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
Dear most Guru Mahārāja
Please accept my respectful obeisances at your divine lotus feet.
Thank you for giving me life, a life worthy of being called human life, by giving this fallen soul shelter at your lotus feet and accepting me as your spiritual daughter. Only you, Śrīla Prabhupāda and Kṛṣṇa know how fallen I am and that I didn’t have even an iota of qualification to get this supreme blessing. But it is your compassion alone that made this happen. I am truly grateful to Kṛṣṇa and Śrīla Prabhupāda that they heard my prayers and sent you in my life to save me from this greatest danger of wasting this rare opportunity of human birth.
You are an ocean of mercy, Guru Mahārāja. Despite your ill health, you are always preaching and taking classes every day; traveling immensely despite any physical discomforts just to deliver the fallen souls in this world. While I am so fallen that I always find myself an excuse to never send you any updates, you send such heart-warming letters to us every month, and give us wonderful updates and instructions. Even when you are in hospital, your care for all people around you has made a huge impact on me. I am an uncaring person, Guru Mahārāja, who is unable to take care of my parents, husband or even my child well, what to say of others. But by hearing your pastimes of care for devotees, I am witnessing a slow transformation within me to extend care for others around me. The last year saw several health challenges for myself and my family, which kept us going to the hospital every now and then. We keep drawing strength from your personal example in these times. By your mercy, in such times we are able to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa and continue to speak about the Lord and His glories to doctors, staff and any other patients or attendants that we can. To be Kṛṣṇa conscious in any situation in life is something that you teach us through your example Guru Mahārāja, every single day. Thank you for that, Guru Mahārāja.
I am a small child learning slowly. But I have a strong desire to follow your instructions. By listening to your Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Caitanya-bhāgavata classes, I am slowly developing a taste for these. It is just your mercy to help me in this regard. From my early days in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, I have been very attached to Śrīla Prabhupāda, as I always saw him as my sweet grandfather, and now by your mercy, he is indeed my spiritual grandfather. You are bringing me closer to him through your instruction of reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Earlier, I was struggling to read the Bhāgavatam but it’s through your kind mercy alone that post taking your shelter, I got the time and taste to immerse myself in this transcendental literature. I read words of Śrīla Prabhupāda every day, and will be taking up Bhakti Shastri course as soon as the next opportunity arises at ISKCON Whitefield, the Centre that I am associated with.
I serve in this Centre under the guidance of His Grace Harikṣetra Prabhujī and His Grace Kartikeya Prabhuji. I am currently assisting His Grace Kartikeya Prabhujī in conducting a Gītā course in a large apartment complex in Bangalore where we have had ~50 persons attending the course. Several of them have started chanting regularly and are reading Śrīla Prabhupāda books. Till August of last year, I was also serving a Bhakti-vṛkṣa of 15 Matajis; some of them are chanting 16 rounds now and have taken Śrīla Prabhupāda Ashraya. Please bless all these devotees, Guru Mahārāja. I don’t have any capacity to help anyone progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness but I always pray to you before any preaching services so that you can preach to them and help them progress. I am grateful to my superiors here who have given me the opportunity to play a small, ant-like role in following your instruction of making Bangalore a Kṛṣṇa conscious city.
I hear your old lectures regularly, and I am amazed at the depth of your understanding even in your early years of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Your understanding is so deep, and yet you explain the essence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in such simple and effective ways. I read the book ‘Secrets of Service’ which is a compilation of some of your lectures. It made a truly deep impact on me. It helped me understand some important aspects of Kṛṣṇa consciousness:
#1) Service in Separation Non-Different — ‘We’re in the material world, We’re definitely separated from the Lord. We feel the pangs of separation, and we’re unable to directly engage in His service, so we’re serving in separation. And we constantly glorify the Lord. This very process has been given to us by Lord Caitanya, and by this process, one is drawn to Kṛṣṇa more quickly than any other method… this is the best process, by following which one can relish rasa very soon - not by sitting around dreaming that one’s a peacock or some such thing’.
#2) kṛpā Primary, sādhana Secondary — We try to practice sādhana-bhakti because that is the order of the spiritual master; not because we complacently believe that our regulated devotional endeavors alone are enough to get us back home back to Godhead. You refer to your conversation with Śrīla Prabhupāda, where he says ‘I am depending neither upon my chanting nor upon my writing; nor my reading and studying the shastras to become Kṛṣṇa conscious… I do these simply for attracting the mercy of my spiritual master.’
I am practicing sādhana-bhakti for your pleasure and your mercy. Please bless me to do my sādhana well and serve you by fulfilling your instructions, for your pleasure.
Gurudeva! kṛpā-bindu diyā, koro’ ei dāse, tṛṇāpekhā ati hīna
Your spiritual daughter,
Mohinī Anurādhā Devī Dāsī
