himself, because Krishna doesn`t forgive offences, but the holy name does.
Shastras also confirm that Sri Guru - it is God Himself, and there is no difference between them.
"Caitanya-Caritamrita" Adi-lila 1.45 states:
guru kṛṣṇa-rūpa hana śāstrera pramāṇe
guru-rūpe kṛṣṇa kṛpā karena bhakta-gaṇe
"According to the deliberate opinion of all revealed scriptures, the spiritual master is nondifferent from Krsna. Lord Krsna in the form of the spiritual master delivers His devotees."
"Caitanya-Caritamrita" Adi-lila 1.47 states:
śikṣā-guruke ta' jāni kṛṣṇera svarūpa
antaryāmī, bhakta-śreṣṭha, — ei dui rūpa
"One should know the instructing spiritual master to be the Personality of Krsna. Lord Krsna manifests Himself as the Supersoul and as the greatest devotee of the Lord."
Gurudeva, manifestation of Krishna`s mercy - bhakta-srestha, the best of devotees.
Often times people look at the Guru as an ordinary person and think about him as about ordinary person: "Why Guru is acting this way or that way? Or why does he react in this situation in this way or doesn`t react at all?" This kind of mood - naraka budhi - is the mood of a hell dweller. Disciple must not have any doubt about the Spiritual Master for even a moment.
But at the same time there is difference between Guru and Krishna: Guru is more mercyful than Krishna!!!
In the "Jaladakhyana samhita" it is said: "A lotus flower which grows from the water opens up under the sunbeams. But the same sun causes the lotus wither when it is cut off. In this example disciple is compared with lotus flower, Sri Guru with water and the Supreme Lord with the sun."
In other words, if one tries to approach Krishna without the help of Spiritual Master, then he is meant to fail.
It is said that for jiva Krishna is mother and father and life air.
But for the disciple Guru is mother and father, and his instructions are a life air for him.
Krishna is as far as the sun and as near as the sunlight, but blind man cannot take advantage of everything that sun gives.
We are blind, but you - a doctor, our hearts are a desert, but you are a raincloud. We are beggars, but you - a source of treasures. We are stupid, but you - embodiment of wisdom. We are your eternal servants, but you are our eternal master, Spiritual Master, who has got all wonderful qualities.
With unlimited obeisances,
Vaikunthanatha das
Vrindavana Vilasini devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja…
…our hearts bow down to your soft lotus feet with gratitude.
Thanks a lot to Srila Prabhupad for creating such soft melliferous flowers as you and your Godbrothers. For us, your bee-disciples, these flowers are not only the nectar, which we are enjoying as much as we want, but these flowers are our life and soul. The same way as it is impossible for bee to be happy without melliferous flowers and hive, our life is impossible without you, your lectures-instructions, kirtanas and of cause without devotees.
Naive years passed and sense enjoyments leave our hearts, not seeing any our interest to them, thus we have more free time to help you and your Godbrothers in serving to Srila Prabhupada.
Formerly we thought about you – for ourselves, and now we learn to look at ourselves – for you… The more we listen your lectures, the better we understand what you expect from us. And we feel that we have already wanted this…because you had already occupied the altar of our hearts. And now you are inside and outside!
A good bee understands her dependence on flowers, and therefore can even imagine her life without them and shares flowers difficulties and happy moments as her own difficulties and joy…
Let all your intimate desires and hopes will be fulfilled.
Please, let us always remain by your Lotus Feet, drinking the nectar of your devotion to Srila Prabhupad.
Your loving family,
Vaisnava das and Tilakini devi dasi
(Kiev, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances unto the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On this auspicious Vyasa-puja day please accept my rarely modest appearing try to glorify You.
It is said in the shastras that it is not possible for an ordinary man to understand the behavior of a vaishnava. Pure vaishnava is able to act in this world just like Krishna - not getting under the power of illusory energy. And this is amazing. Outwardly their activities are similar to those of conditioned souls. Krishna's internal energy is safely protecting the confidential world of pure devotional love of His devotees from "lusty glances" of materialists, by leading latter’s' minds in the sphere of unreal material happiness and liberation. So we can say that devotees and materialists live in "parallel worlds", being covered by powerful energies of Krishna, which satisfy the free will of both. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna from His Absolute position establishes a principle not to disturb those who are not prone to serve Him. Yet Srila Prabhupada intervenes this statement and reveals the confidential desire of Krishna, which He Himself considers better not to reveal, in order to respect the desire of a living being.
In this way Srila Prabhupada reveals a special category of devotees, uniting these "parallel worlds". These devotees are connected by one special feature - COMPASSION. "Compassion" for Krishna and compassion for lost souls whom Krishna wants to awake from illusion. Those devotees stand in the chain, binding each other with the strong knot of heartful attachment and love for Krishna, and come into the realm of ignorance and darkness, where living entities who are under the spell of the charm of their own wants, are eternally suffering in the hands of maya. Coming into this stinking world, where there is urine, blood, stool, pus, hallucination, betrayal and endless wanderings, these great souls, mahatmas, are doing the greatest heroic deed which is the most ungrateful task: they are extracting from all this dirt a pure "milk" - original, pure, shining nature of jiva which is his devotion to Krishna.
This chain is celebrated in this world as guru-parampara, and its representatives as bona fide spiritual masters. Just like magnanimous rain clouds, which have absorbed the dark color of limitless bliss of Syamasundara, they are pouring endless blessings on everyone, washing the hopelessly darkened faces of forever suffering jivas with the purest water of self-realization. And then, taking upon himself all that "porridge", like Lord Siva, they keep in themselves all that accumulated poison and then let it all go to the sphere of internal energy, collecting valuable particles of bhakti piece by piece from the hearts of his disciples. And it is not possible to tolerate it for none except for those who have developed in their hearts the deepest attachment, love and "compassion" to Krishna. Even the greatest demigods are not able to undertake such heroic deed, because even in spite of their high position they are connected with other living entities through selfish interests.
Therefore the highest well-wisher and the highest object of worship is spiritual master who is giving everyone the Holy Name and patiently takes his disciples home, back to Godhead.
And You are a living personification of such a spiritual master. Otherwise, how could the hope for achieving perfection be maintained in the heart of such fallen soul, full of sinful desires, as it is Your insignificant servant
Varahadev das
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Dear Guru-Maharaj!
Please accept our humble obeicanses. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The Scriptures say that a rare soul realizes her spiritual nature and the eternal connection with the Higher Absolute Truth. It is more difficult to meet the soul, devoted her life to the service to Supreme Lord. Srila Prabhupada was such a soul. Though we haven’t had an opportunity to meet Him personally but we all are very successful. The mercy of His disciples which bear a torch of spiritual knowledge, shining darkness of ignorance, spills on us. By mercy of devotees we have got in the field of Your torch’s illumination, for what we are very grateful to destiny, to the Day, which have presented to all mankind the rescuer of the fallen souls.
You are the dearest and the most kindred person for us. By Your kindness, You spill Your mercy not only on Your devotees, but also on all those who have ever heard You or seen You.
For the sake of the blessing of us we wish You health and long years of fruitful life. Take care of Yourself.
Thank You for kindness, for care, for love.
With obeisances
Vishakha priya dd., Gopa Sundari
(Visagina, Lithuania)
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Please let me glorify You and express my gratitude. In the result of selfish deeds I am drowning in the ocean of material existence. Day and night my heart burns from the poison of worldly deeds and my mind doesn't give me any peace. Lust, anger, envy, greed, illusion and madness are forcing me to tremble with fear and in this way my life moves to the end. And I begin to realize very clearly that only by the mercy of a spiritual master I can cross the ocean on material existence and obtain the mercy of Krishna.
Every time I meet You I see the outstanding features of a person who has cultivated in himself Ecstatic love for Krishna. And this love You pour on Your disciples.
Out of compassion to us You give everything from Yourself. By Your instructions You teach how to purify consciousness. You put transcendental knowledge in the heart and dissipate the darkness of ignorance.
You are always engaged in worship of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna and You also teach to worship God. With how much attachment to the Holy Name You sing it! Soul begins to tremble and sing and the tears of happiness flow.
With Your association the faith in Krishna grows and becomes stronger, life becomes meaningful and beautiful. Guru Maharaja, I am endlessly grateful to You for Your support, care and love for me. I bow down to Your lotus feet with deepest humility. Let Your glory be carried over the three worlds!
Wishing to become Your worthy disciple,
Vraja manjari dd
(Ekaterinburg, Russia)
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Dear Guru Maharaj
Please accept my obeisances. I also pay obeisances to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada.
Guru Maharaj, I know that I have no qualification to glorify You. And also, because of the weakness of my heart, it is impossible to name my obedience for Your mission full. But still I do not get tired to offer You words of profound gratitude for Your big and tender heart. For Your surprising example.
Somehow at lecture in Moscow, answering a question of the disciple, You have told: "There is only one reason for awakening bhakti - it is bhakti. And how does it occur? It occurs, when bhakti, sleeping in the human’s heart adjoins with bhakti which has been already shown at devotee. It happens by causeless mercy, having received which a person will aspire to communicate with those who has waked up a desire of devotional service to the Lord, and with those who is capable to strengthen it." Guru Maharaj, undoubtedly You are one of those persons who awakes bhakti in my heart. And my entreaty consists in that: "Please, continue to do this. Without Your help it will not be possible."
As I have already told, such qualities as weakness of heart, arrogance, pride live also in me. I am afraid very much and at the same time I want to get rid of them. Let this jiva become an object of Your causeless mercy. And I haven’t any other hope for returning to Lord .
The servant of Your servants
Vrajabhumi devi dasi
(Ekaterinburg, Russia)
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances and congratulations on Your appearance day!
Less than a month has passed since I returned from Sri Vrindavan dhama.
Spiritual effulgence of this sacred place purifies the heart and inspires so much, saturating my life with devotion, being in spiritual world becomes direct experience there. It’s easier to realize the fact while being in Sri Dhama still I understand that it's not necessary physically to be there to live in Vrindavan. One can do it in his consciousness. The Holy Name can reveal Vraja dhama in the heart of a devotee who sincerely cries out for mercy. No doubt this is quite a challenge so I made it one of the goals of my sadhana. That is why living here in the West where the influence of three gunas of material nature is so strong I take shelter in the effulgence of Your instructions, kirtans, Your photos and Your diary published in Your blog.
Your instructions on Sri Nama touch my heart so deep. All Your instructions are on the absolute level but I have to confess that I am attached to those pertaining the Holy Name most of all. It is the real nectar of Nama Katha coming from Your pure heart. And You speak it with such deep love and affection. I often think about getting completely dependant on the Holy Name. You spoke on this topic in the interview for Dhanurdhara swami’s book which amazed me when I first read it and it still inspires me. I'd like to tell You a story which happened to me this summer and helped me to understand at least theoretically how much we are dependant on mercy of Guru’s and Krishna’s mercy. One evening I took a ride on a bicycle to a lake to chant there and relax after the tensions of the day.
When I settled comfortably and started chanting peacefully on the shore I noticed a little butterfly in the water not far from me who fell there probably getting in illusion by taking the reflection of the evening sky in the water for the sky itself. First I didn't want to bother myself thinking that it was the poor creature's problem but later having witnessed his struggle for life, it's enthusiastic efforts to get of the water by which it was actually swimming further and further from the shore I decided to save it. His destiny was obvious. I stood up, entered the water and picked it out. As soon as I put it on the grass The realization stroke me. I realized that despite of my desperate efforts to save myself and solve my own problems I have no chance for survival. My chanting brings no pleasure neither to Krishna nor my Spiritual master nor even myself. It can only attract Their attention and mercy and They will pick me out of this material existence if I just go on and on with chanting. We fall in the water of material life in full ignorance of what we should do, where we should swim and what is all this life about. Just like that butterfly who was just a meter away from the shore but not being able to see the shore it was swimming further away from it's survival.
Agjana timirandhasya...This is what real helplessness means.
For me it was very valuable realization. I could see my complete dependence on Your mercy.
Please give me Your blessings to go on with my chanting exactly in this mood forever.
Your servant
Vrajanath das
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
It has happened so that I don't get much chance to personally associate with You. And sometimes I think is it good or bad. I heard in one of Your lectures how You said that most disciples are not able to take proper advantage of personal darshana. At the time of darshana one should not glorify his own achievements but should use the time for getting instructions. Unfortunately I do not even have anything yet to be proud of and I didn't yet realize even those instructions which You constantly repeat in Your lectures. Besides of it my demoniac qualities often lead me to make offences.
But still I feel the need to see You at least sometimes. To see how You sit, how You walk, how You talk. This increases my desire to follow Your footsteps and gives me hope that in spite of my fallen condition, by Your mercy and by the mercy of Krishna I can develop in me qualities similar to Yours, the same love and devotion to Krishna, Guru and Vaishnavas.
Let me one more time express to You my appreciation and gratefulness for everything that You do for me, even though being not directly near. I can say with confidence that only due to Your compassion and great self-sacrifice, but also due to compassion and self-sacrifice of Srila Prabhupada, my life has some meaning and value.
O, spiritual master, o, ocean of mercy and friend of fallen souls, please be merciful to me and allow me to find shelter at Your lotus feet. Let Your glories be heard all over the three worlds!
Desiring to become Your worthy disciple,
Vrajendranandana das
(Ekaterinburg, Russia)
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Hare Krishna, dear Guru Maharaj!
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I don’t know why the Lord gave me such a mercy – to be your disciple. By your mercy I am feeling more closer to Krishna. Krishna-Balaram are becoming more and more dear. I want to chant the holy name more and more. I want to serve Krishna more and more. This is the result of your guidance. I am unlimitedly grateful to you. I cannot express my gratitude by words. Somehow or other I am trying to please you by my activities. I feel myself your debtor. My debt is increasing and – excuse me – I am happy because of this debt. And as payment, I am offering myself to serve your eternally – whether in material or spiritual word – the main thing is to serve you. This is my offering. Please accept it. Sorry for this but I belong to you.
Gopapatni is also very grateful to you. Unlimitedly grateful and indebted. She considered herself incapable of writing an offering. She apologizes and offers her humble obeisances.
We are trying to please you by our service in the Lord Jagannath Temple under the supervision of Yasomatinandana prabhu.
Your servants
Yaduraj das,
Gopapatni devi dasi
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Dearest Guru-Maharaja,
Please accept my most humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet! All glories to Your Divine Grace and to your beloved spiritual master and savior Srila Prabhupada!
A few weeks back we read in our morning Srimad Bhagavatam class from the 3.Canto, Chapter13 ‘The Appearance of Lord Vraha’ Text 4.; and I was particularly struck by one line from this verse:
“Pure devotees always think within their hearts of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who awards His devotees liberation.”
When I heard this line a whole bunch of realizations went off in my head and with your permission I would like to share them on this most auspicious day of your appearance in this world.
This line immediately reminded me of you, because just one or two days earlier I had watched and heard the wonderful lecture you gave at the Evpatoria Festival on the occasion of Srila Prabhupada’s 50. Anniversary of taking Sannyasa. It is said: ’ the face is the index of the mind ‘ and witnessing your saintly, effulgent and pure presence, even via cyberspace, was a profound devotional experience. I was struck by your deep attachment and love for your spiritual master and by how you have completely dedicated yourself to his mission. Your whole consciousness is steeped in Srila Prabhupada smaranam and sevanam. As a result of which your love for and attachment to Sri Krsna’s lotus feet has become apparent to the whole world.
That line “…. always think within their hearts of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead” is a clear explanation of the state of consciousness you embody. All your activities and dealings with devotees reflect this strong attachment: Your deep attachment to the Holy Name in the form of japa or kirtan or bhajans, which nourishes thousands of devotees all over the world and which you very ardently continue to cultivate day by day. Just witnessing you chanting your japa is a transformative experience. Or your ever so tender hearted care for all living beings you meet on your journey.
Gurumaharaja, your association is such a wonderful glorification of Srila Prabhupada’ s innermost desires which are to awaken pure love for Krsna in the hearts of all living entities. This is certainly a very lofty goal, but seeing you acting in and moving about this world gives me great confidence on how this transformation in society will take place.
This line of the above mentioned Bhagavatam verse also made me realize how it is possible that we are actually entering into a golden age:
On one side we nowadays hear a lot in our society that we are heading into difficult times; so many disciples of Srila Prabhupada are leaving their bodies, what’s going to happen to our movement etc.etc.
But realizing the exalted state you and many of your godbrothers have achieved I came to understand that we are at the beginning of something very special and unique. You are part of the first generation of western devotees, who had never heard of Krsna before ( at least in this life) and who have now dedicated 35 plus years to following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and hearing and chanting about Krsna and who have developed profound attachment to our Supreme Lord and we can all personally witness the result.
How our lives become transformed by associating with you, just like your live was transformed when you met Srila Prabhupada and what to speak of the good fortune of all the new people that join the movement or all the most fortunate children that are born in our movement and from day one get the most powerful samskara that Krsna has to offer to all conditioned souls: the samskara of genuine sadhu sanga.
This is the first time in the history of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement in the West that we can see the result of the potency of the process of bhakti and how it has transformed its first sincere practitioners. Now we can conceive how the predicted Golden Age can gradually manifest in Kali Yuga: because the purity that has been churned in the hearts of Srila Prabhupada’ s sincere followers is increasing year after year, decade after decade and is able to create an atmosphere of auspiciousness that is unprecedented in this age. All the future generations of devotees start on a much higher entry-level because of the high-class association they are fortunate to get from the very beginning.
Thank you, Gurumaharaja, for being a genuine sadhu. This is the most difficult and powerful service there is on this planet. Now Krsna is severely restricting your travels, but that cannot interfere with your service. Where ever you are you will purify this earth and give life to all you meet. I pray that I may be eternally absorbed in remembrance of and service to your lotus feet. Thank you for your shelter.
Your unworthy servant
Yajna purusa dasa
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Dear Guru Maharaj,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
On the day of Your Vyasa-puja I would like to express my gratitude because You support me spiritually by Your example and instructions many years. You are like daylight from the window which lightens the dark room of my life.
You are like a sunlight which generously bestows the heat and light without discrimination unto all.
For me You are the standard of cleanliness. Seeing how you support many spiritual brothers and sisters I understand that it is impossible to do it without possessing high degree of cleanliness, unselfishness and friendliness. Due to the crystal-clear consciousness you see good qualities in all people and even in those in whom nobody notices them. These qualities are the source of enthusiasm for me.
You give an example that only due to the contact with a pure Holy Name of Krishna it is possible to develop such qualities, and only Holy Name is capable to protect devotee from all impurities of the material world. You prove that for sincere devotee there is no need to worry about the status and maintenance in this world.
You set an example how to appreciate devotion in others and how to reciprocate on the feelings of others. Krishna bestows with this quality His most entrusted servants.
Now I realize more clearly that spiritual progress is not a question of spiritual practice within several years, but the whole life spent in devotional service. Therefore I feel myself very lucky that I can see such wonderful example of a perfect life.
But also I understand more clearly that behind this achieved spiritual level and great qualities there is a daily work on self improvement and passing of many tests. You are the example of how to pass these tests for true renunciation, compassion, absence of envy.
Now for me becomes more and more obvious lines from "Sri Guru Vandana" (which previously were for me mostly as the theory) in which it is said that the true spiritual master by the torch of knowledge disseminates an darkness of ignorance in heart of the disciple. Due to his mercy all doubts regarding the chosen path of life are going away.
Please, bless me and also Vedanta Krishna d. and our small son Ananda Gopal on successful passing of all tests in such way that we wouldn't be forced to pass them again.
Your servant
Yamini d.d.
(and also Vedanta Krishna d. and Ananda Gopal)
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Dear Gurudev,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Please, accept my humble obeisances and my insignificant efforts to glorify You on this day.
While being in Vrindavan during this Kartika month I was attending His Holiness Indradyumna Swami’s seminar called “How to enter and to see Sri Vrindavan Dhama”.
During one lecture the Guru all of a sudden asked if there were any Niranjana Swami’s disciples present in the hall. There were only two of us – me and Ashvini Kumar, so we raised our hands. He looked at us and said that he wanted to glorify You, Gurudev, and that You were the most conscientious sadhu that he knows of in our movement. And that he always wishes to receive the dust from Your lotus feet on his head. He also said that we are very lucky to have such a Teacher. Very enthusiastically and with great inspiration he recommended that all of his disciples obtain one of your books “Taking Care of Krishna’s Devotees”.
Your God brother was glorifying You and I felt very happy to have Your shelter.
This glorification made me understand that You, Gurudev, indeed are like that. Your life and Your qualities are an example to us, Your disciples, and only by following Your footsteps we can reach any success which we, the weak, need so much.
The pure Guru dissolves the dirt and hesitations from my heart and therefore I am forever indebted to You. During Your lectures You always emphasize the importance of sravanam process. And I understood not just with my mind, but with my heart as well that you are very right. I want to thank You that You are so perfect in helping Your disciples.
I experience the insignificant and slow changes in my consciousness. I also think what would be if I managed to fulfill and to learn all of your instructions, to listen to You and to accept everything what You teach. Unfortunately I am not yet capable of fulfilling everything even though I really try. There is still a lot of conditioning that is obstructing me.
Travels in the holy Dhama, parikramas, association with sadhus slowly melts my ice-cold heart, strengthens my faith, my wish to change my qualities and my determination to continue following this path. And I want to express my gratefulness for all of this to You, Gurudev, because if there is anything good happening in my life and in my consciousness, it is all thanks to You. I want to express my joy together with You because I know that You are thinking and praying for Your disciples and if we are moving any forward, it is only because of Your spiritual efforts.
You are giving us a lot of your blood and God allows us to give at least a tiny drop of it back to You…
Dear Gurudev, I always wish You to live long. There are a lot of people like me but only very few like Yourself. That’s why we are holding onto You like children grabbing the flap and we hope that one day we will grow up and justify Your expectations.
Thank You, Gurudev, for being our eternal caregiver in our ups and downs. Please, forgive us for our frailness and mistakes. However hopeless we are – still, thank You that You do not neglect us and do not abandon us. We need Your shelter because otherwise we will get drowned in our bad qualities, desires and vicious samsara circle.
With all my heart To You
Yamuna priya devi dasi
(Vilnius, Lithuania)
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My dear spiritual master Srila Niranjana Swami,
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
With great joy in my heart I would like to congratulate you on this auspicious occasion of your appearance day on this planet. Maybe as your disciple I do not have the capacity to wish you something, but this is my greatest desire, that your health would be good and you would be able to continue with inexhaustible enthusiasm, unfading love and compassion for all conditioned souls to share your radiating transcendental smile, most valuable instructions and priceless, deepest realizations, which enable us, your disciples, to better understand your internal state, moods, love for your god-brothers and god-sisters. And by seeing such example we can understand what we should aspire for. Even just seeing you and hearing your voice is the perfection. Therefore from the core of my heart I would like to thank you for your inspiring lectures, elevating kirtans and bhajans.
I’m not blessed with the ability to express my mind and feelings in proper words, but with this short note wanted to thank you very much for your endless endeavors in saving us.
Your servant
Yuga Priya dd
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Dear Guru Maharaj,
On the day of your appearance in this world, accept our humble obeisances, please, in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to you! All glories to your Divine Master, the founder - acarya of ISKCON and BBT, A.C. Swami Srila Prabhupada!
Lord Caitanya said to Mukunda:
“I told you the truth of devotional service. It is only this devotional service that is really valuable. If one doesn’t have faith in power of devotional service, he hurts Me severely, and My pain prevents him happiness even when he sees Me.” (Vrindavan das Thakur “Caitanya Bhagavata” Madhya khanda, chapter 10, verses 249-251)
Srila Prabhupada said:
"We should try to chant 64 rounds, not only 16. This is our path. Sixteen rounds is the minimum. Haridas Thakur chanted three thousands Names every day. So we should increase our chanting. This is the only remedy. If we become determinant we can progress in this direction with no difficulties. But this determination should be unflinching: I certainly obtain full Krishna Conciousness”. (Conversations with Srila Prabhupada 14, 05, 1975).
"...Sankyata asankhyata. Sankhyata means to take a vow to chant certain quantity of rounds. Asankhyata means unlimitedly" (Conversations with Srila Prabhupada 10 .11.1975)
We were born in the darkness of ignorance, but Your Holiness Srila Niranjana Swami, who are so dear and close to our heart,you have opened our eyes by illuminating our path by torchlight of knowledge. With deep respect we bow down unto you. By your mercy all desires are fulfilled. You are our mother and father, master and teacher. None but Sri Guru can give us shelter in this temporary world where the Holy Name of Lord Sri Hari is the only reality.
We are very eager to chant the Holy Names, Hare Krishna Maha mantra no less than sixty four rounds a day life after life, forever, as a service to servants of your servants of your servants, as a service to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet, for benefit of all living entities.
We, Yukta Vairaghya das and Loka Swami das, bow down unto your lotus feet with a humble request: “ Please, bless us on ever following this path and endow us with required spiritual power and intelligence to chant Hare Krishna without any interruptions and independently of any obstacles. We understand that it is an extremely rare opportunity for a living being to obtain such a blessing in human life after many births and deaths. Thus following this path, we can realize our eternal spiritual nature- “kirtaniya sada harih”
Always aspiring to serve servants of your servants
Yukta Vairagya das and Loka Swami das
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances unto Your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Before starting to write this offering I turned to Srimad-Bhagavatam with the question: what awaits me in life? And the following text opened: "Upon arrival of Sri Narada Muni, who was an auspicious sign, the sage Srila Vyasadeva stood up with respect and bowed down before him with such a reverence like one bows down before Brahmaji, the creator of the Universe." And this answer simply amazed me. This was exactly what my heart needed - to know that an auspicious sign awaits me.
Vyasadeva wrote down all vedic literature, but it didn't bring him full satisfaction, and he was sad. He was sad, having been written down the vedas! What to speak of us, ordinary living beings! So much sadness, sufferings, fears, illusions, attachments and failures is threatening us at every step of our conditioned life. And meeting a vaishnava, pure devotee of the Lord, is an auspicious sign. It is a chance to leave this world of sadness, illusion and fear for good, and to obtain eternal and blissful devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna.
Last year brought me joy and difficulties. In springtime finally, after nine years, I could again visit the Holy Dham. Our group from Donetsk happened to be a small one, but with quite different interests, so our destinations in India were supposed to be different. Therefore before the journey I prayed to our Deities Sri Sri Nitai-Gaurasundara to please give me a necessary auspicious association on this journey. Already at Kiev airport we met Tulasi Manjari and some matajis from Kiev. And later, in Jagannatha Puri, I happened to live with her and one more devotee. At evenings we went to the ashram where stayed a group of devotees from Russia headed by Vivasvana Prabhu. In this group there were also some devotees who I knew for a long time. In the evenings the devotees gathered in the pandal on the roof of the ashrama in which they stayed and sang nectarean kirtanas and bhajanas. But they also shared their impressions, understandings, experiences from visiting holy places and about everything that was in their hearts. They opened their minds, thanked each other and group leaders. It was natural, warm and personal association. One could see the top of the temple of Lord Jagannatha from the roof of the ashrama, and it even seemed to me that it reminds the association of Lord Caitanya when they came together and chanted holy names of the Lord. It was a warm vaishnava family. At one moment I noticed how much patience and care are revealed by group leaders as they try to organize everything in the best way for 150 people.
One of the group leaders, Vasuman Prabhu, thanked devotees for the service that they did on daytime. Because everyone in the group had some duties. And then one mataji whom he thanked, expressed her dissatisfaction, because at daytime they'd had a small conflict, and she thought that now he just tries to smooth down the situation by glorifying her insincerely. That devotee humbly accepted her remark and didn't absorb in clearing the relationship, but simply continued to speak. Then later he spoke with her and even asked forgiveness, although he was not guilty.
In this way devotees accepted the difficulties of management and leadership, and they were even ready to tolerate dissatisfaction of devotees in order to serve them. I am so grateful to Tulasi manjari for taking me to those meetings. Later I did everything to join with that group. With the group of Vivasvana Prabhu I went from Puri to Mayapur, visited Ekachakra. With them I also went from Mayapur to Vrindavana, and to parikramas there. And their group happened to leave Delhi with the same flight that me, and therefore we also went from Vrindavana to Delhi airport together. And I am very grateful to Vivasvana Prabhu that he kindly allowed me to join their group. Already the fact that I could travel with well organized group was a great help for me. I am very grateful to him and other devotees for their warm attitude, selfless loving service, care and wonderful organization. The group leaders organized everything very well and took care of even smallest needs of devotees, so that they could absorb in the atmosphere of holy places, and not to worry about different circumstantial problems connected to maintenance of the body.
Vivasvana Prabhu and other senior devotees fully gave themselves to the service. And with their unalloyed, selfless care they created a loving and happy atmosphere in the group which made the journey to holy places even more nectarean. It felt that this is exactly how the vaishnava association should be, and this is exactly what the visiting of holy dhama should be like. It was a wonderful, valuable experience for me, a soothing balm, one could say.
But meeting You in Vrindavana, these wonderful kirtanas in the house of BB Govinda Maharaja - all this was the most wonderful gift, the luck which I didn't even dare to dream about. Although, of course, it was painful and sorrowful to see Your health condition. And it brings me joy that You now take care of Your health!
After visiting India a difficult period began. And only the mercy of vaishnavas is helping me to deal with it. There was also a wonderful festival in Eupatorium where there was also the auspicious sign of meeting with You and other exalted vaishnavas. Then after this, by the mercy of devotees, I happened to go to Russian festival and get the association which is so necessary for me.
And my next auspicious sign, the good luck, which I hope very much will happen - meeting You on Vyasa-puja, on this amazing festival of love where hundreds devotees come to express all their love and appreciation to You, but also to associate with each other. There is no doubt about that the mercy of a spiritual master and association with selfless, unalloyed devotees is a very great luck in this dark world full of sufferings and disappointments. By the mercy of Lord Caitanya, Srila Prabhupada, You and all vaishnavas, I also (although I am fully unworthy and have no good qualities) can get this auspicious sign, this good luck - association with pure devotees of the Lord. Thank You for this auspicious sign in my life.
Your useless servant,
Yutheshvari dd
(Donetsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Niranjana Maharaja!
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Today (10 December), most of Your disciples gathered to celebrate Vyasa Puja here in Vilnius temple, Lithuania. It was a wonderful kirtan, guru katha, homage reading and prasad celebration evening. Disciples shared their most confidential feelings towards You, Maharaja.
Actually, while reading book 'Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava'(vol.1), I found and very interesting place, twenty seventh chapter, quoting CC 3.4.191:
prabhu kahe - vaisnava deha'prakrita'kabhu naya
'aprakrita'deha bhaktera ' cid-ananda-maya' "
"...that, disease being a material condition, a suddha-bhakta should never be considered sick. Especially sri-gurudeva should always be seen in terms of his spiritual position. Because his body is not of this material world , any corporeal affliction perceived in him should be appreciated either as a transcendental symptom of ecstasy or as meant for giving his disciples an opportunity to intimately serve him; anyone who adjudges the guru to be sick in the manner of an ordinary person is himself sick."
Dear Maharaja, please consider our fallen situation here and if there is any minimal opportunity to grant us with Your association during the winter festival, please come Then we'll consider ourselves saved.
Falling at Your lotus feet
servants from Lithuanian yatra and Ananda Caitanya das
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All glories to Guru and Gauranga! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
My dear spiritual father, Srila Niranjana Swami!
On this auspicious day of Your appearance, please accept my respectful obeisances unto Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace!
Guru Maharaja, for me You are the source of unsurmountable compassion and love which I constantly see becoming apparent in my life, but also in the lives of many other people surrounding me. Therefore I remember the first verse of Sri Sri Gurv-astaka of Srila Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura:
"The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as a cloud pours water on a forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master delivers the materially affected world by extinguishing the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master, who is an ocean of auspicious qualities."
You are the example in the lives of Your disciples and many well-wishers. Your association extinguishes the blazing fire of material existence, which is burning in my heart. You left everything in order to give the people most important thing - pure love for God. You care of Krishna´s devotees is the best example of it for me. I want to help You in every way in Your mission which You have received from Your spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada.
Trying to become Your servant,
bh. Tomakh Evgeni
(Kharkov, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja
Please, accept my dandavats in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Your Divine Grace!
In this most auspicious day of Your appearance I want to put at your feet a sense of deep gratitude fro your prayers and care of all conditioned souls, all the devotees, your disciples, aspiring disciples, well-wishers and in particular me.
I clearly see your hand and your huge heart in that I try to do at least something in spiritual field, in stability of my rounds, in the service coming to me and in power and time appearing to render it. Thank you for I can convey your instructions to novice-devotees at nama-hattas and personal contacts. Thank you for that at each moment when I cannot bear to sustain material sufferings and personal spiritual imperfection, I may remember you and your determination to continue your difficult service in despite of the pain you take away from us. Thank you for I may pray to you, because Krishna hears and perceives your prayers before mine... Thank you for you graciously do not reject me, though knowing well that I am not worthy even to mention your name.
Your care in transferred via your lectures, bhajans and kirtans, and via your numerous disciples. Their appearance itself inspires for serving. Thank you for your disciples and their warm relationships to each other and me.
In this cold world it is so short of warmth, compassion and joy. In the community of devotees all the deficits abound. Just by your mercy and mercy of your God brothers, your and their disciples we can stay in the community and not be rejected by it. Low bow to you.
I hope that my pitiful attempts to serve you and your disciples will ever succeed, for it's impossible to repay the invaluable gift of vaisnava-sanga and guru-kripa anyway.
Your eternal debtor
nitya dasa dasanudasa
Mike Golub
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nama om visnu-padaya krisna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate niranjana swamin iti namine
anahata-prayasena prabhupadasya tustaye
sankirtana- pravritti-artham ihate gurave-namah
Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Mercy!
Saksad-dharitvena samasta-sastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu-prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-caranaravindam
«The Scriptures say that spiritual master should be worshiped as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Pure devotees of the Lord follow this prescription. Spiritual master is the most trusted servant of the Lord. With a great respect I bend down to the lotus feet of our spiritual master.”
Once You have written: “My disciples still can regard my birthday as a favorable event because in this birth (not in some other from the million previous) I had a great fortune to meet Srila Prabhupada.”
I would like express my gratitude for Your care. You really do know how to satisfy Srila Prabhupada. Distributing Prabhupada's books with every day I realize my insignificance and feel a very strong dependence on the devotee's society. Once there was a conversation with the senior devotees, how spiritual master checks his disciples. Most of all I am worried about my motives of distributing books were correct. You speak so much about it.
I know that thanks to listening of Your instructions my life has become pure and will become more and more pure. These instructions sometimes make me cry. I am so insignificant. How will I become the servant of all devotees?
I do not have any hope for some direct service during a lot of births in the future, but I am sure that one day I will get out from the bog of delusions. Therefore I pray at the lotus feet of my spiritual master that by His mercy I could always remember my insignificant position of the servant of the Lord, whom I would realize thanks to the mercy of my Divine Master.
A disciple also checks a teacher. But I heard that our spiritual master had already gone through all the tests. Without doubts by His mercy we can take part in this Srila Prabhupada's mission.
It gives me a huge happiness to speak about You among devotees and non-devotees. I often speak about You with people who get the books from me. They always say to me that probably I have “a very strong Guru”. That is true, Your power is huge. Because the devotees' hearts change and shine like the sun thanks to following Your instructions.
With a great eagerness to serve You, to Srila Prabhupada's mission, I bow down to Your lotus feet, Guru Maharaj.
Your servant
bhakta Dima Le
(Donetsk, Ukraine)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my obeisances unto the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On this auspicious day of Your appearance I would like to congratulate You and express my appreciation and gratefulness. I´d like to admit my full dependence of You and Your Divine Grace.
Srila Prabhupada many times referred to the need of accepting a bona fide spiritual master. My great fortune is that in the middle of the cycle of births and deaths Lord Krishna by His causeless mercy allowed me to meet and accept You as a bona fide spiritual master who has placed his life in front of his beloved guru’s and Krishna’s feet; who has done and will do unique endeavors in the name of distributing Krishna conciousness; who cultivates creepers of devotion in sinciere souls striving for God; who tirelessly prays for his disciples and gives them his love, blessings and instructions. It is not possible to overestimate Your role in our lives.
But my great misfortune is that even after hearing so many instructions I still continue to let Your mercy slip through my fingers, being unable to hold it, and I maintain attachment to mundane life and enjoyments.
Everything in this life comes and goes, but I pray to Krishna that You would never leave.
Forever needing You and endeavoring to become Your servant,
bhaktin Tanya
(Simferopol, Ukraine)
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Hare Krsna, dear Guru Maharaja!
Please, accept my humble obeisances. All glory to Srila Prabhupada! All glory to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!
om ajnana timirandasya jnananjana salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri guruve namah
“I was born in the darkness of ignorance, yet my dear spiritual master had opened my eyes with the torchlight of divine knowledge. I offer my humble obeisances unto him.”
On this wonderful day of your vyasa-puja, it is my greatest honor to offer my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. I am simply dazzled by your greatness, as well as by the multitude of transcendental qualities present in your person. Due to my limited abilities, I am unable to describe them all.
The day of vyasa-puja is the day when we learn to be grateful, as well learning how to express our gratitude. Cicero once said “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but it is the parent of all the others”. Experiencing gratitude melts one’s pride, which is one of the most formidable obstacles on the spiritual path. Thus, this festival becomes a practical lesson that you conduct annually, by allowing us to glorify you and by so doing, you are helping your disciples to develop nobility of heart. Thank you so much for this practical lesson. It, no doubt, inconveniences you, yet you continue to humbly endure various difficulties for our sake and for the sake of doing your duty before your spiritual master.
Thank you and thank you again for your deep, meaningful lectures, which are filled with endless wisdom and significance. They penetrate deep within the heart and consciousness, invoking the desire to know more about Krsna and thus wake up from the uneasy sleep of material existence. Even such fallen person as I can feel the profound effect of your instructions.
As Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami once described, the liberation from material suffering has many steps, and the first step relies heavily on the guru, whose words stimulate and inspire a disciple towards self-realization. He writes “Self-realization means that we are experiencing both curiosity and strong desire to get to know Krsna. The more we learn about Him, the more we come to love and depend upon Him. The more we depend upon Him, the less we are concerned with material suffering.”
Only through the sound of your voice I can feel your love for Srila Prabhupada, which flows like a river from your own heart and awakens the love for the Acarya in my own heart.
You give meaning to my life and make it complete, because you give me the most valuable of all the things a living entity could ever possess: transcendental knowledge. Thank you so very much for this mercy.
A famous Russian writer, thinker and vegetarian Leo Tolstoy once said “In the building of human happiness, friendship erects the walls, while love forms the cupola roof.”
A temple is a place where Krsna is worshiped for the goal of His satisfaction (“love forms the cupola roof”). However, without friendship among the worshipers (without “the walls”), the “cupola roof” of human happiness would have no walls to rely upon.
Analyzing the experience of my daughter Kisori, while she lived in Seattle temple, I understand just why you make such an effort in participating in the curator retreat, disregarding your weakened state. Your desire is to erect “the walls of friendship” as soon as possible. You wish to make the temple not merely a place of ritual worship of Krsna, but a place where one can feel true joy in association with fellow devotees while offering service to the Lord. Efforts in this particular direction are of vital importance for maintenance and development of Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
I am extremely grateful to you for being such an example of selfless service to the mission of your spiritual master who once said “You shall prove your love for me by the way you shall cooperate among yourself while distributing divine knowledge all over the world.”
Thank you for the prime example of such dedicated service.
I sincerely wish for you to restore your health as soon as possible and to always be filled with energy and vital force.
Aspiring to become your servant and hankering for your mercy
Bhaktin Victoria Jouravskaya
(Seattle, WA, USA)
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Dear Guru Maharaja! Srila Niranjana Swami!
Please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of you lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On this favorable day of your Divine appearance in this world I would like to tribute a few words of gratefulness and to glorify your disciples.
There are two married couples of your senior disciples in our yatra in Kharkov: they are Sahasrajit prabhu with mataji Daya and Mangala Vaishnav prabhu with mataji Vaidarbhi. They are wonderful personalities. They devoted all their lives to following your instructions and wishes. They are showing the ideal example of devotion to spiritual teacher and Srila Prabhupada’s mission. They live very pure humble lives, they do not work and fully soak themselves in devotion. This is such a rare thing in this world now!
When Sahasrajit prabhu or Mangala Vaishnav prabhu are giving lecture, hearts of the most deep-rooted materialists (like me) starts melting. They are so pure in their wishes, that even when they are criticizing, it is extremely easy to accept. They are very strict in following their principles and thus are showing an example to the people who surround them. This example helps a lot in life. When I confront any complicated issues, at the same moment I recollect how these devotees would act, and it really helps a lot. They serve as an example of care about junior devotees. Even being so serious in their spiritual lives they show care about the devotees by this.
They say that looking at the followers we can estimate the Guru, and such followers are proving that you are so extraordinary personality! You are so much devoted to Srila Prabhupada and you love Him so much! Thank you, Dear Spiritual Teacher for such amazing followers! We love them so much and value them!
At the festival in Eupatorium during your lecture I got a very clear vision about how much you love Srila Prabhupada. You devoted all your life to Him and His mission. Thank you, dear Guru Maharaja!
When I see you, listen to your lectures you give or kirtans you sing, material wishes are leaving my heart.
Please, let me always be beside your lotus feet and gather nectar of Krishna-katha.
Thank you! Your eternal servant and debtor
Bhaktin Yulia Tomakh
(Kharkov, Ukraine)
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Dear Srila Niranjana Swami!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada, Your dear spiritual master!
On this remarkable day I would like to glorify You in connection with Srila Prabhupada. This year at festival in Eupatorium when I received your personal association, the minutes of which inspire for years, a comprehension has come to me that You are very similar to Srila Prabhupada!
You act, live, preach like Srila Prabhupada. You make people boundlessly happy by one Your gesture, glance and word. Your preaching is irresistible and attractive; therefore so many souls are involved by You. There are very elevated among them! They also want to receive the nectar of association with You.
I admire and am proud of You! As the soul’s qualities which You possess are truly similar to nectar and involve so much that they take my consciousness unawares! I am not completely ready to come nearer at least on a drop of the understanding of all depth and cleanliness of your soft, compassionate, all-forgiving, big heart! It even seems sometimes that there can not be such a person in the world in general...
I want to express the gratitude to Srila Prabhupada for that he has taught You - my shelter! At the same time I exult that You, GuruMaharaj, by Your mercy open to me new and new facets of the transcendental qualities of Srila Prabhupada’s person which himself is a brilliant of the highest quality! It is a true pleasure for a soul to observe Your relations with Srila Prabhupada!
I feel that Your gratitude to Srila Prabhupada increases more an more, day after day, instant after an instant. In the same way I want to admit that my personal gratitude to You also increases from year to year! This is not so strong but I feel this necessity in myself more and more....
I don’t dare to ask anything.... You have already given everything to us and continue to give! If it’s only a mercy to realize it and to begin to love each other making people happy.
Please, continue to immerse us into this ocean of love...
Your eternal servant
Ekabhakta das
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Hare Krishna!
Dear Guru Maharaj, please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Your Divine Mercy!
Dear Guru Maharaj, I would like to thank You not only in a day of Your Vjasa-puja but every day, each hour during all remaining life again and again to bow to Your lotus feet in a deep respect with gratitude for a new life which you have gifted to me.
It happens when telling about Krishna Consciousness to somebody I hear a question: ”What does it give you?” – I am simply very happy. I simply can not imagine how I can live without This Knowledge, this love by which our society is penetrated! And Your love, dear Guru Maharaj!
Certainly, I would like to catch Your glance at myself. But even when You look only at the others without paying any attention to me, I know that nevertheless You love everybody, You take care of everybody, You wish all of us to be happy in Krishna Consciousness. There is no happiness in a material world. There is no life without Krishna.
You have given knowledge about immortality and mission of a soul, You give a nectar of association with Srila Prabhupada, Lord Caitanya, Lord Krishna, Your spiritual brothers, You spill a nectar of singing the praise of the Holy Name, You learn how to live under spiritual world’s laws. Your lectures and kirtans call us to remain at them more and more, we want to drink and drink them, again and again. Thank You for All! Yes, and, of course, I want to share this nectar with others. Please forgive me if You can that I am not such a perfect servant as many your disciples are. But I try to tell about nectar of Krishna Consciousness to people who know nothing, and I also try to share this nectar with devotees. Thank You, dear Gurudev, for Your disciples they also help me in difficult moments of my life to struggle with maya to overcome obstacles, they inspire me on a spiritual life, share realizations and simply tell stories about the Lord. I would like to name them. They are: m. Vrajalalana, m. Taruni, m. Janakirani, m. Nilakantha prija, m. Ishani, m. Anubhava, m. Sridevi, m. Vraja Kumari, pr. Yuga Avatara, pr. Dojal Caitanya, and many others. And of course my husband Mahabala d. and daughter Jadurani.
Thank you! I would like to wish You health, disciples, faithful to their vows.
Your disciple, wishing to become the real disciple
Ekarasa dd.
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Dear Niranjana Swami,
Please accept my obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Your Divine Grace!
Last Eupatorium festival (2008) I passed by a table with discs and two matajis hailed me and proposed to purchase some discs. I enquired – whose discs, and they answered – Niranjana Swami’s ones. Discs with Your lectures get to Kharkov in time without delay; besides about 5 years ago I purchased 8 DVDs with Your lectures all being translated into Russian. So I asked if they have thematic lectures on “Nectar of Instructions” (NI) since then I attended bhakti-shastri for “NI”. She said – “Yes”, but right away it was found out that discs are not available. We arranged that I pay and they (Kiev’s devotees) send me 3 discs (“NI” + Bhaktya-loka) later.
After some months I got discs and having listened to a couple of lectures adjourned them, as bhakti-shastri was coming to the end and I should read much and prepare myself to the control works. Bhakti-shastri finished and a month passed before I at last returned to Your discs. Lectures were recorded at different times and alternated with lectures on “Nectar of Devotions”. I did not expect something new as “NI” has been studied under the direction of Sahasrajit prabhu during one-year course. Simultaneously I listened to the lectures of Bhakti Vijnana Goswami, read “Bhaktya-loka” of Bhaktivinod Thakur and read lectures of Bhaktivaibhava Swami to some verses of “NI”. I thought that the book is familiar for me, and repeated listening to Your lectures would refresh those I knew and extend understanding of both some details and general realization. And it went so until I began listening to 2 lectures on “NI”-1 You gave at Dnepropetrovsk in 1996 (June, 4-5) translated by Acyuta Priya prabhu. I was astonished at Your new delivery, unexpected viewpoint and deep look into the text. I understood the meaning of words about the deep sense in Holy Scriptures, that Scriptures are always timely, possibility to give a seminar based on one verse and so on. The Scriptures became “multidimensional” for me and my faith in my Spiritual Master increased considerably.
These discs also contained Your lectures given in 1989-1990. It was interesting for me, the themes You touched and words You used then. Having listened to Your early lectures I understood that instructions of Spiritual Master are eternal.
Before I listened to Your lectures and something seemed to be familiar for me. Your disciples like Sahasrajit pr., Atreya Rishi pr., Adhokshaja pr., Ambujaksha pr., Akshara pr., Gopal pr., Krishna-Smaranam pr., Gopikantha pr., Krishna-Dvaipayana pr., etc. attracted me very much. I liked their qualities. I understood that this was connected to You and wanted the same. That’s why I asked You for pranama-mantra. Though You were the first spiritual master I met and I liked Your lecture at Govardhana puja in Kharkov in the late nineties, Your personality was hidden for me. Your disciples were hinting me that I am Yours but I did not feel that. Ambujaksha pr. told me that we don’t understand lectures of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples because they speak at the level being higher than ours and not due to almost half a lecture is in English.
After Your “Nectar of Instructions” I began noticing in Your lectures something new being not heard before.
I am grateful to Krishna for giving me patience to come to this moment at last.
I am grateful to You for Your “Instructions” through which I established my relations with You.
Please, give me Your blessings to acquire a small part of Your qualities manifested in Your disciples.
Your servant
Gadadhara Jivana das.
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nama om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale
srimate niranjana-svamin iti namine
anahata-prayasena prabhupadasya tustaye
sankirtana-pravritty-artham ihate gurave namah
I offer my respectful obeisances unto H.H. Niranjana Swami, who is very dear to Lord Krsna, having taken shelter of His lotus feet.
I offer my humble obeisances to my spiritual master who with constant, unfailing endeavor is always trying to push forward the sankirtan mission to please Srila Prabhupada.
Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances on this most auspicious day of your appearance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to you.
This month, the month of December, is very significant. This month is the month of Srila Prabhupada's marathon.
This year like always, you very much encourage us to go out and distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. You say that at least once we should try and experience the taste of sharing Krsna consciousness with others.
And if we are ourselves are not able to do this invaluable service, then we should support those who are able to. You also mentioned the name of your godbrother, Vaisesika prabhu, who is one of the best, front line book distributor in our society for over thirty years. Recently we were very fortunate to have his personal association, here in Toronto and receive theoretical and practical guidance form him on the science of book distribution.
Srila Prabhupada says in the Bhagavad-Gita as it is 5.25, Purport:
"The sufferings of humanity are due to forgetfulness of Krsna as the supreme enjoyer, the supreme proprietor, and the supreme friend. Therefore to act to revive this consciousness within the entire human society is the highest welfare work".
Since last year, when I returned from my services in the Boston temple, I find myself involved more and more in book distribution. I think that just by trying to serve Sri Sri Radha Gopivallabha, Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and Jagannath Baladeva and Subhadra there, I have Their extra blessings. After daily returning from the streets of Toronto I feel increased satisfaction, bliss and enthusiasm.
Dear guru maharaja. Thank you for your mercy and blessings upon me. I cannot do anything without them on my own. I know that you are a front line book distributor yourself, you are my example. I constantly pray for your blessings that I can stick to this service and improve it in the future.
Your insignificant servant
Gauracandra dasa
(Canada)
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances unto the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In this year the most important and remarkable event in my life occured. I understand very well that I have no good qualities, nor piety. But yet You accepted me as Your disciple. I am very grateful and I appreciate Your mercy. I would like very much to earn Your trust and be useful for You, be worthy to be called Your disciple.
On the day of my initiation I looked at Your lotus feet and prayed - to You, Srimati Radharani, Lord Krishna - that You would take me with You on Your disappearance day. I continued this prayer during the whole initiation ceremony. I asked, I begged You to not leave me here.
You are my only real friend and protector. You are the only one for whom I am truly needed and dear, in spite of my spiritual groundlessness, futility and spiritual lazyness. You are the only one who really helps me to endure in this terrable world. Your love for Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna helps me, senseless and deceitful as I am, at least somehow to go on the path to Krishna and Srila Prabhupada.
Without You and Your care I am just a peace of dust in this material world where it is so easy to go astray and to loose oneself.
My dear, beloved Guru Maharaja! I am very much worried about Your health. You give everything of Yourself, all Your strength to us, Your disciples, and not only to us. Please forgive us, unintelligent ones, for not being able to fully appreciate all these sacrifices that You are ready for in order to help us somehow get closer to Srimati Radharani and Lord Krishna. Every day I pray God and beg Him to help to recover Your health. I understand that besides prayers also concrete action and endeavors are needed, which can bring joy to my Guru Maharaja. And again - something concrete I can do only by Your and Lord Krishna´s mercy.
Dear Guru Maharaja, please forgive me for such a clumsy and confused offering. But You are for me the only light and the only reality which exists in this world.
Your disciple,
Gokula Taruni devi dasi
(Bahchisarai)
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All glories to Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai! All glories to Sri Sri Krishna-Balarama! All glories to Sri Sri Radhe-Shyam!
Dear Guru Maharaj Srila Niranjana Swami,
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of Your Lotus Feet. My congratulations to You on Your Vyasa-puja day! Let me try to glorify You.
You are a real spiritual master in the chain of disciplic succession, a worthy follower of Srila Prabhupada.
I remember how 24 years ago I accepted Srila Prabhupada as my spiritual master and began to follow strictly His instructions, read and study His books, and distribute them. All relatives abandoned me, my husband left me. I was left alone with two little children on my hands. Then I decided that I dedicate the whole my life to preaching and distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Owing to my strictly following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions the strong connection with Srila Prabhupada has manifested. I even did not want to accept anybody as my spiritual master. Because Srila Prabhupada writes in His book ‘Disciple of My Disciple’ that all are His disciples, yet when He is not physically present He retains His representatives. In this way, after 7 years Srila Prabhupada gave me His representative – He gave me You, Guru Maharaj. So I keep on serving under Your guidance. I was always preaching, distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books and bringing hundreds and hundreds of people to the temple, taking care of them, teaching them devotional service. Many hundreds of them became Your disciples afterwards, dear Guru Maharaj.
I want to share some of my impressions with You. I am reading and studying Srila Prabhupada’s book ‘Vrindavane bhajana’ (‘Worshipping Lord Krishna in Vrindavana’), translation and purports by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami, my siksa-guru. Srila Prabhupada writes (p. 137) ‘One who thinks that to perform devotional service means to sit in one’s room and give others instructions, give his households dressing down and express indignation loudly, is just wasting one’s valuable human life. The only result will be chocking with bile. Such a person can continue perform devotional service for many millions of lifetimes but he can never please the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not a property of somebody which one can inherit. Nobody can claim that Krishna belongs to him if he did nothing to attain Krisnna. That is why, leave your hovel! Don’t try to find an excuse!.. Sing loudly the Holy Name in the association of devotees!”
Dear Guru Maharaj Niranjana Swami, from the point made by Srila Prabhupada, I ‘leave my hovel’ every day, already 24 years, and try to give Srila Prabhupada’s books and the Holy Name to each and everyone. I have distributed over 3,000 books during this year; many other types of services have been done by me. All this I offer to Your Lotus Feet and to Srila Prabhupada’s Lotus Feet.
Dear Guru Maharaj, Your are the ocean of grace and compassion to all the living entities. You are patita pavana. You want that all the living beings will be benefited and go back to Godhead. And that is why, regardless of Your own feelings, health etc., You carry this message of Gauranga to the world. You are strictly following guru-sadhu-shastra. You are very dear to Srila Prabhupada, all Guru parampara and Radha-Krishna.
Please forgive me my imperfection.
Always faithful to Lord Gauranga’s mission,
Gopana Daksha devi dasi
(Vrindavan)
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to You, all glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On this day of Your appearance I would like to thank You for EVERYTHING real that was and is there in my life.
Today (I am sure it was only due to prayers of senior devotees) Krishna gave me an understanding that whatever happens, however hard times I go through due to my complicated mind, I still always want to stay in the association of devotees. And I would like to offer this understanding to You. Unfortunately this is all I can offer You today.
I want to be in the association of devotees, You and Srila Prabhupada always. This association is the only valuable thing in my life.
And today, on Your appearance day, I beg mercy from You and the whole parampara: please, let me never forget about it; please give me intelligence and strength to always go on this path of devotion with determination, and to live in such a way that I would at least not grieve You with my life.
I yearn to obtain even a drop of Your qualities - simplicity, devotion and selfless service to others.
I AM VERY GRATEFUL TO YOU!
Trying to be Your servant,
Govinda Lila devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaj!
Please, accept my obeisances to Your lotus feet. Glories to Srila Prabhupada!
To try to express my gratitude and feelings in the day of Your Vyasa-Puja - is one of some possibilities of personal contact with You .
To realize or at least to understand somehow that compassion and love to the fallen conditioned souls, which were spilled by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, is not possible. But I distinctly remember in what "dirt" we, to put it mildly, were. Srila Prabhupada has pulled out us and has carefully passed into Your lotus hands. And You, serving eternally His Divine Grace, put this burden on Your shoulders - to return us home under the shade of the Lord's lotus feet.
I do not know, by what lucky coincidence I have got into a number of those successful souls You takes care of. Sometimes it seems that connection with You is lost, but then I realize that everything that I try to do: to repeat mantra, to follow principles and so on, all these only by Your mercy. You constantly think about us, pray for us, therefore the Lord gives us the reason and forces to continue. In spite of lacking qualification at me You have accepted me in Your disciples and have allowed to grow in Krishna Consciousness. How huge our gratitude must be - to try to return this eternal debt.
Please Guru Maharaj, occupy me with service to Your lotus feet as much as I have sincerity, to make me useful to You in Your service to Srila Prabhupada.
In attempts to be Your servant,
Jiva Gosvami das
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to You!
On this auspicious day of Your appearance I would like to thank You for saving me, for accepting me as Your disciple, for leading me and don`t give up on me, in spite of me being fully unqualified as a disciple.
Every time when I listen to Your deepest lectures or inspiring kirtanas, I thank Krishna that You are my Spiritual Master and that I happened to be part of this family of Your disciples.
By preaching tirelessly and without sparing Yourself, You reveal the qualities of a perfect Vaishnava. Your instructions never lose their freshness and power. Words of a sadhu are his essence like You are in Your books, lectures and letters.
I am always amazed that You remember and know every disciple of yours, and that Your love and compassion is absolutely unconditioned. Your disciples also amazingly reflect Your divine qualities. I pray that I would learn to accept Your care and mercy and the care of Your disciples, and to learn one day to respond to You accordingly by sharing this mercy with others.
Please forgive me for this unsuccesful endeavor to say You something nice on this day.
Your unuseful servant,
Kalpavriksha dd
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Please, accept my obeisances. All glories to Shrila Prabhupada!
On this significant day of Vjasa-puja let me express my deep honor and gratefulness for all you have done, for all you are doing and will be doing for ISKCON and for me personally.
Thanks to your instructions from the very beginning I am practicing bhakti-yoga and have been following it for 10 years. The right course was determined by the following priorities:
1) permanent improvement of japa quality;
2) deep studying of sacred scriptures;
3) real care about devotees right beside you;
4) notable practical devotion.
And no delays and suspensions – in this life.
Once again thank you for your helping me to go forward on this way with confidence, on the path that is the way back to Krishna. I shall express my gratefulness by deeds, not by words the same way as before.
Wishing to become your worth disciple
Krishna-sakha das
(Kharkov, Ukraine)
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Please accept my lowest obeisances unto the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I wish very much that my letter would meet You in a good health.
Dear Master, in the 90s You caressed us, Your disciples, by coming to Riga not only once a year. At that time I was not able to value enough these meetings with You. You worked on us so diligently, pouring Your mercy, sharing Your spiritual realizations, patiently hearing our empty talks. You gave us Your sincere association full of love and mercy. Thank You, dear Master!
It is You who put in my heart the verses from Bhagavad-gita (18.57,58) via Your book "Mercy in instructions" which I never leave.
cetasa sarva-karmani mayi sannyasa mat-parah
buddhi-yogam upasritya
mac-cittah satatam bhava
mac-cittah sarva-durgani
mat-prasadat tarisyasi
atha cet tvam ahankaram
na srosyasi vinanksyasi
Dear Master, You are my savior, indeed. My life was like a nightmare without Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-bhagavatam, Your merciful instructions, wonderful prasadam, and association with devotees. All fears gone and my life changed after meeting you.
I fall at Your lotus feet many many times with huge gratefulness for everything that You do for us, Your disciples.
Your servant wishing to be ever-faithful
Lilananda devi dasi
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Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to You and to the Day of the appearance of Your divine mercy.
Dear Guru Maharaj, please allow to put into words my gratitude and thankfulness to You on the day of Your Vyasa Puja, and also to all my spiritual brothers and sisters who are also very gracious and give their instructions or share their experiences, their realizations. It’s because of You, Guru Maharaj. Experience and example of brothers and sisters inspires, seeing that Your words and instructions have already been applied and introduced into life.
Thank You, Guru Maharaj for being able to listen to Your last classes, now we have this opportunity - wherever You are and give a lecture - to have such happiness to hear it so quickly after it was given! It is again a big merit of my brothers, thanks them for such self-sacrifice and inspired example in devotional service to Your lotus feet!!!
And Guru Maharaj, thank You for Your personal care! I am grateful to You very much seeing as my spiritual life changes and also the spiritual life of my spouse. This is a merit of devotees and Your divine instructions!! Thank You ever so much Guru Maharaj!!
I want You’ll be healthy and strong in Your body and continue to conduct us, to give us Your instructions and association for a long time. Wherever you are we’ll hear and we’ll receive Your instructions and it is important for the disciple! And also wherever You’ll be we’ll come (if you call). The distance does not matter, there should only be the desire. As You say , and I also notice this on my experience, our purpose ( our priority) should be our spiritual life, association with vaisnavas, care of them, preaching, service to devotees (community), chanting the Holy Name. And material life, I mean the support of the body... Krishna helps somehow, all is arranged anyhow. Even if sometimes not quite in a desirable way. But it becomes unimportant.
Thank You for everything, Guru Maharaj, for your association, support, care. And please forgive me for my ignorance.
Your inutile disciple
Madhavendra Puri das
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Hare Krishna!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Glories to YOU, my dear Guru Maharaja! On this happy day of your Vyasa-Puja please accept my humble obeisances.
I understand more and more to what extent dust from your lotus feet is powerful and to what extent this is only one reliable shelter for me. Your lotus feet – are your disciples, my brothers and sisters, and Your instructions.
For me YOU are the inspiring example of loving relationships with Srila Prabhupada, with brothers and sisters, with your disciples and with all jivas. I understand that all it comes from love of Krishna. I hope that owing to lotus dust from your lotus feet one day I would feel at least one fleck of dust of this taste. Shadow of this taste I hope I feel in your kirtans and only owing to your blessings.
Guru Maharaja, your amazing lecture “Don’t let your chance go” in Minsk (it was amazing, sincere, merciful, inspiring) demonstrated your wonderful merits, especially your devotedness to Srila Prabhupada and care about all people that surround you, and also inspired many devotees for participation in Srila Prabhupada’s marathon. As for me, I realized more deeply your mercy- you accepted me as a disciple only owing to your great mercy – you gave me a chance to become closer to Krishna by closer serving to the Divines. It is not likely that in lilas of Krishna and the Lord Caitanya in Goloka Vrindavana I am washing THEM, put on clothes, feed and offer puja (and this is so sweet), but owing to your mercy I do it already in this body.
I am eager to be at your Vyasa Puja. I will be there for the first time. I wish to feel the taste of the most secret family relationships. I want to enter into the spirit of true personal relationship to YOU, my true father, friend, benefactor, to my param-guru Srila Prabhupada (He definitely will be there in the sea of love and worshipping), to my uncles – your brothers, your disciples and friends - my brothers and sisters.
Your mercy enlarges not only upon me, but on my family. I have not deserved yet to be dust from you lotus feet. Owing to you mercy and mercy of your lotus dust I hope to become that dust.
Your undeserved disciple, who dreams to become a dust of joy in the lotus dust of your lotus feet.
Nandita Gokula devi dasi
(Kishinev, Moldova)
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Dear Guru Maharaja, today when I was going to write this offering I felt great necessity to tell you about one elderly woman who is your disciple. This narration I want to present you today, on the day of your appearance.
Her name is Stella Semenovna. My family lived at her place for certain period of time and it was always possible to see how wholeheartedly she serves the devotees. If somebody had a need in money or in food products she was always ready to help. When some retreat or celebration was taking place in Kiev devotees were always staying at her place and she was taking care about them like their mother. At her place one can always hear how Srila Prabhupada is chanting Hare Krishna mantra and her house is shining with cleanness in spite of the fact she has a big family. I am really surprised how she gets through huge amount of work and manages to have time for everything.
She demonstrates incredible example of that how we have to care about our parents till the end of their lives. Her mother was nearly 100 years old, she was bed-bound and behaved like a baby who needed permanent nursing and care. Stella Semenovna had not slept through the nights, and in the daytime she baked cakes for distribution (there were very good cakes, which mataji Mandakini always orders for the directors who donate construction materials for the construction of the temple). She also took care of her children, cleaning her house and took care of the devotees, who visited her. She had time just for everything. When I confront any complications I am always inspired by her patience, tenacity, knowing how to serve to people, ability to value and plan her time. She is a very wonderful preacher who does not talk much but feeds people with amazing prasadam. Having tried her cakes many people come to the temple then. And recently one influential woman who has a company under her directorship even registered with our Academy to visit lectures.
Stella Semenovna is a very steady devotee, in spite of the fact she does not tell others so much philosophy but her behavior and her acting say much about her deep faith and confidence in Krishna Consciousness. At her place you will not meet sadness, melancholy or depression. Stella Semenovan likes to say: “Krisnochka is always with us. He will always help us.”
In spring and summer it is very beautiful at her garden plot. There are many flowers which she grows for satisfaction of Deities and mataji Mahamana hurries there in order to pick up those flowers.
Dear Guru Maharaja, I am very grateful to you for having such spiritual sisters from whom I can learn many things. Due to you mercy I can feel this incredible taste for concentrating on good merits of the devotees and to have nectar of their glorification. Dear Guru Maharaja, I humbly ask you – please, bless me for that I would never lose this taste and always, even under unfavorable conditions, would be able to concentrate on the best merits in people.
Your servant
Nirmala Prema devi dasi
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Dear Niranjana Swami, let me congratulate you with the day of your appearance. Please, accept my humble obeisances.
Thank you for having leaded my father and mother to Krishna Conscience. But for you I would have lived karmic life. I would like to tell you that I like so much to distribute visit-cards at harinama. And I also would like to tell you about my classmate Nastya. She has been visiting temple for 4 years. She likes to have prasadam, sing kirtans. She wants to learn how to play on mridanga and karatals.
Recently an interesting thing happened to us. My mother has met our neighbor and she said that he had a kind heart and he was a good man but only he had to stop drink wine. And she said that for this he had to chant Hare Krishna. Then she asked him to chant Hare Krishna. He chanted for as many as three times!
Additionally every evening our mother reads us “Source of eternal delight” and stories about Srila Prabhupada.
I wish you happiness and success in devotional service to Srila Prabhupada.
Your servant
Vayuna (daughter of Nirmala Prema dd)
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Dear Niranjana Swami, please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of you lotus feet.
Congratulations to you on your birthday! I wish you good health and never ending happiness
I love to go to harinamas very much.
In his lecture Swarupa Damodar prabhu told us how in his dream Krishna shook his hand at harinama. And also he told us how he was asleep and Krishna meanwhile took his blanket away.
I remember that I gifted you a box. Was it of interest for you? I felt that you were interested.
Once I was listening to the lecture and managed to listen to the very end, even did not fell asleep.
I like in you such thing that you love Krishna. And also I want to tell you that I love you. I wish to thank you for visiting our temple.
Your eternal servant
Bhima (son of Nirmala Prema dd)
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Hare Krishna!
Dear Guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
On this day of Your Vyasa-puja I would like to express to You my gratitude for Your deeds, love and example in spiritual life.
I am very much inspired and feel the support by the care that You give us, Your disciples, but also to other devotees. In spite of all difficulties Your only goal is continuation of the mission of Your spiritual master.
Personally I am not always successful in this. Sometimes problems and desires become very strong, and they simply cover me. And I become absorbed in solving these problems.Only later I understand that this connects me stronger to You and Krishna, brings me to sinciere prayers and surrender, and gives taste for the holy name.
Sometimes it seems to me that the price is too high. But Your life, Your deeds, Your lectures serve as the example and source of inspiration.
With gratefulness, and wishing Your health to get better,
Your servant
Nitya Kishori dd (Omsk)
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Dear Guru Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Please allow me on this day of Your Appearance to tell You some words that are coming from my soul. Guru Maharaja, You are a Divine appearance in my life. You are a bright light that is able to reach with its rays even inside such a dark heart as mine, to sow the seed of love for God. Your preaching and chanting can go even through such labyrinths of polluted and perverted consciousness as mine. The more I get to know You the more I understand that for Your pure Divine preaching no labyrinths of a person's consciousness are an obstacle to give them Krishna because You have devoted Yourself completely to Your Guru Srila Prabhupada and You are strictly following his mission.
I have understood a very important thing - that You are tying us not to Yourself but to Prabhupad that is exactly why I sometimes feel attachment to Prabhupada. Your love for Prabhupada is being mystically transferred to Your disciples by Your completely causeless mercy.
When Sruta Kirti prabhu at the Ukrainian festival told us about Your dream, about Prabhupada and his Divine feet, I experienced incredible emotions, since this was a real example of the continuity of Your relationship with Prabhupada. There is no doubt that You have come to this world to continue the mission of Srila Prabhupada. And though externally You behave as an ordinary person, still Your way of life, Your actions in different life situations speak of Your elevated consciousness and of Your true spiritual nature. I am certain that everyone who has any kind of a relationship with You can say the same but I will not generalize and will only speak for myself that any of Your actions are totally unselfish and sincere, otherwise how can it be explained that You have been taking care of me for the course of 15 years and are continuing to do so, and in return You are getting nothing except for problems, worries and suffering which I bring You.
I am grateful from the bottom of my soul for the unlimited patience and mercy that You have for me. I do not want to abuse Your caring for me but without it I will be lost. I cannot be forgiven for my ignorance but I know that I have no other choice than to ask Your forgiveness for my uselessness and ignorance, for the difficulties that I experience in letting go of my material attachments and for remaining completely useless for You.
I am certain that You have no disciples that are more useless than me. But still since this letter is my offering for Your Appearance Day I want so much to offer You something good. The most precious things that I have are my spiritual desires which You Yourself have put into my heart and You continue to develop them with Your caring, preaching and with Your personal example. And I offer You these main spiritual desires and ask You to bless me, so that they develop and become the only desires of my
heart:
- To constantly devote myself and to reach complete devotion to the instructions of the Guru and to Krishna.
- To acquire the mood of a servant in serving the servants of Krishna for His satisfaction.
- To improve my chanting and to reach inoffensive chanting of the Holy Name.
- To become stable in my spiritual practice and to reach continuous remembrance of Krishna.
Of course, I understand only theoretically that all these desires are meant for satisfying Krishna. But more real and clear for me is the fact that I aspire to these aims for Your satisfaction. In one of Your lectures You are saying that a lot can be given for receiving a smile of approval on the face of Srila Prabhupada. I will continue applying efforts to my spiritual life, perhaps one day I will be able to make You happy with me and to see an approving transcendental smile of my Spiritual Master.
I thank You so much for everything that You are doing for me and for being in my life. Please, take care of Your health.
I plan to travel to Mayapur for Gaura Purnima this year and then to Vrindaban and I ask for Your blessings for an opportunity to receive in the Dhama Darsans from Srila Prabhupada, Pancha-Tattva, Sri Nrisimha-Deva, Sri Radha-Madhava, Sri Radha-Syamasundara and other Deities of the Holy Dhama.
Still attempting to become a sincere servant
Your Radhika d.d.
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Please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to the sankirtana movement!
My dear Guru Maharaj, it is happened that as the fate’s decree I do not possess eloquence, therefore to write an offering always was agonizing for me. I am ashamed of my words, I cannot choose them in a proper way to glorify You and Your Dear Father-Srila Prabhupada. But debt is debt. I would like to apologize for my, maybe, harsh comparisons before. And I beg for Your mercy, Guru Maharaj.
In shastras sadhu is compared to a bee picking up nectar and pollen from the flower and not paying any attention to the dirt that is near the flower. But the bee, besides picking sweet goods is also occupied with other deals. So You, my Gurudev, do not pay attention to the sewage in my heart and try to find there even a drop of nectar to offer it to Lord Caitanya.
You are bee-nurse. You feed me, so small, stupid and helpless larva with sweet pollen of Krishna -katha and give me to drink the nectar of instructions.
You are bee-cleaner, who keeps order in Srila Prabhupada's hive. You sweep away all the litter from my heart with the help of lectures, kirtans, bhajans. You disinfect my cells with propolis of care.
You are bee- guard, defending Prabhupada's hive from rascals who wish to steal the honey of Krisna Consciousness, with the aim to add a spoon of tar that consists of atheism, impersonalism, indifference and so on.
You are secret service bee, executing signal dance, informing about the place of picking the sweetest nectar and calling the rest bees (Your spiritual brothers and sisters and other exalted devotees) for picking.
You are my dear Gurudev a bee-queen sowing the cells of Your disciples hearts with the seeds of devotion to Lord Gauranga. As a bee-queen does not lay an egg to the dirty cell, You also do not put the seed of devotion to the heart that was not purified before with chanting the Holy Name even a little bit and that was not disinfected with the propolis of service to vaisnavas. As the bees who get from their queen some particular matters (pheromones) do not feel orphanage, we, Your disciples, also do not feel orphanage, getting from You pheromones of curator' system. The association of drone with the queen finishes with the death. But this association gets the bee' family from the destruction and increases its numbers. So You, my dear Guru Maharaj, take the risk of Your precious life, aspiring to put though a seed's grain of devotion to Lord Caitanya to my empty heart. Without this seed I would not be able to help You to increase Prabhupada's family and make You happy.
As a bee with its complex eyes sees an object, consisting of hexahedrons and pouring together in the mind, You contemplate always and everywhere in the full completeness all six borders- the advantages of the Lord.
The sting of Your lessons reminds me about the danger of different aparadhas and forces me to put on appropriate equipping of humility, patience, compassion and so on. As the bee's wings that glimmer with all the rainbow’s colors of the spiritual emotions under the beams of Srila Prabhupada's glory.
Finally, my dear Guru Maharaj, You are that beekeeper who pumps out the honey from shastras, giving it out to Your disciples.
Forgive me, please, my dear Srila Gurudev, that the words bringing fame to You have finished.
Eternally Your small, helpless but eager to become a real bee
larva Rasa-Yatra devi dasi
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My dear Guru Maharaj!
Please, accept my humble obeisances to Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to You, my Maharaj!
On this auspicious day I would like to glorify my spiritual master who inherited the qualities from Srila Prabhupada. My dear Maharaj, You are the perfect example of pure servant to Your spiritual master. Your devotion to Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission is worth following. In my understanding You are a spiritual warrior who knows no obstacles and limitations in preaching Krishna Consciousness. Your compassion to fallen conditioned souls is boundless. I am eager to study this ‘art’ of love and compassion to everybody without differentiation that You constantly pour on Your disciples and all other devotees. I feel myself extremely happy and fortunate that I am not alone in this dangerous material world that I have reliable shelter and the best friend and well-wisher ever exist in the world.
Every day I pray to the Lord to become a perfect servant and a perfect disciple and to be able to fulfill all Your instructions in order to be a helper but not a heavy burden in spreading Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
Constantly trying to become a perfect servant of Yours and Lord
Rasangi devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in a dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Your Divine Mercy!
On the day of spiritual master’s Vyasa-puja a disciple should glorify his spiritual master and I started thinking about your role in my life.
I understood that a gratitude to you is inseparably linked with a gratitude to Srila Prabhupad. Srila Prabhupad brought Lord Caytanya’s mercy to western world and even to Russia. He made very great efforts to give a mercy of the Lord to people of this world. And you, Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, have this fortune to continue his mission.
It is very difficult for man to change his way of life and accept the way of devotional service to the Supreme Lord. But it is more difficult to change the heart. And that is impossible without the society of devotees. Srila Prabhupad in “the Nectar of the Devotion” says that the devotional service without association of the devotees is not so far from the fruitful activity. And that’s why I’m so grateful to you for the society of devotees, in which I am. I’m so grateful to you for every-year festivals in Ukraine, which inspire thousands of devotees. These festivals support the devotees in their service to the Lord. And I’m so grateful to you for all your sacrifices you make to help the devotees to develop their love to the Lord.
Because of state of your health, in my mind I had one dialogue. I came to His Holiness Radhanath Maharaj and asked him to ask you to leave your service as GBC. He looked at me and said: “Then who will do this service? Maybe you do?” I replied that I don’t have qualification to do it. But there are other devotees, who are more mature than me, for example, Asvasena prabhu. But Radhanath Maharaj told me: “Yes, nobody wants to accept this responsibility. That’s why Niranjana Swami does this” (invented dialogue)
Thank you, Guru Maharaja. I understand my weakness and vainness. There are desires of fame, women and followers within my heart. But in this day I pray to you to please bless me to give one day all my life to the service to Srila Prabhupad and to your lotus feet.
Wishing to become your servants,
Sanjaya das and Malati devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances unto the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
When I began to meditate on writing an offering for Your Vyasa-puja, Guru Maharaja, I immediately remembered Your offering for Srila Prabhupada`s Vyasa-puja which You read in this year. I read also Your other offerings for Srila Prabhupada`s Vyasa-puja in last years, but this one went into my heart. I cannot compare and say that these were better or worse. I am not qualified nor in the position. Maybe it is just that in this year watched it on the video as You read Your offering, but laste years I only read them. To read is one thing, but when I saw directly Your feelings to Srila Prabhupada, Your emotions that You experienced during the reading, Your tears of gratitude to Srila Prabhupada - all this pierced my stone-like heart, melted ice in my soul. I saw how dear Srila Prabhupada is to You, how attached to him You are, how You surrender at His lotus feet, at His mission without stopping. Of course, due to my insignificant spiritual level I am not able to understand the depth of Your surrender. And yet I was overwhelmed by what I could see and feel. Thank You, Guru Maharaja, for this worthy example. I am very happy that I have had a good luck to take shelter of Your lotus feet, to be near You, to meditate on You, to see Your example.
In Your offering You speak about three things which maintain Your faith in Krishna conciousness:
1. accociation with Godbrothers
2. chanting the Holy Name
3. reading Srila Prabhupada´s books
Of course, I cannot say about myself the same that You speak about. For me it is like a goal, a guiding star, something to endeavor for. And yet I can tell already now that association with devotees is the factor that maintains my faith in Krishna. Especially now, in my present situation, it is very important for me. At the moment I cannot afford myself much association with devotees, because my little daughter needs me constantly. Therefore I am often times in the state of separation, or I have a great desire to get that assocoation. When I have a chance to go to nama-hatta or Sunday program, I try to use his time as much as possible for spiritual association - to hear about Krishna and to chant His Holy Name in the association of devotees. And also, whenever I have a chance, I listen to Your lectures and the lectures of other vaishnavas with great delight. I cannot say that I did not appreciate this association before, but now I feel more sharply the need and importance of such association.
Thank You, dear Guru Maharaja, for drawing our attention to these three important things in Krishna conciousness. You showed us the essence of all practice of Krishna conciousness and shared Your rich spiritual expierence. I wish to always and everywhere follow Your footsteps. And this is my prayer on this auspicious day of Your Vyasa-puja: to always follow Your footsteps and to become Your worthy disciple.
I prostrate myself in the dust of Your lotus feet.
Trying to become Your worthy disciple,
Sundari devi dasi
(Ekaterinburg, Russia)
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Dear Niranjana Swami!
Please accept my humble obeisances on this Vyasa-puja Day. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
With all my small capacity to glorify devotees of the Lord I want to express my feelings in this offering because it is very important for a faithful disciple.
From the very beginning our relationships was through You aspiring disciples. At that time I was witnessing their attitude towards You and spiritual life. It was very special though there were many devotees around struggling with common problems in developing their Krishna Consciousness. Yet Your disciples seemed to be more with conscience and introspective than others, following faithfully Your instructions. At that time I was initiated by another guru, Harikesa Prabhu, but Your lectures inspired me and helped me at some difficult points of life. So I was accepting Your siksa not knowing that You are "My guru". It was like support from outside, like help from the Supersoul who is well-wisher of the devotee. Srila Prabhupada is the most prominent person for me and You again helped me to clearly understand that we can have direct relationship with him provided we have enough faith. That was also my experience at the hard times, so I accepted Your words seriously.
So Srila Prabhupada is acting through his followers and You are one of them. Parampara is not a hierarchical system; rather it is unbroken chain of faithful hearts, revealing Krishna to every individual. And sankirtana is the method for establishing such connection.
We are in great debt to those who help us on our way. And this debt cannot be returned. We must always remember that, otherwise we cannot make it. Rather we must listen attentively to our authorities so we can understand deeply our position. Thank You for that.
"You must not neglect your conscience. Otherwise you have no faith in your own cause. There may be disturbances but we should not leave the preaching of Mahaprabhu, despite all difference. Disturbances must come and we must undergo them. Still, we must remain sincere; we must face the difficulty in a proper way. It has come to train us to go in the right direction."
Syamananda dasa
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Please accept our respectful obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace.
It is said in the shastras that the holy name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are nondifferent. At the same time the holy name is more merciful than Krishna Himself, because Krishna doesn`t forgive offences, but the holy name does.
Shastras also confirm that Sri Guru - it is God Himself, and there is no difference between them.
"Caitanya-Caritamrita" Adi-lila 1.45 states:
guru kṛṣṇa-rūpa hana śāstrera pramāṇe
guru-rūpe kṛṣṇa kṛpā karena bhakta-gaṇe
"According to the deliberate opinion of all revealed scriptures, the spiritual master is nondifferent from Krsna. Lord Krsna in the form of the spiritual master delivers His devotees."
"Caitanya-Caritamrita" Adi-lila 1.47 states:
śikṣā-guruke ta' jāni kṛṣṇera svarūpa
antaryāmī, bhakta-śreṣṭha, — ei dui rūpa
"One should know the instructing spiritual master to be the Personality of Krsna. Lord Krsna manifests Himself as the Supersoul and as the greatest devotee of the Lord."
Gurudeva, manifestation of Krishna`s mercy - bhakta-srestha, the best of devotees.
Often times people look at the Guru as an ordinary person and think about him as about ordinary person: "Why Guru is acting this way or that way? Or why does he react in this situation in this way or doesn`t react at all?" This kind of mood - naraka budhi - is the mood of a hell dweller. Disciple must not have any doubt about the Spiritual Master for even a moment.
But at the same time there is difference between Guru and Krishna: Guru is more mercyful than Krishna!!!
In the "Jaladakhyana samhita" it is said: "A lotus flower which grows from the water opens up under the sunbeams. But the same sun causes the lotus wither when it is cut off. In this example disciple is compared with lotus flower, Sri Guru with water and the Supreme Lord with the sun."
In other words, if one tries to approach Krishna without the help of Spiritual Master, then he is meant to fail.
It is said that for jiva Krishna is mother and father and life air. But for the disciple Guru is mother and father, and his instructions are a life air for him.
Krishna is as far as the sun and as near as the sunlight, but blind man cannot take advantage of everything that sun gives.
We are blind, but you - a doctor, our hearts are a desert, but you are a raincloud. We are beggars, but you - a source of treasures. We are stupid, but you - embodiment of wisdom. We are your eternal servants, but you are our eternal master, Spiritual Master, who has got all wonderful qualities.
With unlimited reverance,
Vaikunthanatha das
Vrindavana Vilasini devi dasi
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Dear Gurudev Srila Niranjana Swami Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace, all glories to His Holiness Srila Prabhupada.
I started to think if I am making any progress in spiritual life and on the day of Ekadasi I experienced this. I went to sankirtana as usual and in the hallway of the fourth floor two teenagers opened the door. They listened to me a little bit, gave me a disdainful look, mumbled something bad to my direction and slammed the door. I continued my service and went one floor downstairs. For some reason these guys decided that I need water and started splashing it on me from their mouths at the same time praising my haircut. I tried to humbly be patient and preached to my mind that this is my karma and prayed to God that He would take care of them by melting their hearts.
The guys were cleaning me till I reached the first floor and when there were two apartments left, one of them passed by and spitted straight onto my sconce. At first I didn’t know how to react, but continued praying. When I finished in that hallway and went out, I overheard this guy saying something bad about me to the girls nearby and at this point my patience vanished. All of a sudden my hand grabbed the guy’s sweater and I saw his red and frightened face catching breath in front of me. He was around 12 years old. I told him that if I had met him some 12 years ago it would have been enough that he gave me one wrong look and he would have immediately had a black eye, but now he gets away with just a little scare.
Even though I didn’t pass the test, I was still happy that I was able to handle these humiliations at least for some time. Indeed, 12 years ago I would not have managed that. But I still have hope, that after 3 or10, or 100 years Krishna will be merciful to me and I will become at least a little bit like You, our Dear Spiritual Master. You are showing us an unsurpassable example of humility and patience, without paying attention to Your ill body and to other inconveniences. I am sorry, that I am not capable of fully responding to Your unlimited kindness, love and compassion, but I still hope that one day I will be able to be useful in serving Your dear Spiritual Master HH Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. And yet there is only one word of Yours that is echoing in my head now – useless, useless.
Attempting to become Your servant,
Vaisnava Seva Das
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Hare Krishna, dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my obeisances unto the divine dust of Your lotus feet. All glories to You and Your beloved spiritual master Srila Prabhupada!
On this remarkable Day of Your Vyasa-puja I would like to, as much as my sincierity allows, to glorify You, and express my gratefulness to all vaishnavas who take care of me like noone else in this world...
The fact of how generously You give Yourself in the service of the mission of His Divine Grace will always be for me an ideal example of relationship between Guru and disciple. In these relationships which are based on love and selfless devotion the most confidential secret of conclusions of all revealed scriptures is hidden. But how much is worth my desire to study them? What is my qualification as of one who constantly tries to improve his service to others? I think that "zero" is too high estimation in this case. And unfortunately all my life consists exactly of such "zeroes". If I was asked to describe in few words my endeavors to act in Krishna conciousness, I would reply following:
I don`t know
I don`t understand
I don´t take part... and this list may continue endlessly.
Therefore I need so much Your unsurmountable expertise to turn all these zeroes into big numbers. And my only success lies in the sure knowing of how well You succeed in it.
Dear Guru Maharaja, in spite of my endeavors to estimate the importance of Your presence in my life, I suspect that my understanding of this fact is meant to be erroneous. Looking at You and Your senior disciples I feel ashamed about my inabilty to be useful in Lord Caitanya`s preaching mission. Examples of love and undivided devotion are very rare phenomena in this world. But in order to make this transcendental treasure available for everyone You give Your life as a fee, so that such spiritually poverty-striken sadhaka like me could feel himself most happy and full of all most confidential treasures - Krishna, You and devotees association.
Without Your mercy and blessings I am nothing.
Please bless me and engage in the service of Your Divine Grace.
Your incapable disciple,
Vraja Vallabha das
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Please accept my humble obeisances. All glory to Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, Shrila Prabhupada, and all the devotees.
On this auspicious day I would like to thank you for being a great example of a vaishnava to all of us. Thank you for the great patience through the years. Sometimes, looking at the leaders of this world and you, it is very rear to see such a quality as humility. Thank you for your support and sincere desire for our spiritual progress. Also, I thank you for all the sacrifice like your time and health. I would like to thank you for all the lectures, books, and bhajans that contain nectarian knowledge, especially for someone who does not have direct contact with his or her Guru, temple, association of devotees.
Recently, I read the story you told about your personal experience of Shrila Prabhupada's spiritual power. You felt when you when you were inside the temple that only by the look Shrila Prabhupada could understand everything about a person. I believe, spiritual master has this ability to "see through" or inside because it also happens to me and I'm sure to many others. Also I know this ability very often can hurt. I'm very sorry for all the pain I cause. Sure, your health suffers greatly from misdeeds of a student like me.
Most of all, dear Guru Maharaja, thank you for your unlimited love that teaches the most, love which makes room in your heart for all of us: disciples, brothers in God, and all the living beings.
God bless you! Hare Krishna.
Your disciple,
Vrindavana Viharini devi dasi
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Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I have shared with you with my realizations but Krishna is so merciful that I got some realizations more and I decided to offer them to you for your Vyasa Puja Day.
My realizations connect with my trip to Vrindavan. I had there many wonderful experiences and realizations but two of them were especially important for me. I will tell you about it.
You know how much I wanted to get association of BB Govinda Maharaja in Vrindavan and being in Vrindavan before his coming I started to worry again very much. Finally Krishna gave me idea to accept some vow for sake of fulfilling of my desire. I knew that I was not able to accept some bodyly austerity, so I decided to chant 64 rounds one day before his coming. I was afraid a little to accept this austerity because previously I have chanted 64 round maybe only 3-4 times in my life, this was not easy task for me. And immediately next thought came to me: if this vow wouldn’t fulfill my desire then at least Krishna would be satisfied because He likes when someone chants His names. After thinking in that way I felt some shame that I had put Krishna on second place…
And next day, during my chanting somewhere on 50-th rounds I started to feel such peace and satisfaction that I understood it was such great happiness to chant 64 rounds that I didn’t need anything more – my very desire was to chant 64 rounds every day in Vrindavan and in Krishna Balaram Mandir. And… after that every day in Vrindavan I chanted 64 rounds. I couldn’t believe it; it seemed to me like it was not me, as if someone else did it… Some days I chanted only 50 rounds because of many programs a day. Anyway I have got so nice experience and now if I think about chanting of 64 rounds I feel this is easier than chanting 16 rounds, I feel joy and desire to taste this again. And also it seemed to me that Krishna accepted my desire to satisfy Him though I put Him on the second place. Krishna is so grateful and merciful that He accepts even indirect desire to satisfy Him; He is just satisfied by that someone remembers Him and wants to satisfy Him at least somehow…
Every day my happiness and gratitude to Govinda Maharaja for the chance to associate with him increased more and more and I started to feel that I didn’t want to lose the connection with this person. I have felt that the only opportunity to be connected with him is to do something for his pleasure – to serve him. I didn’t want anything from him (no attention to me, no remembering me, no gratitude) and I didn’t expect any special service. There was only the desire to have an opportunity to serve him, to bring him joy, even if he would never know about my service to him. The thought made me happy that I can do something what satisfies him. And finally thanking him I asked him what I can do for him to repay his wonderful association, my happiness and realizations and to go on being connected with him by service. He answered that be a servant of devotees, serve devotees, speak to everybody that higher happiness is to be servant etc. I was happy…
And then I understood that this is the relationship that I need to develop with you - the relationship where my only desire to do something for your pleasure and not to wish any feedback, any gratitude and any attention to my person… all what I need is to have the service which makes you happy. Before I had the knowledge about true relationships on the base of service but now Krishna gave me the opportunity to feel it. This is very big gift to me from Him – the gift is to have the experience (the feeling) what is the higher happiness – to serve Guru (and later Krishna) and not to expect anything from Him.
Thank you very much, dear Guru Maharaja. I do not deserve it. I don’t understand why Krishna gave me so much mercy. Because of your love? All I understand I need to serve you and Krishna more to repay your and Krishna’s mercy.
Thank you, Guru Maharaja, for my realizations and my happiness in Krishna consciousness. Thank you for your patience, kindness, care and love. Thank you for your love to Srila Prabhupad. Thank you for your inspiring lectures and kirtans. Thank you for your sincere disciples. Thank you for the example of association with your godbrothers and caring of devotees…
Thank you, Guru Maharaja, for being my spiritual master.
Wishing to repay your love
your disciple
Vrindavanesvari devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please, accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In the day of your appearance I want to express my gratitude for everything you do for me. But while I am like a baby who cannot appreciate parental care.
Many years passed since Rasamurti Prabhu told me about devotees and Lord Nrisimha for the first time, 8 years passed since my initiation. But yet I can gladden you neither with my qualities, nor with devotion. At the same time I see how (due to you) slowly my character and consciousness
change. When I see old and unhappy people, I start to understand particularly clear from what dangers you want to save me.
I want to be useful in serving you, but I am still weak in all respects.
On December, 10 we have celebrated the day of your appearance here, in Novorossiysk. It's a pity, that I cannot convey with what a love and admiration Aditi Dukha-ha Prabhu glorified you.
I remembered how devotees came from Ukrainian festival in autumn, and each came to me and glorified you with such sincerity, that I was glad because everyone loves you. On my recalling your name, devotees start to glorify your sublime qualities.
Though I cannot understand your greatness to the bottom, but I feel that you are a very sublime personality. Meeting you and seeing your purity I feel ashamed. Thank you for you have accepted me, absolutely unqualified, as a disciple and lead this way of devotion.
Thank you for Vrindavanesvari devi dasi and all devotees, with whom you encircle me with, via whom you teach and instruct.
With sincere gratitude and wishing to become your worthy disciple
Hemagauri devi dasi
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Dear Guru Maharaja,
Please, accept my humble obeisances in the dust of Your lotus feet.
I want to take advantage of the moment to thank you for the beautiful society of devotees, in which I stay, for the family, in which you have given me back, and which you given back to me. I thank you for your instructions, which make me more clear, pure; and my life has got a true sense.
Please, defend me from material life! The more I immerse into the devotional service to Krishna, the more the ocean of material suffering become wider. Though it is an ocean of material suffering, a living being is attracted with it, and it becomes wider and wider and the living being yet cannot get out of the abyss itself. And I cannot get out without your mercy. Despite of the ocean of suffering is dangerous, the living being is attracted. As soon as glory, benefit, recognition smile to it, a grave and a birth, unknown to it, are smiling as well.
Daksha says:
nanubha na janati
puman vishaya-tikshanam
nirvidyate swaya tasman
na tatha bhinna-bhih paraih
It's true that in mundane enjoyments all our troubles are rooted, but is it possible to renounce from them without tasting their sorrow? Let everyone completely enjoys the mundane happiness and let understand how it is ghostly, then without the outer help he will reject it. Those, who was motivated to renunciation from the world by others and who has not gained through suffering everything himself, he won't be so renounced.
If to follow Daksha's philosophy, it is necessary to completely immerse into mundane joys, taste their bitter fruits and naturally came to the renunciation. However, the power of material nature is so strong that though one is suffering at each his step, he is still continuing to rush for pleasures. To waken the spirit of renunciation inside is possible only associating devotees like Narada Muni or his disciples in the chain of disciplic succession. A man can be easily convinced that material pleasures turn with multiple troubles, but this does not make him renounced. He needs to get a benediction, a mercy of a devotee, similar to Narada Muni. Only then he will through all his attachments to the material world away. Not a personal bitter experience made young guys and girls join our Movement of Krishna consciousness, decline material enjoyments, but a mercy of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His servants.
Dear Guru Maharaja, to not reject this fallen soul, whoever I am, but I try to serve, give me also a shelter at your lotus feet. Only by your mercy I can be saved, truly here is no other shelter.
Your humble servant
Kamalakara das
OFFERINGS ADDED IN JANUARY 2010
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Dear Guru Maharaja, please accept our most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Your Divine Grace!
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
shrimate niranjana svamin iti namine
anahata-prayasena prabhupadasya tushtaye
sankirtana-pravritty-artham ihate gurave namah
When I began to write Vyasa Puja offering to you, first I wrote another letter, not this that you are reading now. I thought that the first version was not that much coming from the heart, so I’m offering to your lotus feet this story.
"All we need is love"
Being the temple commander of the temple, that located on the island, you can see that every day doesn’t look as the previous one. When your day ends, you can’t be completely sure what was the order of events that happened today. Moreover, you even have doubts, if they happened today or yesterday.
During morning programs time you need not only sing araties and chant japa, but also you need to light the fire in the altar room, carry the jeep by the ferry over the lake, then by bus bring the milk from the farm, load it into jeep and carry back to the island. It was quite often that before using the ferry it was a necessity to change an accumulator, or often there was no ferry at all and you had to do all these with the help of ordinary old boat, carrying 45L milk cans all by yourself and taking care that all these cans haven’t ended on the lake’s bottom.
You need to go to the city to buy flowers, bhoga, bring it to the island, transferring from one vehicle to another for transporting it by the ferry. Also you need to bring out the garbage from the island and also bring in diesel fuel and gas for the ferry and temple vehicles. Regularly you need to change gas-cylinders and bring in the burning oil for heating. Sometimes it could be done only with the help of the boat, and it places this service somewhere in between the deep ignorance and atma-nivedanam.
At odd moments there always some emergency service as: maintain the cleanness in the temple and on the island itself, repairing the drive way to the temple, that is getting washed out by the rain, bringing in tourists and devotees to the island, attending driving lessons and English language classes in 30 minutes ride from the temple. Besides that there are also feasts for guests, Sunday programs and festivals, where you need not only cook and organize everything, but also clean up the huge kitchen before and after cooking.
You also need to attend traveling festivals, harinama, home programs and help temple devotees and devotees in the community when they need help. In between this nowhere near full list of things to do, we somehow had to earn some laxmi for the new visa, personal transport maintenance, bhoga and personal things, because all the temple maha-prasadam was distributed among guests and it was not realistic to eat in the temple.
The work that we were doing at that time was related to the cooking prasadam in the extreme conditions. 1.5 years passed since we cooked something around 450 pieces and 200 plates of prasadam everyday. Until now I can not cook anything, because the body and the mind haven’t recovered yet after such marathons. When this long day would come to the end, we had to cook some prasadam for the maintenance of our bodies and then finish japa in the always cold and wet buildings of North Ireland.
In one of such periods, when the quantity of the devotees in the community came to the zero due to the vacation season, I was trusted as additional service to take care about temple vegetable garden. At that time it had 4000 cauliflowers, 3000 broccolis, 2000 red cabbages, 4 rows of zucchini (each line 60 meters long), 2 rows of spinach, kohlrabi, beetroot (each row 100 meters long) and 100?100 meters potato field. That was all organic vegetables and because it was Ireland, every day I had to collect slugs from the garden so they won’t eat all kinds of cabbage there.
On one day, when in between the nonstop rains I needed to pick up all the ripe cabbages and zucchinis for their delivery to the Dublin’s restaurants, I was completely exhausted. Besides, I haven’t had a big van and a driver, who would agree to bring all of these to Dublin (2 hours ride). It was assumed that I would do it by my car, but the amount of bhoga and my knowledge of Dublin’s map didn’t allow me to feel the confidence that this trip would be successful. The only asset I had – laxmi for the gas.
And at this very time by Krishna's mercy one of the oldest devotees in Ireland, Jay Jagannath prabhu came to the temple. I experienced a deep feeling of respect towards him even before that day, but I would never dare to ask him to render some service, especially service that was given to me. He saw me and for several minutes he watched as I was bringing bags of bhoga from the garden, he immediately, not asking me about anything, helped me with the next portion of bags. Then he himself offered me his help and I tried to describe him my anxiety of the present situation with delivery of all these vegetables to the three Dublin’s restaurants.
He honestly told me that it is difficult and inconvenient for him, but if the such being the case, he would reorganize his van, where he lives while constant travels, and would carry everything for me, whose knowledge of Dublin’s roads was very poor. When we prepared and arranged everything, I tried to give him laxmi for gas, but he refused to take them and told me that he needs something else from me. I agreed and asked him: «What can I do for you as an expression of my gratitude?» He asked me to give him my writing pad and a pen and wrote something in there. When he returned me the pad, I read only one phrase: "All we need is love".
Jay Jagannath prabhu had a very sweet and enigmatic smile on his face at that moment, but my eyes at that moment were full of tears, I finally understood the meaning of these words. I was absolutely sure, that by your mercy only I understand it now, because at that time we survived only because we were feeling how much love you have towards us. I knew that all that we do, we could offer you; because it is impossible to do all this for ourselves and other reasons are just not that relevant.
I’m very grateful that these situations happen in my life, because these moments bring up nice emotions from the depth of the heart. At these moments I again realize the position of Krisna’s devotees and essence of ours, devotees, relationships. Maybe it sounds naive and sentimental that I didn’t get such realizations on sankirtana, but maybe at that moment I was more dependent on Krishna than on sankirtana, and therefore these realizations were more evident.
On one of your classes you told that we should regularly remind ourselves why we joined this Society. Answering this question you told about yourself: “I joined Krishna consciousness movement to become Krishna conscious”. We want to say the same words. We joined this Society with the same purpose and we were greatly fortunate to meet Srila Prabhupada and than you and also with many other sincere devotees. All difficulties that we met are an insignificant fee for this above mentioned fortune.
At one point I understood that everything that you have already given to us belongs to you and should be engaged in service to you. I saw that many other personalities, whose motives are not always selfless, might want to use that what we got from you. We are your possessions and although we are far away from being good instruments in your plans, nonetheless we want to be in the place, where your interests in preaching are more evident for our conditioned understanding.
Recently we remember the quote from Sri Caitanya-caritamrita (Madhya 22.83):
krsna-bhakti-janma-mula haya ‘sadhu-sanga’
“The root cause of devotional service to Lord Krishna is association with advanced devotees”.
What a precise and capacious expression! Without this course there are no any progress and enthusiasm in Krishna consciousness. Every meeting with you, either in person or through meditation on your instructions or behavior changes the heart. We joined and value this Krsna consciousness society exactly because due to the association with advanced devotees it is possible to maintain the life in these bodies and become Krishna conscious.
You are very dear to Srila Prabhupada and it makes your prayers very powerful. Your prayers and your love develop Krishna consciousness in many communities. Your kirtans immediately clean the dirt from hearts and allow something valuable appear there. Your classes open windows to the spiritual reality. Your smile and care forever make the object of your attention infected by the “virus” of devotion to Krishna.
May in front of your merciful gaze, besides the wonderful pastimes of Gauranga Mahaprabhu and the Divine Couple, would also appear constant examples of how devotees love each other and help each other make progress in Krishna consciousness.
Your servants,
Yasoda Kumara dasa & Nitya Navina d.d.
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Hare Krishna, dear Guru Maharaja!
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Each time I try to write you an offering I understand that I am not able to adequately glorify you and all your divine qualities. But in gratitude to your service to us and Srila Prabhupada I try to do this, although I can’t do it properly. Please forgive me for my imperfection.
When I see how selflessly you serve your disciples, neglecting your state of health, doctors’ prohibitions and your Godbrothers’ requests, I very much admire your desire to please Srila Prabhupada. I do want to have such divine love, which lives in your merciful and compassionate heart and inspires you during all these years, astonishing us again and again and revealing us the wonderful qualities of her possessor. Your lectures and books give us an opportunity to contact and dive in these waves of love and devotion to our dear Lord, who gives us an opportunity to become closer to Him by serving Your Grace, and also to enjoy the nectar of association with such elevated vaisnava as you are, dear Guru Maharaja.
Owing to you we have an opportunity to see those truths which we read in Scriptures, for example, that a vaisnava is dear to everyone. I observe how your Godbrothers take care of you, and I understand which person can deserve such mercy of love and association. I see how out of your gratitude and love you go to your disciples, risking your heath, just to give them an opportunity to associate with you. And now also you are going to come to Vyasa-puja because your heart is overfilled by the desire to give us those love and gratitude which you feel toward us. This love flow begins from the Lord’s lotus feet, streams to the hearts of His devotees and becomes sweeter. It overfills their hearts and the vaisnavas mercifully showers this nectar to everyone who is able to take it. And here I feel grief and fear because I feel myself unable to take this mercy in full measure. My heart is captured by the illusory energy and only by Your Grace sometimes I become able to see and understand what is hided behind the shroud which covers my consciousness. I’m just like one who likes honey-jar from the outside. I still remain hope to find happiness and comfort in this world. And my feelings are just like snakes, which bite and involve me in the world of duality and illusion.
In this blissful day of your appearance I pray for your mercy which can bring me out of this captivity and help me to stand under the nectar flow, which pours out your blissful heart.
Sincerely yours, wishing to obtain the shelter of your lotus feet,
Bhakta Denis Baryshev
Hare Krishna.
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Dear Guru Maharaja, Srila Niranjana Swami!
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
In this blissful day of your appearance let me glorify you and express great gratitude for all you do for us.
I don’t have any qualification to do that, but Srila Prabhupada said that Krishna is pleased when His devotees are glorified.
An epigraph of the latest edition of “Mercy of instructions” is one your instruction: “Sooner or later we come to a conclusion that we can’t to be happy without Krishna Consciousness. That conclusion has to become immutable for us. That’s why in every my arrival I emphasize that happiness is in Krishna Consciousness. I put whole myself into this instruction”.
But you put whole yourself not only into this instruction but into all instructions you give to us. Developing the counselor system in Ukraine you put whole yourself in this. Preaching and spreading the glory of the Holy Name you put whole yourself in this. Giving us instructions about importance of developing proper relations between devotees you put whole yourself in this.
In one our lecture you said: “The faith is awoken, becomes stronger and ascends to higher level by the association of the devotees. Our life depends on this. I personally feel that my life depends on the association of the devotees who help me to remember Krishna. I can’t even imagine where I was if I didn’t have an opportunity to associate with them. This is my main source of inspiration”. In this instruction you also put whole yourself, making it clear that without proper association of the devotees I will not be able to progress in my spiritual life, to strengthen my faith and will not have a source of inspiration.
In your lecture about the glory of the Holy Name you gave in Kishinev in 2001 you emphasized that to develop attachment to the Holy Name one can only by the association of the vaisnavas and everyday attentive chanting of the Holy Name – and these are important things in our life.
Guru Maharaja, I chant everyday 16 rounds of japa but my mind wanders everywhere. I can’t fix my mind fully on the Holy Name however hard I try. I need your help. Please pray for me so that I will become a servant of the Holy Name. Guru Maharaja, I know that it is not enough to have a mercy, I should make efforts to control my mind. And to taste the nectar of the Holy Name I should have a strong faith in your mercy. Please help me to obtain it.
You accept me as your disciple out of you compassion. And this saves me. In your offering to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada on his appearance day you said: “Compassion can not be found in any living being except a vaisnava, pure devotee of the Lord”. Out of compassion you accept us, ignorant, unbridled and rough persons as your disciples and put whole yourself to make us the worthy grandchildren of Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you very much for your compassion, your mercy, your selflessness, your great love to all of us, for your faith and conviction that someday something good will turn out of us, your disciples.
I wish you good health and spiritual strength to continue your mission!
With love and devotion to you
Your stupid disciple
Gopi devi dasi
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om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjaya-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmay sri gurave-namah
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
shrimate niranjana svamin iti namine
anahata-prayasena prabhupadasya tushtaye
sankirtana-pravritty-artham ihate gurave namah
Dear Guru Maharaja,
In this blissful day please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet because there is no other shelter for me in this world of sufferings and illusions.
I’m sorry for not writing offerings to your Vyasa-pujas during few years and thus I didn’t perform my disciple duty. But this is not that in my callous heart there is no gratitude and understanding what you do for me and us out of your great compassion. Whatever successes and attainments come to me on the path of achievement Krishna Consciousness, they all come only by your mercy and mercy of the devotees. And the fact that now I’m in association of the devotees and I have an opportunity to serve them and Gaura-Nitay this is nothing else than your mercy, care and compassion to me. Thank you very much for that. Of cause I don’t have full realization and possibility to describe your greatness because of my conditionality. But this understanding is enough for praying you and Krishna again and again for not miss the opportunity to get full blessings of your presence in this planet and develop strong desire to attain pure unalloyed service to Sri Sri Radha and Krishna.
You are my only hope in this world.
I know that out of your true humility you don’t take glorification personally, fully realizing that you are made of Srila Prabhupada’s comprehensive mercy. But I know that I received the Lord’s mercy and Srila Prabhupada’s mercy only owing to your causeless mercy. You are a true follower and a servant of instructions of the servant of the servant of the Lord, and this is your real glory.
Of cause, all our offerings always are insignificant to whom you are for us.
Somewhere deep in my heart there is a strong desire to do something very-very significant for you. I want to preach the glory of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitay’s and Radha-Krishna’s pastimes like you do with great faith and purposefulness. My attempts to do this show me the lack of qualification, my weak faith and dirty heart.
Therefore in this blissful day of your appearance I bow down to your lotus feet and pray: “Please endow me with such deep faith in spiritual master’s orders as you have. Let me never forget it in any case. Let in my heart will remain only one desire - to follow your instructions.
Thank you very much for your unlimited love and concern to this useless and proud disciple, which I am.
Your useless servant,
Gopi Manjari devi dasi
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Hare Krishna, dear Guru Maharaja! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to you!
I’m so happy to have an opportunity to glorify you, joining to other disciples’ congratulations. I want to thank you for these concern and mercy you shower at me. I wish you good health and long life.
Please stay with us not only at photos and in our hearts but alive.
Your servant,
Sarvajna das
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