Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāminn iti nāmine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who is very dear to Lord Krsna on this earth, having taken shelter at His lotus feet.
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Sarasvatī Gosvāmī. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
Beginning in the early days of your newly established International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, you spoke in your lectures and wrote in your books about the impersonalists and the dangerous effects of impersonalism and voidism. Generally, especially in the United States, we did not understand the significance of your words. We assumed that your reference to impersonalism and voidism was some far-fetched philosophy that could only be found in India and that it was irrelevant to the Western world. Still, it seemed odd that in your second praṇām–mantra we regularly glorify you for delivering the Western world from the effects of impersonalism and voidism.
Gradually we understood that impersonalism and voidism had already infiltrated our lives in many ways, perhaps not with the presentation of the deep, misleading philosophical arguments of the Māyāvādīs, but with the general concepts that God does not exist, or that He is impersonal and that real knowledge can only be attained by man’s personal endeavor, speculation, and experimentation. In general, Western civilization had been brainwashed with the assumption that real knowledge can only be attained through the material sciences and other means of direct sensual perception, and not simply from the perfect source: God.
You preached very heavily against the materialistic, atheistic scientists. You did not preach against science per se, because the Vedas are full of science. You preached against two particular goals of science. First was the idea that life has come about as the result of material interactions. The second was the idea that the material cosmic manifestation came about accidentally and without any intelligent direction, in spite of our practical experience that there is great order in the movements of the planets, stars, and nature, and we never find order anywhere without intelligent intervention.
Why did you take the trouble to preach in this way, even though many people held the material scientists in high esteem? You preached this way because your goal was to give the world the real science. You did not criticize science, but rather you showed the world what real science is. You pointed out that what is generally taught as science in the textbooks and scientific papers is largely speculation, because many of the ideas that are presented as facts are later proven to be false. On the other hand, the Vedic science is never wrong and never changes because it comes from the Lord Himself. Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.1) “I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the sun god, Vivasvān, and Vivasvān instructed it to Manu, the father of mankind, and Manu in turn instructed it to Ikṣvāku.”
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you preached that real science never changes. It comes from the Supreme Lord, and He is not a cheater, nor does He have imperfect senses, nor is He in illusion, nor does He make mistakes. You also, as the Lord’s pure representative, do not have these imperfections, and therefore you have presented this science as it is without deviation.
It is also very significant and to your eternal credit that you had full faith in the Vedic knowledge and also that you had the determination to present the Vedic knowledge as Lord Kṛṣṇa gave it without making changes just to satisfy the local population. In other words, you were not a politician who would lie to and cheat the people to secure votes just to be elected to some public office. You always spoke the truth as it is, regardless of whether it was popular or not.
Often, the scientific community has downplayed or dismissed discoveries that challenge widely accepted theories, such as Darwin’s evolution or concepts of gradual universal development, rather than unsettling the public consensus. Your glory was that you did not come into this world to find many followers. You came to remind the people in general of what they had forgotten: their eternal relationship with the Lord.
To address the materialistic and atheistic concepts found in the material sciences, you very intelligently engaged and empowered some of your disciples who had scientific credentials in using their scientific knowledge and also their understanding of the Vedic conclusions, in preaching to the scientific community. You knew that the normal rank and file of devotees, even though they accepted the Vedic principles, would have a difficult time preaching to the material scientists without being able to relate to the scientists in their own language and with reference to their own discoveries and conclusions. Therefore, you established the Bhaktivedanta Institute which continues to present the conclusions of our teachings to the material scientific community. You always taught us that we should preach according to time, place, and the particular circumstances and audiences.
Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda, your life is always glorious because you have boldly preached the absolute truth without deviation.
Here at ISKCON Miami, we are also trying our best to present the same conclusions to the people in general. We do not presently have devotees who can preach to the material scientific community in their own language, but we are trying our best to find the ways and means to present Kṛṣṇa consciousness to everyone according to their means. We pray that you will continue to guide us and empower us to expertly present the eternal Vedic principles to our variegated community according to their own areas of understanding.
Your humble servants at ISKCON Miami