Namo Om Vishnupaday Krishna Presthay Bhutale
Srimate Jaypataka Swami Niti Namine ||
Namo Acharyapaday Nitai Kripa Pradayine
Gaura Katha Dhama Day Nagar Gram Tarine ||
Dearest Gurumaharaja,
Please accept our most respectful humble obeisances at the dust of your lotus feet. All glories to your Divine Grace. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
In the sastra it is said:
Śariram vasu vijnānam vāsah karma gunān āsun
Gurv-artham dhārayed yas tu sa śişyo netarah smrtah ||
"One whose body, wealth, knowledge, possessions, activities, qualities, and very life are maintained only for the sake of his guru is a genuine disciple, not others.”
Srila Gurumaharaja, I see that you are the perfect embodiment of the above verse. How you are maintaining your very life for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and all the previous acharyas is unheard of in the history of Vaishnavism. Your Holiness is a perfect Acharya because you are a perfect disciple. How many times have situations arrived where you had to go through extreme difficulty with your physical situations but overpower all those conditions and again came back to your mission to help Srila Prabhupada. We are so so fortunate to see these glorious pastimes of Your Divine Grace in our lifetime.
This year in your Vyasa Puja I am meditating on two very special qualities exhibited by you namely tolerance and forgiveness. You are tolerating extreme pain both physically and mentally. When we as disciples commit offences and fall down from our prescribed vows, you become very disturbed mentally, but you don’t reject us. You tolerate all our misgivings and forgive us so that we can continue pursuing devotional life and absorb it yourself which increases your mental and physical sufferings. But, you don’t complain to Krishna for that rather you just tolerate it for the benefit of the conditioned souls. Your Pranama Mantra already mentions bestowing mercy on Sriman Nityananda Bhagavan but I started realizing the true meaning of it only recently.
Dear Acharyapada, this was another eventful year for us where we got your divine association during your visit to Los Angeles. I was able to do an offering in front of you in your Vyasa Puja Smarana Utsava on behalf of ISKCON of Silicon Valley. You appreciated all of our congregation devotees' small endeavours to serve Srila Prabhupada’s movement. It was a very needed and refreshing encounter where we were able to hear the nectarean pastimes of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu from your lotus mouth every day. Mercifully, you bestowed us some personal services to which we are eternally grateful as well.
We were blessed with a baby boy and Your divine grace named him Nabadwip Chandra. Deep in my heart, I had a desire to get a name related to Sri Nabadwip Dhama and we struggled to find a suitable name based on his Nakshatra. But, when you asked for Chandra Rashi and named the baby according to that, it resolved the issue without any difficulty.
Dearest Srila Gurumaharaja, our Bhakti Vriksha preaching is being continued online. We need to expand the program for local devotees as there is significant potential here to expand the program and bring devotees under Srila Prabhupada’s shelter. We need your empowerment for that as we lack strong determination to continue something for a long period. I (Koladwip) completed my Bhakti Vaibhava 4th Semester and continuing my 5th one now. Recently, I started teaching Bhakti Shastri class in our local temple which is attended by more than 100 devotees across North America. I am also assisting the management team to prepare question papers and check answer sheets. I am also serving as a temple pujari and a community priest.
Gurumaharaja, your dear god siblings HG Vaisesika Prabhu and HG Nirakula Dasi Mataji are taking great care of us as the community leaders and our Shiksha gurus. They also encourage for whatever insignificant services we are doing and empower us to do more. We are very much grateful to you for sending them to guide us in our spiritual journey. We continuously pray to the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha-Madanmoha, Sriman Mahaprabhu, Sri Sri Laxmi-Nrisimhadeva, Srila Prabhupada, and all the previous acharyas to improve your health conditions. Also, we ask for forgiveness at your lotus feet for the offences we are committing knowingly or unknowingly because of our lack of attention and sincerity.
Eternally Sheltered at your Lotus Feet,
Koladwip Pran Das
Simantini Sakhi Devi Dasi
Rai Mandali Sikder
Nabadwip Chandra Sikder