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
My dear spiritual father,
Please accept my respectful obeisances unto Your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to Your Divine Grace's 70th Appearance day!!!
Dear Guru Maharaj, while attempting to write this year's Vyasa Puja offering, I am remembering two transcendental qualities in Your personality : greed and mercy.
From a common man's perspective, greed and mercy are contradictory terms. Greed is all about getting more and more for oneself. Mercy is giving more and more out to others. Clearly opposites - how can they coexist!
I was fortunate to be present in Sri Mayapur during one of Your recent evening classes on Lotus rooftop when one mataji asked a question about greed. Your Divine Grace asked, "What is wrong with being greedy? One can be greedy for performing loving service to Lord Chaitanya, more and more and more!!" After hearing this, it struck me that this was the same laulyam (intense greed) that Srila Rupa Gosvami said is the price to pay to get pure Krishna bhakti. Your Divine Grace is the live personification of such transcendental greed. Anyone can see this. Even the most severe physical challenges that would have plunged another person into despair, mental breakdown and inactivity simply failed in front of Your indomitable greed to push on Lord Chaitanya's movement. Your Divine Grace has just recently been traveling in Your beloved Gaura Mandala Bhumi, speaking about Gauranga's glories to tens of thousands of souls. And very soon, with the slightest indication of improved health, Your Divine Grace would be traveling all over the world, expanding the limits of Gaura Mandala Bhumi to the far corners of the world with Your loud chanting of "Gaurangaaa!!!!" What an amazing example of transcendental greed for Your disciples, for our ISKCON family and for the world to see.
My dear Guru Maharaj, I pray that as often as I feel distracted, dejected, sour, angry or lackadaisical in my devotional life, may I remember Your exemplary personality. May I aspire to imbibe a tiny fraction of that transcendental greed and serve Your mission in making Lord Chaitanya and Srila Prabhupada famous in this corner of the world.
And now, mercy. As we daily recite in Your pranama mantra : nitai-kripa-pradayine. The mercy of Lord Nityananda is even greater than the direct mercy of Lord Gauranga. And Your Divine Grace is giving out that mercy - Nitai's mercy. Extending Yourself out and out with no thought of personal inconvenience. Exactly like Srila Prabhupada did. And this attitude is so natural for You, an eternal associate of Gauranga's and Srila Prabhupada's. And You're giving out no small thing! The rarest gift that is not available for purchase either in the material world or even in Vaikuntha. Only available now due to the mercy of the greatest giver - maha vadanya - Lord Chaitanya and His senapati bhakta, His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. As the Victory flag of Lord Gauranga's Commander-in-chief, You're giving everyone - even this atheistic soul - the chance to again and again hear Gaura Katha, and again and again enter the "mercy dham", Sridham Mayapur. gaura-katha-dhama-daya. Why? What for? No reason. Causeless mercy.
I was listening to one recorded lecture by His Holiness Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaj. One point that Maharaj made struck me. Maharaj said, the need of the mind is to receive love, while the need of the soul is to GIVE love. For a person situated on the platform of the soul, there is no more insecurity, and therefore no urge to receive, collect, hoard. He is fully secure, being completely dependent on Krishna. Therefore for the self-realized, Krishna Conscious soul, giving comes naturally! Guru Maharaj, You're giving personified. Every flight attendant, every airport staff, every nurse in the hospitals You've been to - everyone received mercy from Your hands. Prasadam laddus, Jagannath toothbrush mercy, blessings, a loving glance - everything about You is about giving mercy. Therefore, like bees are attracted to the lotus flower, so many souls are attracted to You, and You give everyone the sweetest lotus honey of Gaura-kripa.
My dear Guru Maharaj, being inspired by Srila Prabhupada's and Your example of giving, I can see so many wonderful devotees in ISKCON serving in a happy, giving mood. They are all so spiritually advanced and blissful in Krishna Consciousness. I feel lowly and incapable. Nevertheless Your instruction (Lecture Oct 16, 1982, Murari Sevaka farm) is "... to somehow or other remain steady in devotional service, remain fixed, is actually what seasons a devotee or what purifies the devotee." So I pray to be able to continue to serve come what may, and await the purification and awakening of that "giving attitude" by Your mercy.
Just as I am writing this, Your dear servant HG Janaki Ramachandra Prabhu has called me and reminded me of something related to Your personal service he had asked of me earlier. So I take it as Your mercy!! Although I am a selfish soul, the opposite of being a giver, You're kindly giving me the chance to first give some of my energy in Your service. Thank you so much Guru Maharaj, this means a lot to me!
This year we had around 30 devotees from Kochi, Kerala visiting for Sri Panchatattva Abhishekam in Sridham Mayapur. And then after one evening class, we had personal darshan. Then, in answer to my question Your Divine Grace told us that in order to be a devotee, one need not have to be materially in a position like Kolavecha Sridhar; Yudhishtira Maharaj was also a great pure devotee like Kolavecha Sridhar, but he was serving as the emperor of the whole world. After consulting with senior godbrothers, we take that this instruction means that in city preaching it is important to reach the materially affluent sections of society as well. So far we haven't done much on that front here in Kochi, but we hope and pray to do this soon. Some humble starting we have made; we wish to do more in this area, while simultaneously taking care of and empowering existing devotees.
In conclusion, as a congregation trying to spread ISKCON's services in Kochi, this is our sincere prayer on the most auspicious occasion of Your Divine Grace's 70th Appearance day : Dearest Guru Maharaj, may we always remember Your wonderful example of intense greed to serve Guru and Gauranga, and may we get a small fraction of that mood by Your mercy. May we also be eternally inspired by Your merciful "giver attitude" and on Your behalf - in Your service to Srila Prabhupada and Gauranga - slowly but surely become givers ourselves. We pray unto the Lotus feet of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Madhava Ashta Sakhi, Sri Sri Panchatattva, Sri Mayapur Narasimhadev, all the previous Acharyas and His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada that They all kindly continue bestow their causeless mercy on Your spiritual children, on the ISKCON family and on the entire world by rejuvenating Your Divine Grace back to strong physical health and allowing Your physical presence to be in this world for many many years to come. I beg forgiveness for the so many offenses I have done earlier, and for the offenses I am doing at Your lotus feet by my less-than-sincere behavior. Nevertheless, kindly keep me under the shade of Your lotus feet, for there is no other place to call home.
Your aspiring servant,
Gopāla Gaura Guru dāsa
Kochi, Kerala, India