Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda;
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
I heard quite a famous quote being used the other day, and it made me think of you. Albeit
I think we need to update that quote a little, the quote being:

Never before was so much owed by so many to so few.

My proposed update:

Never before was so much owed by so many to just one single person: you, Śrīla
Prabhupāda!

As my life in this body (of ever-increasing misery) accelerates into its inevitable “home straight,”
I remain ever curious as to why the whole world of more or less eight billion people are not
offering an annual Vyāsa-pūjā homage to you, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
While the fundamental problems of this material world remain a constant – birth, death, old
age, and disease – the ādhyātmikā, ādhibhautika, and ādhidaivika back-up miseries seem evermore
prominent and evermore intense. Indeed, it is as if they are operating on steroids at this point
in time. So with ādhyātmikā, mental health issues are snowballing at a rate we have never even
come close to before. Then ādhibhautika: aside from the ever-increasing conflict in the world, and
particularly the increased viciousness of those conflicts, we only have to consider the cathedral of
hate that is perhaps embodied by social media. That cathedral’s spire rises higher than any physi-
cal spire we can imagine. The social media cathedral is, in many ways, the modern-day spiritual
master. Lastly, ādhidaivika: these days it seems we are all quite nervous as to whether our area of
the world will be hit by the next flood, wildfire, storm winds like never before, or drought.
When I was a teenager in the late seventies, I still held grandiose ideas of having a great life in
this world, completing my studies, getting a good job, settling down, and then retiring as early
as possible to relax and “have a good time.” However, when I was blessed to receive The Science of
Self-Realization, I realized my grandiose ideas were for the birds.
These days, though, for anyone with half a brain, such grandiose ideas must surely be daft to
the extreme. With all that is going on now, people should be flocking to our temples, and particu-
larly your books, in droves, as the world has entered a more chaotic state than ever before, at least
in my lifetime. Furthermore, it is clear that this chaotic downward spiral the world is on has only
just begun.
For us, as your followers and aspiring servants, this surely presents a wonderful opportunity
for us to offer all the souls in this world the solution to all the uncertainty and chaos. That solu-
tion, of course, is an ever-constant reality – Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As well as being surprised that
everyone is not offering you a homage every year, it also surprises me that everyone who is fortu-
nate enough to come across one of your books does not automatically accept your words as truth,
without a second thought. For those who do struggle to accept your words as truth, let them read
this purport you wrote, I think in 1976 – so about fifty years ago. As we read it, we can understand
that what you were writing fifty years ago could easily be a report on precisely what is going on in
the world today!
The word prophet tends to be associated with other religious traditions, but in the context of
prophesying or predicting the future, you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, sit head and shoulders above all
others. You wrote:

Thus Vindhyāvali, Bali Mahārāja’s intelligent wife, prayed that her husband be
released, by the Lord’s causeless mercy. Otherwise, Bali Mahārāja was nothing but a
shameless demon, specifically described as tyakta-hriyas tvad-avaropita-kartṛ-vādāḥ, a
foolish person claiming proprietorship over the property of the Supreme Person. In
the present age, Kali-yuga, the number of such shameless men, who are agnostics
disbelieving in the existence of God, has increased. Trying to defy the authority of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, so-called scientists, philosophers, and politicians
manufacture plans and schemes for the destruction of the world. They cannot do any-
thing good for the world, and unfortunately, because of Kali-yuga, they have plunged
the affairs of the world into mismanagement. Thus there is a great need for the Kṛṣṇa
consciousness movement for the benefit of innocent people who are being carried
away by propaganda of such demons. If the present status quo is allowed to continue,
people will certainly suffer more and more under the leadership of these demoniac
agnostics. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 8.22.20, purport)

Śrīla Prabhupāda, thank you. Thank you for being so kind as to bless the existence of this fallen
soul with the treasure of transcendental knowledge – the crème de la crème of route maps out of
this material world.

Falling at your feet and hoping to be
your eternal servant,
Praghoṣa Dāsa

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