Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
I offer my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
In many wonderful ways you have worked to bestow the blessing of Kṛṣṇa consciousness upon the world, but perhaps your greatest contribution is the personal change you have brought about in the hearts of your disciples. Their joy and purity, their dedication and freedom from vices, are all evident in their lives, but the feeling of gratitude that each of them feels toward you, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is practically inexpressible.
I therefore borrow the words of the great devotee Prahlāda, who prays thus: “My Lord, due to material desires I was falling into a blind well full of snakes, following the common people, but Your servant, Nārada Muni, my spiritual master, kindly accepted me as his disciple and instructed me on how to attain the transcendental position. Therefore my first duty is to serve him. How could I ever give up his service?” (Bhāgavatam 7.9.28)
You have actually saved your disciples from a cumbersome materialistic life, delivered them from the confusion of this world, and led them on the path to Kṛṣṇa. You have now left this world and returned to your original abode, but although you are no longer with us physically, you live eternally in your teachings, in the vast literature you have left us, in the movement you started, and in the memory of your personal example, an immaculate example of uninterrupted dedication to your master, to the masters who preceded him, and to the Supreme Lord in His various forms as you have taught us to worship Them.
I could compare your books to jewels, which you have given as a testimony of love to your disciples and followers in particular and to the whole world in general, and now that we have them in our hands, how could we not feel rich, poor wretches that we were? Now we can show these jewels to everyone; and we can also show how they have the power to change us: not partially, but they transform us radically in all kinds of habits. These are not hidden changes, but visible ones that everyone can observe.
From the pages of these books, in which you invested most of your life, working tirelessly for endless hours each day and night for months and years, one can perceive the full strength of your devotion to your spiritual master and your firm will to save this confused world, where people do not know where they come from or where they are going. I know that while reading your books, many people feel with every page the sense of heaviness that oppresses them vanishing and a feeling of light and cheerful hope taking over. I think they glimpse, at the end of the dark tunnel of material problems, the light of a new life filled with transcendental experiences.
You once said, “If I could make just one pure devotee, I could consider my mission a success!” But see how many pure devotees you have made! And see how many you are still making! We can’t even imagine how many more you will make in the future! As I look around, I see your disciples who have dedicated their lives to your mission, all now elderly, and I see so much devotion reflected in their services, all extraordinary, all wonderful. Then I see new faces – boys and girls who are putting all their youthful enthusiasm and vigor into continuing to expand your work to make this branch of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s tree, called ISKCON, even more luxuriant so it can bear unlimited quantities of good fruits in the form of good examples, beautiful preaching, excellent care of the temples and Deities, so dear to all of us, and so on, just to name a few.
I conclude by borrowing another phrase, this time from a very great devotee of Mahāprabhu and author of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, who at the end of his work expresses himself with great humility: “The sky is unlimited, and many birds fly higher and higher according to their own abilities.” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya 20.79)
One can speak or write only to the extent that one’s intelligence and spiritual realization allow. Kṛṣṇa’s personality is unlimited, as are His names, forms, qualities, and pastimes, but I am certainly not an eagle soaring above the Himalayan peaks at 30,000 feet; I am a mere sparrow who can only fly among the branches of trees. Thus I am not the most suitable person to glorify the unlimited qualities of Kṛṣṇa and His bona fide representative. There are many other devotees capable of soaring to such heights and composing hymns for your glory. However, in my own small way, I nurture a strong desire to look out at this infinite sky, praying that your benevolent gaze will fall upon me too and grant me the strength to always give my best, under any circumstances.
Your servant,
Ali Kṛṣṇa Devī Dāsī
On behalf of the devotees at ISKCON Bergamo