My dear spiritual father,
Please accept my respectful obeisances at Your Lotus Feet.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
All glories to Your Divine Grace!
This Corona virus, which has been defining our days for the last one year, and which has brought so much misery and suffering to so many devotees- it has had one most positive and invaluable effect in the lives of your disciples. For the first time ever, it has ensured that every single day, every single one of your disciples has been able to interact with you, to share their important anniversaries with you, to offer you the best of all prasadam - after a journey with you into the joyful and mystic world of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his associates.
What is more - every devotee has the opportunity to directly address you and hear from you. There are no layers of bureacrats between them and you on Zoom!
It is a unique journey, Gurudeva. It is like participating in one of those 'Making of ...' videos which are made, about the making of famous movies.
In this case, you are writing a history making book about the life of Lord Caitanya - an all-in-one compilation of all the important narrations of Lord Gauranga's life and teachings, combined with selected purports of Srila Prabhupada, and spiced with a most important ingredient - your own purports.
I firmly believe that your purports are very special because they are based on your own first-hand knowledge. We can all feel the presence of Lord Gaurange when you speak about Him - it makes my hair stand on end.
Thank you so much for coming to this horrible material world - and staying here even after Srila Prabhupada called you - just for us hopeless cases!
For me it has been another year of great absorption. Of hearing every word spoken by you. Of listening to lectures of devotees in my yatra so many times a week. Of repeating my journey in KC with the unmatched words of Srila Prabhupada. I have had so many realisations about what is actual love for Guru and Gauranga , and how we can easily get misled in our service to you.
As we remember our days in Mathuradesh, growing up in spiritual life, we realise how much you gave to us, which no one else has done before or since. You never treated us as 'only congregation'. You took us absolutely seriously. You treated us as potential pure devotees. You came to us as much as four times a year, and we spent 24 hours a day with you. We tried to emulate Srila Prabhupada's young followers, as narrated in Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita. And, since you acted with us, just as Srila Prabhupada did with you when you joined, we found Krishna Conscious life just as it was described in the book.
We never knew that temple devotees at that time considered congregation devotees as steeped in Maya, only good for collecting donations!
We never felt the need for any bureaucracy in Mathuradesh, even after we grew into thousands. You had never made us feel that 'senior devotees' were supposed to have some kind of power over their juniors. You never made us feel that rules and structures and management strategies were more important than loving relationships and preaching. We all just felt we were your spiritual family and that we would be like this eternally and keep expanding!.And we feel the same even today- even with devotees who joined after we left Mathuradesh in 2006.
Thank you for this Gurudeva - we do not want it any other way. We feel so fortunate that we could have this family.
All I want from you, my dearest spiritual father, is to please bless me, Prema Padmini, Pradeep, and Ananth, that we may be your humble servants forever, and never take birth again in this material world - unless you order it. And that our spiritual family will always be together.
Your useless spiritual son,
Vijay Venugopal Dasa