My dear spiritual father,
Please accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda! All glories to Your Divine Grace!
Another precious year with you has energized Your disciples even more. When you talked of being too old, and wanting to stop accepting more disciples, it was a huge shock to all of us, and we are very happy that you have postponed this calamity.
Guru Mahārāja, we don’t want ‘ordinary’ gurus in your place. It is having you as our guru which gives us the strength to stay, grow, and preach more and more.
In your absence, inspiration and strength would drop dramatically. The obstacles and challenges are too heavy, and they are very disappointing for idealistic devotees. It is your presence which gives us hope.
You are not only repeating what Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke and wrote, but implementing them in your life, both in letter and spirit. This is impossible to replicate. The energy you emanate because of this keeps us going.
There is so much for us to do. Thousands of people are suffering due to the breakdown of traditional Indian families. Instead of Vedic culture, an anti-sanātana-dharma culture is being promoted by the media, due to which parents, youngsters, and children are in great stress and leading unnaturally sinful lives.
Interacting with and encouraging them needs a lot of spiritual energy.
And you are the only living source of enormous spiritual energy for us.
So please keep on initiating till your last breath, dear father. And overcome these health issues through sāttvika Āyurveda treatment, become more active and strong, and stay on this earth planet for decades more. This is my prayer.
Please bless Prema Padminī, Pradeep, and Ananth that we will be your disciples as a family, serve you more and more, and overcome the challenges we face due to external negative forces.
Your hopeful spiritual son,
Vijaya Veṇugopāla Dāsa