Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the
torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.
śrī-caitanya-mano-’bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale
svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam
When will Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī Prabhupāda, who has established within this material
world the mission to fulfill the desire of Lord Caitanya, give me shelter under his lotus
feet?
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
I offer my respectful obeisances unto my beloved spiritual master, His Divine Grace
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who is very dear to Lord Kṛṣṇa, 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.
Every year I have a hard time getting started on the Vyāsa-pūjā offering. I just realized that I
was always shy to approach Śrīla Prabhupāda, although I can talk about him at any time. This
may be because when I was first living with devotees, we were always told not to disturb Śrīla
Prabhupāda so that he could concentrate on his translating. I happily accepted that and carried
on “serving in separation.”
When Śrīla Prabhupāda gave me beads and my name, he said, “Kavicandra was a great devo-
tee for Lord Nityānanda,” so I thought that I should try to always do saṅkīrtana. The more time
passes I am realizing that I have no qualifications, so I am a good example of the unlimited mercy
of Lord Nityānanda coming through the most unlimited causeless mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja expressed my situation eloquently:
jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha
purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha
I am more sinful than Jagāi and Mādhāi and even lower than the worms in stool.
mora nāma śune yei tāra puṇya kṣaya
mora nāma laya yei tāra pāpa haya
Anyone who hears my name loses the results of his pious activities. Anyone who utters
my name becomes sinful.
emana nirghṛṇa more kebā kṛpā kare
eka nityānanda vinu jagat bhitare
Who in this world but Nityānanda could show His mercy to such an abominable
person as me?
preme matta nityānanda kṛpā-avatāra
uttama, adhama, kichu nā kare vicāra
Because He is intoxicated by ecstatic love and is an incarnation of mercy, He does not
distinguish between the good and the bad.
ye āge paḍaye, tāre karaye nistāra
ataeva nistārilā mo-hena durācāra
He delivers all those who fall down before Him. Therefore He has delivered such a
sinful and fallen person as me.
mo-pāpiṣṭhe ānilena śrī-vrindavan
mo-hena adhame dilā śrī-rūpa-caraṇa
Although I am sinful and I am the most fallen, He has conferred upon me the lotus
feet of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 5.205–210)
At one point I thought I was a devotee, sometimes even thinking I was a “good” devotee. Then
I thought that I was trying to be a devotee. Now I wonder if I am even trying to be a devotee.There is one statement in chapter 18 of The Nectar of Devotion that I most often remember. It
seems that Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī wrote it just for me:
In this connection, one prayer by Rūpa Gosvāmī is sufficient to exemplify this hope-
fulness. He says, “I have no love for Kṛṣṇa, nor for the causes of developing love of
Kṛṣṇa – namely hearing and chanting. And the process of bhakti-yoga, by which one
is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa and fixing His lotus feet in the heart, is also lacking in
me. As far as philosophical knowledge or pious works are concerned, I don’t see any
opportunity for me to execute such activities. But above all, I am not even born of a
nice family. Therefore I must simply pray to You, Gopījana-vallabha [Kṛṣṇa, main-
tainer and beloved of the gopīs]. I simply wish and hope that some way or other I may
be able to approach Your lotus feet, and this hope is giving me pain, because I think
myself quite incompetent to approach that transcendental goal of life” The purport is
that under this heading of āśā-bandha, one should continue to hope against hope that
some way or other he will be able to approach the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord.
Śrīla Prabhupāda has given us so much that I cannot select just one thing to be thankful for.
We can never repay what he has given, but fortunately he will accept our efforts to serve. Śrīla
Prabhupāda taught us everything from every angle in many different ways.
He gave everything in his books. He wrote so many letters answering so many diverse ques-
tions while explaining so many details of how to follow what he wrote in his books. He made sure
that all his lectures were recorded. He conversed with so many different people – religious leaders,
politicians, scholars, and every other type of person. He could discuss anything with anyone and
bring it around to kṛṣṇa-kathā and bhakti.
It was astounding that he lived a very public life, exhibiting exactly how to live the life that he
described in all his writings and lectures. Kapila Muni describes Śrīla Prabhupāda perfectly:
titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ
suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām
ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ
sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ
The symptoms of a sādhu are that he is tolerant, merciful, and friendly to all living enti-
ties. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his charac-
teristics are sublime.
Now we have so many movies and books from devotees who lived closely with Śrīla Prabhupāda
that show clearly how he exemplified all these qualities. I pray that all those aspiring for Kṛṣṇa
consciousness will study all of these. I just finished reading the latest book by His Holiness Giri-
raj Swami, who had so much close association with and guidance from His Divine Grace. The title
is Dancing White Elephants: Traveling with Śrīla Prabhupāda in India, August 1970–March 1972. This
book gives a very intimate view of how His Divine Grace personally trained his disciples in all
aspects of preaching and management.
So this is Vyāsa-pūjā, honoring Śrīla Vyāsadeva, who gave us all the scriptures. He divided
and wrote the Vedas and so many corollary scriptures, such as the Purāṇas, Itihāsas, and the
Mahābhārata, the “fifth Veda.” He then perfected it all by writing the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, as the empowered representative of Śrīla Vyāsadeva translated and
explained the essence of the Mahābhārata in the form of Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. Then he did the
same for Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, thereby giving us the essence of the Vedas. He made all this available
and comprehensible for all. While doing all this monumental service, he also established the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness, where lost souls could congregate and learn to
practice bhakti-yoga through saṅkīrtana, the congregational chanting of the holy names, the Hare
Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra:
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
The prime benediction for humanity at large.
Praying to always be in the association of devotees of Śrīla Prabhupāda and ISKCON,
Kavicandra Swami