Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to your lotus feet.
To properly glorify you poses a unique challenge, given our conditioned limitations. Yet, with-
out this attempt, our inadequacy would simply remain. Though our understanding and praise
may fall short, we trust in your boundless love to shine through our shortcomings.
This humble offering, therefore, awakens hope that our devotion will foster a deeper reliance
on your guidance. Only through cultivating such guru-bhakti can we truly please Kṛṣṇa and
thereby comprehend and share His divine grace.
*
Prior to meeting you, my arduous journey of empiric theology had reached an impasse due to a
fundamental contradiction: the very act of seeking Truth through intellectual ascent is inherently
flawed. Academically analyzing God’s attributes mistakenly separates knowing from serving – a
distinction that simply does not exist.
This misconception further suggests that we might understand God without the essential com-
ponent of serving His representative. As we overcome such impersonal paradigms and develop a
relationship with Kṛṣṇa through guru-sevā, we catch a glimpse of the profound, intimate depths of
the Lord’s own mysterious heart.
Safeguarding the inner sanctum of His loving abode and the selfless purity of relationships
found there, the Lord establishes servitude as the means and goal of spiritual perfection. He
emphasizes devotion to Śrī Guru as the invocation for His personal grace and involvement in
our lives. When Kṛṣṇa smiles upon us with pleasure, we become eligible to experience an inner
sunrise.
My first introduction and interaction with you was through your books, which revealed to me
the nature of spiritual relationships. Your analogy of seeking the sun with a candle – the inade-
quacy of empirical understanding – resonated profoundly. It mirrored my own life’s journey, cap-
turing the essence of my inner struggle: yearning for a vision of Kṛṣṇa, a luminary forever shining
beyond the grasp of independent striving. The candle’s feeble light, representing my own efforts,
could never illuminate the sun. Kṛṣṇa’s darshan is revealed only by His own radiant glance and
grace.
Contrary to conventional knowledge, the sun’s brilliance – Kṛṣṇa’s light and love – is per-
ceived not with open eyes, but through the inner ear, when it is attuned to the divine message
transmitted by the unbroken lineage of paramparā. Enlightenment dawns upon us as the Lord’s
internal energy expands, illuminating our souls when our hearts are submissive and directed
toward Him in service attitude.
Kṛṣṇa then awakens our sleeping spirits, inviting them into the radiant warmth of His love,
heralding a dawning within the heart. Gazing beyond the limitations of our earthly understand-
ing, we glimpse our utter dependence on Śrī Guru’s grace. This dynamic is honored as Śrī Vyāsa-
pūjā, so prominently portrayed during our first experience of the occasion in 1972, setting a
precedent to follow for all time.
That year, here at New Vrindaban, the Janmāṣṭamī festival abounded with providential grace.
Your personal invitation for Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vṛndāvanacandra to accept Their new temple as a
birthday gift, followed by your leading the celebration of Kṛṣṇa’s appearance, surcharged the
atmosphere, heightening the devotees’ expectations for the following day. Nandotsava marked
the perfect occasion for your appearance.
After the morning program concluded in the rustic valley – where Their Lordships reigned in
pastoral splendor – all eyes turned eastward, to the hilltop pavilion. There, final preparations for
your celebration were well underway.
Campfire smoke and the fragrant haze of morning cooking drifted through the meadow below,
while the first crimson blush of the new day revealed the pandal. Its silhouette emerged against
the brightening sky.
All paths converged on the trail leading to the hilltop, creating a confluence of many individu-
als’ journeys. Each was unique, yet all arrived in this exact place, at this precise moment, as if
guided by a collective destiny. Before us was a most vibrant landscape of colorful arrangements
and festively decorated cows. It was as though everything was conspiring to joyfully express eager
anticipation of our big Lord Jagannātha’s arrival. The visiting Rādhā-Dāmodara Deities, too, took
Their places on the altar, eager to preside over the day’s events.
Engulfed in the expanding ambiance, we felt the touch of your homeland’s blessed groves, as
if they too had descended to rejoice. As we ascended the hill, the pavilion emerged like a radiant
portal, catalyzing a vibrant spiritual awakening. Bathed in the glow and gentle current, we felt a
profound opening, a deeper attunement to absolute wisdom. It connected us to the fundamental
Truth – in Kṛṣṇa consciousness we are held, protected, and loved by Kṛṣṇa’s internal potency.
How perfect was this scene, falling most appropriately in the midst of your Bhāgavata Dharma
Discourse lecture series – the first of its kind in the Western world? That clear August morning we
experienced a hint of the inner meaning of Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā as you both explained and personified
the significance of the occasion.
*
The light, life, and love emanating from the śāstra became so vibrantly real, so palpably present,
that everything felt utterly fresh, as if we were experiencing it for the very first time. Hearing
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the very embodiment of the bhāgavata, we found ourselves face to face
with the outer manifestation of Paramātmā. We finally saw, seated before us in your mortal form,
the eternal guide who had always accompanied us. It was you who had constantly watched over
us, walked beside us, and held us fast, even when the shadows of past conditioning tempted us
back into illusion.
A deeper unfolding began within us, a shift that was reflected through our surroundings. The
assemblage of wonderful events, elements, setting, and devotees was most heartwarming. It was
like a scene lifted from the pages of the Kṛṣṇa book, granting us privileged entry into the scrip-
ture’s inner essence. You were the source of that potency. You channeled the full influence of Śrīla
Vyāsadeva to illuminate new vistas of existence. In doing so, you became more intimately present
to us than we were even to ourselves.
Kṛṣṇa’s love, like a joyous current, began to cleanse and reshape us. Deep within, immortal
impressions of His Divine Grace took hold. The elusive dynamics of God realization became self-
evident in your association, a radiant testament to the truth that only through loving Kṛṣṇa can
we truly know Him.
Remembering you, we find ourselves ever increasingly inspired by your teachings. Through
them, we experience a genuine connection with Śrī Kṛṣṇa, forged in the resonant vibration of the
mahā-mantra. This sacred hymn is the innermost heart of all inspired scriptures.
With this sambandha – connection – we receive a lifeline to sustain us through long decades
of seeming separation. It overcomes the misconception that in your departure from this earthly
sphere we have lost ourselves yet again. The truth is you were never lost to us.
The paradoxical truth – that the deepest separation holds the highest communion within it – is
reconciled in your teachings. You live in them forever alongside your devoted followers, who
remain always with you. Therein your legacy endures and expands.
As we cling to this lifeline by assimilating your instructions, your presence prevails within the
sacred, eternal realm of transcendental sound. Your enduring influence carries us into ever deeper
intimacy with you.
Following your guidance, trusting implicitly in your words, our faith deepens. We know you as
the founder-ācārya because your presentation of the eternal truth is comprehensible to all human-
kind, even when people speak, hear, and act under the influence of diverse conditionings. In your
collective body of ISKCON, we have the ongoing privilege of displaying our love and loyalty by
cooperating among ourselves.
Today, we fondly recall the golden opportunity to host you here at New Vrindaban, where your
explanation of Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā breathed new life into our understanding of the book Bhāgavatam.
Serving you then, a mahā-bhāgavata – the very personification of śāstra – allows us to relive that
experience even today. Indeed, your mission affirms the truth expressed in that cherished bene-
dictory verse: “This Bhāgavata Purāṇa is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the
departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons
who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the Age of Kali shall get light
from this Purāṇa.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.3.43)
That Vyāsa-pūjā, nestled within your Bhāgavata Dharma Discourses, became the very crux of
our spiritual journey. The morning ceremony, though externally brief, ushered in a pivotal and
extended epiphany in our spiritual lives. A revelation that blossoms anew each year with every
approaching Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā.
Your words, a torch of knowledge, anointed by the salve of your love, reveal a glimpse of the
world’s true source and goal. Listening to you, we discern a deeper harmony within the diverse
melodies of devotion sung across cultures and epics by gurus, sādhus, and śāstras alike.
Exemplifying the ideal disciple, taking your guru’s teachings to heart, even at your first meet-
ing, you are the perfect master. You are the culmination of all who came before, their contribu-
tions paving the way for your teachings and actions, your pastimes and precepts, to unveil the
summum bonum. What a vibrant reality it is, a landscape of touchstones where all movement is
dance and every word blends with the most sacred, enchanting song!
By descending from that supreme abode and coming before us, you planted a seed in the heart
of my former empiric self. Sprouting, it grows into the understanding that our unconditional
commitment to your perfect guidance offers the only means to realize scripture’s true import.
Now, at last, we understand the proper application of the ascending process. As our prayers
rise up to you, Kṛṣṇa consciousness descends in response. This reciprocal exchange, the very
quintessence of spiritual striving, is perfected in devotion to Śrī Guru and culminates on the
blessed occasion of Śrī Vyāsa-pūjā.
As the empowered representative of Lord Nityānanda, you expand the holy name of Kṛṣṇa and
the love of Vrindavan to the farthest corners of the world, supplying the most munificent welfare
service to all souls.
Today, as dawn breaks over that same eastern hill where we celebrated our first Vyāsa-pūjā, the
stillness of night transitions into a chorus of birdsong, setting the scene for echoes of the mahā-
mantra to perpetuate the spiritual life you breathed into this community.
In quiet reflection, I dwell upon your presence within the instructions you imparted to us here.
This practice anchors my soul even during life’s darkest storms. It ensures that your love shines
forth in all we say and do, to the extent we surrender unconditionally to serving your mission.
I see the ārati lamp of guru-pūjā on this most blessed day with more significance than my
empirical self could ever have conceived. Now, the gentle flicker of the flame has expanded into
a metaphor, representing the warmth of devotion in our hearts, a humble gesture to offer you a
welcoming reception.
For those of us striving to follow in your footsteps, the same imagery brightens our path, allow-
ing us to see our shadows and shortcomings anew, in the light of awareness and compassion,
kindled in the spiritual realm of vāṇī-sevā.
Your eternal servant,
Varṣāṇa Swami