Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances at your divine lotus feet.
Your divine appearance day is a way for me to reconnect with you. Many times in your lectures
you mentioned that devotional service is easy and at the same very difficult and complicated if we
make our lives complicated. You assured us that it’s even possible to go back to Godhead in this
lifetime. The challenge is to shift from practice to realization.
When in the Bhagavad-gītā (6.34) Arjuna tells Kṛṣṇa, cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa, pramāthi balavad
dṛḍham / tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye, vāyor iva su-duṣkaram: the mind is turbulent and very strong,
and to subdue it is more difficult than controlling the wind. In His reply, in Bhagavad-gītā 6.35,
Krishna speaks to Arjuna these important words: abhyāsena and vairāgyeṇa – “practice” and
“detachment.”
So the challenge is there, but at the same time the solution is available.
To get to prema from śraddhā may seem a utopian ideal, but the precious words from the lotus
mouth of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the blessings of His special servant like your-
self are a guaranteed assurance that we can reach the final goal.
The global situation is getting worse and worse, and this world is becoming more and more a
place unfit for gentlemen to live. But we have to find our way to the perfection of life and simul-
taneously preach to those who have accepted the bad as good and illusion as real. This is another
challenge.
O Śrīla Prabhupāda, it’s my duty to express gratitude to you for revealing this auspicious
movement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the world – a world where everything exists except bhakti to
Lord Kṛṣṇa. I wish to be a useful instrument in helping to push this mission to my best capacity.
Only your blessings and assistance can save me and help me to always focus on my devotional
service the way you and Kṛṣṇa want. I beg to always remain in the dust of the feet of the servants
of your servants.
Your aspiring servant of your servants,
Bhakti Cārudeṣṇa Swami