O mind, please perpetually worship Vaiṣṇava Śiromaṇi Śrīla Prabhupāda, who is a perfect shelter
in the dangerous storm of material existence and whose śakti-laden words grant prema and entry
into the personal life of God.
O Prabhupāda, you’re a once-in-history ācārya. Your contribution is unparalleled, not just in
the history of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, not only in the history of all the mighty Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas,
but in the history of the world.
The powerful movements of the Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Muhammad took many centuries to
evolve. In contrast, in just over a decade – at an advanced age – you opened a hundred temples;
translated, published, and distributed vast volumes of Vedic scriptures; and attracted thousands
of disciples across all continents. And there is even more momentum and strength now in what
you launched only sixty years ago.
Other leaders have spread religious teachings beyond their homeland, but who else has suc-
cessfully transplanted an entire cultural and devotional practice – including the ancient practice
of Deity worship, authentic kīrtana, prasādam distribution, and a monastic order – to an entirely
different hemisphere?
Your campaign was not fueled merely by immense human effort. Rather, the potency of
pure devotion, śuddha-bhakti; full surrender to Kṛṣṇa; and deep love and guru-niṣṭhā for Śrīla
Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura instilled in you a spiritual presence that enabled you to utterly
shatter illusion and falsehood.
The force of your being was extraordinary. You radiated a rare combination of spiritual depth,
unwavering conviction, divine authority, boundless compassion, purity, humility, an aristocratic
presence, and complete selflessness. You were decisive, resolute, grave, pragmatic, affectionate,
strict, and merciful. Your gaze was penetrating, and you had an immovable strength of purpose.
As revealed by your godbrother Śrīla B. R. Śrīdhara Mahārāja, you are a śaktyāveśa-avatāra, the
personified form of Nityānanda-āveśa, a śakti of extreme, indiscriminate mercy. Lord Nityānanda
specially empowered you to spread Mahāprabhu’s mission globally. And your campaign paral-
leled Nityānanda Prabhu’s.
Nityānanda Rāma emphasized the chanting of Kṛṣṇa’s holy names and chanted in the streets
on Lord Caitanya’s orders. With pure faith in the holy names, you made harināma-prema-
saṅkīrtana the foundation of your movement.
Your heart ached for the suffering of conditioned souls, and with deep compassion you freely
gave kṛṣṇa-bhakti to the most fallen. Similarly, Nityānanda Mahājana focused on delivering the
outcastes and most wretched.
Nitāi fearlessly approached anyone and everyone, risking harm. In the same way, Śrīla
Prabhupāda, you embodied the purport of your name Abhay Charanaravinda – you were abso-
lutely fearless in your preaching work.
Simply by seeing Nityānanda Avadhūta, people were overcome with devotion and took up
kṛṣṇa-bhakti. Likewise, many people became devotees of Kṛṣṇa just by the sight of you.
O Prabhupāda, ocean of Lord Nityānanda’s mercy, we offer you obeisances!
Your translations and commentaries have restored, preserved, and spread the knowledge of
Vedānta, contributing the most important works to the world’s library. Standing supreme is your
translation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam – the first time this classic was made available in English, the
global language. We know of the unrivaled place of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam among all spiritual texts
through Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī’s massive tome the Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, which increases our appreciation of
how you focused your own literary work on the Bhāgavatam, that most exalted poem of divine
love.
As a meticulous scholar, you gifted us this treasure along with insights from all the great com-
mentators in the illuminating purports you carefully crafted at night, while the world slept. Espe-
cially noteworthy is your direct devotional clarity, which ensures that Sanskrit words related to
devotion, like bhakti, Kṛṣṇa, atma, dharma, and Brahman are understood correctly rather than
misinterpreted in impersonal or materialistic ways.
Your translations of Sanskrit words are now cited in Sanskrit-English dictionaries, which are
compiled by academic scholars, confirming that Sanskrit scholars accept the authenticity, clarity,
and authority of your bhakti translations.
Your work is not just a grammatical rendering, but because it is a faithful representation of
the original meaning as intended by Kṛṣṇa and the ācāryas, it is invested with the transcendental
potency to reveal prema-bhakti.
Further, you made the Bhāgavatam a primary text in modern Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, which
for centuries had largely focused on the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. You placed the Bhāgavatam in an
elevated position by instituting its daily classes and encouraging systematic study from the first to
the twelfth canto, exhorting us to not focus solely on Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes in the Tenth Canto but to
become knowledgeable of bhakti-siddhānta.
Your own scholarship as a dig-vijaya was acknowledged this year on the grand stage of the
Maha Kumbha 2025, when the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, composed of 14 akharas, mostly
Advaitins, gave you the deeply revered title Vishwa Guru (world teacher). The award is rarely
given and has never been given posthumously, a fact that indicates that your impact continues to
echo through time.
Not only did you increase the fame of the sampradāya by bringing pure kṛṣṇa-bhakti to the
world on a mass scale, but in doing so you drew the attention of scholars, historians, and other
intellectuals to all four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, sparking a resurgence of bhakti in all its forms.
Thus, India’s grand monotheism, which had been hiding from the Western world under the cloud
of Advaita Vedānta’s prominence, is shining brightly.
Carrying Nāma Prabhu in your pure heart, you ignited the Hare Kṛṣṇa Explosion in the West
by introducing prema-kīrtana of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. For this you have been dubbed
the “divine minstrel” in American Veda. Factually, it is by your endeavor that kīrtana has become so
popular and is touching hearts around the globe.
Then, in a stroke of brilliance, you took the holy name and kīrtana – made attractive by your
dancing white elephants – back to your countrymen in India, where now there is a second wave of
the Hare Kṛṣṇa Explosion.
O Prabhupāda, the whole world is being engulfed by the prema-kīrtan tsunami you initiated!
You have shocked the theological world awake with the revelation that love of God is greater
than God; that our ideal is to achieve love of God, not God; that love conquers God. The wave of
this revelation continues to swell with meaning and is charming people with a vision of the Sweet
Absolute that is simply wonderful.
With tenderness, affection, and great caution you properly introduced Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the
confidential treasure and distinctive wealth of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, who enhances the beauty
of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. She is the personification of the most exalted love of God, the fountainhead of all
goddesses, and the person who gives Kṛṣṇa’s life meaning. When She stands next to Him, we
encounter the divine dyad, and only then do we find the full face of the Absolute Truth not avail-
able anywhere else.
O Prabhupāda! O friend! O treasure! In the intensifying hope of being brought into your holy
company, the days grow longer and longer. When, oh when, will you call us to engage in your
direct service?
O mind, please perpetually worship Vaiṣṇava Śiromaṇi Śrīla Prabhupāda, who is a perfect
shelter in the dangerous storm of material existence and whose śakti-laden words grant prema and
entry into the personal life of God.
Your servants at New Raman-reti,
under the shelter of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma, and Gaura-Nitāi
(written by your śiṣya, Prāṇadā Devī Dāsī)

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