Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our most humble obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace. May your lotus
feet spread the greatest benedictions to our souls.
You are the greatest savior of this current modern age, having enlightened us on the pitfalls
of the materialistic way of life and all its dangers. You brought singlehandedly the message of
bhāgavata-dharma, and have now inspired millions and millions of lost souls to take up the sooth-
ing, moonlike chanting of the holy names of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda, we will never be able
to repay you for all you have done and went through to save us from the dangers of this material
world. You have shown us, and everyone, the ultimate path of perfection. What would we have
become if you had not taken so dearly the instructions of your spiritual master?
It is up to us to take your instructions to our hearts and live them. You have insisted on the
importance of vāṇī – your words, your teachings, your instructions, and your orders. You have
laid down the foundations of this preaching work in the Western world, which was initiated by Śrī
Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His followers in the subsequent years and centuries. You said that “the
disciple has to pass the test of the spiritual master,” and it’s now in our hands to be tested in this
way and in whichever sevā we may be doing, and by so doing, try to make you happy and proud.
As you wrote, “When a disciple very perfectly makes progress in spiritual life, this gladdens
the spiritual master, who then also smiles in ecstasy, thinking, ‘How successful my disciple has
become!’ He feels so glad that he smiles as he enjoys the progress of the disciple.” (Caitanya-
caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 7.82, purport)
Śrīla Prabhupāda, in keeping with your mission, here at New Mayapura we have, by your
mercy and for your pleasure, increased our Deity worship standards, our book distribution, and
introduced additional preaching activities around our community. As an additional path toward
self-sufficiency, we are progressively increasing the number of cows for our own milk and prop-
erly training the oxen in the fields. Significant repair work has continued to be done, thanks to
the contributions of many sincere souls attached to your mission. These persons are particularly
happy to see that New Mayapura serves as a haven to many – and will be a haven to many more
souls to come.
At the New Orleans farm in 1975, during the morning Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class, you said,
“Make life very simple – and simple living, high thinking, and always conscious to go back to
home, back to Kṛṣṇa. So if you show practical example that how you are living simple life and
how you are advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then people will learn from you.”
As we are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the installation of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi this year,
we, your disciples and granddisciples, pray to Their Lordships to let us strive to continuously
keep the right mentality and humble attitude of showing how it is possible to live simply and
happily in this farm community in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and expand it for the people’s spiritual
benefit and transcendental happiness.
You are that person and that great saint who gave us the means to attain this transcendental
happiness. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.5: “The activities of great saints like you who have
accepted the infallible Lord as their very soul result only in the happiness of all beings.” All glo-
ries to you Śrīla Prabhupāda!
Begging to remain your eternal servants at New Mayapura
(written by Śikṣāṣṭaka Dāsa)