My Dearmost Spiritual Father,
Please accept my respectful obeisances at your lotus feet!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In one of your early Vyasapuja talks I heard you saying how important it is to glorify all the acaryas in the parampara as all are representations of Vyasadeva. Although I am unqualified in every aspect, and lack sufficient knowledge on the glories of all of the paramahamsas in our line, the least I can do is try, with this feeble voice, to glorify my direct link to the parampara - you O Gurudev, and Prabhupada who represents the entire line.
Another year has passed by in the warmth of your loving shelter, and you have bestowed yet again your unfathomable mercy on me by permitting me to take to the order of 2nd Initiation. And this quick an upgrade, for someone like me, is really the glory of the spiritual master to take. I have done horrible things in this lifetime and the ones before, but the one thing I am grateful for (and still find it hard to believe) is having taken to spiritual life under your guidance. You have so wonderfully raised me as your child, even with very limited interactions. You have constantly only asked me one question - how many rounds are you chanting ?, knowing very well where my weaknesses are. And supported and pushed me even without directly saying much! You have transformed my life so gradually, that my ego hardly had time to react. And if you are not around you have also arranged for services and devotees to always keep a watch on me, and not make me even feel like I was being watched. How can anyone thank their father for this ? I cannot even find the words for it in a 100 lifetimes.Because there is really no way for me to pay back the debt you have left me with, I want to try and offer you my life. And I am waiting for the day when I can truly surrender to your lotus feet, which I know is a sweet consequence of your mercy.
Krishna has been kind enough to put me in situations reminding myself of what a responsibility I have to carry as your disicple, especially at times when I can very easily succumb to certain emotions. But when I see determination, resilience, commitment, not leaving any reoom for failure to please Srila Prabhupada and the previous acaryas,I feel really ashamed for not having done more with my time and lifetimes that have passed. It is your contagious energy, that is continuing to inspire me and so many people across the globe and so I pray to Sri Sri Radha Madhava & Ashtasakhis, Sri Narasimhadeva, Sri Panca Tattva and Srila Prabhupada to protect your health and well being.
I was reading Lilamrita yesterday and I read this one Paragraph that really struck the corners of my hard heart!
"Prabhupāda is planning for the future, and he’s planning for much more than just tax exemptions. He is trying to serve his spiritual predecessors and fulfill the scriptural prediction of a spiritual movement that is to flourish for ten thousand years in the midst of the Age of Kali."
"With a vision that soars off to the end of the millennium and beyond, yet with his two feet solidly on the ground of Second Avenue, Prabhupāda has begun an International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He has many practical responsibilities: paying the rent, incorporating his society, and paving the way for a thriving worldwide congregation of devotees. Yet he doesn’t see his humble beginning as limiting the greater scope of his divine mission. He knows that everything depends on Kṛṣṇa, so whether he succeeds or fails is up to the Supreme. He has only to try."
Even though this is not new information and it is well understood, this line conveys in a scope of time as a context the impact of what Srila Prabhupada was doing then and has done. That too in a way that helped me understand practically the magnitude of what I had been blessed with. And how fortunate I am to be in direct contact and association with him facilitated through your divine mercy!
With the TOVP coming up, I can't help but imagine how much bigger this movement is going to get. And I realise more and more the importance of preaching, especially to the younger generation. So I want to pledge a little more of my mind, body and soul in the service of this mission and in keeping up to the name of being your disciple - working a little extra harder this time to bring more people to this joyful peace-loving movement.
Your loving daughter,
Snigdha Radhika Devi Dasi