Param pūjya param gurudeva,
Please accept my humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace on this auspicious occasion of your Vyāsa-pūjā.
Param gurudeva! While reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, especially cantos 3, 4, 5, and 11, where there are a lot of philosophical explanations, sometimes I find it difficult to understand. But when I offer prayers to guru and the guru-paramparā, it becomes understandable. Reading your purports again and again helps me understand the philosophy. Reading your purports to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Bhagavad-gītā, I feel I am hearing only from you.
The scriptures also say that one must hear from the spiritual master about the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 5 (chapter 25, text 8), describing the glories of Lord Anantadeva, Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa says that hearing the glories of the Lord from the spiritual master helps one to get liberated:
Śrīla Śukadeva Goswāmi says: “If persons who are very serious about being liberated from material life hear the glories of Anantadeva from the mouth of a spiritual master in the chain of disciplic succession, and if they always meditate upon Saṅkarṣaṇa, the Lord enters the cores of their hearts, vanquishes all the dirty contamination of the material modes of nature, and cuts to pieces the hard knot within the heart, which has been tied tightly since time immemorial by the desire to dominate material nature through fruitive activities. Nārada Muni, the son of Lord Brahmā, always glorifies Anantadeva in his father’s assembly.”
It is further stated, “Even if he be distressed or degraded, any person who chants the holy name of the Lord, having heard it from a bona fide spiritual master, is immediately purified. Even if he chants the Lord’s name jokingly or by chance, he and anyone who hears him are freed from all sins. Therefore how can anyone seeking disentanglement from the material clutches avoid chanting the name of Lord Śeṣa? Of whom else should one take shelter?” (Bhāgavatam 5.25.11)
Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, who is one of the quadruple expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa, is also ādi-guru. With the mercy of Your Divine Grace, the ādi-guru of the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, representative of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, we can also be situated in real ego and engaged in loving devotional service to the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. It is my conviction that such a miracle can happen only by understanding your purports in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Bhagavad-gītā and then practicing accordingly.
Param gurudeva! You said in your purport to Bhāgavatam 7.9.18, “As soon as a devotee can chant the holy name and glories of the Supreme Lord, he certainly comes to the liberated position. Attachment for glorifying the Lord by hearing and chanting the holy name and activities of the Lord (śravanam kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ) certainly brings one to the position where material contamination is absent. One should chant the bona fide songs received from the disciplic succession. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that the chanting is powerful when one follows the disciplic succession (evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ).”
Param gurudeva! Your Divine Grace has given us all the wonderful facilities for hearing the pastimes of the Supreme Lord, chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, serving the Vaiṣṇavas, and serving the Deities, Their Lordships Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Gaura-Nitāi. No other spiritual organization other than your ISKCON provides such opportunities.
Please bless me to continue to engage in the service of your preaching mission, following your instructions above. As I am advancing in age, I am facing some difficulties with my body, but with your blessings, which I am sure of, I wish to continue to travel and serve your lotus feet.
In the service of Śrī guru-paramparā and Gaurāṅga,
Your servant of the servants,
Rāma Govinda Swami