nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate jayapatāka svāmin iti nāmine
nama ācaryapādāya nitāi-kṛpā-pradāyine
gaura-kathā-dhāma-dāya nagara-grāma-tāriṇe
My dear spiritual father, His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Guru Mahārāja,
I offer my respectful obeisances at the dust of your saṅkīrtana lotus feet on the auspicious occasion of your 73rd Vyāsa-pūjā celebration. All glories to you Guru Mahārāja, who have displayed unlimited divine qualities, but amongst all of them, your dedication to Śrīla Prabhupāda shines as the main jewel amongst your unlimited bhakti bhūṣaṇas.
My most tolerant Guru Mahārāja,
Thank you for giving me shelter at your lotus feet and patiently tolerating my offences. In my struggle to be a sincere disciple, your large-heartedness is very humbling and transforming. You certainly carry the magnanimity of Lord Nityānanda in your heart. Your personal touch in all your dealings (either physical/online) is very instructive in terms of Vaiṣṇava Etiquette Display, Stressing on the Principles of Bhakti Rasa, Alignment to Mood of the Previous Ācāryas especially Śrīla Prabhupāda and Thoughtful Guidance. Everything which you do is very selfless, prayerful, and nourishing to the soul. You touch the hearts around you, and even a moment of it is enough for a lifetime. You mercifully awarded me brahmin initiation and blessed me to wear the saffron uniform in the month of December ’21. By your mercy and unwavering desire to please Śrīla Prabhupāda, a new Bhakti Center has manifested under the guidance of your able devotees, in the Kannamangala region of Bangalore. We offer this center and It’s services for your pleasure and seek your blessings for It’s further expansion, under your able guidance. I received the fortune of your physical darśana and class in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur during the Śrī Navadvīpa Maṇḍala Parikramā 2022. I felt purified and uplifted in your association. Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura has rightly said,
“jahara nikate gele papa dure jay
emona doyala prabhu keba kotha pay”
“Where does anyone find such a merciful personality by whose mere audience all sins go far away?”
“gangara parasa hoile pascate pavan
darsane pavitra koro—ei tomara gun”
“After bathing in the waters of the sacred Ganges many times, one becomes purified, but just by the sight of you, the fallen souls are purified. This is your great power.”
I hanker to always be in your association via your instructions which are non-different from your most merciful self. Your remembrance and ecstatic association either by vāṇī/vapuḥ have the potency to drive Avidya out and award Prema-Bhakti. Guru Mahārāja, you are relishing this Prema Bhakti and your innermost desire is that your followers should become receptive to receive your mercy, receive Kṛṣṇa from you, blissfully chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and engage enthusiastically in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa. I am so unfortunate that I am reluctant to receive that mercy. Please instruct me how to receive and act on your mercy. Please guide me to dedicate my life to the service of the Guru Paramparā. Please teach me to control my six passions; rectify my six faults, bestow upon me the six qualities, and offer unto me the six kinds of holy association.
My dear Saviour – the best gift of Śrīla Prabhupāda in my life,
Thank you for showing us how to become a true follower and true servant of Śrīla Prabhupāda. You are the most faithful and confidential servitor of the Lord and therefore deserve as much respect as Lord Kṛṣṇa. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that although every living entity is a servitor of God, the genuine spiritual master is the direct manifestation of the Supreme Lord. For a disciple to advance spiritually he must be convinced of this.
In Śrīmad-bhāgavatam Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Uddhava:
“ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhyāsūyeta
sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ”
(SB 11.17.27)
“One should know the ācārya is Myself and never disrespect him in any way one should not end him thinking him an ordinary man, but he is a representative of all the demigods”
Here Lord Kṛṣṇa is especially instructing how a disciple should behave under the care of his spiritual master. A spiritual master is not an enjoyer of the facilities offered by his disciples rather he is like a parent. Just like a child cannot grow up without the proper attentive guidance of his parents, one cannot learn to perform devotional service without the attentive guidance of the spiritual master. The ability to walk is born with a baby and within a couple of years, the child develops it with practice. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is eternally present within the conditioned soul but can only be realized when guided by a true representative of Lord Kṛṣṇa. You are that true representative of Kṛṣṇa in my life.
My dear Goṣṭhyānandī Guru Mahārāja,
Your life is simply meant for the upliftment of fallen conditioned souls like me. Your every act is an instruction for all your beloved followers.
1) Your Zoom House Visits after every Caitanya Līlā Class are the lifeline of the devotees. All the devotees are eager to make loving offerings to you. You made the impossible (personal interaction with millions) possible by these Zoom House visits. You established the importance of having the 6 loving exchanges in the association of devotees as highlighted by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī Prabhupāda, by this pastime of yours. On my appearance day you kindly blessed me and on other occasions, you accepted some mahāprasāda and garlands from me. I will cherish these moments always. With a lot of humility and feeling utterly disqualified please allow me to offer you the title of “Zoom Meetings Parivrājakācārya”.
2) Your waking up for maṅgalārati and carefully describing the colours of the outfIt’s the deities shows your love-filled meditation on the transcendental form of the Lord. This you are doing despite all physical challenges simply to encourage your followers and make them understand the value of an uncompromised morning program.
3) Your unwavering desire to speak Caitanya-kathā every day simply for the benefit of this world shows your deep attachment to Lord Caitanya. I often speculate that you must be daily dealing with so many intense issues related to management, disciples, GBC etc., which will take a toll on anyone, but when you come to give the daily Caitanya Līlā Class, your demeanor is completely unblemished and transcendentally surcharged. Time stops when you say Gaurāṅga! This shows your intense attachment to Lord Caitanya. This activity of yours can be compared to that of Lord Caitanya Himself. SB 11.5.34 states, “Out of sheer mercifulness You chased after the fallen conditioned souls, who are always in pursuit of the false enjoyment of illusion, and at the same time engaged in searching out Your own desired object, Lord Śyāmasundara.” Being His associate, you are simply walking in His footsteps.
4) You never missed chanting your rounds, even when you were in the operation theatre. You preached very innovatively to the doctors inducing them to chant Kṛṣṇa’s names whilst treatment and distributed Bhagavad-gītās to the hospital staff. It was reported by the hospital staff that the eeriness of the hospital vanished in your presence, all were feeling joyful and spontaneously chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa Māha-mantra. You wrote letters to your disciples from the operation theatre, this proved that your meditation on them and prayers of them is their only lifeline. In the Ādi Purāṇa there is the following statement by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, addressed to Arjuna: "My dear Pārtha, one who claims to be My devotee is not so. Only a person who claims to be the devotee of My devotee is actually My devotee." No one can approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly. One must approach Him through His pure devotees. Therefore, in the system of Vaiṣṇava activities, the first duty is to accept a devotee as the spiritual master and then to render service unto him. The aim of my life is to become your devoted servant.
5) You read the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda daily, without fail. In this way, you instruct your followers in the art of being faithfully connected to Śrīla Prabhupāda on the transcendental plane via his books.
6) You are constantly meditating on expanding the movement of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Your “Instructions Project – Help me serve Śrīla Prabhupāda” is the manifestation of your meditation. You are the epitome of disciple consciousness. You simply exist for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s pleasure and service, and this is your primary teaching. Your attachment to Śrīla Prabhupāda and your daily meditation on his instructions is your very identity and this very fact makes you a crown jewel of this world. In one of your lectures, you confirmed this prime necessity of spiritual life.
“The disciple having the mood of the Guru and the paramparā is a sign of a very advanced disciple. We should aspire for understanding the mood of the Spiritual Master. One-time Śrīla Prabhupāda asked, ‘What is the thing you can gain from the Guru?’ And everyone said so many things. Then he replied, ‘Get his vibration. His vibration is the essence.’” - (May 29, 2019, Māyāpur)
Guru Mahārāja, having fully imbibed the mood and the vibration of Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Guru Paramparā, you are at the pinnacle of perfection in your own life, you are now mercifully passing on the same formula into the hearts of your disciples. Śrīla Prabhupāda would be so pleased with you.
7) Your ecstatic love towards Kṛṣṇa is visible in your pastimes. You are always anxious to utilize your time in the devotional service of the Lord. You do not like to be idle. You want service always, twenty-four hours a day, without deviation. You remain reserved and perseverant. You are always detached from all material attraction. You do not long for any material respect in return for his activities. You are always certain that Kṛṣṇa will bestow His mercy upon you. You are always very enthusiastic to serve the Lord faithfully. You are very much attached to the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. You are always eager to describe the transcendental qualities of the Lord. You are eagerly pleased to live in a place where the Lord’s pastimes are performed such as Śrīdhāma Māyāpur or any other places where Śrīla Prabhupāda’s services take you.
My dear eternal spiritual father,
I am a useless son of yours, who belongs to your transcendental family but has not yet been able to sincerely inculcate the devotional qualities which are an insignia of your committed sons, daughters, and followers. Your unconditional mercy is the only antidote for my eternal ungratefulness and my weakness of the heart. Guru Mahārāja although I am unchaste in my surrender towards your instructions still because I am your disciple, I desire to develop a spontaneous attraction for the Lord. You have very mercifully also revealed how to do that in one of your lectures.
"For devotees, who have been very careful in chanting and hearing, the spontaneous attraction to the Lord increases day by day." - (25th September 1983, New York, USA).
I will try to focus even more on my chanting and hearing, but ultimately, I depend on your mercy even to do that. Please give me your blessings so that I can take full shelter of your instructions and become your faithful servant and representative and in this way always feel your presence in my life. Your every activity is an offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and your every instruction is assistance to the people to come to the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya. In a world full of quarrel, hypocrisy, impersonalism and sense gratification, your devotion shines like the sunshine and you are establishing Bhakti Yoga as the Supreme by giving the Gaura Kathā and mercy of the Holy Dham to all villages and cities across the planet.
On this auspicious day, I beg you to bless me to develop purity, compassion, and determination to follow your instructions. Please empower me so that I may be able to assist you in your services to Śrīla Prabhupāda and be an insignificant instrument in your hand to expand this Saṅkīrtana movement. I also pray that I may always remain true to your transcendental instructions and be eternally engaged in your service. I pray that I always remember your Lotus feet and truly inherit your mood and mission. By your mercy Guru Mahārāja, anything is possible. I desire the dust of your holy feet in every birth I may take. Please consider me yours and be kind to me.
Yours eternally,
Acyuta Arjuna Sakhā dāsa,
ISKCON Whitefield,
Bangalore, India