nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya Kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate jayapatākā-svāmin iti nāmine
namo ācāryapādāya nitāi-kṛpa-pradāyine
gaura-kathā dhāma dāya nagara-grāma tāriṇe
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya Kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Hare Kṛṣṇa dear Guru Mahārāja,
Please accept my humble obeisance unto your Lotus feet.
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!
All glories to Your Divine Grace and Gaurāṅga!
On this 75th Vyāsa-pūjācelebration occasion, I pray to Gaurāṅga to shower his mercy upon you to be healthy and continue to fulfil your spiritual master desires.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that by taking Shelter of a pure devotee of the Lord even the sinful people can also become liberated. When I think about myself, I'm extremely grateful to you for giving such a fallen soul like me an opportunity to be your disciple, to serve you and finally get out of this repeated birth cycle.
It is also said that a disciple can never repay His Guru for the thankless service of giving initiation and I am eternally indebted to you for the same. Though I am an insignificant soul I am overjoyed in writing this offering unto your lotus feet on the auspicious occasion of your Vyāsa-pūjā.
Past few weeks, I was travelling in London, Istanbul, Tripoli, back and forth for work. In all these places apart from work related business discussion what I heard from colleagues and customers were about Football clubs, teams and their respective matches. And that is when the term “Goal Post” struck me.
What is the use of playing football if there is no goalpost? That is when I was thinking about performing bhakti without a goal post. I am chanting, reading, hearing, coordinating the Sunday satsaṅga, serving the yātrā, etc., but without focus; yes, that's like dribbling the ball without a goal post.
Few days back while I was preparing for the Nityam Bhāgavata class I came across a verse from Caitanya Manjusha:
ārādhyo bhagavān vrajeśa-tanayas tad-dhāma vṛṇdāvanaṁ
ramya kaścid upāsanā vraja-vadhu-varga-vīrya kalpita
śrīmad-bhāgavatam amalaṁ purāṇaṁ premā pum-artho mahān
śrī-caitanya mahāprabhor matam idaṁ tatradaraḥ na paraḥ (Caitanya-mañjusā)
In this verse, Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu was saying that the aim of our life is the love for Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. And in the book “Prema Bhakti Chandrika”, Śrīla Narottama Dasa Takura enhanced this by saying we should have love for Rādhā & Kṛṣṇa, like how the fish loves its water. This is when I realized that in my devotional service I should aim for the Goal Post – Kṛṣṇa-prema.
When Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu was asked by Sanātana Goswami, “Oh Mahāprabhu, you have so much love in your heart”.
Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu replied saying, “I am like the golden fish and Śyāmasundar is like the blue waters. Look I cannot die in separation like how the fish can die in separation from water. I continue to live without Kṛṣṇa. What kind of love is that?” This was the mood of Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu
When I read that I remembered you, Guru Mahārāja, who have embraced this mood of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Your unwavering, unconditional, and uninterrupted remembrance of Lord Gaurāṅga despite the new happenings of each moment and reminding us about this mood with every activity that you do to please your spiritual master, Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu and Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa (Kṛṣṇa-prema).
The intense enthusiasm and excitement with which you deliver the Caitanya Līlā classes every day without fail never ceases to amaze me. I am waiting eagerly for the book to take shape, with Lord Gaurāṅga and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy!
Merely seeing you perform the devotional service daily, simply for the satisfaction of Śrīla Prabhupāda is the most important life lesson for me. The sweetness and simplicity of devotional service are established by Your Divine saintly conduct.
Your persistent, patient, and uplifting dealings with your disciples, your adventurous desire to travel and revive the enthusiasm of all your disciples, your prioritized desire to personally connect with all via daily classes, your merciful reminders to read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and follow them and your daily prayers for all your disciples/followers astonishes me beyond my words and thoughts.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.3.22 it is mentioned “Accepting the bona fide spiritual master as one’s life and soul and worshipable deity, the disciple should learn from him the process of pure devotional service.” I have lots and lots of desire to serve, and please you but then I realize I also have lot of false ego, insincerity, undetermined and careless nature that is stalling and pulling me back. Your grace is always available to me in the form of your sweet and deep lectures, in the form of your disciples, and in the form of the systems that you have instituted in support of your disciples. And even through the hand drawn picture of yours by a Russian devotee where the compassion expressed explicitly through your moist eyes attracts me.
I sincerely pray Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu to provide me the strength to constantly meditate and make use of your grace to fulfill your instructions and by doing that imbibe at least little bit of one of your several qualities such compassion, humility, tolerance and sincere service
With your mercy and guidance one fine day I will also be able to focus on the goal post that is to feel “loving separation from Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa”
Thank you, Guru Mahārāja, for being a wonderful role model and inspiration for all of us to take up whatever services available proactively to fulfill your mission towards fulfilling Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions to you and wider ISCKON family.
Your fallen servant whose only hope is your Lotus feet to regain the mercy to support your mission.
Your humble servant
Śyāma Vrajapati dāsa