Hare Kṛṣṇa! Most respected Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you, Gurudeva! All glories to Śrī Guru and
Śrī Gaurāṅga.
I consider myself extremely fortunate to write this Vyāsa-pūjā offering, and I request you to
please accept it at your lotus feet. I view this as an opportunity to think about you deeply, remem-
ber your glorious pastimes, and feel grateful to be serving your paramparā.
I pen this Vyāsa-pūjā offering in a year that we celebrated and sought the blessings of the
Supreme Lord at the most auspicious Maha Kumbha Mela. I would like to recall your fond
association with this holy event.
Quoting from your lecture on Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 20.124–25, given in Bombay in 1971:
you called out the statement of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu: bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila
yāra and said, “Anyone who has taken birth as a human being in the land of Bhārata-varṣa. Śrī
Bhārata-varṣa – the India, India is the land of religion, land of piety. That’s a fact. And still, even
in this downtrodden condition. We have been in Kumbha Mela. Millions of men, daily coming,
without any advertisement, to take a dip in the Ganges and Yamuna. By nature they are. Don’t
try to cut down, try to utilize it and spread it all over the world. That is His … (indistinct) … that
is the order of Lord Caitanya: bhārata-bhūmite manuṣya-janma haila yāra janma sārthaka kari’ kara
para-upakāra.”
You cited the Kumbha Mela to signify the piety innately present in every jīva born in this puṇya
Bhārata-bhūmi. Even fifty-four years after this lecture, your statement stands true, as more than
660 million devotees participated in the holy Maha Kumbha Mela at Prayagraj this year. The
news media was buzzing with stories of the festival, and people from all walks of life took time
out from their schedules to participate. You will be pleased to know that your devotees from
ISKCON served pilgrims at the holy site. As you are well aware, this year’s communion had the
highest significance, as it’s the Maha Kumbha, a rare occurrence the comes only every 144 years,
beyond the Ardh Kumbha and Purna Kumbha festivals. It’s the rarest of rare blessing showered
upon the bhakta taking the holy dip in the Triveni Sangam.
As I think of this spiritual significance along with the celestial combinations associated with it,
I am spellbound by the creations of the Supreme Lord. At the same time, as these festivals come
and go, I am also made to think of another analogy.
Over millennia we have had multiple ācāryas who have come and gone; they appeared to estab-
lish or reestablish dharma, to inspire multitudes of people with the message of the Supreme Lord,
to give direction to rudderless minds, and to spread what’s most important for their particular
audience based on time, place, and circumstances. Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya, Śrīpāda Rāmānujācārya,
Śrīpāda Madhvācārya, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śrīpāda Vallabhācārya, the Gosvāmīs of Vrinda-
van, to name a few – each of them had a purpose, came with a divine cause, and inspired millions
of people.
As I think about your appearance alongside this list of ācāryas, I feel inspired to say that you
are the Maha Kumbha ācārya, who appeared on this planet to shower the choicest mercy upon
the most fallen condition souls, including me. It’s a rarest of rare blessing showered for a few
years in a millennium, similar to how this Maha Kumbha Mela window happened for a few days
this year.
As the senāpati of Śrī Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s divine army, you appeared in this golden age of
Kali-yuga to spread the holy name to every town and village and shower that choicest mercy onto
every jīva irrespective of nationality, caste, creed, gender, race, or ethnicity. While people need to
travel to the Kumbha festivities in India to take the holy dip, you are so compassionate that you
traveled from India to the Western world to shower mercy there. The holy dip is chanting of the
holy name of Kṛṣṇa, the yuga-dharma. In this age of conflict, you offered the easiest method to
attain the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa – the chanting of the holy name:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Even if people didn’t take the dip (chant), you and your devotees chanted the holy names so
loudly that the names entered their ears to make them experience the dip (imagine sprinkling the
water). Such was your compassion!
Śrīla Prabhupāda, I feel extremely moved when I think of all the physical struggles and mental
agonies you had to endure in your late sixties as you set yourself on this mission to establish this
International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Any other gentleman at that stage of life would
have comforted himself in the divine association of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Dāmodara in Vrindavan, but
you, the most merciful, embraced all these challenges to sprinkle this shower of the holy name of
the Supreme Lord on millions of jīvas across the globe.
As I recall your life and pastimes, I am reminded of the Vaiṣṇava song: parama karuṇa, pahū dui
jana, nitāi-gauracandra – you are parama-karuṇa, Śrīla Prabhupāda!

śrī-guru karuṇā-sindhu, adhama janāra bandhu,
lokanātha lokera jīvana
hā hā prabhu koro doyā, deho more pada-chāyā,
ebe yaśa ghuṣuk tri-bhuvana

Our spiritual master is the ocean of mercy, the friend of the poor, and the lord and
master of the devotees. O Lokanātha Gosvāmī! O master! Be merciful unto me. Give
me the shade of your lotus feet. Your fame is spread all over the three worlds.

Thank you very much for your compassion, Śrīla Prabhupāda. Your Līlāmṛta is an inspiration for
me, and I draw lessons from it in my life daily.
Today, on the auspicious occasion of your Vyāsa-pūjā, I meditate on your divine appearance,
the causeless and rarest of rare mercy you showered upon jīvas for centuries to come, and I sin-
cerely seek your blessings. I pray that I always think of you and continue to serve you and the
paramparā.
Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda! Daṇḍavat praṇāms unto your lotus feet, Gurudeva!

Your ever humble servant,
Gaurāṅga Dāsa

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