Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda, my eternal father,
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāminn iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
Please try and excuse me for not writing my Vyāsa-pūjā offerings the last few years. It is no real excuse, but as my body and mind began to creak more and more in old age (now my body is 81 years old), I couldn’t keep up whilst traveling enthusiastically with our version of your World Samkirtan Party, your “long-cherished idea” you wished to see fulfilled (as per your letter to Tamal Krishna 18 October 1969).
In your Bhāgavatam purport to 6.5.43, you said that the angry parents of your disciples had cursed you to not stay in one place to do your service of writing books. You said you wanted your sannyāsīs to relieve you of that curse by traveling worldwide. I have been blessed with that curse, and since 2016 have been traveling around the world annually with the multinational, multiguru, and multigenerational Harināma Ruci party led by His Grace Viṣṇujana Prabhu from Slovakia.
Whichever nation and city we are welcomed into, we stay for a few days, go out with the local devotees into the city centers, and perform harināma, trying to actively engage the public in blissfully chanting the holy names and taking your books.
To please you, I have over the years since your departure, also become responsible to help develop the expansion of ISKCON in Nepal, DR Congo, and parts of East Africa.
You closed your own vapuḥ pastimes when your body was 81. Mine is now also 81. By Kṛṣṇa’s grace, if it pleases you, I may be able to squeeze some more useful years out of this mortal British dress.
Now I want to improve the quality of my slipshod service and somehow please you more. Please give your glance of mercy to this struggling soul who is arriving at the scrap heap of this body. Please bless me to make the best use of my dwindling bad bargain.
How can I – or anyone – find the words to express what incomparable glorious service you have done and are still doing for Lord Caitanya’s mission and all spirit souls on this polluted Kali-yuga planet? Let us all therefore cooperate with one another to fulfill your desires as ISKCON’s founder-ācārya and the jagat-guru.
Trailing clouds of Kṛṣṇa’s glories – the holy names and your transcendental words and example – you and your beloved messengers came from afar to drag me and countless others, past, present, and future, from the darkness of animal-like ignorance to the light of eternal Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Thank you!
I am always unable to repay your divine gift of a new life when you revealed to me in your introduction to Bhagavad-gītā As It Is that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this regard, as you wrote to praise your own Guru Mahārāja, so I praise you: “Absolute is sentient thou hast proved / impersonal calamity thou hast moved.” (Vyāsa-pūjā offering to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī)
Please kindly cast a special glance on me to keep me, till my dying breath, always enthusiastic to find nectarean new ways to engage people in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
In this regard, I again use the words you used to praise your own Guru Mahārāja:
Wonder thy ways
To turn our face,
Adore thy feet
Your Divine Grace.
Śrī kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam kī jaya!
Your fallen, struggling, sannyāsī servant,
Mahāviṣṇu Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2025
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
Reciprocation
On 13 December 1973, at the Los Angeles temple, on Srila Bhaktisiddhānta’s disappearance day, you ended your lecture by saying that you were “horrified” by dreaming several times that Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Mahārāja was calling you to take sannyāsa. At that time, all of the devotees present in the temple room saw tears streaming from your eyes as your voice choked to gravel and you said, “You are helping me.” Then there was a short pause. You were displaying some transcendental emotions as these tears of gratitude seemed to take over. The devotees there had never heard or seen anything quite like this – ever. Previously, you had exhibited intense anger when speaking with impersonalists sometimes masquerading as devotional individuals. However, these emotional displays of gratitude were witnessed only by a privileged few. Your moods seemed to alternate between kindness and friendliness to stern disagreement, depending on who you were speaking with – the age, gender, nationality, and philosophical conviction of the person before you.
One could say that time, place, and circumstance/audience were the determining factors of the mood you adopted on specific occasions.
In the book The Nectar of Devotion Kṛṣṇa talks about his indebtedness to Draupadī for calling out to him, “He Govinda.” This indirectly indicates that Krsna is obliged to appreciate such surrender and points out the psychological need for all people to feel valued. Śrīla Prabhupāda went so far as to indicate that ISKCON leaders should discuss their differences threadbare, until they would reach a deeper understanding. He told us that the movement’s leaders should discuss the principle of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva (inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference) each year in Māyāpur. Mutual appreciation was an essential keynote of this instruction.
Without this reciprocation, life can be humdrum and outright depressing. Some have even left the frontline preaching of ISKCON, or ISKCON entirely, because they were either undervalued or not valued at all.
A person who is mindful of his friend’s beneficial actions is grateful. In the Mahābhārata, Kṛṣṇa says, “When I was away from Draupadī, she cried with the words, ‘he Govinda!’ This call for Me has put Me in her debt, and that indebtedness is gradually increasing in My heart.”
Although you were often stern, uncompromising, and seemingly cruel and rigid, your kindness and indebtedness were always there – as is the nature of any true sādhu. So, you were in a sense the master of reciprocation.
Your servant,
Mukunda Goswami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
In the Ganges River one sees big and small waves. When one first sees this great river, one tends to think all the waves are, metaphorically speaking, all great holy men, past and present. However, on mature reflection, one sees that you are the truly big wave, the unassailable, faultless big wave, the all-perfect sādhu, resident of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s house, the worldwide influencer to accept the essence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness philosophy. Many, including Bhakti-bhūṣaṇa Mahārāja and myself, have reached this conclusion.
All glories to you who deserve this position, the biggest of the big waves.
Your servant eternally,
Mukunda Goswami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2025
My dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā
cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
Please accept my humble obeisances in the dust of your lotuslike feet. All glories to Your Divine
Grace, who saved the whole world by spreading sanātana-dharma and the holy name, Hare Kṛṣṇa
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare / Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, all over
the world.
Śrīla Prabhupāda,
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
Your Divine Grace appeared on this planet to fulfill the prophecy of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya
Mahāprabhu that His name will be chanted in every town and village on this earth planet. You are
empowered (a śaktyāveśa-avatāra) by the Supreme Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and you showed by example
worldwide how to make the lowest among the lowest creatures remember Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s name
and chant in ecstasy. So Your Divine Grace established the yuga-dharma. You are the embodiment
of Lord Caitanya’s teachings.
I, your insignificant servant, beg on this day of your appearance that you please bless me with
a drop of your mercy so that I become a strict follower of your nectarlike teachings and become
instrumental in your mission to save humanity and the entire world from the effects of Kali-yuga.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are my everything. Please give me the shade of your lotus feet.
yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo
yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ’pi
dhyāyan stuvaṁs tasya yaśas tri-sandhyaṁ
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam
“By the mercy of the spiritual master, one receives the benediction of Kṛṣṇa. Without the grace
of the spiritual master, one cannot make advancement. Therefore I should continually remember
and praise the spiritual master [you, Śrīla Prabhupāda]. At least three times a day, I should offer
my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master,” Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Please give me the strength to bear all troubles and fulfill your order. All glories to Śrīla
Prabhupāda. All glories to Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi. All glories to Śrī Śrī Gaura Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.
Your insignificant servant,
Nava Yogendra Swami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2025
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
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
choṭa baḍa bhakta-gaṇa, vandoṅ sabāra śrī-caraṇa,
sabe more karaha santoṣa
I worship herewith the lotus feet of all kinds of devotees, both advanced and neophyte. I
request all of them to be satisfied with me. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 2.93)
Śrīla Prabhupāda, your dear first generation of dīkṣā disciples is gradually fading away, like stars
being covered by a cloud. You are like the brilliant Pole Star shining next to the moon of Śrī Cai-
tanya Mahāprabhu and our guru-varga. I believe these early followers were directly sent by Śrī
Caitanya Mahāprabhu to assist you in establishing your personal preaching mission, the Inter-
national Society for Krishna Consciousness. This mission is your personal contribution to our
Gauḍīya sampradāya.
Everything is going on by the inconceivable śakti of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That which was
impossible has now become possible by the aghaṭa-ghaṭana-patīyasī sakti of the Lord (Caitanya-
caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 17.304). How else could we, your followers, continue to cooperate in this dark
age of confusion, misinformation, and mistrust? An important part of our bhakti includes the
ability to cooperate with one another. In other words, it is a yoga of cooperation.
After Śriīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura departed from this world, the preaching contin-
ued but some potency had been lost. Śrīla Prabhupāda, you write, “Amongst Vaiṣṇavas there may
be some difference of opinion due to everyone’s personal identity, but despite all personal differ-
ences, the cult of Kṛṣṇa consciousness must go on.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.28.31, purport)
Fifty-years ago, on October 5, 1975, you placed your divine lotus feet on the land of South
Africa. Arriving from Mauritius, you came with your secretary, Harikeśa Prabhu, and our own
GBC representative, Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja. Apartheid South Africa immediately became blessed
by your presence. This is confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.13.10:
bhavad-vidhā bhāgavatās
tīrtha-bhūtāḥ svayaṁ vibho
tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni
svāntaḥ-sthena gadābhṛtā
My lord, devotees like your good self are verily holy places personified. Because you
carry the Personality of Godhead within your heart, you turn all places into places of
pilgrimage.
This year, the South African yātrā is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of your visit here. Your
Divine Grace stayed in South Africa for nineteen days and was the esteemed guest at seven large
hall programs in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, and Johannesburg. At that time, we (about ten dis-
ciples) had a rented house in Yeoville, which was a “Jewish suburb” in Johannesburg. I was des-
ignated the pūjārī, gardener, handyman, and book distributor – a jack of all trades but master of
none. Though I saw myself as a fool, my godbrothers kindly tolerated me.
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura said, “Why do I always forget that I am the most
insignificant and meanest of all living beings?” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu states in the Caitanya-
caritāmṛta (Ādi 7.77), “My Guru Mahārāja said I am a fool, therefore, I should just chant Hare
Kṛṣṇa.”
Now, fifty years later, even though I am a sannyāsī and dīksā-guru, I still feel foolish.
ISKCON South Africa now has twenty temples and preaching centers, with over two thou-
sand initiated granddisciples. The yātrā hosts eleven Ratha-yātrās, has twenty-eight Food-for-Life
branches, and five Govinda’s restaurants. Most importantly, we are distributing fifty to sixty thou-
sand of your transcendental books annually.
The obvious question is, how is this happening in the Age of Kali? The answer is: by your
desire. You have invoked the aghaṭa-ghaṭana-patīyasī sakti, which means that special śakti of Śrī
Caitanya Mahāprabhu that allows the impossible to become possible. Since your divine departure,
we have not only maintained your mission but increased it. Your beloved first generation of direct
disciples are gradually fading, and our original South African congregational members from the
1970s and 1980s are also gradually leaving their bodies.
Many of your senior disciples have already “shuffled off their mortal coil.” (Hamlet, William
Shakespeare). You referred to this old age when you visited Jagannātha Purī with your disciples:
“I came to Jagannātha Purī after appearing for my BA exam. And because I was jubilant, I was
jumping. When the waves came, I was jumping, but now I am walking with a stick. The body
changes but I remain the same.” (Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, volume 6, p. 240)
Forty-eight years after Your Divine Grace’s departure, we, as an institution, are still cooperating.
This spiritual cooperation is preparing us for birth in prakaṭa GolokaVrindavan. The Lord’s eternal
pastimes are going on in some brahmāṇḍa at this very moment. In Lord Kṛṣṇa’s prakaṭa-līlā and
aprakaṭa-līlā, all the residents of Vrindavan are serving one another in a mood of anugatya-bhava. I
pray that someday I can also become one of those followers.
It is stated in the Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi (4.1), “Rādhā and Candrāvalī are the best among the leaders.
Their groups contain ten million gopīs each. The scriptures say that the rāsa dance took place on
the bank of the Yamunā River with one billion gopīs.”
My dear spiritual master, Śrīla Prabhupāda, you are kindly giving your sincere followers
entrance into this sublime līlā. I hope that one day in the future, walking behind Your Divine
Grace and behind my godbrothers, godsisters, and our guru-varga, I can also be counted as one of
those ten million.
I would like to offer my humble obeisances, koṭi koṭi times, to all the Vaiṣṇavas throughout the
world, whether advanced or neophyte.
I remain,
Your servant eternally,
Pārtha Sārathi Dāsa Goswami
Homages Non-GBC Sannyasis, VP2026
Dear Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Your Divine Grace and our guru-varga.
You write in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi-līlā, chapter 17, text 1, purport), “Everywhere people express this astonishment, and we take great pride in the transcendental behavior of our students. Such wonders are possible, however, only by the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. They are not ordinary or mundane.”
I humbly pray that I can continue to serve you under your guidance and the guidance of the disciplic succession. Please allow me to always remember you in your sādhaka form, and one day, if I am so fortunate, in your siddha form. I place my head millions of times at the lotus feet of your disciples, granddisciples, and followers.
jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha
purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha
I am more sinful than Jagāi and Mādhāi and even lower than the worms in the stool. (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, chapter 5, text 205)
The goal is vraja–bhakti, and you are distributing this. Please allow me to assist you in this endeavor.
I remain your servant,
Pārtha Sārathi dāsa Goswami
