Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, with each year that passes it becomes more and more obvious how depen-
dent we are on your mercy, your teachings, and your example.
Thank you for continuing to guide us and nurture us. Thank you for teaching us via thousands
of pages of instructions in your books. Thank you for appearing in your mūrti form in temples
worldwide, where you continue to accept our obeisances and prayers. Thank you for guiding us
via hundreds of recorded lectures, in which you at once plead, coach, embrace, and call out to
each of us to come closer to you and to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Thank you for instructing us to call out the
Lord’s name with feeling, to surrender to the Supreme Beloved, to give up our foolish attempts at
capturing happiness through our senses, and to stop blindly following our rebellious materialistic
minds.
You are so kind to be ever present for us, Śrīla Prabhupāda – year after year after year. You are
our constant friend, guru, and example amidst the ocean of material distress.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, as this Age of Quarrel gains momentum, we see that all over the world
polarization and hatred between peoples and tribes and nations is increasing. We are trying to
realize and share your message, the message of our ācāryas, that the world belongs to Kṛṣṇa
(īśāvāsyam idam sarvam) and that peace will only come through living cooperatively as children of
God. But it is hard. People are so overcome by bitterness and spite.
By your grace only, Śrīla Prabhupāda, can we have the opportunity to overcome that darkness.
By your grace only, Śrīla Prabhupāda, can we become beacons of light – as a society of Vaiṣṇavas,
as individual devotees, as citizens, mothers, fathers, neighbors, employers, employees, and as
friends and colleagues.
But sadly, the world around us impels us to hurt ourselves and others. The world impels us to
cheat. The world impels us to be full of hate and anger and jealously and envy. It is practically
demanding that we do so. It is tempting us to do so. It is prodding us to do so. But you have
given us the secret to rising beyond all that, the Lord’s holy name:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rama Rāma Hare Hare

Śrīla Prabhupāda, there are so many religious and spiritual people in this world who do not
practice what they preach. It is so common that young people have given up on elders and institu-
tions. They hanker for authenticity. They find instead hypocrisy.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were and are the perfect manifestation of authenticity. This is one of
your greatest qualities – one that attracted thousands and today attracts millions to take shelter of
you. If we want to be counted as among your followers, if we want to preach and teach and serve
you and follow you, we too need to become authentic. Not shallow, and not proud – we need to
become humble Vaiṣṇavas, trying our utmost to respect all others, to be kind to all others, and to
be servants of all others.
This year, as part of the ISKCON Leadership seminar, “Being Guru in ISKCON,” the GBC
Guru Services Committee members felt obliged to add to the course (which is mandatory for
devotees taking up the service of initiating guru) several hours of instruction about “spiritual
abuse.”
Why did we do that? How can a spiritual organization have abuse? And why would ISKCON
need to teach about it, warn against it, guard against it? Some may argue that our needing to do
so proves that ISKCON has deviated from your path of purity.
But in reality, the opposite is true. The fact that we “take on” spiritual abuse openly, that we
discuss it, teach about it, and try to minimize it – if not eliminate it – is proof of how your pure
example continues to motivate us.
This is the dilemma that faces a sincere soul on the path of bhakti. We are by nature pure and
eternal servants of God. Endeavoring again to serve Him, we take on greater and greater respon-
sibilities to share His message. But every day, every moment, and at every turn we remain vulner-
able to forgetfulness and to trying again to exploit others and the world around us.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, it is because of your purity, and the maturing of our faith in that purity, that
we can teach about spiritual abuse – how to avoid it and how to overcome it, and, how we must
always be on guard so that our controlling and exploitative tendencies may not overwhelm us,
even as we try our best to love and serve the Lord.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you give us the strength to resist these tendencies and the honesty to pray
for protection against such tendencies. You have taught us that the soul is originally pure; that
the soul is meant to love God; and that each one of your followers must enthusiastically carry that
message forward. But we must ever be on guard and never forget that each of us is very small.
And māyā, illusion, is very strong.
Armed with that knowledge and with the awareness of our need for protection at every
moment, we pray that all devotees, starting with ourselves and including even the topmost leaders,
may be empowered with a deep understanding of our own limitations. We must have the courage
to say to ourselves and to others, “Yes, I can be a messenger on behalf of Śrīla Prabhupāda and
Lord Kṛṣṇa. But yes, I can also deviate and harm others if I’m not careful. I must be trained. I
must be held accountable. I must hear every day from our founder-ācārya, from my gurus, my
elders, and my peers to help me remember that I am but a humble servant.”
Most importantly, I – we – must remember that we are completely dependent upon the mercy
of the Lord and our founder-ācārya. It is your example, Śrīla Prabhupāda, your teaching, your
grace and your authenticity that keep us safe.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, thank you for being present in our lives, in your books, in your lectures, in
your mūrtis, and in your society, and for reminding us again and again to never mistreat others
or misuse our power, our knowledge, our influence, or our status. We are always but insignificant
servants of you and Lord Kṛṣṇa. Please keep us eternally in the shelter of your lotus feet.

Your servant,
Anuttama Dāsa

Translate »