Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept our most humble and respectful obeisances at your divine lotus feet on the sacred day when your transcendental appearance is celebrated.
On this holy occasion, we first wish to glorify your inconceivable mercy and the extraordinary power of your devotional service. Your life is the living demonstration of how a pure devotee of the Lord can become a perfect instrument in the hands of Śrī Kṛṣṇa to transform the spiritual destiny of the world. With unshakable faith in the order of your spiritual master and complete dependence on Kṛṣṇa, you crossed oceans and continents to bring the holy name and the teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to people who had never before heard of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Contemplating your activities, we are especially struck by how your mercy works in subtle ways, often invisible to our limited vision, yet capable of producing the deepest effects in the hearts of conditioned souls. There is a very significant incident that illustrates this truth.
During a flight to America, while you were taking some prasādam – puffed rice – a stewardess on the plane, attracted by its fragrance, put her hand into your plate and took some of it. Your servant became disturbed, thinking that the prasādam had been contaminated, but you immediately stopped him with great simplicity and compassion, saying, “That is all right. She is taking prasādam. Very good.”
Years later, some devotees engaged in saṅkīrtana arrived in a small village in the middle of the Amazon jungle. Knocking on the door of a house, they were greeted by a woman who was wearing a sari, with tilaka on her forehead. When they entered her home, they noticed a tape of your voice playing and an altar dedicated to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Surprised to meet a devotee in such a remote place, they asked her how it was possible that she had come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness while living in the middle of the jungle. She then explained that many years earlier she had been working as an airline stewardess and that one day she had taken some prasādam from the plate of Śrīla Prabhupāda. That simple contact with mahā-prasādam had transformed her life and led her to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Through incidents like this we begin to understand how deep and mysterious the mercy of a pure devotee truly is. Even an apparently small contact – a crumb of mahā-prasādam, a book, or a recording of your voice – can become the beginning of a complete spiritual transformation. In this way you have planted the seed of devotion in the hearts of countless souls, a seed that, in time, can sprout and lead them to devotional service.
In this way we can glimpse how the principle of ajñāta-sukṛti, spiritual merit obtained unknowingly, acts in subtle and mysterious ways. Even a small service rendered to a pure devotee can, in time, lead to a meaningful connection with Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Meditating on such incidents, we increasingly understand how immense your compassion is for the conditioned souls. You did not simply preach a philosophy; you opened a doorway of mercy through which even the smallest contact with Kṛṣṇa consciousness can transform a person’s life.
For this reason, today we offer you our deepest gratitude. Without your mercy we would have no possibility of understanding the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Without you we would not have received Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, nor the living example of how to serve the Lord with complete dedication.
Through your teachings we also understand our duty toward the conditioned souls. In your purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.8.5 it is explained that the devotee appears in this world precisely to help the souls who are imprisoned in material illusion. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that the word durvinīta, used by Hiraṇyakaśipu to insult Prahlāda Mahārāja, can be understood in a spiritual way: duḥ refers to this material world, which is full of suffering (duḥkhālayam), vi means “specifically,” and nīta means “brought.” Thus Prahlāda Mahārāja was specifically brought into this world to teach people how to become free from the material condition. When Kṛṣṇa is not personally present, His devotee is present, but the mission is the same: to free the poor conditioned souls from the clutches of māyā.
By your mercy, we have understood that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a divine gift that must be shared with others. Just as that stewardess was transformed through a simple contact with mahā-prasādam, in the same way countless souls can benefit by coming into contact with the holy name, your books, and kṛṣṇa-prasādam.
Therefore, on the day of your Vyāsa-pūjā, we wish to renew our determination to serve your mission. We want to continue participating in your work by distributing your books, spreading your teachings, and offering people the opportunity to come in contact with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We desire to engage more and more in saṅkīrtana so that more and more souls may receive even a small spark of your mercy.
We also wish to inspire those who approach Kṛṣṇa consciousness to understand the greatness of your mission and to take part in it. If even a small contact with mahā-prasādam or with one of your books can change the course of a person’s life, then we want to do everything possible so that more and more people may receive this spiritual opportunity.
We therefore pray that you grant us the strength, humility, and determination to continue this service in the sincerest way possible, becoming ever more useful instruments in your mission to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout the world.
Your aspiring humble servant,
Hari-kīrtana Dāsa
On behalf of the devotees at ISKCON Rome