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 Śrīla Gurudeva,
Please accept my respectful obeisances at your lotus feet. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda who brought Krsna Consciousness all around the world. All glories to Your Divine Grace who has progressively developed Bhaktivinod Thakura’s Congregational preaching vision to spread Kṛṣṇa Consciousness to every town and village.
Indeed this magnanimous mood of yours Gurudeva to reach out to everyone everywhere has been my saving. Just as a large rock thrown into a still lake may make a large splash in itself but the circles of ripples continuing to extend are many fold; You yourself, in Your tireless years of dedication to His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda, have made such a monumental splash in this material world and throughout ISKCON with Your kindness and compassion for all the fallen souls such as me.
Your disciples are similarly rippling out under Your expert guidance bringing Nityānanda’s marketplace of the Holy Name so far and wide to so many family homes with their Bhakti Vrksa Sangas. Your disciples in the Reading Yātrā, UK, namely, Amala Mañjarī Mātājī, Viśāla Gaurāṇga Prabhu and Pratāpmāya Nitāi Prabhu are lovingly extending Your mood of kindness, enthusiasm and compassion so far across the UK with their ripples reaching down to us in Cornwall. They perfectly imbibe your mood of purity, exuberance, and devotion!
Any sevā I have been able to offer You this year has only been by their prayers and blessings, and they have engaged the twins and I in such lovely services. I’ve been very fortunate to assist Bharti Revatī Mātājī in embellishing the cloth she sews for the Reading Deities and am also sewing outfits for our home deities, Śrī Śrī Nitāi-Gaurasuṅdara and Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā Maharāṇī.
With many thanks to Your perfect example and emphasis on studying Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, my twins and I are getting a taste for studying Śrīmad Bhāgavatam together as they now home school with me. The more I read, I feel hungry to read more and I am only sorry that I have been so foolish to have wasted so many years making such poor choices of ways to use my time rather than turning to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s association through His books. I can see clearly that any weakness I have experienced over the years has been due to my lack of reading to stimulate my relationship with Harināma Prabhu and I can only apologise for that and beg for Your forgiveness for my many offenses.
With my main service currently being teaching my girls, I pray by Your mercy, they’ll be stronger than me and firmly fixed at Your lotus feet and those of His Divine Grace, Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Gurudeva, I have always felt inadequate and nervous to preach and in that regard have felt even more unqualified as Your disciple not following in your mood or example very well. But now, I am feeling that the people here in Cornwall are lost and taking shelter of the beaches as a source of peace and solace. I want to help them see that inner peace comes from Krsna, not material beauty, even that of our planet. Please Śrīla Gurudeva, bless me that I may be able to preach in some small way and help them come to Krsna and Śrīla Prabhupāda. As I have felt closer to You this year, I am realising that my feeling of nerves was because I still identify as being the doer.
I am so done with this mentality now or at least; I’d like to be. Done with wasting time, with getting side tracked, with selfishly keeping myself to myself. Please bless me that I may be an instrument for Your Divine Grace and help keep the ripple going through my family and our new āśrama home to others.
Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad Gītā 11.32, “Time I am.” I am always in awe of how wisely and wonderfully You use every moment of time in the service of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Please bless me and my girls that we may make full use of ‘our’ time in service to You.
Your aspiring spiritual daughter,
Devakī Bhakti Devī Dāsī (Dīkṣā) Cornwall, UK