Please accept my respectful obeisances. All Glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! All Glories to you - Śrīla Gurudeva!
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
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
All glories to you on your Vyāsa-pūjā!!!
At the outset, I reiterate my respectful regards to you on your lotus feet for accepting me as your disciple; by being the proverbial light always showing the path to a lost soul, caught in the darkness of Māyā in this material world.
This is your humble disciples – Viśveśvara Govinda dāsa and Līlāmayī Rukmiṇī Devī Dāsī – initiated under your loving care in May 2013 and 2nd initiated in June 2022. We are under the care and guidance of His Grace Caitanya Avatārī Dāsa and Her Grace Rasamayī Devī Dāsī and are attached to ISKCON New Rājāpur Jagannātha Dhāma (NRJD), Bangalore.
We realize that the past year has been extremely tough on you due to the unsurmountable health situations you have faced almost every day. Despite all these travails and pains, you have continued steadfastly on your mission to post the Victory flag flying higher and higher in many more new devotees’ homes. There has hardly been any holding back in your pursuits in reaching out to potential devotees in far-off lands. We will always be indebted to you for your ever-merciful attitude to give ‘Kṛṣṇa consciousness’ to more and more souls thus helping them find a way out of this duḥkhālayam.
Guru Mahārāja, at NRJD we had the privilege to host Your Holiness along with your team and have your wonderful association during your visit to Bangalore last year. During this visit, you consecrated the 7 Lotus footprints of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, before their departure to the various temples in South India. While your stay was cut short by a sudden deterioration in your health condition, even the 2 days that you stayed with us provided us immense spiritual energy to tread the future period before you grace our temple again. We pray that you revisit us, soon!
Within our family, we felt blessed to host you and your team at my brother’s place in Singapore when you visited them last year. My brother – Raṅgamaya Rāmakṛṣṇa Dāsa, his wife Sobhamayī Keśavī Devī Dāsī, and their family along with the Singapore JSSS devotees were extremely fortunate to serve you at their home then. My brother shared with us each of the blissful moments and anecdotes he experienced through your stay with them. We will cherish these memories for the rest of our living lives and we hope we get more such opportunities in the future.
I also take this opportunity to update you – my Spiritual father, on some of my key spiritual pursuits and endeavors during the past year. As always these remain infinitesimal in comparison to the enormous efforts that you are putting in every moment even in your trying and difficult situation.
In continuation of our pursuit of śāstric studies, we have almost completed the Bhakti-vaibhava-2 course from Māyāpur Institute. We both had already completed the Bhakti-śāstrī course in 2019 and Bhakti-vaibhava-1 course with high grades and appreciation – we felt doubly blessed to receive our Bhakti-śāstrī certificates from your lotus hands then. Both of us have also been spearheading the śāstric learning at our temple. The 1st batch of the Bhakti-śāstrī course comprising 18 devotees is completed and the next batch of Bhakti-śāstrī courses is underway wherein almost 40+ devotees from various countries are enrolled. These have provided us with a deep insight into Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books.
In addition, I am involved in certain preaching activities. These include the conduct of Bhakti-vṛkṣa for devotees based in the US, 2 batches of the 18-week Gītā learning program, Śloka recitation / Story sessions for devotee kids, providing insights from the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to devotees and part of the Temple’s Sunday evening feast program, teaching Bhakti-śāstrī course, etc.
Last year, I also had the opportunity to participate in the month-long ‘Yajñā course’ at ISKCON-Tirupati organized by the Māyāpur Gurukula team. This course provided me deep insights into the conduct of various saṁskāra s as outlined by Śrīla Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī through his ‘Sat-kriyā-sāra-dīpikā’. I am happy to update you that this knowledge has since been passed on to a larger team at our center. We, as a team, have been performing the Narasiṁha / Sudarśana / Dhanvantri Homa almost every day at our temple for your speedy recovery. We continue our prayers to The Lordships for your complete recovery soon.
I also continue to be involved in some small services at our temple in Bangalore – addressing the accounting/book keeping, and managerial support and providing the occasional editorial support for the Gurudeva Kṛpā Bindu Diyā publications that are conceived and printed by our seniors.
I remain ever indebted to you for accepting me under your tender care and opening a whole new chapter in my life about 8 years ago – the wonderful world of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
I am also grateful to you for providing me the association of a wonderful extended family (in the form of His Grace Caitanya Avatārī Dāsa, Her Grace Rasamayī Mātājī, and His Grace Vaiṣṇavānanda Nitāi Dāsa) who have thanklessly been patient and loving in their efforts at correcting and guiding us on this spiritual path at all times.
I continue my experiments in cooking for the Lordships – something I now practice and cherish regularly with my cooking experiments at home. The Lord has been merciful and patient in frequently accepting our Rāj-bhoga preparations without complaining about their quality.
I also cherish singing to Their Lordships at home and temple whenever I get an opportunity to sing.
When I look at the demoralizing mental state of many of my peers, friends, and relatives from the secular world, I dread to think what would have happened if I was not under your shelter and that of ISKCON as a whole. My sincere thanks to you, dear Guru Mahārāja, for accepting me to stand and feel protected under your BIG umbrella of love, care, and affection.
Your humble servant,
Viśveśvara Govinda Dāsa and Līlāmayī Rukmiṇī Devī Dāsī
Bangalore
