oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
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 beloved Guru Mahārāja: Please accept my obeisances again and again. All glories to your dear-most Spiritual Master, ISKCON Founder-Ācārya Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. On this auspicious Amavāsya, I remember you with so much gratitude and love. In reflecting on the events of this year, I directly link my excellent fortune with the service you so kindly engaged me in so many years ago as a servant in the Nāmahaṭṭa in Śrī Māyāpur dhāma. Under your guidance the Nāmahaṭṭa preaching has expanded exponentially, and your long-time faithful disciples are taking up extraordinary preaching and pastoral duties. Those days of travelling with Śrīmad Gaurāṅga Prema Swami and sixty brahmacārīs live so fondly in my heart’s chambers, though so many years have passed. The fruit of this most auspicious association with the Nāmahaṭṭa devotees is that I developed a deep taste for the songs of the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas. In spite of many fall downs, spiritual earthquakes, personal inadequacies and plain forgetfulness of the blissful shelter of our beautiful Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana mission, by your grace alone, the taste for hearing and chanting the transcendental bhajanas penned by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Śrīla Narottoma dāsa Ṭhākura, Śrīla Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura and Śrīla Locana dāsa Ṭhākura has kept me alive in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Dear Guru Mahārāja, as you know well, these songs are the brightest beacon for all jīvas because the verses contain the siddhānta and tattva propounded in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. When sung with great reverence and realization, the descriptions of the pastimes of Śrī Śrī Pañca-tattva and Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Their devotees take on a real and raw quality that is most relishable. By your mercy, these songs published in Bhakti-gītī Sañcayan are my enduring friends. The words and their unfathomably profound meanings are alive to me and reside in me. This is your gift to me, and I seek to cherish this boon with utmost care. Thank you, dearest Guru Mahārāja, for your endless and tireless devotion to preaching the glories of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi. You embody the spirit of bolo-kṛṣṇa, bhaja-kṛṣṇa, karo-kṛṣṇa-śikṣā perfectly. May I always come under your protection and may you always consider me your servant.
Your spiritual daughter,
Amṛta Gopāla dāsī,
Śrī Māyāpur dhāma/East Sussex, United Kingdom