Hare Krishna Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my respectful obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate jayapatākā-svāmin iti nāmine
namo ācāryapādāya nitāi-kṛpa-pradāyine
gaura-kathā dhāmadhāya nagara-grāma tāriṇe
On the auspicious occasion of your 71st Vyasapuja appearance day, I fall down at your feet and offer my full obeisances to you. The end of last year, I was blessed with the opportunity to see you in Atlanta. I remember the way you welcomed us, and it was very blissful. I was just entering the New Panihatti Dham and you were just cycling across the road with a group of disciples. As soon as we saw you, we just stopped the car mid road and paid our obeisances and you acknowledged by raising your left hand. This simple gesture almost felt that we were never apart and the physical separation of over two years between us, did not reduce an inch of mental distance between us. Your mere presence alleviates all the miseries around us. There was sense of bliss, exactly like how Vrindavan Das Thakur exclaims “AANANDER SIMA NAI, NIRAANANDA DURE JAI!”. And this is exactly how I felt over the next couple of days being in close proximity with you gurumaharaj, whether it be going on cycling-walks with you or shopping at Walmart with you, or listening to your animated classes at the temple room and residence or having lunch with you. Gurumaharaj, you made sure all the disciples who visited you from out of atlanta were taken care of and personally invited all of us to have lunch with you. We were given the best of the best prasadam, in the form of rasagollas, fritters, rice, dals, shak etc. perfect with sugar, salt, spice while you sat right opposite us following a harsh diet that did not include much (or no) salt, sugar or spice without any discomfort. I know this because I had your maha afterwards and realized to what extent you have pushed yourself to protect us, your disciples. I have seen you personally prepare wonderful preparations during panihatti festivals and honor the prasad with all of us and now I am seeing you honor really what I call “Medicinal Prasad”, with the same enthusiasm. This incident is just one of the many visual explanations of dhīras tatra na muhyati and your titikṣa.
Whenever I see you gurumaharaj, I always desire to do some personal service to you. But keeping your critical health conditions in mind, I didn’t ask your servants for an opportunity and left for Toronto. By Gauranga’s mercy and arrangement, I got another opportunity to associate with you in atlanta to celebrate your 50th sannyas Anniversary. It was a wonderful festival and I was emotional and overjoyed after hearing your glories from your godbrothers. You are not only our savior but also a very compassionate and protective of your godbrothers/godsisters. This is a very manifestation of Srila Prabhupada’s words “You'll show your love for me by how much you cooperate to spread the movement”. This was a lesson I took away from that class. Just as I was leaving the class, I saw Mahavaraha prabhu and spontaneously I asked him if there was any service I could render for you and prabhu said, “Yes, are you available to do service in the night time?” and I immediately said Yes. The service I rendered did not have much personal interaction yet was very personal and very blissful. Gurumaharaj, I observed you through the night, amidst all the pipes sticking out of your body, just casually resting in an uncomfortable position, only to rise the next day to fulfil and achieve victory in Prabhupada’s instruction. You are the living proof of Avasya Raksibe Krsna Visvasa Palana.
Gurumaharaj, Currently I am doing a variety of services at the temple and also helping out with new preaching opportunities in whatever capacity I can. I just want your blessings to chant better and chant more and be able to perform any form devotional service that is expected of me and to progress in Krishna Consciousness.
Your insignificant disciple,
Sudarshan Gopal Das
