nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate jayapatākā-svāmin iti nāmine
namo ācāryapādāya nitāi-kṛpa-pradāyine gaura-kathā dhāma dāya nagara-grāma tāriṇe
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Dearest Śrīla Guru Mahārāja,
Hare Kṛṣṇa. Please accept my most respectful obeisances unto the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. All glories to Śrīla Guru Maharaj. All glories to the most auspicious day of your 70th Vyasa Puja!
mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī-caitanyam īśvaram
Śrīla Guru Mahārāja,
2018 was a year of hope and a lot of prayers from all your godbrothers, godsisters, disciples and well-wishers that your operation should happen the soonest and for Śrīla Guru Maharaj's speedy healthy recovery. We are very thankful to the ever-merciful Supreme Lord for giving the best specialist, that the operation was successful and for us to witness Śrīla Guru Maharaj’s determination everyday by actions, conduct and words, on how to be a very dedicated servant to the spiritual master and Lord Kṛṣṇa, which inspires millions and millions of souls all around the world.
Sadly it is my misfortune to be unable to attend both the Gaura Purnima Festival Program and Śrīla Guru Maharaj's Vyasa Puja Celebration at Śrīdhāma Māyāpur this year. I must have done some severe offences. The last I saw Śrīla Guru Mahārāja was in September 2017 during your visit to Malaysia. This year my hands are tied and I am facing some material challenges which hurts me badly. I just pray to Śrī Śrī Radhe Shyam that I will be determined to go through this period, things will improve and it wouldn’t be an obstacle to my spiritual life. The only way is that, I try my best to listen to Śrīla Guru Maharaj’s Facebook live classes every night in which Śrīla Guru Mahārāja generously gives your time, abundance of mercy and keeps us connected even from a distance.
Śrīla Guru Mahārāja,
Every milestone of progress in my spiritual life is only due to your causeless mercy and every setback is because of my lack of enthusiasm and weaknesses. In 2018, you gave so many instructions to your disciples on how we can improve and to be consistent in our sadhana, different preaching methods, how to be determined, enthused and how to always fulfil the mission of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Last year during Purushottama masa, you told us ways that we can do preaching activities, one of which is that you told us to distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. I had always like to do book distribution activities which is very dear to Śrīla Prabhupāda, but I didn’t have the courage to go out alone to do it, as I am an unmarried lady. However, I thought to myself, that how long I am going to be trapped in a cocoon and giving this excuse and when I will be a butterfly to go out and reach all the flowers. So I told my mother, His Grace Indira Lakṣmi Narasiṁha Mataji, we would pray to Lord Narasiṁhadeva and go out to distribute books. I was very much attracted to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions to one of his lady disciples when she asked how is that a lady should be chaste, shy and submissive but at the same time be aggressive in preaching. Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that “We can be a lion in the chase (during preaching) and a lamb at home”. Śrīla Guru Mahārājalso repeated this pastime during one of your lectures at Visakhapatnam. Here both of us are just in amateur stage, we are not even lions but just lion cubs. However, by the mercy of the Supreme Lord and the spiritual master, the dumb can become eloquent speakers and even the lame can cross the mountains. So, we just depended on the mercy of Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga, started distributing books at different temples on Saturdays, my off-days, also to friends and my working colleagues.
Then came the Bhadra Purnima campaign. Śrīla Guru Mahārāja said that “Sets of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam going out from all centres will bring me great joy because I know it pleases Śrīla Prabhupāda very much.” Śrīla Guru Maharaj’s transcendental message struck my heart so deeply that it gave me so much inspiration and enthusiasm. I used to read that message every day and every time I had disappointments. I took it as a personal instruction and it pushed me to go all out to distribute Śrīmad Bhāgavatam sets.
So from Purushottama Masa till the end of 2018, for the pleasure of Śrī Śrī Radhe Shyam, Nitāi Gaurāṅga, Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrīla Guru Mahārāja, we distributed the following Śrīla Prabhupāda transcendental literatures:
• 5 sets of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (Personal Distribution);
• 10 sets of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (enrolled devotees to sponsor for Sastra Dana programs at schools)
• Bhagavad Gita: 15 copies
• Kṛṣṇa Book: 30 copies
• Mahabharata: 2 copies
• Teachings of Lord Caitanya: 4 copies
• Nectar of Devotion: 2 copies
• Science of Self Realization: 25 copies
• A Second Chance: 14 copies
• Ramayana: 4 copies
• Other Medium Books: 16 copies
• Small Books: 70 copies
Grand total: 15 sets Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 182 literatures.
The book distribution activities have contributed so much to my life, first and foremost it is helping to improve my sadhana, helps me to read Śrīla Prabhupāda's books and hear his lectures daily and the best of all loving Śrīla Prabhupāda even more and more, so much so that during my last trip at Śrī Vṛndāvan Dhām for the month of Karthik 2018, I spent so much time at Śrīla Prabhupāda’s house doing a lot of chanting and hearing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s katha. It was awesome. Reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books is like diving into this deep ocean where you find all these effulgent pearls and you collect them, have them permanently strung around your neck for a lifetime. How beautiful that is! The book distribution activities is teaching me how to develop humility, truthfulness in speech, learning to be tolerant, handling rejections and understanding how much of difficulties people are suffering from different material conditions and how we can help them spiritually. I’d to share with you on how my best friend’s father who gave up drinking caffeinated coffee which he couldn’t live even without a day and started following Ekadasi vrata just by reading Nectar of Devotion which is instrumental to his life. I’d like to share also that how merciful is Śrīla Prabhupāda to allow me to distribute books to different religions and races, of people in Malaysia, on how we exchanged ideas and it was just amazing to see how much of respect they have for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.
During Śrīla Guru Maharaj’s lectures, on numerous times you have mentioned and quoted:
pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
(Caitanya-bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa 4.126)
"In every town and village throughout the world,' said Lord Caitanya, 'the chanting of My name will be heard."
Being inspired by this quote and Śrīla Guru Maharaj’s messages, both myself and mother, have decided that for 2019, we will approach door to door at housing areas, markets and whichever places that are favourable for book distribution activities. Sometimes I just wish I could do this the entire time and focus on preaching activities, but time and circumstances are not allowing me to do it right now. I pray to Śrīla Prabhupāda that there will be a day for me to do this service permanently because it is bringing me so much happiness that I could never express and I feel so much more indebted to the Guru parampara, especially to Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrīla Guru Mahārāja for creating all these wonderful opportunities for us to experiences this transcendental bliss in this lifetime.
I pray to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu that ISKCON Malaysia would be aggressive in its preaching and will go by the basis of what has been taught by Śrīla Prabhupāda. If only there were daily Harinam and book distribution activities, it would solve so many problems. I grew up as a congregation member of Śrī Jagannatha Mandir Kuala Lumpur and have been serving the temple for over thirty-two years and I saw many transitions. I have the deepest concern about this temple, which was established by the hard work of so many senior devotees and their dedicated devotional service. Whatever is happening now is by the will of the Lord because not even a blade of grass moves without the will of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I just hope that everything would be solved soon and we would be back on track improving all preaching methods, everyone would cooperate and remain sheltered in the house of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
On this auspicious day, I pray to Lord Narasiṁhadev for Śrīla Guru Maharaj’s health improvement, longevity and to remove all sorts of obstacles in preaching paths and we could have the association of Śrīla Guru Mahārāja soon in Malaysia. I wish to dedicate the results of the book distribution activities towards the health improvement of Śrīla Guru Maharaj. Please forgive me for all my offences my dearest spiritual father and I beg for your mercy so that I will be always enthused about distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books to all walks of life, please give me the blessings so that I can do these preaching activities profusely and to think of different ideas, to improve my sadhana, to always remain in the association of devotees, to remove all obstacles in both spiritual and material paths, constantly be engaged in services Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga till my last breath and to never ever to give up despite all challenges and circumstances and always remained sheltered at your lotus feet.
Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki! Jai!
Śrīla Guru Mahārāja Ki! Jai!
His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Śrīla Guru Mahārāja Vyasa Puja Mahotsava Ki! Jai!
Your unworthy servant and most fortunate spiritual daughter,
Malini Priti Devī Dāsī (Diksa)
Śrī Jagannatha Mandir, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia