My dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to you, the savior of the whole world and of me.
I have been thinking a lot about your position as founder-ācārya of your International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. It is such a profound position, and as we know very well, one that you insisted on being recognized as.
A founder-ācārya is, among other things, someone who takes one or some important aspects of the functions and gifts of a sampradāya and gives them special emphasis, in this way having a particularly dynamic effect on the line and its place in the world at large. There is absolutely no doubt that you have done this, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in a number of ways.
In a sense, Lord Caitanya was also something like a founder-ācārya in that He took such an important activity of the sampradāya – the chanting of the holy names, and particularly, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra itself – and practiced it and emphasized it greatly. What an impact He had, particularly in India!
It is interesting that when Īśvara Purī initiated Lord Caitanya, he specifically emphasized to the Lord the chanting of the holy names as opposed to study of Vedānta philosophy, and after being instructed in this way, Lord Caitanya absorbed Himself in chanting and spreading the chanting, often to the exclusion of other Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. In this way, He had such an unprecedented impact on the world in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Similarly, you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, for our preaching, emphasized chanting, but then, after some time, focused on the mass distribution of transcendental literature. I remember how, when I joined the temple in Bury Place, London, in January 1973, all we did every day was go on harināma up and down Oxford Street, the main street of the city. But then some time in the summer, we received an instruction from you to now focus on book distribution.
This is certainly one of your main contributions to the sampradāya, and it has had, and continues to have, such a massive impact on the whole world. How many millions of conditioned souls have now had contact with Kṛṣṇa consciousness through the distribution of your books?
So on this basis alone, you are clearly a founder-ācārya and not simply another “regular” ācārya who was giving Kṛṣṇa consciousness to people.
And I was one of those many, many people who first got one of those books and had his life changed irrevocably by you. You saved me from a fate worse than death, and I owe you everything for that, eternally.
Please grant me a place at your lotus feet, forever.
Your ever grateful servant,
Bhakti Caitanya Swami