Dear Guru Mahārāja,
Please accept my humble obeisances,
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda, All glories to your Holiness,
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
I wish and pray for all auspiciousness on this most wonderful Vyasa puja of your Holiness.
Guru Mahārāja.I am very happy that you are back to the most auspicious Śrī Māyāpur Dhām in a healthy condition after such complex transplant operations. Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Śrīla Prabhupāda are so merciful on us to let us have your life-giving association once again.
Beating all odds you have proved to the world what miracles can be achieved by a person who is beyond the body, your dedication to fulfill the desires of Śrīla Prabhupāda is so intense that no obstacles can stand in your way, even your own body.
I aspire for a drop of that guru-bhakti that you carry in your heart for Śrīla Prabhupāda, our beloved founder-acharya.
Time and again, day in and day out you are showing by your immaculate example that complete dedication to one’s Guru’s instructions is the only way to please Kṛṣṇa. Your life is guided by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions, when will my life be the same, when will it be guided by your divine instructions.
Being heavily conditioned I feel incapable to follow your instructions, nevertheless, your instructions are a great source of inspiratiion to me to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda’s wonderful movement. In 2012 during your Vyasa puja celebrations, we devotees of Kṛṣṇa Kathā Deśa came to meet you on top of the lotus building, and when His Grace Vaikuntapati Dāsa prabhu introduced me to you, the first question you asked was “How many Bhakti Vrikshas are there”, at that time we had only 9.
Then the most wonderful direct instruction came from you “try to have as many bhakti vrikshas as possible, this is safe for you, you can have 5 or 6 members in a bhakti vṛkṣa”. You were cycling while giving this instruction, strangely, there was a rapid growth of bhakti vrikshas in Kṛṣṇa Kathā Deśa after this merciful instruction from you. I understood the statement “with instructions come the strength to follow it”.
To fulfill your desire of more bhakti vrikshas in Kṛṣṇa Kathā Deśa we are now gearing up to achieve the huge target of 222 bhakti vrikshas by 2022, this target was fixed after we tasted the potency hidden in your instructions when we achieved the target of 64 bhakti vrikshas, crossing the target of 50 bhakti vrikshas for ISKCON’s 50th anniversary in 2016. On the occasion of the inauguration of the TOVP we wanted to offer 222 bhakti vrikshas as our humble offering from Kṛṣṇa Kathā Deśa yatra to you, so that you may offer them to their Lordships, Śrī Śrī Nitāi-Gaur and Śrīla Prabhupāda.
In line with this most important TOVP project, which is most dear to you, we began the final push compaigne here in our yatra to do our bit to this landmark of all ISKCON projects. Both our objectives of achieving 222 Bhakti Vrikshas and extending maximum support to the TOVP project for inauguration in 2022 is our main focus now. We hope these objectives are pleasing to your Holiness.
To know and understand your teachings in a deeper way we started reading “Vaisnava Ke” in our regular JSSS programs, the teachings are so profound and direct for conditioned souls like me. I am trying to overcome my short comings by holding on to your divine instructions in my heart, albeit which I feel is not so easy. Since I experience it daily in my struggle to keep the restless mind and senses in check and focus on your instructions.
To deepen our sadhana we recently started two initiatives, Nama Ruchi initiative and Book Reading initiative, in the nama ruci initiative, we have dedicated Ekadasi days only for chanting (stopping all our other progs) 32 rounds minimum on working days and 64 rounds on Fridays. In book reading initiative we have decided to spend 2 hours in a week other than Friday, to sit together and read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books just like in a library, no class no discussion only focused reading.
Guru Mahārāja, on this auspicious Vyasa puja day I seek your unconditional blessings to be always focused on your instructions which is the only way out of this miserable material world. I hope by going deeper into my sadhana and study I would be able to understand your instructions clearly and be dedicated to follow it....heart and soul.
Aspiring to be your sincere disciple,
Your servant,
Saṅkīrtanānanda Gaura Dāsa
Kṛṣṇa Kathā Deśa, Middle East