Respected Gurumaharaj,
Hare Krishna. Please accept my most respectful obeisances unto your Lotus feet. All glories to Your Divine Grace. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
On this auspicious day of your 72nd Vyasa Puja, I sincerely pray to Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Madhava, Sri Sri Panca Tattva and Sri Sri Nrsimha Dev for your complete and speedy recovery from all health problems and for the long duration of life. Your appearance day is most glorious, because in this day only, you had mercifully descended from the spiritual world under the order of Sri Krishna to reclaim the fallen conditioned souls like me. I am very very grateful to Your Divine Grace for saving me from the dangerous materialistic life.
“Praptasya Kalyana Gunarnavasya”. Spiritual Master is an ocean of all auspicious qualities. I don’t have sufficient strength to enumerate all your divine qualities. Because by glorifying your divine qualities, I will be purified from all types of material contaminations, I am doing it so. Please forgive me Gurumaharaj for my mistakes.
While taking Bhakti Sastri classes, I realized that surrender is not an external status, it is purely related with the internal attitude. One of the principles of surrender given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is “exclusively depending upon the mercy of the Supreme Lord”. Sri Prahalad Maharaja exhibited this quality 100% even though he was tortured in various ways by his father Hiranyakasipu. Similarly, Gurumaharaj, even though You are undergoing tremendous amounts of troubles and challenges, still your dependence upon the mercy of Gauranga and the holy name is 100% and never shaking in any situation. In this way you are perfectly following the teachings of Srila Prabhupada, who had given definition for faith as, “Faith means unflinching trust in something sublime”. You are practically teaching all of us by your wonderful behavior about how to depend on Gauranga and the holy name in all situations. Gurumaharaj, I am very much inspired by your utmost surrender to Lord Gauranga. I am most fortunate to have such a glorious spiritual master. Gurumaharaj, I am sincerely praying at Your lotus feet to please bless me also with the same divine quality.
Another principle of Surrender is “believing firmly in the Lord’s protection”. By Your causeless mercy, I am slowly realizing that a devotee will fit in a particular stage amongst the 9 stages of devotion based upon his faith on the Lord and the holy name. From the beginning “adau sraddha upto Prema”, a devotee’s faith on Krishna is going on increasing and when that faith reaches 100%, then he will attain the Prema stage. Normally, conditioned souls like me are always believing the material energy due to the influence of rajas & tamas and therefore my one pointed faith on Krishna & Guru is divided and invested in various material fields. I think that is why Sri Krishna has mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita as “ma sucah – Don’t fear and surrender unto Me”. Conditioned Souls are suffering in this material world simply because of his lack of faith on Krishna. But being a conditioned soul, not listening to Krishna’s teachings, I am repeatedly investing my faith in the material energy and the end result of it is miseries. Gurumaharaj, I am deeply praying for your blessings so that I will be able to fully depend on Guru and Krishna’s mercy alone all the time. By your mercy, I am realizing that if somebody is under the influence of rajas & tamas, he will undergo varieties of fear constantly. This is the status of conditioned souls like me. Krishna has mentioned in Bhagavad Gita that, “Vasudeva sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah”. Gurumaharaj, You are the perfect example for this sloka. It is very very rare to see a Personality like yourself because you are totally dependent upon Srila Prabhupada, Gauranga and the holy name in all circumstances.
It is mentioned by Srila Jagadananda Pandit in Prema Vivarta as “Krishna bahir mukha hana bhoga vancha kare nikatastha maya tare japatiya dhare”. When a living entity is having a tendency to enjoy matter independent of Krishna, maya is immediately capturing him. Since this enjoyment tendency is deep rooted, it will again and again manifest in a gross or subtle level even within a devotee while dealing with the material world. That is why it is mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam “bhajann apakvotha patet tato yadi– devotee may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage”. Normally, the subtle level enjoyment tendency will manifest in the form of trying to enjoy reputation, honour and respect, position etc. Sometimes maya will test a sincere devotee also by giving bad name or blame. If the devotee wants to enjoy the reputation of ‘being a good devotee’ inside the devotee community, then mostly he will defend the blame or bad name by arguing through various material logics. This defending mood is also due to his enjoyment tendency. That is why, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is giving beautiful teachings to everyone, “ na dhanam, na janam, na sundarim……”. Gurumaharaj, you are always performing varieties of devotional services simply with the mood of “Krishna or Gauranga is only the Supreme Enjoyer, I am not the enjoyer and I am simply meant for His pleasure”. Because your only interest is to give pleasure to Srila Prabhupada, Krishna and Gauranga, You are not at all affected by any name, fame, glory etc. even while accepting many many positions inside the movement. This is very difficult for a conditioned soul because he will easily get carried away by the positions and will forget the substance. Gurumaharaj, you are teaching by example all of us, disciples, that this is way to practice “anyabhilasita sunyam”. I am able to feel strongly that You are perfectly following the principle “anyabhilasita sunyam”. That is why Srila Rupa Goswami is saying in Nectar of Devotion that the one of the characteristics of pure devotional service is ‘sudurlabha – rarety’. In Sri Caitanya Caritamrita it is said, “ Lava matra sadhu-sange sarva-siddhi haya – Simply by associating with a pure devotee even for a moment, one will attain all types of perfection”. Gurumaharaj, You are that type of pure devotee and I am fully convinced that by hearing your Vani and following your instructions strictly, one will make spiritual advancement very fast.
Begging for Your mercy always,
Your insignificant Disciple,
SRINIVASA HARI DASA, DIKSHA DISCIPLE
ISKCON, COIMBATORE